A Visit from Detective Atwood
Michael
At about 3 pm the phone in Marshall's residence at the Mission rings insistently. 12 rings, then a hang-up. 14 rings, then a hang-up. In his half-awake state I figure it might take him some time to make it to the phone.
Brant
He'll get up, put on a robe, take an Alka Seltzer, and then answer the phone next time it rings.
Michael
It's Sunshine Parker over at the greeting center in the main house. "Dr. Redgrave. You have a visitor and he says it's important. It's Detective Atwood from the County Sheriff's office. He's here to talk to you about … the children?"
Brant
(heavy sigh)
"Thanks Sunshine. Give me uh … 15 minutes. Then bring him to the south yard atrium. Also, please have Jonathan fetch the kids from Cavalry and have Beth bring a pot of coffee, two cups, and uh some toast with jam to the atrium for me. Thanks."
Then Marshall will put on some pants, a few Buddhist prayer bead necklaces, some yellow tinted sunglasses, leave on the robe (no shirt), and head to the atrium.
Michael
Marshall makes his way down to the atrium. Standing there when he arrives is Detective Atwood. He's looking more rumpled and more put upon even than he was during his and Marshall's last interaction, during the investigation of the patient who'd died on the Mission grounds.
"Afternoon, Doc," he says with a sardonic grin. "I sure hope I haven't interrupted you in the middle of some crucial therapeutic work," he says with a barely-noticeable nod to Marshall's … thrown-together ensemble.
Brant
"Detective, always a pleasure — I hope I'm not taking you away from, I don't know, breaking into Democratic Party headquarters or beating up on some Black protestors or something. Why don't you have a seat. I have some coffee on the way if you'd like some."
Michael
Atwood grins outright, and says, "Coffee would do just fine. I know the wife will be after me if I'm up all hours tonight, but I just could never get used to that Sanka garbage." He takes a seat. "So. Let's talk about the kids."
Brant
Taking a seat and crossing his legs in a white-collar working professional way, "What kids?"
Michael
"Well, last week or so the good shop-owners down in Sonoma have been complaining about some long-haired teenagers — not locals, of course — hanging around on Broadway, putting the customers and tourists off, acting all spacey, you know, that sort of thing. I took a cruise around town and saw a pair of 'em, got out of my car, you know, all friendly, making sure they're not runaways or selling drugs or anything. Nice kids, honestly. You could tell they'd been brought up right." Atwood sees the coffee arrive and reaches over to pour himself a cup. "Anyway, after having 'em turn out their pockets and finding nothing but lint, I asked them where they're from and after some hemming and hawing, they said they were living up at the old mansion. 'What mansion?' I inquired, already knowing the answer on some deep level. And they told me. So what gives, Doc? Whose kids are these and why are they wandering around my beautiful community?"
Brant
Can I make some kind of Body Language or Detect Lies roll to get a sense as to whether that story is true, whether he's holding something back, how candid he's being, etc?
Michael
Oh sure. Let me look at the old character sheet.
Definitely Detect Lies. Body Language is a good backup but you've had enough conversation to be able to use Detect Lies.
Brant
(Succeeded by 7)
Michael
He's not lying about how the encounter went down. And he honestly sincerely does believe these are good kids! But he's obviously upset they weren't on drugs and couldn't somehow associate Marshall with that. And honestly he's got no legal pretext to haul them in, unless he finds out they're runaways, of course. So he's clearly trying to entrap Marshall with this little encounter and conversation. As far as Marshall's instruction to the Calvary Kids, even if he had told them that Sonoma was off-limits for them while they were staying at the Mission for exactly this reason, this still would have happened. Kids get bored and antsy. Especially partially-feral former cultists.
Brant
(Oh yeah, definitely don't begrudge them going into town — they can do whatever they want, they aren't prisoners).
Pours himself some coffee, takes a sip, then stands up and walks over to one of the open French glass doors. He stands there in silence for a moment looking out at the grounds: the gardeners tending to the landscape, patients engaging in group meditation, a stable-hand walking a horse alongside a TV executive. He waves to a passerby.
"I don't know whose kids they are, Detective. Like so many others, they found their way to me because they felt something was wrong, and that I could help them. So I am helping them. They stay here, do the odd job, learn a little, expand their horizons a little. No one has come looking for them — and if they want to leave, they can leave."
Michael
"Where are the parents, Doc?" Atwood puts his coffee cup down on the saucer with a bit of a clatter. "They can't be 18, and if they're not patients, you're gonna be in a heap of trouble."
Brant
Marshall turns around and grins. "No I won't."
He sits down again and crosses his legs.
Michael
Atwood looks shocked for a moment, realizes his wise-cracking detective façade has been utterly shattered, and looks at Marshall with an almost pleading, hang-dog expression. "Fine of you to say that. I understand what you mean. You probably won't be. But honestly I didn't come to chew the fat over what specific age whichever kid you've got doing 'landscaping' for you might be. I came here to warn you."
"I bet with all your trips to Hollywood and late nights on the Johnny Carson show and 3 pm wakeup calls you probably haven't been keeping up with the fact that there's a maniac out there killing pretty little things sticking out their thumbs on the road who happen to get picked up by the wrong driver, have you?"
Brant
(I'm gonna roll Detect Lies again to see if he's telling the truth. This is a shocking turn.)
(Succeeded by 9)
Michael
"I only had one real question for that boy and girl, and that was have they ever hitched a lift in Sonoma County, and they eventually said yes. That could be dangerous for them, Doc." He's absolutely telling the truth.
