The group (Mezmer [Shane], Miriam [Jeff], Wonton [Darryl], Dr Jacob [Chris], Bernard [Jamie], Mario [Kevin], Gazala [Richard] and Fleur [Steven] - Cooper was marmalading) was with Inspector Heroux (Tunis Police) and eight gendarmes at the derelict two-storey building on the corner of Rue Al Jazira and Rue de Epernay, (south-eastern corner of the Tunis Medina). There had been a murder here and Heroux was using the skills of the party, Calomnie de Tunis journalists, to help him with the strange occurrences.
Just then, a new journalist arrived. He was a French man in a wheelchair, named Toulouse [guest-star Tim Robinson], Science Correspondent for the Calomnie de Tunis.
Two beggars had found the murder victim, so Gazala and Miriam took them aside and questioned them, out of earshot of the gendarmes. One of them slipped up and said he saw the murdered guy with clothes covered in blood. But the corpse had been dressed in beggars' clothes that were clean, with no blood.
Realizing the game was up, one beggar ran away. Gazala tried to stop him by threatening him with her "borrowed" police revolver, but he was too quick and got away. However, the other one didn't manage to escape, and under Gazala's questioning, he broke, and told the story: His name was Mohammed. This abandoned building was a regular haunt for the homeless. He and the other beggar, Ahmed, had come upon a rich guy kneeling down doing something on the floor here. Ahmed stabbed the rich guy in the back, intending to rob him. He had valuable clothes, so they undressed him to steal them, and dressed him in beggar rags (which were lying around). But a passing gendarme spotted them from the street, so they quickly hid the rich clothes (covered in blood) and reported that they "had found" the body here.
Further questioning confirmed that the two had not been into the pentagram room.
Gazala wanted to turn Mohammed over to the law, but Miriam instead paid him, and they let him go.
Mezmer and Toulouse joined Jacob and Fleur at the Morgue. The pathologist, by now, had taken photographs of the body, and he let the group have a print. The gendarmes had identified the body as Kabeer el-Banguin, of the Tunis mafia.
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| Umar al-Ghaffari |
The contact was awkward about revealing too much information about Hassan Khan, and held him in too high regard to betray him. Mezmer walked a delicate line between getting information versus being killed for asking too many questions; his adroit and adept lines of questioning served him well.
The contact did admit that Hassan worked for Umar - but party knew that.
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While this was happening Miriam and Bernard went to Mademoiselle Pelletier's Occult souk, and staked it out. (This was where they had previous found fat black candles, like the ones found at the corners of the pentagram stars). On the off-chance that more of the candles would be bought.
Wonton went looking throughout the huge Medina for other souks that sold the fat black candles. In those few hours he found one place.
Back at the murder site, the gendarmes finished their investigation. They surrounded the derelict building with police string. Then they left.
Mario and Gazala, and Gazala's two police bodyguards stayed behind. They found a second abandoned building, across the way from the site of the murder, and kept watch. They chose a location where they could see into the pentagram room (second storey) through a side window.
A couple of hours passed. They saw some movement in that room. At least two figures. No faces, just movements. Gazala's two gendarme bodyguards Armond and Maurice were having a nap, so they did nothing [the DM completely forgot about these two, but then so did Richard!]
Mario snuck up to the doorway of the surveilled building - no doors. He knocked on the edge of the door, then quickly ran away.
A face appeared; a Caucasian face. He looked around, concerned, then withdrew.
Mario did it again
The same guy appeared. Looking annoyed.
Mario did it again. This time the guy was waiting. He had a gun. He stepped out and fired immediately. Mario squealed and leapt away. Luckily, the shot went wild [Kevin threw a 10] and brave Mario got away - running down the road.
Gazala woke up her two bodyguards [remembered they existed] and updated them. They had a Lebel revolver each, and entered the building with guns drawn.
Bang bang bang bang bang! Then silence. Oh dear.
"We need to tell the police," said Gazala.
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| Chauchat-Ribeyrolles submachine gun "show-shah RE-be-roll" |
All five, plus Gazala, rushed into the building. The gendarmes and Heroux ran up the stairs to the pentagram room, guns drawn. Gazala held back, and did not ascend the stairs herself.
There was gunfire, a lot of gunfire as the submachine guns emptied their 16-round magazines in staccato blasts (10Hz). This was followed by wet tearing noises and hysterical screams.
Two gendarmes and Inspector Heroux, their faces white with terror, scrambled down the stairs, rushed past the stunned Gazala and sprinted outside, then fled down down the road.
Gazala, now alone, decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and she fled too.
Giving up on Heroux, and his fleeing men, Gazala slunk back to join Mario in the building across the way, and continued to surveille the target building. After quarter of an hour they saw Umar himself glance out the window. This was soon followed by a skinned-face walking corpse, who peered out, making over-exaggerated "looking around" moves. And then a third man (an Arab man, not the one who shot at Mario) looked out.
Like the Medina, the buildings around here were very close together, so it was possible for Gazala and Mario to skulk across the rooftops, and get onto the roof of the pentagram building. There was a trapdoor here, which opened into the actual pentagram room. They recalled a ladder on the end wall of the room. But they were not brave enough to open it.
After half an hour, two men left the building - one them was Mario's shooter and the second was the Arab who looked out the window. They both headed off into the Medina. Gazala tried to track them from the rooftops, while Mario stayed on watch. But after ten minutes of tailing, she lost sight of them in the twisty alleys of the Medina.
The two returned half an hour later, shepherding a group of eight beggars. These unfortunates were marshalled into the building. There was some fitful screaming and hysterical sobbing, but it didn't last long, and soon all was silent.
Gazala and Mario waited on the roof top and considered their options.
An hour passed, then two gendarmes (a regular patrol, maybe) walked by in the street. Gazala rushed down to them and updated them. The gendarmes looked at the building, wisely did not enter, then rushed down the road and found a tobacconist with a telephone. They rang for backup.
It was sunset and getting dark.
_______________________________.
As it was dark, the whole party had arrange to meet up at Ahmed's Coffee House. This, they did.
Wonton phoned the police and passed in a bomb threat at the pentagram building. But the police had reports from their own men, and were already sending in the gendarmes: "Nous avons déjà une escouade de gendarmes qui s'y rend. Espèce chinetoque de merde."
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| Battleship Bretagne |
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