Where is Jade, Scene 2

Jade's Apartment
Jade's apartment. The mess and damage has long since been tidied up and repaired. Star Guard have contacted the landlord and arranged for him to be on hand to admit the heroes. Joshua Johnson is indeed at the apartment waiting for the heroes to arrive.

Star Girl arrives at the apartment, with Abigail. Before entering, she looks over to Abigail, "Thanks for coming with me to investigate Jade's disappearance. I feel a lot better having someone with more experience than me. Which I guess isn't saying a lot I guess, but still, thanks."

"Well, I'm not exactly an investigator." responds Abigail. She follows Star Girl up and clasps her hands behind her back. Gotta do something with'em, and stuffing them into her pockets might not be as cool. "But, if there's any way I can assist... I will absolutely do so."

Star Girl nods and heads inside the apartment. She spots Joshua and nods to him. "Hi there... I'm Star Girl and this is Guardian. We're from Starguard... Are you the landlord?"

The landlord is waiting inside the door. He looks a little concerned by the heroes arrival. Nothing to suggest any guilty secrets but nervous about potential damage. "Yes. My name is Joshua, Josh for short. You want to look in Jade's apartment I've been told?"

Nodding her head, Abigail gestures towards the door without saying anything more. She waits to let Star Girl lead her inside. After all, she's not exactly here to find CSI style details, just to lend a bit of extra authority.

Star Girl nods. "That's right, Josh. Thanks." She stands in the middle of the apartment and starts to scan about. "It's really... tidy," she comments. She turns to Josh and asks him, "Is anyone renting the apartment now?"

The landlord escorts the heroes inside. The apartment is clean, tidy, no signs of damage of disturbance. "The apartment was a mess when we first saw it. Looked like there'd been quite a fight. Broken furniture, dents and holes in the walls."

Josh tells you, "No. I almost rented it again. I mean I waited a couple of months in case Jade Ashcroft returned, but when the rent arrears reached eight weeks I advertised it for rent. Then I got a check through the post for three years rent, with a message asking me to hold the room and keep it maintained."

"Perhaps someone who did the initial investigation, saw the place when it hadn't been cleaned up... might be able to give us some idea of what may have happened?" asks Abigail. "I doubt we're going to learn anything from this place as it stands right now. Unless she had some sort of secret hidey hole she tucked things in that Josh here never found.."

"Three years, paid in advance?" Star Girl says, with a question glance to Abby. "That sounds little odd, yeah?"

Josh says, "I have the correspondence here with me, so I can tell you the name of the police officer who attended.. It was..." he shuffles through some papers, "here we are, Officer Frank Dounty."

"Who was the check from?" asks Abigail, "Was there a return address on the mail? Perhaps we can trace the account it came from just to figure out who paid that, and perhaps question them."

Josh thinks for a moment, then answers, "It was a certified money transfer. Pre-paid. The kind you can get from any bank by walking in the door, handing cash over and getting a check in return. My bank would be able to tell you which bank issued it. I only remember because it was so unusual."

Star Girl notices the apartment is bugged, micro-cameras and probably sound pickups too. A flash of reflected sunlight from a window opening across the street made a tiny lens embedded in one of the apartment walls glint for a second.

"Any electronic transfer leaves a so-called paper trail. Even a description of who purchased this check or whatnot might help out. If we know what bank it was bought at, we can check security footage and apply some facial recognition to see -who- it was." Abigail shrugs and eyes something totally the different angle as Star Girl's viewpoint. "It'd be a place to start at least."

Star Girl takes a moment to look over the papers that Josh has handed over. She hms, not sure what to make of it. "I guess we'll follow up with Officer Dounty..." She blinks, noticing something. "Er..." her mind spins a for moment, as she tries to think of what to do. "Let me make a note of that." She pulls out her PDA - it surfaces through the waist of her suit and into her hand.

Star Girl uses her PDA to text Abigial: 'We R being watched... spi camera'

Of course, Abby doesn't use anything like a PDA. Hers is some sort of wrist-mounted phone/timepiece combination. Hey, it's the future, right? She glances down as it vibrates and scans the screen briefly before looking back to the wall. "Let me call the officer now. Maybe we can get him to meet us this afternoon." she offers before reaching for the touch screen of her wrist unit and starting to scroll until she finds the number for the local precinct.

Star Girl says, "So... Josh. Who did the remodelling when you had the apartment fixed up?"

