2019-10-22 - Murder of the Bands: The Body

The Sea View Suites is not what anyone would call glamorous. Not very rock and roll, by any means. But then, the band Gryndhaus can't exactly AFFORD rock and roll. They can afford grunge. And Sea View is definitely grunge. Magnolia arrives to meet with the band, hoping to gather information for her client. And the band assembles - with one exception. The lead singer, "Ravage" (or, Morris Ott on his license) is nowhere to be found. The bassist, Jenny, has the second key to his room, so she decides to go see what's holding him up.

She has a really impressive scream. When Magnolia and the rest of the band race into the room, they can see that what's holding up Morris is a terrible case of the deads. He's sprawled out on the bed, with the remains of a guitar embedded in his face. Squish. Before finishing off in his face, it looks like it was used to beat the hell out of him. The rest of the room is trashed, but in the immediate moment, it's hard to tell if that's 'this place was tossed' trashed or 'a musician is staying here' trashed. The bed is probably a total write off, to say nothing of the guitar. Jenny continues to scream. Calls to the cops are placed (and those calls are broadcast on the dispatch channel for NOSY REPORTERS) to pick up on. A detective and uniform are dispatched to the scene!

Magnolia Jones scores herself a client in the Rock and Roll business, she sees this as an opportunity to get out some of her dad's best t-shirts. So, when she shows up at the Sea View, she's sporting a NIRVANA t-shirt with her more professional blazer and jeans. She came this way to do her interviews with the band, and she's just waiting around for the lead singer when that scream explodes out from Morris's room. She knows that scream; she is pretty sure what she's going to walk into.

"Well." Magnolia steps forward, arms spreading out to stop the rest of the band from coming into the room. "Everyone out. Don't touch anything. Someone call the cops, and get Jenny a drink."

That detective, the one that seems to be catching all the cases for the motel this week, is one Charlie Morgan. Lucky her!

It's probably untrue that she's catching all the cases for the motel, but it might just feel like it at this point. When she pulls up, eventually, and parks the unmarked car she gets out, pulling her phone out to check it, and also to turn the ringer onto vibrate before tucking it into her back pocket. The golden shield is tucked onto her belt, shifted forward so that it's not covered up by the members only jacket that she grabs from inside the car, pulling it on against the chill in the air. There is a quick sweep of the outside, a sigh, then she begins to trudge forward to go towards where the band is hopefully all corralled in together.

Minus the dead man.

Officer Carter Reid is the uniformed patrolman sent to keep an eye on things, keep people out of the room, and generally make sure that Charlie and forensics can do their jobs. He gives a nod to Charlie when he catches up with her, making his way toward the motel. "Morgan," he greets her with a friendly enough nod, though his usual pleasant smile is absent, a little more serious given the circumstances. The first thing he does is set about making sure that the perimeter is cordoned off and that looky-loos keep back and away.

Jessica is not nosy, she is professional. And since the Sea View is known for its (alleged) murderous history, the reporter is quickly on her way to inform the masses. Her VW Beetle, one of the original ones, pulls up outside the Hotel of the Dead (unofficial name for the Sea View but Jessica will make it stick). The reporter also doing a quick sweep of the outside though her interest is more in finding the body to try and get some pics before anyone tries to stop her. Carter will no doubt attempt to stop the freedom of the press.

And then off to where everyone is gathering. "Jessica Flores, Gray Harbor Gazette" is announced at anyone official who looks at her, along with waving of her press pass. Jessica knows Magnolia, offering her a polite smile of greeting before looking Morgan over - she is obviously in charge. Phone in her hand to record the conversation though she keeps it unobtrusive - no shoving in people's faces just yet.

Magnolia is leaning against the doorjam into the bedroom, and she's got her arms crossed in a demeanor that suggests she's playing guard dog -- small, fierce, adorably blond guard dog. When the cops make their arrival, she pushes off the frame with a sauntering step forward. Oh hey, and there's the press. She spots Charlie and flashes the fellow blonde the horns, but not while anyone is watching. She does have some professionalism. Some.

