Mud sinks into his over-sized, black Saints hoodie and comfortably leans against the alcove of the entrance of a closed hole-in-the-wall store across the street from the victim's house watching and listening for anything out of the ordinary.
She decides to open the window instead, deciding it would be easier than finding the key.
Janice climbs through the window, stretcher her body out to slither in without making any sound, then waits to see if any others want to follow.
Janice's feet crunch on the floor as she steps in broken glass and other hard to identify things scattered over the floor of the living room. It's dark and she has trouble seeing anything.
Pixie is in mostly the same boat, only able to easily see the windows due to the light shining through the curtains.
"Light switch, Pixie?" Janice asks. "Unless someone thought to bring a flashlight..."
"I can look around and see if I can find a light switch, sure... careful not to move too much in the dark, you might bump into something important."
The living room is a shambles. The couches has been chopped up, the tv smashed apart, the shelves knocked apart, the chair sliced up, pictures knocked off the wall...
"Right," Janice calls out, straightening up. "Anything you want to look for in particular, or should I just take swabs and samples and pretend we can learn something new the many teams of forensic techs must have somehow missed?"
Drider quickly skitters across the outside of the building and slips through the window after the others just in time for the light to come on after her. Remembering that Janice didn't want them messing with anything, she clings to the wall with her spider limbs, keeping herself a few inches above the floor.
Glancing over the wrecked room, she furrows her brow in confusion and asks, "Is it normal for an abduction scene to look this trashed and not have any traces of blood in it? You said there wasn't any sign the girl was hurt, right?"
The arachnoid legs carry her along the wall, careful to avoid knocking anything over as she glances into the other rooms, curious if the chaos extended into any of them.
"No. It's not normal for an abduction to have an obvious crime scene, period. There was no blood splatter, which means that somebody just really wanted to smash up the furniture. And please try not to leave behind any DNA evidence while you're here."
Mud sees nothing from across the street, although he does notice when the apartment's light comes on, and can make out figures inside the room on the other side of the window.
Drider starts to climb the wall, and finds that the cheap interior sheetrock on the walls can't hold her weight as her first attempt results in her laying on the ground on her side in the broken glass and shattered furniture, large chunks of sheetrock stuck to the bottoms of her feet, and plaster dust pluming in the air. Her crash to the floor is, oddly enough, perfectly timed so it happens as Janice asks her not to leave any evidence behind.
"Right." Janice shakes her head. "Maybe just...stay there, don't make any more noise. Pixie, you wanted to look for really small things? Said your eyes might be better for it?"
Mud checks his watch when the light turns on and subtly checks the street for anyone.
Why didn't they bring a flashlight? Hope they don't get indicted for kidnapping this lady by leaving their evidence at the scene. It looks so much easier in the movies. He thinks to himself.
Drider curses under her breath as she hits the floor, her chitinous body ignoring the glass shards. She pushes herself up into a sitting position against the wall, angrily tearing the bits of wall off the end of her limbs and tossing them aside. Freed of debris, the bottom pair instantly begin weaving as she hugs her human legs to her chest and rests her chin on her knees.
Mud doesn't see anything out of the ordinary.
The room looks like it was systematically trashed, all the pictures are torn down, every piece of furniture has slash and cut marks in it, the tv looks like something cut it half-way through in one blow, every shelf has been emptied onto the floor, and all the books have been cut in half... but not top to bottom along the spine, but sideways through the spine.
Mud noticed what sounded like a muffled crashing sound from the apartment.
Mud shakes his head and looks around the street to see if anyone notices the burglars.
As her spider limbs go on autopilot, Drider takes another glance around the room from her slouched position on the floor. She notes one book, then another, then more. Slowly she stands up, absently tucking the stress induced silk weave into her belt. She glances along the shelves, the top right appendage tracing a line through the air, noting the height of where the slashes would be made roughly in her mind.
"Hey, the police probably thought of this, too, but," She starts before looking over to Snapdragon, "You think the mess is a red herring? Maybe there wasn't a kidnapping at all?"
Janice shakes her head again. "No, Drider," she replies. "I don't think anything. Without days of trace, ballistics, and interviews, we've got nowhere near as much information as even the uniforms on this case. I'm not comfortable making any sort of call like that. We're only involved at all because you two thought Pixie's super-tiny hands or eyes or something might find some secret magic evidence. Let's check that, then get out of here before we wreck the scene any more."
Mud notices a kid, maybe 10 or 12, looking up at the apartment window from down the street. The kid's head is cocked, with a confused look on her face. Then she heads into a different apartment building.
Mud follows the kid.
Mud enters the apartment building. Unlike the one across the street, this is a more traditional one with the hallways on the inside rather than the outside of the building.
The girl, who looks about 12, is at the top of the stairs, opening a door as Mud enters. She glances down, and then hurridly opens the door and scoots in, closing the door behind her.
Janice does her best to look around, though she's not entirely sure what she should be looking for, considering the high-profile examination the crime scene's already had.
Mud heads upstairs to the door that girl entered. He listens at the door but doesn't hear anything.
Then, he knocks at the door.
There is no answer.
Mud quietly knocks again. Then, he takes $5 from his wallet and crouches down in front of the door. He conversationally says to the door, "I've got five bucks if you tell me about that apartment across the street," and slides the $5 under the door holding half of the $5 to prevent it from being taken.
Nothing happens at the door... other than a hesitant tug on the $5 that stops almost as quickly as it starts.
Mud pushes the $5 bill fully under the door. "Now, you have my money. I won't hurt you. You can tell me about that apartment across the street through the door, so you can keep it closed."
"Lady lived there was nice, she vanished. They say someone took her. Never heard or saw nothin'. Wish they'd taken the guy, he's a jerk."
"I want to help the lady. Can you tell me about the guy?"
"He not around, he gone off somewhere 'fore lady gone. He dumb honkey. Always callin' people names, talkin' down. He got money." Him having money seems to be a cardinal sin on the same order as 'he a terrorist'.
"Can you describe him for me? Does he wear anything funny? I want to find him."
"Don't wemember anything about him... he a jerk..."
The girl wants more money...
Mud grimaces and pulls out another $5 bill. As he slides it under the door, he says, "can you remember now?" He actually is quite content giving the little girl money.
The bill vanishes. "He white, with red hair. He a jerk. His daddy some big shot pollytisssssion. He been gone since before girl go away, dunno why."
"Anything else? Know his name?" He slides his last $5 bill under the door and pins it to the floor with his strength.
There's a tug on the bill, and when it doesn't move...
"Mistah Hebert..." "Mistah Wino said he saw some one cut the door open wit a sword, but nobody believed him, cause he's a drunk..."
He slides the $5 bill under the door. "Mr. Hebert is the white guy with red hair or the wino? Where can I find the wino? Anything else? I'm running out of cash."
"White guy... Mistah Wino is Mistah Wino. He live on street. Momma says look for puke, you find Mistah Wino..." The $5 vanishes.
"Thanks, honey." Mud gets up and heads back to his spot watching the apartment. He'll casually look for signs of Mr. Wino, but not too much.
"I don't think we're getting anywhere with this..."