[Carole's Contacts.]
Dice: 3 d10 TN7 (7, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )
coronach[Carole's Charisma + Investigation.]
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 7) ( success x 1 )
coronach[Carole's Manipulation + Investigation.]
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (5, 8, 8) ( success x 2 )
coronach[Carole's Manipulation + Subterfuge.]
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 5) ( fail )
coronachMay 27th. 2014.
Carole has yet to call him with the fruits of her labor, asking around after Brett and his partner (whose name she knew without having to poke around, a beat cop whose name she knew automatically as Mouse, because he once swallowed five live white mice at a thing and then coughed four of them back alive again but choked on the last one and had to go to the ER), maybe seeing about getting a case file pulled and looking a name over. She wasn't happy but people know she's into that annoying reporter already. She doesn't need anybody making connections.
She hasn't called yet.
May 27th. Somewhere, René is about to start work for what might be the last time. Somewhere, somebody is trying to walk a dog and it's getting at a bird and leaving bloody feathers everywhere.
May 27th. After the usual annoying rerouting from actual human being to robot woman to human being that isn't the human being Nathan wants to automated robot woman again, Nate finally gets DUs campus security on the phone. Another woman, mild Southern twang.
"Security, hi hello."
He didn't get directed to the number people call when there's a problem, but rather to the number people call when they want to check in at the office for non-emergencies. No need to roll out the security golf carts, ladies and gentlemen, not yet.
Nathan Marszalek[int + invest: HELP ME GOOGLE]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9) ( success x 2 )
Nathan MarszalekNathan may or may not have had way too much coffee today. Since he's quit drinking alcohol he's started drinking more of other things. Caffeine makes a person more jittery and paranoid than usual but reporters acquire a tolerance to the stuff quickly.
That and the knee-jerk rejection that meets them when they call people on the phone asking to talk about potentially damaging public relations items.
"Morning, ma'am," he says. "My name's Nathan Marszalek, I'm a reporter with the Denver Post?" He pauses to give her a chance to process this but keeps talking before she can answer. This is normally when folks hang up. "I'm calling about the canine attack that took place outside the dorms on the..." Flip flip flip. "... fifth. I already talked to Craig over in Media Relations, he says y'all would know more about this than they would."
Nathan Marszalek[int + subt!]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 3, 3, 7, 10) ( success x 2 )
Nathan Marszalek[perc + empathy!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 5, 7, 8, 8) ( success x 3 )
coronachBefore calling, Nathan does due diligence. Jay referenced other animal attacks near the dorms and he wants dates. There aren't any other stories about animal attacks (apocryphal stuff, she'd said; rumors and hearsay), but he does find a couple of dormies posting on facebook about the attack of killer dogs (March 28th, April 27th), finds that a sorority house put out a notice about being careful because Stephanie got bit in April and that wasn't the first incident. He finds somebody's blog dated April 24th, fresh out of the hospital and talking about rabies. He finds a cartoon in a student rag about killer rats. Apocryphal stuff indeed. He gets the distinct feeling, finding what it is he does find, reading what it is he does read, and reading between those lines that there should be more; that the University's covering. Who wants to be known as the campus where its students are menaced by -- whatever. Scrubbed clean.
He's going to keep getting that impression from the pause between what he says over the phone and the security officer's response. He can't actually hear Craig over in Media Relations cursing as he finds his car keyed or whatever it is campus security does to people they're on the outs with but he can get an intuitive sense of unhappiness in that pause, welling up, coupled with an uncertainty.
"Uhh... I thought y'all already did that story? Why in the world are you followin' up?"
Nathan Marszalek"My colleague isn't as big a pain in the neck as I am, ma'am."
That's the ticket, Marszalek. Disarm her with how self-depreciatingly charming you are. No need to tell her he's a grad student in the film and media studies department so he has a mildly vested interest in this story anyway. Conflict of interest and all that.
