You glance back at Ritter, indicating that you’d take point. Ritter keeps his gun holstered, but also keeps his hand near it, just in case. What with Q on your side, you doubt you need whatever a 9mm can bring to the table, but you appreciate the thought nevertheless. You walk towards the voice, making no effort to muffle your steps in order to avoid startling whoever it is.

Eventually, you round the corner to the main area of the store to see a bald middle aged man in khakis, a polo, and a sports jacket standing the the middle of the room, looking irritable. He looks over at you as you enter the room and makes a beeline towards you.

“I’ve heard that there’s a dead body here,” he says without preamble.

You scowl involuntarily. You don’t like people who don’t respect the tape. You walk towards the man with equal purpose, stopping before him without extending a hand.

”Amber Jensen, SPD special detachment. Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to leave this area, as it is the site of an active crime scene investigation.”

The man blinks at you for a moment before scowling in return. “Where’s your badge?”

You pull out a falsified SPD badge and wave it in his face. “Sir, I’m going to ask once more, please vacate the premises otherwise we will have to escort you out.”

The man relents backing up and out of the door, “Alright, alright. Just wanna check.”

You glance over at Ritter before grudgingly deciding to follow him out for questioning. The man is standing just across the yellow tape, looking restive. You walk up to him, pulling out a small notepad.

He speaks before you can start questioning him. “So is there a dead body in there?”

>[Polite but Firm] “Yes there is, sir. Since you obviously have some form of interest in this situation, do you mind if I ask a few questions? The sooner you answer the sooner this can be resolved.”
>[Sardonic] “No, we just decided to put up yellow police tape and drop off several pounds of rotting beef for shits and giggles. My badge is actually plastic.”
>[Aggressive] “Listen jackass, I could already peg you for disrupting an active investigation, so you either start answering my questions out here or in at the station.”
>Write in
>>Questions:
>>”Who are you?”
>>”Why did you cross the police tape?”
>>”What’s your interest in this situation?”
>>”How did you find out about the investigation?”
>>Write in

YOOO FALLGUY

>>42076045
>>[Aggressive] “Listen jackass, I could already peg you for disrupting an active investigation, so you either start answering my questions out here or in at the station.”
>>”Who are you?”
>>”What’s your interest in this situation?”
>>”How did you find out about the investigation?”
Eyy UG

>>42076045
>>[Polite but Firm] “Yes there is, sir. Since you obviously have some form of interest in this situation, do you mind if I ask a few questions? The sooner you answer the sooner this can be resolved.”
>>”Who are you?”
>>”Why did you cross the police tape?”
>>”What’s your interest in this situation?”
>>"Why is your taste in fashion so shit!?"

>>42076045
>[Aggressive] “Listen jackass, I could already peg you for disrupting an active investigation, so you either start answering my questions out here or in at the station.”
>>”Who are you?”
>>”How did you find out about the investigation?”

>>42076045
>>[Polite but Firm] “Yes there is, sir. Since you obviously have some form of interest in this situation, do you mind if I ask a few questions? The sooner you answer the sooner this can be resolved.”
>>”Who are you?”
>>”Why did you cross the police tape?”
>>”How did you find out about the investigation?”

>>42076045
>>”Who are you?”
>>”Why did you cross the police tape?”
>>”What’s your interest in this situation?”
>>Write in
>*take personal details of perp, also a photo, fuck it we're EnRA*

>>42076045
>>[Polite but Firm] “Yes there is, sir. Since you obviously have some form of interest in this situation, do you mind if I ask a few questions? The sooner you answer the sooner this can be resolved.”

>”Who are you?”
>>”What’s your interest in this situation?”
>>”How did you find out about the investigation?”

>>42076045
>Activate Predation, be ready to defend yourself or chase this dude if he runs.
>After that first incident with the wendigo or whatever it was Jensen needs to be extra paranoid about things not being what they seem.
>This guy is probably a dragon.

