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 Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 2:54 pm
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 10:23 pm
 ◈
◈◈
◈◈ ξʅӄξ Ȼɑʋєɍs ◈◈
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◈◈ I see you standing there smilin' with your bright white teeth ◈ ◈ Transparent like a thirty dollar motel sheet ◈  No sooner had Elke finished experiencing an interesting day of playing a super hero for the first time when her cell phone happened to ring. The blonde rolled her eyes, preparing to instantly hang up, expecting it to be a telemarketer wasting her time. However, upon further inspection, she realized it was quite the opposite. A small icon of a shield with a cross on it appeared in the middle of her phone screen along with the caller ID number, signifying exactly who it was calling for Elke. Apparently the PD decided to call her up as soon as she'd managed to catch a breather ... Hell, she hadn't even had time to go over and reflect upon the events that had occurred throughout the day. It seemed from now on this was going to be a typical day in the life of Elke Cavers aka Noir when she was a super hero.
Instinctively the blonde warily peered over her shoulder, assuring no one was following her or within hearing distance of her conversation. Of course there was always the likelihood that someone was tapping her line but the PD and R.F. kept a pretty close watch on their communication networks. It was unlikely she was bugged. Once assuring herself no one was there, Elke's attention returned to her phone, picking the call up just after the third ring. "Detective Elke Cavers speaking. What's the scoop?"
"Good evening Ms. Cavers. Sorry to disrupt you but we have an amber alert regarding a young Katie Becker. We have reason to believe she was kidnapped and we're requesting your expertise in assisting with the situation."
"How long has she been missing for and who reported her missing?"
"All details we presently know of will be disclosed to you once you come into the station. I suggest you hurry, we don't know if she's in danger or not."
"Thank you. Please have everything prepared for me as I plan to be there in the next couple minutes."
"Very well. See you in a few minutes."
The police officer took a moment to sigh as she slipped her cellular device into the right pocket of her leather jacket. It looked like she wasn't going to have time to go home, get dinner, have a shower and change into a proper pair of clothes. The call she'd just received had been marked as urgent so she wasn't able to waste any time. She'd really been hoping for a relaxing evening but it seemed that was too much to ask for after a day of hard work being a super hero of all things. When she'd been growing up this was probably the last thing in the world she would have seen herself doing. Had someone told her she was going to be a super hero one day she would have laughed at them until she was blue in the face and start all over again when they assured her they were serious.
At the very least, the police station was only a couple blocks down from the Watch Tower so it wasn't a huge chore for her to get there. Had the situation not been so urgent, the police officer most definitely would have walked to the station but as it stood, she couldn't afford to waste time. Someone was missing and from the sounds of it, it was a kid. She only based that assumption on the fact the chief had described this Katie Becker as young. The very thought that someone would abduct a child for any reason caused Elke's blood to boil. The thought alone was enough to cause her to ball her hands into fists merely contemplating the reasons and the answers she wasn't sure she wanted to uncover. She knew, though, that was the very reason she'd been requested, though. She was to investigate into who had kidnapped this girl and deduce her whereabouts.
Once Elke had reached the station she was immediately directed to a briefing room where the chief was, not that she'd needed to be shown where she was supposed to go. After a couple years of being in the force, she was pretty comfortable in getting around and knew where things were. Already she'd worked her way up the ladder among her peers by demonstrating the pure qualities the force wished every cop would utilize as adamantly as she did. There were quite a few who considered her a bit of a perfectionist and workaholic. There was also the inevitable, sadistic rumours created to undermine her authority claiming that she was performing sexual favours in order to gain rank and status within the force. Of course, Elke knew these allegations to be false and they were just created to discourage her from being successful but that didn't prevent it from bothering her. Lastly, there were the people who called her a freak, a monster because of her consent given to genetically experiment on her. Those comments she was also forced to take in stride though there were the occasions the words left her rendered with invisible wounds.
After being briefed on the situation and being permitted to go over the various files that the station had accumulated throughout the day for her, Elke decided to make her way to the residence of the Beckers. As she'd figured, the family had a lot of money and owned a mansion furnished with the most elegant and foreign of furniture. It was clear from the artwork that flowed throughout the house that this family traveled a lot. The father was a business man so he had contacts in a couple different countries. That meant the list of possible suspects was higher in his case for having a well known name. That would only prove to make Elke's job more difficult. A daunting task had been handed to her and the detective, while by no means was against helping people, found herself wishing the task she'd been given would have been a little more streamline.
◈ You're the devil in a fine designer suit ◈ ◈ Intuition tells me the ◈ ◈ Killer ◈ ◈ IS YOU ◈
◈ I never doubted I'd be back for revenge ◈ ◈ Remember these words: you're going to pay in the end ◈ ◈ Umbrakinesis ◈ Watch Tower to Police Station ◈ s**t, this is bad ... ◈
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Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 3:11 am
 It had been a long, interesting day, and Mason was ready to wind down and get some rest before bed. And he couldn’t properly wind down before he went out for one of his nightly jogs to tire himself out. He always liked to end his day with a jog and a shower, it always helped him to sleep better, soundly through the night.
After changing into something that would be better for a little exercise, he sat down to put his shoes on, and turned on the TV so that he could see what was going on in the world. He normally didn’t watch much TV, sitting on the couch staring at a television screen just wasn’t his thing. He got restless sitting around doing nothing. He could do it, it was just that he would rather be out doing something more productive. But, he did watch the news to keep up on current events, politics and (of course) crime. The story that happened to be on when he turned the TV on caught his attention. A little girl gone missing, thought to have been kidnapped. They showed a photo of her, urging people to call in if they had seen her. It was awful. Kids were so innocent… even the bratty ones. And Mason had a bit of a soft spot for them. As he watched the story, it showed a reporter outside of the house as she reported on the supposed kidnapping. Once his shoes were on and tied, he turned off the TV and set out to start his nightly routine.
Mason didn’t have a set jogging route. He usually just jogged to the corner and decided which direction to turn once he got there. Or sometimes he liked to jog through the more lively parts of town. That way he could see if anything interesting was going on. A parade, street fair, protest, whatever. He liked to check things like that out and reduce his risk of missing out on a chance to walk around eating a the most unhealthy food he could find at a street fair. It was always good to check, just in case. This time, though, he had decided to jog by the house he had seen on the news. He didn’t know why he was going that way, or what he thought he was going to do once he got there. Somehow he felt like he should, like it could help in some way just to jog by. He hadn’t planned to stop at the house when he left. But, even as far as it was, which wasn’t too far but further than people generally jogged from their starting point, he made it the entire way.
He stopped in front of the house and looked at it, sweat soaking through parts of his shirt. Being sweaty was far from his mind though. He did find himself thinking that he was just about to do something he shouldn’t. The news crews were gone and it seemed rather quiet on the whole block. Like any other ordinary day. He imagined this was how it had been yesterday at this time, and every other day. People driving by probably had no idea what had happened. It was good. These people didn’t need anyone bothering them. The police and reporters, he was sure, had done enough of that for a lifetime.
He couldn’t say whether he liked police or not. They probably did a lot of good in the world, but after starting a ‘business’ that dealt with victims of crimes that the police couldn’t help, he did wonder how useful they really were. He picked up where they left off, when their hands were tied. Their hands weren’t tied now, not yet anyway, but maybe he could help still. He considered it for a few moments and ultimately sighed at his own ridiculous idea. A kidnapping was different from a burglary. In a burglary he wasn’t responsible for another person, just their belongings. And things couldn’t be hurt, raped or murdered. Although, he’d met some strange folks in his life. But at least if any of those things happened to a thing… well he would throw that thing away. However, it wasn’t as traumatizing to an inanimate object as it was to a person. He really didn’t want that sort of responsibility on his shoulders.
Well, the police clearly were on the case, it had just happened, and was all over the news. So really, was the weight going to be on his shoulders? He wouldn’t be the only person looking for her, so he wouldn’t be the only one to fail if he did. And with more people searching for her there had to be a better chance of finding her, right? Or he would just be following in the footsteps of the police and waste his own time. Now he had a problem. No matter what he did, if that little girl wasn’t found he knew he would end up blaming himself. Whether he blamed himself for not trying, or for not being good enough to find her. And how could he sleep at night knowing he hadn’t even tried, even after he’d stood outside of the house. So close, so accessible. What a dilemma…
Rather than standing around debating in his head longer, the iron mimic walked up to the front door. If nothing else, he would get a peek at the inside of this house. It looked nice from the outside, probably nicer inside. He wasn’t sure how to go about questioning the parents. He had never had to be sensitive when dealing with things. The girl’s parents had to be distraught. Hopefully he wouldn’t get the door slammed in his face. He would have preferred not talking to the parents, but he had to figure out where to start. He was sure the police had been here to ask questions because, like him, they didn’t know where to start either.
’Here goes nothing…’ He thought to himself as he knocked on the door. It took a few moments, but Mason waited patiently, and eventually the door opened. He had to assume the woman standing in front of him was the girl’s mother. She did look distraught and even though he’d expected it, it still somehow managed to catch him off guard. It took a little convincing, but once he got the woman to believe that he really was here to help, and that he would do everything in his power to do so, she let him inside.
He couldn’t believe what he saw once inside. So many expensive, luxurious objects. He would fit in perfectly as a statue... until they fell asleep and he made off with some of this stuff. Too bad they had already seen him, and that they would probably recognize a strange statue suddenly showing up in their house. Then again, with their daughter missing they probably wouldn’t even notice. Not that he would take advantage of the situation just to fall back into his thieving ways. It was merely a thought. And the artwork they had. What a treat to be able to browse this personal gallery. To say the least, Mason really liked this house. And he made a comment about how nice it was to the girl’s mother, but didn’t get much of a response.
She did, however, mention something about a cop being there and Mason’s attention was drawn like a moth to a flame. Except if moths weren’t so fluttery and just went to the flame. His attention hadn’t fluttered to the cop at all, it had been drawn immediately. Cops didn’t like it when people tried to solve crimes and whatnot. That was their job (and they probably didn’t want to look incompetent when someone else solved the case first). It would have been better to avoid the cop, but what could they really do? Tell him to stay out of it? He had been planning on avoiding them anyway. And as he followed the woman and the cop came into view he couldn’t help but grin a little. He was surprised to see Elke there, of all people. He probably would have been more surprised if he hadn’t known she was a cop. Seeing her being a cop was still new to him though.
