Ben was still asleep when Samantha left the Twist home, and that left her feeling a bit down with regard to inquiring as to how Ben's night went, but as a city employee and member of Moon Lake's city government, many times Samantha had long found that her schedule was not her own. While the official schedule had her work week limited to Monday through Friday, events of the week and potential surprises would have the potential to extend the work week into the weekend and even have her working late. That was just how things normally went. This particular Saturday proved to be another one of those days in which Samantha found herself working more than the base schedule had for her. The biggest surprise for her though was finding Police Chief O'Hara making his way in as well.
"Morning," Samantha said politely, "I had thought you were visiting your grandchildren today..."
"I'd hoped so too," Chief O'Hara gave a grumble in a low voice and betraying some frustration, "but my office got a call from the FBI and they have an agent coming all the way from Washington DC to deal with some matters."
"The FBI?" Samantha spoke with some surprise.
"The agent said he was investigating something that drew him here," Chief O'Hara said with a sigh, "the murder of a Marine Corps officer, I think. The agent will be flying in and will meet directly with me to handle whatever coordination will be required for his investigation."
Samantha gave a small frown and then remembered one of the talks she'd recently had with Jen Decker. She'd mentioned that the FBI were the leading investigators in Jeff's death. Though for the moment, Samantha could not picture what had drew them to Moon Lake. She eventually sighed and looked down.
"Well... it may be a good thing you did come in," Samantha commented after a moment, "as the college apparently had some excitement... namely someone looking for Jennifer Harper's dorm room claiming to be her brother."
"I heard," Chief O'Hara said with a sigh, "though until he's committed an actual crime, we can't do anything besides maybe ask him a question or two on why he was at the college and so on... and unless he confesses to anything... that's all we can legally do."
Samantha nodded and held the door open for the police chief. Chief O'Hara gave a polite smile and walked in.
"In the meantime, I'll let you know what comes about with the FBI agent," Chief O'Hara said to Samantha as she followed him in, "I don't think we'll have any trouble with whoever they send, but that's about all I can say at present."
Samantha nodded. The two of them made their way in and were soon making their way to the conference room for the meeting regarding what to do about the man who was most likely there to try and force Jenny into going to Alabama. There was sure to be issues of confusion and frustration that would come from the issue as the Skulk would want Jenny protected and by law, the Harper family had no right to demand control over Jenny's personal decisions, but as Chief O'Hara had mentioned, until this agent actually committed a crime, they couldn't hold the guy for long.
Chief O'Hara sat down quietly at the conference table and idly tapped his fingers on the desk, making it fairly clear that he didn't want to be there, but some things couldn't be helped. Samantha worked to straighten up the other chairs and get other things ready, while explaining to the police chief on the details of the intended meeting. He nodded and simply looked on for the moment. After a few moments, the door knocked and Samantha moved to answer the door. She opened it to find Akane and Daisuke waiting politely. Samantha noted that they looked almost as frustrated as Chief O'Hara did. Akane bowed to Samantha, which Samantha returned. There was some surprise at Chief O'Hara being present, but the Skulk leader and her grandson did accept the explanation that other issues came up that he couldn't get out of.
"Well, it may play to our overall benefit that we are all here," Akane spoke as she sat down and looked to Samantha, "as we can be certain that the man in question has some issue with Jennifer Harper and from what she has said to all of us, we can guess who the man works for."
"And thus the potential actions that this man may intend to take can be assumed," Daisuke added.
"We can assume and suspect all we wish," O'Hara pointed out, "but we can't break the law ourselves. And until this intruder BREAKS a law, we have nothing more than suspicious activity to charge him with... and if this guy is smart, he could get out of it by coming in and giving us a good explanation."
"What about probable cause?" Samantha asked, "the man's actions are certainly suspicious and when he left the campus, he made sure to go beyond the city limits. That would surely give enough reason to at least have him brought in for questioning."