You inhale deeply, hold the breath for a few seconds, and let it out before speaking. “Yes there is, sir. Since you obviously have some form of interest in this situation, do you mind if I ask a few questions? The sooner you answer the sooner this can be resolved.”

The man grimaces as you confirm his worries. “God fucking dammit… yeah, yeah sure I’ll answer your questions. I’m the guy who owns this place an-”

You hold up a hand. “Just a second sir. Your name first?”

The man rolls his eyes. “John ‘Rocco’ Balboa. I own the rental company that owns this strip mall,” he points back at the sign on the storefront, “Obviously.”

“Definitely,” you say, the reply hissing through your teeth as you write. “Alright Mr. Balboa. So, what is your interest in this situation?”

Mr. Balboa cocks an eyebrow, piggy little eyes narrowing even further. He mutters something that sounds a lot like “fuckin’ women...” before answering. “I own the building. If there’s a dead guy in there it’s gonna be a lot harder to find a renter, isn’t it?”

Your smile widens slightly, veering towards grimace territory, although Balboa doesn’t notice. “Just trying to get a statement on record, sir,” you reply smoothly. “Very well then. How did you find out about the investigation?”

Balboa shrugs indifferently. “Know the manager at the Up-n-Down Burger next door. He’s the guy who called it in, called me right afterwards.”

>”Kind of surprising, to see the head of a property company personally come down at the mention of a police report.”
>”What was the name of this manager?”
>”Sir, do you know one Dale Eckhart?”
>”Sir, the cameras out back, do you have the footage somewhere?”
>”Sir, wait here a moment, I need to speak with my partner.”
>Write in

>>42076678
>”Sir, the cameras out back, do you have the footage somewhere?”

>>42076678
>>”Kind of surprising, to see the head of a property company personally come down at the mention of a police report.”
>”Sir, do you know one Dale Eckhart?”
>”Sir, the cameras out back, do you have the footage somewhere?”

>>42076678
>Write in
>"Wait... ROCKY BALBOA? WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS IS? A JOKE? A FUCKING GAME? THE EXPENDABLES 2?"

>>42076678
>>”What was the name of this manager?”
>”Sir, the cameras out back, do you have the footage somewhere?”

>>42076678
>”Kind of surprising, to see the head of a property company personally come down at the mention of a police report.”
>”Sir, the cameras out back, do you have the footage somewhere?”

>>42076678
>>”Kind of surprising, to see the head of a property company personally come down at the mention of a police report.”
>”Sir, the cameras out back, do you have the footage somewhere?”

You squint slightly at the paunchy man as he pulls a bit at his collar. ”Kind of surprising, to see the head of a property company personally come down at the mention of a police report.”

Balboa inhales through his teeth, looking uncomfortable. “Yeah well… goddammit, business isn’t great right now. Seems like a lot more criminal bullshit near my properties these last few months. Some people already terminated their leases, I really don’t need a dead guy in my properties, might drive out the other store owners.”

You nod. “Alright then Mr. Balboa, the sooner you help us, the sooner we can move the body out.”

“Yeah… yeah.”

“So I noticed that you have security cameras in the back parking lot?”

Balboa nods. “Yeah. We had some vandalism a while back. You people weren’t doing anything about it, so I got cameras set up.”

“And they aren’t for show?”

“Hell no. John Balboa don’t do things halfway.”

“Excellent. We’ll likely need to see that footage soon. Where is it kept?”

Balboa coughs, spittle flying into a fist in front of his mouth. You recoil slightly. “My office. Here,” he says, mercifully pulling out a business card with his uncoughed on hand, “My address and number are on there.”

You nod, accepting the card. “Thank you. Just another thing, who was the manager who contacted you?”

Balboa coughs again before pointing at the Up-n-Down Burger. “Guy called Roman Bellinsky or something like that. Don’t you know that already from the report?”

>Roll to cover your tracks. 3d10, best of four
>After that, do you have any further questions? If so write them in.
>If not, where/whom do you go to next

Rolled 10, 10, 9 = 29 (3d10)

>>42077209

>>42077231
Uh, well shit.

