Trackdown (Jeannie Rose)

Alice Keener had been a sort of minor internet celebrity. Basically, she made videos of herself playing video games. Sarah had seen some of her videos, goofy little sketches about her reactions to the misfortunes of her avatar. It had seemed a sort of war between the girl's high voice and whatever she was playing over what a viewer should focus on. It had been her fans that made the call when an expected update had failed to go up in the past twenty-nine hours. Now, the reluctant Reno police milled about the apartment, looking for anything that might tell them what happened.

The FBI agent was taking the situation more seriously: she had files on a handful of cases, all of which seemed to replicate the current situation - no apparent forced entry, no trace evidence, no recent activity, online or otherwise and worst of all...no apparent motive. Sarah no proof the cases were connected, but she had seen the pattern and her superiors had given her the go ahead. This, after all, a world wear a man could shrug through cannon fire to punch a tank into orbit...

As always, the Agent dressed sharply, her stylish black pantsuit acting more like a uniform. Some of the local officers chafed at the idea of a Fed getting jammed into what they called their investigation, a sentiment that irritated Sarah. They were supposed to be on the same side; who cared where the media threw credit. As thinks stood, though, she did her best to seem benign as she worked parallel to local authorities...

noooooo!!!!!! still no new video from her favorite youtube gamer person. most depressing jeannie thought when looking for something else to watch she noticed other fans wondering what happened to alice. right as probably the most qualified fan to handle this jeannie decides she'll find the missing youtuber and save the internet.

a plane trip later she was in reno nevada where wikipedia said the missing celebrity was supposed to be. thanks to the radio scanner thingy daddy built her she intersected the police can to check it out. lucky now she has a apartment to start her search at. right know how to get in looking in the big box of costume in her rent a cars trunk.

she finds one that should work yeah the fbi one that always gets reguler cops out of her way. so with her disguise jeannie is ready to play and solve the mystery. special agent Pheobe Ward has no trouble getting the local law enforcement to let her look around the crime scene the instant id maker was another of daddys gizmos she found handy it makes shiny badges that make pole do what she wants ands way easier than getting real ones, plus she likes playing dress up and making up characters .

Sarah was initially perplexed when she spotted another woman with an FBI windbreaker. There had been no mention of any other agents assigned to the case, not to mention, despite this woman's best efforts, she did not carry herself like an agent. And she seemed to young to be in the field. After discreetly watching the faux investigator, Jardin decided that the newcomer was not a suspect and approached.

The Special Agent took the younger woman by the arm and pulled her aside for a quiet conversation; she did not want the locals to choose the easy way out of investigating and waste resources. "You realize I could arrest you for impersonating an FBI agent?" Her voice was stern, making the comment sound less like a question than a threat. It was possible this woman knew something, but she wanted this civilian scared of her. Fear of prosecution was a better motivator than many people assumed.

huh what you talking about fellow agent lady? jeannie was surprised most people can't see through her disguises and this lady did, huh being arrested would suck, course last time she was in jail it didn't take long for a jailbreak for her to conveniently join happened so she'd probably get out somehow.

but then she can't solve the mystery in jail. huh next time she needs to make sure there isn't a real whatever she's pretending to be first. right how to get out of this. she reaches in to her pocket and shows the agent lady her badge.

see i'm a really agent, guess they didn't mention me coming to help. i am kinda new to this, first real assignment. they thought a younger agent more intune with what kids are into these days could help given how this lady that's missing is pretty popular with them.

It was not hard for Sarah to see through the girl's lie. Still, the ID itself was fairly convincing and might have been enough to trick someone less familiar with Bureau protocol. Scratch that: given she had gotten past the local PD, it did trick them. But as she listened to the outsider's continued lie, a thought occurred. If this woman, Phoebe Ward, was in fact a fan of Alice Keener, it might have proved valuable to interview her later.

While the real agent was going over her options, on of the lab techs gave a shout for "Agent Ward," clearly unaware that the second agent was a fake.

Seeing a chance to ingratiate herself to a potential witness, Sarah corrected the young man. "Special Agent Ward," she said, approaching the scientist, gently guiding the other girl to join her. "What have you found?"

The tech paused a moment as he looked between the two women. He quickly returned to his work, though and held up a shard of shattered terracotta, likely from a flower pot...except, "Where is the rest of the pot?" she wondered, looking around. Not only that, but it looked as though there was a red stain on the outer curve of the shard, suggesting there had been some kind of struggle. "Bag it and get it to the lab." The Special Agent technically had no authority to give such orders but the man did so anyway.

