A Thin Blue Line

[Reltzik]

Precinct 8 has a single forensic accountant who can handle everyday needs, and if that's not enough Metro has teams of them. You also bag and tag the laptop for delivery to Metro's techgeeks.

No one (except Lawrence) recognizes pinchy-glasses, and Lawrence still doesn't remember his name.

CSU promises to try to identify where the fancy armor and other stuff came from. Jake looks at the cola in the pot with a bit of disgust. "Yeah, that's an old dirty trick. Coke's so acidic that it will actually strip metal. My dad used to use it as a rust stripper and to clean engine blocks. I'd guess someone was trying to get prints off of something, or maybe mess with ballistics. Wiping down metal doesn't always work, you see, sometimes the skin oils actually cause etching. Coke doesn't work as well for that, but fingerprint and ballistic analysis are so finicky that you don't have to mess with either much to screw them up. Ol' Badaga, teaches forensics at the Academy for the past two centuries? You'd know him if you hadn't transferred in. Makes a point of demonstrating Coca-cola every class so that we don't think that forensics is magic. Twenty-million gigabyte ballistics database versus a two-liter, and the two-liter wins. Hell, my high school science teacher showed us how to use it to strip rust and oils. It's one of those things that a tenth of the world knows and no one else ever suspects."

[Kislath]

"I see. Well, let's see what soaking in it. Maybe we're not too late.
Hmmm... tellya what-- I'm gonna sit over there out of the way and let you guys do your thing while I go through some of this lovely reading material."

I go back outside to my car and drive it over here close to the crime scene. Then I get out and sit on the hood since it's too hot to sit inside, and I start reading the file on La Lupa to pass the time while the CSU's do their work. If they holler, I'll hear it, and vice-versa. I also hand the printouts to my sidekicks and ask them if they can get any ideas of what it might mean, and share some possible spitball theories with them.

"I've been trying to figure this one out from the start, and like I toldja earlier, every time I turn around it seems a new possibility pops up.

Okay, first option-- a serial killer picked Herman at random. Looking at the crime scene, I guess we can go ahead and rule that one RIGHT out. He knew his killer, or killers, and probably hung out with them regularly. Well, assuming the killer didn't just happen to stumble upon this place.
--Option two--- Whatever little party they were planning in this place, Herman wasn't invited. They strung him along for awhile, but when it was time to make their big move, Rodrick became a liability who had to go. Now, the scuttlebutt is that the Wolfpack gang was up to something major and getting ready to... do whatever... and since they knew he was a cop, they chose this time to kill him.
On the other hand, they might NOT have known he was a cop, and Herman tipped his hand at what turned out to be a really bad time to do it.
--Option three-- pretty much the same as option two, but the Wolfpack wasn't involved, with this little funhouse being someone else's. In either case, it's obvious they probably didn't plan to kill him here, or maybe even at all. They grabbed some guns and such, but why would they leave all of that money and also leave the door open? I don't get that part. Why kill him here at all and lose THIS place, which must have been expensive and hard to build?
---Option four--- an unrelated third party came along at just the right moment to find the door open, go inside, and get into a firefight with Herman, maybe intentionally, maybe by pure dumb luck.

So far none of these really explain stringing him up like that.

---Option five--- "Hell hath no fury..." maybe this was personal instead of just business. La Lupa seemed to have been very fond of him, possibly romantically linked in fact, but we also know he had a sugar daddy. Maybe one of them turned out to be the jealous type?

Whoever killed him..no, wait.. whoever removed him from this place did so in a big sloppy hurry. They left the place open, they left behind a ton of evidence and cash, and they left their bloody fingerprints on the steering wheel. That's just..I dunno... not the level of proficiency you'd expect from a serial killer or a bunch of survivalist whackjobs."
( or dirty cops )
"This place is probably pretty soundproof, too, so I can't see why they'd be in any huge hurry to bug out of here so fast that they'd make all these mistakes. Could it be they weren't worried about the cops, but instead worried about the return of whoever owned this place?

I tellya, the more information we get, the more possibilities we get. Things aren't getting narrowed down at all. HA!
Hell, I ain't even got started yet on a possible gay angle, or what message the killer was trying to send by displaying the body that way.
This one's gonna be a pain, I can tell already.

So, what do y'all think? Any of these sound reasonable?"

[Reltzik]

"Nothing in the pot," Jake reports as you're leaving. "And coke's slow-working, you kinda need to let it sit overnight for it to work. Either whoever did this returned here, or that's not what the soda's about."