“Evening, officer.” ┌────────────────────────────────────────┐ Watch Tower ☞ Becker Mansion └────────────────────────────────────────┘ ▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲ Well...____________________
____________________...Fancy seeing you here.
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Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 12:10 pm
◈
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◈◈ ξʅӄξ Ȼɑʋєɍs ◈◈
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◈ ◈ I see you standing there smilin' with your bright white teeth ◈ ◈ Transparent like a thirty dollar motel sheet ◈ Elke had taken a look around the house, not that she figured it would help much. From what she could see there had been no signs of a struggle, however, she'd only inspected the ground floor of the ******** place. She still had the upstairs and the ******** basement to deal with. It was ridiculous how big this house was. She began making her way up the stairs, deciding to take a couple samples here and there of prints. As she made her way upstairs she assured to take prints from the banister in the case these kidnappers had been really ******** poor amateurs that had left documentation of their deed behind. Something told her they wouldn't make it that easy for her. However, nevertheless she couldn't count anything out at this point since she didn't have a whole hell of a lot to go off of. All she knew was that the girl had been missing for twenty four hours.
The blonde officer, detective, whatever people wanted to call her had just began scouring the young girl's room for clues when an all too familiar voice greeted her from behind. She could hear the grin in his words and she closed her eyes for a brief moment and sighed inwardly. Why him? Of all the ******** people in the world why did it have to be him who was here right now? Undisciplined, no regard for urgency, shifty, he was probably one of the last people on the face of this earth she wanted here. Okay, that was maybe a bit of an exaggeration. At the very least he likely wasn't here to kill her ... If he was then that would suck but judging from his tone of voice and how amused he seemed at the situation it didn't seem very likely. If he was here to mess with her and screw things up she wasn't going to stand for it. She would make him regret the day he'd been born if he chose to be counterproductive and interfere with her task.
Back still to him, as she meticulously scrutinized the room and its contents for clues, she chose to acknowledge his presence, as much as it pained her to do so. She did not turn to look at him throughout the process of looking through a book within the girl's bedside drawer that was quickly determined to be a photo album of sorts. The only recognition she offered him was a dead pan verbal response, impartial, "Good evening, Mr. Presley." However, the investigator in her could not be satiated with a mere exchange of greetings. She wanted to know why the ******** and how the ******** he was here. Only for the sake of Mrs. Becker did Elke reserve herself from being utterly pugnacious with him. "You had a pretty long day, what brings you all the way out here? Aren't you planning to get some sleep?"
Had the woman of the household not been there, it was indefinite that Mason would not have been spared from Elke's scorn. Even so, there was a hidden undertone to her words that suggested she didn't want him there. The nature of her question, the overly friendly tone in which she'd asked her questions and how they had been worded would likely make it clear to Mason while keeping Mrs. Becker completely in the dark. To anyone else it would probably seem like typical small talk being exchanged between two individuals that were perhaps acquaintances of some sort. Both Elke and Mason, however, knew that was not the case. He was the antagonist to her story as far as she was concerned, he seemed to enjoy nothing else but causing her grief. She had to deal with him when she was participating with the league but there was no way in ******** hell she was going to put up with him otherwise.
Mrs. Becker was kind enough to offer the two of them a cup of tea or something to eat, which Elke politely turned down despite the fact she was starving and probably would have eaten anything and everything the woman had to offer. She was rich, though, so she probably would have fed them something expensive. However, she was here to do a job, not chow down on someone else's food and ******** chat over tea and crumpets like she was a Brit. Not to mention she had no intention of chatting with Mason like he was some friend of hers. She wanted to get him out as fast as possible and turning down something to eat was probably the best route to go. Unfortunately she couldn't manipulate his actions, though, it was up in the air was to whether or not he'd take the seemingly kind woman up on her offer. Regardless, Elke was going to do her job, she'd just have to ignore the guy and pretend he wasn't there. She was positive, though, he purposely wouldn't make it an easy task for her.
Once Mrs. Becker left the two of them to their own devices, Elke turned to greet Mason with a non-feigned reaction. "What the ********>" she hissed to him in a whisper, glowering at him over her shoulder as she set the photo album on top of the bed alongside various other objects she'd likely already inspected, "do you think you're doing here? Go home. This is a ******** police investigation, a ******** crime scene. You're not authorized to be here and I'll give you enough credit to assume you're smart enough to know I don't ******** want you here either. Now if you'd kindly leave, it would be much appreciated. How the ******** did you know I was here anyhow? Did you ******** follow me?" She then turned back to her work, still rummaging through the drawer with her gloves on, preparing to ignore him and wait for him to get bored of this place and leave despite the fact she wanted nothing more than to chuck a steel toed boot to bust that annoying face of his; more importantly, ruin those teeth and wipe the grin off his face.
There was a foreboding pinch in the gut of her stomach that told her he wasn't going to just up and leave like a normal person would, though. The fact that Mrs. Becker had brought him up to the room suggested that he'd weaseled his way inside the place, convincing her to invite him in somehow. His attempts at charming her with his witty words and nice smile would fall flat on Elke, however. She knew he was a trouble maker at heart and that was precisely why she didn't want him here. There was no ******** telling what his intentions were and that bothered her. He had to have done something to be permitted inside the house, though, she just didn't know what. Either way it seemed Mrs. Becker was fully convinced that he was some upstanding citizen that she could just let into her house despite the fact he was a complete and total stranger. On that same note, so was Elke but she had a badge and he ******** didn't.
The insanity of the situation made her want to throw a temper tantrum and melt down in front of everyone. Of course, she was a professional and that obviously wasn't an option of hers. She wasn't about to break her extremely well developed record as an officer just because some scum bag decided to stalk her to the ******** place and ruin her evening. How had he gotten here anyhow? Again she found herself leering at him, only this time she was actually sizing him up and searching for clues. He was sweating. That suggested that he'd probably jogged or ran here. But from where? Had he ******** followed her or was it just an insane, ironic coincidence that the bane of her existence within the league was now standing a mere couple feet away from her? Fate had decided to play a cruel prank on her and Elke certainly wasn't laughing.
◈ You're the devil in a fine designer suit ◈
◈ Intuition tells me the ◈
◈ Killer ◈
◈ IS YOU ◈
◈ I never doubted I'd be back for revenge ◈
◈ Remember these words: you're going to pay in the end ◈
◈ Umbrakinesis ◈ Becker Mansion ◈
◈ ******** is he doing here? ◈
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Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 1:43 pm
Mason was thoroughly amused. He knew Elke didn’t much care for him. He was sure it was taking everything she had to act so calm and non-threatening towards him. Maybe even friendly? Surely it was only for poor Mrs. Becker’s sake and Elke was awful good at acting. He wasn’t quite as good and couldn’t quite hide the smirk on his face but did his best to erase it as he responded to her questions. “I’ll sleep when I’m dead, there are much more pressing matters that need taking care of at the moment.” He told her, referring to the kidnapping. “And this private eye is on the case.” A subtle explanation for how he’d managed to get into the house. In the past he had been more of a ‘smash and grab’ sorta guy, but now circumstances were different. Usually he knew where to look for peoples’ stolen belongings after speaking with the victims, but how else was he supposed to find a kid if he didn’t do a little digging first? It was similar but different, so he couldn’t just go about things as usual, barging into the bad guy’s hideout, scaring the s**t out of them and recovering what had been taken (and maybe more). Especially if this little girl was in danger, he needed to be careful about how he did things.
He definitely caught the hint in the blonde cop’s words. She didn’t want him here. But that was tough s**t. He was here and he didn’t plan to go home just because he’d run into her and she wanted him to leave. Sure, she was a cop, she upheld the law. And he had walked into a crime scene during an investigation without permission. Or without her permission. Mrs. Becker had given him permission and this probably wasn’t even the scene of the crime. Grabbing a kid out of their own room seemed like the hardest possible way to kidnap someone as far as he was concerned. As Elke searched the room for clues though, he watched, never touching anything or even walking more than a few steps into the room. He made sure he didn’t block the doorway, more out of habit than anything, and he stuffed his hands in his pockets to avoid temptation. He had no desire to ******** with this investigation and getting his fingerprints everywhere would do just that. Besides that, he didn’t want to be brought in for questioning.
The woman offered them something to eat or drink and Elke politely declined. Mason had just run all this way and he was thirsty for sure, but he also turned down the woman’s offer, for now at least. He would need some water or anything to drink soon, but for now he was okay. They both declined her offer, but she left the room anyway, allowing them to work in peace… or war. He was sure his fellow Justice Leaguer wasn’t going to let him off easy. He watched the woman leave. He hadn’t come here to search the house, he’d come to talk to the girl’s parents and considered following after her to have a word. However, as soon as she was gone he had Elke to answer to. Just as he’d suspected, she was pissed. And boy was she pissed. He let her finished, after which she immediately turned her back to him and continued her investigation.
“Wow,” He stated once she was finished berating him. “Conceited…” It was a pretty big coincidence that they had run into each other like this, but his plans didn’t revolve around her. “I honestly didn’t have a clue you would be here. And since it doesn’t look like you ran all the way here like I did, I don’t have super speed, and I didn’t put a tracker on you, no. I didn’t follow you.” That took care of that. Whether she believed him or not was another matter, but why would he follow her around? He enjoyed bothering her, but he didn’t need to do it 24/7. Pestering her at Watch Tower or over League business was enough for him, he didn’t need to follow her around afterwards to get his fix.
“I saw the story on the news just before I went out for a run. I thought someone with my particular skills could maybe be helpful.” He told her vaguely. He wasn’t about to admit to a cop that he used to be a thief, that he was no stranger to breaking and entering, that he would do what he had to no matter what laws or rules told him not to. Instead, he would let her assume he was hinting at his ability. “And I’m not leaving.” He decided to crush that hope right here and now. He didn’t give a s**t what she wanted him to do. <******** the police’ was a phrase very familiar to him.
He considered asking her what she’d found out from the parents but figured she wouldn’t tell him. Working with a cop was an interesting idea, he’d certainly never done it before. With good reason probably. Not to mention the cases he normally worked were cases the police had to give up on. While he mulled over his options, he stared at the back of her head. He had to do something. He had to go talk to the parents, convince her to let him help her out, something. He was sure his mind worked differently than a cop’s, so they would probably each go about this differently. Then again, they were both here weren’t they? It was a tough call. He was sure she would get in his way if he somehow got her to let him help. That would be the hard part probably, convincing her he could help and that she should let him. As he thought about it his grin had slowly faded until there were no traces of it left on his face. His eyes intently fixed on her as though they were trying to burn holes in the back of her head. In reality he was too busy in his own thoughts to even realize he was staring though.
