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Been kind of a busy past few days on the Private Investigator front. Got a couple of those "find evidence of cheating" cases that I don't care for, but which pay the bills. Thank god for cheating/suspicious spouses?
Val and I met up Friday afternoon to go eyeball one of the murder scenes from the apparent serial killer that's stalking the city. Killer just gets inside (no doors or windows), gets a kitchen knife, then kills everyone inside--including the pets. Val says it's a teenaged girl, barefoot.... Said she got that from spirits. Anyway, I went into the apartment with Val. Checked over the place while looking at the crime scene photos. I verified that there was no tampering with the doors or windows or vents or any other means of legitimate access. Then I went to go stand in the central hallway where I could see the majority of the place and looked back into time to when the murders occurred. Skimming through time, I was able to catch motion, rewind, and let the scene play out. The girl was exactly like Val described her. I kicked in a little spirit magic. Garou. Didn't seem to be unduly influenced by negative entropic energies ("wyrm taint" as the wolves call it). Seemed pretty clean, actually. Up until she started knifing a kid in its sleep. She'd initially came out of the bathroom and passed right through me (hate it when that happens), so I watched the bathroom as she departed--through the mirror.
I ended the effect--no way I could tell Val anything about what I'd seen--and frankly I think she might shit kittens sideways if she knew I'd looked back in time like that. I went over to the bathroom, eyeballed the mirror a bit with some spirit magic, and found a single strand of hair that'd gotten snagged in the barrier between this world and the spirit world. I decreased the barrier a little bit, then used a pair of tweezers from Val's kit to poke into the mirror just a fraction of a fraction of an inch and grasp one end of that hair--and then pulled it out from where it'd gotten stuck in another dimension. There was no explaining that one away: definitely went vulgar there. And it was really awesome how the mirror rippled like water as I stuck the tip of the tweezers into the glass. Val helped me bag the hair without touching it. Val seemed impressed at what I'd done, but--frankly--all I did was poke ever so briefly at something that was wedged between worlds: Val can pass through into the spirit world. In hindsight, I don't think she was jealous: I think she was kicking herself for not thinking to look into the spirit world. We talked a bit longer, Val having decided that it was one of the wolves. I pointed out that it might e any number of things that might use mirrors to go between worlds. Val seemed fairly certain though, and I didn't bother to argue because, secretly, I knew she was right.
Val offered to buy drinks. I asked to use the bathroom before heading out. Ran the tap. Flushed the toilet. But who could use the bathroom at a murder scene? Creepy. Instead, I checked myself over making sure I wasn't leaking paradox from that vulgar spirit magic stunt. Thankfully, no. It was pretty minor and Val's no sleeper. I think my bathroom time might have made Val curious as to what I was up to, but I was ready with a "dropped a deuce: want to check it for fiber?" comment--and she didn't ask.
We went to the Rat and Raven after poking around the crime scene, which... Weirdness. We'd just gotten a table when a garou I'd never met before but which knew Val--Aaron (Bone Gnawer)--came over. Then Nieve showed up and joined us seconds later. Then Aaron got a phone call and left. Then Nieve got a phone call and left. Val had barely even had time to tell them that the serial killer looked to be one of theirs. (And I warned her that telling the garou one of theirs was a killer might put her own life in danger. Did she listen? No.)
Then this other garou, Nik, comes over after playing a prank--dropping an ice cube down her back--on the waitress. He's drunk off his ass. Says something or other to Val and then goes "Oh, I 've heard of you. You had something to do with us getting Gerick." (The leader of the now defunct group of BSDs.) Then he wanders off to go to a club. Val's sputtering how she didn't ever tell him anything about me and how he was drunk and probably had his wires crossed. I was.... I was royally pissed at Val. I excused myself before I did anything rash. Back roads. Roadster at high revs. I worked it out of my system eventually. Went back to the tenement to call it a night. Val might be right. The guy was drunk off his ass. He might have been mixed up. And if he wasn't, I'm sure the Glass Walkers would have gotten wind of me having had a hand in that BSD squabble before now--and SOMEONE would have asked me questions point blank. That hasn't happened at all.
I don't think Val'd intentionally spill the beans about me to the garou, but she sure did to her family and--quite probably--other Corax.
It's a good, stark, slap-in-the-face reminder as to why I need to not tell her what I can and can't do.
Gave Thomas a call back about the houseboat. He seemed a bit reluctant, but he's coming over tomorrow to take a look. I've peeked into the future--which is always kind of fuzzy and mutable--and the houseboat will sell and I will make a small profit off of it. I just don't know who'll buy it. Or an exact date. But it will be soon.
Saturday, Thomas came over to look the houseboat over. He claimed to be Uktena kinfolk. He seems interested, but is looking to rake some funds together. I told him I'd sell it to him for $14.5K--the family discount. He wants a week or two to sit on it, and I told him I'd call if someone else was about to buy it.
We got to talking about the serial killer. Apparently Val talked to him about it. He even mentioned it could be a number of supernatural elements--including a garou. Should I be unnerved that he came up with that possibility so quickly? Are garou really that murderous?
It turns out he makes a living as a bounty hunter. I'd been kicking around an idea of using garou as the brute force for a bounty hunting operation (they're fast and heal from knife and bullet wounds so no real worries of death, maiming, or massive hospital bills/stays). Kin could do the paperwork and coordinate stuff. Garou could use that Questing Stone trick to locate fugitives rapidly. Ran it up the flagpole. He liked it. I'm supposed to go have study sessions with him regarding the legalities and regulations to get our state permits. We could really rack up with this business--if we can find about 3-4 garou who are over 18, legally documented, relatively calm and controlled, and smart enough to be coached to pass a couple tests....
... Which means this plan might be totally screwed from the get-go.
Texted with Val this evening. I think we've smoothed things over. Nik was drunk out of his mind last night and was afraid he'd blabbed something harmful in front of a human by accident. Val told him no, that I was Wlaker kin, and he seemed relieved--and dropped it. It's staggering how little attention the garou pay to their kinfolk.
Val also mentioned that she found the two missing cops. They'd been affected (one is blue and the other is hypersensitive to light) by the bramblevine hootch they'd boosted from evidence. Val offered to grab the remaining bottles and get them to me (YES PLEASE!!!). I offered to go see about countermagicking the effects of the bramblevines--because the garou currently consider them to be a veil breach and might kill them.
What was I saying earlier about being screwed from the get-go?
The plan is to go get some cocaine (because all good plans start off this way, right?) from a dealer I know. Go park outside the houses of the two missing cops. Wait until they're asleep. Countermagick the effects of the bramblefruit. Teleport a light dusting of cocaine powder onto their face--like I'm the fucking Cocaine Fairy or something. Then use some Dreamwalking to give them fucked up hallucinagenic dreams where they believe they've been doing drugs on some crazy bender these past few days. Hopefully they'll wake up from crazed dreams, find coke on their faces, and NEVER EVER talk about this past week to ANYONE.
