The Vanishing: Police Station, Take 2

[Seryna]

Officer Collins returns after a moment and picks up a small notebook kept closed with an elastic band. She makes some quick notes before looking at Connor.
"It is a video of some people witnessing some street performers. Like a freak show." She states to Connor.
She plucks up a work sheet with preprinted sections from her divided file organizer and begins to fill in sections, noting the date and the time. She moves on briskly as she continues to talk with Connor.

"I identified two of the people in the video and asked them what happened two nights ago. After you and I met for the first time. Matt and Nicole, met with a friend, Nancy, for drinks at Rocky's. The two heard a noise and moved outside to check what it was. A man threw a mid - 2000 silver Honda Accord and people panicked. A slim man and a shorter man fled to hide behind nearby cars. Connor recognized from this description that these two people were the male couple on the scene when he, the Prince, and Helen arrived on scene.
One of the performers bit Matt's friend, Nancy. The person who bit her seemed just as surprised as Matt and his friends were. They tried to quickly explain that they were a traveling freak show trying to make a name for themselves and they made a mistake and forgot they had the wrong prosthetic inserted. He apologized and removed prosthetics from his mouth that looked like vampire teeth. He showed Nancy, Matt and Nicole a set of prosthetic teeth in his pocket that retracted with pressure.

The group took their friend to a hospital, where someone caused an accident and they were forced to stop their van. A good Samaritan, a college kid in his 20s, stopped and drove them to a location where police interviewed them. This was due to the chaos caused by the earthquake.
The experienced officer advised Nicole, Nancy and Matt that they were not the first person to report this group in the last few months and the car throwing was a common stunt they do with a prop. The car is actually stripped out so its weight is within the range for the strong man to actually lift and toss.”
A pause. “There is some paperwork mix up where I can’t find the reports that the police took from interviewing Nancy, Nicole and Matt.”
Officer Collins makes a gesture at the file. "There is a written account behind the pictures of the car at Rocky's. Sadly, we never did locate the car. Do you still want to see the video of the street performance?"

If Connor reads the written statement

There is a statement written on a pre - generated police form. A person's name, Matt Merriman, is written on the top as the witness with the date two days' earlier. The two, Matt and Nicole, met with a friend, Nancy, for drinks at Rocky's. The two heard a noise and moved outside to check what it was. A man threw a mid - 2000 silver Honda Accord and people panicked. A slim man and a shorter man fled to hide behind nearby cars. Connor recognized from this description that these two people were the male couple on the scene when he, the Prince, and Helen arrived on scene.
One of the performers bit Matt's friend, named Nancy. He apologized and removed prosthetics from his mouth that looked like vampire teeth. He showed Nancy, Matt and Nicole a set of prosthetic teeth in his pocket that retracted with pressure. The written statement is nearly word for word what Officer Collins has told you.

[Connor OBrien]

Reading through the file and looking through the pictures, Connor walks himself back through the event of the night. That's not his job here, but he can't help but want to solve the mystery. Who were these people, and what did they have to do with Twist? Someone had already begun a cover up, the car left behind at Rocky's was definitely not a prop.

Finally, Connor looks up as Officer Collins asks him about the video. "Yes, I think I would; even if only for curiosity, though I still might be able to find something new in it."

[Seryna]