Lawrence takes it upon himself to do crowd control (the scene inevitably draws a few gawkers) while Macabee fetches their car. You notice Lawrence talking into his radio as you leave. He looks pissed. So does Macabee. They take the printouts when you hand them over and listen to your ideas fairly quietly. Macabee speaks up at option 5.

"Herman was never the go-steady type of guy," she tells you. "He dated around the precinct a lot, but everyone knew it was always casual. Just knew. He gave off that vibe. He was very kind and compassionate, but he's not the guy you dream of having as a boyfriend or a husband. He's the guy you run crying to for a few nights when your husband turns out to be a cheating son-of-a-bitch who wants custody of your kid. Strictly friendly, and very clear that it wasn't anything serious. I can't imagine him ever letting anyone misinterpret that."

She doesn't seem able to focus on the printouts, though she's trying. Lawrence is going through them intently. As Thad goes through them himself, he realizes that those are definitely badge numbers, rather than social security, based on the convention they follow. If those other numbers ARE case files, then coupled with the dates they could come together to describe an incident report and a particular figure for each incident, maybe a victim or a perpetrator.

You're still going through them when Jaffe hollers for you. "We're going to be processing this scene most of the night. Thanks for that, by the way. But we've set up a few sight lines and I think I can walk you through a basic scenario, give you something to work with."

[Kislath]

"Oh yeah? Cool. Show me what ya got."

Hmmm... badge numbers correlated with case numbers, and these other two are really mad, eh? Sounds like someone kept their bribery pad digitized, and Rodrick found it. That's plenty good reason to kill him. Of course, it's a safe bet now that Cpt. Adamson just now found that out right when I did, thanks to Lawrence's report.
Hmm... I gotta make a point of noticing HIS badge number. Macabee's, too.

Hmmm.. what if Rodrick's number is on the list? Dang! Another possibility. What if the killer is a vigilante trying to clean up police corruption? That would certainly explain the big number one.

[Reltzik]

Jake leads you in, and a more senior CSU tech you don't recognize takes over. "We're lifting prints now, so be careful not to touch anything, but we started by accounting for the bullets. There's a lot of them, but we came up with a count that exactly matched the empty clips and the two guns you found. Right down to caliber. Every bullet hole, plus five dents in this... armor, I guess, with tiny little bullet-pancakes either embedded in the armor or lying in the carpet. We can do a ballistics match later to confirm they're from these two guns, but the count is pretty suggestive."

The senior tech gestures over to where the biggest bloodpool is. "Obviously, your suspect was gutshot at some point. We think that's the first shot that was fired. He collapsed and lay here, bleeding, for some time. I understand the M.E. said he would have been paralyzed by the bullet. Maybe he passed out for a bit and came to or maybe he was just playing 'possum. But he just lay here bleeding for a couple of minutes at least."

She points over to the kitchen area. "When he comes to, he takes the .36 and fires three shots over there. They embed in the wall in that wide pattern there." She uses a laser pointer to show three holes in the drywall. They're pretty near the pot with the coke in it. "Then he starts dragging himself one-handed along the floor, along this blood smear, firing as he goes. We're operating under the theory that the shots fired from further down the blood trail were fired later, that he didn't backtrack. By establishing sight lines and tracing them back to where they were fired along the blood trail, we can estimate when he shot them, and by examining the extent of bleeding at any given point, we can estimate how long he remained at any one spot."

"He fired another two rounds from right around here." She points to a spot about four feet down the blood-trail from the start. "Aiming there." She gestures with the laser pointer at a wall near the front door. If someone had wanted to get to the front door from the kitchen without going past where Herman had started, that would have been the way to go. "Five more, at about the same spot, from just a bit further up here. He reloads, discards a clip. He waits here for a bit, maybe because reloading takes him some time, or maybe he's waiting for a target. Maybe the shots are spaced out over a period of time.

"Then he continues dragging himself around the corner, here, and continues down this hallway towards the bathroom door. He fires a lot of shots. From here, here, here, and here. Most of them from here, nine rounds. Notice the wide spread. Either his target is all over the place or his aim sucks. Most likely his aim sucks. At this point he's in extreme agony, going into two kinds of shock, the hand he's holding his gun with is slick with blood, and he's left his glasses in the other room. But it looks like he's aiming at the bathroom.

