Honouring Chris McCabe (plot)

Irina

Ryan sat in his home, at his computers.

The Basement Board had given Dr. Marcus pause. There was one particular posting that had screamed to him, a hand-written note with a qusetion on it. This question, to determine a cause of death for a young man lost to the world, drained of blood without a scratch on him, triggered a hunch in Ryan.

For Ryan had been drained. At least, he thought he had. Why else would she have been there? Not fully, or else he'd be dead, of course -- and he remembered only incredible bliss as she was latched onto his neck, biting and licking and -- ugh. And there was never a scratch after. After all, if there had been fang marks, Ryan might have shot her sooner.

But he needed help. He needed cover. Yet the search for answers on this particular incident did not seem as dangerous as some might be. What Ryan needed to do was an autopsy, or an investigation, or something... and while his status in the medical community might get him there, he'd need help with the investigation. And that might involve some very difficult work, with some risk that could not be traced back to him, lest he lost everything.

There was a man, however, who might be able to assist him. God only knew how he had found Ryan to begin with; he had to be good. Pulling up the cheap phone to his ear, Ryan phoned Doctorow . Maybe through this, the doctor could see what the enigmatic voice on the phone was capable of.

The phone is answered, again with the electronic voice, "Yes Doctor, how can I help you?" the voice says, tappa tappa tap can be heard in the background. Doctorow is already at his computer.

"Hello, Doctorow." The doctor's voice was pleasant, but focused.

"A while back, there was a murder. A specialist by the name of Chris McCabe was drained of all his blood at a bus stop... a very odd murder method, indeed. I'm going to investigate what the cause of death was. Without going into too great of details on the phone, I have a hunch as to how it happened... but first, I need to find where his body is. And if I can get it, I'd love to read the coroner's report on that one, as well as any police reports that may exist." He paused. "Can you be of assistance on any of those matters?"

The request was broad for one reason and one reason alone - he wanted to see how far this mysterious man would be willing to go to help him solve a man's death.

"Should be able too. It will take me a few. Let me check on a couple things. I'll call ya back." Doctorow says and hangs up the phone.

"Right--" Then the phone clicked off, and Ryan looked at it with a shrug, heading to his own computer to see if he could find any information through the legal medical networks while Doctorow did whatever he did.

Sadly, Ryan had no easy access to the reports and police notes without hacking. He'd be reliant on Doctorow for that. But he ought be able to use his authority in the medical field to find the body without too much trouble.

  1 sux to search medical networks for the body's location

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2012-06-25 21:39:34		Dr. Ryan Marcus rolls 10 to Searching the Medical Networks (Int+Comp+3) (10 Again)		7, 4, 1, 9, 3, 4, 6, 2, 6, 1		1 success

Status

Irina, as a senior medical practitioner with a company that has its hands in a great deal of work throughout the city, might Ryan have easy access to databases that would show where the guy's body is or who it was released to?

Irina

About 30 minutes, and 500 bucks later, a email is dropped into the inbox of Doctor Marcus.

His phone rings. Once the Doctor answers, "There you go."

All Doc Ryan is able to discover is that the body is still being held by the police, due to the active but stagnating state of the investigation. Presumably, that means the coroner's office has the body. Other records are sealed.

Irina , Can we get a summary of the Coroner's report that Doctorow just dropped in Ryan's inbox?

Appendix

Official Coroner's Report

Case number. 94-31740

Report of investigation
Office of the Coroner Medical Examiner, Sacramento, California

Decedent McCabe, Chris B. DOB 04/04/1979

Scars/Tattoos & other identifying features
Scar on right shoulder
Rigor Mortis Yes Livor Mortis None Decomposed? No
Drugs & Medications
Prozac 20mg


Occupation Army SPC

Law Enforcement Agency SPD
Officers Sgt. Ellison
Ofc. Marks

Cause of death
Exsanguination. Causes unknown.

Classification of death
Accidental
Homicide
Natural
Suicide
Undetermined X


Signed Eric L. Maddison

Ryan looked over the report with narrowed eyes, thinking it over. This didn't surprise him. But he needed access to the bodies. "Thanks... hmm," he said over the phone. "That's going to be a tough body to get at... did you happen to have access to any investigation reports for where he was picked up? A location of the bus stop he died at would be very useful."