5131/Murder in the Smoke Shop.

Murder in the Smoke Shop.
Date of Scene:	08 August 2018
Location:	NYC - Mutant Town - Rey's Smoke Shop
Synopsis:	The Unseen Avenger gets a lead on someone working with XLR in Mutant Town.
Cast of Characters:	Shredder, Lelantos

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Shredder has posed:
    It's been raining all afternoon. Good for the city air, but miserable to work in. The call came in, a tip that some XLR shipments were being stowed in Mutant Town. Turns out the tip got lost in the shuffle from a downtown department, likely lost because many people don't care that much about Mutant Town.

    The location is supposed to be in the back of a store front. Rey's Smoke Shop as it were. The awning drizzles the rain off one side, and the open sign isn't lit up. The doors are locked, which isn't normal for those who know the shop. It wouldn't be the first time there were drug suspicions about the location, Rey Derdonte isn't a mutant, but his reputation for being willing to deal with mutants has earned him a good deal of street respect, some of them probably look the other way regarding his shadier dealings, or maybe they are happy for that business, too. Life can be hard in Mutant Town, sometimes a person just needs a release.

Lelantos has posed:
XLR is Ron's case, not that it gets as much attention as it should. When he gets notified, he curses and heads out. Last time he ran into a large batch of XLR, someone was cutting it with a cocktail of meth and steroids...if someone is cutting it with MGH he does not want to witness the results.

Ron arrives in his street clothes and heads into the store, he looks for someone who seems to be in charge and says, "I have private busuness to discuss, can we take this someplace?" Ron is pretty likely to know if the person is leading him into a trap...sometimes his telepathy can be useful.

Shredder has posed:
    "We're closed," comes the voice from the other side. He's scared, and it doesn't take a telepath to pick up on the quick and uncomfortable state. "Gotta...got a plumbing problem. Big mess all over the place. We'll be open tomorrow." The person on the other side of the door moves away. His mind is so panicked that trying to get a clear read on his surface thoughts is difficult. Something about making the wrong deal with the wrong person.

Lelantos has posed:
Hmmm, not enough evidence for Ron Griffin, detecive, to go in. However, if the owner s worried about a deal going sour, then someone else is likely to come in soon...probably someone unhappy. Ron Will take his car away and park it, then find a place to change to his other garb and stake out the area as Lelantos.

Shredder has posed:
    Oddly enough, no one comes in. Neither from the front or from the back. The rain doesn't seem to be ready to leave, that steady light drizzle marking and blurring the seconds that pass. A few hours later, the rear alley door opens, and a sweaty man opens the door. The thoughts are the same, but he seems to have cleared his head slightly.

    I <I just gotta get rid of the bodies. I didn't do it, I told Benny this stuff would draw too much attention, damn fool just couldn't leave it. Had to get in. He shoulda just turned it over when they came. Not my fault. I didn't kill him.> He drags a large rubbermaid trash can with a black tied bag on top of it toward the dumpster, rolling on a small car that doesn't quite cover the base.

Lelantos has posed:
This does not look good, someone must have gotten in, and not by normal means. Well, better ask some questions. First, throw a knife to pin each pant leg to the ground, then drop down in front of him invisible and say, "A lovely night to be dropping off dead bodies isn't it? Perhaps, if you tell me all about it nicely, I will let you go without trouble."

He will be taking it easy, he only has a few minutes of invisibility before he starts to overheat, less if he exerts himself. In the might drizzle, he will not be entirely invisible...just a blurred outline. Hopefully a voice from a barely glimpsed figure (combined with the knives) will be intimidating enough.

Shredder has posed:
    Rey is taken by surprise, and he glances around, not observant enough to see where the voice is coming from. His eyes go wide. "I'm not doin' nothin'!" he exclaims. "You guys did your thing, I ain't gonna snitch. Benny, he made his own way, I just don't wanna get caught in it, right?" He seems to think he knows who he's talking to, incorrectly obviously. <They came back! I thought when they killed Benny that would be it, what do they want with me? They already got the drugs.>

    He holds his hands up in surrender. "I, I don't even know where you are, I ain't seen nothin', youse guys said you wanted the game, I get it. I'll stick to the pot and meth, it's no problem."

Lelantos has posed:
Ron needs to keep him talking, to lead his thoughts where they will tell him what he needs to know. The question is, does letting Rey think he is one of the ones that killed Benny work better or is it better to let him know he is dealing with a different person? He decides to go with the more honest path, "I am not one of those who killed Benny, but I will find them and bring them to Justice, for I am the Unseen Avenger. Tell me what you know of what went down. I know you had a stash of XLR and were planning to sell it, begin there."

