leads and leading

[Helen Kingsley]

Priscus Heinrich, eh ? In hindsight it shouldn't be such a surprise to hear of it after Twist's departure has been made public more or less, but still...
The situation makes her think of that Ordo chick a few months back and not in a good way... They'll see how that goes.

"Congratulations to the promotion then, Priscus Heinrich."

She looks back to Jennifer as Conner turns up.

"In the broadest sense, I was still waiting on some details." She takes her folder and flips through it, studying the content. "Here they are."

It seems like everyone is more or less there, so why not start ? She waits until everyone has found a seat.

"Alright, Forten." She begins and flips through some papers. "What do we know ? People were being found dead after being fed on by vampires. Bodies were bloodless and had cat hair on them. Stakeouts revealed a cryptid looking like a cat and a vampire following it. Cat and vampire were ambushed and captured. Deaths stopped after this.

Literature suggests the cat maybe a sort of familiar, like the one witches have. It can apparently be called to places and recalled by its handler, who feeds it and seems to use the cat to collect something from the bodies. Life force, maybe. It was interrogated by Mable wood and gave a description of its handler. The vampire, Angela, is a hired hand who was following the cryptid and also responsible for sustaining a ghoul called Lottie. She's a hired investigator and thinks the cat can identify vampires. She also brought the name of Matthew Forten into play. He and his network are what the investigation is about by now. She also thinks Forten and his folks burned down some haven earlier. It might be the one that Jake, Sanchez and Clark were in as it was torched.

Forten appears to have a degree in humanities and was arrested in Baltimore for disability benefit protests. He is involved with coalitions for the homeless, here as well as in Baltimore.
Police questiond him on the disappearance of some young woman and he own a company called Bonne Nuit LLC." She rolls her eyes at the name. "Forten is no vampire and works with several others, one of which, another Forten, might be an alias or a relative. He dresses pretty flashily and was seen at the VIP section of the Rapture nightclub. He is a magic user and by reports he seems to teach some other folks stuffs at a warehouse.

Bonne Nuit LLC own a parking garage that was already examined, nothing extraordinary. They were in the news lately for a manager going to jail over illegal tours. Priscus Heinrich is currently looking into this.
There is also an antique shop that is legitimate and owned by a Michael Forten.

Lottie, who's actual name is Ashea, is still at large. It would seem Mr Wells has worked on gaining her cooperation. We don't know what exactly she does for Forten, but seems to be important for his operation.
She also has some investigative training. She was looking for Angela earlier after her capture. Lottie is a ghoul, but not Angela's and drives a black Honda Civic.

The antique shop and its customers have been looked into. As I said, the shop checks out and is owned by Michael Forten. He has a guy called Hal acting as a sort of bodyguard. Michael Forten has a valid California ID. The address on the ID is real, but a front, Forten doesn't live there. Several customers were shadowed. An asian man caused an incident when it seemed like he could move quicker than folks could observe.
This dark haired woman" She lays out a drawing that could be used for identification "could be followed but was lost in the parking lot of this apartment complex." She highlights a coloured frame on one of the maps. "Both were pretty hard to follow, and might be Fortens students. There is also some sort of auction going on from Forten's, although we don't know a lot about that.

Questions or anything anyone involved with something would like to add or highlight ?"

[Jennifer Hazelton]

Jennifer gave the Whip Wells and Priscus Baker appropriate nods according to their standing in the Domain as they arrived.
She listens as she pulls out her leather notebook and begins taking notes. She wrote down what Whip Wells says and summarizes that Edward collaborated that there was 'Maschio' names or alias being used.
"Have we verified that this person that you interviewed is Lottie, alias of Ashea? Who was supplied Vitae by Angela?
You gave her copies of the reports. Oh, nice picture. You included those rewrite that you made here?" Jennifer opened the file that Conner had handed over and inspected the contents.

"-Edward..."

Jennifer gave Whip Wells a long look. She was likely viewed in the Domain as someone who had the most controversial history with Priscus Heinrich, yet she managed to address him as a Kindred capable of standing in his own right.