"He continues along, reloading again, and reaches the bathroom door. Shoots through it blindly several times until he's out of ammo. Then he draws his holdout piece and continues shooting. You can see that he's tried to get to the doorknob but can't reach it from the floor. Judging by the way most of the blood smears don't overlay the bullet holes, he scrambled for the doorknob a bit before shooting up the door. But he made some attempts at the doorknob after that, I'd guess after he was out of ammo. He also reversed his grip on his holdout piece and made a few feeble attempts to break open the base of the door with the handle. The blows were very weak. After all that, he bled to death and expired.

"In all of this, there's not a single shot fired at the victim, except for the one that put him down to begin with. And there's no sign that the victim hit anything except walls."

"Our basic scenario is that he gets shot, goes down, passes out or just fades out, gets left there, comes to, sees his killer in the kitchen, and opens fire. The killer is somehow separated from his gun and can't return fire. He tries to make a run for the front door but is pinned down, so he bolts to the back hall looking for a second way out. Instead, he gets trapped in the bathroom, closes the door, maybe locks it, and spends at least five minutes of what must have been pure hell either standing on the toilet tank or sheltering in the metal tub to stay out of the firing lines while his victim tries to either break down the door or get lucky shooting him through it. Your boy did NOT go quietly."

Macabee and Lawrence both look extremely angry. They mutter various comments to each other during the tour... growl, more like it... about cop killers, the death penalty, the current moratorium on the death penalty, and how that won't help a guy in a dark alley. Lawrence looks pissed on principle. To Macabee, it's personal.

EDIT: Just then, Thad's cell phone rings/vibrates/plays Honkey-Tonk/whatever. Caller ID says that it's his partner, Han Li. Maybe he's back from his honeymoon and ready to come back to work.

[HZ514]

As Han gets into his car, he dials Thad's number and hears the first ring to confirm that the call had gone through. He looks in the rear view mirror and sees that his eyes are rather bloodshot from the long flight home before letting out a long, hearty yawn.

-----

Han could still hear Maddy chiding him for going in to work immediately after returning from their honeymoon, but Han never saw it as a choice. Criminals around Michaelsburg aren't jet lagged; he can't be either. Sorry, honey.

At the precinct, Lieutenant Paige had informed Han that Thad was out on a new case--a particularly unsettling one, by the look on the Lieutenant's face. Apparently the universe wasn't going to ease Han back into the detective life, much to his chagrin.

-----

Han opens his eyes from the yawn and tries to blink away some of the redness, but to no avail. He sighs and sits back in his seat as the phone rings a second time. Come on, Partner, pick up.

[Kislath]

"Hey, partner! Welcome back! I wish I had a happier homecoming for you. Check THIS out-- It started this morning when some joggers found a ...."

I fill him in on the story so far.

Porcelain loves prints. Maybe we can get something off of the toilet tank lid or the bathtub.

[Reltzik]

The CSU team knows their job. They're dusting EVERYTHING.

It's a short drive there from the 8th Precinct. By the time Tanner finishes filling Han in on the basics, Han's walking up the path to the Death Bunker. Macabee and Lawrence make polite introductions, handshakes, etc.

Jake Jaffe comes up. "Detective Li, didn't know you were back in town." Another handshake. "We're going to be at this for a while, but a couple of things that might interest you. First, those weapon racks? Dusty. They've been empty for weeks, maybe months or years. No one ran off with a huge cache of arms, at least, not last night. Second, that roll of nickels that was torn open. It's a standard two dollar roll, and there were ten coins left behind, kinda-spread out, as if they were being counted out. All of them are mint 2010, by the way, these and the ones on the vic. We're dusting those for prints now. We've got one partial so far, but most of them are clean, which suggests the killer was wearing gloves. Or whoever stuffed his pockets with nickels, if it wasn't the killer. Assuming we've accounted for all the nickels that fell out of the vic's pockets. But given that we've got fifty cents on the table and a buck fifty which we think was in your victim's pockets, that would account for the roll exactly."

OOC Edit: Exactly how much did Thad tell Han over the phone, when Macabee and Lawrence were in earshot?

[Kislath]

OOC:

Spoiler

Show

Well, there was a LOT to tell him, so I could only give him the outline.

Dead guy, hung & gutted with a #1, who turned out to be a cop running undercover with the wolfpack, a gang I tend to think didn't have anything to do with this. Found this bunker/crime scene.
I didn't pitch any ideas about what might have happened, and I didn't mention anything suggesting a possible dirty cops angle. Thad isn't sure what he thinks about these two from the 23rd, so he didn't say anything around them that would have been disparaging in any way.

"Again with the nickels. This is just weird. If Rodrick took them himself, why not take the whole roll? If someone else stuffed them into his pocket, well... that makes even less sense.
Hmm... these are all the same date, 2010.
I wonder..."