Rolled 9, 2, 5 = 16 (3d10)

>>42077209

>>42077231
Wish I rolled that on a more desperate situation. Well can't look a gift horse in the mouth.

>>42077209
>After that, do you have any further questions? If so write them in.
You spoke of criminal bullshit near your stores. Do tell me more.

>>42077231
goddamn anon, you could have saved that for when we really needed it, now we'll never get that again

Rolled 6, 7, 3 = 16 (3d10)

>>42077209
>>Roll to cover your tracks. 3d10, best of four

File: free-shrugs.jpg (92 KB, 449x642)

92 KB JPG

>>42077358

>>42077358
>>42077258
>>42077245
>>42077231
Well that's certainly overkill.

Do we want to bank it? Keep the 29 for a rainy day?

Rolled 10, 8, 4 = 22 (3d10)

>>42077209
Rolling, was away.

>>42077422
I personally would.

>>42077422
No

>>42077422
Fuck yes, as the person that rolled that.

Here take this 22 >>42077451
instead.

Rolled 3, 3, 3 = 9 (3d10)

>>42077422
Bank it

>>42077422
bank it

>>42077422
Yeah, definitely bank.
It'll be the ace in the hole we'll definitely need at some point.

Rolled 1, 10, 1 = 12 (3d10)

>>42077422
Bank bank bank.

>>42077459
Would be great if we could.

Alright, We're backing the roll for later. I'll write it down somewhere.

Past the rolling issue, what about the next part of the prompt?

>After that, do you have any further questions? If so write them in.
>If not, where/whom do you go to next

>>42077541
We take the security footage and watch it back at the office, no further questions.

>>42077541
>>42077601
this

>>42077541
Have him elaborate on 'criminal bullshit'

>>42077541
nothing until after we watch the video

>>42077541
Well, I'll repeat myself:
You spoke of criminal bullshit near your stores. Do tell me more.

“Nah, we were out on patrol when the call came in. Just setting things up until a proper investigatory team comes in.”

Balboa looks oddly satisfied to hear that information. “Figures as much… So you guys were out on patrol in plain clothes.”

You roll your eyes. This guy is insistent. “Speed trap by Birch. Gotta meet those quotas.”

“We certainly do,” Balboa sniggers.

Ignoring his strange little attitude, you continue, “So anyway, I’ll let my partner hold the fort for now. Can you get us back to your office? I really want to review those tapes.”

Balboa nods. “Not at my office, we’ve got a little security building. Follow me.”

He leads you out and around the strip mall, to the back side, not barging through the store like he did when he made his appearance. The two of you walk over to a small brick extension off the back of the Habanero, the bricks a slightly different shade of red than the rest of the strip mall, almost as if the building had a tumor. Balboa jingles some keys and eventually finds the right one, unlocking the door.

A gangly 20 year old in a security uniform looks up dully from a gameboy, both eyebrows slightly raised in surprise. “Hey boss, what’re you doing here?”

“Same as you, jack fucking shit,” Balboa grunts indifferently. “Which security tapes will you need?”

You walk up to a bank of monitors, brushing a can of Alpine Condensate out of your way and leaning forward. You examine the monitors carefully until you determine two that have the back of the empty store in their arcs. You look around a bit more until you find another few that cover both entrances to the parking lot, and some more that generally cover the rest of the parking lot.

“Yeah, I’ll need the tapes of cameras 3, 5, 7, 8, and 11. A week to two days ago.”

The security guy gets up and begins rifling through a set of filing cabinets. After a minute of non-progress Balboa lets out an irritated snort and joins the security guy, pulling out several DVDs of footage with various dates marked on them. He hands them over to you.

“Here, you are. Anything else?”

“Yes, you mentioned a rash of crime near your properties? What sort?”

Balboa snorts. “If you people did your jobs instead of lurking at intersections, you’d already know.”

