2014.02.11 - Whodunnit?

Well it has been a quiet day at X-Factor, until Jamie was contacted by the police, some lady was found dead. Of course they wouldn't normally contact Jamie for that, except in this case well the lady had Jamie's card on her. A week ago she seemed scared, and came to Jamie for help, but halfway through the conversation she just bailed, no reason given she just up and left. But she did grab Jamie's card before she did that though.

Which is why Jamie called others in to help him get some fresh eyes on this. He did convince the police to send him a copy of the police report, the deal was that he shares anything he finds with them. As others show up, they may find Jamie muttering to himself, "Has to be superhuman, doors and windows were locked from the inside. Window was broken a little, so that even if locked, there was room for a finger between that and the frame. Will send a team over to see if they can find anything."

He sighs to himself and gets up and grabs a drink, hey Noir detectives totally drink, it's the rule.

Rogue came down from upstairs, with a look of concern on her face. When alerted to the situation immediately, she thought the cops might look to Jamie and their team as suspect. Mutants and freaks right? She still gets a little paranoid now and then.

She gave a small sympathetic smile to Jamie when she catches up with him, "What a day. And before you even think it, this /isn't/ yer fault."

Daimon smirks at Jamie when he walks in, opting for the no shirt look today as he usually did. But no trench coat either despite the blistering cold, being half demon had it's advantages after all.

He muttered to himself with that same smirk, "The boss was worried, that much was obvious. He had a look on his face that showed that jokester we all knew and loved was actually a mask for the deep torment of a man in pain. As he nursed his drink like a six year old baby at his mother's breast."

He listen to Rogue's addition to conversation and continued to mutter as he went to make himself his own drink, "That's when she walked in, Anna Marie Darkholme, the woman so devilish they had to give her to names. She was all curves and southern charm as she tried to consol the boss. Any other day, and it just might have worked."

Outloud however he did nothing, to be honest his morality was a bit... weaker than the others and while he wasn't a bad man, the devil inside him made him act a bit... rude.

Ordinarily it'd be a long train ride from Westchester to X-Factor Investigations. However, fortunately for Doug Ramsey, Lorna was home at the time.

Gliding in on a magnetic wave, the young man looking vaguely ill-at-ease being borne along with very little support other than Lorna's power, the two arrive in time to catch Rogue and Daimon approach Jamie.

"Hey Jamie," Doug greets as he manages to steady himself, and enters the office as Lorna tended to... business. "What've you got for us today"

Jamie takes a rather large drink from the glass he has. "She came to me for help, Anna. I should have found a way to protect her, sent a dupe to watch her or something." He goes back to the desk and looks at the others as they also walk in. He shows everyone the file, right before he starts the little talk.

"A few weeks ago this lady, Jane Smith, real name, Jane Powell came to the office for help. She was worried her bosses were doing some underhanded thing, but before we could finish the talk she got scared and ran away. I did find out she worked for a place called Singularity Investigations. I haven't found out much about them yet."

"Two days ago Jane Powell was found dead in her apartment. Cause of death is known, she was strangled. That's the easy part. Every entrance into her apartment was locked from the inside. The police contacted me because they found my business card by her body. We are going to find out what happened, and who did this to her. We just need to figure out where to start. Could have been a teleporter, phaser, or since her window didn't shut properly, someone who could stretch themselves thin enough to fit under a crack that my pinky could barely fit through." He pauses after that and finishes off his drink, "So any questions?"

Following in after Doug, Lorna runs her fingers through her green hair trying to tame it a little. "Hey guys, so whats the big case?" She asks looking around at the others. She falls silent when Jamie speaks, listening. "Could be telekinetics, where's the apartment?" She asks looking back to the others to see what they think.

Rogue crossed her arms in front of her chest as she listened to Jamie. She let out a breath, "Could be any number of things. Or a telepath could have made her choke herself. We need access to her apartment and to get a good look at the body. Are the police giving us access to both?"

