Chapter 1 - Knightfall

"Yeah... yeah, I'll go with you," Rodgers offers. "Need to get out of this damn alleyway anyway."

The super for the building that has a bit of cloth on the escape answers the intercom, and after a few minutes the elderly man -- clad in his robe and slippers -- opens the front door and lets Detective Gnaf and Patrolman Rodgers into the building. He introduces himself as Jimmy Gagne and tells you he lives in 2A if you need him. He doesn't go up with you, but he tells you to take the elevator to the eigth floor and then the stairs will lead up to the roof access. He adds that the door doesn't lock, so don't worry about getting trapped on the roof.

The two of you have no issues getting onto the roof. The wind bites, and you can smell the salt water. Glancing out, you can see the ferry heading across the water to Bremerton, and a bit further down the barges light the horizon as people are already hard at work.

You cross the roof to the escape, and make your way down. You are able to carefully collect the piece of black fabric and bag it.

Vlax encourages Rogers to keep a close watch on their surroundings, if only because of a horrible gut feeling. The discharge of a firearm at a crime scene is no small thing and will result in a separate misconduct inquiry, so he can't get the gravity of the situation out of his head. "I wonder what he saw..." the detective mutters.

.

The crows hop away from you, but don't fly off. They caw in irritation, but only a bit. They watch you intently, seemingly ready to take off if you move towards them. Nothing seems particularly off about the fire escape. All the windows are shut, and lights are off -- which makes sense considering the time of day.

After collecting the sample, you head back up the fire escape to the roof. The door to the stairwell is, in fact, unlocked.

Vlax shrugs and asks his cop companion to come with him to the other fire escape so they can inspect that location as well. It is where the girl is tied, and he warns Rodgers of that fact.

"Yeah, I figured," He doesn't sound excited, but makes no move to stop following you.

Jimmy must have returned to his apartment, but you let yourself out of the building without issue.

Making your way up the block to the apartment building in question, you ring the buzzer for the super but get no response.

The door appears clean and free of anything that might be evidence.

It is also locked.

As you begin to walk away to search for your own point of entry, you hear a call from behind you.

"Officers? Officers!"

A younger man is leaning out of the front door to the apartment building. "Hello, yes, sorry. My intercome needs to be repaired, I can hear but I can't speak through it. Takes me a minute to get down to the door. What can I do for you gentlemen?"

The man before you appears to be in his mid-20s, dressed in black slacks and suspenders with a crisp white button down shirt, top button unbuttoned. A plain black tie with a silver tie pin sits loosely around his neck. He offers a smile as he stands there holding the door open.

The moment you lock eyes with him, every hair on the back of your neck stands on end, your stomach twists, and your chest feels tight -- like it's hard to breath.

"No Sir, just fell asleep a while ago. I have a room on the top floor, a hell of a view, I'm single, and I make a decent salary. I'm sure you can figure out the rest," He chuckles a bit. "Eddie Schmidt. I'm the super. How can I help?"

His eyes go wide at the mention of a murder. Oh my God! That's terrible! Yes, of course, of course, right this way gentlemen," He holds the door, and lets you both into the building before leading you to the elevator.

He doesn't say anything on the ride up, but when the elevator dings and the door slides open on the 10th floor, he says, "Here we are." He leads you to the stairwell, and goes up a floor and a half to open the door to the roof. "Shall I stay here with you?"

"I'll certainly unlock the handle to the door, Sir," he replies. "Apartment 10E if you need me gentlemen."

With that, he exits the roof and leaves you to your work.

Nothing about the fire escape seems out of the ordinary. You can make your way down to where the cord is tied off. The wrapping is uniform, the knot is small and tight. The knot also has almost no tail, suggesting someone cut it or was an excellent judge of length.

"I dunno, but did that guy creep the shit out of you too?" Rodgers asks.

"Yeah, we can start knocking on doors I suppose." He looks down at the girl just hanging there, and shudders before heading back up the fire escape.

You reach the roof, and the door into the stairwell opens without issue.