Ian thinks for a moment before nodding "I guess since we are getting rid of the armor we need to start at the square first near the vendors, I can look around while hassling over a price" he chuckles softly, his tail giving a bit of a swhish as he pads in that direction

"was worth a shot," Flynn shrugged as he turned around, placing his hat back onto his head. "guess we're off to the store," he said to Scraps as he made his way through the crowd and out the door. "now, uh... which way's east?" he asked as he scratched his head and looked around.

"I was talkin' about yer name." Harrison said "Either that or some sorta nickname ta know ya by."

Scratch looked down at the file spread out before her, "Hmm? What's missing?"

She glanced through the pictures: obviously, Artemis had been an active member of the community, and the crime scene had had some interesting things to look at. No tracking attempts had been mentioned, or any real search of the greater area. No possible leads or theories had been mentioned. It was as if the case had been open and shut...

...But it wasn't, because Rom clearly cared about this person and would have done a thurough investigation into the matter, trying to at least get an idea of what had or hadn't happened to her before setting the case aside. If Rom wanted to solve this one, he'd have combed over the crime scene, attempted to track the perpetrators, searched the surrounding area, talked to informed locals. Finding a missing person requires an investigation, and an investigation means pulling up alot of facts and following leads...

....So where were Rom's notes? Even if he was the only investigator in town, Romulus must've kept some sort of log of his investigation, and for someone he obviously knew, he hadn't left alot of evidence of his investigation. "Hmm... Donny... Does Romulus keep his notes separately from the reports? He had to do some sort of investigation, but all I see here is a description of the case..." She went over the time period since the disappearance in her mind, thinking about how much of the crime scene and surrounding land would still be intact at this point, and how well the locals might remember things if questioned about it...

Tick tock goes the clock - 12:15

Scratch nodded slowly. Rom had investigated this one in some way. There was a reason that he hadn't filed it. Scratch immediately came up with several possibilities:

- Someone had made a clerical error and misfiled the investigation. In this case, they'd need to go over the files, which meant returning to the police station.
- Rom couldn't bear to file paperwork on his friend and so he didn't log them. This would mean she would have to console Rom into letting her take over.
- Rom was helping Artemis disappear and so he hadn't investigated. This would mean she'd want to talk to him before getting too far.
- Rom's investigation had hit a conclusion he didn't want anyone to know about. If so, Rom could just tell her that when she talked to him, and if there was still a case, she'd work past whatever had stopped him.
- Rom was involved with the kidnapping and was covering it up, either through corruption or coercion. In this case, he couldn't be trusted, and she should only confront him if she thought it was safe.
- Rom was still in the process of investigating and had never filed his notes. This would imply that he wasn't comfortable giving it to a stranger, seeing as she'd already asked him about it.

A couple of those seemed less likely, mainly because filing a weak investigation was less suspicious than filing none at all, but it couldn't be ruled out yet, especially if Rom had meant for someone to realize that he'd treated the case suspiciously. After those, the idea that the case was ongoing was somewhat dependent on how long ago this had happened...

"Donny, how long ago did the victim disappear?" Scratch asked, carefully gathering the file back up and clipping it neatly back together. She stood up and tucked the file back into her jacket, looking over the metal shack while she calculated her next move...

Harrison bowed lightly "Very well, miss Ash." he said as he headed for the 'rope'. Once he reached it and began climbing it, he looked at Ash once more "I'll leave the house right after I return everythin' in it's place, miss Ashe. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes."

Scratch nodded a bit, "Ok... Thanks..." she thought for a second, then looked back up, "Hey, Donny... Why are you with Romulus anyway? I mean, you don't seem like the type to become law-enforcement..."

"Privacy is my li'l name, Miss Ash. My lips are sealed." Harrison said as he closed the trap-door. As promised, in a few minutes he managed to put everything back and left the house, closing the door behind him.
"So far - so good..." he mumbled to himself. "Wonder how Scratch is farin'..."

"Hey Donny, wait." Scratch said in a bit of a hush, she walked after him, taking out the folder, "I don't need the text anymore, just the photos..." she opened up the folder and took the photos of Artemis at the bar and the crime scene, then shut it and held it out for him, "I wanna talk to you more, when you're less busy, so I'll be by later. Ok?"


In the back of her head, she immediately added "Ask Harrison about his day" to the top of her todo list...

Scraps shrugged, "Beats me." He tapped one of the bar's patrons on the shoulder, "Hey buddy, you know which way east is?"

Even though it would've mean that he'll intrude, Harrison still headed towards the Raccoon. Even if he was happy to see her, he knew he had to keep it cool and don't tell her anything about the house he just got out. He was more than sure she saw him doing so.

Ian smiles and nods, walking in the direction of the square, hoping to spot a aromor vendor, or a blacksmith, the armor would sell for a decent price at places like that, after all the metal could be reforged or the armor could be bought and due to the fact it DID provide good protection, resell it for a higher price, plus, he was always good about getting a bit more for things that would usual be a lesser value, at least back home anyways, would here be any different?

Harrison waited before the other raccoon closed the door before spoke.
"Hello there, Scratch!" he greeted "Had fun back at the pub?"

