Log:The Gewurzt Case Scenario

Grimm Family Matters 2020/07/08 	 Radical|Connor Grimm

3

Connor sets up the computer...and makes sure to disconnect the external connections before plugging in the data drive to look at hte contents. The computer is also a backup machine for him, so nothing important on it at the moment.

Grimm tries not to pace as he sets things up. She does so anyway, but as soon as she catches herself on the fourth pass, she decides to offer to do something useful. "Should I....make us something? Tea? Drinks?" she asks. That'd keep her busy, and out of Connor's hair so she doesn't drive him crazy.

Connor grins. "Tea sounds good. Or maybe some of the wine I have in the fridge? It's a Gewurztraminer." He finishes up the setup. "All set to take a look." He plugs the data drive in, and he looks to see what's on it.

"Wiiiine," Gabrielle votes with a faint whine in her voice. "It's faster, anyway," she says, now that he's set up. She could use it to calm her nerves. "Be right back!" she hurries off to the kitchen to search for wherever he keeps the glasses. He can hear her murmuring to herself as she gets further to practice pronouncing it, "Hmm, Gewursh...gewurz...?"

It seems that Jimmy was fairly thorough... or he simply copied the files, and his peers were rather thorough and taking rather copious notes. In truth, a great deal of it was likely recorded via automation.

Aside from the photos (the last one in Berlin), the data is predominantly ...clinical. Locations. Timestamps of arrival, then departure. Immediate destination in the form of the next company waypoint. There are some additional notes, most of them expense-related: receipts for room and board, clothing, and sundries. The personnel seem to be local, as the language of the notes is appropriate for the locale.

Connor calls after her, "The W is a 'V' sound!"

Connor tries to look for any kind of pattern. That was the kind of thing he could have done intuitively as the Cartesian. Patterns were just second nature. But now...he has to work at it.

"Gervur-rrsh....?" he catches Gabrielle correcting herself. She's gone for a little bit before returning with the bottle, and two glasses. "Gevurztraminer?" she pronounces. "It sounds german," she comments as she pours out a glass first for him, then for her.

Connor nods. "It is. It's a very sweet wine. Sweeter than a Reisling. Try a small sip before you take a big swig of it."

Connor shakes his head, "Weird. Not sure what to make of this." He keeps going through the records, seeing if there are any names he recognizes.

Grimm pours herself only a little and sips delicately. Her eyebrows perk. "Mmm! You know, I'm not much of a wine drinker, but this is really good," she smiles. She leans over a bit to look over the records. "Really? Let's see..."

Connor keeps paging through data, looking for hte last known location, and what notes there are in the file about Gwen being lost.

"Does it look like there's any local offices for Ship-EZE in these cities? I could check on my phone," Gabrielle offers as she pours a bit more wine in her glass now that she knows she likes the stuff. "Thanks for letting me have some of this, by the way. I just need something to settle my nerves."

Connor smiles. "You're welcome." He takes the glass that Grimm brought out for him, and he takes a sip.

The final waypoint reached was Hamburg, with the destination noted as Copenhagen, via ferry at Fehmarn. There are simples notes dated two days following the departure date.

MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT. PACKAGE LOST. TRANSPORTATION TEAM LOST. SINGLE SURVIVOR.

Connor shakes his head, "This doesn't mean she died. If we know the location, I can check in the past to see what happened to her. I suspect I lost contact when she went into that drop off point, due to the wards around the place."

Grimm lets out a soft shuddering breath of heartbreak as she reads the note. She purses her lips, secretly biting on her lower lip and nodding at Connor's reassurance. "I...hope so. But saying lost, and saying single survivor sounds...bad."

Something Grimm sees that is a little odd for a shipping company: there are repeated notes at nearly all the waypoints, after arrival but before departure of 'Destination Received' While odd for shipping, where it's A to B, it's not unheard of in smuggling that even the smugglers don't know the final destination. It's a super hot item, or they may have tails, or the destination party is mobile, or the receiving party doesn't even trust the transportation. They might be getting updated directions on the fly.

Connor nods. "It's possible she died. I'm not going to lie. It's possible. But it's also possible that she didn't. 'Lost' could imply that she was grabbed by someone else. Or she ended up on her own. It really just means they didn't have her after that."

Grimm takes another breath and tries to focus, sniffling once. There's still a case to work. "I...I know. I shouldn't let my hopes get up too much." She scans the notes at the waypoints. "There's some notes here you don't usually see with shipping companies. I think...they weren't sure if their next destination until after arriving at the latest one."

Connor nods. "There were very long gaps, remember. Maybe each one was a safe house of some kind? And when whateever was chasing them got too close, they moved on?"

Grimm nods slowly. "Is there any notes about them being actively chased? It...does seem based on the length of stays that they were concerned about staying ahead of something."

Connor scans the notes, looking for any clues like that. Even if htey're coded.

Connor shakes his head, "Nothign coded as far as I can tell. The only odd message is that last one. That means it isn't what it seems. It's too cryptic. Not enough detail."

Connor says to Grimm, "I'm not hooked to the net. See if you can get details about that car accident. We have a date, and a rough location."