It was not much to go on, but Jardin began running scenarios through her head. However, with so little evidence, few of her ideas was anything but flimsy and given the tongue lashing the tech was getting from one of the senior detectives, it was unlikely the locals would be as forthcoming with their findings until she started throwing her weight around. Turning to her odd guest, Sarah shifted tacks, asking, "How much can you tell me about the victim? Her habits, friends, parts of her routine she posted online?" Understanding motive always started with victimology...

yay apparently this real agent lady believes her now. ok on with the case then. huh jeannie didn't like that it seems the girl was taken and could be hurt.

huh maybe the pot got thrown at something, seems kinda odd that only one piece is left. hope it's not her blood. huh about her lets see she like games,ands funny. i think she's pretty not sure how important that last part is.

lets see she's pretty smart i guess to pull off her Video stuff. she's pretty organized cause it was the lateness of her last post that got things noticed. not sure why someone would want to hurt her she's nice and well liked. huh maybe we should look for more clues.

she pulls a giant magnifying glass like in cartoon detective movies and looks around.

Sarah nearly clapped herself in face when "Agent Ward" pulled out an oversized magnifier, play-acting like she was knew how too investigate a crime scene. Instead, she reached forward to take the tool from the girl before anyone saw it. "Jesus, what the hell are you doing?" she hissed. "Are you trying to embarrass me?" The agent was feeling decidedly humorless today and she needed this new burden taking her situation seriously.

Deciding it might be best to avoid the main room of now, the frustrated Agent guided the chaotic girl toward another room. It turned out to be a bedroom, as well as the victim's improvised studio. As she passed through the door, Sarah stopped and turned. "Does that latch seem odd to you?" As first, the agent did not see the problem put pulled out a compact camera to take pictures.

"I think the latch was broken...and replaced." Meaning whoever took Alice did not want anyone to know. Probably why there was only the one piece of crockery; the rest had been cleaned up. "But why try to hide it..." Unless she knew her attacker...

umm looking for clues duh, it's what us detectives do right? you don't gotta be so mean she makes a Pouty face sad she got her toy taken away and follows the grumpy boss lady.

jeannie cheers up when she sees where they where. oh my gosh how cool! where alice makes her videos! she then looks at the latch thingy the agent was talking about. oh well that must be how they got in, huh yeah that does seem oddly responsible for a criminal to repair the door they broke,

Sarah was having trouble making sense of girl's strange mannerisms. That was beside the point now; her attention was still on this new oddity and the Agent stepped out to call for another Investigator. It was unlikely but there was a chance the new latch might bare a partial fingerprint to identify an assailant. The CSI seem confused but did as instructed.

A detective came back, annoyed that his crime scene unit was being commandeered by the feds. Agent Jardin cut him off before he could begin. "The current latch was made of brass; the hinges were made of iron. The likely weren't installed as a matching set." The agent also gave a slight nudge at the post, then pulled it free from the wall. "Looks like the fresh post didn't have enough time to dry, either," she admitted, handing the wood to the tech as well.

The Detective was left dumbfounded as the Agent turned back to the room, making a show of doing her job until the irritable man turned and left. Sarah quickly move towards the victims PC. "You wouldn't happen to know her password, would you?"

huh password let me think,oh in know i saw this on one of them detective shows she reaches into her bag and pulls out some make up and dust it on the keyboard making fingerprints show up.

tada the ones with the thicker prints are her passwords letters cause she uses them the most. lets see too solve the puzzle she looks at the letters and thinks about what she knows of alice pickles! her favorite food

Sarah was unsure what the peculiar girl had seen but she had managed to guess the password from a near uniform beige mass that came to coat the keys (aside for the bare "Caps Lock" key).  Still, this amateur was able to 'see' a pattern despite the whole boards near universal use...

It seemed odd to see such a computer savvy girl use such a weak input but the Agent did not linger on that.  The sharply clad woman rifled through some of the victim's recent document, her web history...her incognito web history.  It was largely mundane stuff but a few things stood out and she eventually found her way to the day-planner.

"Looks like she had a date," the agent muttered, pulling out a USB stick to save a screenshot.  She also snapped a still with her camera as a redundancy measure, as well as sent a copy to Quantico.  "Got directions to a local...bistro.  Classy but affordable...Date was named...Steph..."  Stephanie or Stephan, she could not guess, but given the estimated timeline, it might have been related.  Rising, Sarah called the local group into the bedroom to share her findings before escorting "Ward" to push her along toward the next destination.

Sarah almost predicted the strange girl's words before she spoke, bothered by her apparent inability to even act professional.  It did not take long to reach the ground floor and the Agent nudged "Ward" toward her own black SUV, offering a terse "In" before getting behind the wheel and pulling out.

The odd pair made good time reaching the bistro, finding the little eatery fairly busy. Sarah meant to stay ahead of her charge when she called aside a waitress to direct them toward a manager...

mumm good choice this place smells yummy she looks at a menu and notices her uhh partner yeah that works for now asking about the manager huh normal don't you wait tell seeing if the foods not good before needing the manager or does the manager have special secret agent deals for us?

Sarah felt like a babysitter; her Ward, a toddler with the most severe case of ADHD she had ever heard of. In no mood to humor the fool girl, the Agent said, "Please, just go...sit somewhere and order. I have something else to take care off." Before the could truly part ways, though, she added in a whispered hiss, "And don't tell people you're in the FBI."

The actual Fed, took her leave, heading toward a back office to ask some questions...