Getting Legal Help for Maggie

[Anubite25]

Stripes comes in, leaving on his jacket. Just to be safe he's wearing his nicer shirt and slacks. He's even showered right before coming and combed his hair as flat as he can.

He takes a deep breath, not liking the stuffy atmosphere. It's a little too official, grown up. Still, Stripes walks up to the receptionist.

"Excuse me?" he says to her. "I'm here to see Perry diCarto."

[Perry diCarto]

The girl stands with a smile and says, "Right this way, please," and leads Stripes down the hall to Perry's office. The criminal defence lawyer had all types of clients; she didn't ask a lot of questions about who wanted to see him.

"Hey, how are things?" Perry said to Stripes, motioning to a seat. "Can I get you a water? Perhaps something a little stronger?" He smiled at the girl, who headed off to her desk.

[Anubite25]

Stripes takes a seat and relaxes a bit at the sight of the fairest.

"Water sounds good," Stripes says with a nod. "Been doing good. I thought you'd be busy over the holidays. Only reason I waited so long to call."

Inside, Stripes is a touch anxious. He's not sure how well this might pan out, especially given what he knows of Maggie.

He tries to assure himself that at the very least he's trying something. Worst comes to worst, nothing is lost in talking things over with Perry.

[Perry diCarto]

Perry headed over to the pitcher of ice water on his table and poured two tall glasses. "I appreciate the consideration. It really was a busy time." It usually was in the business of law. One glass, he sipped from; the other, he handed to Stripes. He took a moment to close the door behind the Beast and headed for his own chair.

"All right, Stripes. Just to start, what is your goal with regard to this girl? Maggie, you said her name was?" Perry asked. He wanted to know the client's expectations so he could manage them right from the start. There was plenty Perry could do - and destitute kids without ID weren't too bad to help in terms of legitimizing them. There were lots of kids lost in the cracks of the law.

[Anubite25]

"Yeah, Maggie," Stripes confirms, tapping his claws together nervously. "Finding her a safe, loving home is the main thing. The further from... well us, the better. At least that's what Betony Rue and the others think."

Saying the words puts a twinge of pain in the tiger's heart. He takes a sip of water to try and settle it. It felt like not too long ago he'd just made amends with the girl...

"I don't have much personal information on her though," Stripes admits. "She was kidnapped from a children's home. Betony didn't like the idea of putting her back 'in the system.'"

  failure to keep from looking nervous

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2013-01-15 17:29:10		Stripes rolls 1 to Trying not to be nervous...(Composure + untrained Subterfuge) (10 Again)		5		failure

He sets the water down, wrestling internally a bit. The way his fingers twitch and the fact he's not quite meeting Perry's eye will probably make it clear that he's holding something back about situation.

[Perry diCarto]

Stripes might have been nervous, but Perry was in his element, thinking about what the Beast was saying, writing things down on his little yellow legal pad. He wasn't paying much attention to Stripes in that exact moment, so he did not notice that the man was twitching.

He looked up. "So we have a girl who gets kidnapped, who you helped to escape. She's been staying with Betony Rue..." He paused. That was all there was, really. "Okay, I'm going to need a little more than that. What's her last name? How old is she? Any psychological trouble as a result of what happened? What's the cover that Betony Rue has decided upon to explain how she got the girl? Have the police been informed that the girl has been found?"

Whether Stripes liked it or not, it was fairly likely that the 'system' was going to be involved at some point unless a private adoption agency was used - and even then. She was kidnapped. The police had to be satisfied, or else her identity would always be in question.

As Perry listened, he pulled up his computer and went looking for a missing children's report database that he could use to search the status of this girl, Maggie.

  4 sux to find himself a decent database, fail to notice Stripes' nervousness

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2013-01-16 12:02:03		Perry diCarto rolls 7 to Int3+Computers2+Equipment2 to find himself a database (10 Again)		8, 1, 5, 9, 9, 3, 9		4 successes
2013-01-15 17:32:15		Perry diCarto rolls 4 to Wits+Emp (10 Again)		2, 7, 5, 3		failure

This one might need a little bit of moderation, if you don't mind being tagged in, Jagger

Jag

[Jag]

As a state lawyer, Perry is able to access a local police database that lists unsolved missing person cases in the area. It doesn't take long for him to find an entry for a young girl by the name of Margaret Parsons. Her file also lists that she responds to "Maggie" and was last seen in a local foster home in Sacramento the night before she went missing a few months back. As usual, the authorities are asking that any tips regarding her disappearance be reported to them immediately.

[Perry diCarto]

Perry spins the laptop so that Stripes can read it, figuring the Beast could figure out some of the potential problems on his own. "The police are going to need to clear this case - and with her living with Betony Rue, we might have a problem legitimizing Maggie again if there's no good explanation in place. She'll need to be 'found', or something." A slight frown as he tapped his pen to his lips to think it over.

It wasn't like they could tell the 5-0 that the girl had actually been abducted into the Hedge. They'd need to feed the cops a story... or have the police simply find her somewhere. They'd never believe that Betony Rue was simply taking care of a girl that she randomly found for months.

"Who else has been involved in this girl's rescue and care?" Perry asked.

[Anubite25]

Stripes looks at the article that Perry has pulled up. He nods as he reads it over.

"This sure sounds like her. It all matches her story," Stripes confirms. Hmm... Guess I probably should have called Betony before I came over so we could call discuss this together..."

At the question of who else was involved, Stripes' whiskers droop a little again.

"King Pereg helped a little. Terri's husband. He's the one that recommended going to Betony," Stripes explains. "A spring courtier named Otto was too... but he just vanished a little after we got her to Betony's. No word or anything."

The tiger ticks off on his fingers as he continues.

"Rook is also looking into things a little, and he says Jack has too," Stripes thinks for a bit and nods. "Those are all the major ones I know about. I'd bet anyone that's visited Betony in the last few months knows about Maggie by now, though. Especially..."

Stripes' fang comes down on his lip. This whole thing was a lot more complicated than he would have hoped, and he hadn't even gotten to the biggest issue. He turns the computer back around and takes another sip of water. Perry's mention of mental issues is also still bounding in the tiger's head... and it doesn't look like there's ever going to be a good time to let the fairest know about Maggie's gift.

"There's probably something I should mention before this goes to far..." he admits, looking very much the part of a kid confessing to a teacher all the sudden. "Maggie's kind of... special...

Stripes peeks back at the door as if to assure himself that nobody else in listening before leaning over the desk.

"I know this'll sound crazy," he says in a hushed voice. "But Maggie... can read minds. She can talk into them too. Tele... Tele..."

Stripes snaps his fingers before the word comes to his own mind.

"Telepathy. I wouldn't believe it if she didn't use it on me the first time I met her," he says, biting down on his lip. "Betony knows, and I'm pretty sure a few others do as well. I'm sorry, I know I should have said something when I brought her up..."

Stripes stops at that and nervously tweaks one of his whiskers, waiting for Perry's reaction.