I carefully open the ends of a few wrappers to see if by chance they're all new coins from 2010, or mostly so. I think I just had an idea that explains all of this.

[Reltzik]

Thad opens up seven rolls of nickels (AFTER CSU has documented their location with photographs, they're very particular about that, no messing with the crime scene until how it looked originally is established). Of the seven, five rolls are mint 2010 and the other two are mint 2009.

[Kislath]

Ah, HA! Thought so.
Okay, it looks like these coins were all stockpiled here at the same time. It could have been a case of simple bunker stockpiling, or it might have been something else.
I'm thinking that the division of 1/4 to 3/4 is pretty significant, as in, it's representative of shares.
Taking the details of Rodricks murder into account, it looks like it was about revenge. Splitting up the nickels and stuffing them in his pockets is a message.

We should start looking at three year old robberies, at three year old arrests, and at guys who just got out of prison after doing 2 to 3 years. I have a feeling we might be looking at two more bodies in the near future.
Whew! This is one time I think I LIKE computers.

So, Herman.. what DID you and 3 buddies get up to in 2010, hmmm?

[Reltzik]

OOC: While the thought process and theories are nice, I'm going to need some outward action from Thad before I can respond.

[Kislath]

Well, I don't want to suggest out loud to the Bobbsey twins over there that I think Herman might have been a bank robber, so I'll have to run my database searches without telling them what I'm doing. Han would make this a lot easier, but it looks like he might not be here after all.

Actually, it would be easier to have some people better at that stuff do it, and it would bet better to first give them one one puzzle piece, so....

Thad goes back to the apartment office to see what info the manager has on that unit. I'll take whatever I can get, and then take it to our forensic accountant. With any luck, he can come up with some names to cross-reference with my theory, since I'm sure my initial searches would give me hundreds of names.

"Hey. Me again. What have you got?"

[Reltzik]

The office has a closed sign on it (it's after 6 in the evening), but the door's unlocked. The manager's in there with the 6 o'clock news on and a very thin manilla folder open on her desk. She's talking on the phone as you enter, and holds up a finger ("one moment") as you enter. "Yes, sir, I understand the policy... yes, I understand that... sir, that's meant to protect the renter... but one of the renters might have been KILLED here, how's that supposed to protect... no, I don't know if that was actually... because I can't track down who the renter is to see if... yes, sir..."

While she's going on like that, Thad sees Herman on the news. They have pictures in very-early dawn light of him hanging, including one wide shot with his guts pixelated out. The orange 1 is clearly visible, but there isn't a single evidence flag in sight. Those pictures being broadcast on the news were taken before CSU got there... and it's against policy to release that sort of direct evidence, so that key details can be withheld as a way of distinguishing those who actually knows about the crime from those who just heard about it. The image cuts to a live feed from the park, with a reporter on the scene. "It is MPD policy not to comment on ongoing investigations, but it is obvious that the police are responding very aggressively to this murder. Sources inside the police confirm that no less than three separate investigations are already underway. A special anonymous hotline has been set up for anyone with any information about this apparent homicide, and it should be visible at the bottom of the screen now. This is Fannie Nielsen for Channel 8 News."

At about that point the manager hangs up the phone. "I'm sorry, Detective. I was just talking to the Mr. Powers, the owner. He knows about the irregularities in our paperwork and says not to worry about it. And... he reminded me that I am not to release any renter information without a court order. I'm sorry."

EDIT: Macabee stayed at the crime scene, but Lawrence followed you into the office. He's not saying much, though. Just on hand in case he's needed.

[Kislath]

"Very well. Call him back and let him know that I will be back in the morning with that court order. You might wanna mention that I was mumbling something about arresting him for Obstruction as I was leaving. Or not, if you think he's the sort who loves surprises. Whatever. See ya then! Have a nice night."

I turn and walk away, but then turn around again.

"Oh, I almost forgot. There is a big, vicious street gang called the Wolfpack. You ever head of 'em? Hotheaded latinos, mostly. Reaallly hotheaded. The murder victim was one of theirs, see, and they're really mad about it. They've been following me around to see what I might find. You should probably expect them to tear this place apart if we don't find his killer real soon, like, tomorrow or so. Just a heads-up for ya. Something for your boss to consider. Bye, now."

I leave again, then when we're well away I say to Lawrence:

"Heh, heh. This job sucks sometimes, but you really gotta love the perks. HAHAHA. Did you see that on TV? Three separate investigations, they said. Assuming You & I are part of two of them, whose running the third?"

