I'm the Mephistopheles of Los Angeles (part CXXXII)

(Roleplay entry. Continued from part CXXXI.)

There was a saying that the people who own Los Angeles were members of one club downtown, and the people who ran Los Angeles were members of this club.



Hiro sat at a table in the large dining room, drinking coffee. Waiters in white jackets moved attentively to the spread-out dinners. He sat quietly reading the Wall Street Journal. The markets were down again. An issue with the recovery in Europe, and the war continuing in North Asia. The Japanese excavations at Tunguska were generating more headlines. It was hard to trust the stories. He saw the doctor approaching. He was tall, dark eyes, fair skin. He didn't smile; he sat down.

"Mister, uh..."

"Stonelevel, H.S. Stonelevel," Hiro lied. He handed over a calling card.

Stonelevel and Sons
Antiquities and Manuscripts
43 Cavendish Square, London

"Ah, yes. The buyer..."

Hiro waited. The doctor swallowed.

"I am sorry, I have nothing to sell."

"Are you buying, Doctor?"

"Well, that depends..."

"We have several things that might interest you. A completed folio of the King in Yellow, a French copy of the Ordinances of the Sphinx, a Latin copy of Ose and Hiram, and a guide to Gallifreyian Tantra."

The Doctor paused. "None of those are in Los Angeles?"

"Of course not."

"The Ordinance of the Sphinx--how can you be sure it isn't a forgery?"

"They are not."

Hiro looked at him steadily. After a pause, he continued. "I have some transcriptions. I understand you may have a copy of the Codex?"

"I have access to one, yes--"

"We could compare the Cyphers to validate."

The doctor looked troubled. "Oh, I am not an adapt, I wouldn't..."

Hiro waited. Understanding crossed the Doctor's face.

"I see. You would authenticate."

Hiro nodded. Hiro smiled.

"I have to speak to my business partner, he actually has a copy of the Codex. How can I reach you, sir?"

Hiro held out his hand. After a moment, blinking, the Doctor gave him back the business card. He wrote on the back and returned it. "This agency will know my whereabouts."

"Elwood Clark, Private Investigations?"

"Security precautions."

"Of course," the Doctor said, smiling. "I'll be in touch." He stood and began to leave the dining room, stopping to talk to two men at a table close to the door.

Hiro finished his coffee, reading about the ancient artifacts the Japanese claimed to be extracting from the Tartarian crater. He folded up the newspaper, left the club, and found a different hotel.

The phone in room 201 rang in the afternoon. He was in the Hotel Daniel on Hollywood Boulevard.

"Hello," Hiro said calmly.

"It's Clark. He called."

"Okay."

"Wants to you come to his house in Los Feliz on Thursday night. Something about proving a point?"

Hiro wrote the address on the note pad next to the phone.

"Also, I looked into the actress, Elizabeth Short, and her boyfriend, 'The Turk'. A lot of people know her, very social in town. Connected in various, discreet circles..."

"Of course."

"This 'Turk' is harder. People have heard of him, but no one knows him. Not LAPD, not Micky Cohen's crew, not even the Italians. I called a buddy down in the Harbor division in San Pedro. Nothing..."

"That is odd."

"I'm going to drive down there and check it out. I have to stop over at Hughes Aircraft anyway, on a different case."

"Thank you, Mr Clark."

“You're welcome." There was a short pause. "My bill..."

"Let's meet at Muso and Frank's for a drink tomorrow. I'll bring cash."

"Always a pleasure."

The phone went dead.

The AI’s voice filled the small Hotel Room. "This Doctor strikes me, that he sounds like a man who had slept well and doesn't owe too much money."

"And you strike me as someone who has been reading too much Raymond Chandler."

"How else was I to get ready for this timeline, and when were you going to brief me?"

Hiro had shifted back to his Leopard form. He was sitting on the small hotel bed, the neon of Hollywood illuminating the darkness.

"I wasn't ready. When you hit the wormhole you must have downloaded coordinates from the Station's singularity lab. Why here, why now?"

"In most timelines, the Codex, if found, has an impact in how fast events play out."

"The thing in Japan, Tunguska?"

"Siberia."

"What about it?"

"Tunguska is in Siberia."

"So why are the Japanese digging up the artifacts?"

"In this timeline, they didn't surrender. Hiroshima didn't happen. The Allies tried a Thaumaturgic weapon. Obviously, it didn't work."

"Well, it didn't work in Japan. It worked in Germany. Anyway--what have you found?"

"Beth Short is the key to this. Can't calculate why. But I did find something. Look--"



The AI projected a hologram of a black and white photo. A smiling Elizabeth Short dressed in a burlesque-like dress, sitting in the lap of an older man. They were in a chair in front of a circus tent and wagon. She was smiling. The wagon was painted 'Berthan Mills Circus'. In the distance a marquee with two canvas banners advertised a magic act and what appeared to be a spider with a woman's head.

