Mara Vale
Not here. The arcade cameras are too useful to anyone listening. There are unused offices above the backstage corridor. Come with me, and leave the locker untouched.
Mara leads Anna and Detective Miller through a staff door, using her keycard between theater schedule changes. Below, the ledger remains sealed in locker 19 while station security is summoned to document it.
The backstage offices smell of dust, paper, and cold coffee. Mara closes the door but leaves the blinds open, keeping the arcade visible through a narrow gap.
Mara Vale
Elias Voss was not the organizer. He handled access, transport, and the technical work. The casino contact handled timing, invitations, and which people would be seen.
Mara Vale
The ledger tracks favors disguised as maintenance requests. Theater staff routines made the movement invisible: schedule changes, borrowed badges, delivery windows, and doors opened for rehearsals.
Mara Vale
The casino contact was someone Voss trusted because they had worked together before. Not a stranger in the security office. A partner who knew exactly when the cameras would fail.
Mara places the theater schedule on a desk, but one marked page stays folded beneath her hand. Miller notices the omission before she looks up.
“Is Mara hiding the casino contact’s identity?”
YES (VeryLikely, rolled 51)
Miller’s attention settles on the folded page. Mara’s fingers tighten over it, and the office grows quiet except for traffic murmuring beyond the blinds.
Detective Miller
That page names the casino contact, doesn’t it?
Mara Vale
It identifies the role, not the person. The name is there, but revealing it here would put someone in danger.
Mara unfolds the schedule just enough to expose a handwritten notation beside a casino security rotation. The initials match the account that timed the seven-second camera gap.
Mara Vale
They worked with Voss before this operation. They knew which invitations would draw your father into the trap, and which records would make the suspects look guilty.
Miller does not reach for the page. Instead, he photographs the visible notation through the narrow opening, preserving its position before Mara covers it again.
Detective Miller
Then the ledger and that page corroborate each other. We secure both, and you give us the name before anyone else can move it.
“I use my psychological skill for Mara to reveal the casino contact’s name”
SUCCESS (Legendary Psychology, rolled +4)
Anna studies Mara’s grip on the folded page, the careful distinction between role and person, and the way her eyes avoid the casino rotation notation.
The hesitation is protective, not deceptive. Mara is weighing the danger to a former colleague against the evidence already preserved, and Miller’s restraint gives her a safe exit.
Mara Vale
You already know the answer. You’re watching whether I will make you force it out of me.
Mara Vale
The casino contact is Lenora Pike, deputy security coordinator. She worked with Voss before, and she controlled the rotation that created the camera gap.
Mara turns the page fully toward them. Beneath Lenora Pike’s name are delivery windows, badge changes, and a notation linking her directly to the invitations sent to Anna’s father.
Mara Vale
There’s more. Pike kept a duplicate access log at her apartment, not the casino. Voss used it to verify every movement before the trap was set.
Detective Miller
That gives us a person, a motive, and a record we can secure. Mara, you’re coming with us while we recover it.
Obtain the marked theater schedule page
Quest Complete
Identify the casino suspect involved in her father’s murder
Skill Upgrade: Deduction Mediocre