Daimon continued to mutter to himself as he had his drink, "Then the door popped open and there was Douglas and Lorna. Douglas was a linguist and a master one at that. Give the boy an amount of words and he could make them sing like a choir. Lorna was a foxy beauty with hair as green and lovely as her eyes. I didn't know her to well yet, but that didn't mean I was blind."

Yes it appeared today that Daimon Hellstrom was give a noir-esque narration under his breath. His body language however didn't indicate any sort of malice behind it. It wasn't mocking, it was just what he was doing.

He did stay quiet when Jamie however went through the details of the situation. Daimon was a mild asshole not actually heartless. When he was done though he did start to mutter, "The boss started going through the details of the case. It was a sad story, the kind you hear a lot in this job. But as he started to explain it to us all, that when the hook caught me. It was the perfect lock door mystery. And if there was one thing the Son of Satan liked it was a lock door mystery."

After he finished his narration he looked at Jamie and said, "It could have also been a magical curse or even a ghost or demonic entity. Well to be honest it could have been angelic entity as well, those fuckers aren't as innocent as everyone likes to think."

He then muttered, "I told the boss, magic was a bit out of his forte but it was one that I knew rather well."

He then heard what Rogue added to it, "No good, you can't make someone choke themselves to death. They pass out first and then just stop doing it. And no conscious mind means no mind to control."

Muttering a final time, "I just hoped they didn't ask how I knew so much on that topic."

Without hesitation, Doug makes himself at home at the computer. Fingers dances across the keyboard, as Doug checks for information on Singularity Investigations. Looking up towards Rogue, Doug comments, "Then again, you could probably teleport a choking hazard into someone's throat and teleport it right out again," he says, adding to Daimon's comment.

"That one is out. The marks indicate that her hands were to small to strange herself. It was done by hand, that is also known. I have talked to the police to see if we can get access to her apartment, they will be willing to let us in. It will need to be supervised of course."

"Trust me I know about the angels, I spent some time as a gopher on Supernatural after all. Though Castiel is pretty darn cool." Singularity is a security firm for the rich and powerful, headed by a man named Damian Trypp. "This is what this meeting is about, brainstorm things we will need to look for when we are in the apartment. Heck someone with magnetic powers could have locked the doors after they left as well. There are just a lot of options here."

"But because of the strangulation by hand, I think teleporter, a person with stretching powers, or as a longshot a phaser. Telekinetic and magnetic powers would have other ways to kill her without using their hands. Magic is something I have not considered however."

Rogue stepped over to Daimon and punched him in the shoulder lightly, "Cut it out! This is serious talk time, you can be silly when bein' silly is appropriate."

Magic was something she was learning more about lately, she then looked to Daimon, "Is there any sort of reveal spell that could be done to the room, like targetin' in on someone who wished her harm. Hell probably not, just an idea."

"Not many of us around. If it were a magnetic kinetic then it'd be a pretty quick thing to track them down." Lorna comments on Jamie's suggestion. She sits on the arm rest of a chair glancing at Daimon with a grin and a shake of her head, laughing quietly. "So, were looking at someone with specific power sets or a damn fine burgler. We need to get eyes on this. The speculating might change pretty drastically once we see the scene with our own eyes." She points out crossing her arms.

Examining the information about Singularity, Doug considers, looking up more information about Damian Trypp. After a brief consideration on whether he could cross-match information, Doug checks into some of the more... classified sites, making sure to cover his tracks in the process.

Glancing up towards the people talking, Doug adds, "Should I check for kinetic powers too?" Probably checking the registry -and- the firm in question together might yield more information.

Daimon smirked at Rogue as she hit him, "I have no idea what you're talking about Anna, I am taking this seriously."

Muttering, "For such a small frame that dame packed a wallop, but then again I had already found that out on more than one occassion."

Daimon however took a big drink of his own booze and said, "Truth be told that's not entirely my area of expertise. I'm more the exorcist type. But I can see curses and curses can leave physical manifestations that look perfectly mundane. That's why they're so popular. I'd have to see her body to be sure."