A sigh escaped him when he escaped his own mind and his attention bee-lined back to Elke. “I only want to help, little miss sunshine.” He had to balance out the fact that he did care what happened to this little girl with a little teasing at Elke’s expense. He had never been the touchy-feely type, he hid the fact that he cared about anything behind jokes, never letting anyone really know him. And every now and then he let something slip, usually when it was the only way to get what he wanted… like right now. Elke couldn’t stop him from helping these people, but he did want to try to work with her. If any police officer would let him work with them it would be her, as strange as it seemed to think about it like that. Another superhero, that knew who he was and knew that he was with the Justice League. Any other cop would write him off as some whack job trying to live out his detective fantasy… or something. The point was, they likely wouldn’t even consider letting him tag along and help out. ┌────────────────────────────────────────┐ Becker Mansion └────────────────────────────────────────┘ ▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲ I guess...____________________
____________________...It's good to see you again too.
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Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 4:11 pm
◈
◈◈
◈◈ ξʅӄξ Ȼɑʋєɍs ◈◈
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◈ ◈ I see you standing there smilin' with your bright white teeth ◈ ◈ Transparent like a thirty dollar motel sheet ◈ Elke didn't bother hiding the fact she was feeling quite the opposite of Mason, she was severely displeased that he'd shown up here and decided to barge in on her case. He had no right to be here as far as she was concerned. He'd been given permission to be in the house but just because he'd decided to play detective didn't mean he could just go about doing whatever the ******** he wanted. There were laws to keep in mind, procedures to follow and something told her he didn't feel an immediate need abide by those. She found it funny how he said he'd sleep when he was dead, considering she was pretty tempted to grant him his sleep in that case. Upon him claiming to be a private eye her hands fell to her hips as she shifted onto her tip toes, expression clearly unamused. "Private eye," she stated drolly with a disbelieving lift of her eyebrow, "huh? Is that what you told her to get in here?"
She knew for a fact he was not a private eye, she would have known him had he been employed within the city. He wasn't. There was the off chance he'd maybe been one in another city but something told her he was just making s**t up to piss her off. At the very least he seemed to recognize, however, that she didn't want him here and kept his distance. He stood out of the way of the door but came no further than a few baby steps into the room. The guy even kept his hands in his pocket, something she kept an eye out for. She didn't want him to go around touching s**t and getting his prints all over everything and end up ******** up her investigation. Then again, if she found his prints in the place she could maybe get a chance to put him behind bars. It was a thought that brought a smile to her chops though she knew it would be too good to be true.
While Elke would agree with Mason that it was unlikely that the girl had been kidnapped from her room directly, Elke was more searching for personal effects that might tip her off as to the girl's whereabouts. She was thinking of something along the lines of a diary or journal of some sort that might have documented clues in the words of the girl herself. If she could find anything: a photo, a painting, a page out of a diary, it would definitely be worth her time. She'd already asked Mrs. Becker if Katie had possessed anything akin to a diary to which she'd responded with a recollection of the girl carrying a notebook around while on vacation from time to time and writing in the thing inconsistently. All Elke wanted to see was the latest entry in the journal, what it was about and when it had been dated for. There were other effects in the room such as the photo album she'd already rummaged through but so far nothing had caught her eye.
"Not conceited," she said as she proceeded to tap the base of the drawer, leaving her ear close to it as if she was listening for something, "just wondering how it is that you ended up here of all places where I happen to be. We just finished investigating an explosion a few hours ago so it's kind of coincidental you happened to show up on the doorstep a couple minutes after me." As she tapped the drawer she squinted her eyes as if it would somehow help her to hear better though what she was listening for was likely beyond anyone else. Elke, however, did possess a method to her madness. She was, in fact, listening to see if the drawer made a hollow sound when she knocked on its base. When she knocked on it the entire base shifted with the impact and a smile broke out on her face. Bingo. Hidden diary trick 101: putting a fake base in your drawer and hiding something underneath it. "Found you!" She cheered victoriously in a small hiss of a whisper. She would have celebrated had Mason been someone she wasn't completely wary of but as things stood, she didn't trust the guy.
The detective was pulling the base of the drawer apart as she listened to Mason's conclusion for why he was here. She pulled out the journal and began inspecting it, holding it up and rotating it to assure it was Katie's before looking over to Mason with utter vigilance. A particular statement he'd made had caught her attention and she was more than eager to seize the chance to question him about it. "Someone with your particular skills? And what skills would those be if I might be so bold as to ask?" He wasn't going to get away with waving a statement like that under her nose, it was like leaving blood in the water with a shark present, it was immediately drawn to it and generally sunk it's teeth into whatever unfortunate beast happened to be present. She was a detective, she didn't assume things, she clarified them.
While she waited for him to respond to her inquiry she flipped through the pages of the journal. She paged through until she came to the blank pages that more than likely signified this was the last entry made. Of course, Elke would flip throughout the entire thing to assure there were no hidden pages with things written on them. This job required her to be diligent yet time efficient so she couldn't take forever looking through the thing but she had to invest a decent amount of time into it to assure nothing was overlooked. As she read through a couple random entries of the journal before the latest entry she did conclude that some of the entries were mere documentations of where the family had gone for vacation, the highlights of the day, what they'd eaten. But there were other entries as well, ones about things that had happened in school or relationships with friends. The relationships portion of the journal were of particular interest to her and she pulled out some small sticky notes to book mark a couple pages before proceeding.
"Looks like this girl," Elke decided to divulge despite the fact she knew it wasn't exactly professional, "isn't the most confident in herself. She's got lots of money, has a decent number of friends but it sounds like she's been used before. People pleaser. Perhaps she was seeking approval of some sort and got tricked into doing something. I mean, she's been missing for twenty four hours but we can't just assume she was kidnapped. It's possible she's just being a typical teenager as well or someone's figured out her need to please and has manipulated her into doing something for them." Yeah, it definitely wasn't professional of her to share someone else's personal information with some other dude but since he'd been invited into the house if he really wanted to he would have been able to read the diary himself if he'd chosen to. And if the guy was going to be here she'd might as well use him as a wall to deflect ideas off of and get a second opinion on the matter. Perhaps it was their unspoken agreement that they would work together as opposed to against one another.
As she read a couple more pages of the diary she realized there was something else she'd been wanting to ask the Beckers or check herself depending on what their answer was. She excused herself for a moment from Mason, handing him an extra pair of gloves and leaving the journal at his feet. It was her way of saying he was free to look at it while she was attending to other business. She brushed past him in order to make her way down the stairs in order to locate Mrs. Becker in order to ask her a question. The officer called and instead it was her husband who was swift to respond, very eager to help Elke out with any information he could possibly give. The couple seemed kind, like people she could trust. She felt sorry for them, that their daughter was missing and all they could do was sit there and wait. Elke hadn't missed Mr. Becker pacing around in the dining room and Mrs. Becker attempting to keep herself busy in the kitchen and how they would cling to her at any opportunity to answer her questions. At the very least it made it a lot easier on Elke to go forth with her investigation when both parents were so willing to help.
"This might sound strange but at the same time I'm sure you'll catch my drift once I ask you. Have either you or Mrs. Becker checked your mail today?"
"No," Mr. Becker responded with a shake of his head, "I- Oh my gosh. How could we be so daft! You're wanting to check if they left us a letter, aren't you?"
Elke nodded and proceeded to assure the man, "It's not anything to beat yourself over. Your daughter's been missing, you've probably been more occupied with worrying about that than checking your mail. I know if any of my family members went missing checking the mail would be one of the last things on my mind."
Mr. Becker eagerly showed her where the mail box was, opening the front door for her like a gentleman and all. Elke made sure to take prints off the mail box, just in the case something turned up. However, she was pretty sure that the only prints they would find would be of the mailmen and the Beckers'. Regardless, she took the samples and then proceeded to open the mail box and peered inside. There were a number of letters but one in particular stood out, not by appearance but based on weight and the fact there was clearly something that wasn't paper inside. Elke immediately inspected the heavier letter, curious as to what was inside. However, before ripping it open she looked up to Mr. Becker for silent approval to which he nodded, understanding her reason for looking to him. That was when Elke gently lifted the flap of the envelope to reveal what was inside. All she found inside was a tape along with a note which she was pretty sure was in Katie's writing saying: PLAY ME.
Immediately Elke dashed up the stairs, recalling the girl's room had possessed a slightly outdated radio of sorts within the room that would be capable of playing the tape. Clearly it was a voice recorded tape, something she was aware could be tampered with or some sick prank which would get someone arrested but it was at least something. There was a grin on her face as she dashed into the room, having forgotten Mason was around the corner and almost accidentally colliding with him. She then showed him the tape along with the small note as she jumped up and down in her excitement. "Quickly! Compare this writing to the stuff in her journal while I get this tape set up and playing. I know it's from whoever took her! I'll bet someone did take her now. This is probably a ransom tape or something."
◈ You're the devil in a fine designer suit ◈ ◈ Intuition tells me the ◈ ◈ Killer ◈ ◈ IS YOU ◈
◈ I never doubted I'd be back for revenge ◈ ◈ Remember these words: you're going to pay in the end ◈ ◈ Umbrakinesis ◈ Becker Mansion ◈
◈ Bad day. Bad day. Bad day! ◈
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Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 6:36 pm
Mason shrugged at her after being questioned about calling himself a private eye. “Yep.” He confirmed. “It wasn’t even very hard. To be fair though, she knew she had a cop in the house.” He supposed it was a lot easier to let a strange, sweaty man into your house when you knew there was a cop with a gun to protect you. So he couldn’t fault them for that. He was sure they had to have some beefy security too. Panic buttons and the like. They certainly had the money and justification for it. He did tend to take a mental note of how easy it was to get into the homes he entered. Security, locks, windows, anything that made it easy to climb to the second story from the outside. Not to exploit it, but he was sure to bring it up to his clients if that was whose home he happened to be entering. It was a wonder some of them weren’t burglarized more with how easy it would be to get in. Of course, when he broke into places he didn’t bother with doors, locks and the like. It was easy enough for him to smash a hole into a house, get in, get out and find a good place outside to pose as a statue. As odd as he looked in some places, people normally didn’t give it too much thought. Statues couldn’t move, after all.
He hadn’t expected Elke to believe he was a private eye. He wasn’t, never had been anywhere. And she seemed nothing, if not thorough. But he didn’t need her to believe his lies, just the Beckers. Success. The fact a cop knew his name and hadn’t thrown him out only cemented the Beckers’ beliefs that he was who he said he was. He would have to remember to thank Elke for backing his false identity later. Right now wasn’t the time for that.
The first thought that had come to mind when he’d seen the Beckers’ house had been ’ransom.’ As someone who had been on the wrong side of the law before, he knew money could be a huge motivator. In his case money and a challenge. The clients he dealt with were generally victims of someone out for a quick buck to get a fix. Occasionally someone who had been the victim of shady businesses and powerful men who thought they were above the law. Naturally his mind was quick to think the girl had been kidnapped in order to trade her for ransom money. The fortunate part of that situation was that she had to be alive if they wanted their money, that it (probably) wasn’t some serial rapist, just someone that wanted a big chunk of money.