"For questioning as to why he was there, yes," Chief O'Hara nodded, "but since his actions were only suspicious in nature but hadn't committed any actual crime, unless he confesses something in questioning, we can't hold him for long."
"Even if he might pose a threat to Jennifer Harper's life?" Akane asked.
"As terrible as that sounds... yes," Chief O'Hara nodded, "we know that her parents' skills and/or judgement are questionable and we know that this Dieter Wilhelm has the potential to be a real problem, but all we have to base THAT suspicion is what Jennifer Harper has already told us. For all we know, they could change their minds and see the light, as it were, before the wedding. Now, that may not be likely, but without concrete evidence that it hasn't happened, that suspicion isn't going to be grounds to ask for an arrest warrant against this man."
There was a very pause for a few moments before Chief O'Hara continued.
"And even if it were, we have no proof that this man works for or has connections to either the Harper family or Dieter Wilhelm," Chief O'Hara spoke, "it's likely... but based on what I've been told about all this, we have no concrete proof that this man is truly connected to them."
"He claimed to be Jenny's brother," Akane pointed out.
"And that legally proves nothing," Chief O'Hara answered, "the issue isn't about what we suspect or even what is likely. It's about what we can prove in a court of law... and there, we don't have enough at present to prove any connection or his intention."
"We can't let him do anything that would hurt Jenny or Harry," Akane commented, "they've been through enough."
"Agreed," Samantha nodded, "can we keep him under observation?"
"For the moment, I'd assume so," Chief O'Hara answered, "that is where we can claim probable cause for something based on what's already happened. And if we can keep officers close enough without him detecting us, we should be able to get him before he can actually do anything should they observe him do anything more suspicious than just asking where she might be found."
"If I may ask... if we have him questioned... would that not deter him?" Akane asked, "if he knows he's being watched, he may not stick around."
"Or he'd be more careful," Chief O'Hara commented, "and in that, while that might prevent something now... that won't mean he can't leave and come back later. This will require precision timing, but if we can keep him under tight observation until he does something more than ask after Jennifer Harper's location, we would be able to nail him on something major if he tries anything... or at least get a situation where would have more room to claim probable cause to arrest him."
The room was quiet for a few moments. Eventually Chief O'Hara spoke up again.
"The REAL thing we need with this guy is information," Chief O'Hara commented, "the only info we have on him is that he's from out of state, asked where Jennifer Harper was under suspicious circumstances, and that he's camping outside the city limits and thus outside my jurisdiction. If we could get some one to talk with him... with a wire... and find out more, we might be able to do more about this guy, but that will depend on what we find out."
"Do you have the officers to spare?" Akane asked curiously.
"We might be able to get one officer to be able to sneak in and approach him," Chief O'Hara mused carefully, "It'll take a bit of time to get that done, though. Until then, all we can do is observe. If ANYONE goes beyond that... they will be breaking the law, regardless of how good their intentions are."
The others nodded. It wasn't much of a plan, but Samantha did have to give Chief O'Hara a great deal of credit and let him take the lead on these issues. He knew the most about law enforcement and how it related to the law. Dieter Wilhelm's "scout" could be a real problem, not because he had the potential to be violent or to cause a lot of trouble, but for the moment there simply wasn't enough evidence to justify the action that was probably wanted by those present.
"We'll try to do what we can," Samantha promised the police chief, "though we may need to send out some alerts to make sure everyone is aware of this guy and we don't have someone stumble onto him while transformed."
Chief O'Hara nodded, "and I'll let you know when we're ready to send in our undercover officer."
Samantha nodded. They might have to wait a bit, but for the moment, they would at least have a plan to contain and monitor the man who had come onto the college campus looking for Moon Lake's newest werevixen. If all went well, he'd either screw up and allow for an arrest or wouldn't be able to try anything and would go home disappointed. It might not be much of a plan, but it would play to the hand they'd been dealt.