Ghost Gears

Oct 16th, 2011 07:43 PM

Squinting as she looked at the pictures with Rory, she noticed a couple of things. She leaned over his arm a little to look with him. “The cross thing is a little strange.” That was an understatement. Maybe it’s a good thing Rory came with them. “Where’s that one’s head?”

“It looks like these cars with the weird glare all have the same pinstripes and spoilers.” Daysha glanced up at Harlowe. “There’s nothing really special about the cars except that from what I can tell.”

“Don’t worry Tom, we’re all about discretion. Although, if there is some weird connection with owners I may have to see about getting a warrant.” She said looking to Tom with an understanding face. “But we’ll see if it even comes to that at all.”

Oct 16th, 2011 10:23 PM

Tom rises an single brow as he closes yet another folder and moves it to his "clean" stack. Daysha had never said what she did for a living before at the spiral, not that he could remember from that one night anyway, but if she had the authority to secure a search warrant it was clear that she must be part of the city police, or maybe higher. One thing was sure, she was probably at least higher than a patrolman. Hell with the resources she probably has at her disposal, to think she couldn't find anything....and now she was coming to him about it? What did she think he could find that others couldn't?

Returning to his stack of paperwork Tom slides the next one in front of him and opens it up. Hell, she probably just wanted someone with an open mind (AKA willing to look into leads others may consider crazy). Tom was going to have to cast his net wider if he wanted to finds something the police couldn't.

Come on Tom, these people came to you for help. The least you can do is put some more effort into it, open your mind a crack old man and look for something no one ells would notice!

2 successes, five total

Oct 17th, 2011 11:05 AM

As Tom finishes checking through the files, he notices an odd thing. All the cars that Daysha and Rory pointed out were bought exactly 7 weeks apart, always by a single person, from the credit checks. There doesn't seem to be anything unique about the people, other than they're all fairly young. And then something niggles at him from the last name.

Janet Dawson. The same woman from the article the Old Man had posted in the Spiral.

Oct 17th, 2011 01:27 PM

Harlowe's eyes refocused on the picture as Daysha pointed out the oddities, and her brows knitted into a tight frown of consternation. "I hate it when folks leave their fuckin' heads at home," she remarked, as though this was an irritant that she had to deal with frequently. She rested her hands on the edge of the table, scanning the photographs.

Discretion. Aww man, I'll have to watch who I punch.

She peered up at Tom. "Y'got anythin' else that yanks at your chain?"

Oct 17th, 2011 01:35 PM

Ignoring the last statement Tom pauses as he rereads the last line of the car report he was looking at again. Janet Dawson...for some reason that sounded familiar. Tapping his finger on the name the middle aged man thinks back, where had he read that name before? Snapping as it came to him a grin of satisfaction came to his face as he reached back into the "clear" pile and selected another file. Opening it up on top of the other one he checks the name and license of the customer. Sure enough, they were the same person. How had he missed that? From the reports it looked like different people had helped her but still it was quite an oversight, usually he liked to know his regular customers pretty well and give them preferential treatment for their loyalty to his dealership.

"Hey, I think i have something you may want to check out", Said Tom to the group huddled around the desk. Reaching out he picks up another folder with a list of his sales history, cross referencing all of Janet Dawson's purchases he easily pulls out the files from the stacks containing the backgrounds of the vehicles he had sold her. Laying them all out he collects the rest of the files and moves them to the side, giving them plenty of room to inspect the cars in question. "Not sure how I missed this before, rather embarrassing actually for a hands on dealer like me, but apparently someone has been buying cars from my lot like clockwork, every month and a half or so by the same person. Not sure how long this pattern has been going on for but now that i know what im looking for I can check back farther if you want".

Leaning back in his chair he looks up at the group, "Janet Dawson...dont suppose that means anything to you folks, dose it?"

**Rory** · Oct 17th, 2011 06:47 PM

Rory shook his head.

OK. This is real. It's happening.

He understood intuitively how much more difficult this would be by himself; without anyone to confirm with, or anyone to tell him he was imagining things. During his studies, he'd heard about a test conducted where a subject was in a roomful of people who all agreed that pencils of differing lengths were the same length. Most subjects eventually broke down, after repeatedly being the only person to say the pencils were different and bearing the scrutiny of their peers, and agreed the pencils were the same length.

And those were pencils, not shadows or reflections in casual photographs.

"I can check the records at Sac U, I think."

He wasn't sure if he could, but it was worth a shot. Besides, it was time to start figuring how he could contribute.

Oct 17th, 2011 07:58 PM

Trying not to snicker at Harlowe’s comment, Daysha listened as they spoke. “Janet was the gal who was the victim of a hit and run by one of these cars in question.”

The detective leaned back and crossed her arms as she thought a minute, then decided to think out lout instead. “I’m not sure if the same person buying the cars is Janet. Unless the car was possessed.” She paused realizing what she was saying then continued. “I doubt they would run themselves over with their own vehicle.”

She turned to look at Rory and put her hands on her hips in a casual way. “Rory, that’s a good idea. Do you think there are any books or other information about this crucifixion pose?” Daysha asked with an encouraging tone. I hope this isn’t some sort of fucking cult like activity.

Peering over the records, the Detective looked to try and match up addresses, or something else that was common.

3suxx

Oct 17th, 2011 08:27 PM

Tom shakes his head, "I doubt that someone could get away buying a car under her name this successfully for this long, we require signatures, picture ID, the whole nine yards before we sell vehicles. The cars may not be the best on the road but we still run a tight ship here". Tom picks up a hand full of the folders and pulls back from the desk, giving every one ells a chance to look at what remained. Flipping the folders open Tom inspects them again, "And did you think that maybe it wasn't some possessed car? Maybe they were valuable for some other reason. Maybe someone was just after her car....speaking of which why didn't the police find all these cars when investigating her death?". It was a pretty good question actually, wouldn't most people (especially police investigating a vehicular manslaughter case) ask some questions when they found a lawn or garage full of old used cars?

"I mean, even if they found only one of the cars they would have been able to track it back to my lot, that's part of the reason why we keep these records in the first place". Thinking it over for a moment Tom looks back over at his financial records, "As a matter of fact...why didn't any of this show up on her bank statements? or did they? I don't pretend to know anything about police business but getting all these cars in such a short period of time seems kind of suspicious to me... Unless of course she paid with cash...let me just check up on that".

The records would show him exactly how she paid for each vehicle.

**Rory** · Oct 17th, 2011 10:27 PM

"Mmmmmm... I was actually thinking of the racing angle," Rory answered Daysha.

"They're all red racing cars with spoilers and stripes. Maybe there's some history in the city? That the local racers might know? Maybe police records on accidents?"

He was fishing, but one thing he'd learned listening to sinners was that everyone had their favorite sin.

Oct 18th, 2011 10:41 AM

Just for clarity, guys- only the last car is in Janet's name. The others are in different names. Sorry if the wording was vague!

Daysha sees no other connection between the red racing-striped cars, other than the odd time period and the single buyers.

Tom sees that the cars were paid for by perfectly ordinary means- some on credit, some by bank transfer, and some by plastic. No one seems to have paid cash, so the paper trails should all be there.

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2011-10-16 22:14:20		Tom Hartman rolls 6 to Searching car history reports (10 Again)		7, 10, 9, 3, 6, 6, 6		2 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2011-10-17 19:52:23		Daysha rolls 6 to Int3 +Invest 3 (10 Again)		7, 7, 9, 9, 1, 8		3 successes

Ghost Gears

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