#ictask006

[mari-zuko]

IC TASK 006 - INTERROGATION when: december 13th

Previously, Mari had been summoned to sit with the agnets with her father. A formality, if that - as the dean's daughter, she needn't sit through all this. This time, however, she entered the room alone, only one chair sitting opposite the three now familiar agents.

She didn't know how to feel about it.

A hint of anxiety thrummed through her, the worry pulsing in her veins even as she offered a smile, three firm shakes of the hand, her posture straight as she smoothed her skirt underneath her to take a prim perch in the seat they indicated to. Ever unruffled; ever poised.

"Thanks so much for coming in today, Ms. Zuko."

"Of course," Mari said in response, her voice delicate, though she didn't allow it to shake - unlike the hands that were currently in her lap, hidden from view from the agents all staring at her. "Anything to help."

"We appreciate it." The agent spoke with a solemn tone, lips pressed together in a poor attempt at a comforting smile, though Mari nodded her head, her own lips responding as if it had worked. "Let's get right into it then - did you have any reason to suspect Greer Morrison was dead before this news came to light?”

The bubble of tension in the room popped, any impeccably put together poise of the dean's daughter fading from Mari, her arms instead crossing in front of her chest. She leaned back in her seat, the defiant position not looking entirely comfortable in comparison to her normally pristine posture as she looked at the agent with disbelief on her face, her lips parting slightly. "No?" she said incredulously. "I don’t tend to go around just assuming my friends are dead and not mention it to anyone.”

“Well, Ms. Zuko…unfortunately we have to reason to believe not everyone has been entirely honest with us.” The statement was offered on a platter, dangling in front of her for her to react to - to condemn herself with. Or perhaps for her to return to the version of her they had gotten previously.

She took it.

Her eyes just shifted up to meet the agent’s, the corners of her lips turning downward. “That’s unfortunate,” Mari murmured. “Horrible to think someone may have known something regarding an actual death and not mentioned it while your team was left in the dark.” 

Well, half took it.

After a brief pause, another one of the agents shifted forward, glancing over at their colleague before looking at Mari, pen poised over their notes. “What was your relationship with Greer again? And what about Penelope Klein?"

“Greer was a friend. One of my closest friends." Mari paused, her chin tucking towards her chest as she swallowed, shrugging her shoulders again. "And Penny and I worked closely together - student government and all. She met with my father frequently, from what I understand of her duties. We were…friendly, at least. Friends, maybe, even. But not…I don’t know. Not super close. We didn’t hang out all that often. I guess, yeah, I’d say friendly.” 

“Are you aware of any information about Greer that has come to light in the past year that you haven’t shared?“ 

Was she aware of anything about Greer that she hadn’t shared? Of course. An inordinate amount. But it hadn’t come to light in the past year. If anything, the past year had just revealed that the things Mari had known…might not have been true. That the person she thought she had known, that had been revealed to her in their secret moments in crowed rooms and whispers between their flesh hadn’t been the true Greer Morrison, reserved just for her. 

No, it hadn’t been real at all. 

It was just another performance. 

"No." The word was soft, though Mari's answer was firm. "I'm not."

"And what do you know about the nature of Greer’s relationship with Penelope Klein?”

Mari’s eyes flickered down to the table in front of her, her lips twisting to one side. “Not much. We all hung out a few times but I’m not sure how close they were independently.” There were secrets, of course. Things Mari couldn’t say. But they all had secrets. It didn’t mean it was related to this. 

"Well, thank you for sharing the information you do have." The agents paused, shuffling their papers, Mari angling her chin upwards, a practiced movement exposing her slender neck as she watched them, suspecting a shift in the direction of the questions were coming.

“Have you witnessed anything suspicious on campus over the past year and a half?”

"I'm not sure what you mean by that," she said, beginning with confusion, biting her lower lip as she thought for a moment. All practiced, calculated movements to look as she was actually considering, the furrow on her brow indicating just how hard. "I suppose, yeah..." The word trailed off, lingering in the space between them. "I mean, the fire, to start. Students dying. Power outages. It hasn't exactly been a normal few semesters, has it?" Her eyes met the agents, blinking between all three of them. "But if you mean anything besides any of that, anything personal or not publicly known....no."

