D A Y 0 2

[founds]

CHAPTER 1

NOV 1ST | 58℉☂

▸ In a sad turn of events during last night's activities, local teenager Bela Gage was found dead at Gainsbourg Resort as festivities were wrapping up. Local authorities have opened up an investigation regarding the circumstances around her death.

▸ Several houses were egged in height of last night's events. Locals are offering a small reward to anyone with information that may lead to identification of the culprits.

▸ Now for the weather, expect light showers from late morning to mid afternoon. Blackwell is expecting the storm to keep rolling through overnight, so drive safe!

▸ That's the News In today. Now back to your regularly scheduled tunes. This one goes out to the Gages, may you find peace in these difficult times.

THE RISING IS NOT IN EFFECT

Comments

[sciophobic]

[drops into the cleared chair without announcing himself first, reaching across to flip his book shut. his knuckles are wrapped in a hasty bandage job.]

They hired you to find her? Right? [turns the book around to read the title. some detective if he's reading law books. what are you brushing up for huh. i guess someone had to graduate at the bottom of the class] The point of hiring a detective to find someone is usually to find them before they're dead. You really suck.

[espish]

[he's too tired to startle properly when the kid drops into the chair in front of him, but he looks like maybe he was thinking about it. moves his hands out of the way of the shut book, flipping to a new piece of paper in his little pocket notebook.]

You must be Colby.

[although given the people in this town and their lack of respect for the business of others (yes, pot, kettle, but it's his job), the kid could be just about anybody. sam doesn't seem particularly put out by being told he sucks at his job.]

I have my moments. Yeah, this isn't really one of them.

[sciophobic]

So what are you gonna do by figuring it out now? Who's it gonna help?

[not kara. not him. he sits back in the chair and holds his hands up to say he's done berating him and slamming his books but he's obviously not enamored, and even less inclined to cooperate with any questions he might have]

[espish]

[his first impulse is to say it'll help kara move on, but something tells him that's not really the way to get this kid to talk to him. even if it is at least partially true. leans forward when colby leans back so sam can lower his voice without getting drowned out by the rest of the quiet in here.]

Her parents, most of all, deserve to know for sure what happened to their daughter.

[that is also only partially true. mostly sam wants to know why your town has the disappearance epidemic it does. seriously, you people must go nuts.]

[sciophobic]

[that is an astute assumption, he is in the process of going nuts as they speak.]

Did they fire you yet?

[espish]

They didn't, but it seems like a pretty safe assumption they're not gonna be paying me for a job I can't really finish.

[runs his hands back through his hair, trying to get it to behave. even the hat was no match for the pervasive damp after the first few hours. ]

They probably just figure I'll go home and forget about the whole thing.

[sciophobic]

You should.

[he looks uncharacteristically sober and un-shitty in this declaration- as much as he wants to find out what happened to kara, he has this twisting, persistent feeling that anyone who gets involved is going to get fucked up, to put it kindly]

[espish]

Probably, but the room's booked at least through next week, so I might as well stick my nose where it isn't wanted while I'm in town.

[there's a balance of cavalier and dead serious that he's aiming for. yes i will throw myself headlong into this. yes i will hang on by my fingernails. if there's any danger here for him, he hasn't come close to it yet. didn't so much as meet anybody on the stairs up to the roof.]

Do you think I'm wasting my time, Colby? Do you think what's in the spotlight is all there is to see here?

[did your girlfriend kill herself?]

[sciophobic]

[shakes his head reluctantly like a kid caught in a lie. he won't elaborate, but obviously knows more about what happened than he's let on]

[espish]

[there'd been something tight in his chest since adam (poor bastard) had told him to call the samsons. that little headshake is enough to loosen it, though sam isn't about to express relief as anything more than an exhalation. he'd had a feeling, damn it, that finding the girl's body wasn't the end of it. then adam's daughter, jesus... nothing like finding kara along the side of the road, but the town is too damn confusing to abandon.

sits back in his chair.]

You're not taking this lying down, are you.

[bruised knuckled and attitude. no, you don't look like the type.]

I'll let you know if I find anything, and I'd ask that you do the same. Or if you remember anything.

[maybe he ought to just head for the town they went missing in, but it looks like a hell of a hike]

[sciophobic]

I won't wait up.

[stands again and pockets his hands but nods a little in earnest before he leaves him, maybe resolving to wait up a little. it's been a while since any cop in this town has bothered to try finding anything out, especially when it comes to missing people. yeah sure they put on airs of finding them, but do they ever actually find any of them. even a single one]

[suffice to say he'll see it when he believes it. later homes]

[espish]

Fair enough.

[no wonder the kid's clammed up like he has, really. sam's not generally a patient person, but he understands grief and anger, so he can wait on this one. he hasn't got a whole lot of leads to follow here, but the case is much less urgent than it had been a week ago. unfortunately.

reopens the book colby had shut when he arrived and flips pages until he arrives once more at the one he'd been reading.]