Helen summarizes the situation and some of it is new to Jennifer. The pen steadily moves as she records bullet points of what the Reeve states.
Jennifer doesn't offer anything of her own. She has turned over everything she knew to the rightful leader, the Reeve.


"Priscus Heinrich, Oh yes, she pauses for dramatic affect. "- you mentioned some investigation."

[Conner Wells]

It's not until he hears 'Priscus Heinrich' that Conner realizes he's made a slip up. There's that cornered animal feeling rising in his stomach...but the predator, in a rare moment of mercy, shoves it down. Dares him to look to the urgency of the situation at hand and forget courtesy. Priscus Heinrich can be forgiven later. Tonight, there's the matter at hand.

He listens cooly to Helen's debriefing, eyes and ears focused on details to see what other investigations have uncovered. He's especially interested in Forten, Matthew Forten, being labelled not as another kindred but as a 'magic user'. That's almost worse. "Do we know of any other properties tied into Bonne Nuit aside from the parking garage?" Given the kitschy name, Conner's almost certain that it's just a shell. "Or any other shells that might be connected?"

Conner strokes his chin, a pensive look on his face. ​"Right off the top of my head, knowing that Forten might not be the big player, at least from our Kindred perspective, raises a few questions. If Forten has been involved with these murders that started this investigation, is he putting a target on Kindred backs? Or is he merely a third party?"

"As for Lottie, or Ashea..." More useful information about the fish in his net. "...Could she be Forten's handler? Or an agent of an interested Kindred. While we can't learn magic in the same way as other gifted beings, having magically adept ghouls can be a dangerous resource." He lingers on the thought with an expression that almost crosses into hunger before he corrects himself. "Correct." He looks over to Jennifer. ​"Just enough information to clue her into the murders and Forten's possible involvement. Though, given what we know now, and assuming she doesn't know that we suspect her to be a ghoul, we may have an upper hand if she underestimates us."

"Do we know if the auction at the antique shop has already happened? If not, we could use it to pick up information about the two escaped possible leads. Or even catch them." Now that could get messy quick. But maybe that was the price of doing business?

[Edward Heinrich]

"Priscus Baker, good evening." Edward nodded to the Shadow as he entered. Edward wasn't really sure what the glance meant and dismissed it.

"Such that it is," Edward smiled weakly at Helen's congratulations, "thank you, Reeve."

And then the fuller update. Many interesting details. Edward nodded to Jennifer's prod but waited as Conner asked questions.

"Yes." Edward answers Conner's question about the Bonne Nuit LLC, "they own a warehouse and a soup kitchen. If memory serves they also own the Rapture nightclub. I'm still attempting to find the address to soup kitchen. I am in contact with a journalist by the name of Rennick, who is following up on a false address for the soup kitchen. The address for the warehouse is <address>. The manager who gave the illegal tour is named Teddy Hernandez. He is currently employed by Parkview Industrial Industries as a manager. He finished his sentence in 2016 and likely went to the Hapwell House, a Las Vegas halfway house. His social media is barren, so I was considering visiting him at work."

Edward paused. The fullness of every detail was unlikely to be needed, and meetings often died in such details.

"I believe pursuing leads in groups of two is the most likely profitable approach. Which leads do you regard as most fruitful, Reeve?"

[Albert Baker]

Al sat there taking notes, as he had included all he had found out in a report, he had nothing to say that the material already did. A lot of the information was helpful, the question was how to continue using it.

When Mr. Wells mentioned having given Ashea insight into the investigation, possibly making her know what they knew, he frowned and looked at him inquiringly.

"Mr. Wells, how sure are you that giving a suspect those clues and assumptions aren't going to shoot us in the foot ? Especially as we don't know what her role in all this is yet. I'm not going to assume the worst, but this is quite daring, don't you think?"

[Helen Kingsley]

Helen's not going to question Conner's sidejob with Lottie right now. Sh's big on individual initiative, however, now that Conner's opened that door, he's responsible for whatever walks through.