[Reltzik]

The manager goes a bit pale, and opens her mouth as if she's going to ask for protection, and then stops as if realizing the implied quid-pro-quo. Thad leaves her looking a bit lost and helpless.

Lawrence shakes his head as you leave. "Looks like a jurisdictional nightmare. Whoever said that bit about not letting one hand know what the other is doing was an amateur. This is more like twenty fingers and toes, none of them talking to each other. ... think that was the good book, actually." His expression gets dark. "I liked Herman. Didn't really know him and he wasn't around for long, but I liked the guy. Something 'bout him you just trusted. Seeing him hanging like that..." he shakes his head, his expression dark (and not just because of his complexion). He's not coming out and saying it, but obviously he's taking Thad's humor at the situation the wrong way.

The manager comes out. "Okay. Okay. The account number for the EFT that paid the rent on the cottage. This is the best I can do. The lease isn't here, I don't have anything else to give you. The news said you take anonymous tips, right? This is anonymous. Totally anonymous. I can lose my job for this, so you didn't get it from me. Got it?" She slips a folded post-it note into Thad's hand. "Completely unofficial, and I'm not testifying, not unless there's a court order or my boss says it's okay. And... just keep that gang away from here. Please. Station a couple cars nearby for the next few weeks or however you stop that sort of thing. Okay?"

[Kislath]

"Ah, well, thank you very much, you anonymous tipster, you. Okay, I'll take care of it."

Once she's gone I continue.

" Look, uh, Lawrence, while people say I have no feelings, the truth is I do. I just bury 'em under my jokes. It's not healthy, maybe, but I do it anyway. On the other hand, I'm pretty good at figuring out how others are feeling. I can see that this whole mess has you upset, and that I'm not helping. Sorry about that.
One thing you should know is that things are about to get a lot worse.
You remember my complaint about everything we turn up only giving us new questions and theoretical possibilities? Well, I got two more just since then, and you ain't gonna like 'em. Hell, I don't like 'em! The thing is, I gotta run 'em down anyway because that's my job. Our job.
As you might have noticed, there are lot of things about this case so far that look really bad and smell worse. It looks like Herman was mixed up in some crazy s*1t here, either while undercover or as an extracurricular activity. It also looks like the motive for his murder, and of course we have to figure out the motive so we can nail his killer, and we WILL nail his killer. I guess what I'm saying is that some of the things we find out, the ideas I get, and the jokes I make are likely to make you pretty pissed off in the near future, and I'd like to apologize in advance for that. My only goal is to avenge a dead cop, wherever the investigation goes or what I gotta do.

Now that I have this account number for the forensic accountant, I have a feeling the real s*ytstorm will be starting soon. Tell me, what do you make of a big pile of rolled coins, all shiny and new from the same mint year, stockpiled and then left behind? What do you think of Herman's killer going to the trouble of stuffing exactly 3/4ths of a roll into his pocket? I'm thinking that's as much a part of the message as the big number one, and I have an idea of what that message is and how it ties into the rest."

[Reltzik]

Mike Lawrence lets out a deep breath. "Yeah, okay. I can see that. Guess we all deal with crap like this different. I don't really know about the rest of it. I'm just a beat cop. You're the detective. But the way I figure it, this is the Wolfpack. Rodrick was undercover in the gang and he turns up dead, right after reporting to us that they were about to ramp up their operations. And this isn't Wolfpack territory here, but we're pretty near HER old turf. Not that hard to see her as the obvious suspect. As for the rest of it? La Lupa plays mind games. Gets into your head and confuses the hell out of you. Pushes your buttons. She makes you mad, so mad that you stop thinking and do something stupid. That's how she got that immunity against being arrested. She went around deliberately provoking cops until she had a list of overnight stays longer than my arm, and then she took that to a judge as evidence of harassment. Played us like a song and now our hands are tied. So the way I figure it, it was probably her, or someone acting on her orders, and all the crazy stuff is just more of her mind games."

Important OOC Edit: Han is officially retconned out of the game. He never existed. Thad filled in his actual partner, Lara Brand, over the phone (same as before), and she should be showing up any post now.