And that was an outright lie. She had danced around the truth so often in her life, becoming a master at it. She could avoid it without outright ignoring it with the best - but that. That had been an outright lie.

“Of course. Besides all that, over the past year, have you gotten any anonymous messages? Any threatening ones? Or any with…leading information?”

Yes. Someone out there knew her secrets. Knew Greer's secrets. And Mari couldn't bring herself to say anything - couldn't help but think, if Greer really had died...maybe she'd rather be dead than have those secrets come out. "Some anonymous messages, yeah. Or ones from unknown senders, rather. But nothing with threats or information in them, no. Just...creeps, I'd gather."

"Would you mind sending those over to us?"

Mari shook her head, lips pressed together in a smile. "Of course not. I have my messages set to auto delete pretty quickly, but I'll send you what I still have."

"Great - we really appreciate that. Thank you so much, Mari. If we have any other questions, we'll reach out to you or your father to schedule another meeting."

[sassa-fiske]

IC TASK 006 - INTERROGATION when: december 13th

Sassa had little concern about going back in to meet with the FBI agents again. They had believed everything she had said to them last time, eaten it all up as she fed it to them without even thinking twice. Her greatest performance ever, honestly - like, she should get extra credit in her acting classes for this.

Though there was the slight nagging worry about the fact G had since seemed to develop some sort of vendetta against her, and who knew how they would get involved with this.

She let none of that show as she entered the room, lips pressed together in an appropriately subdued smile as she greeted all three agents before they signaled for her to join them across the table. Sassa tucked her skirt underneath her thighs, her hair pushed behind an ear with a tentative hand as she sat down, before settling both hands onto the table in front of her, a picture perfect, innocent student sitting before them.

"Thank you for coming in to join us again, Ms. Fiske," Agent Choi started.

"Please - just call me Sassa," she broke in to say, a flush rising in her cheeks as her gaze met Agent Choi's before darting away again.

“Of course - Sassa. Did you have any reason to suspect Greer Morrison was dead before this news came to light?”

Sassa started, a look of surprise appearing on her face, lips parting slightly before she pressed them together, her face tightening slightly as if she was seriously thinking over the question. "Any reason? No. Not for real, no. But of course I feared the worst. Why else would someone vanish so completely? And how, in this day and age?" she said, eyes wide as she let out a soft chuckle. "But no. I didn't have any reason to think that. Just my own...trust in her, I suppose. That she wouldn’t do that to the people in her life.” She didn't actually trust Greer - not for a second. But she did trust that she looked out for herself, that she would manipulate her way into the best possible outcome no matter what, that she was vindictive and controlling. So she was absolutely sure that if this was not part of her plan, if she had not detailed her disappearance out...then she was no longer alive. Call it instinct. 

 "And remind us again of your relationship with Greer?" 

She nodded, tucking her hair behind her ear again. "I went to high school with her, grew up around her family - in the same circles, I mean. I've always been closer with her younger brother - Edward. But they are close, so naturally we rubbed shoulders as well." She paused, eyes flickering downward as she coaxed her lips into a small frown. "Were close, I suppose." 

“And have you learned anything new…as in, have you become aware of any information about Greer that has come to light in the past year? That you haven’t shared with us?“ 

Wide eyes full of innocence were turned up to the agents, Sassa looking back and forth between them all. “No,” she said emphatically, the inner corners of her eyebrows lifting upwards. “I mean, I wouldn’t claim to know everything. To even know her well, really. And of course with her being…gone, there have been rumors. But I’m sure it’s all just talk.” Sassa paused, looking down to where she twisted her hands together on the table. “I don’t even understand why people talk about others the way they talk about her, you know? Like just because she’s no longer here she’s not a human.” 

She offered the tease lightly, as if she was hurt by it - saddened by other’s cruelty, dangling it in front of the agents without actually giving anything up. They pushed her into talking about it. It’s not like it was willing. 

“What sort of rumors?” 

