The office settles into a tense pause. Beyond the blinds, theater traffic moves in bright fragments while Miller begins arranging lawful steps for locker 19 and Pike’s apartment.
Detective Miller
Station security will preserve the locker, and I’m requesting a warrant for Pike’s residence. No shortcuts, no evidence they can challenge.
Mara remains with Anna beside the desk, her keycard and folded schedule visible. She watches Miller document each step, then lowers her voice.
Mara Vale
Pike chose the timing, the invitations, and the cover routes. But she did not choose your father.
Mara’s gaze settles on Anna, guarded but direct. The distinction leaves the central question exposed: who selected the victim, and why him?
Mara Vale
Voss called him an unusually valuable target. Pike accepted that description, but she never told me who supplied his name.
Detective Miller
Was it someone inside the casino, or someone connected to Anna’s father before the trap was built?
Mara’s fingers close around the schedule’s edge. For the first time, her certainty breaks, leaving either a personal connection or a boundary she has not crossed.
“I press Mara about who supplied my father’s name, and make her confesss everything she knows with my psychological skills.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Psychology, rolled +0)
Anna
Who supplied my father’s name? Tell me everything you know, Mara. No omissions, no protection for the person who chose him.
Mara’s guarded posture holds for one breath. Anna’s precise pressure leaves no safe distinction between what Mara witnessed, what she inferred, and what she concealed.
Mara Vale
It came through Pike’s private channel. A man called Adrian Wren sent the name and described your father as a pressure point against you.
Mara Vale
Wren was not casino staff. He used a consulting firm that audited charitable foundations and maintained donor records. Pike received your father’s address, routines, and a warning that he would recognize danger.
Mara unfolds the schedule completely. Beneath Pike’s rotation notes, a copied email reference identifies Wren’s firm and a payment routed through a shell account.
Mara Vale
Voss built the access path. Pike staged the timing. Wren selected your father because of his connection to an old investigation involving the missing people cases.
Mara Vale
I saw the message header, the payment reference, and Wren’s initials. I kept silent because Pike threatened my sister’s job. That is everything I know.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure Mara’s sworn account
“I’ll take Mara’s sworn statement with Miller recording every detail.”
SUCCESS (Superb Investigation, rolled +1)
Anna sets a fresh statement form on the desk and verifies Mara’s identity, the date, and the office location. Miller positions his recorder in plain view.
Detective Miller
State your full name, your connection to Lenora Pike, and whether this statement is voluntary.
Mara Vale
Mara Vale. I worked theater security and knew Pike through prior access coordination. I am giving this statement voluntarily, without promises or threats.
Miller records continuously while Anna documents each answer, separating Mara’s firsthand observations from conclusions. The payment reference, email header, and Wren’s initials are entered verbatim.
Mara Vale
Adrian Wren supplied the name, address, routines, and warning about Anna’s father. Pike received them privately, then passed operational details to Voss.
Detective Miller
Did you see the original message, the payment record, and the connection to the missing-person investigation yourself?
Mara Vale
Yes. I saw the message header and payment reference, and I heard Voss describe the old investigation. I also saw Pike threaten my sister’s job if I spoke.
Locate Adrian Wren
Quest Complete
Secure Mara’s sworn account
Skill Upgrade: Investigation Superb→Legendary
