Anonymous Rex

[bushwacked]

"Right, if everything goes well it shouldn't take long," Nicky confirmed. "From what I can tell, none of Morrow's assassins were in here, only this 'Circe'." He paused. "Who may or may not be back from the dead. But if she's as... trustworthy as you say, then you should be able to move back here soon. I would like to make sure we're not overlooking anything first, though."

He waved a hand in the direction of the door. "The same goes for the corridor just outside. From first glance, I couldn't see anything unusual. Apart from the body and the gun, I suppose. Obviously, it looks like the majority of my investigation here will take place in the ex-Councilor's apartment, and that could take a while longer. At that point, I suppose you could move back here." He gave Vincent an inquisitive look that bordered on ghoulish. "Unless you're uncomfortable living just down the corridor from the scene of a multiple murder?"

"You might also want to consider the fact that the killers know that you live here... it might be for the best if you stay with your, ah, lady friend for a while longer." Nicky shrugged. "Your call."

[Ducky123]

"Is he capable of reading thoughts?!?" Heather thought. One part of her body burst in childish joy whereas the other part sweared.
"As long as you don't mind sleeping on my sofa, I could offer you my modest flat, Vincent," Heather said sweetly.

[Pterano]

"All right..." Vincent nodded, listening to Nicky's explanation. "I suppose I can stay one night until the condo is cleared." He looked over at Heather now, catching the rather sweet tone of her voice.

"Uhhh..." he paused here, then nodded. "Sure." he relented, giving her a smile. "All right, Detective Chaseman... Nicky..." he caught Nicky's dim-witted comment, and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry... guess I didn't realize you were a compy." he apologized. "Then if there's nothing else... lead on, Heather." Vincent instructed. "Oh yes... here... my card." Vincent handed Nicky his PI's card with all his pertinent contact information on it. "Give me a call if you need anything." he informed him.

On the way out, Vincent noticed Cailan leaning against the side of the building. The raptor immediately noticed the torn guise, and sighed. "Hold on a minute, Heather." Vincent told her, and walked over to his fellow raptor. Cailan looked like he'd just gone three rounds with a mutant alligator and lost. "Look... Mr. Sablewind, I'm not going to report you to the Council... unless of course you did something drastic. I'm with you... I am... but I just don't think we can do it right now. It has to be done... carefully." he said now.

[StarfallRaptor]

Cailan looked up at Vincent, shaking his head sadly.
"You don't have to hide me from them anymore.  I did my part in things.  Maybe it's time I stopped running."
He said bitterly...

[bushwacked]

Nicky took Vincent's card, and as the pair walked out he held it up to inspect it. Private Investigator... Might come in useful. He noted that Vincent's office wasn't too far from the LAPD headquarters, and slipped the card into his jacket. He took another glance around the room. There was a crease on the bed as if someone had been sitting there, waiting. You're a lucky guy, Vincent... or not, as the case may be. He straightened his tie and left the condo.

In the corridor, the photographer was crouched down, taking pictures of the corpse with the broken neck. The triceratops wearing the heavy-set, bearded guise glanced around as Nicky approached and stood up. "This guy really had a number done on him."

"That's one way of putting it, Frank. Have you been in Morrow's condo yet?"

"Yep, just finished taking my pictures. It's a bloodbath... without the blood. Weird. Not that I'm complaining, after the last crime scene we were at... Hey, Chaseman," Frank looked around to check the hall was clear and lowered his tone to a whisper. "Do you think this is some kind of attack on the Council? I saw the sign on the Councillor..."

"It's hard to say at the moment. But I'm looking into it. Is the body-squad on their way?" Culverhouse would have called an all-dino body retrieval team - it wouldn't do to have a mammal move one of the bodies and notice a tear in the guise. The bodies would then be transported to a specialist morgue, run by dinosaurs.

"You bet, they'll be here in a few minutes. Well, my work here is done. Don't overwork yourself Chaseman, you're looking tired." Frank made his way to the stairs, throwing a wave over his shoulder.