“Mr. Balboa…”

“Alright, alright. Started about six months ago. Roxgrove is a pretty good place, but there’s always a little crime. Bikes getting stolen, maybe a car every once in a while, the usual shit. But six months ago, I dunno, it was like every single fucker decided my properties were prime targets.”

“So was there robbery or property damage?”

“Yeah, more robbery really. And vandalism and car theft. I could’ve written it off as a few bad months, but then it started to get weird.”

“How so?”

“Almost like someone was running an intimidation racket or something. People were getting mugged, and it wasn’t customers. Hell, it usually wasn’t employees either, always store owners or managers. You know, people with pull.”

You nod, writing swiftly. “That certainly is strange, how were you aware of it?”

Balboa grins, looking proud. “I make it my business to know my renters. Personal touch and all that.”

You personally wonder how effective that personal touch thing was, but contain your doubts. “Anything else?”

“Nah, not really. Not until this anyway?”

“What happened,” the security guy asks, vague curiosity mixed with a vague worry he might be looking at a pink slip.

“None of your damn business is what happened,” replies Balboa before turning back to you. “So is that all? Are we done here?”

>Yes. Leave and:
>>Review footage with Ritter
>>Talk to Up-n-Down Manager
>No, write in questions

>>42078353
>>Talk to Up-n-Down Manager

>>42078353
>>Talk to Up-n-Down Manager

>>42078353
>>Talk to Up-n-Down Manager
Followed by reviewing that footage. Also, we should probably tell Balboa to be careful from now on.

>>42078353
>>>Talk to Up-n-Down Manager
Also, purchase Bacconator for Q

We should dress up as a little girl to appease Up-n-Down Roman Polanski.

“Yeah, that’s all,” you reply, and you leave the building. Balboa stays behind, either because he has the social graces to not follow someone after they end a conversation, or more likely to berate his security guy for being terrible at his job.

You decide to take a shortcut through the abandoned store, handing the DVDs off to Ritter. He takes them gingerly, making sure not to touch the exposed shiney side. “Hey, Jensen, I called the main office. They’re sending in a body retrieval team, should be here soonish.”

You acknowledge him, letting Ritter know you’ll be talking to the Up-n-Down Burger manager.

The Up-n-Down burger place is pretty empty, a guy sitting alone in a booth is the only patron, the rest of the people are dull eyed fast food drones. You walk up to one, flashing your SPD badge. “Hello, Amber Jensen, SPD. I wanted to speak to the manager here, Roman Bellinsky?”

“That is me,” says a very overweight man with a goatee, striding around from behind some shelving. “Are you here about the call?”

“Yes. Is there anywhere we can go to discuss this?”

“Yea, my office is just over here,” he lead you to a cheap door that opens up into a room not much larger than a janitor’s closet, a desk, computer, and some chairs crammed inside. You sit down while Bellinsky works his bulk behind the desk.

Bellinsky finally sits down, pressing his fingers together in a steeple. He misses the first time and has to readjust. You glance at his desk, where a yellow book titled ‘Corporate Success for Fucktards’ is sitting. “So, you are here because of the call, yea?”

“Yes, Mr. Bellinsky, I had a few questions.”

>”What prompted you to call?”
>”What in particular did you report?”
>”Do you know one Dale Eckhart?”
>”You called the property owner right after the police. How come?”
>Write in

>>42078819
>>>”You called the property owner right after the police. How come?”

>”What prompted you to call?”

>”Do you know one Dale Eckhart?”

>>42078819

>”What prompted you to call?”
>”What in particular did you report?”
>”Do you know one Dale Eckhart?”
>”You called the property owner right after the police. How come?”

>>42078819
>>”You called the property owner right after the police. How come?”

”You called the property owner right after the police. How come?”

Bellinsky shrugs, looking more or less neutral. “Mr. Balboa likes to stay within the circle. Although normally I would not, for what I was thinking it was, I thought Mr. Balboa should know.”

“And what did you think it was?”

Bellinsky snorts. “Why, a dead man! Smell is unmistakable. For a while I thought maybe it was bad meat shipment, but today smell was so strong, I knew it could only be one thing.”