"This photo was taken in 1928."

Hiro felt sick. He was looking at the Circus.

"in the current time line?"

"Yes, and most adjacent."

"Who's the guy?"

"Allen William Wood? His nickname is...'The Turk'."

"So, twenty years, no one ages? This is an error? A flaw in calculations?"

"Remember our deal? I do the homework, you run the ops?"

Hiro grunted approval. He was hoping the AI had an answer for this. He knew it didn't. He wasn't sure he did, either.

(Continued in part CXXXIII.)

oh, no apologies, twisting your word and your policies

A brief Scenes from a Chat:

[11:47] mxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Can y'all see this? 🔠

Unless it's supposed to be just letters, no. That or a plain empty box are usually what I see when the emoji in question isn't showing up in chat.

[11:47] axxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: yes
[11:47] Lxxxx Mxxxxxxxxx: Yep
[11:49] Mxxxx Gxxxxxx: yes
[11:49] mxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Okay: this is the least used emoji at the moment.

If that's all it is, I understand why.

[11:49] mxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Basically if you can, remember to use it in your vocabulary so we can give this little thing some love too.

Why?

[11:50] Mxxxx Gxxxxxx: i just got online lol were there soooo many ?
[11:50] mxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Here is it again: 🔠
[11:50] Mxxxx Gxxxxxx: oh wow you dare [kxxx]
[11:50] Emilly Orr: [Kxxx], I see four little letters that I think read A-B-C-T?

Because in SL, this thing is not only not blue, but smaller, so...it was hard to make out.



That is what I saw in world. Also, just to clear this up if required, "K" was the letter her display name started with. Her actual name was longer, and began with a different letter.

[11:50] mxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: A B C D
[11:51] Emilly Orr: Oh, it's supposed to be that?
[11:51] mxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Yass

Then I'm confused.

[11:52] Emilly Orr: Okay, so this is tiny brain moment--whassit mean?
[11:52] Txxxxxxxx Exxxx: lol Emily
[11:52] mxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: A B C D are the first letters of the latin alphabet
[11:53] Emilly Orr: Yes....
[11:53] mxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Yas.

I don't get it.

[11:53] Emilly Orr: So that's it? No deeper meaning, like the difference between the blue heart and the red heart?
[11:53] mxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: A B C D are the first letters of the latin alphabet.
[11:54] Emilly Orr: You keep saying that like it means something.

Because, Ms. K, that means nothing. That is meaningless. That carries even less inherent sense than many emojis.

[11:54] mxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Eh that's what it means.
[11:54] Emilly Orr: Then I don't get it.
[11:55] mxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: 🔠
[11:56] Emilly Orr shrugs and moves on

I mean, am I just missing some incredibly obscure joke here? Someone help me out. Does it have an actual meaning? Why is this such a big deal? Is it just Ms. K wants to encourage people to use an alphabetic emoji for no particular reason but using it?

I still don't get it. So, onward to the haunt!

The description for East of London is short:

This is the only replica of how Londons East was in the 1880s during Jack the ripper reigh.

I think they mean, "during Jack the Ripper's reign", but hey.



I don't think Whitechapel would have ever named a pub "Jack the Ripper", even in the height of the Ripper hysteria.

That seems on the grim side.



Problem: same top-hatted gentleman. Same name for the pub. Repeats on a supposedly authentic Victorian sim? Never good.



That's a tad bit on the nose, a soiled dove standing next to a waiting coffin.



Poses of some of the crime scenes (and at least one victim). Around the corner from this, there's a posestand in front of a slideshow of various Victorian street scenes. Neat concept.



An ominous shadow on the bricks...



And a lass that was not saved in time.

In point of fact, this is more history than horror, but it does give you the feeling, at least, of wandering a foggy Whitechapel night. There are some sights, and relatively few rips (there are a few, but for the most part, they're used in ways they make sense). So if you're up for a slightly haunted stroll, this one's recommended.

do you ever feel like this should be officially the end

For anyone who knows me, it will come as no surprise that I have a minor obsession with serial killers. Now, I'm a lot better than I used to be--I haven't read the two encyclopedias I own on them for years now, and I can no longer recite any of seventy-odd histories of pain, brutality and death when tossed a name. I think this is actually a healthier thing, so I'm not overly encouraging myself to pick it back up as a hobby.

