January 11 - Conti´s Warehouse - Andrew and Archie

[robertod]

Spinola’s body was found in a lane between a row of warehouses. There´s blood on the cobblestones where the body was found. All around are warehouses of local industries, with workers unloading or loading goods. Trucks pass along the road occasionally.

[SaintMeerkat]

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Archie spent a few minutes looking at the cobblestones and grunted a little as he crouched to get a closer look at the cobblestones. Years of experience in his profession left little doubt in his mind about the composition of the dried brown splotches. He approached some of the nearby workers.

"Does anyone speak English? Parlez-vous Francais?" Archie crossed his fingers. "Was anyone here the night the body was found?" he asked in both languages.

[Mephistophilis]

Crouching down in the street, Andrew examines the scene of the crime. This isn't his first murder. He looks for any signs of how Spinola was killed, how long ago, and whether he died quickly or more slowly, perhaps managed to travel some distance leaving a trail of blood. He unpacks his camera to take a picture of the site the body was found, not sure whether he might want to have it developed later to try and pick up any details he might have missed.

OOC:   Andrew has Forensics 1, Evidence Collection 2, and Photography 1

[robertod]

The workers around speak neither English nor French. Either way, they are very uncooperative. When they see Archie and Andrew investigating the scene, they are wary and intimidated. They walk away without answering and whoever answers barely denies with his head any intention of having anything to do with what the investigators are doing.

There are further overlooked blood spots leading towards the spot. The traces of blood are very difficult to see because they are spaced out from each other and have dried up by now. Locating and following them requires patience and a couple of hours. Meanwhile, the light of sunset is approaching and the air cools. The neighborhood empties as all the workers return to the city centre, leaving the area largely deserted and silent.

OOC:   Andrew spends one point of Evidence Collection

The investigators follow the blood spots to an empty warehouse. Strangely enought, the warehouse door is open. Inside the warehouse is a gloomy maze of dusty crates. There is a shelf full of accounting paperwork regarding the accumulated material. The name of the company who the warehouse is registered to is Conti Machine Parts. The owner is Flavio Conti.

In the center is an open space with a stone slab in the middle. There are bloodstains on the slab, and outlines can be seen of the upper body, where two bodies lay side by side. The traces of blood on the surface do not suggest something violent, they clearly draw the shape of two human chests placed side by side.

Were it not for the strangeness of this place and context, Archie would say these bloodstains could have come from surgery. The amount of blood is not so much and, if it came out of a human body, it was probably very controlled and contained.

Searching the place, at first the warehouse appears to contain nothing but dust and crates full of car parts. At a certain point, however, the two intruders discover something unexpected in one of the dark corners of the room. There are two human dead bodies. Two men middle-aged men in dark social attire. They are mortally wounded in the jugular, hit by something that violently tore the flesh.

But there´s something else... when Andriew and Archie flick the flashlight at their faces, they discover something unnerving and terrifyingly familiar. The two men have exactly the same face, with the same strangeness the investigators saw in the body of the man who died twice in London. The skin on the hands and chest looks different from the skin on the face. Hands and chest are younger, the faces... is more wrinkled.

[Mephistophilis]

'Quite the grisly scene,' notes Andrew. 'It seems that Spinola was mortally wounded here, in Conti's warehouse, in some kind of ritual perhaps. But he may not have been murdered.' He furrows his brow. 'And with these two doppelgangers, more cousins of Mehmet Makryat involved, perhaps it was consensual. A ritual gone wrong? That spell, the one to shape and mould the face?'

OOC:   Is Andrew able to use what he knows of the spell to see if there is any evidence that is what was happening with Spinola?

He stands decisively. 'But whatever happened, Miss Hayward is in danger visiting Conti. We must make haste!'

[SaintMeerkat]

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Archie was disappointed but not surprised that none of the workers spoke either language. Remembering stories about cafe staff in Paris and Montreal that actually spoke English but refused to do so with Brits or Yanks, he almost reached for a few coins to try to grease the wheels of diplomacy, but then decides that they would probably just kill him and take it all. He murmurs, "Gracias, gracias..." before moving back to take a closer look at the blood.

"Yes, it does look like there was more surgical than just pure mayhem going on over here. You're right. Let's not delay in getting back to her."

[robertod]

Taking a closer look at the bodies, the two investigators note that the two men do not appear to be of Turkish ethnicity. They have dark hair but they are Caucasian, probably Italian. The wounds are not related to the strangeness of the face skin. They're wounds caused by a violent attack. In one body, five furrows are clearly visible as caused by claws. The clawed "paw" though... seems to be a human hand. The other body has two large perforations, that seem to have been caused by the teeth of human jaws.

[SaintMeerkat]

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Archie leaned over, getting a closer look at the wounds. "Those...look like claw marks," he said softly to Andrew. "And that is clearly a human bite mark. I see them from time to time when treating Bethlehem Hospital staff. This entire situation is getting more and more strange, my friend."

"Do you think we should grab any of the papers? Or just head back to meet Felicity?"

[Mephistophilis]

'I do not like this at all Dr McElhaney,' sighs Andrew. 'We must find Miss Hayward then alert the police.'

He takes another picture of the grisly scene.

'I do not think we need to keep too many papers but I might just...' He selects one sheet at random from the middle of the pile and ensures it has the Conti insignia. 'The Inspector is going to be embarrassed so a little evidence will not go amiss.'

[SaintMeerkat]

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Archie shuddered as the camera flashes illuminated the grisly scene. "Poor blighters.." he muttered.

Upon seeing the paper that Andrew selects, he grunts in approval. "That should help."

"Let's head to Miss Heyward at all possible speed."