Brant
"A maniac killing hitchhikers? Has this … been reported in the press?"
Michael
"I see you're as concerned with the well-being of your adopted community as ever, Doc." Real venom in Atwood's voice. "As far as the press is concerned these days? Who can tell? A Vietnam vet plants bombs at the Transamerica Pyramid, the fucking Zodiac Killer is still sending postcards to the Chronicle … who can even bother to care about four more dead teenage girls anymore out in the boonies?" Real agitation in his voice now, as he eyes Marshall for his response.
Brant
"Four? That's … uh, shocking. When was the most recent one?"
Michael
You're trying to get information out of him, so that would be a Diplomacy roll.
Brant
(Succeeded by 8)
Michael
"So you're curious now, eh? Hoping to shed some sort of insight into the criminal mind on your lessers in law enforcement?" Atwood pours himself another cup of coffee. "I'm not going to share details of an ongoing investigation with you, Doc, but suffice to say the last one was a 13-year-old runaway who was found back in December. We've been working this case hard with Highway Patrol and CBI but as I said, we're not going to share anything more than what's been in the papers. Go to the Sonoma Public Library, read them for yourself."
Brant
Smiling. "You work so hard to conceal your insecurities about your job and, I'd venture to say, about Sonoma — your decision to stay here, I'd imagine, since you could be at CBI now if things had broken differently. Slapping away a helping hand because that would mean you need help, and you do not, you say to yourself, need help."
"But that is all hunky dory, Atwood. I'll do my own research. Go catch yourself a maniac. In the meantime I'll advise the kids not to hitchhike."
Michael
Can I … actually have you make a roll for that series of comments? laugh
Let's do Psychology, holy shit, that was good.
Brant
(Succeeded by 8)
Michael
"Good. The kids will need your advice. Start there. I'm sure at some point you'll go on nationwide TV and say what a hash we're making of the case and then we'll be practically forced to have you come in like some kind of penny-ante psychic to 'consult' and make a nice fee off of it. Maybe you'll even get a book deal out of it." Atwood sighs, polishes off his coffee, and stands up. "But until that time, don't interfere in my investigation."
"You know," as he drapes his trenchcoat over his shoulder in the tentative Sonoma Hills March afternoon sunshine, "for a little while, I entertained the possibility that you might be my maniac. But you don't seem the type. You don't really like to get your hands dirty, do you?"
(I think the residue of Marshall's exceptional rolls so far will provide him with the insight that Atwood at the end of the day … kinda does want his help, but he just suspects Marshall too much of … everything.)
Brant
"Ha! Excellent, Detective. Really excellent. Please do come by again some time." Marshall will wave him goodbye and say nothing more.
Michael
laugh Oh man!
Oh, I am loving this dude. I am sad I didn't roll 9 or less on a 3d6 sooner
(I tried to make Atwood equal parts Columbo, Lenny Briscoe, and Bigfoot Bjornsen. But at his center a sad little man with blocked ambitions.)
Brant
Marshall's next action items are: (1) warn the kids about hitchhiking, tell them they can have someone drive them into town if need be; (2) once Atwood's definitely gone and off the grounds, call Sophie and ask her to pull any news coverage she can find about recent killings in Sonoma; (3) go take some Tylenol and meditate.
He was great! It'll be super sad when I need to hypnotize him into committing suicide or something.
Michael
(literally lol'd)
Okay, 1) is easily taken care of. 2) Sophie will, as always, deliver the goods quickly (although who knows how crazy the Charley Situation will be by 4 pm on Wednesday ) and 3) I would love to get a Meditation roll from you but let me ask … do you picture Marshall waiting for the results of Sophie's research before he meditates?
Brant
Oh no, he'll meditate first and then get the results like the next day or something.
Michael
Because a successful roll does give you a nudge towards what the best course of action is. Okay! Easy enough. Give me the Meditation roll now and I'll ponder exactly what will come of it.
Brant
(Jesus I rolled a 4 on Meditate so basically I'm the Buddha now)
Michael
Crit! Okay, yeah, let me think about where Marshall journeys during that meditation.
Brant
Word.
Michael
In the meantime, you can read up on the first three cases in this list for background that Sophie produces later: Santa Rosa hitchhiker murders.
Content warning, it's grim as shit.
What I might actually do is hold that crit in abeyance for a "Eureka" moment later in Mission 2, Brant. Because to Marshall's mind — and one of the reasons he was able to get into an theta wave state so easily — all his recent loose ends are tied up (the Keiner interrogation went off without a hitch, Atwood was handled and dispatched handily, even this Mansa case isn't concerning him too much) but the combination of the night in Hollywood at the Oscars, the post-show partying, the interrogation, Atwood, all have put Marshall into what he considers a state of profound "flow," so fully actualized, that he's going to be kind of supercharged for the foreseeable future. Let me know what you think about this idea.
Michael
"Ha! Excellent, Detective. Really excellent. Please do come by again some time." Marshall will wave him goodbye and say nothing more.
Can I just say that anyone who uses the words "Ha! Excellent, Detective" unironically is getting got by Peter Falk in the last act.
Brant
The difference being that the snobby eccentric villains in Columbo didn't have the full weight of a super-secret deep state government conspiracy behind them + the ability to brainwash people using virus-words. Anyway I'm sure this whole thing will wrap up with Atwood and Marshall becoming best friends.