The party, Gazala [Richard], Miriam [Jeff], Mezmer [Shane], Wonton [Darryl], Jacob [Chris], Mario [Kevin] were at the at the scene of the murder.
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| Umar al-Ghaffari |
They all decided to leave the gendarmes to tidy up at the second murder scene, and headed off to Umar's place. Gazala knew exactly where it was - about fifteen minute walk through the Medina alleys.
So Cooper, Miriam and Gazala, being the sneaky quiet ones, went up ahead.
They arrived in the quiet courtyard in front of Umar's apartment. There was a bearded man, sitting in the sun, whittling. He was working on a piece of bone.
Cooper snuck around the side and climbed up a drain-pipe, and onto the flat roof of the three storey dwelling. There was a door up here, which was locked. But Cooper made short work of the lock and was soon inside. It was a clean tidy bedroom; the double bed was neatly made. And the room had a hole in the floor with a ladder going down.
Cooper could hear talking somewhere below - the room where the ladder went was empty.
So he snuck down. This level was a kitchen-dining room, and had a door off it. And there was a stair-way downwards. He could hear talking below. It was three men, and one of them was Umar al-Ghaffari himself.
Cooper investigated the side door. It was very thick and solid with reinforced iron hinges, and quiet to listen to. It wasn't locked, so he opened it. It was unnaturally dark inside, like it was filled with a cloud of darkness that absorbed all light. It was cold like a fridge, and smelt of off-meat and rancid fat. He felt a wave of cold seep over him, and it filled him with revulsion and horror. Even though he had been very quiet, the instant the door was opened, the talking in the room suddenly ceased, like a switch. And then, just as quickly, there were footfalls on the stairs.
He sprang for the ladder and clambered up it, as people entered the room. Soon followed by shouts and curses in Arabic.
Cooper rushed through the bedroom, out the door, and onto the roof, sprinting and jumping away.
The Medina as so closely packed with buildings cheek-by-jowl, that it was easy to traverse, building to building. And most of the alleyways were easily jumpable.
Miriam and Gazala, down below, heard the commotion and pursuit on the roof, so they quickly left too, staying clear of the whittler who was also looking upwards, and went to the pre-arranged rendezvous
Cooper's pursuers gave up the chase, and so Cooper joined the two girls, and they all headed back to the party to update them.
Upon hearing this tale about Cooper's fridge, Wonton decided to go to the library (Bibliotheque Nationale de Tunisie) to check on this information. So, he left them [which, in hindsight, proved to be a mistake, because only a few hours passed in the game world, which was barely enough time for Wonton just to travel to the library and start his research. So no Wonton for any of tonight's adventure.]
Miriam turned out to be quite the artist, so she did a sketch of the bearded whittler. It was a good enough caricature for Inspector Heroux to recognize him as Hassam Khan of mafia tunisoise ("Tunis Mafia").
About then, a suspicious character beckoned Mezmer over to a side alley, out of sight of the gendarmes.
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| Colt Sheriff .22 |
The Tunis police were very strict on firearms in the 20s and 30s. Illegally possessing one would get you the firing squad. Unless you were a French citizen (basically, "if white") - then you would be shipped back to Paris for the guillotine. Or the French Foreign Legion often got these condemned reprobates.
It was 4pm-ish. Heroux was about to leave with his men. They had neatly and literally wrapped up the whole crime scene in the police string.
Gazala took Heroux aside, and tried to get him to arrest Umar. Heroux kept insisting that they had no evidence, and what the party had seen was just circumstantial. And no-one of any import had anything on Umar. Gazala could not, of course, reveal any of Cooper's discoveries.
But Gazala insisted, and she batted her stunning big brown eyes, with their over-mascaraed lashes and the smoky eye-shadow (and threw a 12 on 2D6 plus 2 for APP), and he changed his mind.
So, Inspector Heroux, with six gendarmes in tow, plus the party, headed to Umar's.
Mister whittler was gone by now and there were no noises of talking within. It was getting late and the shadows were long. The whole apartment had a foreboding feel about it.
The police broke down the door and rushed inside. The lower level (which Cooper had not scouted earlier because it was occupied) had a dining room with two doors off it. Heroux told the party to stay outside, but Cooper ignored him deftly snuck inside with the gendarmes, hidden at the rear.