[Kislath]

"Hmmm... okay, good to know. She DID irritate me considerably and in no time flat, so I guess it's on account of her having had a lot of practice at it. Still, I'm not sure I like her for this murder, at least not for the obvious motive. I guess I'm gonna have to see what I can come up with after some serious database searches.
Well, it's been fun so far, but suppertime is calling my name, and I have to get back to the office before I can even think about that. Since I can't really do anything else until some people tell me some stuff anyway, I reckon I might as well call it a day. I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Thad will now drive back to the station, report to Lieu Lou, put in a request for a subpoena for the rental records on that bunkerized apartment, make copies of the EFT number and Herman's printouts, take the EFT to the forensics office, keep one copy of Herman's printout and ask Lou what she thinks of the copy I show her. Assuming these are case numbers and badge numbers, is there a way to look up what these cases may have in common, such as they're all still pending or they were all dropped for some reason?

Then I find the computer lab and tell the geeks I'm looking for cases over the past three years within 25 miles, filtered with convictions, and then filtered by those convicted getting out of jail over the past 120 days. Actually, it might be easier to do that in reverse, as in guys who just got out over the past 120 days, who were convicted within the past 3 years and within 25 miles of this zip code. It'll still be a LOT of names, of course, but if any of them are Wolfpack or ex-cops or the name of our mystery renter, then maybe it won't all have been a waste of time.
While I'm there, I'll ask if they've had any luck yet in finding the online storage site for Herman's video cameras, or if they even know what I'm talking about yet.

[Reltzik]

Lawrence leaves you with a copy of his card and Macabee's, so you can call them to meet up when you get back to work tomorrow morning.

When Thad makes a copy of the printout, he realizes that one of the two cops from the 23rd didn't hand back the part that Thad had them looking at. He's missing a third of his evidence. Lawrence is the one who handed back the part that Thad got back, but Thad got the sense that Macabee had given him her section and he'd handed both back. Thad isn't really sure, because he was being distracted by Jake Jaffe at the time.

Lieu-Lou does NOT look happy at Thad's report. She doesn't give much in the way of instructions, though, and doesn't seem to be objecting to anything you've done. She mostly just seems upset at how nasty the case is looking. She looks through the copy and agrees with you that these are badge numbers and case numbers and suggests that you start calling up the case files on your computer to see if a pattern emerges. She gets started on the court order for the records, says it'll be easy to get, but that it might have to wait until tomorrow unless the night court judges are less busy than usual.

The 8th's forensic accountant, a blonde woman in her forties who seems relaxed and laid back, also promises to make quick work of the EFT, though she just might have to wait until the morning as well. Banking hours and all that.

Thad never dropped off the cameras from Herman's place, because he went straight to the apartment complex. But he drops them off now. It might occur to him to drop off the laptop as well.

Thad doesn't even need the computer geeks to do his search for convicts. It's very, very basic, and while he might be a Luddite when it comes to new tech, this was stuff the department was making sure their detectives could do way back when Thad transferred in, a generation ago. It only takes about a minute for Thad to enter the query into the system... and then it takes about four minutes for the system to create an output file, which is bad news. Thad got over six thousand hits, and is going to have to narrow his search parameters somewhat. Going through that is going to suck.

Also, Thad notices that he's got email. Probably the stuff that CSU has been sending him all day.

[D.KnightSpider]

(OoC: Posting from phone. Please pardon any grammar weirdness.)

Being forced to take a vacation irritated me; being a Johnny-come-lately to a case frustrated me, and I hated cop killers. So when Thad's phone call came, I found myself having a positively wonderful day.

I decided against going to the scene of the crime, as Thad would be long gone by the time I arrived. Instead I opted to go back to the office, check in with the top brass and make sure that someone had a front cup of coffee brewing. I had a feeling I was going to need it.

Once that was done, I spent far longer than I'd like answering massages and catching up on neglected business. Vacations.they caused more work than they were worth in my opinion.

When all that was done, I finally found the time to track Thad down and get to my main concerns. My earlier decision too not visit the crime scene was vindicated when I ran into him at the main office.

I walked up to him and waved to catch his attention.

"Hey." I said. "Mind bringing me up to speed?"

[Kislath]

OOC:

Spoiler

Show

The laptop got bagged and tagged by the CSU's, didn't it? As for the cameras, I thought they were just cameras, broadcasting everything live? Okay, well, fine, as long as they lab has them now, that's good.

"Oh, hey. Welcome back. Wow, where do I start?
Okay, there was this cop from the 23rd, running undercover in the Wolfpack gang, but they knew he was undercover the whole time. In fact, it looks like he was having a thing with the leader of the pack. He reported in that something big was about to go down, and then got whacked. By whacked, I mean gutshot while inside an apartment that had been secretly converted into a steelclad bunker, then stuffed into his SUV, driven to High Park, strung up by the neck and disemboweled with a big orange #1 painted next to him.
So far we don't know who was renting that bunker apartment, but I'm working on it.
It looks like Herman Rodrick, the victim, might have been up to a little bit of no good himself, but so far I'm keeping that kinda quiet. On the other hand, his cohorts, either gangstas of cops, were up to much worse.
As possible motives, so far I have revenge, jealousy, or keeping him quiet.