"Reid. Try and keep assholes out of my face....my lunch got interrupted." Charlie actually says that with a pleasant tone, which might lead one to think she's joking.

She is. And she's got zero professionalism sometimes, not when it comes to blonde PIs that just happen to be lingering in her scene. "Maggie-Moo....You shoot someone?" She wonders, reaching into the pocket of her jacket to start pulling a pair of latex gloves out to start tugging them onto her hands. People who don't do this often struggle, but repeated practice lends some small amount of ability to do it without breaking a million gloves in a night. There is a look beyond Maggie, towards the room, but she's not heading inside just yet. Clearly wanting to get the low-down on what the younger blonde happened to see. Or do.

Carter has no particular interest in stopping the freedom of the press, nor does he impede Jessica from photographing the area, but he does keep everyone back from interfering with or contaminating evidence, so her photos will need to be taken from a distance. He's polite about it, professional and with an apologetic smile, both understanding her profession and his own. "You'll need to stay back, ma'am," he says in that gentle, but firm tone. But outside of that, he doesn't interfere with her. And since there aren't many others around, he seems a little more at ease. There's a half-amused glance over in Charlie's direction and he says, "Yes ma'am." It's polite as pie.

Jessica has no problem with taking her photos from the door of the Murder Room. "Looks like someone really confused guitar with axe" is offered to Carter before she scrunches up her nose. "That was bad. Sorry." Magnolia is on a nickname basis with a Detective? This is good to know. She won't interrupt Charlie's work but there are band members to talk to. "Gryndhaus, right?" she smiles at the stricken band members and the un-stricken manager. "Love your work. 'Love You After Death'...one of your best. Sorry for your loss but I was wondering if I could ask you some questions?" A look Charlie's way to ensure she isn't stepping on toes. She will, of course, defer to the detective if need be.

"I mean, yes, but it was just that one time and dude was touching my Eggo." Magnolia's quip is easy, but then it falls away into seriousness. She straightens up from her lean fully, ands he glances toward Carter and then to Jessica. She steps back a bit. "I got everyone out when I saw the body. Jenny was in there, and I don't know what she touched, if anything." She recognizes Jessica and gives the woman a little casual salute with her two fingers at her brow, and then she glances back to the bandmates.

There is a glance towards Jessica when there is mention of interviews, and she lifts a brow upwards at her, but instead of kicking the reporter out she just points out mildly, "Don't print anything until you talk to me." Good relations with the press are important, right? Or Charlie is just seriously having an off day and just not caring or not going to pick a fight with a reporter instead of doing her job. There is a glance around until she can identify who Jenny is, then she glances at Jessica, pointing to Jenny, adding, "Not her."

Not yet, at least. But it looks like that manager has that covered, then she glances at Magnolia, "Make sure she doesn't run off." Jenny, that is. If Mags happens to run her mouth, who will rat on her? Not Charlie, because Charlie is heading into the room, calling out towards Reid, "Reid, go ahead and start taking statements for me."

And so take statements Carter does, starting with Jenny, of the eeping. "Ma'am can you come with me?" He takes her aside, intending to get a statement from each person on their own, leaving another one of the uniformed officers who shows up on the scene to keep watch over the crime scene itself. He takes Jenny aside and asks, "So, you were the one who found the deceased?" He then proceeds to go through taking her statement, noting down everything she has to share about what went on, before moving on through each member of the band, methodically.

"Of course" Jessica nods to Charlie's condition; she'll want to talk to the detective too. And that was definitely not a request to approve anything Jessica may publish, just to talk to her first. She'll even agree to letting the detective talk to the star witness first. Besides, she has a well-dressed manager to speak with. It's not unusual for a contrast in wealth between band and management. Much of it could be down to image rather than ripping off her clients.