"No idea, right now, we only have the park house, the company and the antique shop. Rapture sort of seems like a base, but no idea if he openly owns that place, too. What makes you think Forten might not be the big player here ? I mean, killing fanger MREs sorta puts a bullseye on vamps, even if that stopped for the time being. The fun question is, when that or something else will start again." Still, so far Conner's approach looks pretty vamp-o-centric, or whatever the smart word for that sort of shit is. "Or he snatched up some ghould to have some more out of his box stuff to fuck around with. Or little Miss Sunshine was just too damn useful, looking at her skills, might be that as well." Asked about the auction, she ponders. "No idea. That was three weeks back, might also be those things are a semi-regular to regular occurrence. Either way, looks like that stuff is invitation only anyway. Could also work the other way around, getting those leads might get information on the auction stuffs." Not that that makes her more happy about the whole mess.

"So, what can we do ? We got a lot of places and people we can work through, but it wouldn't hurt to keep the pressure on before folks catch on and prep some stuff for whoever's after them. Which is us. What I see so far, is we have Forten's sort of base, Rapture. Priscus Heinrich is working at maybe getting access to the VIP section, which might net benefits. I'd like you to keep working with that, Priscus Heinrich. Same goes for Teddy Hernandez and this Rennick guy. There is another place near one of the murder sites, a bar called Wrangler. Milton Northbridge met a guy called Roderick Singer there, who seems to know Angela. Might be worthwhile to talk to him or get something out of Angela about the guy first. The antique shop might yield some more information if kept under surveillance, same might be true with the phony address Forten keeps for his ID. Entering the places is dangerous, but might lead to something. The warehouse of course, although it should be clear there could be a lot of really bad stuff waiting for any investigators or even watchers there. There is also Feather River and that ominous soup kitchen. I'm thinking about hitting the streets and looking for that one the old fashioned way.

As for people, there are the two customers from the shop, at least one of which we might be able to connect to an apartment complex. We have a picture of her, so we might be able to find out where to find them and maybe have a little talk, but those folks are dangerous, so it'd be best not to tip them off. This is one of the things I'd like to see someone see two, but it's at least a two man thing, no solo'ing that one. We also have a name that was found on one of Forten's company's spreadsheets in Rapture: Gilian Keibler. I have no idea who the hell that is, but that ought to change. Then there's of course our newest friend, Lottie. Someone, and that someone is you, Mr Wells, has to make really sure that little ghoul isn't either doing some Mata Hari shit or plays both ends against the middle. Especially if we update her on the investigation in the future. You invited her to the frat house, now you make sure she doesn't bring the clap or stuff like that to the party."

She looks around.

"So so far, we have Priscus Heinrich working on Forten, Rapture and the Buzz, with the option to go visit Teddy Hernandez. I have asked Priscus Hazelton to look after the cat and Angela. She has also agreed to look into Gilian Keibler. Mr Wells is responsible for everything concerning Lottie so far and I'll go out and see if I can get something on that soup kitchen. Leaves plenty of stuffs open."

Folks know their strengths and abilities best, really.

"I'd like to see if we can work that apartment complex, if some folks here think they can handle it. There's Wrangler and Singer who might be worth looking into, in that case, I guess talking to Angela first would be useful. Generally, I#d like to cover as many bases as possible. The warehouse would be an option, but thats a minefield, no doubt about that. So, looking at all the options we got, any takers ?"

[Jennifer Hazelton]

"There is no evidence that there is a third party. What exactly have you told Lottie? I don't see the report that you gave her here." A look at the file that Conner had passed out.
Autumn brown eyes rest on Baker for a moment. She nods to him slightly, agreeing with his sentiment.
Brown eyes look to Reeve Kingsley. "I will call you when I have that information on Kiebler. "
Her eyes move to Priscus Heinrich.
"I would suggest two people visiting Angela to interrogate her could be helpful. We have a captive source of information."