Once again muttering though this time not in the cheesy Noir narration he had been doing, "Or maybe just make a phone call, but then I'd owe him."

"I'll see if I can make arrangements to get you access to her body Daimon. Is that time sensitive? May have to work the lead detective to get us access, he wasn't that thrilled with me sticking my firm's nose in there."

Outside of the name, there is very little known about Damian Trypp, the guy does appear to be a mystery. The client list of the company is however a who's who of the rich and famous. Seems a lot of people with money and power have some type of dealings with them.

"For the on site investigation I'll definitely want Lorna and Daimon there. Obviously everyone is welcome to come if they want. I will also see if I can get Gar along, he could possibly pick up a scent in one of his animal forms."

"Cool. I'll give it my best Jamie." Lorna says nodding her head a little. "When do you want us, and where's the place?" She asks him glancing back over to Daimon curiously. She shifts her weight on the arm of the chair and looks over at Doug curiously. "Hey, whatcha up to over there Dougie?"

"Just digging up information on the Singularity Investigations," Doug responds, as he leans back, trying to figure out other avenues of searches he can pull up. After a pause, he starts to check security cam videos for the location and around, just in case. "What time did it happen?"

"Time sensitive to a degree. It can't wait months but a few days won't be enough for any magical resonance to have faded," Daimon said nodding his head slightly as he did, "Honestly before she gets put in the ground will work, especially if she's buried on holy ground it'll suck the curse right out of her."

He folded his arms as he considered a bit more, "And I can do some dream divination tonight as well. It'll allow me to focus on a solution, perhaps see something that normal human eyes wouldn't see."

"Time of death was estimated to between 2 and 2:15 am. The victim as asleep in her bed when it happened. So the killer was skilled enough to get in without making enough noise to wake her up." Jamie goes to get another drink after that, booze is always good. "Thanks Daimon, I'll contact the detective. Will tell him I owe him a favor or something for access to the body."

Rogue looked to Jamie, "They'll have been questioned already, but Ah'd like to talk to the people Jane saw regularly. If they are hidin' somethin', well they won't be able to around me. They might know somethin' we don't know yet. Enemies, violent ex-lovers."

"No sign of forced entry, they might have just had a key. Someone the victim knew. I mean, strangulation is pretty violent, and personal. No sign of sexual assault?" Lorna asks sliding back into the chair and sitting in it sideways.

Jamie reaches into the file and grabs Rogue a piece of paper, "She had a sister and two really close friends. That would be the best place to start." Jamie shakes his head at Lorna, "Chain locked from the inside. So even with a key couldn't have gotten past that."

"And it remained there? You've got a locked room mystery basically?" Doug tilts his head, as he runs his hands over his face, before doing a quick check of social media for the victim, so that he could do a compilation of who might have been in touch, particularly around the time of death.

Daimon nodded as he finished off his own booze. He never really got drunk, he just sort of liked the taste to be honest, "Did I mention I love lock door mysteries? I get that I'm being insensitive because you know, dead woman that Jamie had offered to help and all. But I really love lockdoor mysteries."

"Alright, well, when you want Daimon and I to head down to the apartment call me up Jamie? I need to step out for a second." Lorna says standing up from the chair. She gives the group a faint smile before stepping just outside the office door.

Daimon added, "We probably need permission for that too. I mean, technically I could just teleport us both in there, but pinpoint accuracy with teleporting takes more time in Hell. And honestly I doubt any of you really want to be in Hell for two minutes while I sort out how to get from here to the middle of the girls apartment."

"Just give me all the information you find and we'll see what we can dig up," Doug calls out to Rogue, cracking his knuckles. "And man, I'm not sure if I like locked room mysteries when, you know, it's -real people-," the young man has to admit.

"Well I already got us permission to lock at the apartment, but would need some more for us to look at the body. And yeah it's closed door mystery, which is why they are thinking some type of superhuman involvement. That's the police reasoning anyway." Of course Jamie has been careful in the powers he has suggested, as there has been one he has left off the list of powers he could think of that could have gotten a person inside that apartment...