"Thank you, Miss Jones. Do you manage any other bands? Don't worry, I can look that up on web. Let's talk about tonight. The victim..." A little fishing for the confirmation of a name. "...had their own room? Everyone else shared? Except for you, of course." A smile over her shoulder towards Lee. "We're on the web too." But then back to the manager. "Have the band received any death threats? The victim personally? Any conflict in the band? You know how these creative types are."

"Chaz, you just made a hardcore rock chick eep. You're so cool." Then Magnolia is getting out her own gloves because she's always prepared like a freaking boy scout. She's tugging them on, glancing after Reid briefly while also kind of gravitating toward him because she's curious. But then Jessica is asking if she manages bands, and she blinks. "Oh. You mean her." Different Miss Jones. No relation.

The room that Jenny shares with Cora makes a good statement-taking space - it looks like Morris/Ravage is the only person who got his own room. Jenny doesn't resist being drawn over by Carter. Cora makes a noise, although she certainly can't PROTEST the cops taking people away to make statements, she sort of looks like she wants to go hover in that direction. But there's a reporter who might interview people without her presence. Augh! So frustrating! She stays with Jessica, flashing a professional smile.

Jenny sniffles her way to the room, and blurts out, immediately, "I didn't do it! I swear! He was like that when I found him!" Once Carter calms her down, she relays her statement - the last time she'd seen Morris was at dinner last night. He was upset because of an argument he'd had earlier in the day with another band at the festival, so he just grabbed some of the food from the big bag that Cora had purchased for the band (she names a local fast food place as the source) and went back to his room to work on songwriting. He often used anger or sad events to write, so they all just figured he was in the groove, until Magnolia arrived and he didn't show up for the meeting. "Then," she says, her eyes wide with the memory, "then I used my key to open the door, and there he was. All, all, SMASHED UP." And then she bursts in to tears again.

Cora, meanwhile, is confirming some of this with Jessica. "I manage a few. I can give you their names, but I'm pretty new to the business." She rattles off a couple of other small bands. "Gryndhaus was - is - was - my star, though. They were looking at a record deal. With a good showing at this festival, I thought they'd get an offer for sure." She glances at Magnolia. "I don't know what's going to happen now. And Morris," she takes a shuddering breath. "Who would have done such a thing? He was a sweetheart, really. I mean, the music is intense, but he was always so chill." A snort. "At least, whenever we weren't talking about Heartcore. He and Aorta had this whole 'epic rival' beef going on, and while it was good for publicity, I think they both got into it a bit too much, sometimes. As for conflict, no, not at all. Everyone gets along really well. We're focused on the music, not the drama." Professional smile! "And only the usual death threats." She looks to Charlie. "I can send you copies of the e-mails and letters, but nothing stood out. Fans are just intense."

Heartcore? Aorta? Charlie just has this look on her face that screams 'I'm getting too old to understand this shit!'. The current musical climate of the victim and his type have clearly sailed right past her. "Please." She replies to Cora, pulling a business card out from her pocket to offer it towards her, waiting for the woman to take it before she splits the group further. Her primary goal at the moment is to get into the room with the victim, and since everyone else seems to have the people talking business handled for the moment, she heads towards where the dearly departed is with his axe.

Guitar. We mean guitar.

Carter is quiet and soothing with Jenny, his goal to get her to share with him all the details that he can remember so that he can provide it to the detectives later. He takes down what he can as well about anything he notices in her demeanor, body language, anything that might seem to be missing or off. When she's given her statement, he thanks her and offers her a tissue before letting her go back to Cora and taking Lee aside to get his statement.

Jessica would love to be in the room where the statements are being taken too. She'd also love to be in the murder room. Why is there only one of her! Probably for the best that there is.

"What were you doing before you decided to become a band manager?" she asks Cora, keeping everything pleasant and friendly. "A record deal? Nice. But no definite offers yet? Some AR people at the festival kind of thing? Bands usually get a boost after a death. Short-term at least. Who is Aorta? And are they staying at this hotel?"

