Delta Green - The Devil's Highway

[20/20 SAN LOSS]

Now before we get started, I'd like to make it abundantly clear that Sheriff Colorados and myself will be the one's running the show. This is Major Frank Garrett, your contact with the Arizona state police. From the antique boot spurs to the exagerated drawl, he appears to be more suited to playing cowboy than law enforcement officer.

Sheriff Mangas Colorados, of the Apache tribal police, chimes in. According to your briefing he's extremely popular with the Apache thanks to his scrupulous enforcement of tribal sovereignty. While I can't say that the federal government has ever been much of a friend to the Apache - we do have a dangerous criminal on our hands, and he or she must be brought to justice. What Major Garrett means to say is that we're both grateful to have your resources at our disposal.

Indeed. What the Sheriff said. Anyhow, I 'spose we ought to get right down to it. As you can see here, I've whipped up a brief summary of the case so far. The police reports don't have much else, we've got three cars at the impound, all property in the evidence lockers, and no forensic leads so far. Now before you boys start using your magic fed-sense to pull all sorts of leads from that there case file, are there any questions?

Spoiler: A Brief Summary of the Facts

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An unknown person or persons is believed responsible for the disappearances of thirteen people in the last monthe in the area of State Road 70 near the southern edge of San Carlos Indian Reservation west of Phoenix. Know disappearances are as follows.

Date	Name	Notes
July 4	Allen and Karen Curtley	Car found abondoned on 70 en route to son's house
July 6	Felix Royos	Gas station attendant working night shift on 70
July 10	Ed Stoltz & Chris Martin	Fishermen at the reservoir near 70; camp undisturbed
~July 15	Rolf Trautner & Freda Ollenburg	German tourists; rental car found abandoned on 70
~July 15	Dieter & Vera Van Olson	Dutch tourists; rental car found abandoned on 70
~July 27	Begay family (four)	Farm near 70 abandoned for at least a week

Dates for the last three disappearances are approximate. No signs of violence in any of these cases. No know enemies. No valuables missing except for whatever each victim had on his or her person. No contact from the perpetrator(s) or victims. No suspects. More information on the victims follows.

Allen and Karen Curtley: Allen Curtley, white male, 57 YOA, owner of Done and Ready roofing company, employing thirty full-time employees in the area of Santa Fe, New Mexico. A medium-sized contractor doing primarily home repair. Karen Curtley, white female, 53 YOA, was employed full-time at her husband's business as an accountant/bookkeeper. They had no outstanding debts, the company had no ties to organized crime, and their son, Brian Curtley, 32 YOA, living in Phoenix, Arizona, has no financial problems that would require his "advancing" his inheritance. By all accounts, the Curtleys had a good relationship with family and business associates.

Felix Royos: Hispanic male, 20 YOA. High school drop-out who has worked at a number of unskilled labor positions since his sixteenth birthday. Several juvenile arrests for Possession of Alcohol by a Minor, Curfew Violations, Criminal Mischief. No known criminal associations since his eighteenth birthday. His older brother, Enrico Royos, 24 YOA, has to convictions for Grand Theft (Armed Robberies plea-bargained).

Ed Stoltz and Chris Martin: Ed Stoltz, white male, 32 YOA, mechanic for Greyhound Bus Lines, married to Lavern Stoltz, 29 YOA, one child, Timothy, 3 YOA. Chris Martin, white male, 30 YOA, Assistant Manager at True Value Hardware Store, Temepe Arizona, single. Both men are natives of Phoenix and went to the same high school. They went fishing on the Coolidge Dam Reservoir at least once a month. Neither man had a criminal record or any criminal associations.

Rolf Trautner and Freda Ollengburg: Rolf Trautner, nationality German, white male, 22 YOA. Freda Ollenberg, nationality German, white female, 22 YOA. Both had recently finished their three-year national service commitment in the Federal Republic of Germany and were taking a short vacation prior to attending university. Neither had any friends or relatives in the United States. They had been travelling by bus and train and had been in the United States for two weeks.

Dieter and Vera Van Olson: Dieter Van Olson, nationality Dutch, white male, 65 YOA. Retired Vice-President for Petroleum Exploration, Royal Dutch Shell Corporation, spending his retirement seeing the world. His wife, Vera, 60 YOA, was a homemaker. They had been touring the United States by car for the past three months. They have no connections or contacts with anyone in the Southwest, but they did have reservations to stay near the Grand Canyon four days before their car was found.

The Begay Family: Victorio Begay, Apache Indian, 42 YOA, his wife Louisa, 38 YOA, and their sons, Luca 13 YOA, and Paco, 15. Victorio Begay was a well-respected member of the Apache community. By local standards he was quite prosperous, owning two hundred sheep, several dozen acres of property, two pickup trucks, and a home big enough to give his children their own rooms. He had no enemies to speak of, either personal or business. His wife, Louisa, and both his sons worked their ranch full-time. Their relations in the community were good. Neither son had any criminal record.

