Investigations

[Derek Noble]

Derek woke up pretty early, and pretty sore, but he was amazed to not feel very tired, given the activities of the previous night.

"Eva," he thought, smiling. He wasn't sure what to make of her, and the possibility that she might be pretty damaged nagged at him a bit, but he knew that he found her intriguing. "It's not like plenty of changelings aren't also messed in the head, and we make allowances for them, so no reason to not give benefit of doubt to this girl that had been through who-knows-what."

Having awakened plenty early to spend some time on other things before having to be at work, Derek takes the time to run through a couple katas, then gets online to see if he could find out more about the missing kids, and if there were any sorts of concerned citizen groups working these cases. The first thing he finds, however, makes his blood run cold.

The news item reads:

Amber Alert

When the parents of Samuel Kincaid woke this morning they found that their son was no where in the house he was last seen wearing Incredible Hulk Pajamas he is eight years old with sandy blond hair and blue eyes he stands about three feet even and weighs approximately fifty-four pounds.

Samuel's parents are pleading for the safe return of their son if anyone has any information please contact authorities.

"Another one," he mumbles to himself, clenching his fists. "I'm spending time going to art shows and getting laid, and another kid's gone missing."

Derek takes down the names of Samuel Kincaid's parents and any other information he can find from the article and a quick net search. "I've got some ideas how to follow up on this one," he thinks to himself. "And this one is fresh compared to the others."

"I'd better call the others," he thinks. He scrambles around and finds the phone numbers he'd gotten from Betony Rue, Al-Adin and Kevin and sends each an identical text message.

[Derek Noble]

In short order Derek receives a reply from Betony Rue. "Good," he thinks. "She's the one of that bunch who seems most devoted to figuring this out." He replies, asking her to go by the Kincaid child's home if she gets a chance, to see if either or both of the parents are at home, and to meet her at the Starbucks nearest the Wagner Academy. That will give him some time to look into other avenues while still fulfilling his teaching duties, plus he still wants to talk to his boss, Adrienne, who might be able to provide some indirect help in all of this.

On the way to work, Derek drops by the Four Seasons on the off chance he might see some Summer Courtier he recognizes. He also checks the message board, and is astonished by his good fortune in finding a message left by a Spring Beast who sounds like he might have some interest in this sort of thing. He jots down the number, planning to call him later, then heads to work.

[Derek Noble]

(OOC Correction: The message referred to above was from a Summer Beast, not a Spring one. This is what happens when one posts before having AM caffiene).

[Derek Noble]

After making contact with Grrface and setting up a meeting to discuss mutual interests over dinner, Derek arrives at work. First off he has his Fundamentals of Acting section. It being spring and a class full of teenagers, desire isn't a rare thing, but he ramps things up just a bit by pairing two students he has noticed paying attention to each other for a scene from Romeo and Juliet. He focuses on the pair's acting while they do the scene, so as to offer useful critique afterward, but before he comments at all, he takes a moment to Harvest from the desire in the air. "Doesn't hurt to be as Glamour-packed as possible before this evening," he thinks to himself. As always, he watches and listens to his students for any sign of anything unusual going on with them, anything that feels off.

After his Fundamentals of Acting class, Derek has a free period, so he takes some time to look deeper into the cases of the missing kids and to draw whatever information he can from the news accounts he can access online. He looks specifically for:
- pictures and any personal information about the missing kids;
- names and any other available information about the kids' parents;
- names of police officers quoted on or assigned to the cases, and whether the same people are investigating the disappeareances, any joint task forces and so on, etc.
- if he finds out any names for investigating officers, he seeks out any public information about them: newscasts, pictures in newspapers, etc.

Then he goes to the gym to teach his fencing class. Afterward, he goes to the office of his boss, Adrienne West, for a meeting.

