Part 2 - Pooled Resources

[SunlessNick]

Sara has just emerged from Kittrell's house and front garden with Carol's brother, to find Carol and Elsa accosted by a couple of guys.

Colin can tell the two girls aren't hurt - just one angry and the other distressed - then another guy and girl emerge onto the street from Kittrell's garden.

Sara,The angle is wrong for Kittrell to be able to see the gathering on the street from his house, but had he been looking out of the window at the right moment, he would certainly have seen Carol's brother - however you did say you have a cabbie waiting.

[Mr. Handy]

What have I walked into? she thinks. She approaches the group of people, holding out her hands to show that she's not a threat. "Easy there, gentlemen," she says. "What seems to be the trouble?"

[HoneyDog]

"No trouble" says Colin. "Thought there might be a problem, so stopped to help."

He turns to Clarence.

"Come on, let's go mate."

[Mr. Handy]

"Thank you," says Sara. "There might have been trouble, but I managed to extract myself without help. It's still kind of you to have been ready to intervene."

[HoneyDog]

Colin pauses.

"Extract yourself from what, if you don't mind me asking?"

[Mr. Handy]

"My name is Sara London," says Sara. "I'm a private investigator - sort of - well, I suppose I really am one now. I was hired to prove that the gentleman - and I use that term very loosely - who lives in that house," She points it out to Colin, "is unfaithful. I managed to get invited there and arranged for a certain lady to see me enter the house. Having done that, I merely had to talk my way out."

[SunlessNick]

"She means me," Elsa says. "But I guess you sussed that out anyway."

"He's not just unfaithful," Clarence says. "He's mixed up with crooks. If you're a private investigator, we could really use one."

[Mr. Handy]

"That doesn't surprise me," says Sara. "I'm actually a secretary working for a private investigator, but I've learned a lot on that job. When my boss wouldn't take this case, I took it upon myself to do it, and I was successful. So I suppose that gives me a perfect track record so far. How can I help?"

[SunlessNick]

"There are these two guys, brothers, they've been at me to throw fights - I'm a boxer, see - and when I said no, they went after my sister. The coppers couldn't be bothered because we're dark" - up close, Sara's initial impression that Clarence was Aboriginal is confirmed - "but Colin here helped us. He and me went to their place, and found they were mixed up with this Kittrell guy and someone called Diamond."

[Sara has heard of Diamond, in a work context. A racketeer at the docks, someone your boss Oscar thought would be trying to expand his share in things in the absence of Squizzy Taylor]

[Mr. Handy]

"I've heard of Diamond," says Sara. "He's a racketeer down the docks. My boss thinks he's trying to expand now that Squizzy Taylor's gone."

[SunlessNick]

HoneyDog,Squizzy Taylor is a name pretty much everyone knows - one of the two main crimelords in the city, who was killed last year.

"If that's the Diamond the Reillys are mixing with, maybe that's something we can take to the cops," Clarence says to Colin. "If we can prove it."

"You mean Austin could end up in jail?" Elsa says. "I like the sound of that!"

[HoneyDog]

"Prove it how?"

[Mr. Handy]

"The police commissioner was a guest of the Royal Hunt along with Austin," says Sara, "so it won't be easy. We'll need really solid proof. Keith Murdoch was there too, which makes exposing him in the press harder too."

[SunlessNick]

Sara,There was also that Vance Whitney guy who Maria thought worked with Kittrell in some way, although she didn't say what his business was, if she knew.

"Ok," says Clarence. "Do you know how to find this Diamond guy?"

"Austin's supposed to be taking me out again tomorrow," Elsa puts in. "If you want a time when you know he'll be out of the house. I wouldn't mind paying the bastard back."

[Mr. Handy]

"There was another guest at the Royal Hunt, Vance Whitney," says Sara. "He works with Austin, but I'm not sure how. Maybe there's a connection there. I have a standing invitation to return to the house, but I'll only do it when he's not there. I don't know how to pick the lock or anything, but if he has servants, I can get myself let inside. I don't think they'd let anyone else in with me, though."

[SunlessNick]

"This is going a ways past what I hired you for," Carol says. "I just wanted Elsa to see what kind of guy he was."

"And I did," Elsa says. "He doesn't just string girls along, he has them beat up too. If you're doing something about him, I'm in."

"In the meantime we can find out who this Vance Whitney is," suggests Clarence. "Colin, what, er, Carol said is right - you've already gone a long way for Lucy and me - if you want to walk away now, I'll get it."

Colin,The name Vance Whitney clicks. He's in the wine business, with vineyards some way west of Melbourne, but he also deals in antiques and artifacts - he's consulted at the university's anthropology department a few times.

[Mr. Handy]

"Thank you," says Sara. "Whitney has seen me before, when I was posing as a waitress at the Royal Hunt, so he may get suspicious if he sees me again. I can disguise myself if I ever have to go near him, but there's always the chance he'll see through it."

[HoneyDog]

"Whitney consults at the university sometimes. He deals in antiques, as well as being a wine producer."

[Mr. Handy]

"We can look him up in public records and Who's Who to find out more about him," says Sara, "and Austin as well."

[SunlessNick]

There's little you can do to explore any of these avenues tonight, except make arrangements to meet again the following evening. Elsa and Clarence agree to come of course, Carol and her brother are bit more ambivalent.

During the day, Colin's at the university, giving him an opportunity to quiz the professors at the Anthropology department about Whitney. The member who's had the most dealings with him is Professor Jameson, who has little respect for the man. "Don't get me wrong, he knows his stuff, but he has no taste, and doesn't seem to care much about the story behind anything. No, that's not quite right - he cares about provenance, and where something came from, but he has no interest in the historical value of anything he consults on, just whether it's old or valuable.

OOC,In the 1920's, all too many professional archaeologists are like too.

"He has let slip for a few pieces that he planned to keep them, but none of them were extraordinary, either historically or monetarily. I suppose a man likes what he likes."

OOC,Luck75; rolled 20.

Jameson hasn't heard of Kittrell, but one of the students overhears you - Wraxton, another member of the rich end, but a more hardworking one than the two who were taunting Lucy - he's met Kittrell at a few parties "Always trying to be the life of them, butting into everything. He has a different girl every time; I don't know how he does it." At the idea of him being in business with anyone, Wraxton almost laughs. "He's loaded, he doesn't work at anything, and he's proud of it."

Meanwhile Sara is at work, where there is a copy of Who's Who. Vance Whitney is the son of William Whitney (mother's name not recorded in the book), who came to Australia from America in 1855 as part of the Gold Rush. That's where he made his fortune -and kept it by getting out of the gold business before the mines dried up, moving to agriculture.
Vance came to Australia in 1910 to replace his father as head of the business. He went into wine instead - while he continued to live in Melbourne, his vineyards are on the border with South Australia - that's where most of his workers live (it says he employs Aboriginals from the local Mission, which causes some controversy in Australian high society). The business has been successful, and expanded the family fortune. There is the usual gushing about charitable donations, but no details on the family outside Australia.
Austin Kittrell is mentioned too - the son of Lawrence and Amelia, both deceased. Their fortune was inherited rather than through business. The entry is scant, implying that Kittrell does little with his time and money.
That's all you can get before Oscar has you making up a file for a new missing person case.