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Cassandra has Bruce drive Paladin and Shifter back to the
warehouse (they need to come up with a better name for the base). They arrive
at about 1PM where they notice two black SUV in the lot and 6 large, menacing,
muscular men in suits surrounding the building.
They have Bruce park nearby so they can approach and
question the goons. They are met halfway by two of the men. The men are there
looking for Eden Gray (aka Shifter’s real name). One of the men is fairly
belligerent and is identified as Frank by his compatriot as he tries to contain
Frank’s bile.
Eventually they learn that the men work for Boris Pankrati
Antonov, Russian mob boss and father to Emily Antonov, Shifter’s girlfriend.
After the goons leave Shifter calls Emily and is not able to
reach her. He then calls her BFF Jane. Jane does not have any information as to
where Emily might be just that she is off visiting (some other) friend and that
she left like three weeks ago.
Eden Gray and Paladin go to see Boris Pankrati Antonov,
besides Paladin needed to check on Benny Antonov. Boris accused Eden of having something
to do with Emily’s disappearance. They managed to convince Boris that Eden might not have
anything to do with it. Paladin asked if they had tried to trace Emily’s
movements. They learn she left in her 2015 cream colored L-Class Mercedes
convertible. It had a full tank. She didn’t purchase gas or draw any cash since
she left. Her phone didn’t ping any towers and could not be remotely accessed,
so it is either destroyed or the battery was removed.
At a dead end Paladin went to talk to Benny and see if he
was being good and not bullying people. Paladin made it clear that being cruel
to people was dangerous, you never knew when one of them might have super
powers! While they were talking Paladin asked about Emily, something that Boris
never did because he believes Benny does not know sh*t. Boris would have been
wrong. Benny had the letter that Tam wrote to Em asking her to come to Crab
Creek for a visit. Tam also said, cryptically, that ‘they wanted to get rid of
her’.
After a Google search Benny told Paladin and Shifter that
Crab Creek New York was a town about a 6 hour drive from the George Washington
bridge, north to the shores of Lake
Ontario.
Paladin and Shifter have their Uber driver take them to Enterprise where they
rent a 4-Wheel drive SUV. Paladin goes by the base to get clothes and
miscellaneous needs before they head for Crab Creek.
It is raining most of the way. They reach Crab Creek by rout
of county roads, no paved roads lead to the town. The first building they find
is a bar called the Watering Hole, which is across the street from the only
motel in town, the SleepWell Motel.
Going into the Watering Hole they discover it is a small
strip club. Only two girls are working, they take turns removing their clothes.
When not stripping they hustle drinks, serve drinks, and perform the duties of
hostess.
They show Emily’s picture to the two employees but neither
have seen her. Paladin goes to the SleepWell to get a room. He meets Miss Addie
who only deals in cash. The rooms are small and she says that they should get
two rooms unless they are very close friends. Not having the cash Miss Addie
sees that he is in need and gives him the rooms anyway, on the promise to pay
the next day. He then returns to the Watering Hole to give Eden his key.
While he was gone Eden
was chatting up the dancer. She gives him a fully nude, high contact lab dance
in the corner of the bar, it is not big enough for private dance rooms, so the
rest of the audience (like 2 other guys, one of who is Junior the town’s deputy
sheriff, watching the girls and having a beer while in uniform) get a great
show.
Eden
learns that the hunting / fishing has been off this season. The game is scarce.
She also tells him that the sheriff isn’t looking into the diminished game,
that is a matter for Fish and Game not the Sheriff’s office.
He asks her if she knows a Tam or Tammy? His missing friend,
Emily, came to Crab Creek looking for her. No, no Tammy but the town has a kook
named Tamara. She lives in the woods and does not like visitors. She shot a
trespasser not too long ago. If…Emily…went to see her then Eden should be checking hospitals back on the
main Highway.
Eden
agrees to go to the Sleepwell with her. She and the other girl trade places and
she puts on enough clothes to get across the street. As they leave they bump
into Paladin. Eden
introduces the dancer as Lola, which she corrects him, ‘My name is Valerie.’
Eden and Valerie go to the motel. She charges him 100
dollars for the hour and both are satisfied with the…exchange.
The next morning it has started raining again. Eden goes to the better
of the two diners in town, the Nextstop. To his surprise he find that Valerie
is there working as a waitress. She only moonlights as a stripper-prostitute at
the Watering Hole.
Paladin goes to see the Sheriff, a likeable straight
shooting man. When asked about Emily he says she was here. Her car broke down
on the road into town, sedans are not good machines for the rough country around
Crab Creek. Sheriff Douglas says that
Bridger towed her car to his shop. He, Sheriff Douglas, drove Emily to Tamara’s
house. Douglas is Tamara’s uncle so he is one
of the few people who can visit her without being shot. Tarmara uses Rock Salt
not buckshot, her intent is to cause pain, not permanent harm, and keep people
off her property.
A couple days later Bridger told him that he had fixed
Emily’s car and she left. Tamara said the same thing.
Paladin wants to talk to Tamara. Sheriff Douglas says he will
try to set it up but getting to her house requires a serious 4-Wheel drive in
good weather. Raining it is impossible. He tells Paladin to do what he needs to
in town for today and he will take them to Tamara’s after he talks to her
first. Paladin thanks him then heads over to talk to Bridger at the Gas
Chamber.
