Detective Miller gets Anna and the three surviving suspects off the casino floor before anyone can disturb the concealed body. Uniformed officers remain behind to secure the table.
Detective Miller
Security office. Now. Nobody touches that phone, and nobody leaves this building.
The cramped office smells of dust and warm circuitry. Security footage fills one monitor, while access logs and the burner phone's message history occupy two others.
The Man in the Gray Coat
That timestamp is wrong. There was a recording between those two entries. Someone erased it.
The Tall Bookmaker
You said the system was automatic. How could anyone remove footage without tripping an alarm?
Detective Miller
Because the casino has blind spots, and somebody knew exactly which cameras to avoid. Anna, we have minutes before the system overwrites the gaps.
On-screen, the messages show staggered delivery times and identical routing delays. One camera loop skips seven seconds near the service corridor, precisely when the body could have been placed.
✓ Quest Accepted
Recover the erased surveillance footage
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify who accessed the service corridor during the camera gap
“I’ll compare the seven-second camera gap with the corridor access times.”
SUCCESS (Superb Investigation, rolled -1)
Anna places the camera timeline beside the corridor access log, aligning the seven-second loop with every badge event and door sensor ping.
The gap begins at 4:03:17 and ends at 4:03:24. During it, the service door records a valid maintenance credential, followed by the freight elevator opening.
Anna
The footage was erased to hide a timed entry, not to conceal an impossible passage.
Detective Miller
Whose credential?
Anna traces the credential number through the casino roster. It belongs to an overnight facilities supervisor, but the access record shows the badge was issued from the security office.
The Man in the Gray Coat
That means the person who planted the body had help inside this room.
A second comparison settles the sequence: the burner phone received its summons during the same seven seconds, routed through the casino network before the camera loop resumed.
“I confront the overnight facilities supervisor for investigation.”
SUCCESS (Good Interrogation, rolled +1)
Detective Miller finds the overnight facilities supervisor in a locked maintenance office. Anna enters first, placing the aligned timeline and access log on the desk.
The supervisor, pale and sleepless, looks from the credential number to Anna's face. The confrontation is immediate, contained, and impossible to misunderstand.
Detective Miller
Your badge was issued from this office during the camera gap. Explain why.
Overnight Facilities Supervisor
I issued a duplicate credential. The request came through security, marked as an emergency repair. I never saw the person who used it.
Under Anna's scrutiny, the supervisor unlocks the maintenance terminal and produces the work order. Its authorization is copied from an older repair, but the approval signature is forged.
Overnight Facilities Supervisor
They told me to keep the freight elevator clear for seven seconds. I thought it was a systems test. Then the camera loop started.
The terminal records the request's source: the casino security office, entered manually by a temporary account. The supervisor's role is confirmed, and the manipulation now has an inside access point.
“Is the supervisor hiding anything from us?”
YES, AND MORE (Likely, rolled 2)
The supervisor's hands hover over the terminal. Beneath the work order, Anna spots a second file marked archived, its access history untouched since the credential was created.
Overnight Facilities Supervisor
There is something else. I was told to delete the requester’s contact trail, but I kept a paper copy. I was afraid this would happen.
He opens a drawer and produces a folded maintenance form. The requester field names a temporary security account, but the callback number is handwritten beneath it.
Detective Miller
You withheld this while a murder investigation was unfolding?
Overnight Facilities Supervisor
I withheld it because the caller knew my home address. I can give you the number now.
The terminal also reveals an active session token tied to that temporary account. It has not expired, giving Miller a direct route to identify whoever still controls the security system.
Detective Miller
Anna, we have a live lead. Nobody touches that session until digital forensics locks it down.
“I ask the supervisor to explain the credential issuance, while carefully examining whether he is lying.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Psychology, rolled -1)
Anna
Walk me through the credential issuance. Who requested it, how did the request reach you, and what exactly were you told to authorize?
Anna watches his eyes, breathing, and hands rather than the terminal. His fear spikes at the home-address mention, but his account stays consistent when she returns to the timestamps.
Overnight Facilities Supervisor
The request appeared in the temporary security account at 4:01. It carried an emergency repair code and directed me to issue a duplicate badge.
Overnight Facilities Supervisor
The callback number was handwritten on the paper form. The caller knew the system language, but never gave a name. They told me the elevator clearance would last seven seconds.
Anna compares his phrasing with the work order. He is withholding embarrassment, not the operation: he recognized the request as unusual but believed the security account made it legitimate.
Anna
His fear is attached to the threat against his home, not to the credential's movement.
Overnight Facilities Supervisor
The account was entered manually from this office. I did not create it, but I can show you the terminal record and the callback number I preserved.
“Does the callback number belong to an insider?”
NO, BUT (Likely, rolled 69)
Miller photographs the handwritten number and runs it through departmental and casino records. The search returns no employee, contractor, or registered security contact.
Detective Miller
Not an insider. The number is prepaid, activated yesterday, and purchased outside the casino’s usual vendors.
The result weakens the obvious theory, but the carrier record preserves one useful trace: the phone first connected near Grand Central Station.
Overnight Facilities Supervisor
That fits the caller’s timing. They told me to keep the elevator clear before the request appeared, like they were already moving.
Miller opens the terminal’s network log. The temporary account was created remotely, but its recovery email was accessed through a public kiosk near the station.
Detective Miller
The number is a disposable mask, not our insider. Grand Central gives us the next place to look, and whoever used that kiosk may have left a camera trail.
“I trace the kiosk camera trail at Grand Central”
SUCCESS (Superb Investigation, rolled +1)
At Grand Central Station, Anna follows the kiosk’s access window through transit security feeds, matching timestamps against the casino network log.
The first camera shows commuters crossing beneath the station’s vast clock. A second angle catches the public kiosk, its screen briefly reflecting a hooded figure’s hands.
Anna
The reflection shows the left hand clearly, and the person is carrying the burner phone.
Anna advances frame by frame, using the kiosk’s transaction receipt time to synchronize three separate cameras along the concourse.
Detective Miller
There. They leave the kiosk at 3:52 and head toward the shuttle passage, not the main exits.
The final camera captures the figure pausing beside a column. A maintenance notice partially hides the face, but the reflection reveals a distinctive silver access case and a casino security lanyard.
Detective Miller
We have the trail. The lanyard is not a badge, it is a visitor pass. Grand Central logged its issue to a named security contractor yesterday.