"It sounds, in the article we originally published, like the DPD officer who was there that night was the responding officer, but I, uh... you know, in the interests of full disclosure, a source reached out to tell me he wasn't actually on-duty that night? And I got another source who, uh, confirmed this. So I'm just looking for someone from your office who can comment on that. Like whoever responded to the call that night, if you have that information."
coronach"Uhh... It happened in the off-campus housing, so we don't always hear about that stuff quickly," the woman says, putting Nathan off because that's what one does with reporters, even if they're self-deprecating and reasonably personable. "I think that... Uhh, actually hold on, I'll transfer you to someone else."
Her tone had brightened there at the end; somebody must've just come in who she could pass the 'dealing with difficult member of the public' buck off onto.
He's put on hold for longer than he might expect. Five full minutes. Five full minutes is a lot of time, especially without music to keep one from being sure they'd been disconnected or not. Every minute an automated robot of a lady's voice comes into being and says Please hold. That and the lack of dial-tone are what Nate has to go on.
When someone returns, it's a man with a mid-range voice, raspy like he smokes too much but not very old. There's something military about the bark hiding behind it. Bark worse than his bite? Barks and bites, there's a joke to be made there.
"I understand I'm talking to a reporter who wants some more details on the situation of the 5th? You connected to a lawyer?"
Nathan MarszalekAfter the first sixty seconds Nathan puts his phone on speaker mode and keeps an ear out for anything that would indicate a human being has picked up the call. The rest of the bullpen is busy and other people can see that he's working but five minutes is plenty of time for someone to come over and start bothering him.
He taps away at the screen to work on something else while he waits. Doherty comes over four minutes into the hold and knocks over an empty Coke can and starts bothering him about something that will be inconsequential in about thirty seconds. Nathan's neighbor across the aisle is laughing when the call picks up. The laughter cuts off abrupt when Nate startles and snatches up the handset and sits up straighter than he had been before.
The military bark seems to hit on some deep-seated conditioning. Watch this:
"Yes, sir."
coronach"Whose?"
Nathan MarszalekDoherty is standing over by Michelson's desk with a hand over his mouth to smother his cackling while Michelson is just staring at Marszalek like What the fuck did you do now? and Marszalek is staring back at him like I don't know dude am I not supposed to harass campus security because...?
"The Denver Post's, sir."
coronachThe man sounds nonplussed. "What? They're sueing?"
Nathan Marszalek"No, sir, we just have one on retainer in case I do something illegal. I thought you meant--"
Jesus Christ, Marszalek.
He clears his throat.
"I'm sorry, let me start over."
coronachSilence.
Nathan MarszalekDoherty leaves because Michelson hits him with a file folder and calls him a pencil-dicked menace.
"My name's Marszalek, sir. I am calling about the incident on the fifth, but it's because I've received information from a source that doesn't mesh with what was originally published by another staffer, not because lawyers are getting involved."
coronach"What information have you received?"
Nathan Marszalek"That the DPD officer who was at the scene that night wasn't on-duty at the time the call came in."
coronach"You are correct. Mr. McDermott was just a bystander."
Nathan Marszalek"The other attacks, end of April and end of March, were those off-campus also?"
coronach"I'm not sure what you mean."
[He lies.]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 4, 8, 8) ( success x 2 )
Nathan Marszalek[perc + subt: lol dude come on]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 4, 4, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )
Nathan Marszalek"The engineering major and the sorority sister who were bitten... it's on the Internet, sir. They didn't report the incidents to campus security?"
coronach"Not as far as I'm aware," the man replies. "There may be something about the sorority girl in our reports -- what day did you say that incident occurred? -- but off-campus incidents are outside our jurisdiction. We're stretched thin as it is, I'm sure you can imagine." He sounds like he's swallowing poison, or at least one of his favourite rants, with that last line; goes down like unwholesome beef, rainbow slicked.