“It must be fate.” He teased with a smile as Elke noted the coincidence of them both ending up in the same place at the same time, of all times and places. Then she began investigating the drawer.
Those eyes. Those beady little elk eyes. He watched the majestic beast as she knocked on the drawer. He heard her whisper something and watched as she opened the false bottom of the drawer and pulled out a diary. But what he had been saying at the time quickly caught her attention. “People acquire a lot of skills throughout their lifetimes. Some are helpful to certain situations.” He spoke vaguely, always skirting around the flat out truth. That he used to be the bad guy and even after turning to the side of good he still thought like one the majority of the time. Not in the sense that he wanted to do bad things and didn’t care how it affected other people, but in the sense that he knew how criminals thought, the types of things they made habits of and how they tried to cover their tracks. Not so much the last part, he had never spent too much time doing that. In fact, when he began working on the side of justice he started stomping his iron footprints into the ground at the places he found those that had wronged his clients. A warning of sorts, and it doubled as a signature as well. The closest he would get to answering Elke’s question was still fairly vague, but far less vague than he had originally intended. “Let’s just say, I have a knack for how thieves work.” He watched her flip through the journal, sticking sticky notes in it and everything. Thorough was definitely the right word for it. Was this what all cops did? He did avoid them like the plague so he had never actually seen one in action.
When Elke started talking to him about the contents of the diary and her thoughts on it, he took it as they were now working together. He was a little hesitant about jumping on board with her idea that the girl may not have been kidnapped, but it didn’t hurt to keep the possibility in mind. “That’s true, there’s nothing to prove she was kidnapped and God knows kids do the dumb things. I certainly did. I almost killed myself when I tried to drive my dad’s car home from a party…” He reflected thoughtfully, just hoping the girl hadn’t gone out and got herself killed. “Look at this house though, there’s a lot of money to be made kidnapping the daughter of someone as loaded as these guys.” It was clear he was still leaning towards a kidnapping. Maybe it was because he was so accustomed to things being stolen around him, by him, but it was what his gut told him.
The next thing he knew, Elke was leaving the room, leaving him with a pair of gloves and the diary. He wasn’t sure what he might find in there that she hadn’t, but with a shrug he shoved his hands into the gloves and knelt on the ground to pick up the diary. As he paged through it, nothing really stood out to him. He got to his feet and glanced around the room, diary still in hand, open to the page he’d happened to open it to. He walked over to the window and pulled the curtains back, spotting Elke and Mr. Becker out at the mailbox. But that wasn’t what he had come to see. Even though he still believed she wouldn’t have been taken from her room, he opened up the window and stuck his head out to check for any signs of forced entry. Nothing out of the ordinary, regular wear, a few small chips in the paint. What he did notice though was the trellis right below her window. There were thorny roses growing up it, but with a pair of shoes, thick gloves, and some protective clothing, someone could easily make the climb. And, even with inadequate light he could see some broken stems and a smashed rose. Someone was climbing it. He examined the windowsill again but still, nothing stood out to him. Climbing up a trellis to kidnap someone seemed unlikely too, there were much easier ways. Maybe she was sneaking out to meet up with friends, or sneaking friends into her room. There was always the possibility that someone had tricked her into sneaking out and then took her. Or maybe she’d just run away. The Beckers seemed like nice people, good parents, but all kids got fed up with their parents at some point.
He ducked back into the room, closing the window as he contemplated, still clutching the diary without realizing it. And that was just about when Elke returned, quickly grabbing his attention with her enthusiasm. He smiled a little, she seemed pretty excited, and he took the note and opened up the diary to compare as he’d been instructed. He was no handwriting expert, but it sure looked like a match. “I’ve seen a lot of criminals ******** up this part. They overlook something that seems so unimportant at the time and leave their prints or DNA behind.” It was a little refreshing to see someone doing things right, though this was the one time he wished it’d been an amateur he was dealing with. Amateurs forgot that their handwriting could identify them, that their prints could be left in the glue they used to paste letters to a piece of paper and that their saliva could be a clue to the police, leaving their DNA behind. Making the kidnapped write the note was a good move. “It looks the same to me.” He informed his ‘partner’. “You know what this means, right? Whoever did it is probably as thorough as you. And they know what they’re doing…” It was a good thing for catching criminals, a good thing for escaping the law, hopefully the tape would give them some clues. If not, maybe Mason would compile a list of the family’s possible enemies and start kicking down doors. This whole looking for clues thing was starting to make him restless. He wasn’t an idiot, but he had always been more of a doer than a thinker.
It did look like kidnapping was the winner, but there was still something else on the table. She could have run away, and left her parents a tape to tell them goodbye. It was as dramatic as all hell, but she was a teenage girl. And it was her handwriting. The tape would answer their questions. So he waited for it to be played, to see if he would hear the girl's voice, or someone else's voice. If it was a goodbye or asking for ransom. ┌────────────────────────────────────────┐ Becker Mansion └────────────────────────────────────────┘ ▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲ So...____________________
____________________...Maybe we'll catch a lead.
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Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 9:29 pm
◈
◈◈
◈◈ ξʅӄξ Ȼɑʋєɍs ◈◈
◈◈
◈ ◈ I see you standing there smilin' with your bright white teeth ◈ ◈ Transparent like a thirty dollar motel sheet ◈ It was rare her gut instinct was wrong and that fact seemed to hold true in this situation as she managed to get Mason to divulge the fact he'd lied in order to get into the Becker mansion. She couldn't say she was surprised in the least, he just hadn't come off as the type to hold to promises or being truthful very seriously. Perhaps it was because she did bear a slight grudge toward him and it made her biased but regardless of her reasoning, she'd been right. It was a tactic she rarely utilized, not unless it was an emergency and she had no other choice. Of course, that meant undercover work, which she occasionally did. It was always interesting work that involved keeping your friends close and your enemies closer, in that particular job's case, you kept your enemies EXTREMELY close. Lying sometimes was a necessary evil but she avoided it unless she felt it was absolutely vital for it to be implemented as a tactic of hers whilst investigating.
Ransom had crossed Elke's mind the moment she'd discovered that Mr. Becker was a renowned businessman but she didn't rule out the fact that it was possible Katie could have just been being a teenager. Elke knew some teenagers, especially girls, had a tendency to be overdramatic at their age and whatnot such as break ups. Teenagers were well known for taking the present way too seriously and not looking toward the future, something as simple as a break up seemed like the end of the world to them. Likewise arguments were also events they tended to overreact to and they sometimes resulted in the kid running away from the house. Of course, Elke had already questioned the Beckers as to whether or not they'd had any arguments or difficulties with Katie as of late. Her father had mentioned he'd had to talk to her about staying out too late and whatnot but nothing that seemed heated from what he'd described. She did keep the late nights detail in mind, though, considering that the girl might have been sneaking out late at night which could explain why there was no sign of a struggle anywhere.
"Fate definitely," Elke responded with an exasperated sigh, placing her hand on her cheek for a moment as she sat on the ground, "doesn't share my sense of humour then. Definitely doesn't have the same taste in partners as I do either." Of course she mentioned the last part about partners in reference to someone she was working with, not bothering to think that someone like Mason might twist her words and turn it into a dirty innuendo of some sort.
Elke peered at him out of the corner of her eye after rolling her eyes at the blatantly intentional vagueness on Mason's part. "'People acquire a lot of skills throughout their lifetimes. Some are helpful to certain situations.' But you still haven't answered my question." She shut herself up once she realized he intended to explain a little further, still slightly vague but he'd said enough for the cop to catch the jist of what he'd implied. Great. Just great. She was working with a former criminal: a thief. A greedy-a** mother ******** who would probably ditch as soon as the going got tough and leave her to die. "A knack for how thieves work, huh? So that must mean you either are one or you were formerly one. A thief who cares about a little girl's well-being, huh? Are you hoping to get paid out by her parents and play the good guy role when you're just hoping to get money out of it?" That, in Elke's opinion, would make him no better than the kidnappers themselves.
Elke would have liked to believe that people weren't so low as to do something like kidnap a child but she was a cop and she most definitely knew better. Even so she was ever the optimist about such things and found herself wishfully thinking her hunches were wrong. Usually they weren't, though, rarely her pessimistic views stood to be corrected where as her optimistic ones were almost always disproved by the very people of this city. It was depressing, really, that people required a police force to help maintain order and peace because there were that many of them who resorted to crime and violence and other means to survive. Yes she understood not everyone had been as lucky as her to grow up with parents that provided her with most of the things she needed but she'd seen people who'd grown up with practically nothing make something of themselves without resorting to crime.
"A lot of criminals do ******** up on this part but I already checked the envelope and tape for finger prints and there are none to be found. Clearly someone was thinking this through before sending this to us knowing we'd check. Also, the envelope was sealed with tape, no one licked it, so yeah, we're screwed." She was a little disappointed that the people they were dealing with were clearly not amateurs, sad because that certainly meant it would make this case last a lot longer. At the same time, this would make things interesting and keep her engaged because it would prove to be a challenge. Not only that but if she managed to crack this, it would be another high profile case that she'd managed to solve. Of course, she wasn't going to get cocky and she certainly hadn't accepted the case for more status, she'd simply accepted the case she'd been assigned to and was performing her duty, her job. "Yeah, these people clearly know what they're doing. And they know not to leave traces of DNA so it's likely we're not going to solve this because of a sloppy job. We're going to have to figure out what they want and decide our course of action from there."
After doing one last swap of the tape to check for prints, dead skin cells, saliva, anything of the sort, she finally inserted the tape into the player in order to listen to it. All fell silent in the room as the suspense built up as if they were people pumped to see the newest movie that had come out, only more urgent. She looked at Mason with an almost innocent child-like expression, putting her index finger to her lip as if questioning him if she should play it. Elke was a little worried that Katie's parents might potentially be upset by the recording so she wanted to listen to it independently of them before showing it to them. "Alright. Here it goes." Their complete and total attention turned to the broadcast made by who she could only assume was Katie Becker herself. Whether she was at gun point or had been intimidated into doing it or had done it willingly, well, it was her job to find that out.
"Hello mom and dad, it's Katie. I'm just letting you know that I'm alright. I'm not allowed to tell you who I'm with but I am allowed to tell you that I'm with someone else. That's all I'm really able to say. They know dad's a businessman. They told me to say they're not sure whether they're going to ransom me or not since they could always sell me off in the black market and I'd never be seen again. That's all I can tell you. I love you, bye."