Bridger has a serious stutter. He says because of it some
people make fun of him so he talks to as few people as possible. He says he did
pick up Emily coming into Crab Creek, her car had a broken front axle. He says
he was able to repair it by salvaging one from one of his scrap cars and
re\machining it until fit. He told Emily it wasn’t a permanent fix but is would
last a while. Tamara paid for the repair before heading home. Bridger then towed
Emily and her Mercedes back to the paved highway to make sure she made it safe.
That was the last he saw of her.
While he didn’t talk to Emily much it is possible that one
of his mechanics, Mille, might have. ‘She will be in at one to do a couple oil
changes if you want to talk to her.’
Paladin then heads over to the Nextstop and has breakfast.
He and Eden find out from Valerie how to get to Tamara’s place. She tells them
but warns against it.
They go anyway.
The rain lets up at about 4PM as they reach the nearly
impossible clearing where Tamara’s home is. There is the ruins of a once large
house long since burned to the ground and a small beat up travel trailer/
Shifter goes into the woods and turns invisible while
Paladin announces them by yelling at the trailer. Tamara warns him to get off
her property, he refuses, she shoots him. He is fair enough away the rock salt
barely stings. When told that Emily is missing she comes out to talk to him. Tamara
is dressed in a short sleeve shirt tied closed instead of being buttoned up
(nothing underneath), Daisy Duke shorts and tennis shoes without socks.
She is not entirely forthcoming and Paladin gets the feeling
that she is not being entirely truthful. When he points this out her
cooperation ends and she becomes combative. Shifter comes up and they tell her
they are going to search her property, basically, if she wants them to or not.
They find odd tracks that lead to a pond on the edge of the
clearing where her trailer is. They find nothing suspicious in her trailer or
outhouse. When they search the remains of the big house they find a concrete
stairway that leads down to a metal door. A keypad is located on the right side
of the stairway near the door. The floor is thick with three inches of mud and
water from the recent rains. There is no power so the keypad is useless. The
door looks like it hasn’t been used in decades.
When the question Tamara she bitterly reminds them they are
trespassing then says she never had the combination for the lab. Her parents never
gave it to her before they died when she was six!
They go back to the tracks and the pond. When Paladin is
about to throw a rock into the water Tamara yells ‘Don’t’ and Paladin doesn’t.
Tamara goes for her jeep so she can go and press charges on Paladin and Shifter
for trespassing unless they leave RIGHT NOW. Finally they agree and go.
As they leave the sloping hill to Tamara’s home and reach
the soggy dirt road that leads into town the sheriff arrives in his jeep. He
was going to talk to Tamara now that the rain has stopped but since they have
already talked to her there isn’t any reason to ‘ruffle her feathers’ anymore
than they already are.
They casually ask the Sheriff questions about Tamara on the
way back to town. He tells them that her parents were scientist who died in a
fire when their home / lab burned down. His sister was the smart one of the
family, she married smart, and had a smart daughter. They lived away from
everyone else because their work could be dangerous. That is probably where Tamara
learned not to like having people nearby. The money she inherited from her
folks death, and the income she gets from their patents and residuals, are what
keeps Crab Creek alive. “So while no one likes her if it came down to me, you
two, and Tamara we wouldn’t be a consideration. The town needs her.”
When his sister died he came to Crab Creek and took over
raising Tamara as best he could. Paladin and Shifter asked if she had any
friends or maybe pets.
When she was little she had a pet named Pee-Wee. It was a
fresh water crab. She was always finding a way to sneak out to her parents
place, her place really, to visit it.
As for friends he tell them in high school there were a
bunch of girls who were outcasts and they pretty much bonded. They went to her parents place and did
strange things. One than once he had to go out there and break up a beer party
the girls were having. He identified Isabella and Valerie from the Watering
Hole as two of her friends. He also mention that Junior and Tamara dated back in
high school until she caught him with is dip stick in someone else’s engine
block. Junior is Miss Addie’s son.
Sheriff Douglas also talked about how Millie is Bridger’s
daughter from his girlfriend that he never married. And that she is a fair
mechanic and helps him run the Gas Chamber. His younger brother might be able
to manage an oil change but he still helps out pumping gas. Bridger’s other
little brother is a criminal defense lawyer in New York City. Oh, Millie is another one of
Tamara’s outcast friends.
They also ask where they can get some money so they can pay
Miss Addie. He directs them to a gas station down on the main highway. He also
tells them that Crab Creek is not good for communication. No cell service and
the weather knocks out land lines all the time. The highway gas station is
pretty reliable.
At the gas station on the highway they call Cassandra to let
her know where they are and what they are doing. They have her run a check on
Sheriff Douglas. They learn he was a stock car racer but gave it up when he
took over raising Tamara after his sister died in a fire. He isn’t so much a
law man as a peace officer according his record. He gives out tickets, breaks
up brawls, keeps civic peace but as far as she could find his crime solving ability
is zero. Maybe he just never had the chance?
They go back to Crab Creek. The Gas Chamber is closed so
they decide to check out what is behind the 8 foot, wooden, fence that
surrounds the back of the garage. Their first discovery is that, despite many signs
warning of a savage guard dog, there is no dog. The fence protects a collection
of cars that Bridger uses for parts. There are a few, like 6, that are covered
by tarps. At least two of the tarps cover pickups and SUVs that are in good
enough shape (and complete enough) that they might be repaired rather than
parted out. One of the remaining tarps conceals a 2015 cream colored L-Class
Mercedes convertible, Emily’s car.
They learn from Miss Addie, while they pay the motel bill,
where the Sheriff’s house is. The session ended as they tell Sheriff Douglas
that they found Emily’s car and where they found it. The last words of the
session were the sheriff saying, “lets to talk to Bridger.”