Sassa bit back any sort of smile that the follow up question provoked, instead keeping her face appropriately sad as she glanced back up at them. “Oh, you know. That she has secrets. That she left because of her family. That she was pregnant. That she was cheating on her boyfriend. All terrible things with no basis in fact.” 

“And you don’t think any of those things are true?” 

Sassa just shrugged, a slight shake of her head accompanying the movement. “Not that I’ve seen any proof for, no. Like I said - I don’t think she’d do that to people. But also, I don’t know her super well.” 

“What do you know about the nature of Greer’s relationship with Penelope Klein?”

Sassa blinked a few times at the subject change, the redirection of the questioning, her head angling towards one shoulder. "Nothing, honestly. I can tell you what I'd assume - I mean, I don't want to speculate at all.” Like she hadn’t just dumped a bunch of speculation on them - things that if they wrote down, if they investigated, would cause all sorts of further speculation on Greer. But it wasn’t Sassa speculating. “But Penelope, she was...she was more like me. Not popular, not commanding like Greer - on the periphery of things, you know? She was so focused on school and her work - student body president is no small thing. It's impressive, honestly. Of course it seemed like she was focused more on that type of thing than her social life." 

“What was your relationship with Penelope?”

“We both were on the student government. So we worked together closely in that matter, but…we were on different peripheries,” she quipped, a sad, bitter smile crossing her face for a moment. “I say I didn’t have one, honestly. Not really. More…coworkers than friends.”

“Of course. And how about Ida Clarke?”

Sassa’s breath caught, her eyes closing as she willed tears to appear. “Ida is - was in my sorority.” Her voice just the right amount of shaky - upset, but not distraught. “Sorry - it’s just sort of hard for me to talk about,” she admitted, looking back up at the agents. “It’s still so hard to think about what happened to her.”

“Of course,” Agent Murray repeated, looking over to her coworkers. “We don’t mean to bring up this up and upset you, Sassa,” she said gently. “We’re just hoping perhaps someone has information that could help us with something we’ve missed.” 

“I absolutely understand. And I want to help,” Sassa said, absolutely earnest in her response, even as tears continued to well in her eyes. “I don’t think I have any information about Ida - or Penelope - that would provide anything new, though. It’s just…so hard for me to even think about, the details slip from me.” She lifted a hand to her chest, swallowing as she pressed it over her heart. “But please - ask whatever you need to. I really do want to help.” 

“No, no. That won’t be necessary,” the agent said hurriedly, as if hoping to prevent any tears from spilling out of Sassa’s eyes. “Would you just let us know if over the past year, have you gotten any anonymous messages? Any threatening ones? Or any with…leading information?”

Sassa hesitated, lifting one hand to pat at the corners of her eyes to cover it up as gathering herself again. Did she give up G? Or did she hold that information close to her chest, protect them in hopes of them being on her side again? It was obvious, as soon as she thought about it that way, Sassa shaking her head back and forth. “Not that I can recall, no,” she said, sniffing in with the words.

“Great. If you do…or if you witness anything suspicious on campus. Or recall anything that you think may have been relevant. Please feel free to reach out,” Agent Murray said, sliding their cards over to Sassa as the three agents stood up, Agent Choi stepping over to swing the door open. “Thank you so much for your help, Sassa.”

[jacqui-velazquez]

IC TASK 006 - INTERROGATION when: december 13th

"Agent Choi, Agent Brown, Agent Murray," Jacqui greeted, nodding their head at the three members of the FBI who had returned to campus to continue investigating Greer, unfortunately familiar with them. All of the students were, she supposed - though she hated that they seemed to have a sense of recognition as they looked back at her, returning her greeting in murmured tones as they indicated she should join them at the seat across the table. They had notes in front of them, folders stacked, and one open in front of them. It was thin, not much in it - especially in comparison to some of the other ones on the table. That, at least, was a bit of a relief, assuming it was about them. 

"Thank you so much for taking the time to come in and speak with us today, Jacqui," Agent Murray said warmly. "We were hoping we could start with any information about Greer Morrison that's come light in the past year you may not have already shared with us." 