Officer Collins nods and indicates that she needs a minute. She finishes with her form, takes the file on the Rocky's incident and secures the new form within. She carried the file to the metal cabinet beside her desk and secured the information within a locked drawer.
"Follow me. What is your opinion on what happened?"
She inquired as she leads Connor past the bullpen of desks with various detectives working on their cases. She leads him to the second floor where a uniformed officer stands at the door. He is Asian, the same height as Detective Collins. His sharp eyes look Connor over.
Detective Collins shows a police issue ID badge to the officer. The officer handed a clipboard to Connor. Looking down at it, he sees a log sheet where people record their name, badge number and date. Connor is watched expectantly.
"10:05." The uniformed officer supplied. His name plate reads Lang.
Once signed, Connor is led through the door down a hallway. Various closed doors are passed. Officer Collins paused at a closed door and scans her badge at a black electronic badge reader. A green light emitted and she opened the door, holding it for Connor.
Connor looks in and sees a space about six feet by six feet in front of a rectangular opening in a metal cage like structure. An overweight White woman who has long, manicured nails stands within this cage beside the rectangular opening. She is typing something on a screen when you and Detective Collins walked in. She looks over now.
"Can I help you?"
She inquired politely. She is not wearing a uniform. She is wearing a lanyard around her neck with her police issued ID hanging on her chest.
"Yeah, Macaela. I need to see evidence.'
Micaela slides over a form that collins fills out and holds her badge out for Macaela's scrutiny. Macaela signs the form and stands, informing that she would be right back. She returns in a few moments, carrying a black electronic iPad and hands this device and a small manilla envelope to detective Collins.
Detective Collins opened the envelope, removed a memory stick and checked the playing video for a moment. She reset the video and handed the device to Connor.
Connor watched as a loud shout "What is happening!" Sounds on the video.
The camera pans go a white, large man. The image immediately blurs and becomes too difficult to make out. The camera focused on a motorcycle vest with some occult patch on the right shoulder. Then it is a blur of white, black and strange gray.
A mid 2000 accord sedan car is suddenly lifted and crashed out of frame. The video focuses on a blur of white and black. It is man - shaped. Two frightened people run in front of the man, screaming and running away. The camera briefly focused on a muscular woman with dark hair. A shrill, panicked scream sounds as she is suddenly grabbed from behind. The attacker appears out of focus.
The woman is released and collapsed to the ground. A dark haired man rushes forward and lifts the woman into his arms, backing away. She appears conscious, yet disoriented. Someone shouts about ' get to the van'
The video now moves to the car, which is crumpled yet not too badly damaged. The video suddenly lurched backwards and someone swears. The video cuts out.

"It definitely looks startling." Detective Collins observes. She is watching you.

[Connor OBrien]

Thehaunt follows Officer Collins through the room of desksand witnessesotherofficers. His mind rushes along various avenues of retrieving thisphone once in hand, and they all land on one conclusion; they have tobe alone. It's much easier to gaslight one person than two and he hasa new power up his sleeve but, unlike his first power of the people,he knows he can only use it on one person at a time.

Collins'question pulls him from his thoughts and back to the reality of thesituation. "Imean, I can only go off of witness statements, but it sounds like aflash-mob of sorts gone wrong, my opinion may change once I see thevideo."

Approaching the uniformed officer, Connor simply signs in under his pseudonym without a fight. "Thank you, Officer Lang." He says as he passes the officer.

He waits patiently as Micaela goes to fetch the evidence he's been waiting to steal procure. With the memory card finally in hand he has to resist making a run for it immediately, instead opting to continue the ruse and hopefully find an opportunity to make Officer Collins more pliable.

"It's definitely something..." He says, trailing off as he watches all of the tell-tale signs of kindred caught on camera. "I have a theory, but I would rather discuss it privately if possible. This looks like a case I've seen before, and I fear that anything on the record might get back to their ears and send them to ground. If we could keep the evidence out while we discuss it, I can point out the similarities."

[Seryna]

"It is definitely something," The detective repeats as she looks at Connor for a moment. "- that I have to agree with. Yet it is much different than we originally thought. My main issue is the complaint about another car being thrown on someone's lawn- that car wasn't a stripped down car.
Have you heard anything about the missing ambulance? I am worried about where that will turn up." There is a pause. "We could use an office. You brought the evidence that you have with you for us to compare?"

