Case 2: Withered Old Man

A week goes by and the team manages to heal up from their last case. Each member goes about their week with less excitement. Eventually, the time comes and Sidney calls Seth to the operations room like lasts time. The table comes to life with a hologram of a small mansion while the wall monitors show a dead body covered except for the chest area. The chest looks black, like it was burnt, but looking closer reveals that it looks like the skin is simply dead, like the life was drained out and is now rotting.

"What have we got, boss? What am I looking at?" Seth says as he eases himself into the chair opposite Sidney. His wounds have healed up nicely but he was still being a little easy on himself out of habit. He was perplexed by the hologram and wasn't sure what it was that he should be surmising from what he has been shown.

"Thank you squad leader, I will take that under advisement." Seth says and gives him a nod of respect before walking away to his van.

In the intervening time, Seth had been healing and resting, doing exercise to make sure he stayed sharp, and keeping an eye out on the news to see if there are any other possible missions that he might be put on. He had not seen the murder of the old man on the news, so the Agency must have kept it quiet.

Ajay had been busy restocking medical supplies and buying more obscure, esoteric books. His last encounter with the Spider shepherd has made it more evident that he won't be able to use scientific technologies alone in order to combat the 'Supernatural'. He was seriously lacking enough resources, and had it not been for the other agents like Seth and Meg, assigned with him, he would have to struggle in hunting down the Spider shepherd.

He started a biomolecular docking test model on his computer in the Infirmary before picking up a mug of coffee and going through the recent patient prescriptions and test reports of the people who came to treat them. Once satisfied with them, he went back to the library in order to casually browse his book collection. He recently ordered several old texts and books about esoteric knowledge, many of which had incoherent and outright false information. But, it is through this that he will be able to find the breadcrumbs that will lead him to actual records.

His phone buzzed with a notification from PESD. He half-heartedly sighed and then smiled. Another case already?

Maggie has been living her life. Going to parties, hanging out with friends, seeing some new films, binge-watching a few shows—all on someone else dime, due to her lovely powers of persuasion. Life has been relaxing, peaceful, and all around great.
Knowing about Ajay's secret hideaway, Mags has stopped by a few times, not really to help him in any way. She is just hanging out and reading some of his harder-to-come-by occult books. She has been studying anything she can find on magic and trying to figure out what she is capable of.

She got the call from Seth, but didn't answer the phone. She quickly texts him back, "OMW," and starts heading to dinner.

Ajay walked inside the diner, knowing well that Seth would arrive first and if he was not late, Meg would come next. When he met Zoe and got her code, it was evident that Seth had arrived already. He smiled back at Zoe, "Hello Zoe, how are you doing? Everything fine at work? (He eyed the Golden Diner and it's current customers) Don't overexert yourself, and thanks as always."

Once he reached their usual secluded place in Golden Diner, he sat on the other side of the table opposite to Seth and smiled at him. "Hello Seth, how is your health? Our past assignment was quite physically taxing, and you took the worst brunt of it. Everything alright?"

He then paused and looked at the files offered, "So, we have a new case? A man dead in his own house? Interesting. Let me browse the information until Meg arrives."

When Margaret arrived to the table, Ajay looked up and smiled, saying "Hello Miss Lefay" knowing that this will irk her up but who can give up an opportunity like this.

Meggie walks right over to Zoe and gives her a quick hug. "Hey Zoe. Doing good, You? Thinking Breakfast. Pancakes and Bacon. A good Stack of each and some Coffee."

Ignoring the other patrons she heads right to the table. Grabbing another chair she props her feet up. "How is it Hanging boys? How was your week? Do anything interesting?"

Seth looks up at Ajay and Margaret as they arrive, studying them. Since their last mission he had begun to feel...differently about them both. Like they had bonded somehow, at least from Seth's perspective, and were beginning to become a more cohesive unit. Seth was thinking this as he listened to Ajay's greeting and subsequent question, returning Ajay's smile. He thinks over his response for a beat, and answered "I am fit as a fiddle and twice as highly strung. Thank you for asking, and for working quickly to get the antivenom into me."

He watched as Margaret as she greets Zoe, and thinks about having to cover for her loss of control with the Agency, wondering if he would need to do the same thing this mission, and also wondering if it would happen anytime a situation became particularly stressful. He would have to ask her about it when they got a moment alone.

Seth watched her for a moment before replying with, "Mostly convalescing, so no nothing terribly interesting. I did some binge watching while I was laid up, but that was the extent of my wild time."

Ajay continued to riffle through the reports and then looked up, "This is very interesting and mysterious. Do we have access to the corpse of Mr. Pennington? I would like to see it and probably talk with the coroner to have a detailed report. The chest tissue that rotted away can also give us some more information. I don't know how we can approach the wife though. I am not that great at social skills, so convincing the wife to give us an invitation would be problematic. Can you to come up with something to get access to the crime scene?"

"Leave the wife to me. I just need to spend some time with her and get into her head. Maybe we can find out if she has a favorite restaurant or spa or something. We can get to her when she is out and about."
She takes a look at the images of the dead body, laughing a little "Gnarly. You should warn us before we order food. That is nasty..." She pushes the files back to Ajay. "Was there anything left or taken from that area?' Heart or Liver?"

"I should be able to get us access to the crime scene. I will have the Agency come up with a cover for us to investigate, perhaps as a CSI oversight team. We do not have access to the body as far as I know, but I can make inquiries."He says, facing Ajay. He turns to Margaret and says, "Excellent idea. You and I will go to the house together under the cover that the Agency gives us and see if we can get access to the house. Ajay can interface with the Coroner."

He then gets his phone out and dials a single number to get to his Agency contact.

Seth gets an answer and is told to wait a few minutes. When they get back to him, the agent on the other end says they managed to falsify some documents so it looks like one last minute test is needed on the body. They also say they talked with widow's security. The best they could negotiate was a guided visit while the widow is out. She believes the police is incompetent compared to her private security, and since she doesn't believe in the supernatural the PESD has to pretend to be police.

Seth relays the news that he has received to Ajay and Margaret, returning to the conversation. "So are we good with splitting up?"

Ajay nodded and stood up to leave. "We can meet back here and discuss what we found out."