Connor snaps his fingers, "But you don't speak German, right? Let me do it while you look through this stuff."

Connor gets up and out of the way as he uses his PDA to try to find police records in Germany for the time period listed.

Grimm points to the date. "So your spell to see the past was blocked by that place. Maybe you can still see her during these transit times?" She takes out her phone. "Uhhh. I only speak a little german. Wait...you speak german?" she asks in surprise.

Grimm switches spots and sits down to start combing through the data.

Connor nods. "Yeah, and a bunch of other languages. Mostly for research. A number of mages in history were German. For better or worse." He shrugs, "During World War 2, mostly for worse."

Grimm stiffens a little in her chair at that bit of knowledge. Mainly the language part, but it may be hard to tell. "Um. Sehr gut," she replies in german. Her accent is definitely American. "Yeah, I heard the nazis were big on the occult in my occult literature and history classes."

Connor nods. "Yup. There's a lot of truth to that. There was a whole Occult division." He continues looking for hte public records.

Having the date and location makes it not terribly difficult to find that, yes, the accident did make the local news. Two Ship-EZE employees died in the crash, or rather the fire that resulted. The survivor, Fritz Freelink, was treated for minor injuries. The crash was ruled an accident, due to the rural area, narrow roads, and night-time driving. There was some belief that excessive speed might have been involved, but there was no way to confirm. The survivor was not the driver, and also proved incoherent for questioning. He was submitted to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation.

Connor relays all of hte details. "Here's my guess: Whoever it was that was following...found them. That sounds like a smash and grab. Strike the vehicle, and take the passenger.

Connor looks to see if he can get details on where Freelink is now. While he's doing that, he says, "I think we have two leads. First, I have an intersection, time, and date. We can see the accident and aftermath, probably. Then there's this Freelink guy we can ask.

"Given what I know now about magic, it's even scarier than when I learned about it in class. I'm surprised they didn't win. Unless the Allies had a secret occult division to counter them," Gabrielle muses. It's helping distract her from the single survivor part even as she reads it.

Gabrielle sits up and looks over to Connor as he gives her the details, draping her arm behind the back of the chair. "Psych hospital? I think you're right. Those sound like good leads. Promising leads," she says, trying to hide her worry and control her emotions. "Freelink can tell us what happened that isn't in these files."

Connor nods. "The Allies did have something similar, I think. Though I never got much detail on it."

"Probably something super hush hush. But it sounds like we have ideas of where to go next on this trail of evidence," Gabrielle comments, then double checks the notes on the thumb drive.

Searching for Fritz turns up very little. Aside from the mention in the article on the crash, his name appears in a few police blotters afterwards. Some drunk and disorderlies in Hamburg. Then vagrancy. Public nuisance citations in Neustadt.

Connor shakes his head, "The guy might be tough to find, based on this. And I can't find much of a record of him. He might be homeless."

"Or switched to a different alias? Or...something. But if there's no address, and he's not in jail or an asylum, you may be right," Gabrielle suggests and sips some more wine as she thinks.

Connor nods. "So...seems like the best option now is to try to see the accident and confirm she survived. Then we take it from there. If that doesnt' pan out, we'll look for hte guy.

Grimm nods, looking very solemn. Solemn enough that she sets the glass down without finishing it. "Sounds like it's time to make travel plans," she replies, agreeing with his options.

Connor nods. "Well, we could just blip there and check it out. Tomorrow okay?"

Grimm nods. "Yeah. It's been a long day. I think we could both use some sleep." And Gabrielle could use some more drinks, really. She looks to Connor and offers a soft smile of appreciation. "Thank you for helping me through this. You have no idea what it means to me."

Connor smiles, "You're welcome." He finishes his glass and sets it down on the table. "I have some idea, I think." He goes to give her a hug, if she allows it. "We'll find out what happened."

Grimm allows it and gives him a hug back. She didn't realize how much she needed one. "Thanks. At the very least, I hope to have some closure. And maybe justice for whatever thing or force was after her."

Connor nods. "I'm hopeful that Randal's questions about her fate means that she survived and that the danger was avoided."

Grimm nods softly. "I hope so. But based on the accident, the danger wasn't avoided. But maybe she did survive or escape still. Or she was taken and the event hasn't happened yet?"

Connor shakes his head, "Randal wasn't contacted again about it. I wasn't contacted by Lord Antherion about it. To me, that means that hte Lords of Order considered the situation resolved."

Connor shrugs, "If she was still in danger, the Cartesian would have been asked to get involved again, I think."

Grimm sighs softly as she lightens up on the hug to pull back enough to look into his eyes. "You really think so?" she asks hopefully.

Connor nods. "Though we could ask the current Cartesian. But she and I are not on speaking terms."

Grimm still looks doubtful. "Randal said the Lords of Order wanted her saved because the event that could kill her would tip the balance. But what if she died before that balance-tipping event? Sorry. I...always think of the worse scenarios." She sighs. "I...can sort of talk to the Cartesian. Maybe not anymore after everything else. I do have a way to contact her, though."

Connor nods. "If we run out of leads, we can talk to her, then."

Log:Hamburger Helper