"Bye Frank." Nicky watched him leave, then made his way down to Morrow's condo. Yellow tape had been stretched across the corridor to form a barrier. He ducked under it and stood in the doorway. The other officers had cleared out, and aside from his dead companions he was alone. Nicky sighed, his eyes scanning the room.

[Pterano]

"I won't hide you from them... but I won't report you either. I'm with you on this, OK? I just... feel we need to go about it cautiously. One step at a time. I'm not going to go about exacting the Council's justice... I don't believe you're a dangerous threat. Anyway... I just wanted to let you know that." the PI stated, and backed off now, giving him a nod and moving to rejoin Heather.

"OK... lead the way. I'm interested in seeing what kind of place you have." Vincent informed her with a smile.

======================

The room seemed to yaw in its emptiness back at Nicky. Such a mysterious murder... Morrow hadn't been involved in anything major on the Council, so why kill him? But as Nicky's eyes roamed the room, they would notice a picture frame lying face down. The back of the frame had been removed, indicating that the Councillor had possibly stored something secret in there, but whatever it was, the cleaners had cleaned it out. It was just an empty frame now, with the picture discarded on the floor. Councillor Morrow grinned into empty space, his hand resting on his son's shoulder, and his other arm around his beaming wife.

[Ducky123]

"Alright! Let's go then," Heather called and returned the smile. "It's nothing compared to your place though.." she added.

While she was walking down the stairs of the building, past Morrow's place, the hadrosaur considered how to word the question that she had on her mind... She would ask Vincent as soon as he would have gotten used to her little flat...

Eventually, they arrived at Heather's car and drove to Heather's place.

[Pterano]

Exiting the car and looking up at the place, Vincent wasn't sure what he was getting into just yet, but it was in a nice neighborhood for starters. "I don't know if you have a guest bed, but I'll take the couch if not, or whatever you have, really." he stated, not too concerned about the accommodations she'd have. "Do you have a guise or no guise rule, or anything like that?" he asked. Some dinos were very particular about not wearing their guises inside their own home, so the PI just wanted to make sure he'd be following her house rules as best he could.

[Ducky123]

Heather chuckled insidely. "Well Vincent, I could offer you my bed and sleep on the couch myself of course... I wouldn't mind but the couch is really comfortable. I often fall asleep when watching TV."
Entering the door, she lead Vincent to the lift and pressed the button to order it.
"Ah crap, it's just on the top," she cursed. " Oh, regarding the guises... I don't have a rule. When I relax, I usually don't wear it at all; it's up to you, really. How do you do it at yout place?"
The lift arrived and they entered it.

[bushwacked]

As Nicky glanced around the room, he noticed the picture frame lying on the floor next to an overturned desk. He crouched down and picked it up, frowning as he turned it over in his hands. What was he hiding in here? The back looked like it had been cut open, something pulled out in a hurry.  And why did they want to take it? The front gave no indication, it was just a typical family photo. His eyes hardened when his gaze passed over the wife and son in the photo. "Glad I'm not the one who has to break the news to them," he muttered.

Voices in the corridor announced the arrival of the body retrieval team. Nicky placed the photo back on the ground and stood back up. When the group of four guised dinos entered, they seemed almost disappointed. Nicky shrugged. "Sorry. Looks like they were kind enough to clean up the blood for you." He stepped out of the room as they prepared to do their job, rubbing his jaw as a thought occurred to him - maybe whoever had called in the crime had seen the perpetrators.

[Pterano]

"I usually just keep my guise on... it's easier for me that way, as I don't often think about it." Vincent commented now. "However..." he paused to think a moment here as they rode on up. "I haven't washed my unguised body in quite some time... perhaps it's due for a bit of freshening up before this party." he commented. Dinos rarely had to bathe as often as humans did, and could often go a few weeks without anyone noticing, though thoughts of the upcoming party and Circe's possible appearance placed a new emphasis on his desire to clean himself up.

"If it's too much trouble I'll just stick to my guise." he concluded. "I really don't want to impose on you anymore than I already am." he stated, giving her a brief smile.

