Background
Murder Mystery Crime - lets see how they connect.
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Screech, thud, bump, bump. The airplane lands at Boseman Yellowstone International. Warren is both excited that he will see Terry again and also relieved that this turbulence laden flight is over with. He reaches above his seat and grabs his back pack and slugs it over his shoulder. On the other shoulder is his laptop bag. Soon enough he is at baggage claim, he grabs his suitcase and plops it down on his luggage cart along with his backpack and computer bag. As he heads towards the exit, he sees Terry quietly waiting for him, she is standing next to the exit.
He gets close to her and grabs her into a tight bear hug. He doesn't care that she doesn't like PDA, he does it anyway. She barely pats his back and says, "Ok, Ok Warren enough of that, let's go." Secretly she not only tolerates his affections but has come to like them. With a grain of salt.
They pack his things into her plain sedan and set off towards her home.
"Well, Terry, tell me about it? How's things in buttcrack nowhere Montana?" He smiles at her.
"Eloquent as always, Warren. It seems sleepy Bozeman isn't as peaceful as I thought. I have some things to go over with you, but let's get to the house first." She is anxious to get into the case but in her usual organized way, she wants to lay out her evidence as she speaks.
They hit a coffee house drive through for a small snack and a coffee each to go. Within a few minutes they arrive at Terry's house. A 2-story bungalow, dark gray with a garage to the left and door to the right. The right side has a porch with just enough room for 2 chairs and a small table. Across the street is a field of grass. Maybe it was a farm at one time, now it's just grass.
They walk inside and Warren plunks his things down on the floor next to the closet. He keeps his computer bag in his hand and follows Terry into the back office. He can see neatly stacked and organized paperwork at the ready. On the wall is a very busy evidence board. Lots of coloured strings connecting different pieces of notepaper and a couple of photographs.
Terry sits down at the desk, obviously ready to work.
"I've been looking into a few disappearances here in town. The general consensus is that they are not connected, but my gut tells me at least 3 of them are. We have 3 women and one teen boy. All missing from different places and times. I have their files here." Terry says to Warren and he seats himself next to her.
Terry takes the time to share with him, the copies of the files, the scene investigation and her talks with some of the friends and families of the missing people. She was counting on Warren to see some pattern in the cases. She wasn't sure there was, but there had to be something. She brings out the sweater, the receipt and the credit card statement.
Several coffees later Warren gets up from the table.
"What do we have here?" he muses, "There is no obvious relation between these people, they are different ages, different ethnicities and in one case different genders. Let me get into this kid's laptop and see if we find anything in that."
It was like a genie from a lamp and voila the laptop was on and the password was decrypted.
Without a word to him Warren says, "I usually get a little intel on the owner of a laptop and from that I can figure out most passwords. If I can't, then I do have a de-encrypter I can use. This kid's was easy. You told me he was a loner, he liked gaming and that recently he revealed that he thought he was transgender. So, I took that information and figured out the password could be Coagula. First try! Whoot whoot! I am a freaking genius!" he did a little victory dance behind the desk and ended it with an awkward twerk.
Terry snickered a little but then added, "ok Warren. Thanks for the show. Now what's in the computer?"
Warren poked around for a few minutes and found a Diarium journal. In the entries he found a particularly interesting entry. He motioned Terry to join him and they read,
'That creepy guy was in the park again. Calls himself Joe. Joe the birdwatcher. The guy says he can hook me up with stuff. Offered to take me to Bridercare. What the fuck? Who does he think he is? Anyway, I'll think about it, it's not like my mom or dad will take me. Might as well gets some fliers or something.'
This was the second entry about a Joe, the first was a note about a man in the park but not much else. Further along, a few days before Buddy went missing was this entry,
'Joe gave me a beer today â€" it was warm and I didn't really like it but at least I can say I've had one. He says maybe next time I can have an energy drink. I didn't want to tell him I get some without telling my parents anyway, but what the hell. Give the old guy a thrill.'
"Can you check his search engines? See what's in there?" Terry asked him.
"Already did. Mostly teen stuff â€" some Hentai and Manga. But he did check out Bridercare. Seems this is an open free clinic that offers birth control, STD testing and will give out information on transgenderism."
Terry made some notes and added to the diorama. They both worked hard over the next few days. One afternoon Terry stepped out to get some take out and when she came back, Warren had some ideas to share.
"Check this out. Olessia's credit card statement shows she went to East Main Medical Clinic. And here, according to Buddy's journal he also went there. Sandra Jesperson's receipt for her prescription, it was written from the same medical clinic. Yvette Turner â€" her cell phone records had a call to the same place. See a pattern here? We need to get to that clinic and see what is going on there. That is what I wanted to tell you when I called. Check this out. The crushed phone you gave me? Well, the Sim card was intact. I was able to pull a few pictures out of it. One in a park and in the background....a man sitting at a park bench. Around his neck, you guessed it! Binoculars!"