I went to Rodrick's place, where I met La Lupa, leader of the Wolfpack, who let herself into the place with her own key. There to feed the hamster , she said. CHARMING woman...NOT. You're gonna looove her. Oh, and get used to seeing people following us around, taking video of us on their phones. La Lupa wants to keep close tabs on this case, apparently. One thing I found at his place was a big printout of..something.. that he was working on. It involves a whole bunch of case numbers and badge numbers, and I'm pretty sure there might be a rotten reason for that...especially when it turns out that one of the cops from the 23rd who had been assigned to be my little helpers has run off with about 1/3rd of the printout. Macabee, watch out for that one. Tomorrow I'll ask for it back all innocent like, like it was just an honest mistake, and see what happens.

Now the fun part-- I'm getting a major dirty cop vibe on this one, and I don't mean the victim. Macabee aside, well, I guess you had to be there, but half the 23rd smells a bit off to me. Criminals are strutting around like the law is only for other people, cops are reluctant to irritate the suspects... I dunno. It looks bad.

Now for the details..."

I fill in the rest of the details, and give her all my theories ranging from Wolfpack involvement to a decided lack of it, the possible robbery angle, the jealousy angles both gay and straight, the vengeful ex-partner in crime, the pockets stuffed with exactly 3/4 of a roll of nickels, all of it.

Then I give her some of my printout so we can save some time cross referencing all of the case numbers and badge numbers to see if we can figure out any sort of connections or patterns. I'm looking for whatever we might find, but my hunch says that what we'll find are cases dropped or blown by the same few cops, possibly against the same few criminals, that is, I'm looking for dirty cops making cases go away for certain defendants. That's the kind of thing someone would kill Herman Rodrick over after he stuck his nose into it.

As for the list of people recently released from jail, I'll just have to hang onto that to see if any of the names we hear in the near future happen to be ON that list.

[Reltzik]

Okay, CSU took the laptop, that's fine by me. As for the cameras, they were very short-range and uploaded everything to an unknown IP on the internet. In order to figure out where they were uploading to, you had to take at least one of the cameras to the tech guys so that they could figure out WHICH IP it was programmed to upload to.

I'll just let the two of you talk for a bit. This'll probably take an hour or so. Feel free to order Thai or Chinese or pizza or whatever. That's what half of the 8th precinct's detective pool is doing.... the unlucky half that can't go home at a decent hour.

[D.KnightSpider]

I listened to the story with rapt attention; I filed the different bits of trivia and experience under different headings in my mind. A few things stuck out at me. The painted number one, the nickels, the fact that the Wolfpack was already on to us, were all things that really gulled my gizzard. I spent a good few moments pondering it all after Thaddeus wrapped up story-time.

"Well, if you want one of my famous Doomsday scenarios..." I muttered. "I'd hate to think that someone leaked the list of undercover ops and Rodrick is simply Number One on the list of soon to be permanently retired undercover cops."

I took the printout from Thaddeus and scanned it real quick. It was going to be fun tracking down all of these numbers, but that sort of legwork was the reason that they payed us the big bucks. That was sarcasm, for the unaware.

"I'll start running down this list. You'd better check that email and see what, if anything, the forensic boys have sent you. And you might also want to decide which delivery joint to patronize..."

I paused just long enough to give Thaddeus my patented cynical smile.

"... Because I just got back from an overly long vacation, making me plenty rested for an all-nighter."

[Kislath]

"Okay. Hmmm... the eternal question...chinese or pizza? Hey, you know what? Somebody needs to invent chinese pizza."
OOC-- SERIOUSLY!
"I guess I'm leaning toward pizza.
Well, as for the list of undercovers, that might be it, but I doubt it. The Wolfpack always seems to know who they are from the get-go and keeps them relegated to the outer fringes where they can't do any damage. I'm not sure how they find out so fast all the time, but I'm assuming there's a mole in the Department reporting them as soon as they're assigned. Like I said, there's something dirty about the 23rd. I don't think the Wolfpack would bother with killing them, but I suppose it's possible that somebody ELSE might want to.
I'm thinking it's a list of cops who have been involved in cases that went off the rails a leeeetle bit more than coincidence would allow, or maybe a bunch of cases against Wolfpack members, or something else like that. Something like that would be worth killing anyone who stuck his nose into it.