==============================

High atop the streets of LA, Kauffman walked into a rather plush office in the penthouse of the building. Green carpeting ran the length of the place, and a heavy mahogany desk stood at the far end, like a gate blocking access to the owner on the far side. Said owner sported gray hair though looked to be in his early 50s, but what did guises truly matter? The white Colonel Sanders style mustache he'd been sporting for years was gone, replaced with a clean-shaven countenance and piercing blue eyes. He bore a strong resemblance to Scott Glenn, and the guise was in fact partly modeled after the human actor.

"The CD's been recovered, sir." Kauffman said with confidence, holding out the disc that Senator Morrow had concealed in his family picture frame. "No problems retrieving it, though we did have to abandon Mitchell, deceased. Rubio's information was unobtainable due to the recovery team being attacked by a few dinos along the way... including a female raptor." He paused here as his boss reached out and grasped the disc in a gentle grip.

"None of that is of any consequence." The voice was soft, sincere, and warm. It almost didn't match the scenery, but there was a slight chill in it as well, betraying a darker intent underneath. "Rubio's information was only secondary... and killing Rubio was a bonus. Far better to watch him squirm over the next few weeks, wouldn't you say?" Kauffman merely nodded, but remained silent. "We're about to move into phase two, and with the destruction of this mess..." he waved the disc lightly, "we can proceed. I think I'll view it once before destroying it... I'm curious to see just what Councillor Morrow was thinking. There were no other copies, correct?"

Kauffman shook his head. "We did a thorough sweep, and I can say no copies remained in that apartment."

The older man nodded. "Good... good. As for the female... if it IS in fact my old protege... well... we'll deal with her in good time. The funds have been wired to your account. A job well done. You will leave now." Not you may leave or you can leave, but you will leave. Kauffman nodded once, turned on his heels, and strode out of the office. It was time to start broadening the operation...

[bushwacked]

Nicky made his way back down the stairs to the main foyer. By now, a large group of police were milling around. A few residents had arrived from their work, and were anxiously ganging up on a few officers, trying to understand what was happening. Through the double doors, he could see the lights of a few news teams hanging about in the parking lot, the reporters speaking into the cameras.

Spotting Dan across the hall, Nicky crossed the room, weaving his way across. When he reached the bronto, he had to raise his voice to be heard over the echoing din of worried voices. "Did we get the number of the first person to report this?"

(OOC: I'm a little confused about what time this is happening, is this later at night? If that's the case, I'll have Nicky call Karl over to the station the next morning)

[Pterano]

Dan nodded, quickly flipping through his notepad, then signalling for a patrolman to wander over with an iPad. Scrolling through some of the screens, Dan finally tapped a finger on the correct note page, and handed it over to Nicky. "Here you go. That's the one." he said. "The first alarm was technically the one we received, but he's the first civi to call it in." Dan nodded, and looked around. "Morrow's place seemed pretty clean. Still don't know why he was targeted... neither the mammals nor us really know." he said in a much lowered voice. "But we'll be working on it. I think the chief is hinting this investigation is gonna be yours... you were the one to notice the alarm after all, hope you're OK with that. I think some... pressure was put on him from the deputy chief." Dan stated. Their Deputy Chief of Police was a dino, but the chief was human. Any dino cases the deputy chief usually delegated to dinos, and it seemed Nicky would be the one leading this case.

[bushwacked]

"Hmn." Nicky glanced up from the iPad at Dan. "Never trust a human to do a dino's job, right?" A quick, sardonic smile flickered across his face before he looked back down at the screen displaying the phone number. "Sure, it's no problem."

The patrolman made his way back over, and Nicky handed it back with a nod of thanks. "I think I'll head back to the station," he said as he fished around in his pockets for a pen and scrawled the phone number on the back of his hand. "You're right, Morrow's condo is clean... it might be the cleanest crime scene I've visited. These guys were pros - they collected their shell casings, cleaned up the blood..." Nicky finished writing and clicked the pen shut, simultaneously running a hand through his guise's hair in a gesture of thought. "Maybe the civilian saw something we can use. It's a slim chance... but never overlook the simplest path, right?"

