The records-room door hangs open on a stripped, damp interior. A locked drawer remains untouched beneath the filing mark shared by the burned scraps. Pale grit threads from its keyhole toward the rear exit.
The Watchman
The drawer held the intake slips. Vale kept the key on a ring. Someone took it before I was told to burn the files.
Officer Dunn
Someone with access, then. Who had the parcel room keys?
The Watchman
The closing clerk. And Vale. But the clerk left before the smoke started. I saw a figure at the rear exit, carrying a flat envelope marked PF-7714.
Harold lowers the rescued scraps beside the drawer. Their torn edges align with a pale strip caught in the lock, revealing that PF-7714 was not merely a parcel reference. It was the file containing Vale's collected blackmail evidence.
Harold Pike
The thief used the parcel file to identify the photographs, then removed the matching correspondence. The drawer can tell us who signed it out, if that key is still on the trail.
“I open the locked drawer and recover the intake slips”
FAILURE (Fair Lockpicking, rolled +1)
Ace works the pick into the drawer's stubborn lock, following the grit caught around the keyhole rather than forcing the metal.
The tension gives suddenly. The pick bends inside the cylinder, and the drawer shifts open only a finger's width before jamming.
Through the gap, Ace sees the top of an intake slip. Its carbon line reads PF-7714, followed by a single handwritten M and the afternoon collection time.
Harold Pike
The lock is compromised, but the slip is still inside. Do not widen that gap by force.
The bent pick blocks the keyway, making another attempt with the same tool impossible. The narrow opening leaves the slip visible, but not recoverable.
Officer Dunn
Then we have a choice. Preserve the drawer and take that mark to the clerk, or risk the remaining record for the full signature.
“I ask Dunn to secure the drawer intact”
FAILURE (Poor Diplomacy, rolled -2)
Ace
Secure the drawer intact, Dunn. Preserve the lock and the slip.
Dunn steps in, but his attention fixes on the bent pick blocking the keyway, not on the fragile record behind it.
Officer Dunn
Intact is no longer an option. That tool has already altered the lock.
He grips the drawer front and pulls it farther open. The jammed metal gives with a sharp scrape.
Harold Pike
Stop. The carbon line is tearing.
The intake slip buckles under the drawer's edge. Its handwritten M remains visible, but the collection time splits across the crease.
Officer Dunn
Then we preserve what survived. No one touches this drawer again until the clerk verifies the mark.
✓ Quest Accepted
Get the closing clerk to verify the M mark