Jacqui hesitated, their head tipping towards one shoulder as they glanced between the three agents. "In all honesty, officer, I'm not even entirely sure why I was called in to meet with you again," they started, speaking softly. "I was a freshman last year - Greer and I never even were students at Ogden at the same time. I wish I could help you, help provide answers, help get people some closure but...I can't. Practically everything that I've learned about her in the past year was new to me, but I think it's all common knowledge to people who actually knew her." 

"Of course," Agent Choi said, nodding firmly as he cut in, responding immediately as if he had been expecting such a response from them. "You and Greer may not have been students at the same time, but you have other connections, correct? What was your relationship with her?" 

A pause, their lips parting as they went to respond, though they closed after a second, before Jacqui gathered themself to answer. "Sure, but - I didn't really have a relationship with her. We had connections, in the same way most people do. I suppose...it's a small world, six degrees of separation, whatever you want to call it. I have family members who are Ogden alum - so does she. Similar circles, I guess," they explained.

The agent was the one who paused this time, eying Jacqui for a moment, an inscrutable smile on his face before he gave a nod. "I see," he said, Jacqui blinking once at the response, a hint of nerves fluttering in their stomach, though they did their best not to show it. "What about Penelope Klein or Ida Clarke? Or Samatha Jiminez?" 

"I didn't have a relationship with them," Jacqui said, a furrow appearing in their brow as they gave a slight shake of their head. "Well, with Penelope or Ida. Sam, of course....Ollie is my roommate - Ollie Inoue - and they were close friends from home. So..." their voice trailed off, Jacqui raising up one shoulder in a blasé shrug. "Of course I got to know her a bit."

Agent Choi nodded, seemingly taking the lead of the interview now. Jacqui didn't know what that meant - didn't know what it meant that Agent Brown, who had been introduced as the lead investigator, hadn't said a word yet. Was that a good thing? Or...a bad? “So I'm assuming it's safe to say you don't know anything about Greer’s relationship with Penelope Klein?” Agent Choi asked, interrupting Jacqui's distraction regarding the agents.

Jacqui looked up at him again, brown eyes meeting the slightly impatient gaze settled on them before they shook their head again. "Again, Greer was gone before I ever came to this school - it's not like I even could've gathered any information in passing or through observing or gossip or anything. And since I didn't know Penelope either....no, I don't know anything. I didn't even know they had a relationship, but...I couldn't tell you anything about either of their social circles." 

"Where were you when Penelope's body was found?" 

The question was abrupt - the subject change even moreso. It caught Jacqui off guard, remembering that night, remembering the horror of everyone. They had tried to believe that it had been an accident, that she had fallen, but...

A furrow appeared on their brow, Jacqui thinking it over without actually letting themselves think of that night or any other. "It was New Year's - we were all caught in that horrible storm. I don't know exactly...I guess I didn't think much of it, until other people started meeting with Je - with Donovan Hart for that show." 

"You didn't meet with him?" the agent asked.

"No. I think he was more interested in upperclassmen. People the same year as Penelope and Greer and his son," Jacqui said. She didn't react at all as she mentioned Jesse - which was the goal. They didn't really want to bring any attention to that, any reason for the agents to go down that path of questioning, because while she had no connection to Penelope and Greer, as the circle around them widened, that was when Jacqui could start getting pulled in. As the agents had already mentioned - there were connections. 

"And what about the night of the fire on campus? We understand you were treated by some EMT's on the scene. Do you know why students were at the Commons when they should’ve been at the Commencement Gala?“ 

"I think...people just wanted to get away from their families. From graduation, you know. People get sad about the end of the year, worried about graduating, all of that." Jacqui hadn't had family come - as always. So they weren't one of those people, but how were they supposed to explain what had pulled them there? They couldn't - not without acknowledging the truths they had been dancing around this entire interview.

Agent Choi nodded, Agent Murray scrawling a few notes - as Agent Brown continued looming, listening, watching. “And over the past year," Agent Murray said, Jacqui jerking back slightly as her voice caught her off guard - she had been expecting to have Agent Choi continue asking all the questions, the seamless chiming in of the other Agent disrupting the flow. "Have you gotten any anonymous messages? Any threatening ones? Or any with…leading information?”