[Derek Noble]

Derek isn't able to find all the information he wants in the time he has, but figures he might try later, or perhaps put one of his students on it. He does find the names of the Kincaid child's parents (Jacob and Jenny Kincaid) and the precinct investigating the missing children (13th), as well as photos of all of the missing children. Making copies of all that information and placing it in a folder with his other information about the missing kids, he goes to meet with Adrienne.

On the way, he thinks about the odd experience he'd had while previously investigating the case with Betony, Al-Adin and Kevin. He'd felt dizzy and found himself along with several others in a strange room with no exits. Some of these individuals seemed able to recognize him and Kyle for what they were, and to know about there being changelings in Sacramento. One of them claimed to be a werewolf, several of them talked about spirits, and one indicated that Sacramento was also home to vampires and mages. He needed to report this to the Spring Court ASAP. So much to do...

In Adrienne West's office, he outlined what he was looking into. "None of these kids are from this school, thankfully, and I don't see any connection with any of our kids. But, I also haven't been able to find anything useful so far. Seeing as how you have better social connections, I was thinking perhaps you could find something out, either about the case or who is looking into it. Maybe there are some civilian groups also looking into it. If so, maybe you or me or both of us could get involved with that, find out if they know anything. If not, maybe you could find out what the local police know and are doing. I'm planning to look into that as well, but I've got a lot to do."

Adrienne sighs. "But of course your lot to do is much larger than my lot to do. I'll try to look into it, since I know people that know people, and some of them might be able to get some information about who in the 13th Precinct is working this case, but it will take some time. I don't see how throwing money at this problem is going to help - more likely it will cause problems - but I'll also see if I can find out if any concerned citizens' groups are on this, and if so, maybe a donation to their efforts will get you and some of your friends on the inside. I can probably arrange for a pretty good donation if I contact some of my friends and we do a matching donation to help any effort like that."

Derek thinks for a moment and has another idea. "If there isn't some concerned citizens group, maybe I can get one formed within the Freehold, which might provide a cover for looking into this." He knew that would be a hard sell, since most changelings didn't want to draw any public attention to themselves whatsoever. He expected it would probably be opposed by the Winter Court, and perhaps all the sovereigns would forbid it as too likely to bring attention to the Freehold, but it was an idea to think about, at least.

"Alright, do what you can, Adrienne. Let me know if you find anything, and I'll let you know what's happening."

Derek then tells Adrienne about the interesting art gallery showing he attended, which was attended by a diverse bunch of people that weren't the usual arterati, but who did seem to know each other (and at least one of the artists) and to have some sort of social structure. "I don't know if it's some subculture or just a group of friends within the arts community - I didn't see any sign of shared identity other than some of them knowing each other - but it was sort of different. I'll let you know if I hear about another event at that place or involving those artists."

After meeting with her, Derek teaches his Advanced Acting class. One of the students in the class, Lauren Kingsley, was hopelessly crushing on him. He was pretty torn about taking advantage of that in any way, knowing that might just deepen her feelings, but he also knew that she would do a good job, so after class, he took a few minutes to talk with her - in the foyer outside the theatre, in plain view of others coming and going. He explained to Lauren that there were several cases of missing kids, and that it was possible he or the school might get involved on a charitable basis in helping out those working on solving the case. He asked her to ask some friends to help her look around online and see if they could locate anything about any citizen action groups looking into the disappearances who might appreciate a donation of funds or time, and whether any of the media coverage they could find might include any information about detectives assigned to the case. "Cops can't really accept donations or talk about cases they're working on, but maybe it would be appropriate to send a card or something to let the officers know their hard work on the cases is appreciated."

As expected, Lauren said she'd get right on it. He reminded her to not do all the work herself, but to get some friends on it too. He tells Lauren "If this does turn into something the school gets involved with, I'll make sure Principal West knows you and your friends have been ahead of the curve in doing this little bit of public service."

After that, Derek spent a bit of time grading some student papers, then headed to the nearest Starbucks, where he was set to meet Betony Rue.