“You know the smell of dead people?”

“Yea.”

You wait for a few seconds for Bellinsky to expound upon this point, but he doesn’t, so you let it go, for now. “So, and don’t think I’m trying to fault you here, but upon reporting a dead body, you still called the property owner immediately afterwards.”

“Yea,” Bellinsky confirms seriously. “Mr. Balboa makes mention of troubles on his property. I do not want to cause trouble, but I am think he should know about this, yea?”

>”So, about that smell of dead people…” [roll 3d10, best of 3]
>”When did you first notice the smell? That something was abnormal?”
>”Dale Eckhart?”
>Write in

Rolled 6, 2, 8 = 16 (3d10)

>>42079247
>”So, about that smell of dead people…” [roll 3d10, best of 3]

Rolled 2, 7, 2 = 11 (3d10)

>>42079247
>”So, about that smell of dead people…” [roll 3d10, best of 3]
>”When did you first notice the smell? That something was abnormal?”

Rolled 9, 4, 10 = 23 (3d10)

>>42079247
>>”So, about that smell of dead people…” [roll 3d10, best of 3]
>>”When did you first notice the smell? That something was abnormal?”

Luck stay with me.

>>42079247
>”Dale Eckhart?”
>”When did you first notice the smell? That something was abnormal?”

Poor Roman's gonna have to go drown his sorrows in bowling with his cousin after this.

>>42079305
I'm on a roll tonight. Won't fucking last once we get into actual fights.

>>42079247
>>”Dale Eckhart?”

Your eyes narrow. “This might be relevant to our investigation, but how are you familiar with the smell of bodies?”

Bellinsky blinks at you slowly. “I work in slaughterhouse.”

“Really? Bec-”

Bellinsky leans forward, face deepening into a frown. “I work in slaughterhouse.”

“Alright, doesn’t really matter. When did you first start noticing the abnormal smell?”

“Oh, first time was two days ago, walking past store. Thought it was just my imagination. Smell became stronger over time.”

“Alright. Well, your nose was correct, there was a body. Do you know one Dale Eckhart?”

Bellinsky shakes his head. “No, I am not thinking so.”

You produce a picture of Dale’s Driver’s License, and hand it over to the large manager. He looks at it for a few seconds before nodding slowly. “Mmmm yea, he is looking familiar. Man who comes in and always orders bacon burgers.”

“Oh, so you recognize him?”

“Yea, he showed up here once a week or so. Always with the bacon.”

>Anything further to say, or return to HQ to review footage?

>>42079501
>HQ

>>42079501
>HQ
Can we have someone investigate him too? That bodies thing is suspicious.

>>42079501
Get some of that bacon, yo

>>42079501
Order a baconnator, bacon fries and a chocolate frosty.

Your eyes narrow. “This might be relevant to our investigation, but how are you familiar with the smell of bodies?”

Bellinsky blinks at you slowly. “I work in slaughterhouse.”

“Really? Bec-”

Bellinsky leans forward, face deepening into a frown. “I work in slaughterhouse.”

“Alright, doesn’t really matter. When did you first start noticing the abnormal smell?”

“Oh, first time was two days ago, walking past store. Thought it was just my imagination. Smell became stronger over time.”

“Alright. Well, your nose was correct, there was a body. Do you know one Dale Eckhart?”

Bellinsky shakes his head. “No, I am not thinking so.”

You produce a picture of Dale’s Driver’s License, and hand it over to the large manager. He looks at it for a few seconds before nodding slowly. “Mmmm yea, he is looking familiar. Man who comes in and always orders bacon burgers.”

“Oh, so you recognize him?”

“Yea, he showed up here once a week or so. Always with the bacon.”

>Anything further to say, or return to HQ to review footage?

You say goodbye to Bellinsky and take your leave of the Up-n-Down Burger. As you step out, some vans painted to look like SPD vehicles show up, disgorging a small team of EnRA specialists. You nod in acknowledgement as they head into the abandoned store to retrieve the body. A few seconds later Ritter pops out, still holding the DVDs gingerly.

