7229/1956: The Scene of the Crime

1956: The Scene of the Crime
Date of Scene:	05 August 2021
Location:	Location
Synopsis:	No description
Cast of Characters:	Daniel Sousa, Melinda May

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Daniel Sousa has posed:
The drive to the Roosevelt is quick, thanks to SHIELD's new digs' central location and before long Lily can see it's sign looming above the Los Angeles streets, painted in flashing red from the black and whites parked below it. The Roosevelt is past its prime, named for Teddy not Franklin, surviving its proximity to Hollywood and Union Station, cheap rooms and a bar where a person can get a decent drink. The sort of place with lots of new faces, coming and going, making it hard to keep track of who's who, it made it a great place for a meet, but a helluva place to try and solve a murder.

Closer to the hotel Lily can see the chaos hinted by the flashing lights against the hotel's peeling sign, a fleet of black and whites surround the building, joined by the plain black of SHIELD issued vehicles. Where the headlights and the patrol car's cherries don't light things up, arc lights do the job, making the Roosevelt's pool deck as bright as day even with the sun already set.

Beyond the cordon of LAPD blue suits keeping out the lookie loos two groups are clustered in buffalo stances across the pool from one another. One group, a party of four, all men, cheap suits, more than a few of them smoking, a couple more taking nips from flasks when they think nobody's looking: LAPD. The other a mix of men and women and less monochromatic than the other group, better suits, and nobody's drinking though more than few look like they wish to hell they were: SHIELD.

Back at the office, Ryan told Lily, agent Vic Sharp was currently running the scene and to take over when she got there, he'd help her out however she needed.

Melinda May has posed:
Lily's eyes take in the scene as she approaches. A constable raises a hand to stop her when she approaches the police line, but she flashes her SHIELD badge and he backs down with a brief grimace. Her heels are crisp on the concrete as she approaches the two groups. She glances to the LAPD crew, assessing their heirarchy fairly quickly, before she turns toward the SHIELD contingent.

"Agent Sharp?" She's met him once or twice before, though not often. She extends her hand, "Lily Chen. Bring me up to speed."

She can feel the eyes of the local cops watching them. The fact SHIELD uses more women than most other law enforcement agencies is telling. And, to some of those other agencies, suspect. How the hell can it possibly be as effective an organization as it is that way? And yet, it clearly is.

Daniel Sousa has posed:
The LAPD contingent seem to be gathered around two men in plain clothes who seem to be calling the shots, or at least leading the grumbling about being pushed out of a scene in *their* city, especially by SHIELD. The agency was effective, but it's hiring practices raised eyebrows with conventional law enforcement.

Sharp though was more of your clean cut g-man type, in a crisp suit with a calm but commanding presence as he directs SHIELD's people. Seeing Lily coming, he breaks away from the knot of agents to come shake her hand. "Agent Chen, Ryan called to let me know you were coming," he says before diving right into the report.

"We our artist making sketches off the witness reports, mostly got the men, the one wit who saw the woman was three sheets to the wind, we sent him to HQ to dry out and hope he has more to give us than he did.

"Our local friends," he nods to the cluster of LAPD on the far side of the pool. "Canvassed the bar and the hotel rooms facing the pool. We're redoing the interviews with the ones that had something to say. But from we can tell, nobody heard the shots and we didn't find any brass on the pool deck. Definitely a hit, not some thugs who pulled off a few lucky shots while trying to roll the field director,"

Sharp continues the gist being that nobody saw much. The three thugs in the bar, are likely clean, they were in the bar at the approximate time of death, but they cleared out pretty quick afterwards so we're looking to track them down ASAP?

As Sharp talks there's a feeling of something from across the pool where the SHIELD techs have it roped off, something was off over there.

Melinda May has posed:
"So, we can probably assume the killer used a suppressor," Lily concludes. "We're going to need an autopsy to see if the bullets match." She doesn't buy the idea that there were multiple shooters. Call it a gut instinct. But she'll wait for the report to be sure. She knows the body has already been collected so she doesn't immediately ask after it.