But I still keep my hand in, in certain specific areas. I like watching "true crime" documentaries on Netflix and YouTube. I've been a subscriber of LordanArts for his "BrainScratch" series for years, as well as Ranil Gort, Mortis Media, Gloomy House, ScareMe, Luth Luther, Scary Mysteries, Deburke321, Scare Theater, and Ask a Mortician, because she's a lot of fun. I'm so in love with one creator's work (Cayleigh Elise, she used to write and edit for Rob Gavagan before she branched out on her own video series) that I became part of her Patreon just to support her. What she does kills her heart, but she's driven to cover it--mostly Jane Doe cases (cases so old they may never be solved because the killers and any remaining family members who might know what happened have died) and cases of missing children--because, in many cases, getting the word out has led to breakthroughs on these open investigations.

Why am I telling you all this? Because last night, I fell down the rabbit hole on YouTube.

Now, this isn't hard to do--pick a topic, there's a strange wild path to follow down--but this one turned up some interesting things.

I started with Shauna Rae, who'd put up a fascinating video about a strange hiking mishap in Panama.  Watched a couple of hers, then from there, I discovered Samantha M, who apparently focuses on Australian cases of foul play. I watched a few of hers, and then in the sidebar, saw a mention of Stephanie Harlowe's coverage of the Kenneka Jenkins case. The description of that video led me to Gray Hughes Investigations, who apparently has an entire playlist devoted to Kenneka Jenkins--the actual facts, the suppositions, and all the conspiracy theories. It's exhaustive.

Now, if you've never heard about Kenneka Jenkins, it is truly one of the more heartbreaking cases out there--but it was not a murder. It was an extraordinarily unfortunate accident--Ms. Jenkins had gone to a party while taking a prescription drug that severely impairs cognition when in the presence of alcohol, and genetically, she had a predisposition to getting drunk anyway. What an equivalent girl would need six beers to achieve, Kenneka could reach in half of one bottle. Some people are just wired that way.

But both these factors combined to lead her out of the party a few minutes after her friends left to get her cell phone charger from her mother's car, which she had taken to the hotel where the party was. In surveillance footage, she is obviously intoxicated. From what I personally know about the prescription drug she was taking (it has a lot of off-brand uses, but my bet is, she was given it to prevent migraines), this drug both induces short-term memory loss as well as balance issues. Pair that with alcohol, and her inebriated decision to go find her friends in the lobby (but having hit the button in the elevator for "LL", which she very well may have blurrily seen as "L"), the end result was a 19-year-old girl wandering aimlessly through the administration sector of the hotel, trying to find her way out.

The major oddity in this case is that, after several minutes of wandering brought her to an unfinished kitchen area, she found the door to a (mysteriously active, though not perfectly working) walk-in freezer, and...walked in. And the door shut behind her. This is, absolutely, tragic happenstance. And--again, absolutely, no question of this--had the police officer with whom her mother spoke, trying to get them to come to the hotel to search for her daughter, not essentially blown it off as "hey, kids wander off, c'mon, she's an adult"--maybe, maybe, there is a vanishingly slim chance she could have been revived.

But understand, at the time Kenneka's mother became involved, she had already been trapped in a pitch-black walk-in freezer for four hours. She may have already died at that point. Or, if she hadn't, she may have, when revived, had so much brain damage that she would never have been off a ventilator. We just don't know, and we'll never know.

But the case was officially ruled an accident. Could the hotel have done more, by calling someone in upper management to send security in to review the surveillance tapes? Of course. Could the police officer Kenneka's mother spoke with have evidenced just a smidge more empathy for the situation, and sent a car by? Obviously. That neither of these things were done is also tragic, but again, by the time the hotel staff was asked to review the tapes, Kenneka may have already been dead. We have no way of knowing how fast it took her to freeze to death in the walk-in.

And yes, while this case does spur some dim echoes of Elisa Lam, in all other aspects they are vastly different cases. Ms. Lam was traveling alone, not with friends; Ms. Lam, while she was taking prescription drugs to balance her bipolar syndrome and diagnosed depression, was not taking anything that could have caused any amnesiac effects; and while she did have anti-psychotic rescue medication with her, and evidence from the toxicology report suggests she had not taken them for several days, it wasn't something she was used to taking every day.

There will always be the mystery of how, exactly, she went through a locked door onto the roof and climbed into an open water tank without a ladder on the side, but...everything else, including her behavior in the hotel's elevator, is simple happenstance. We will never know how everything happened in Ms. Lam's case either, but Kenneka Jenkins' case, at least, has far less disturbing, surreal aspects. It is a heartbreaking tragedy, but it is the tragedy of a sort that happens every day.

At any rate, I just wanted to cover some of these channels, in a minor way. That's all. If you're not interested in criminal activity, murders, and disturbing cases, you don't have to click any of the links. Not everyone is, and that's perfectly fine.