Ch2-2G The profs house.

[ghill]

Its not hard to find the Professor home, a rented cottage in a charming little country village called Deerhurst. Even from distance it is clear the house has been damaged by a fire, a large blue plastic sheet has been spread over a hole in one side of the roof the white exterior walls are extensively smoke blackened. The garden is full of smoke blackened furniture.

A pale green Morris Minor car is parked outside and someone is clearly working in the cottage.

[royya]

Jacob nods to Greg.
Someone is working in the house. let's check it out.

[ghill]

Spoiler:

I'm not sure Greg has joined you so this may be Jacob only.

[royya]

Hmm..Someone is working in the house.
Jacob says to himself. let's see who is it.
He stops next to the car and note the car number in his cell phone - The car could belong to the late professor or the man who works here - before he circle the house silently to see if there is someone at the back.

[ghill]

The house is surrounded by similar buildings to left and right, there is a small track to the rear of the house but access to the house is blocked by a rather ferocious looking hawthorn hedge and a tall wooden garden gate. As far as Jacob can tell there is only one person working in the house a grey haired older man (Jacob thinks mid 50's) who seems to be scrubbing the walls down in the kitchen.

[royya]

Hello?! Anyone here?
Jacob pretends to miss the man inside as he knock on the door and opens it.
Hi, who are you ?

[ghill]

The man drops the sponge he is using on the walls into a bucket and wipes his hands on a cloth. "Hello? In here! How can I help?"

[royya]

Hi, I'm Jacob. who are you ?
Jacob says with a smile
What are you doing? Anyone knows you are here?

[ghill]

"I'm the owner and landlord, Tim Wilshaw. What can I do for you Jacob..." he pauses clearly waiting for Jacob to fill in the gap in the conversation with his surname.

[royya]

Jacob Greenberg, a friend of the professor.
Jacob takes out a business card and hand it to the landlord.
It is sad what happened to the professor, I'm helping to investigate what happened to the professor, hoping to trail the murderers.
Jacob walks back and forth, studying the floor where they are
Tell me Mr. Wilshaw. HAve you heard anything, any complaints about the professor or any one who visited him from the neighbours?

[ghill]

"Oh...No as far as I'm aware he didn't have any problems with anyone around here. I got on really well with him, he was a model tenant infact, 'd like to think we were more than tenant landlord I think we were friends."

The kitchen floor shows sign of water damage which Jacob assumes is as a result of the fire brigade putting out the fire.

[royya]

I understand.
Jacob replies
Do you know where the fire began?
Jacob asks and quickly add another question
Do you mind if I look around a little bit as I do not with to interrupt your work here.

[ghill]

"No that's alright I'm finished up here anyway. ...and the insurers have got a bit funny about sitE safety recently. Let me show you around." he walks off through the door without waiting for a response.

"As you can see the kitchen and the living room are relatively undamaged except for smoke and water damage. However the other half of the ground floor was severely burnt, especially the dining room which the Adrian used as his study. The fire brigade believe this was the where the fire broke out...they thought it was arson at first because the fire was so fierce, but they couldn't find any accelerant in the room. It is lucky really despite the intensity of the fire the house’s old wooden structure has survived pretty much intact."

Spoiler:

The entire house has been stripped there isn't any furniture or possessions in the house it is in essence a building site, with much evidence of post fire cleanup and repair in progress.

[royya]

They probably burnt something specific with their fire tricks. clearly they avoided to burn the other parts of the house.
Jacob thinks to himself as he scans the fire scene, trying to spot anything unusual or occult.
You painted the house right ?
He turns to the land owner
Any strange carvings or symbols were drawn on the walls or the floor that you might noticed? Anything was claimed as stolen by relatives? Any one else came here after the police left, someone that looked like East European, Greek or Turkish in nature?

[ghill]

"What a lot of questions you have, let me think. Graffiti no none. Nothing was stolen as far as I know or if it was Adrian didn't tell me about it. Adrian and I put nearly all of his stuff into storage, he had lots of strange odds and ends though, it was quite interesting packing it away."

Spoiler:

Bear in mind that most people do not believe in magic, so outright asking about strange carvings or symbols is going to arouse suspicion. If you don't want to waste 'real world' time dancing around the issue then I'm always happy for you to paraphrase what it is you want to know and rely on the Persuade skill. While a solicitor isn't a barrister (a courtroom lawyer) it seems reasonable Jacob would know the best way to get people to open up and tell him the things he wants to know.

[royya]

Adrian, who is Adrian?
Jacob replies
and may I ask kind sir, since you were unfamiliar with the professor's belonging you might not suspect if something was stolen. Can I kindly ask you to show me where you storage the late professor's things as I wish to see for myself.
Jacob asks with a smile.

[ghill]

"Well Adrian didn't seem to think anything was stolen when we...."

As though hearing Jacobs words for the first time, the man stops mid sentence, his open body language suddenly changing dramatically with Jacob's words as he crosses his arms and stop to look at Jacob.

You said you were a friend of the professor's Mr Greenberg. Well its a strange friend who doesn't know his friends first name. So who are you really?

[royya]

I'm sorry ... I thought you spoke about another man called Adrian that helped you storage the professor's things after his death, after all how could he helped you storage his things if he was dead.
Jacob replies innocently

ooc - that what I thought as a player as well, not a character.
I'm in the house of the professor that died right ?

[ghill]

Spoiler:

Yes this is professor Gossham's cottage, but the professor died weeks after the house fire. As Liz briefed you all only an hour or so on these events I'll allow you a redo of your last post otherwise you're about to be kicked out.

[ImpInTraining]

Greg took the opportunity to walk about the outside of the dwelling looking for rubbish piles or other strange things that just didn't fit in while Jacob kept the man inside busy through conversation. Might be some of the more valuable clues could have been tossed out like yesterday's garbage.