Pixie zooms around the room, and stops by the door...
Looking at the door, you notice that the deadbolt is half-way engaged. In fact, pressing your nose up against the crack in the door, you see that the dead bolt looks like it was sliced off, the edge is shiny, like polished metal. In fact, reaching out to touch it with a small hand you draw back a bloody finger where the edge sliced it was so sharp.
Continuing down the door, you notice that the door latch has the same sort of cut off look. The dead bolt and door are both locked, so they should be in the door frame, not cut off halfway to it.
On the floor at the base of the door, there's a cut in the floor, as if something had sliced down into it, similar to what you get when a knife cuts through the bottom of a pie tin. There's bits of metal dust in the cut, although it looks like someone swiped some of it out, perhaps taking a sample.
This is probably why there's a padlock on the outside door, as the locks on the door wouldn't hold the door closed in this state.
"Ow! I cut myself... anybody have a tiny band-aid?"
She thinks for a moment, then calls out again.
"Hey, do we need any of this, like, metal residue?"
"No," Janice replies. "That would be absurd. Bandage it when you're larger. Is it residue from the broken lock, or from something else?"
"I was joking. And, uh... maybe? It's in this little cut thingy... maybe it's from a knife."
"Hmm. You can take a small piece, I guess, but do whatever you can to not leave fingerprints. Then we should go."
While waiting for the girls, Mud wanders the street looking for signs of Mr. Wino. He always keeps the apartment in sight, so he can respond in case something happens.
Mud notices several homeless men in an alley about a black away. They eye him with less than friendlyness, but also less than hostility. More like guarded fear.
Mud turns his back on the homeless and counts the remaining cash in his wallet. After putting his wallet away, he heads toward the homeless men in a non-threatening manner. He keeps an eye out for his friends and the apartment lights.
Pixie carefully scoops out as much of the metal dust as she can. She doesn't have gloves, so she makes sure her fingertips don't touch anything as she's taking it. Unfortunately, that's very awkward, so the sample she takes is less than she might have wanted.
"Do you have anything to put it in, or should I just..?"
"Pocket, I guess? God, this feels unprofessional. Shall we go?"
Janice does the best she can with the sample. But it's not likely to be 'untainted' at this point.
The group inside the apartment can't find anything else, and exits the apartment, letting Pixie re-lock the window and then fly out using the air shafts.
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Meanwhile, Mud heads over toward the homeless guys, who all look pretty guarded as he approaches. One of them, the one who looks in the best shape, touches what looks like a rusty pipe on the ground next to him. [b]"Whatchu want?'[b/]
Mud smiles and holds up his hands, "Hi guys. I just want to talk to the fellow who saw someone bust down the door of the apartment over there. Would you know who he is?"
The men eye Mud. "Don't look like no cop..." Spokesman says, spitting on the ground near Mud's feet. "Whatcha want to know fer? You'in gonna rub out witnesses?" The other men mumble and shift, one picking up an empty wine bottle, another putting a hand on a loose brick.
"Nah. I'm not a cop. There was a lady in that apartment who is a friend of a friend. I'm trying to find her. Can you help?" Mud tries.
Janice sees if she can see Mud from where she and Pixie left the apartment.
As she exits onto the 2nd floor balcony walkway, she notices Mud's cloaked figure at the entrance to an Alley. There are dim flickers of light within the alley.
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Mud notices Janice climb out the window as he talks to the men.
The spokesman snorts. "I dunno, mista. You don't look like no friend of anyone, even that rich f@#*$#@d that lives there." Several other men mutter about the rich <bleep> as well, apparently he's not liked. "Liked the girl tho." More muttering, this time in agreement. "Whatsit worth to ya?"
Janice can't change her clothes—that's beyond her ability—but this should make it easier for the others to keep up with her disguises.
Ducking quickly into an alley, she steps back out and walks towards Mud. While she still wears ordinary street clothes, she's taken the form of a far more attractive, slightly younger blonde woman.
Lightly, she walks up to Mud, tapping him lightly on the arm. "Hey, luv. How's the investigation going?" she asks, in her best British accent. "Papa called again, wants me to come home, thinks this is all a waste of time—but I just have to know if she's alright." And then she turns, "noticing" the men Mud's speaking to.
"Hey," Mud replies to Janice when she joins them. "I've heard one of these guys saw the break in of her apartment. I've $10 for them to tell me what they saw." He pulls out and holds the ten dollar bill out in front of the guys.