[Kleitor]

Jeffrey Sullivan is a tall man with a relatively plain face, shaggy curled hair, pale skin and eyes that are a deep shade of emerald. He doesn't say much or make any significant attempt to get to know the other agents he's been paired up with and seems lost in thought until the sheriff and major arrive to greet you. He takes a long read over the summary given to us and and says I'd like to investigate these car's for any forensic evidence as I find it hard to believe that all these people could have disappeared from their vehicles without leaving a trace.

Spoiler: Character Sheet

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http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=80180

[Plerumque]

Russell's eyes flit from face to face, categorizing details and filing them away in the minutely organized storage cabinet of his brain. Choice of clothes + cavalier attitude = wants to be a hero? Disdain for higher-ups = not reliable, shouldn't insult competency or patronize... I don't even know why I'm here, he thinks. I should be back in the lab. "If there's been any similar activity here in the past," he says, "I'm sure you've gone over it already, but it'd be helpful to us gents from out of town." He takes the dossier and flips through it, looking up. "Those that disappeared from their homes or workplaces, their mode of transportation was undisturbed?"

[SpeedWitch]

"So, if I've got this straight... we have NO SUSPECTS?" Joesph Radimir says, narrowing his brown eyes. "Forget about the insides, there has to be something left outside the cars. Footprints, signs of struggle..." He waves his hands through the air, his intimidating stature seeming to take up most of the room. "You can't just have nothing. Do you expect us to walk around the highway and poke around every weird little bush we see?"

Spoiler: OOC

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Character sheet

[20/20 SAN LOSS]

Easy there boys, Major Garret shakes his head and chuckles at the questions about the cars, Like it says in the report - no signs of struggle. Our forensics guys haven't pulled anything out of the ordinary from the cars either. They all say that any sort of abduction happened outside the car. That being said you're more than welcome to give it a second look with those fancy FBI senses of yours. After sending a condescending grin your way he continues, Right now plan is to do a helicopter sweep of the 70 and hope for the best.

Sheriff Colorados appears as if he is about to speak, but is quickly cut off by Garrett. And I'm sure the Sheriff over here could lead you in a traditional Apache 'find the lunatic abductor dance.' Although visibly displeased, the Sheriff offers no response.

[Kleitor]

Jeffrey frowns slightly at the sheriffs offensive remark but quickly brushes it aside. Well I think we should analyze the area's in question ourselves, just to be safe. You never know what "FBI Senses" might pick up that the original investigators might of missed. I mean unless we're dealing with wizards here something had to be left behind.

[SpeedWitch]

Joseph remains silent, still angry about the lack of evidence. He wants to say something, but he doesn't know what to contribute, so he remains quietly fuming at the table. He gives Jeffery a weird look at the mention of ''wizards,'' but keeps his mouth shut.

[20/20 SAN LOSS]

Major Garrett shrugs at Jeffrey. Suit yourself, I ain't gonna stop you. Like I said, cars are down at the impound, victim's personal property here in the evidence lockers. Anyhow, before your arrival the plan was to take the police choppers out over the 70 and see if we can pick out anything else. Unless you all want to check out the vehicles or have other places to be, we could certainly use some extra pairs of eyes.

[Plerumque]

"I'm not talking about the abandoned cars," Russell clarifies. "I trust you've handled those fine. I was asking about the cars of, ah-" he flips through the pages- "Royos, Stoltz, Martin, and the Begays. There's no evidence they left- they seem to have been abducted from their home, workplace, or campsite as the case may be?"

[20/20 SAN LOSS]

The camp and gas station were left completely untouched, Garrett says, shaking his head, No valuables missing in either case - including the cash box at the station a lotta expensive fishing equipment. Royos never clocked out of his shift either and far as we can tell none of the victims had any cause to make themselves disappear so suddenly.

Sheriff Colorados chimes in further, The Begays were very much the same, nothing missing other than a few sheep although Victorio reported those stolen some days before the incident. We've searched the property as best we could, but as it says in the report they do own quite a wide tract of land.

[Plerumque]

"So they must have left either on foot- in which case I'd think we'd have found them already- or in someone else's vehicle. Or, I suppose, never left." Russell says it matter-of-factly. "I'm fine to serve as an extra pair of eyes. I trust your team to have scoured the vehicles thoroughly enough, and personally I'm better in that capacity regardless."

[SpeedWitch]

"It does sound like you weren't able to examine all environments as thoroughly as you would like, though," Joseph says, locking eyes with the Sheriff. "Which is why I believe the farm needs another look-over A helicopter searching above the land would be good too, if you've already got it planned to sweep through the area as well as the rest of the highway, but I'll see to the acres on the ground, along with whoever wants to come with. A land that big has plenty of room for a criminal to slip-up in."

[Kleitor]

I'll come with you while they do an aerial sweep of the area. A ground search is where my expertise will come into play better anyway. Jeffrey's eyes wander and part of him seems to be off somewhere else as this conversation goes on.