After a more relaxed
breakfast (relying on the wakeup call instead of the alarm), we met once
again in the lobby. This time though, instead of waiting foor a bus we
picked up the keys for our Team USA car and Brian went to pull it from
the garage.
|
Meeting in the lobby. |
After a short trip
(we knew pretty well how to reach headquerters already) we arrived a bit
early - already we had a message via SMS from our phone saying that we
had some information at headquarters to review!
|
Arriving early at headquarters |
Parking so that we
get a quick start out of the lot, looking up at the building housing our
office (an old train building).
|
Car outside headquarters |
A lot of other teams
came by about the same time...
|
Many teams roll in. |
| Once we reached
headquarters we received a call about suspicious activity at a
warehouse. Throughout the mission, we commonly received messages via SMS
from our phone and rushed between them in the car, going clue to clue. |
Taking notes - our first lead |
One nice beenfit of
headquarters was a constant supply of food and drink. That was handy as
only once during the whole investigation did we have an opportunity to
stop for food.
|
You can tell we like water. |
At the warehouse,
after some wandering we noticed that the door was ajar... going inside
we found our first real clue. A glove that looked a lot like the glove
used in the theft, along with a folder holding a Halley advertisemnet, a
postcard from Bar Letica (Markus' bar), and a very interesting yellow
sticky saying that we should ask for "Juan's Special Wax and Shine".
|
At the warehouse - a clue is found! |
The warehouse was
farily packed with stuff, and we had only a little time to search. I
took this shot for later review in case something was missed (though in
fact we had found the key clue).
|
Hard to find what you want in this warehouse. |
After some more
wandering we came back to the HQ. From there we set out to reach
Tibadablo... but along the way there, received an even more important
message to see Markus at his apartment, and to abandon Tibadablo.
|
Back at HQ, the local kids admire the cars from their own transport. |
The MINI makes is
easier to find a spot to park, though seldom was the spot we found all
that clear... this spot, while technically good is really hotel parking.
Our charm let us park here for the time we needed.
|
Parking can be tough in Old Town, but we find a spot... |
We arrive at the
address, with an obscure apartment number like 4-220. As we arrive
cameras are there as well. to document the investigation. With cameras
onlooking, we slowly realize that "4" refers to the building around this
quad - straight ahead in the picture shown.
|
After an aborted attempt at Tibadablo, we arrive at Markus' apartment. |
Once at the correct
apartment we find a note - "Back in 20min, Markus". But the door has
been left ajar! As seasoned investigators, opportunity didn't have to
take a hammer to outr noggins to let us know this was a good chance to
look around.
Once inside, we first caught site of an interesting tack board right in
the living room. I guess Markus doens't get many visitors, as if he did
they would surley remark on the "Shrine" built iin honor of Susana. To
start with is a map of Old Town Barcelona with a heart around her
gallery...
|
Obviously something going on here. |
But that's not all.
Love letters of the sweet but slightly psychotic sort are found.
|
First love letter |
Each letter is more
odd than the last.
|
Second love letter |
Taken together as a
whole, these show a slightly more than unheathly interest in Susana.
|
Third love letter. This guy is unhinged. |
Along with a scarf.
I don't think he bought this because hed had the sniffles.
|
A stolen scarf? |
Markus computer was
pretty barren, but I did manage to find this picture of Susana with a
little digging.
|
Markus' Computer |
And even more
digging around the computer yielded this floppy disk at the bottom of a
box - just the sort of disk the police inspector at the press conference
said would be used in creating the video loop for the gallery.
|
Floppy disc - from video loop uploads perhaps? |
Just what you'd
expect to find in the home of a frustrated gymnast - a large hole in the
ceiling.
|
Hole in bedroom ceiling. Very odd. |
His apartment
otherwise neat, he did leave these sweat pants laying here.
Around this time the cleaning lady came in. We said we were friends of
Markus and we'd llike to talk to him, but she wasn't buying any of it so
we had to leave.
|
Markus leaves clothes laying around. |
Once back at the car
we took a short breather to get some food. I waited by the car and
examined the side of this building while the reast of the team paid a
visit to a local bakery, bringing back a chocolate crossiant for myself.
|
Waiting while team members collect food. |
In addition to
waiting for food, I also kept a sharp eye out for anything suspicious -
but the streets were silent.
|
The streets of Barcelona. |
At this point we
were told there had been a ransom note delivered from a general store in
Barcelonetta. We quickly would our way there (by now having abandoned
the PDA which tended to wander and instead relying on printed maps to
navigate).
Even so, as we got close we required the help of a local grocier to
lead us to the exact location - he was happy to give us directions with
the aid of Brian who spoke more than a bit of spanish, and even gave us
a free bunch of banannas to boot.
|
Parked at the next location, calling assistant. |
Once at the general
store we interviewed the manager who gave us a description of the person
who sent the fax. He kept noting that the man (for indeed it was a man)
was quite dangerous, and that we shouild beware... and it turned out
that in fact that man was standing right in the store!
We cornered him before he could make a move to leave, and finally
convinced him to turn over an orange folder he was carrying with the
original ransom notes.
Inside the foolder were all of the ransom notes, but oddly one was
blank... on further examination we found ndentations as if someone had
written on a piece of paper over this one, noting to "ask for the sushi
deluxe".
|
Reviewing folder of ransom notes obtained from general store suspect. |
At this point we had
some time to kill having no new leads. So, we parked down by the shore
to sit and think across from this bar.
|
The team takes a break at the harbor mall. |
We then took a short
walk along the harbor itself until we were called back to HQ by our
assistant.
|
Strolling along the harbor. |
By night the HQ
looks spectacular, even if there were no MINI's parked outside!
|
Back at HQ once more. |
An airy space,
inside as can be seen from out here.
|
Not an easy building to miss. |
Inside mostly quiet,
many podiums empty.
|
Team assistant podiums. |
But our assistant
Caroline is hard at work. It appears that tonight there is some food,
and then after a bit the press will be dropping by after a day of their
own driver training.
|
Assitant Caroline and Brooks. |
As the press are
there, a number of MINI people are also on hhand to talk to.
|
MINI people often stop by to chat. Nice jacket! |
As the press were
dropping by, we cleaned up the office and prepared what evidence we had.
|
Preparing maps for press greeting. |
We also had a number
of polaroids hung around. Some of these were meant to show strife on th
eteam, just in case the culprit snuck in among the press to see how the
investigation was proceeding.
|
Various pictures from the investigation. |
Generally we didn't
use the instmatic much for the real investigation, preferring to stay in
the digital realm.
|
More pictures - and a ransome note! |
The last of the free
banannas.
|
A well-used office, along with free Bananna. |
Finally the press
did stop by.
|
Team USA talks to the press. |
Here we are being
interviewed by some press from Canada. She actually had her eyes open
quite a bit while talking, making this shot all the more remarkable.
|
One of the press. |
Note that we always kept a tight
grip on our investigative folder all during the interviews.
|
Kendall and Winnie enjoying a
laugh (thanks to Brooks for the great photo!)
|
The press conference
finished, we finally headed back to the hotel garage to turn in for the
night. Here we turn the car over to the crack team of MINI repair
personell destined to spend the whole night fixing MINI's.
|
We turn the car in for inspection at the end of the day. |
Our MINI of course,
ahas been handled well - and so needs little in the way of tuning. We
head out to our rooms where I manage to get to bed by 3am.
|
Team USA engine is looking good. |
|
|