[Lying about things. Hiding them. Totally.]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 3, 4, 7) ( success x 1 )
Nathan Marszalek[if i don't pass this roll i'm retiring]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )
coronachThe man knows more than he's saying. Nathan could have guessed that. They are stretched thin and it is outside of their jurisdiction (a word he uses just because it sounds official), but from the way he's quick to offer that smokescreen of truth, Nathan can tell: oh, he's aware. There's been more. Intuitive leap isn't difficult to make, to read beneath the surface.
Nathan Marszalek"The semester's over now, at least, right? Fewer people around should mean fewer incidents to worry about."
Speaking of which:
"So you're not in a position to comment on who the other bystander was or what a five-year-old boy was doing outside the residence in question with Mister McDermott or this other individual on the fifth, then."
The guy's been lying to him for the last two questions. Might as well let him off the hook so Nate can go bother someone else.
coronach[Oh, last two questions? Don't you mean one? The reroll!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 6, 7, 10) ( success x 3 )
Nathan Marszalek[GOD DAMN IT UNNAMED SECURITY PERSON]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 6, 8, 8, 10) ( success x 4 )
coronachThere's another pause. Who's to say what it means?
Then the man says, "This is correct. You people already have your statements. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
Nathan Marszalek"Just one more question."
This ought to be good. He manages to sound nonchalant as if this information isn't necessary to whatever it is he thinks he's going to accomplish. Like he's just trying to be polite and doesn't expect to have the guy on the other end of the line hang up on him to try and maintain his anonymity.
"Are you the head of security, or...?"
coronach"Yes."
Click.
[Lies.]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 5, 6, 7) ( success x 2 )
Nathan Marszalek[WHY DO YOU KEEP LYING TO ME]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 4 )
coronachMay 30th. Friday.
Who knows how Nathan woos a lady? Or how he treats a woman he's wooing? He might not think too kindly of the word 'woo.' Carole might not either. Or maybe she'd laugh. She isn't laughing when she calls Nathan on Friday or when they get together on Friday for lunch or dinner or a cartoon marathon or a Law & Order marathon or Gray's Anatomy or who knows. They get together somehow, touch their bases. And she isn't laughing.
Mouse's actual name is Steve Anzalone. That's Stefano Anzalone. Police officer first class. Had a recent opportunity for promotion but he turned it down. 'Recent' means December. He's still getting his balls busted about it. Carole doesn't want to say because solidarity, boys in blue, etc., but there's something about Mouse she doesn't want to let him know.
And it seems like Brett isn't doing so good. He's still not back at work and seems like he's still taking a bed up at St. Luke's. Reconstructive surgery that needs to happen and he's been given a leave of absence and his girlfriend came by to bring everybody brownies and thank them for visiting. Something about psychological something or other. They're acting like he shot a person, not a dog.
Of course nobody said anything, nobody is saying anything, about Brett shooting a human being.
And that is a delightful segue into the cause of Carole's unhappiness: when she tried to get the file for Nate and check the kid's name, she got caught. Not only did she get caught, but she got reprimanded, has a detective eyeing her now, somebody who's leaned on her saying internal affairs this and do you know what happened to the evidence for this other case you're not involved in at all and and and
yeah, Carole isn't happy.
But she got him some information on the guy(s) anyway.
Nathan MarszalekCarole is young and inexperienced and one of the only women on the Denver Police Department's payroll. She isn't the sharpest person working there and she isn't going to bring honor and glory to the field by solving unsolvable cases and locking up those who are being at evading than professionals are at catching them. What she brings is a doggedness and a belief in the justice system that if she manages to stay here long enough will serve her well as a SWAT team member. Maybe she would be cut out for undercover work. Maybe.
She can't lie worth a damn and she is about as sneaky as a bulldozer. Getting caught and reprimanded upset her. She tries to act as if it does not upset her because they were having a nice day and at the end of the nice day she just wants to relax and spend time with Nate and not have some big thing happen but Carole isn't happy.