"Over the past...year?" Jacqui echoed, the words slow to leave her lips as she angled her head to one shoulder, as if thinking about it. As if recalling such a thing would even require digging through her memory. Did they know? "I'm sorry. I don't recall. I have my phone set to auto delete messages every month."

Not a lie.

Not the actual truth.

A tight smile was offered in their direction as Agent Murray nodded before speaking again. “Did you have any reason to suspect Greer Morrison was dead before this news came to light?

"No," Jacqui said, answering immediately and adamantly, their eyes widening. "No, of course not. I don't think anyone was thinking that - I don't think people want to think that still."

A moment of silence - a beat, before a last note was made, before Agent Brown finally leaned forward, pushing himself to his feet and stepping to open the door. "I think that's all the questions we have for you today - thank you for coming in, Jacqui."

[cara-mrrsn]

IC TASK 006 - INTERROGATION when: december 13th-ish

"Ms. Morrison - it's good to see you. We're incredibly sorry for your loss." 

Cara sauntered into the office the agents had commandeered with her sunglasses on, giving them a sideways glance as she dropped into the seat they were indicating for her. She didn't bother with any sort of greeting nor acknowledgement of Agent Brown's condolences. Please. If any of them were truly were sorry for her loss, she had quite a few suggestions for better ways to handle this to show that, but alas. All three of the agents all stared at her for a moment, as if waiting for her to say something - but hello, she wasn't the one hosting this interview. She just stared at them, her glasses still on, crossing her arms in front of her chest. 

"Right," Agent Murray muttered, flipping open the folder in front of her. Cara glanced towards it with the slightest bit of interest, aware that it must've been notes - notes on Greer, notes on her - though her expression stayed the same, even with the burning need to know what they had written about her. "Why don't we begin with going through your relationship with Greer again," the agent said.

Cara just looked at her, unimpressed as she quirked a single eyebrow up. “She was my sister. Surely you’re aware of that,” she said, not bothering to hide the snark that the question had earned. Perhaps they shouldn’t be asking such stupid questions if they wanted an actual answer. 

"Yes, Ms. Morrison, we are aware," Agent Brown jumped back in from the seat he was settled in, a coffee in one hand as he watched Cara with a scrutinizing eye. "We were hoping to have you elaborate more on the nature of your relationship with your sister. Such as if you are aware of any information about Greer that has come to light in the past year that you haven’t shared. Or perhaps you could tell us about the nature of her relationship with Penelope Klein," he said.

"Listen, all I've learned in the past year is that I knew even less about Greer than I thought I did," Cara said, rolling her eyes behind her dark glasses. Even in the few ways she had thought that she and Greer were on the same level - she was wrong. Even the things she thought she had known turned out to be fake. She didn't know if the rift between them said more about her or Greer, but since she was the one still around, she supposed she'd be let wondering what it meant about Greer, never getting the missing piece of the puzzle to decode it all. "I didn’t even know she had a relationship with Penelope. But Greer kept her personal life far away from me, so that really doesn’t mean anything. We weren't that close, but that doesn't mean I'm hiding something from you." She let out a huff of air, the exhale following the rant of words that had spilled out without her entirely meaning to let them, the slightest flush rising on her cheeks.

The agents both just watched her for a moment, glancing at each other before Agent Murray looked back at the folder, reading something over before sliding it over towards Agent Choi. Cara figured the silence between them was purposeful - lingering and stretched to try and coax her to say something, admit to something. There was nothing to admit, but even if there was, if that's how they wanted to play it, she wouldn't out of stubbornness. "Alright. Over the past year, have you gotten any anonymous messages? Any threatening ones? Or any with…leading information?” Agent Choi asked, closing the folder in front of him. Like he had gotten what he needed from it.

It was burning Cara's insides, whatever was in there, whatever they had written down and said about her, now passed back and forth between them. Had they noted the things she had reported to her parents? Had they noted what other people had said about her and Greer? Had they noted rumors, gossip, falsities? Cara highly doubted whatever was written down was any aspect of the truth.

“Probably,” she said, leaning back in her seat, arms crossed over her chest, looking entirely nonplussed by the entire situation, despite the rising urges to simultaneously scream and rip that folder out of their grasps. “I mean, this shit has been all over every true crime aficionados tik tok. My number has leaked multiple times. Some people are real creeps, you know?” She paused, glancing down and adjusting the neckline of her shirt, the movement indication enough of what type of creeps Cara may have drawn over the past year plus. And as she lifted her eyes up to meet the Agent Choi's before glancing over towards Agent Brown, a smirk briefly flickering across her lips, it was clear she knew it - and knew she wouldn’t have to elaborate. She had them right where she wanted them. “So yeah, I’ve gotten a whole bunch of weird, anonymous, threatening messages. I delete 90% of what comes through my phone nowadays without even looking at it because I was previously told there was nothing to be done unless someone actually tried to harm me." Her voice lowered, Cara's eyes flashing with the anger that had accompanied the initial explanation that nothing could be done about stalking. Not unless the stalker made an actual threat. Until then.... "You know that you all are quite useless when it comes to stalkers - but by all means, let me know if you want me to start forwarding them all to you now.” 

All three agents avoided her eyes now - sipping from coffee, jotting down a note, fiddling with the files in front of them. Silence fell again, though this time it was at her bequest. And she, again, had no intention of breaking it. Instead, it was Agent Murray who cleared her throat, glancing over at Agent Choi before moving onto the next question - “Have you witnessed anything suspicious on campus over the past year and a half?”

Cara pursed her lips out, a deep furrow appearing in her brow as she deeply pondered the question. “You know…” she said slowly, shaking her head as she refocused in the agent before her. "Assuming you mean other than the murders, the fire, the blackout?" she said with a bitter laugh, utterly unaware that in a rare moment of twin telepathy, Edward had previously made nearly the same retort. "I have actually." 

Agent Murray leaned forward slightly, her eyebrows raised in mirrored expressions of interest as Cara hesitated, looking for all the world like she thought she could create some circle of trust between them. "I saw the craziest thing on one of my roommate's laptop. You'll never believe this video," she said, letting out a low laugh as she went to pull out her phone, sliding it towards Agent Murray with what could only be described as a wicked glint in her eye. "I know you have to recognize where that was filmed."

The silence that occurred during the first few seconds of the video was nearly enough for her to actually laugh, the small amount of amusement she was milking out of the situation enough for her, even as Agent Murray rapidly reached out to stop the video, nearly tossing Cara's phone back at her. The expressions of all three agents went through a nearly identical transition from intrigue to irritation, three pairs of eyes glaring at Cara for wasting their time. “I'm not sure how that is relevant." Cara just raised her eyebrows up, shrugging her shoulders, only furthering the tangible irritation in the room. "Ms. Morrison, if we didn’t know any better, we’d think you were purposefully being difficult. You are aware even if you don’t know anything regarding your sisters murder, you can be charged for hindering an investigation, yes?” 

Cara was on her feet before she even registered she was moving, hands slamming into the table. “I’m hindering an investigation?” she hissed through her teeth, leaning forward to stare down the FBI agents one by one, despite the alleged power imbalance in the room - Cara flipped it on its head in a blink of an eye. “Try again, officers,” she sneered. “You have been bumbling through this for a year and a half. You have made no progress. You are reduced to asking the same people the same questions because you just can’t admit you have no fucking idea what happened to Greer.” 

A deep breath heaved her chest up and down, Cara straightening up as she shook her head, voice rising in pitch and volume as she threw her hands out. “She was running circles around all of us, and you all are clueless," she said, waving a hand over the agents, stepping back and colliding with her chair with a loud clatter. "The flights to Portugal, the texts, the fucking letters."

She pushed the chair away from her with enough force that it tipped over, scraping against the floor with a clang - out of her way, at least, as was her intention. "If you have any other questions for me, contact my parents. I'm sure they've already assured you that I'm not the person to go to for any insights on my sister."

"Ms. Morrison, this interview is not over!" Agent Brown hollered, not attempting to keep his voice low in the slightest at this point. Cara, for her part, didn't give a fuck. She unceremoniously lifted a hand, flipping him off as she stormed from the office, lettng the door slam shut behind her.