"So Morris was the creative engine?" Jessica asks lightly. "He was happy with how things were going? You know how these things go. He starts thinking that he is the only worthwhile part of the band and wants to strike out on his own. Nothing like that?"

Magnolia is putting on gloves too? Staffing numbers must be down in the local PD.

Magnolia follows Charlie into the room, this time with a bit more delicacy than she had when trying to keep the band from contaminating a crime scene. She lets Charlie unpack the scene while she's looking around, mindful of where her sneakered feet go. "You think de la Vega is going to get grumpy that I'm poking around here with you?" Her eyes flicker over toward Charlie once before she is stepping up closer toward her friend so she can look over the body. She glances over her shoulder as she hears bits and pieces of Carter getting the details from the band. "LocoPoco hired me to get the details on the band because they are thinking of signing Gryndhaus." Every time she says that word, she emphasizes the Germanic edge. Haus. "Apparently there was a falling out between big bro Morris here and little bro Victor who joined some other band." She's saying this all to Charlie quietly. "You might want to get someone to track down little brother, ASAP."

"Of course he'll get pissed. And what I'll tell him is that I did my best to keep you out after I noticed you were in here." Charlie is very careful of where she steps, and what she touches. The corpse is only looked at from a distance until the ME arrives to clear it for actual touching. Some rules she does follow. "I'll get your prints before you leave." She gestures airily towards Mags' shoes, indicating she doesn't just mean finger prints. "Just add it to the rest of the bands, and the managers." But really forensics will do that tedious task, not her.

What she does is pull out her phone to start taking pictures of things while she's thinking about it, not that forensics won't also do that, too. But this means she doesn't have to wait for them to get here, take the pictures, then send them to her. "Victor, huh? And evidently this Aorta thing...too? Or was that the band little bro joined?" She glances up, then around, frowning a bit, "I'm not a blood splatter expert." Like Dexter. "But I'm pretty sure this isn't right for blunt force trauma... Not to this level."

"Sorry the music career didn't work out for you" Jessica offers. "Heartcore is a band? I thought it was a musical genre." She is totally down with the kids. "Do you happen to know where Mister Aorta is staying?"

Jessica takes the CD with a smile of thanks, looking over the cover art - how many bare breasts on this one? She flips it over to see the credits, nodding to the protestations of Morris' saintliness. "Did you happen to see anyone around his room? Anyone looking furtive in general? Any sounds from his room? These walls aren't the most solid. No groupies? Oh...did you have keys to each other's rooms?"

Carter is just as calm and professional with Lee as he was with Jenny as he asks some questions and takes down the man's statement. He notes what details that he can between the dudes and bros and dudebros and doesn't answer the question about whether he's shot anyone or not. Nor does he seem particularly offended by the swearing, a faint twitch to his lips at the apology as though trying not to smile. He assures Lee that it's alright, and then continues to note that his story is roughly the same as Jenny's. Once Lee has given his statement, he then motions for the last of the band members to come over to give his statement.

"No. Heartcore." This is said almost in time with Cora's words outside the room. She joins Charlie at the body's side, and she drops into a low squat beside Charlie as she checks out the oddness of the wounds. She rubs slightly at her jaw with her nitrite glove, and then she glances back up to her friend. She frowns at the body and its helpful guitar accessory, and she rubs slightly at her cheek. "I don't know, Chaz. Maybe there's a different murder weapon? Or maybe the guy was drugged up or something which made it easier to just cave his face in?" She has no ideas. Maybe she should have paid more attention in her cadaver labs.

So, she rocks back up to her feet, and glances out toward the other room. "I should go do that PI thing. Let me know if you need any help. I gotta at least go ask some questions, you know, instead of playing bloody mayhem with you." She gives her friends shoulder a shove with her own and then heads for the door.