She isn't happy and she isn't terribly patient either. Her last boyfriend was a lunatic. She got tired of him going off his medication and hurting himself and other people and she left him eventually. Swore to herself she'd never be with someone like that again and now here she is with Nathan who keeps asking her to do things at work that she isn't supposed to do and fucks other women and lies to her all the time.
It isn't as if she's so stupid she can't tell he's keeping something from her.
But she got him the information and she lets him apologize a thousand times and it's a point in his favor that he doesn't sneak out of the house after she's fallen asleep but this does not bode any better for the future of their relationship than it does for the future of her career. They part ways in the morning uncertain of their standing.
And Nathan can't do anything with the bureaucracy again until Monday. So he doesn't. He stares at the email Jay Rodriguez sent him last week and he stares and he stares until the words stop meaning anything. Something is happening and the police and the university are both covering it up and McDermott wouldn't talk to him even if he did go to the hospital.
The stack of junk mail he never threw out after he buried the bird is sitting right there on the counter where he left it. He picks it up and flips through it as he paces the kitchen and reminds himself of what will happen if he gets drunk before noon on a Saturday.
Nathan Marszalek[int + streetwise]
Dice: 5 d10 TN8 (2, 4, 6, 8, 9) ( success x 2 )
coronachMcDermott may or may not talk. Anzalone may or may not talk. He'd have to find them first. Might have to see his nurse friend he's not talking to, too, unless he played his cards right (or wrong).
The junkmail remains a whole lot of junk. U HAV BEEN CHOSE still catches his eye. This time, though, juxtapositioned against that Korean Nail & Spa coupon-sheet, it tickles something loose: You hear about them sometimes. He's only heard some of the homeless vets he talks to mention them once or twice, but they happen: fight clubs between gang lines, a whole different sort of ballgame, secret and never hoping to be illegal, human bondage.
Invitation only.
Nathan Marszalek
[perc + aware]
Dice: 5 d10 TN9 (1, 5, 7, 7, 10) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
coronachHey, listen to that. Birdsong, inside the house. Faint.
Nathan MarszalekJust as he's flipping over the card to see to where it is he's been chose Nathan hears a sound that causes a ripple of cold horror to course up his spine.
Normally this would not bother him. Hannah's been home and she leaves doors open all the time and maybe a sparrow got inside or something. He isn't a fucking birdsong expert. But he'd just buried a bluejay out in the backyard a few days ago and something about the bird's corpse had given him a creeping feeling then.
The man is a medium whether or not he wants to call himself that. He knows vampires are real. It bothers him. It bothers him very fucking much.
He can feel the blood draining out of his face. His mouth goes dry. He's not too enthused about breathing at the moment either but he does anyway. Sets down the mail quiet as he can and shoves the U HAV BEEN CHOSE into the back pocket of his slacks. Grabs up his keys. He still hasn't taken off his boots.
Nathan slides the keys into his pockets slow as he can and slinks in the direction he heard the noise.
coronachThe flier goes crumple crumple when he shoves it into the back pocket of his slacks. If he'd turned it around, he'd see no address except for the one on the coupons.
The sound - a twittering, juxtaposed with a jeer, a long shriek that is broken by silence, then another, then silence, then another, then silence - is coming from his bedroom.
Nathan MarszalekOnce he draws near enough to figure out where the sound is coming from Nate scowls and stops in his tracks. Stands still long enough to assure himself that yes as a matter of fact that godawful noise is coming from his bedroom.
"Fuck," he says to absolutely no one.
This is going to wake up his sister. He doesn't care. He tiptoes the rest of the way to his door and slowly cracks it enough that he can peer inside but nothing can flap its way out.
