#casefile001.plot

TIME:  Third week of January 

LOCATION: Amber, Arkkansas

A light dusting of snow has fallen just as the group arrives in the small town of Amber, Arkansas. It appears everyone is already out and ready to start their day. The town isn’t huge but it seems to be buzzing with life with the giggling sounds of laughter from kids walking together to school and from people chatting to one another in front of store windows. It’s clear there has been some new changes to the town as all the buildings appear to have a fresh coat of paint on them, or the look of new wood from recent construction on small businesses. 

However, as they drive they begin to notice a similar marking popping up all around them, a set of two white arches. Some houses have small signs on their nicely mowed lawns, others have the large arches painted over their doorways. All over town, they appear in different ways but it seems clear enough to the team what it must signify. The Holy Arch Church.

Once they settle into the small bed and breakfast that has been supplied to them, they all head off to start their investigation. 

Ingrid, Dante, Gail, Lenore, head down the local sheriff’s office. It is small but clean, which is a lot more to be said than some of the places they visited. Sheriff Paxton, who barely grumbles a hello before showing them to a meeting room they can use as well as the morgue bellow the building. They are surprised to see May Harper, arriving there to welcome them as well.

While Sage, Niko, Oscar, Kimo head to the home of Victoria Sato, mother of the recently deceased Cynthia Sato. Her house is a little more rundown compared to the white arched houses of her neighbors. She’s happy they are here and she is more than happy to show them her daughter’s apartment which she has left untouched for them to come investigate.

Elliot, Gregor, Lia venture to the Church of the Holy Arches itself. The starkly white building sit in a beautiful large plot of land surrounded by gardens that are currently being tended to by some of the parishioners, including Richard Campbell. There, “Dad” is ready to greet them and help in whatever ways he can.

OBJECTIVE:

the team has regrouped the next day after the fiery impassioned speech given by dad to his followers. it seems clear there is suddenly a newfound spark in the community for justice for the deaths. and all of that anger seems directed towards the teams newest prisoner, stephen picky. a rather large crowd has gathered outside the sheriff's office where most of the team has gathered. as the hours go by, stephen seems more and more willing to talk. but still there seems to be a fog over his memory and a reluctance to tel the truth of whats happening. with each dead end answer stephen gives, the crowd anxious for answers and results, and don't seem to be going away anytime soon.

and while the team has now gained a new mob of people outside their door, there seems to be a noticeable absence of certain people. first, being sheriff andrews. after the team spotted a familiar tattoo on his side, the man has seemingly disappeared. no one has seen him yet, not even the few police officers who have come to help. although even their presence seems to be dwindling down as the crowd outside grows larger and larger. the officers there are able to just keep everyone at bay enough and aren't concerned with helping to find their boss.

the other more pressing missing person is their own team member, gregor. after the vigil, gregor seemingly disappeared after arriving back with the team. no word has been heard from him yet and the team is getting anxious to find him. especially given the slight hostile crowd outside.

to make it worse, dad and maybelle have been coming by the police station in hopes of helping in whatever way they can. although they are starting to push to help talk with stephen. believing that a member of the community could actually get some answers out of the man

With Dad's speech wrapping up the crowd was ready to find out whatever information. It didn't take long before the crowd was beginning to swarm the agents still outside. All of them trying to be helpful asking questions and yelling out whatever information they could get. But the crowd was getting a little too passionate and the agents told the crowd they would listen to everyone back at the station in the morning. With the help of the Sheriff, the agents outside were able to make it back to their cars. Before leaving however Lia took notice of the Sheriff speaking with Diana Rogers, one of the members of the church as she began putting away some of the chairs and other boxes of candles. Helping out the young woman, he lifted the box over his head to place it on the stage. At that moment his shirt lifted up, revealing the glimpse of a tattoo. And it looked like a familiar set of white arches. It was only for a brief moment before it was gone but from across the crowd the Sheriff locked eyes with Lia before she hurried into the car with the others.

It seems like this case is a tangled web of deception, confusion and coverups. Only barely being in Amber for a few days the team already is discovering the lack of information these cases have. Witnesses are scarce and information is even scarcer.

Elliot and Lia are assigned to try and uncover a bit more into the background of both Harlon and Maybelle Harper to see if there are any leads that could possibly help them.

The autopsy reports are clearly a mess as discovered by multiple agents. However, when going through the report of the hit and run victim, Oscar Ladon, it was discovered by Dante that the mentions of paint chips from the car were found embedded in the victim from the impact. But, looking through the evidence given to them it seems that anything helpful went missing, or wasn’t even given.

Kimo and Sage were sent back to ask a few more followup questions to Victoria Sato, but when they arrived the door to her house was open. Walking inside, they were met with a grisly scene: Victoria Sato was dead, clearly from multiple stab wounds.

It seems a new case has suddenly fallen into the laps of the agents and this time there was clear evidence of a crime. The lab techs, Oscar and Niko, have been set up at Victoria’s home to begin their analysis of the crime scene. As well as new autopsy to be done by Dante.

Just after the team managed to secure the scene, a man suddenly arrived, confessing that he killed Victoria Sato, to the shock of the officers. He was quickly arrested and brought in.

The man, Stephen Picky, claims that he was attempting to rob Victoria Sato when she arrived home sooner than he thought. Although he claims to have done it, his answers leave much to be desired. Stephen seems fuzzy and disoriented during the initial interrogation with Ingrid. But, Gail’s testing of his blood comes back clean. He’s still being held for questioning.

Only a few hours after the sheriff’s office let the community know what happened, Dad and Maybelle have arranged a candlelight vigil to happen that night at the church. He says it will be a good moment to bring the community together and move on from what is happening, as he believes the killer has been caught. Gregor and other agents have been invited personally by Dad as he hopes it will show progress on the case.

Objective: