095 – Strange Things In The Pictures

Leticia stopped at the camera store and picked up the developed pictures. She took the envelope of prints, the negatives and CD back to work. She had requested that all the rolls of film be consolidated to as few CD's as possible. At her desk she opened the pictures while eating her lunch. First she pulled everything out, and found the sheet with the thumbnails of the images on the CD. There were four sheets of thumbnails for the one hundred eight pictures. As she looked through them she grew increasingly curious.

The landscapes could be anywhere. But the people and the urban settings looked to be from some other time, or an SCA Ren-Fair. And there were a few with the little creature she had encountered in the Caplan's house, usually on the shoulders or staff of another man, who also looked familiar, but Leticia could not place. Some of the middle pictures had a young woman in them as well. Steven was in a few of them, proving that the images were real enough. There were a few panorama shots, and a few close-ups of some vaguely familiar but unsettlingly different plants and animals.

Two pictures were night sky panoramas. One was a short term night exposure. It had two moons on it, and no familiar stars. The other showed a longer term exposure with the stars partially streaked across the frame.

Then there were a few of an interesting gothic looking city, and one that she thought would be Rox, but the costume was wrong, as was the hair. These got Leticia’s attention. She found the right box of pictures and sorted through them to the pictures of the woman. She looked it over, and over again. The form was right. The hair the same color as Rox had when she was here. But it was a tall mohawk, with braids. Roxanne never wore braids.

She put the pictures back and leafed through the rest of the thumbnails. The young woman was no longer in them, but Rox was. The short man with the creature was also in several. A mountain top looking across some other mountains. A city on a mountain appeared. Some strange cross between Machu Picchu and some medieval Japanese city made of stone instead of wood by way of Greece. The people in the city looked too tall, and their skin tone wrong. Their costumes looked excitingly motley. One of these pictures was Roxanne, with her white mohawk and braids, sitting in a window seat wearing a nice blue gown. The last roll finished with a handful of pictures of the same vista that the first roll started with, this time including Roxanne and the shorter man in an apparent ring of stones.

Leticia put the pictures away. “Where are they? And what are they up to?”

On Saturday Leticia went by the Caplan’s house to drop off the pictures. A car with California plates was in the driveway. She parked in front of the house and went to the door. Nominally she would have unlocked the door and gone in, but with someone here, she thought it better to knock.

Margot Winslow had come on a monthly visit, and found that Rox and Steven had been home for a day, but in such a hurry they did not take time to call, though Rox left a note. She was heartened to learn of her daughter’s comparative safety. That she was gone was indication that her grandchildren were not yet safe; this was a negative point. She had gone through things with Mrs. Winchel. The bed and couch had both been slept upon. Both vehicles had been driven. There had been some fresh leftovers in the fridge. Also the note pad had been used, and all the notes were piled aside.

Margot had done a more thorough going through on her own after Mrs. Winchel had left, and she had read the notes, she discovered that Rox’s bow and arrows were gone from the garage, as were a few odds and ends; a pair of Roxanne’s hiking boots, Steven’s smallest camera tripod, and some clothes. Also there was a complete suit and overcoat that was not in Steven’s size in the hall closet.

Margot was getting ready to close up and go home when Leticia knocked. Margot had not met her before, but had talked to her a bit over the last months, and Steven and Rox had spoken highly of her prior to that. So Margot invited her in and sat to talk for a bit.

At first, like most of Rox’s friends on first meeting Margot, there was a double take of misidentification. Especially since Leticia had seen Rox with the same shock-white hair that Margot wore. When Leticia showed Margot the pictures, at first Margot was unsure if she should say much. Then Leticia told her part of the story of Steven and Rox’s visit, and of the little dragon that was here when she dropped Steven’s things and car off. Margot knew she should not say much, for fear of getting this woman in deeper trouble.

Margot shifted to lawyer mode. “Have you written any of this down?”

Leticia immediately understood the import of the question. “Not yet, but I think I better. I do not know what all Steven and Rox are up to, but I know there is more to this story than I have been told.”

Margot nodded. “I probably am able to fill in a bit more, but I doubt I can in any believable manor without my daughter or her family here. These pictures help. Also I am concerned if you do learn more, it could cause you more trouble.”

Leticia nodded. “I understand. Steven said to leave these in his work room downstairs. I wonder if you should take the negatives for safe keeping?”

Margot nodded, wondering how close to tampering with or interfering with a criminal case that might be, especially in taking these across the state line. “I know a safe place to put them, until Rox and Steven get back.”

After trading contact information, and confirming that both had the information for the lawyer that Rox had contracted, Leticia excused herself and left, promising to forward her notes of what she could remember.

Margot took the photos and went downstairs to Rox’s computer, and loaded the photos onto it, then made a copy of the disk for herself. Once that was done, she shut the computer back down, and took the photos, negatives, and CD and put them in the file cabinet that Steven kept all his photos in, and locked it.

Once done, she took her copies that she had made of all the notes that had been left, and drove home. On Monday, she was going to give Ron Scalegi a call, and find out just how much trouble her daughter and son-in-law, and their estate faced.