Josh checks in his paperwork. "Mostly my regular people. But Jade has a high speed netweb link. That was a specialist job. I put it out for tender. The guy, uh, John Charman, seemed to do a reasonable job. Oh, right, I remember, I tried to put some more work his way because his rates were really good, but he must have moved because I never got a reply to the message I sent him."

Star Girl nods. "I'll take whatever information you have on him."

Josh hands over a slip of paper, "This has his address on it, well was his address I guess. It's the quote he sent in reply to the tender."

Star Girl nods, "Thanks." She looks over to Abigail with a questioning look. o O ( So, what do we do now? )

Having been scrolling through her touch display, Abby is still toying with her electronic doo-dad. She mutters a bit... obviously not a technophile, but Star Girl's PDA buzzes with a text: We should find out if anyone unexpected did work in the building, gas company, power company, someone called in sick... maybe get a sample of one of the bugs to see what model was used. Might tell us who set it too.

Star Girl checks her PDA. Then she asks Josh, "Have you had any unexpected maintenance work done on the building since Jade went missing? Like the gas company or the power company?"

Mentally facepalming, Abigail shrugs and dials the local precinct. "Yes, I'd like to speak with Officer .... Dounty please." She has a small bluetooth thing synched up with her wrist unit, and she lowers her hands as she speaks to the police department.

Josh takes some time as he has to check back with his office system, and he isn't a techno-wizz. But after a couple of minutes he shakes his head. "No. Actually it's been pretty quiet on that regard. The tenants haven't been breaking things as fast as they usually do."

After a moment Abigail gets put through to a patrol car. The sound quality is poor but understandable, "Officer Dounty, who is this?"

"Officer Dounty, glad you could speak to me, this is Major Hearns, Starguard. I was hoping I could schedule a time to meet with you to discuss a case you've been working on. My.. partner and I are looking into the disappearance of a woman called Jade. I was hoping you might be able to shed some light on the subject.. not wanting to step on any toes of course." offers Abigail.

Star Girl smirks a little, overhearing Abigails conversation. o O ( Hunh. I guess we are partners... ) She sighs and asks Josh, the landlord, "What happened to the rest of Jade's stuff?"

There's a long pause, then the officer replies to Abigail, "Yes. I can take a doughnut break. Can you meet me in Joe's Hot and Sweet Doughnut place? It's near Buckingham Park."

"We'll be there shortly. Give us five to ten." And Abby hangs up without further pre-amble. "Time to go Star." she offers softly as she starts for the door. All business this one.

Josh answers, "The broken stuff I threw out. The rest is either in here, or if it looked expensive I put it in storage for safety."

Star Girl nods. She starts for the door, saying to Josh, "We'll send someone by for the stuff in storage, ok?"

Josh nods but says, "Uh, I'm responsible for it. I'd need to see something like a court order before I can hand it over."

"Maybe we can simply view the materials. Or we can talk to the officer in a few minutes. We're not going to try to push you around Josh, I promise." offers Abigail as she heads out the door. She already has some paranoid thoughts going through her head, and she gestures for Star to join her.

Star Girl follows Abigail outside. "We can do court orders, right? I think I might have missed that briefing..."

Total Babe calls in. "Sorry, got caught up at work - are you still at Jade Ashcroft's place?"

Reaching up to her earpiece, Abigail chuckles softly, "Actually just leaving for the moment. May be back there though. Can you meet at Joe's Hot and Sweet Doughnuts? Officer Dounty is going to meet us there."

Total Babe says, "Yeah - that's not far in fact. See you there.""

Star Girl smiles. "Hey, TB! See you in a little bit!"

Joe's Hot and Sweet Doughnuts
Officer Frank Dounty is already in the doughnut shop, with coffee and a plate of cream and jam d'nuts. His patrolcar is parked outside, in front of a no parking sign.

Dounty is middle aged, and middle-age-spread waistline too. Looks a veteran cop, a touch cynical but probably honest.

Total Babe heads straight in when she gets there. "Hello, officer."

Once outside, Abigail remarks, "Leave the car here. We'll go in our more.. noticable method." Abby starts to glow before she lifts into the air and heads for the shop. She drops down onto the sidewalk outside and rolls her neck. Along the way, she'll have explained to Star Girl, "If the guys bugging the place were good, they also managed to pick up cellular signals, and intercepted our texts too. They might've bugged the car while we were inside too." Better to be paranoid, yes? "So, the odds are, they're already aware we're onto them. So I bet they're either going to simply disconnect, or try to find a way to get in and clean the place while we're gone." Then she walks inside, not really in any kind of uniform, but her golden glowing landing outside isn't exactly... subtle.