"Alrighty ... well clearly that was rehearsed. It was also incredibly vague and didn't really tell us much except for she's 'with someone else'. I can only assume she's been kidnapped and the guy who has her is ******** around with us. Maybe they're not doing it for monetary gain, maybe they're doing it simply because they have nothing better to do. Or ... maybe her parents aren't disclosing some sort of critical detail. It doesn't really make sense for them to kidnap her out of no where. They have to have some sort of reason for it." The detective was clearly puzzled. She knew she was going to have to call in the Beckers for confirmation on whether or not the recorded voice was their daughter's. Again, whoever had kidnapped her had spoken through Katie to them as opposed to doing it themselves. They were definitely playing things carefully. But she'd have to follow through on just how carefully, after all, she had yet to interview the neighbours for eye witness testimonies and she had an envelope she had to track the origin of as well. She was going to have to trace where the letter had come from, who had delivered it.
◈ You're the devil in a fine designer suit ◈ ◈ Intuition tells me the ◈ ◈ Killer ◈ ◈ IS YOU ◈
◈ I never doubted I'd be back for revenge ◈ ◈ Remember these words: you're going to pay in the end ◈ ◈ Umbrakinesis ◈ Becker Mansion ◈
◈ Gotta find this b*****d. ◈
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Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 6:28 pm
Mason was no stranger to lying, sometimes he did it just for sport. It was a bad habit as far as most people were concerned, but there were a lot of things about himself that he didn’t want other people to know, and that they didn’t need to know. Things that they were better off not knowing. Or that he was better off with them not knowing. And Elke wasn’t a special case. He didn’t want her to know his s**t just as much as he didn’t want anyone else to know his s**t. Cops were nosey though, they always seemed to think everything was their business. So he’d lied to the Beckers to get into their house. So what? He wasn’t hurting anyone. He wasn’t messing with the investigation. In fact, he was helping. He had nothing but pure and good intentions. It didn’t much matter though. Even when he was righting wrongs the police still ‘couldn’t condone his methods.’ If he cared it might have bothered him. But he knew, deep down, that they were grateful for what he did.
Unlike his blonde companion, Mason hadn’t spoken to the Beckers passed lying his way into their home and complimenting their taste in art. He didn’t know anything more than what he had heard on the news and what he had seen in the girl’s room. She seemed to like the color purple. He hadn’t particularly cared for her diary, the dramatic ramblings of a teenage girl. He’d hardly made it through a few sentences before he had to stop. It almost reminded him of his own, evil step-sister, only less bitchy.
Silly fate. Making poor little Elke miserable. How rude of fate to be such a jerk to her. How dare fate do something so awful as making her deal with someone as horrible as Mason. “Come on now, I’m not so bad.” He almost hadn’t caught his chance to throw a dirty joke at her, so busy playing detective that the opportunity had almost slipped right on by. But, unfortunately for her, he realized it just in time. “You should have a little more faith in fate. I taste good. I’d offer you a sample but right now’s a bad time, we have work to do.” He couldn’t help but smirk in admiration of himself. At his own stupid joke. First the ‘faith in fate,’ then a dirty pun. If he would have worked in a hard joke about his ability he would have considered it perfection. But he couldn’t just blurt out a hard joke out of the blue, it had to be the right time. But really, he knew she didn’t like his, but could he be as bad as she acted like he was? He teased her, he’d barged in on her investigation, yes. True. But he was easy on the eyes and if push came to shove… he was bulletproof. She seemed to be tolerating him, he must not have been that bad. She was just being dramatic like all teenage girls were. She couldn’t be much older than a teenager.
Of course, before Mason was even finished talking Elke had to butt in and state the obvious, that he hadn’t answered her question about his ‘skills.’ He waited for her to shut the hell up before he finished his thought. She deduced that he either was a thief or had been on in the past and he responded to it with a simple “I plead the fifth.” He didn’t have to tell her anything, she was just being another nosey cop. He hadn’t decided whether he regretted letting her in on his little secret though, he would have to wait and see what she did with that knowledge. Maybe she would try to throw him in jail. He doubted she had the strength to physically take him though, and he wouldn’t go easily. And when Elke asked him if he was only helping out in hopes of making some money, he chose not to answer. “That’s between me and the Beckers,” He stated “So butt out.” She could try to give him the third degree, but he had no intentions of satisfying her curiosity. Whatever his ultimate goal was, wasn’t it just good that he was going to help her find this girl?
So… no fingerprints, no DNA, no nothing. Awesome. His feelings were a little mixed. Normally he would love something like thi, dealing with a pro, having a challenge, but now he found himself too worried about the girl to enjoy it. Maybe when they got passed the ‘not-having-a-clue-where-to-start’ part he would start having a little more fun. Not that getting on Elke’s nerves wasn’t fun. They had made it as far as anyone else that had seen the story would get, talking to the Beckers and searching the house. If it weren’t for Elke, Mason probably would have been in and out by now. He had planned on talking to Katie’s parents, maybe looking for clues around their property, and then he would have headed off to scope out any possible kidnappers or friends she may have been with. But as it stood, he still knew virtually nothing. Running into Elke had changed his plans, and now he was letting her lead the charge. His biggest questions upon arrival (and seeing the mansion) were questions that had yet to be answered for him. When and where was the last they had seen or heard from their daughter? Who did she normally hang out with? Did the family have any possible enemies, people who felt they had been wronged by one of the family? And had they been contacted about any ransom? Now that he had looked around a little he was also curious to know how she got around, whether her friends picked her up or if she drove herself. At least one question had been answered; Elke had found a tape in the mailbox.
After listening to the recording Mason sighed. It seemed a little weird to him, he wasn’t sure why though. He just couldn’t quite put his finger on it. One thing that he noticed, though, was how the girl worded things, and what she said about being sold over the black market. She wasn’t allowed to tell them who she was with? “Huh…” he thought allowed, if ‘huh’ could count as a thought. Did that mean she knew who had her? That could be good or bad. If it was some criminal holding her and she knew his identity her parents might never see her again. If she’d been kidnapped by someone this careful about being found out, they wouldn’t let her go if she knew who it was. There was also the possibility that her and her friends were just being jackasses or that her friends wanted some money and were using her to get it. A people pleaser, they were probably pretty confident she wouldn’t tell anyone what they were doing. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but he was starting to suspect shenanigans. Maybe she was running away and just trying to get some money to live on. This tape was supposed to help them figure out what had happened to her, but all it had done was open up the possibilities as far as Mason was concerned. In the case of shenanigans, his vote was for her friends using her to make some quick cash.
At the very least they knew she was alive. “I think…” The ransom vs black market part was still being considered by the iron mimic. There was a definite motive behind her saying that, two that Mason was considering. “We should try to speed this up.” He wasn’t exactly sure what else to say. The alleged kidnapper wanted her to say that for a reason. They wanted a lot of money, fast. They would try to get it, making the situation more urgent with the threat of selling the girl off to the black market so that her parents would panic and give them whatever they asked for or else they would never see their daughter again. No time for negotiations, no time to think about it. Whether they were really considering selling Katie or they just wanted her parents to think they were was another matter. Mason had never kept up with how much teenage girls went for on the black market. If he knew he would find himself in a situation like this he definitely would have though. They would get as much as they could for her. But it was always good to assume the worst – that Katie had been kidnapped and was going to be sold on the black market. Better safe than sorry. Assuming they had time to figure everything out could lose her forever.
Elke brought up another point. Maybe this was some sort of grudge or payback. Apparently the Beckers hadn’t told Elke about anything like that. Mason sighed. “Well, is this the part where you sit at your desk with a huge pile of every document relating to the Beckers, figuring out who would want to get back at them?” So he did watch TV every now and then, and he’d seen some detective shows. “Because there’s no way in hell I’m helping with that. I’ll go make myself useful elsewhere.” He doubted she would want him at her desk anyway. And they didn’t even know if that would find them any answers. “You know, I’m sure we can get the parents to feel bad enough to tell us anything. Or I could get them to tell me without making them feel bad. Dad’s a businessman, maybe he isn’t quite following the law.” It was just a thought. He figured the man’s daughter would be more important than his freedom, but maybe he just didn’t have his priorities straight.
“And if she was kidnapped for the money, the kidnapper will be making contact again to make their demands. I bet they won’t give the Beckers much time to get a ransom together too. They want them to panic, and they want the money fast.” He closed the diary and set it on the girl’s bed, the note sitting on top of it. A sigh escaped him as he took off the gloves Elke had handed him and stuffed them in his pocket. “What did you find out from Mr. and Mrs. Becker anyway?” He finally asked, something he’d been waiting to do for a while. ┌────────────────────────────────────────┐ Becker Mansion └────────────────────────────────────────┘ ▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲ This...____________________
____________________...Is ******** ridiculous.
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Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2012 4:36 pm
◈
◈◈
◈◈ ξʅӄξ Ȼɑʋєɍs ◈◈
◈◈
◈ ◈ I see you standing there smilin' with your bright white teeth ◈ ◈ Transparent like a thirty dollar motel sheet ◈ It took Elke a few moments to react to Mason's statement as she was currently struggling not to drop her jaw to the floor at his antics. Upon being offered a 'sample' by Mason, the officer's gaze locked onto him in the form of a glare, hands falling to her hips as she processed exactly what he'd just said to her. Was he ******** hitting on her while she was on duty doing her job? Did he really have that much nerve? Did he honestly think he had any iota of a chance with her after she'd made it crystal clear she didn't like him or want him there? Apparently so. His ego knew no bounds. Perhaps it was about time he met someone who didn't stroke it. "You say that as if I'd want a sample of that." She shook her head then proceeded to put her finger on her tongue and rolled her eyes to signify she wasn't interested. The thought of 'tasting' him caused her to shudder and also left a bitter taste in her mouth though it was her thoughts that convinced her of that.
The fact he'd pulled the fifth amendment on her only served to piss her off further because she knew it was true. She couldn't touch him if she had nothing on him and if she had no solid reason or incriminating evidence against him then he was off limits. She knew everyone had rights but offering them to criminals just wasn't something that sat well with her because the smart ones used it to their advantage. Innocent until proven guilty was fair but by gawd sometimes she swore it was something that was created solely for the torment of officers such as herself. The fact he refused to divulge anything further to her definitely had her suspicious of him. The guy knew his rights, too, that was often a sign in her experience of someone who had previously been in some form of trouble with the law. She sighed inwardly. She was really starting to feel like his sole purpose of being here was to serve as the bane of her existence. Perhaps someone had put him up to it, offered to pay him. "Very well, you're entitled to your privacy," was the aloof statement she came up with, desperately keeping a hold on herself so as not to reveal to him how truly irate she was.
No DNA of any sort meant this investigation was going to have to be done the old school way: process of elimination and plenty of digging around in the dirt. More questioning was probably in order, she needed more enlightenment and despite the fact the Beckers felt there was no one that was an enemy of theirs, Elke found herself wondering. Perhaps they were just ignorant of someone they'd offended or unintentionally wronged and simply weren't aware of the situation. Maybe they were hiding something from her because they were worried it would get them in trouble or they were afraid for their lives. At this point there were so many variables going through them all would take a couple weeks and probably make Elke's head explode. However, she had to start weeding things out somewhere, had to start making a dent before she could hope for her case to crack.