Pixie, not being very good with social encounters, just hides in Janice's pocket for this part.
The talkative guy laughs, and several others join in. "What, do I look like an 8 year old girl? Ten bucks, please n#$$#r, get the f#*k out of here... Ten dollars..." T
Janice stumbles to the ground, feigning the onset of tears. "Please," she asks, looking up, "We're so worried, and the police won't help, and... and you want money? I can pay, but... why should I trust the word of someone so mercenary?"
"Don't nobody care about us down here. Where you think we gonna get money around here? You gonna leave, go back to a job. We gonna be here when you gone, figurin' out how eat and get booze." The others mutter as well, although several eye Janice sympathetically.
Janice sighs, and reaches into her wallet, pulling out another $60. "This is all the money I have on me," she replies, shaking her head.
Mud empties his pockets . "This is everything I have. We just want to help her."
The man gets up and comes over and takes the $84.73 from the duo, and returns, divying it up. Most of it (about $40) goes to one older man with a wall eye that's nearly solid white. The spokesman nudges him, and the old man starts talking.
"Well, I wuz a diggin' in the cans, lookin' fer dinner, 'bout a week or two ago, don't 'member zactly. Dere were two fellers, dey was young, an' dey was like, fit. You know? Like dey worked out all the time. But not like dem gym heads. Dey had short hair..." He holds up two fingers that shake and hold them about a half-inch apart.
"I noted 'em 'casue dey didn't look like dey was from around here, but dey didn't walk like dey was nervous. You know, like you and her do. Like dey wasn't 'fraid o' nuthin. Dey went up to de door, and dere was dis screech sound, like metal rippin, and den dey went in. Der was a lot of noise den, cashin', bangin', and such. Den dey came out carryin' somethin', 'bout yay big..." He holds his hands out about 8 inches apart. "Den dey left, by de time de po po got here, dey was long gone."
Mud listens intently. Then, slowly he asks follow up questions, "The thing they took. What shape was it? Like a 6-pack or a toaster or a bottle? And could you tell if the guys were black or white? And did they wear anything odd?"
The old man thinks for a bit. "Was kinda box like. Maybe book like..." He shakes his head. "One was white.. I think. The other uh, maybe black, maybe spic. Jest wore black. Black shoes, black shirts, black pants... long sleeved shirts... necks up to here..." He rubs a finger under his ear, touching his earlobe.
"Wow, that's really distinctive. Thanks a bunch. If it helps to find the lady, I'll bring ya'll a reward." Mud really appreciates the description and looks to Janice for anything else.
"Right," Janice replies. "Metal ripping. You didn't see how they did it? Was this before, or after, she disappeared?"
The old man blinks. "Uh dunno, the popo didn't show up cuz she was missing until after, but nobody don't member seein her fore that no way."
"We've made enough of a mess already. Pixie, take my phone. Can you scout it? Let me know if you see anything suspicious, or just snap a picture of it."
"Got it."
Pixie grabs the phone and flies back towards her entrance point. It's a bit tricky to grip so much surface area, but she's more than strong enough. It's a bit like carrying a large empty box.
With the information gleamed from the conversation with the bums, Pixie once again searches the area.
Pixie looks around, and with the extra information , she notices a wire sticking out of a wall. It looks like a phone wire, but it's been broken off mid wire, so several copper wires stick out of the remains of the wire. It's next to the end table where the lamp was smashed. Looking closely at the table, she notices there's a dusty outline in the shape of a square.
As instructed, she snaps a picture of it and keeps looking around.
That's the only thing Pixie notices.
After a short while, Pixie comes back out and passes Janice back her phone.
"So, yeah. Looked like somebody ripped the phone out of the wall."
"Hmm." Janice frowns. "Not sure if that's the sort of box the men said they saw. But... well, no. If it's something metahuman, I don't have the information, and I'm not going to start inventing new powers. Maybe we should close this case for now and work on something we're more qualified for, like the were-cat attacks."
"Close the case? Why don't you check the police files to see what they think of the missing phone. Who has box-like phones anyway?" Mud replies.
After a pause, he continues, "we also know that the victim knew a Mr. Hebert. He's a white guy with red hair and son of a famous politician. Shouldn't be hard to find. A kid across the street told me about him and the homeless guys who also saw the break-in. Maybe the son told daddy about his weird girlfriend. Then, daddy told the guys in black."