“He couldn’t have given you a sleeve or something?”

“Didn’t seem the type.”

>>><<<

Back at HQ, you and Ritter are sitting in the office break room, kicking back on two armchairs. The feed from the cameras near the entrances to the parking lot playing on the main monitor. Every once in a while, a car enters the lot late at night, which inevitably results in the two of you fastforwarding to the relevant section of the camera feeds near the abandoned shop to see if the car stopped dropped anything off.

You wouldn’t think it’d take so long, but you can only really run the feeds at four times speed before the risk of missing a car becomes too high. So for four nights of footage that can take a while.

“Oi, Ritter,” you grunt, jabbing him in the side. Ritter yelps in alarm.

“What> What is it?”

“Car. Van this time. Four days ago, around about 3 AM.”

“Can you be more specific?”

You groan loudly. “Fiiiine. 3:41.”

Ritter Heads off to the time and transfers the camera feed near the abandoned store to the main monitor. The two of you watch silently for a while, waiting to see if the van would arrive. Just as you’re about to give it up as a dud, you see the van slowly pull up in front of the store. The white car stopping in a pool of light, which illuminates green lettering along the side. ‘Nolan and Associates Commercial Cleaning’ and a phone number listed below. You can barely make out the license plate. Both you and Ritter perk up, Ritter sounding like the beginnings of an avalanche as he does so.

Three men emerge from the van, all of them wearing masks. You watch them intently, but none of them are tall enough to be that weirdo you met in the Darth Vader helmet. Not that he would be there, since he’s a Lower East Associate. One of them goes ahead and starts picking at the door to the abandoned store, while the other two go around to the back of the van and wait. Eventually the first man opens the door, prompting the other two to open the back of the van and pull out something wrapped up in a tarp. The two of them hurry into the store while the first stands watch. After a few minutes the two reemerge, and climb back into the van. The lock breaker looks around a few times more before climbing back into the car.

You and Ritter look at each other.

>”Nolan and Associates… that can’t be a coincidence. That’s definitely an LL puppet company.”
>”We need to find that damn plate.”
>Let’s try and contact Vernon, ask him for help with this new information.”
>Write in

>>42080537
>>”We need to find that damn plate.”

>>42080537
>”We need to find that damn plate.”

>>42080537
>”We need to find that damn plate.”

>>42080537
>”We need to find that damn plate.”

>>42080537
>”Nolan and Associates… that can’t be a coincidence. That’s definitely an LL puppet company.”

>>42080537
>>”We need to find that damn plate.”

“We need to find that damn plate.”

Ritter nods. “Absolutely. We’ll put it through to the police and EnRA. Although…”

“What?”

“License plates can be removed. Companies, even fake ones, that’s harder to wish away. I think we should investigate this Nolan and Associates group to see what’s going on.”

“Think they’re a puppet company?”

“I hope so. If it’s just some mock up we’ve got less than nothing to work with. If it’s an actual organization then we’ve got a lead.”

“Good, we can try calling.”

“No we can’t.”

You give Ritter a perplexed look. “How come?”

Ritter snorts and points at a clock. “We’re way past normal business hours. This case is going to have to wait until later.”

You glance over at the clock and nod. “Yeah, I suppose so.”

>>><<<

Sorry guys, have to stop here. Planning for a thread on Wednesday, so hopefully we can reestablish a flow to this.

File: 1438929091948.jpg (541 KB, 984x3047)

541 KB JPG

>>42078502
>We should dress up as a little girl to appease Up-n-Down Roman Polanski.
That's obviously our ULTIMATE POWER. True age modification.

>>42081063
Alright, thanks for running senpai~

>>42081063
Nighty night.
>>42081064
>Q taking a liking to mongolian tapestries
Oh... oh goodness.

>>42081063
bro y no twitter

has this been archived yet?

>>42081063
Thanks for running SG/FG/MG/UG, don't forget to archive

>>42082150
Don't forget DD.