Elke shared Mason's sentiments of wanting to speed the investigation up but at this point there was nothing she could do to speed it up. If she grew impatient now then it was highly likely that she could overlook something of crucial importance and she refused to make such a novice error. Finding the girl sooner as opposed to later was a priority of hers but running about making a scene of things wasn't going to get her found any faster. They had no clue as to her whereabouts or location, no idea who she was with, they didn't even have a for sure guarantee that she was still alive since the kidnappers hadn't officially asked for a ransom. They hadn't really made it clear what they were after since they'd mentioned the whole selling her off on the black market instead of ransoming her. So ... they kidnapped her for money? But if they were kidnapping people to sell them off on the black market then couldn't they have taken someone of less high profile than the daughter of the Becker's? So far this wasn't making sense to Elke at all.
Another sigh escaped the officer: this time it was breathed into reality, her shoulders lifting and falling in synchronization with her breath. Next a hand came to the blonde woman's forehead as she stared at the tape as though she was willing it for answers, as if staring at it would somehow reveal everything to her. "I don't know about you," she said to Mason while her eyes remained attentive to the tape, "but I have no idea what these people want. If they wanted to just find a girl to sell off on the black market they would have or at least I assume they would have gone for that girl next door that isn't so high in profile. The fact they chose the Beckers suggests that their motives involve money but the statement of them not being sure whether or not they were going to ransom her is just peculiar. It's almost like they're toying with them. But toying with them for personal reasons or just for fun? I have no idea."
"Considering the fact," Elke stated while bringing out a pad and pen, beginning to scribble down potential ideas and suspect profiles, "we have zero solid suspects at this point I might have to resort to questioning. Instead of going through a whole bunch of documents and whatnot, though, I was more thinking along the lines of potential eye witnesses. If she was kidnapped maybe someone saw something out of the ordinary. Maybe they saw Katie leaving or maybe they noticed a strange vehicle down the street. That sort of stuff. I don't have time to weed through documents and I doubt I'd find too much that would be useful anyhow. I'm going to trust they have the best interests for their daughter at heart as her parents. That might be a gamble but for now I'm sticking with just that since I don't have the time to be looking into them." Immediately she regretted letting him in on her true intentions, silently kicking herself for her blunder. Had she lied she might have been able to lose his interest and make him go away.
"I doubt they'll be able to give us a message the same way twice since they'll likely be worried about being caught. We're probably going to have to wait a little bit before they bother contacting us again. I'm pretty sure, though, that if money was their true objective that they would have addressed that in their first message. I think they're deliberately not cutting to the chase because they're wanting to lead us on somehow ... At least that's the feeling I'm getting from all of this. I mean ... her statements was so vague. Maybe this was sent to throw us off or make us over think things." Elke still didn't know what to make of the tape and from what she'd gathered it seemed Mason was in the same boat as she was. The possibilities at the moment were so vast it was a little overwhelming. The tape seemed to bring more questions than answers. All they knew was that she'd been kidnapped and that when she'd sent the tape she had been alive.
◈ You're the devil in a fine designer suit ◈ ◈ Intuition tells me the ◈ ◈ Killer ◈ ◈ IS YOU ◈
◈ I never doubted I'd be back for revenge ◈ ◈ Remember these words: you're going to pay in the end ◈ ◈ Umbrakinesis ◈ Becker Mansion ◈
◈ So much to do and so little time to do it. I feel like the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland: I'm late, I'm late, I'm late! ◈
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Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2012 12:26 pm
Yeah, he’d said it. And while she was on duty. Did he mean it? Was he really offering her a ‘sample’? Well, he wasn’t sure he would turn her down if she took him up on it. She wasn’t too bad to look at, he might do it… for her, of course. Nerve? Oh yeah. Did he think he had a chance with her? Not really. Really he was just happy to get a rise out of her. It was obvious to anyway, probably even the Beckers, that she wasn’t his biggest fan. And maybe it hurt his feelings a little that she was so mean to him when he was just trying to have a little fun. And what a drama queen she was, with the gag gesture and the rolling of her eyes. “Hey now, don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it.” was his defense. She really didn’t know what she was missing out on. She probably missed out on a lot of good things in life if she was so unwilling to try new ones just because they picked on her. He figured she got picked on a lot, being a cop, and a young one at that, not to mention a blonde. He supposed someone must take her seriously, it was a little hard to imagine though. If he’d only just met her here at the Beckers’ he probably wouldn’t, but he knew she was a super, and supers didn’t always have to look serious to be serious, and she sure was serious, despite her appearance.
Mason wasn’t going to go tell a cop, of all people, about everything he’d done in the past. He didn’t even tell non-cops about it. If it weren’t for them having to deal with it when he was a minor, he wouldn’t have told his family either. He wasn’t exactly an open book to start with, but now opening up meant the possibility of jail time. It made him wonder if everyone she spent time with watched what they said around her. She was pretty uptight from what he had seen, but maybe she took the stick out when she was around people she liked more. She tried her best to hide it, but Mason could practically feel how pissed off he was in the air around them. It amused him, he hadn’t even said it to piss her off, just so he didn’t have to tell her anything. He wouldn’t be surprised if she started trying o put him behind bars. It could be a fun game. “Thanks, detective.” For letting him have his privacy, he knew how much it must’ve pained her to drop the subject. She didn’t seem like the type to let things go so easily.
Elke was thorough. She took her time and didn’t miss a thing. She also had to play by her set of rules. Mason didn’t, and he didn’t normally spend so much time checking out one place unless of course he was pretending to be a statue. Elke wanted to look at every single detail of the room that they hadn’t found anything good in, Mason wanted to start making his way to other places where maybe there would be some big clue. But for now, he let Elke do her thing. They were sort of working together on this, right? He figured he’d stick around for a few more minutes to see if she had any other breakthroughs after the tape. Maybe the kidnappers were just ******** with them. If they could somehow know that Elke would be the cop on the job, he could understand why they would be. It was fun. He just wished he was in on it if they were, then he also wouldn’t have to worry about the girl they had taken. Unless they still planned on selling or ransoming her. But if their sole purpose was to get under Elke’s skin, they would probably focus on that more than the girl.
“A lot of criminals I’ve known are really bad about letting things go. That’s always a possibility. In that case it will be someone connected to the Beckers, whereas a kidnapping for ransom could be a snatch by a stranger that knows the family has money. And anyone walking by could see that.” He considered the possibility for a moment, thinking back on his past experiences. If only he’d been more involved in abductions, not just theft, maybe he would have some more insight into the matter at hand. “Maybe Mr. Becker’s business put someone else out of business and pissed them off. Or they found out he’s up to something fishy and he took precautions to shut them up.” It didn’t excuse kidnapping the guy’s daughter, but Mason could understand the frustration that led them to it.
When Elke mentioned she was going to trust the Beckers had told her everything, the iron mimic shrugged. “In my experience,” he told her “Everyone lies.” Everyone. “They don’t always realize how it can hurt them. And sometimes they think it’s their only choice.” Maybe the Beckers had told Elke everything they knew, and there wasn’t anyone holding a grudge against or blackmailing them. But Mason happened to have given himself an idea. It was probably nothing, but he felt like he should talk to the Beckers anyway. From what Elke had said he guessed they hadn’t said anything helpful to her.
He listened to Elke as she decided they would have to wait for the Beckers to be contacted and again, he shrugged. “They might not have said the word ‘money’ but they definitely mentioned a ransom, or selling her. But you’re right, I got the feeling something fishy was going on too.” He wasn’t sure what Elke planned on doing next, and he stood in the room for a moment as he thought about what he wanted to do next. The easiest thing was to talk to the Beckers, of course. His blonde companion had already done so, but maybe he would have a little more luck with it. People didn’t always like telling cops things. Something he could understand completely. “Well,” he said, starting to make his way out of the room. “I think I’ll go take Mrs. Becker up on her offer and get something to drink, then we should start knocking down doors.” He was already out in the hall when he realized his mistake and he poked his head back into the room to correct himself. “Knocking on doors… Sorry, force of habit.” and with that he left her in the room, making his way downstairs towards the kitchen. He wasn’t sure she would want him bothering the Beckers with questioning them again, so he played it safe and didn’t tell her his real intentions. Like he’d told her before, everybody lied. He figured he wouldn’t have much time without her around, and so he hurried.
He did have something to drink. He’d run the whole way here, he was thirsty and needed to stay hydrated. And as he questioned Mr. Becker again, he didn’t get any new information. He did consider the fact the man wasn’t talking because his wife was in the room. Maybe he didn’t want her to know either. Or maybe there was just nothing to know. ┌────────────────────────────────────────┐ Becker Mansion └────────────────────────────────────────┘ ▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲ And...____________________
____________________...It's time to start kicking down doors.
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Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 12:19 pm
◈
◈◈
◈◈ ξʅӄξ Ȼɑʋєɍs ◈◈
◈◈
◈ ◈ I see you standing there smilin' with your bright white teeth ◈ ◈ Transparent like a thirty dollar motel sheet ◈ She still couldn't believe that he had been so insolent as to offer her a 'sample' while she was on a case and trying to do her job. As insulting, overly bold and degrading as the notion was she couldn't afford be distracted by this joker right now. She had a case to solve, hopefully it would somehow be solved before she had to return to her second day of being a league member but at this rate that didn't seem promising in the slightest. As opposed to responding to Mason with her typical disdain which she was certain amused him, however, she decided to have her own fun and flip this on him to throw him off. "Oh trust me," Elke assured with a hint of sass, perhaps an itty bit more than she'd intended, "Mr. Presley, I've played knock knock ginger on more than a couple doors in my life time. Something tells me your door's just going to be trouble." She gave him a wink and a mischievous smirk before returning to task. Playing good cop bad cop with this guy just might get his guard down, draw him in, intrigue him.
Despite the fact she was pissed off someone as low as Mason had bothered to use the fifth amendment against her she also knew that it meant he probably knew his rights. He wasn't cocky enough to let her know enough detail to file charges against him and get him arrested which likely meant he'd danced around with cops of her caliber before. That being said she knew that he was someone she had to watch out for. Hell, for all she knew he was in on this kidnapping and was simply 'baby-sitting' her and watching her struggle throughout this investigation. Maybe he was purposely trying to mislead her and throw her off the trail of the kidnappers he'd chosen to defend. She wouldn't put it past this guy to be a good actor, he was probably a charmer when he so chose to be and seeing as he certainly wasn't lacking in the looks department that likely made him all the more successful in his endeavors. Of course, this was all pure speculation on her part but something told her he probably was a ladies' man of some sort.