"One thing I want to highlight: Angela is locked up at the moment. Who is feeding Lottie?" Jennifer looks between Conner and Reeve Kingsley. Her gaze swung back to Conner. "A rogue Ghoul is a potential Breach - yet that could be a carrot for you."

Jennifer looks around the room. Looking at the others to see what their reactions will be.
"The Auction could be a good place to infiltrate."

[Conner Wells]

"Teddy Hernandez...do you think he's the bodyguard we saw at Rapture?" It could be nothing, but putting a name to a face could be powerful.

Baker seems less than enthusiastic about Conner's progress, and there's a brief flare of disappointment and anger in his expression before he softens it to determined focus. "Daring? Yes. But I believe having the inside eyes will be worth the investment." He shrugs. ​"Regrettably, I wasn't aware of Lottie as Ashea. But the fact that she's interacted with me and not someone previously involved in this investigation does allow for some suspension of disbelief." He looks over to Jennifer, who as far as he knows is the only current member of the original investigation team. A bit of Helen's lingo goes over his head, but Conner gets the gist of what she's expecting her. "Contain and direct her. Of course."

"Currently Lottie knows that strange murders have occurred in the city and, through the doctored reports, that Forten is a person of interest at least peripherally due to his proximity to the killings." Had he been in such a hurry that he brought the wrong materials? Conner had been running on a bit of an adrenaline rush with his success in Lottie's meeting.
The mention of Lottie feeding causes Conner to lean forward, hands steeling as he contemplates something. "She could be getting Vitae from Forten directly, but I'll definitely look into that. It could be a turning point in securing her allegiance." Hunger can be a powerful motivator, human or Kindred. ​"I'd like to take a look at that auction myself. Even without the proper Disciplines there can be stories told from the objects that people interact with." Perhaps Forten's plans, goals, and dreams could be discerned from the items he hoards?

[Edward Heinrich]

It was a lot to take in. Baker's push back on Lottie was warranted, but Edward thought ultimately it was the right play. Let Forten feel their fingers closing in around him. Let him know who owned the city.

"Mr. Wells has maintained infosec, in the worst case, Lottie will run and inform Forten what he, beyond a doubt, is already aware of: that we are after him." He didn't see the issue, but walking into Rapture and confronting the man directly had always been an option for Edward. "On that note, Mr. Wells." Edward turned towards the Shadow. "My family's gift could be useful in determining if she holds duplicitous intent. Feel free to reach out if you'd like to test her in such a fashion."

A twinge of frustration built in Edward as Helen listed a dozen different leads they should all, in theory, follow.
"Reeve Kingsley, please excuse my impertinence; I feel the need to push back. I am left with the feeling that all roads lead to Rome, and spreading our efforts across many roads instead of working together on a few seems foolish. Leads that partially work themselves, like Lottie, aside, I strongly believe we should select one or two active directions to take." It was part of why he'd asked for this meeting in the first place. Sharing information aside, they needed to organize better.

"Teddy Hernandez...do you think he's the bodyguard we saw at Rapture?" It could be nothing, but putting a name to a face could be powerful.

"I tend to doubt it, Mr. Hernandez has a specialized degree in business, and his linkedIn shows him working at Parkview Industrial Industries."

Her eyes move to Priscus Heinrich.
"I would suggest two people visiting Angela to interrogate her could be helpful. We have a captive source of information."

Edward met Jennifer's gaze. "It would be my pleasure to assist."

[Albert Baker]

Al continued taking notes, listening and thinking about where he might be able to employ his talents. Conners retort caused him to interrupt his activity, as he had to take his eyes (and focus) off the paper.

"I don't contend your judgement, Mr. Wells. I'm merely being the advocatus diaboli..."

That was a difference, at least to most people. After that he continued taking notes until Mr. Heinrich began advocating leaving most of the potential sources behind, concentrating on the most obvious instead. A small acknowledged the fact he had noted the irony.

"I disagree, Priscus Heinrich. The more we get to learn the better. At the moment every bit of information can help us and as far as we know there is no urgency."

Getting back to his notes for a while while thinking he then spoke again.

"I'll take a look at the housing block."