Dounty grins, "Hi. This makes my day, Total Babe. Can I get a photo of you sitting with me?"

Total Babe grins. "Sure."

Dounty sees the other heroes arriving and grins, "Ahhh, three is a crowd. There goes the romantic mood, huh?"

Total Babe says, "Oh well - hard luck!"

Dounty looks over, "Who's in charge?"

Star Girl listens to Abigail. "Jeez, I screwed that up, didn't I," she says, walking into the donut shop. "I'm sorry." She nods to Total Babe. "Hey," she says, her energy at a low ebb presently.

Star Girl looks to Abigail, at Dounty's question.

"You didn't screw up anything Star. You noticed it. I didn't. I just figure if they're -good-, they're already onto us being onto them. But..." She raises a brow and looks to Star before shrugging and looking to the officer, "I'm the one who spoke with you on the phone." She says as she walks closer. She offers a hand and a tight smile, "We were hoping you could help us figure some things out. It's your case after all, not ours."

Dounty looks at Abigail, "Is this on or off the record? Because what I say will change depending on the answer to that."

Total Babe tilts her head at the conversation between Abigail and Star Girl. But maybe it's best not to ask given it was just broken off.

Star Girl says, "Ah, off the record, I think."

Star Girl thinks. o O ( On the cop shows, you always find out the real story that way... )

Dounty nods, "Then sit down. I've worried about that case since it happened. I'm glad someone is finally looking into it."

"Agreed. We're not here to record official details. Our goal is to find out what happened, not to try to bring out the official record to the light of day." Abigail sits down and asks, "I assume the coffee here is strong?" as she does so.

Total Babe thinks. o O (Sounds like we were right to be concerned....)

Star Girl sits down at the booth.

Dounty laughs, "Yeah. This is a cop shop. The coffee's stong enough to keep you awake on a swing shift."

Total Babe says, "Hm... I'll remember that when I need to stay awake!"

Dounty asks, "So where do you want to start? What do you know, what do you want from me?"

Star Girl says, "What do you think happened to her, Officer Dounty?"

Total Babe listens too, not knowing what the otrhers have found out.

Dounty says, "She was abducted. Hell, there was a serious fight in that apartment. Holes in walls type fight. And I'm not talking stud and rockwall. Solid brownstone walls."

Total Babe says, "That's... a lot of force. Were there any blood traces or anything?"

Total Babe thinks. o O (She was a meta, right? I wonder what her powers were....)

Dounty shakes his head, "Not that I saw. But we, that is the local force, were frozen out quick time. UEMS arrived, quoted Planetry Security and took over. Not the local UEMS either. These were a bunch of jerks from New York. And I mean tight-ass jerks. The local guy, Citadel, is bad enough but these made him look okay."

Listning quietly, Abigail does order coffee before simply processing the information as she half-closes her eyes. She tries to draw a mental picture of what might have happened inside, and inclines her head. "Well, I am sorry you had to put up with that sort of bureaucratic bull Officer Dounty. In my experience, the boots on the ground are the most important folks to keep involved."

Dounty adds after a moment, "Off the record, right. You didn't hear this from me. But I got the distinct feeling they weren't there to investigate. They were there to validate a report that had already been written."

Star Girl says, "From the scene, did you get any notion of the powers involved in the fight?"

Total Babe says, "Written by who? The UEMS?"

Dounty nods, "Yeah, by the UEMS. The fight was Meta. Definitely." He hesitates, then pulls out a personal PDA, "I took these images at the scene. I could get into real trouble for letting you see them. But I'm a cop. This stinks of a cover-up, and if Jade Ashcroft is in danger and I keep quiet I don't deserve to wear a badge."

Total Babe only now thinks to glance about to see if anyone is listening in. Doubtless the cop thought of that before he started, though.

The images show a typical after meta-fight damage situation. One image shows a wall with a large hole in it. Another image shows a bronze vase completely flattened.

Star Girl shakes her head. "I can't believe that they'd be so... so in-your-face about it. First, Jade writes a book saying that the UEMS is infiltrated by alien secret agents, and then they get involved in a cover-up of her kidnapping?"