Scratch turned to him, "I left the pub right after you, actually: this is where the local sheriff works out of." she turned towards the pub and started walking, waving for him to follow, "C'mon, I've got a case to work on..."

The half-wolf nodded and followed her
"A case?" he asked "What case? Somethin' happen'd while I was gone?"

"Yeah we're headed that way to pick something up at a store called uh...I think it was gills or ghyls or somethin' like that."

Scratch nodded, "A few things. I met up with someone else from the boat named Flynn. I told him to keep his eyes open and we'd regroup at the bar in a little while. And right now..." Scracth reached in her pocket and pulled out a picture and handed it to him to see...

"...I'm gonna see if I can track down this girl. Apparently she went missing about a week ago..."

Tick tock goes the clock - 12:30

"Don't worry, i know how to deal with shady characters," Flynn assured with a smile and a tip of his hat. "We better get over there or Rem will be left hanging."

"Hmm..." Harisson said as he was looking at the picture "I memorized 'er appearance. I want ya ta tell me everythin' so I can help ya out... an' fast if ya can... I have some plans fer later."

"You're right. We should get going. " Scraps briefly turned his attention back to the beagle "
Thanks for the directions man. You're a life saver." and with that he was off in the direction they'd been pointed.

Scratch nodded, handing Harrison back his vest, "Well, her name is Artemis, and she lived in that old house you came out of: which I was planning on breaking into, by the way, so you'll needa tell me what got you roughed up in there." she held up a finger on the point, but continued, "Anyway, apparently she was a local painter who got into some trouble outside of town and disappeared. The case went cold, so one of the deputies snuck me the file... Sheriff doesn't know that though." she shrugged, reaching to take the pictures back. "So I found out about this civil war going on, among other things, but before that, how was your day?"

"Artemis, aye?" Harrison muttered as he took his vest (put the whip and the metal canister away) and put it on (putting the two things back). "Ah, feels good ta be whole again." he said, grinning and looking at Scratch. "An 'bout me day - once I got outta dat pub, I've been havin'a walk. An' 'bout the house ye saw me goin' out of..." He stopped for a second, taking off his hat and scratching his head, carefully thinking over the details - he made a promise to Ash to keep quiet, but he couldn't just tell everything to Scratch... so he had to lie... and he hated lying "... well, there was this fella I helped with his cart with logs an' he pointed me ta this house if I wanted ta rest... and I took a little nap there. Once I got out - I saw ya and ye know da rest..." he spoke in a neutral tone. "Nothin' interestin' in there ta check out..."

"Maybe not to you, but remember: I've got the eye of detective." she tapped the black fur around one of her eyes, "Archeologists look at what's there, but we look for what could be there." she shrugged, "You don't think it's too interesting though, so I guess it's not a high priority..." she waved it off, "I hope you got a good idea of the layout of the area, 'cause I've been busy making contacts." She puled out her notebook and flipped back a bit, "So, you hear about this 'civil war' thing that's been going on?"

(( Hey, Roarin. Does Scratch know he's lying? She's got alot more truth-seeking experience than he does, but I dunno how you wanna determine that... ))

"Civil war, aye?" Harrison said "Well, that might explain the unusual behavior of the locals...." he paused for a second "An' about that layout o' the land... well... I really didn't go much further than them houses really. Sorry I can't be much of a help."

Flynn waved as he walked up to the shack. "Hi there. Remus sent us to pick up something you've got for him."

Scratch sighed, "Well, yeah, maybe you can tell me a bit more later though..." she flipped forward to write Harrison's name down in the blank spot in her "to investigate" list, then flipped back to her notes on what Rom hd said earlier. "So, according to the Sheriff, Romulus, someone from something called the 'Federation Monarchy' is dead, which means their could be a war of succession going on, or if it was an assasination, a war of retaliation, or possibly even a full blown revolution." she closed her notebook and put it away again, "Either way, we should stay out of it: wars are never fun to get in on, no matter how noble they make themselves out to be..."

"I agree - wars are never pretty." Harrison said "But neither of us are interested in waging war, so that's all that matter." he was about to say something else on this topic, when an idea came to his mind "Say, ya learned fer all them bad things happenin' around... is there sumthin'... brighter happenin' around?"

"Eh, we're apparently in the quietest city, and so far the people here seem good and friendly...?" Scratch grasped a little. She shrugged, "I'm not exactly one to look for the brighter things first, but oh! Speaking of bright, apparently there's a local legend about the world above this cave: apparently no one here thinks it's real, and it's like a 'heaven' type place in the local folklore. Just thought I might throw you that one to pick apart. My theory is that they used to live up there a long time ago and somehow no explorers have ever found their way back..."

"That would explain the blank sky when we arrived..." Harrison muttered "Should've notice the lack of moon... or stars..."

Scraps answered as briefly as possible. He wasn't sure if this guy really was a con artist but he figured he'd keep it short and sweet just in case. "Yep."

"hold on a minute," Flynn said to the otter. "I need to check in the bag first, see for myself that everything's in order." he held out his paw for the otter to give him the bag.