Detective Collins nodded to Micaela, who bids you both goodbye as Detective Collins led Connor out of the evidence locker. In the same hallway with the secured doors, she leads him three doors down and swipes her badge to the reader to unlock a door. The door opens to a desk with a neat descending file organizer on the desk. There are two comfortable chairs facing the desk.
"Have a seat." She gestures, the door closing behind you. The detective took a seat at one of the side by side chairs, the better for cooperating and looking over the same evidence. Her eyes check your hands as she does so. Perhaps checking for the evidence?

[Seryna]

This thread closes on 1/18/2023

[Connor OBrien]

"Strange things have been happening lately, that's for sure. An entire car was thrown onto someone's lawn?" The Haunt replies, making it obvious that this was news to him. "I have some EMT friends, all I've heard is that it was missing, nothing else." A pause to match Collins'. "I don't, but I can try and text my secretary to deliver it. Fair warning though, he's off the clock now so I'm not sure if he'll answer."

As Collins leads Connor through to an office, he withdraws his phone and texts Michael. Text me back anything in 1 minute. While his phone is out he turns on his voice recorder and slips the phone back into his pocket. He sits when instructed and, after the text tone goes off, he withdraws his phone, looks at it, and sets the phone face down on the desk. "He's going back to the office to look for it, it may some time." He pauses for a moment, preparing himself for what comes next. "It really amazes me what people are willing to do while in the public eye. In private, I expect some shady stuff to go down; I mean, we all have some skeletons in our closets, don't we Office Collins?"

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2023-01-18 12:11:27	Connor OBrien rolls 11 to Majesty 2 (Man+Per+Majesty+Awe) (1s Subtract, WillPower)	2, 4, 1, 4, 2, 4, 3, 2, 3, 8, 7	failure

[Seryna]

"Yes, I suppose. I'm always surprised when men of the cloth or high ranking officers are found to have committed crimes." Detective Collins responds.
"I thought you said that you had some evidence to share. You wanted to come in here to point out similarities."
Detective Collins pauses to glance to Connor.
"Go ahead and appraise me of the evidence."
Detective Collins glances over to verify where the memory stick is at the moment. She extended her hand.
"I ought to hold that now that it has been viewed."

[Connor OBrien]

"I said I could point out similarities that I noticed, I never said I had the evidence with me." He pauses for a moment to consider his options now that his plan has failed. "This blurring is what caught my eye. I've never been able to figure out how they do it, but in every bit of video I've seen with these people, it's happened. Maybe something on their clothes that messes with the inherent infrared light?" He shrugs slightly. "The other thing is the penchant for random chaos. Pop out one day, then disappear for a while."

He has to try again. His entire plan revolves around this. "Men of the cloth are hit and miss, but power corrupts. High Ranking officials making mistakes doesn't surprise me anymore, but most of them are mistakes caused by the temptation of power. We've all made mistakes, yes?"

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2023-01-18 12:57:37	Connor OBrien rolls 8 to Majesty 2 (Man+Per+Majesty+Awe) (1s Subtract)	1, 3, 1, 7, 2, 6, 6, 3	failure

Seeing that this isn't working yet, the Haunt hands the tablet back to officer Collins. He's going to make one more attempt before he does something drastic.

[Seryna]

The police detective looks at Connor for a long moment.

Her eyes tick skyward for a moment as though recalling something. "Ah, yes that blur. Technicians suggested it could be a buffering issue, although the phone appeared to be functional. I tried googling ' blurred people in images'. There are a few occult suggestions that will not be going into my report.

Power corrupts some. Yet I believe that some have the conviction to hold to their ideals."
Detective Collins accepted the memory stick and drops it into a small envelope that she kept in her hands.

"Yet the case itself is going well. I'll be typing my final report in a bit, as there are no dangerous people roaming around.
I'm still having patrol look for that ambulance, as well as checking for the team of performers. Accidentally biting someone with the wrong prosthetic still is grabbing someone and putting their mouth on them. I'd like to have a sit down with the person. If you see them around, bring them in.
That missing ambulance is what is concerning me now.
What have you been investigating?"