But her attention is drawn over across the way, a faint frown appearing on her features. "I want to walk the scene," she tells Sharpe, peering into the distance. "I want to trace the Chief's last footsteps, if I can." She wants to see it. But her instinct tells her to take a look across the way. "But let's walk the pool, first."

Daniel Sousa has posed:
"Single shooter with a suppressor is what we were thinking too, likely a pro, given the weapon and they took the time to find their brass even after shooting them in the open like this," he glances around at all the windows facing the pool, full now with rubberneckers, watching the action down below. "Now way an amature has the guts and calm to stick around for that."

As for walking the scene, he nods, "Sure, from our reports the Chief came out over there," he points to a door as he leads the way around the pool. And got to there," he points to the roped off area, where he got hit, before making it to the pool. I guess the shots disoriented him or the shooter had him cut off from anywhere else," he says with a frown clearly seeing the moment in his head, it makes him flinch. "Anyhow c'mon, let's see what we can see.

He starts with the door, then leads Lily along the deck to where the blood can be seen, leading to the pool, and the wrongness grows more intense.

Melinda May has posed:
The closer they get to the body, the more certain Lily is that something isn't right. And the more certain she is that she's the only one feeling it -- mainly because the emotions of the others in the pool zone aren't perturbed in a way that suggests they're freaked out. Disgruntled and resentful, yes, at least as far as the cops are concerned. Grief, anger, and determination from the SHIELD agents. But no one else is registering any sort of heightened concern or alertness.

She pauses near the edge of the cordoned-off area, not because of the tape, but because of the build-up in chronal pressure that knots at the base of her skull. It feels alarmingly like one of her seizures coming on... but she hasn't suffered those in years, now. Still, it's enough to make her stop and concentrate on her breathing for just a moment.

Let the others think it's weakness, if they want. Lily doesn't care.

To give herself some focus, she concentrates on the blood spatter patterns. Her brows knit. She moves closer to the cordon, combat breathing through the pressure. "Can we estimate a trajectory based on the spatter?" she asks. "The Chief landed in the pool, right? Face up or face down?" She stops and slowly turns around, looking to see where he was coming from and where the most opportune angles would have been. "Do you know if he was shot in the back or the front?"

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Things go fuzzy for a moment, Lily's vision blurring, Daniel flickers out of signt for a moment and returns, dogs flicker in next sniffing at their handler's command, Ryan giving orders, men spreading out..

Everything snaps back into focus and sharp leans into her field of you, "Chen you alright?" he asks. "If you need a break, the hotel bar's giving us free coffee, feel free to grab a cup take a few moments and come back."

Melinda May has posed:
Lily blinks, eyes flicking over the doubled image of the scene. That it tells her which direction Daniel was facing isn't entirely lost on her, but it is buried under the confusion of seeing the temporal ghosts. She doesn't quite sway, but her back stiffens to reinforce her balance.

When Sharpe interrupts her sight, she inhales sharply in mild surprise. Then she she shakes her head quickly, feeling a touch of the pressure in the back of her skull abate. It's not gone, but it is slightly reduced. "I'm fine," she tells the other agent. "Just jet lag, that's all." She gives a tight smile. "Coffee wouldn't go amiss, but I'll be okay."

Regardless, she steps under the cordon anyway and starts pacing off steps from the body, almost inadvertently following one of the dog's paths.

Daniel Sousa has posed:
"Sure," Sharp says before heading inside to get the coffee leaving Lily to her search. The dog's path leads to a side door half hidden by the garden in front of it. Decent concealment and a clear line of sight to the roped off area where the Daniel was first hit, before stumbling into the pool.

Melinda May has posed:
Lily is mildly surprised that Sharpe goes to get the coffee for her. But she's also mildly relieved. It allows her to pace the scene on her own for a moment, which may be helpful if any more of those strange temporal flashes hit. Even so, when she reaches the concealed door, she pauses and turns around. She raises her hand, empty of a weapon but curled, one finger extended, as if there were one in her palm. She can almost see the bullets flying through the air in her mind.

Pursing her lips faintly, she slides a bit of her cuff down over her fingers and pulls at the door handle to see what's behind and where it leads, though she doesn't step through.