Shredder has posed:
    "That vigilante guy? Hey hey, I didn't do none of this," he reiterates. "I...man I dunno if you wanna go for these boys, I know you're pretty bad and all. Don't want no more blood on my hands. Benny thought he was pissin' on the Purple Dragons. I told him that it was bad news, they ain't just street thugs anymore, they got some kinda backing." He keeps his hands up, maintaining the sign of surrender. "I came in this mornin', he was just there, head clean off. Never seen blood like that. Who does that? Just cut a guy's head off, with like a sword. The cops find out, nobody'll believe I wasn't part, they already hound me for shit."

Lelantos has posed:
Ron sighs, "Sometimes, it is better not to anger those with power. I suggest you call the police yourself, they are more likely to believe you if you do. If you insist on hiding the body, when it is found...and it WILL be...then all the clues remaining will lead back to you. May I seek within for the evidence that will show the real villain? I can not speak for the police, but I can seek the truth."

Shredder has posed:
    <Will they be able to trace that he got the information from me? If so I'm dead. Maybe they will be more worried about him than me. I didn't see anything, that's true.> "Man, you wanna go look, you be my guest, I already cleaned the blood. I ain't callin' no cops, though. If they did believe me, that just puts a big bullseye on my head. Last month or so, somebody new has been in town. The mutant haters, they've been disappearin'. No bodies, nothin'. Players in the drug scene they been changin', not lowbies like me, but the movers and shakers. Everybody seems to be riled up about somethin'. And no offense, but uh, I don't even know if you're really that guy, this might be a trap for all I know. And I know better than to get my nose stuck in stuff that ain't my business." He slowly bends down to pull free the knife blades, and looks at one of them, examining it. <Doesn't look the same.>

Lelantos has posed:
Ron will secretly call in the fact that the body is here to one of those Lelantos shares information with...but for now he vanishes into the building to search for clues. Once he has checked for cameras and such he will drop the invisibility so he can cool off. It is great that he can not be seen by heat when invisible, but that means no heat escapes and he gets hot fast. He will examine the crime scene and try to find clues not destroyed in the hasty clean-up. He has to be quick though, Rey will be back and it is best if he is gone before that happens.

Shredder has posed:
    The scene of the beheading is clear, not because of leftover blood, but because it is the one part of the floor that is spotlessly clean, versus the grungy dirt that is caked on the rest of the hard tile floor.

    Outside, Rey starts to try to lift the edge of the 240lb trash can, not an easy feat.

    There is one camera which faces the main door. It looks as if someone cut the cable that connects it to the system. Whoever it was didn't want to be seen, clearly, but how many murderers want to be caught on tape. It's visible that some large boxes have been scraped through the dirty floor by the smear of the grunge on the way to the back. Probably plastic tubs of some sort. There's not much to be found in things that are left behind, but the back door has signs that it was broken. The door knob looks like it was disassembled to get in the back, and then hastily reassembled imperfectly, so that it doesn't turn quite right.

    Outside Rey fights with the dead body. <These guys, jeez, they could have at least cleaned up, stupid black pajamas runnin' round, probably them.> He slips, falling on the concrete, cursing to himself. <Maybe they are doin' good for the mutants here, maybe not, but sure isn't any good for me. Maybe I gotta get out of this area.>

Lelantos has posed:
Ron attempts to track the way the gods were transported through the door, wondering how he was unaware of someone breaking in. Whoever it was must be pretty stealthy...assuming the entered this door the conventional way. He has heard of a mutant who can make any door connect to any other in range. Possily a power like that was used, in which case the trail will vanish at the door.

Shredder has posed:
    The door ends the trail, partly because of the rain, though the scrape marks do cross the threshold. However, right outside there seems to be a small plastic bag, containing a single dose of XLR, looking ready to be sold to a consumer. Probably fell out of the shipment. While there aren't any other discretionary cameras for this building, it looks like the next building over has a camera that faces this direction. It's a hobby shop specializing models and RC aircraft.

Lelantos has posed:
Ron vanishes when he notices the camera, not that his costume will reveal much, especially with the drizzle. He heads over to the hobby shop, he wants the name of the security company who monitors the camera, perhaps he can find omething from there. The Police will likely get the tape anyway, but just to be safe. Once he has the information, he will head off, rlying on more normal stealth techniques once out of line of sight (technically he had to reappear to get the information from the camera, but blocked the lens before doing so...all they see is darkness for a moment).