Star Girl comments. "That vase - look at it... you can kind of make out the imprint of some kind of helmet. Power armor, maybe." She looks up from the photos and over to Dounty. "I guess it would be too much of a lucky break that the vase would still be in evidence somewhere?"

Dounty looks at Star Girl, "She write a book? Uh, I don't read much except the football pages and the comic section."

"Or, in a bureaucratic doublethink angle of things, maybe someone is working to make it look like it -was- the UEMS that set this up. It would be incredibly stupid to draw attention to such allegations, by doing exactly what the allegations said you were doing." Abby shakes her head, "But it wouldn't be the first time I ever heard of folks being short bus stupid."

Dounty shakes his head, "Not held by us. Like I said, we were frozen out. Likely it was left. I don't think UEMS took any evidence.

Total Babe says, "That seems stupid, if it *was* a cover-up!"

Star Girl says, "It might be in storage still, if the landlord didn't throw it out!"

Dounty stands, "I need to get back to duty. Look, if I can help and it won't get me fired, call me. I didn't like what happened."

Total Babe says, "Thanks for your help!"

"Officer.." offers Abigail as she reaches into a pocket. "This is my personal info." She hands the guy a card. "When I say personal, I mean, totally off any kind of record. You need me... you call me. Got it?" she asks as she stands up and drains her hot coffee in one long series of gulps. It helps to be able to ignore the heat.

Star Girl nods. "Thanks Officer..."

Star Girl looks to Abigail. "To the storage locker?"

Dounty nods, "Good luck." and heads back to his (illegally) parked car.

"Indeed, to the locker. My only question is... do you think Josh is helping whomever was bugging the place?" asks Abby as she heads out the door. She looks to Babe and grins, "Need a lift?"

Total Babe nods to Abby. "Please. What's this about bugging?"

Star Girl answers Jade: "We found a spy camera planted in the wall at Jade's old apartment."

Star Girl says to Abigial. "Josh did get three years of rent prepaid... Think it was a bribe?"

Total Babe frowns. "Guess that's no surprise in retrospect... any chance of tracing who's behind it?"

Star Girl adds, "Though, he didn't seem like he was hiding anything."

"I'm thinking beyond the surface. Everything seems one way, and I've seen enough maneuves involving misdirection to think that I'm being shown the carrot when the stick is in the other direction. My only -real- worry is that myself or Star here will end up having someone visit us at home to say... hello... most likely you Star. I doubt they'll want to fight their way onto a navy base." offers Abby as she holds a hand out to Babe, skin starting to glow golden.

Total Babe takes the profferred hand.

Total Babe says, "This is sounding really serious."

There's a mail-received beep from Star Girl's PDA.

Star Girl checks her PDA.

There's a video message in the input buffer.

"Wha --?" Star says, before playing the video on her PDA. "Check this out guys..."

Glowing, Abigail pauses as she sees Star reach for the PDA. She lets her glow die and lets go of Babe's hand. With a gesture, she indicates that Star should show it.

Total Babe looks over at the PDA.

The screen shows a head and shoulders view of a late twenties woman wearing a black jacket, white blouse, black tie, black glasses, crew cut. You might guess her DNA has 'special agent' written all through it. She speaks, - I'm Agent Smith. I've received authorization to inform you the bug is ours. We don't want you to get led down a false trail. We believe your investigation is too important for us to distract you. As to who we are, talk to Jennifer, Lorelei, Rebound, or Spirit. They'll be able to vouch for us. -- Then the mesage ends.

Total Babe says, "What the heck?"

"Huh... well that clarifies a bit. But still, anyone else who might've been observing the apartment will likely be watching you and I, Star." She looks to Total Babe and grins, "Might feel a bit weird, but how do you feel about being the only one they -aren't- aware of so far?"

Star Girl's eyelets are wide open. She chuckles nervously. "Hunh. Creepy much?"

Total Babe says, "You're assuming they aren't. How do we know they didn't track you here, or... I mean, who are these people?"

"Well, there's a point at which making assumptions or not making them just overdoes it. We drove to the apartment, and then flew here to avoid using the car. I was hoping that might throw them off a bit if they were trying to follow us." Abigail shrugs and shakes her head, "If they know everything we do before we do it, then we're screwed anyway, yes?"

Star Girl says, "Spirit is Starguard.. he would know. Anyway, we should still get to the storage locker, yeah?"

Total Babe says, "Yeah. They probabaly know about it anyway, whoever they are!"