Rogue looked to Doug and nodded, "Can do hun. Ah'll bring along my phone in case something funny happens. Course Ah always got my fists."

As Daimon discovered tonight, even without her Ms. Marvel powers she still can punch with the best of em. She moved towards the coat rack and slid on her long black leather trench coat.

Daimon paused a moment, that Devil's advocate in him suddenly started throwing up huge alarm bells. It was just screaming for him to point out something. So he looked at Jamie and then said, "Wait... I will admit I'm not an expert on mutant powers, or anyone's powers here except for mine. But... Jamie, couldn't you create one of your duplicate people through the small crack in the window?"

Daimon had spent several years as a professional paranormal detective before coming to X-Factor, it made him quick on the uptake. And being the Son of Satan means he couldn't just share this privately, he'd have to make sure everyone heard it.

"Thanks," Doug grins at Rogue, before looking at Daimon, and then eyeing Jamie. "Interesting point there, boss-man. If we're supposed to suspect everyone... alibis wouldn't work for you because you could just be anywhere anywhen..."

Jamie finishes his almost full drink from the glass before answering Daimon's question. "If I wanted to I could. I can focus a dupe creation through any body part if I need to. I have even done so to get out of places people have locked me in. But I also didn't kill her, and well none of the dupes I'm in mental contact with did as well. Would even let Anna absorb my memories to prove that one if I had to." Could always be a rogue dupe though, one that has cut himself off from the hive mind stuff, "Heck I could get in there without making noise, and would be smart enough to cover up my tracks as well. Like whoever did this did as well."

Rogue's eyes widned, "We are really asking this? Well, yeah I can touch Jamie. But are these...rogue dupes really all that common? And can we use another name like...naughty dupe?"

"I'm not accusing Jamie. Just there might be someone out there with the same powers as you. I mean that does happen right? Or maybe some evil energy mutant who can posses people and is only hurtable by organic metal stole one when you were younger and that's now gone all evil and wants revenge," Daimon said with a small shrug.

"If you ask me I blame society," he decided to add with a cynical laugh."

"Have I had dupes that have been uncontrollable before? Yes. Have I ever had one cut himself off from me that I didn't know what they were doing at all? Well tough to say I've lost track of how many dupes are out there." Something he will need to fix, maybe after this case is solved of course. "So yeah it could be that, or even someone with my powers. Don't know if there are any others who can do what I do. I haven't met one yet."

"Okay, Jamie," Doug says, running a hand through his hair. "We'll figure out something. For now, let's just get the investigation on the road, yeah? At least we know what to look for."

"Something worth checking out then. I'll add it to the things to divine while I'm dreaming tonight," Daimon said with a nod and then he got a smile on his face and looked over to Rogue.

"Well Anna, me and Lorna better not check out the apartment until daylight, it's just asking for trouble to be wandering around a crime scene at night, even if we are allowed," he got a little flirty smile on his face and said, "Why don't you and I go out for some drinks. I think we could both use a bit of relaxing before we get going on all of this."

Yes, he was aware of how at least one of the men in the room felt about Rogue, that was sort of the point actually.

Rogue was flipping up the collar on her trench coat when Daimon extended the offer, "Can't say no to that, 'Sug. Don't think tomorrow is gonna be easy on anyone. Can't imagine the sister and her two friends will like yet /another/ person questionin' them. Maybe Ah can get something out of them the police couldn't. Got a way with people, at least sometimes."

She looked over two the two other men, Jamie was always well stocked. And does Doug drink? The man who can read everything about everything could be interesting on booze, "Either one of you want to join in?"

"Oh," Doug perks up, as he shuts down the computer. "Sure, I'd love to." It wasn't as though Doug was bothered about Rogue, one way or another - death had a funny way of re-arranging priorities. What would happen, would happen.

"Sure I'll join you, think I'll need some booze to deal with this some more." Especially cause the SON OF SATAN has pointed out the thing Jamie didn't want pointed out. Could there be another him out there that has killed. And if so what happens when Jamie reabsorbs that dupe.