Nathan Marszalek[perc + alert]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 5, 5) ( fail )
coronachHis room is dark. If he didn't turn off the light, the lightbulb burned out. The room is dark. When he creaks that door open to look inside and see what's what, he gets an impression of eyes (perhaps this is just his wild imagination; perhaps he's seeing things) and is sure that he hears wings. The ceiling, man: they're on the ceiling, hundreds of them. No: that can't be right. But he does feel like, in that first glimpse of his room, he notices more than one bluejay, perched here and there, stark shadows against darkness.
And he hears the jay's cry behind him again.
Nathan Marszalek[self control: do not scream man you will wake up your sister]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (1, 6) ( success x 1 )
Nathan MarszalekOne moment Hannah Marszalek is blissfully unconscious and dreaming about whatever it is that 18-year-old college sophomores dream about. Spreadsheets probably. She is starting an internship on the 1st of June. This will look awesome on her law school application but not so awesome on her sleep schedule or her social life.
Speaking of things that are not so awesome for her sleep schedule or her social life:
Nathan jumps when he sees all of the shadows lurking in his room and he doesn't mean to slam the door but he's in the process of nope'ing and slowly closing the thing when he hears that noise behind him.
He shouts and slams the door shut as he spins around. It isn't the shout that wakes her up but the door slamming. Hannah lifts her groggy head from the pillow and blinks a few times as she realizes it's morning and her brother is being a fucking weirdo again.
coronachThe door stays shut. Nothing comes clawing at it. Let me out, Nathan, let me out, I want to eat your eyes to replace the eyes that were stolen! Tweet, tweet! Naw: none of that.
There's no jay that he can see in the house. That creeping sensation; that echoing. Ghost birds now? But animals don't usually have ghosts. This: it's just an impression, fading fast -- a shadow moving. There.
Nathan Marszalek"Nate?"
Part of him wants to haul her out here so she can confirm that whatever it is he's hearing or seeing is a shade. Or maybe it's an actual bird. He can't tell anymore what he ought to be more afraid of. But the majority of him doesn't want to drag his sister into this.
If he were losing his mind he wouldn't question whether or not he'd lost his mind because he wouldn't realize that it had gone. That's the only comfort he has anymore.
"Go back to sleep!" he says.
He doesn't have to tell her twice. Hannah rolls over and tugs the covers over her head.
When she doesn't respond Nate draws a deep breath and blows it out and waits to see if the thing moves again.
coronachNothing moves. He's alone in the house. That sound - the jay's calling, crying - it has faded.
But who knows what waits for him in his bedroom? All he remembers is a suggestion of how many shapes (many, many shapes) in the dark.
Nathan MarszalekThat deep breath didn't do much to calm him but he isn't hyperventilating. Nothing moves and he doesn't hear the shrill noise the little bastard tries to pass off as song and he listens hard for movement or that sense of impending doom that sometimes precedes weirdness.
His hand hasn't left the doorknob. He turns back towards his bedroom door and slowly eases it open again.
Nathan Marszalek[perc + alert!]
Dice: 4 d10 TN7 (3, 4, 4, 10) ( success x 1 )
coronachThis time when he opens his door he sees nothing. That first shape: just a sock, dangling off of a lamp. That other suggestion of movement: well, looks like a water stain or something he should maybe get looked at. There's a mirror (his sister's?) open near a cover of one of his books -- let's say it's Dracula. Catches dim light and makes a shadow move.
No birds.
Nathan Marszalek"Holyshit," he says in a rush when he sees the room is empty. Relief but he has been relieved before only to leave himself open to ambush later. Still: Nate rests his forehead against the doorjamb and lets out the last bit of metal-tasting breath he'd been holding and steps back from the bedroom. Leaves the door wide open as he goes.
coronachThe door doesn't shut once he steps back. The bedroom remains his bedroom. He should clean it soon. Stay alert, Marszalek soon to be Amherst again!
Too bad he got rid of Lucifer. She'd probably enjoy chasing down ghost birds.
Nathan Marszalek[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
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