Session 4: Nocturne

There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy upon humankind.

— Ecclesiastes ch.6, v.1

Sunday 18th December, 1994, late evening

Atoziel arrives at the watch on Beverly Road, and Magariel brings him up to date. As she is describing the man in Giuseppe's, it finally dawns on her that he matches the description of Alex. Helophel and Boriel also show up, Helophel driving the world's noisiest motorcycle-and-sidecar combination. Boriel twitches a lot, and fixes the most obvious sources of noise. While Atoziel brings the others up to date, Magariel heads back to the club to check on Alex. He is still at the bar, chatting with some lads; Magariel catches some of the conversation, which is typical Men Behaving Badly stuff. She then returns to Beverly Road, finding the Blakely too has arrived to plant his bug.

Meanwhile Boriel and Atoziel check out the suspicious houses; Boriel operating under Ethereal Form, and Atoziel pretending to be half-plastered and asking "Does Chas live here?" very loudly. The door to 17 is eventually opened on a chain by a young girl in a night-dress, and number 19 by a middle-aged man in a vest (yes I know it's the middle of winter, Londoners do have appearances to keep up you know). In neither case can Atoziel manage physical contact or Boriel manage to slip inside. Their next brilliant plan is more successful; Boriel sneaks up to outside the Wood household and uses his Remote Control attunement to mess up the TV. He hears an annoyed male voice, but can't make out the words — it isn't Alex, who doesn't leave the night club until after Magariel stops watching it well after midnight. After this, Blakely and Helophel have an easy time of slipping the bugs into place on the cars and being suspicious somewhere else.

Monday 19th December, 1994

Atoziel and the Lightening Servitors find out what they can in the early hours about the residents of Beverly Road. This is done in a terrifyingly efficient manner, and comes out to:

• Number 17: Tom and Debra Weaver, their daughters Jane and Jennifer. They have lived at the address for only a year or so. Tom is a sales executive and Debra a slushy fiction editor at a major publishing house — both tend to be away a lot. Jennifer is listed on the draft electoral roll as Y, i.e. will be able to vote soon, so must be seventeen. My, what familiar names.
• Number 19: Arthur and Mavis Wilmington, who have lived there for a long time. The angels lose interest in them rapidly.
• Number 38: Amanda and David Wood; again, David is listed as a Y. They have been there for a long time — Amanda is listed on the electoral roll there up to 18 years previously; for the first two years a Richard Minton is also listed. Attempting to break roles, Atoziel digs up birth certificates for both David and Amanda; Amanda is apparently 36 years old and a secretary, while David was born at Hammersmith General Hospital and has no listed father.
• Number 52: Alexander Verison has lived there for about 3 years.

The information is passed around when people gather before going off to work at Blakely's flat, and it causes a certain amount of bogglement. Jane Weaver was the murder victim, and it's not surprising that David Wood (Magariel's attuned) and Jennifer Weaver should know each other, being of similar ages and living so close. Various people are concerned that Jennifer was alone in the house that night.