It was part of her job to be thorough and in her experience rushing things while trying to keep an eye out for details were not two things that went well together. She had her set of rules to play by and he had his own set standards for himself that he had to play by. Perhaps she was a little more restricted than he was but following the law hadn't been too much of a pain in her a** yet. Usually she managed to maneuver around what she needed to in order to keep her nose clean as far as her employers were concerned. She had a lot more to lose than Mason did as far as her career was concerned. As far as she knew this was just some childhood fantasy of his that he was living out: to be the super hero that saves the innocent girl from being harmed. A somewhat childish notion if he didn't know what he was doing. However, based on how he seemed to go about things she'd deduced that it was likely he'd pulled s**t like this in the past, perhaps just not in the presence of someone who possessed a badge.
A lot of criminals he'd known, huh? But how had he known them? Mason responding to some of her questions regarding the investigation was potentially just as dangerous as directly answering some of her blunt questions. The more he talked the more light he could potentially shed on himself and the more it could feed her suspicion. Of course, she was merely going to catalog the memory and file it away for later when it would be easier for her to bring it up. "Yeah, it all depends on whether or not they have an ego or not. Some do, some don't. There's the whole theory behind criminals likely returning to the scenes of their crimes. There's been numerous statistic studies done on it though the nature of the crime often has to do with the likelihood that someone will return. In this case here it's not likely we'll have someone return since it's highly unlikely there's anything they've left behind."
"As for the likelihood it's someone connected to the Beckers as opposed to a complete random: statistically speaking it's more likely it's someone who knows them. However, since they're so high profile it could be someone who knows them by reputation as opposed to personally, therefore meaning the Beckers themselves do not know the person. It gets complicated I suppose. But yeah, it's completely feasible that it's someone who's upset with Mr. Becker or his business or whatever for running them into the ground and putting them out of business. It could be a competitor simply wanting to scare him off and sending a message saying if he doesn't then his family gets hurt. If that's the case they are smart by not revealing that detail for us to narrow our search but again that also means they aren't accomplishing their objective anyhow." This entire situation was just full of weird, she wasn't really sure what to make of it. She needed more to go off of.
As a cop, Elke was perfectly aware that everyone lied. Even she herself lied from time to time whether it was a white lie or simply not wanting someone else to know something for a flimsy, malformed reason. However, her focus likely would come back to them if she kept turning up empty-handed with the questioning of other potential witnesses. The neighbors were her next option. Both beside the Beckers and people across and down the street. Perhaps someone had seen something: a car, an out-of-place person, maybe even Katie herself. They wouldn't know until they tried and she would have to go to them in order to get information as quickly as possible. "Your points are completely valid. That being said I am going to focus on external evidence first and then come back to the Beckers if I still end up coming out of this empty-handed."
Elke herself still had yet to eat but she was too preoccupied with doing her job. She knew that depriving herself of nutrients would potentially slow her thought process down and make her more prone to mistakes but she didn't have time to waste getting something to eat. However, since Mason had apparently decided he was going to get a drink and seemed to be expecting her to wait for him to come for questioning then she figured she'd be best off to grab a bite while she was at it. By the time she'd made it down the stairs herself Mason had vanished into thin air, leaving Elke and Mrs. Becker to their own devices and idle chit chat. While she was doing a job, she didn't want to come off as stuck up or haughty, she was a friendly person and she allowed that to be known even while she was on the job. She preferred to be approachable, it sometimes made it easier for her to gather evidence or for people to confide in her. It was simply her style, it didn't work for everyone and other people had different ways of going about getting what they needed.
After finishing her food and chatting with Mrs. Becker Elke got up to make her way out the front door to the neighbor's house. She figured Mason would be on his way soon enough and she didn't have all night for him to decide when it was best to head over. He was a big boy, she was sure he could find her if he needed to. That and it wasn't like he was her partner or anything, he just happened to be loitering around the potential scene of a crime insisting on helping though she wasn't exactly sure how he was going to achieve that particular objective. Still, it was always good to have someone to bounce ideas off of so she at least appreciated his company in that aspect. As for putting up with being degraded and tormented by the impish man, well, that was certainly something she could live without. And without further ado, she began making her way over to the first neighbor's household in order to question them before the hour became ungodly.
◈ You're the devil in a fine designer suit ◈ ◈ Intuition tells me the ◈ ◈ Killer ◈ ◈ IS YOU ◈
◈ I never doubted I'd be back for revenge ◈ ◈ Remember these words: you're going to pay in the end ◈ ◈ Umbrakinesis ◈ Becker Mansion ◈
◈ In for a long night ... ◈
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Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 4:43 pm
“You’ll just have to give it a chance and see for yourself.” Mason responded to Elke’s teasing him back. Really… how could she just assume he’d be trouble when she hardly knew him? Maybe he would be. But girl’s with a wild side loved that about him, and he liked to think that all girls had a wild side. So far Elke seemed very professional and business-like. It was a bit of a bummer, but it made it fun to tease her. He was really looking forward to cracking her shell and finding her wild side. And they would probably be spending quite a bit of time together in the future, and he figured he would have a lot of fun messing with her, tormenting her until she finally realized how great he really was.
After speaking with the Beckers again over a glass of water, and not finding anything helpful, Mason had ended up wandering out of the house. While Elke was still up in the girl’s room, tediously searching for clues, the iron man had grown impatient and found himself at one of the neighbors’ houses in no time. It was even easier getting inside than it had been to get into the Becker’s home. After mentioning that he was a private eye investigating a missing persons case, and that he wanted to ask them a few questions, they asked him inside and told him that they were more than willing to help in any way they could.
As soon as he brought up Katie Becker they both began babbling on and on about her. How they’d seen her sneaking out of her window at night, and Mason gave himself a mental pat on the back. He knew it. They didn’t have children of their own, but they sure thought they were better parents than the Beckers. The couple didn’t seem to hate the Beckers, but they thought they would be more capable than them in taking care of a teenager. There was a little bit of an urge to stick up for the kind and heartbroken Beckers, but he held his tongue and, instead, tried to steer the conversation to a more helpful direction than bashing someone’s parenting. After all, who were they to know what went on in the Becker household. And without any teenagers of their own to care for, he doubted they really could understand how much of a handful they were.
“Have you noticed anything strange the last couple of days? A shady character, a strange car, anything?” He interjected at the first break in their verbal assault. It seemed to take them off guard, as though they hadn’t actually been expecting him to question them, despite that being his entire reason for being here. Once the initial shock wore off of their faces though, he could see them both thinking back for anything that might help as he stood in their living room. They had offered him a seat, but after all of the excitement of the day, followed by a jog meant to wear him down for the night, he was a little afraid that if he did sit down, he would have too much trouble getting back up.
They exchanged a glance as they sat on their couch in front of him, but didn’t respond right away. “Anything.” he repeated, trying to coax them into saying whatever seemed to be on their mind.
“There was a strange car we noticed.” The husband spoke up. “It might have been nothing, it was a car we’d never seen before, it circled the block a couple of times yesterday morning.”
It had potential, but some more detail would be nice. “What did it look like? Did you happen to get the license plate?”
“It was a silver-“
“White.” His wife corrected.
“A white Volkswagen Jetta. One of the newer ones. It didn’t have a license plate. It looked brand new, we figured it was brand new and someone was just driving their new car around for fun.” Maybe it was nothing, but it was worth keeping a mental note of. “We didn’t really think anything of it, but other than that, we haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary.”
Mason looked over at the wife once the husband finished speaking, she was shaking her head. They didn’t seem like they were lying, or like they were keeping any secrets. After the ranting he’d evoked just by mentioning the girl’s name, he didn’t really want to ask if there was any reason she might take off. Or if there was anyone that might want to get back at the Beckers for any reason. He did it anyway, but they didn’t know anything.
After getting everything he could out of them, he decided to move on to the next house, strategically choosing the houses with the best view of the Beckers’ mansion first and planning to work his way down the list until he came up with something promising. He considered taking a run around the neighborhood though, to see if he could find the Jetta the couple had mentioned. If it really was just someone’s new car, they probably lived nearby. Then again, they might be at work or out having fun, so if he didn’t find it, it was still nothing solid to go on. They hadn’t seen the car since, but it had only been yesterday. There was the possibility that the car had been scoping the area to make sure nobody was watching, before stuffing the envelope with the tape into the mailbox.
No license plate meant it would be harder to track down, and if it was the kidnapper’s car and he was as careful as it seemed so far, it might be in a chop shop somewhere, painted, or abandoned (with no clues or evidence). He didn’t know. It seemed reckless to keep driving the same car around after using it to drop off a non-ransom message at the kidnapee’s house. Maybe the guy was getting cocky though, which meant he might start getting sloppy. Wishful thinking, but Mason could be quite the optimist at times.
He thanked the couple for all of their help and gave them his cell number for if they remembered anything. As he exited the house, he was staring back into the house to bid them farewell and grabbing the doorknob to close it behind him. If he’d been looking out towards the street he might have noticed Elke making her way towards the house, but he found out soon enough anyway after tugging the door closed and hearing the click of them locking the door behind him, he turned around and found himself facing the blonde cop.
His face curled into a small, mischievous grin at her. He’d been caught. “Too late.” he spoke up as he walked away from the house, toward her. He’d been hoping to hit a couple more houses before bumping into her again. “Let’s go try the next house.” he suggested, though he had a feeling she might not have enough faith in him to just move on and not question these people herself. He highly doubted she would find out anything he already hadn’t though. They had been at work most of the day anyway. “Don’t worry, I have their number, I can always call them up and ask them more if you want me to.” he offered, still grinning at her, a feeling of accomplishment that he’d beat her to her destination.
“They didn’t have anything interesting to say, just a possibly strange vehicle in the neighborhood yesterday morning. A white VW Jetta, in case it comes up. It might be nothing...” He decided to fill her in, she would either be asking him or questioning these people anyway. “No license plate, they think it had just been purchased. I might go look for it. At least then if we found it we would know whether it was something we should look into further or not.” He shrugged. “If you still want to talk to them, be my guest,” He gestured towards the house. “They’ll talk your ear off.” And with that, he stepped passed her and started towards the next house on his mental list, glancing back curiously to see what the not-always-so-bubbly blonde would do.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐ Beckers' Neighbors' House ☞ Right in Elke's Way └────────────────────────────────────────┘ ▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲ Uh-oh...____________________
____________________...Busted.
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Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 1:11 pm
◈
◈◈
◈◈ ξʅӄξ Ȼɑʋєɍs ◈◈
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◈ ◈ I see you standing there smilin' with your bright white teeth ◈ ◈ Transparent like a thirty dollar motel sheet ◈ She could assume he'd be so much trouble because fact of the matter was from the mission the other day he'd been nothing but. Harassing her over the comms to the point that Deacon had yelled at them, checking out seventeen year old girls in age inappropriate clothing, being an over all nuisance in general. Yeah, that about summed up her sound reasoning for assuming he was nothing but trouble. He was a joker, class clown type deal. And while they were amusing and entertaining to most they usually didn't pull their weight in projects and such, expecting their humour to make up for their lack of work. Hoping that people would overlook the fact they weren't working as hard as everyone else due to the fact they were 'funny'. They were typically the kind of people you couldn't trust or rely on because they changed directions as quickly as the wind itself. Free spirits with no discipline, that's usually what they were, good for morale but rarely there when they were actually needed.