Carter maintains the same demeanor with Tom as with Lee and Jenny, going over what he noticed, any conversations that were had, people around that they may have noticed, arguments that were had. He nods when Tom explains that he thought the fighting was mostly played up for the fans. "Did they do that often?" he asks, "Play things up for the sake of publicity and story?" He then asks if any of the other band members had any issues with any of the other bands, or knew of any other bands that might have had beef with them, outside of Aorta. Only when he is finished with Tom does he then go to take down Cora's statement.

"What, Heartcore?" Charlie is not keeping these names straight right now, and it shows as she gives Magnolia this desperate sort of look. Then she shakes her head, "I'll work it out." She lifts a hand up, rubbing at her forehead with the back of her wrist, "Blood is always going to act like blood. So drugged up or not the spray is going to be the same unless the drug caused blood to pool somewhere else before hitting him, or he was on something that caused quick clotting."

There is a nod for Magnolia, "Yeah, let me know if you can get me a flow chart on who the hell these bands are." Because she sure as shit can't figure out who is in what thing. Either way, she starts to look around the room again, making sure that she's got everything she can from this room, at this moment, before she heads out to do that police detecting thing. Very similar to that reporter and PI thing, really.

"If you knew the history of this place, you would know how lacking in security they truly are" Jessica sighs to Cora, taking note of the contact details of the other manager. "You know them well?" She considers for a moment. "They do have security cameras here. I guess I'll need to talk to management and the maids." Jessica is surprised to discover that this place has maids; perhaps they have other duties toward the guests of a more personal nature. "You've been very helpful. Sorry about what's happened. I'd like to talk to your band too but for now..." She is really itching to get to the crime scene. "If you'll excuse me."

Jessica makes her way to the Murder Room, meeting Magnolia on the way. "Maybe we can chat later?" No stopping to chat now though.

"Jessica Flores" she introduces herself to the departing detective; the room all to herself? Now it's her turn to check blood spatters and impact damage that seems to be post-mortem. It's a sad fact that Gray Harbor reporters see way too many murders. But she won't touch anything, and she'll even avoid stepping into the room if she can. Though there is a notebook that looks very enticing. And a laptop. She wonders if there is blood spatters beneath them. Any suggestion that they have been moved post death.

Magnolia turns to look over her shoulder to Chaz, and she snap-winks a couple of finger-guns at the detective before she's back out in the main room -- only to almost run into Jessica. "Oh, yeah. For sure. Don't know if I'll have any interesting to share, but who knows." She flashes Jessica an easy smile and then she's out with the others. She heads for Cora, and hands her, her card. "I should get something put together for the recording studio, and I don't want to risk the rest of the band getting somewhere with their futures. Maybe we can talk a bit about what might have gone down here so I can let the studio know that you guys are good moving forward without Morris?" It's a gauging question, waiting to see how Cora reacts to it.

Only once Cora has given her statement, does Carter thank her and nods to Magnolia, letting Cora go to talk to the PI while he moves on to leave the area and head off to talk to the motel staff, to inquire about any cameras and obtaining the footage, and to take the statements of anyone who might have been on shift -- and get the names of any employees not currently present who were on shift so that they can be located for questioning as well.

No offense to Jessica, but while Charlie might play fast and loose with the rules for Magnolia, the reporter isn't getting left entirely alone in the room. Charlie sticks around after realizing that the woman is heading inside, just so that she can before she doesn't touch anything, "Detective Morgan, Ms. Flores. So what'd you get off that manager lady?"

"Detective Morgan? Are you working on the Kruger murders? I thought it was a Detective Wood...Holly Wood...but I hear your name attached these days. Maybe we could chat about that sometime?" Jessica quickly returns to the subject at hand. "The manager is being very correct and professional. Says no one else was around. Said she was working on paperwork before Jenny returned to their room...so no way to verify either of those alibis at the moment. The victim had a fight with the member of another band but that seems to have been for show more than anything else. They may have been about to hit the big time...as much as this kind of music can hit the big time. Possibly even getting a record contract." A pause. "Guess they were after the promotion since they'd make more selling their music directly." She nods towards the body. "You also thinking that the cause of death wasn't the guitar solo?"