Play@YSDC

Eli - Liam considers your question. "Yeah - if you look at the CCTV, all of the changing areas are as busy as usual. They're what we call 'dry' changing rooms - where people change for the gym, racquet sports, fitness classes and the like. The 'wet' changing village is downstairs, next to the pool."

Sure enough, the leisure centre was obviously doing a brisk trade, judging by the amount of people coming and going through the changing areas' doors. Finally, things quieten down, with the last users being three women, who leave the female area at about 19:20.

"If you fast forward to the next morning, you'll see the cleaners arrive. They go into the female changing area and then run out screaming," Liam says with a shudder. "You know the rest."

Des - Scrutinising the CCTV footage, you can't see anyone or anything obviously moving the two doors.

You're welcome to make an Observation check to be sure, but you're pretty confident that you're not missing anything.

Leo - You wait for Jordan's reply.

Which I'll post after he writes one!

"Hey, Leo," says Jordan. "Chichester's phone was bricked, but we were able to salvage the SD card and found out what he was doing in the ladies' changing area. The creep was secretly taking pictures of them as they were changing. Skipper determined that they were taken with a phone, not a camera. It might not have been this phone, so see if you can find another one hidden there. The cause of death was cauliflower brain, all right. We also found out other details. He was known to the police already. He got into a scuffle with Shaun Rushgrove when he tried to hit on the man's girlfriend, Holly Tremlett. No charges were filed, but he was cautioned."

A wave of anger washes over Leo as Jordan shares his update. "Holy...Okay, we will definitely search all the changing areas for any lingering devices of that nature."

"One more thing, the video shows Chichester go in the disabled changing area. Then the doors to the other rooms open and close without anyone visible doing so. I will try to get a copy to bring back to The Folly to share."

"Anything else?"

"Sergeant Dhillon got a call while we were here that could be related," says Jordan. "A Nick Lucarotti in a sports car got into an argument over a space at a Tesco's car park with an old lady in a Morris Traveller named Bernadette Stevens. Someone called it in, but the chap calmed down and apologised by the time the officer got there, and there were no charges."

"That's everything on my end, mate. Thanks for the call," Leo said as he hung up. He fished around in his pocket until he pulled out a large capacity USB flash drive -- one of the more magic resistant pieces of modern tech, since it didn't have a current running through it unless it was plugged in.

As Leo marched back into the leisure centre, he found himself becoming irrationally angry about the man's purpose. After a few years on the job, you think you'd be more resistant to what some of these punters do, but it still angered him when he heard about things like this. Resuming his professional mien, he said to his colleagues, "I apologize for that."

"Thank you, Liam. You have been very helpful. Is there any way that you can copy the videos to this flash drive? Or some way to get that video to us?" Leo offered the USB drive to Liam, just in case he could use it.

"Also, my colleagues and I need to take a look at the changing areas. Straightaway, if possible."

A few moments later, Leo receives a text from Jordan, telling him that about the possibility that Chichester was invisible and may have taken the pictures with the phone they found after all.

" We should maybe start with the disabled changing room as thats where the..er.....change...as it were, happened" Eli mentions to Leo. " How soon can we have that list Liam?"

Leo texted back a quick "Thanks."

Then, Leo sent Nightingale a quick text. Good morning, DCI Nightingale. It looks like Chichester, the dead man we are investigating, was indeed a hedge wizard. Based on CCTV footage, Chichester appears to turn invisible and open some doors before hiding a camera in a dressing area. If he is actually turning invisible, could he potentially turn an object invisible, as well? In theory, how long might it stay invisible?

Leo smiled and thanked Liam again, and then gestured for Eli and Des to join him far enough away from the other employees that they could talk undisturbed. Lowering his voice, he caught up his colleagues with all of the updates from Jordan, including the bits about Chichester's hidden phone cameras, the bricked phone, and the possibility of more phone cameras on site.

"We need to search the dressing areas for additional camera phones. Also, I texted DCI Nightingale about this, but based on that footage, I think we need to allow for invisible objects. If Chichester could turn invisible, it's possible that he could find a way to make objects invisible, as well. If invisible Chichester was solid enough to open and close a door, then an invisible object will be solid enough to hold something harmless like water droplets or talc that we could toss around that would show us its location."

"We can figure out the particulars later, but if we don't actually see anything at first, it wouldn't hurt to try."

"I agree that we should start with the disabled changing room. Any other suggestions before we head to the dressing areas? Des?"

Liam happily prints out a list of customers for the day before yesterday, including Chichester's log-in at 6pm.

"Here you go," he says with a smile. "We can't make people log in, but most people do. Changing rooms next? No problem - follow me."

He jogs up the stairs to the first floor, taking you along a brightly-lit walkway, past a couple of gyms and workout rooms. He stops at the door to the disabled changing area, which sits between the male and female areas (the latter sealed with 'police' tape).

As Liam brings the list back, Leo does a quick ring check to see if he is wearing a wedding ring. Strictly for professional purposes. "Thanks, mate. We really appreciate it."

When they get to the dressing area, Leo says, "I think we should take our time searching all three areas, starting with the handicapped one, as Eli suggested, including looking for cameras, seen and unseen."

Leo walks into the handicapped dressing area and takes his time as he reaches out for any vestigia in the room.

Sense Vestigia (60/30): 1d100

OOC:   I spent 8 Luck to make the Sense Vestigia roll a success.

”The pics on ‘is phone? Would dat tell us where ‘e was when ‘e took dem?” suggested Des as she looked around the changing room.

" I dare say they would. But like .odt things, best to start at the beginning. From the video we know that the deceased must've turned invisible in here, so there may be some trace of whatever ritual or substance he used to perform that task." Eli says in that way that all teachers and lecturer's speak, even when not working, that slightly condescending way that they can't help themselves because it's been ingrained in themselves that need, to explain everything in obvious detail.

Leo nodded at Des. "I believe so. If we find a phone here, it most certainly will tell us where any pics on it were taken. If he has a cache of pics somewhere else, that would show us where to look for other cameras. Also some of these guys swap pictures online. While you can scrub that data, sometimes these punters forget."

The disabled changing area is well appointed to cater for the needs of patrons of the leisure centre, although the room is smaller than the male and female areas.

Leo - trying to block out the smell of cleaning disinfectant, you sense a familiar, albeit slightly weaker, vestigia - a floral scent, the feeling of strong sunlight on the skin and the chittering of tropical birds and insects. It seems stronger at a bench in the corner of the room.

At that moment, Leo's phone pings to announce a new text. It is from Nightingale:

"Interesting. Invisibility spells can exist in theory, but to change the Human body in such a way - no doubt fatal within seconds! I know of no spells that could do it, but I reference DC Grant's adventures in Hfds - invisible unicorns. Possibly something Fey? Will task Abigail to research. Be careful!"

While Leo can detect the vestigia, Eli is less experienced in the matter, and merely detects the sweet smell of flowers.

Des made her way into the disabled changing room and looked around. She knelt by the seats and looked underneath, running her hand along the underside in case something was hidden there but was invisible to the naked eye.