Two gendarmes went up the stairs, Cooper was about to follow when there was a horrible scream, hysterical with terror. It was abruptly cut short, then followed by a meaty rending tearing noise. Brave Cooper continued up, and nearly tripped on a bloody detached human arm (still in a police shirt) at the top of the stairs. One gendarme, (with both arms intact) was sitting on the floor rocking. The solid "fridge" door was wide open, and the strange darkness still filled that cold room. There was a meaty tearing noise coming from within that darkness. Cooper rushed across floor, slick with fresh blood, and grabbed at the door. He managed to get his hands on it when a fleshy tentacle, the thickness of an arm, with barbed bone hooks on it, snaked out of the dark pall, and ripped across his leg, tearing skin and fascia. He managed to keep his wits, and pushed the door closed, as the tentacle slipped back inside to avoid being crushed. He realized he was screaming himself.
Cooper tried to say what it was; some kind of tentacle, like from a giant squid.
"Était-ce comme un tentacule de calmar géant?" asked a gendarme in disbelief. Then got abusive, accusing Cooper for lying: "Tu es un menteur. Va te faire foutre, espèce de branleur menteur."
The Inspector had it firmly in his head that it was a leopard. Only a leopard could rip an arm off. Only a leopard could kill his man like that. Mezmer and Bernard helpfully pointed out that a gorilla could this too, so the rattled Heroux settled upon that.
No-one was brave enough to open the heavy door. So, Heroux sent one of his (now five) men back to the police station to get reinforcements. He should take an hour. They would shoot this gorilla down when he returned.
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| Lebel revolver |
The gendarmes and Heroux each had a Modele 1892 "Lebel" revolver (8mm), so the gendarme that departed left his gun with Jacob, who gave it to Gazala to hold. Each gun had 6 bullets with another six in the belt. Mezmer had his 22 Colt gun as well, but he was not going to reveal that to the gendarmes.
Cooper thought that the iron catch on the heavy door was sufficient to hold it.
Everyone thoroughly searched the apartment. There was plenty of food, oil, linen and candles, but the upstairs bedroom was completely unused; the dresser and wardrobe up there had nothing in them.
None of the windows had curtains. They did find another bone dagger - like the one used in the murder.
It was getting dark now. The apartment had no electricity (this was common in the Medina), so had candles and lanterns for light.
One of the doors off the ground floor lounge had a cupboard for food store.
The other door went to a short passage to a second door behind which was a small toilet cum washroom. It was a "starting-block" toilet over an unusually large hole down to the sewer, and there was a single tap and a basin. But it was disgusting. There was faeces all over the floor, spattered up the walls, and even on the ceiling. Whoever had these bowel movements, had really gone to town; imagine a Mills bomb in a bucket of poo. Even the water tap itself was caked in it. It was a mix of dried excrement and fresh runny stuff - lumpy well-formed and watery diarrhoea. The stench was eye-watering.
Holding back bile and retching, they slammed the door; both doors.
Bernard thought he'd go for a walk (pike off), but when he stepped out the door, there was a rifle shot from somewhere, and the bullet smashed into the architrave. He quickly withdrew. All the gendarmes drew their Lebel guns. Everyone crouched down and extinguished the candles.
Gazala and Miriam, with their keen eyes and compact mirrors, spotted a figure up on the roof. Gazala wondered if she could take a shot with her Lebel, but it would be exceedingly hard. And risky.
Then, they heard a splintering of wood from within the internal toilet door. Oh dear.
The four gendarmes, sans Heroux, moved in position in the lounge. The Outer toilet door started to creak and groan as if something was pushing it. Then the door splintered and broke in half.
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| Faecal surprise |
The room was dark. There was a little bit of light outside coming through the windows. Enough to see a humanoid figure stagger in through the ruined door. All four gendarmes fired, and fired, and fired.
In the gun flashes, the horrid figure was illuminated; it looked like a misshapen man, completely covered in faeces, stumbling and lurching. But those lidless eyes were not human.
The bullets were working, however. The figure stumbled and reacted to being hit by the 8mm rounds. It collapsed in a big pile of poo, and then stopped moving. The gendarmes kept firing and firing until their guns just went click click.
The revolting stench was unbearable. Two of the gendarmes vomitted. Everyone rushed upstairs to the kitchen.
There were more noises of movement from the toilet. Another one?!!!
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