[Pterano]

"Jeez... first time I've seen that." Dan shook his head in disbelief. "These guys are sounding more professional the more I hear. Sounds like we'll pick up very little evidence... especially if they were just wearing guises anyway." he muttered. Guises left little trace evidence aside from fingerprints, and Dan doubted these guys were stupid enough to leave those behind. Any hairs would fail to be pinged in the system, if only because guises could change over time among professional criminals.

"Well all right... I'll finish up here, and see you later. If you talked to my guy, I hope he provided you with some good info and if not... he's willing to talk. I'll see if traffic cams got anything too on those vans." Dan stated, giving Nicky a nod and then a pat on the back as he headed towards Lieutenant Culverhouse to begin going over traffic cam footage as the LAPD began setting up mobile headquarters on site.

[bushwacked]

Nicky pushed his way out of the front doors. Immediately, a small horde of reporters surged towards him, wielding their microphones and cameras and firing questions at him. He ignored them and pushed his way through, making his way quickly down the small set of steps to his car. He climbed in and quickly hammered the 'lock' button on the door. When he turned the key to the engine, the clock on the dashboard glowed green. 4:30. Still enough time to call our witness in and see if they saw anything useful. He pulled away and headed up to the highway.

15 minutes later, he was letting himself back into the LAPD offices. Whereas not too long ago they'd been practically empty, a handful of exasperated officers now sat behind their desks, talking irritably into their phones. Many of them were holding their faces in their hands, the universal sign of defeat.

One particularly miserable looking cop hung up and looked at Nicky. "Culverhouse told some of us to come back here and stay with the phone lines, see if anyone calls with any info... You leading this again?"

Nicky nodded. "Anything useful so far?"

"Well, I just got a call from someone who's, you're gonna like this, a great god of the moon who teleported from Brazil and used his laser vision against Morrow."

"Hmn." Nicky frowned sympathetically. "Probably don't need to worry about that one. Keep at it, maybe we'll actually get a good call-in for once." He left the cop and returned to his desk and, glancing quickly at the number scrawled on his hand, typed it into the database.

A name came up. Karl Flyn. Mentally crossing his claws, Nicky picked up his phone and dialed the number.

[Kor]

Karl was on his tablet reclining back in the chair taking notes for ideas he had for the book he was working on, putting in various ideas as they came to him.  He'd go over his ideas later and decide which ones to keep, alter, or save for future possibilities.  He had some music playing quietly, where he could barely hear it.  

He heard his cellphone ringing and picked it up answering it.  "Hello." He answered.  

[bushwacked]

"Ah, good afternoon. Mr. Flyn?" Nicky cleared his throat. "This is detective Chaseman with the LAPD. I have it on our records here that you made a call to the police earlier this afternoon, regarding something you saw outside Skylark Condominium. As I'm sure you've heard by now, there was an..." He searched for the right word to use. "An incident there while you made that call. Would it be possible for you to come down to the station to give a statement? Any information you could give us would be useful."

[Kor]

"Sure, I can come right down.  not sure if I saw anything useful.  I took a few pictures with my cellphone.  I'll print them out, in case they can be of any help." Karl said.  "I was sure something had happened. I'll be right down, Anyone I should ask for once I get to the police station or should I ask for you?" He said.  

After he had finished with the call he turned off his cellphone and tablet.  Then he took his cellphone over the pc and booted it up.  While waiting he took out the micro sdhc card from his cellphone and put it into an adapter so he could print out the pictures he had taken.  

He put on his guise while the computer was printing the pictures out.  Making sure he had put on his guise right he took the pictures, shut the desktop off and put the card back into his cellphone.  He then took his stuff and went to his car to drive down to the police station.

[bushwacked]

A short time later, Nicky was notified that he had a visitor. He made his way down to the lobby and noticed a young man with brown hair and green eyes standing on his own. As he approached, he caught the scent of a raptor. "Mr. Flyn, I'm detective Chaseman. Thanks for taking the time to come down here. If you could follow me..."

He led the way back up to the office, pulled a chair up for Karl and took a seat behind the desk. "Alright. Hey, are you a writer?" Nicky asked, trying to make him feel more at ease - witnesses always gave better answers if they didn't feel stressed. He'd often seen his neighbour's son reading some sort of fantasy book written by a 'Karl Flyn'.