As for giving him a chance? "Ha ha, in your dreams, bub." That about summed up her thoughts on that. An arrogant, immature trouble maker, an over grown child, that was pretty much all she saw in him. Children weren't people you were supposed to be attracted to, perhaps they made you feel young again but feeling young wasn't enough as far as she was concerned. She was looking for more than that, more substance to a person than just goofiness. Perhaps there was more to Mason than met the eye, in fact, she knew there was but she couldn't bring herself to believe it was really anything she wanted to know. For a fact she did know that his past was most assuredly shady, it was why he chose not to disclose details to her earlier in the evening. He knew his rights, she would respect his rights, as much as it made her grind her teeth in frustration.
After eating Elke lingered in Katie's room a little longer just to investigate what evidence she could a little more closely. She fingered through the journal in the hopes she might find something and happened to find an interesting page. The page was strategically located in the journal completely out of sync with all the other pages. It was in between a vast expanse of blank pages, clearly something she'd been intending to conceal. It was a recently written piece assuming the girl's documentation dates were not falsified. The officer found the piece curious considering it was rambling on about secrets and such. "Ever had to keep a secret from everyone? That's what I'm having to do right now. I feel really bad because I don't want people to get hurt. If I don't cooperate, though, surely someone will end up hurt anyhow. Just feel so helpless and like I shouldn't be writing this here in the first place. It could get me into trouble."
The shadow manipulator couldn't help but frown at the somewhat disconcerting piece. Did this correlate with the reason why she was missing right now? This was something she would most definitely have to bring up with the Beckers but for now it was probably best to collect some evidence from outside the immediate family circle. Asking the neighbours might offer them some hidden insight that Katie's parents could not offer. Also, the fact she was writing about secrets that she was too afraid to even fully write down on a piece of paper that presumably no one would read? It was possible her fear was of her parents discovering that she had written down in her journal. Perhaps they weren't being as honest and eager as they appeared to be. At this point, however, she just didn't really know what to think.
That was when she happened to walk outside only to be greeted by Mason's severely irritating grin. Clearly from his grin he had been up to something and judging from the direction he'd came from she could only assume it hadn't been anything involving the Beckers themselves. She didn't have to wait long for him to proceed explaining that she was too late and suggesting they go to the next house. The fact that he was trying to act like he could do her job for her was irksome to the point it was all she could do to not wipe that annoying grin off his face by rather unpleasant means. Him proceeding to explain he had their number and he could always call them up if she wanted to ask them more also managed to get to her. By this point the cop was clenching her teeth and merely glaring into his eyes waiting for him to finish his overly triumphant speech that made her wish he'd up and burst into flames and disappear from her life after.
By now she was tapping her foot and had her arms crossed, not particularly bothering to hide her impatience with him. He knew he got under her skin, enjoyed it, and the fact he enjoyed attempting to annoy her so much was probably what got to her more than his annoying her in the first place. An imp. That's what he was, a little imp or gremlin out to make her life miserable. "A strange vehicle yesterday morning," the officer said as she took out a note pad and began scrawling down the one puny piece of potential evidence they had gotten this entire night, "white Volkswagen jetta, no license plate. It would be awesome if we could head over to the car dealerships right now to check records but all of them are closed at this time of night. Not to mention if they were that meticulous about sending that tape they sent I really can't see them making that purchase within this city. Of course, we can't leave it unchecked. They have to screw up somewhere, right?"
For the time being Elke chose to neglect enlightening Mason over the piece of reading material she'd found. She didn't want to distract him from his focus, at the very least he was being productive while going from house to house gathering what evidence he could from different perspectives. So far it seemed they'd had a potential hit and while investigating might have seemed like it was going at a snail's pace to him by her standards as being an investigator for a career, this was actually making really good progress for being the first night. It was rare this many clues showed up right off the bat. She caught herself in the middle of thinking that perhaps Mason was a good luck charm but she sharply cut that thought off with a loud clicking of her teeth coming together. Her stubbornness in terms of her first impression of him simply refused to subside: he was nothing close to lucky, he was anti-luck if anything.
The thought of splitting up and trusting him with doing his half of the work, the interviews of the neighbours and such occurred to her but she was not willing to put her trust in him. She would trust him enough to take his clue that he'd gotten from interviewing the one family for what it was worth but beyond that she wasn't going to let him do much of this independently of her. "One last thing," she said before he turned to take off away from her toward the next house, "what were the interviewee's first and surnames? I need those to properly document this case and keep track of who said what in case I need to back track. I don't want to record someone as having said something they didn't or vice versa."
When Mason began taking off she looked over to see which way it was he was bound toward this time, accidentally meeting his gaze when he had glanced back to see what she was doing. She immediately broke their eye contact, choosing to play it off as gazing past him at the next potential house. The last thing she needed was him accusing her of checking him out or some outrageous bullshit accusation that he would make in order to fill her life with strife. She knew she had to be careful with him or he would seize any opportunity she dangled in front of him like a savage dog that hadn't eaten for weeks. The results just wouldn't be pretty as she would be in a similar position to the piece of food dangled in front of the dog. The aftermath of something like that just wasn't something she would want to experience and likewise she did not want to be subjected to Mason's verbal torture.
◈ You're the devil in a fine designer suit ◈ ◈ Intuition tells me the ◈ ◈ Killer ◈ ◈ IS YOU ◈
◈ I never doubted I'd be back for revenge ◈ ◈ Remember these words: you're going to pay in the end ◈ ◈ Umbrakinesis ◈ Becker Mansion ◈
◈ Show off ... ◈
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Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2012 11:53 pm
After a long night of uneventful detectiving, Mason shouldn't have had any trouble getting to sleep. And while the thought of Katie being held captive by some psycho had him feeling anxious to get back to work, it wasn't long before the iron man was out like a light. He felt he'd done a very good job, and couldn't see why Elke would have any problem with how he'd handled himself. He'd even refrained from telling her that the names of the neighbors he'd questioned were John and Jane Doe. In fact, he'd downright told her the truth.
After that, she wouldn't leave him on his own. He didn't mind too much, he got to irritate her here and there and see her get all angry at him. He'd also managed to acquire some valuable information along the course of the night. And all without even a bit of suspicion from his partner in justice. At least, no more than usual. She did seem wary of him. Probably a good instinct, though the only harm he meant was to her nerves. He couldn't count on all of his fingers and toes how many people had made the mistake of trusting him. He hadn't exactly been a model citizen in the past, but his outward appearance and charming attitude seemed to win people over easily enough.
They hadn't stayed out too late, but much later than he'd expected. It seemed Elke was quite the night owl. But at the end of the night (or wee hours of the morning to be more accurate), Mason had managed to get a ride back to Watch Tower from the detective before she departed back to Gotham, to her apartment... her apartment which Mason now had the address to. She hadn't even noticed him pickpocket her driver's license. He'd slyly been able to save it into his phone, somewhere more certain than his memory might be later on, and slip the card right back into its spot without grabbing any of the blonde's attention.
So, the first order of business when he woke up the next morning, was to stop by to say good morning. Being the early riser that he was, even after a long night, Mason wouldn't have been able to sleep in if he'd tried. Skipping his morning run, he went straight for the shower, but made it quick, itching to get back to work. He'd never liked unfinished business, especially if it was time sensitive, like the case he'd barged in on. He didn't even have breakfast before hopping on his bike and heading to Gotham.
The iron man stopped at a small coffee shop around the corner from the address he'd lifted the previous night, and ever so chivalrously bought his partner and himself coffees and breakfast.
After a brief walk he found himself standing in front of Elke's apartment. He stood there, hands full, staring at it thoughtfully for a moment. Knocking had crossed his mind, but somehow didn't seem appropriate, and he set down his goodies to free up his hands. It was still early and aside from a car passing now and again, the place was a ghost town. Witnesses were slim to none at best. He examined the door for a moment and carefully tried the knob, slowly and quietly. When the door didn't open, he decided to search for a hide-a-key. Under the doormat, on top of the door's frame, in all of the usual places, but found nothing. He'd be expecting it, but a part of him had hoped that by some miracle Elke was an idiot. No luck.
But no problem. He'd learned to pick a lock long ago and was inside of the apartment in no time flat, always mindful of how much noise he was making. At first it was because he'd wanted to surprise the cop, but now that he was inside, it became apparent that she was still fast asleep. The place was deathly silent. It seemed she'd been up way past her bedtime. But he decided to leave her the breakfast he'd bought her anyway. He found her kitchen and set both the coffee and box of donuts on the table with a note reading:
"Rise and shine!____________________
-Your partner in justice."
He was sure she wouldn't have any problems figuring out who'd left it. He wasn't going to wake her, not yet anyway, and had just turned to leave when he spotted her phone on the counter. It was just too tempting an opportunity to pass up, and before leaving he made sure to save his number to her contacts (and not without a picture to pop up on her caller ID), and called it so that he had her number as well. An all access pass is what it was.
He beamed triumphantly as he left the apartment, locking up behind him. It would be a shame if someone snuck in and robbed her. And then he was at a loss for what to do while he waited.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
He'd taken to cruising around Gotham on his bike, exploring the city and finding a small diner where he had a real breakfast, not the cop breakfast he'd left for Elke. Bacon, eggs, seasoned potatoes and another cup of coffee. He filled up and paid his bill, but hung out for a while, watching the news. It wasn't something he did regularly, but it was on and he didn't have anything else to do.
When the Katie Becker case was mention though, his attention was immediately grabbed. They, of course, didn't release any details, just a picture of Katie and her last known whereabouts. The same thing he'd seen last night. Once the subject was changed to the rise in crime in Gotham City, he got up and left the diner, pulling his phone out as he stood by his bike. Elke had to be awake by now. And if she wasn't, well then Mason would just have to wake her. She had a job to do.
He called her cell and waited for an answer. Why was he even waiting for her? Hadn't he always worked alone in the past? He was sure she would be a good source of information though... if she ever got up. ┌────────────────────────────────────────┐ Diner in Gotham └────────────────────────────────────────┘ ▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲ It's time to wake up...____________________
____________________...Sleeping Beauty.
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