My emails? Oh, yeah! I should probably check those, and then take these cameras to the lab while waiting for the food. Then we can get started on this printout."

[D.KnightSpider]

"Fine by me." I replied.

A quick check of my snartphone told me that the local pizza joint, Uncle Tobin's, was still open. It was a hole-in-the-wall, but darn if it wasn't a good hole-in-the-wall. I dialed the number and tucked the phone underneath one ear, yanked a pad of paper and pen from my vest pocket, and divided my attention between the phone and jotting down some thoughts on the case.

There were a lot of angles to Rodrick's murder-- more than I personally liked. The ones that really piqued my interest, however, tied back to the murdered man himself. I began scribbling on my notepad while listening to Uncle Tobin's hold music.

Rodrick's incident with Adamson.
` Need details. Seems like a pretty severe overreaction to a sexist pig.
` How does a guy on probation-- with anger management issues-- get drafted as an undercover cop? Who thought this was a workable idea?
` How did he get this deep when no one else could? Relationship with she-wolf? Was he crooked from the get-go?
` Need to get documentation/reports on Rodrick's undercover work. Possible clue on the incoming big deal?
` What the heck was up with that bunker?

The hold music was abruptly silenced and replaced with the halfway professional voice of a cashier/clerk. I ordered our usual food binge, verified that whoever was on the other end of the line had it correct, paid by credit, and then hung up the phone.

I studied my list of questions for a moment. Maybe it was something. Maybe it was nothing. There was really only one way to find out for certain.

I waited for Thaddeus to finish wrestling with his computer before re-opening our old conversation.

"Pizza'll be here in thirty minutes. You're buying." Eh. He had to know I was joking by this point.

[Reltzik]

Thad checks his email before dropping off the cameras. Official report and pictures from High Park, nice and neat and nothing unexpected. Official autopsy report, nothing new, except that Herman had a BAC suggesting he'd had a single beer an hour or two before he died and that he'd had a burrito for dinner.

JPEGs of Herman's tattoos. Semper on one hand and Fidelis on the other, in a Teutonic Gothic font, very bold and uncompromising. On the forearm beneath "Fidelis" is some Latin in a cursive style, "quamvis non alius est," as if it's meant to be a continuation of "Semper Fidelis". On the other forearm are what looks like two or four names, "Georgia Summers Mariala Rodrigues", followed by what looks like a bunch of Arabic. Left bicep, USMC with an eagle holding a flag. Right bicep, what looks like a graveyard, very much dismal and stark contrast, with the name "Mariala Rodrigues" on the most prominent tombstone. Apparently someone at the coroner's office knows something about tattoos, and says that this used to be a cross with an M underneath one of the cross's arms. Much later, the rest of the tattoo was added, obscuring the original by incorporating it into the new design. On his back, Herman had the Superman emblem on his left shoulderblade (with caption of "Truth, Justice, and the American Way). On his right shoulderblade, there's more Latin, "Quis custodiet ipsos custodet?" And across his chest there's a large, artfully done black wolf, staring out with big golden eyes that seem both patient and deadly. The wolf wears a shackle and chain on one of its forepaws, and is anchored to a rock. Underneath is a caption, "LA LOBA DE HIERRO" in a graffiti style.

There's an email of the preliminary report on Herman's car. Most of it's what Thad got in Jake's summary earlier, but also mentioned are that the keys were found in the car (no sign of a wallet or cel phone, though) and the bloody fingerprints on the steering wheel were old, probably weeks old. The blood's baked and is worthless for DNA and it's too much of a mess to lift fingerprints. They've also been wiped down -- with water, not bleach -- once, and aren't very visible.

Finally, there's an email from Metro telling Thad that the automated tip line has been set up for his case, that he can call in whenever he wants to check it, and he'll get text messages whenever a tip gets called in. However, he won't be able to delete messages from it.

Thad mulls all that over while he goes to drop off the cameras and collect the pizza. The desk sergeant who signed for it hands it over with a sarcastic "Enjoy!" in a phony Italian accent. Thad gets the sense he's been handling too many pizzas this evening. Then he realizes who Thad is and says, "Oh, Tanner. An officer from the 23rd dropped something off for you. Think her name was McAbbey or something like that." He hands over a manilla envelope containing what appears to be the missing third of the printouts. "Said she remembered handing this to you earlier, but apparently she walked off with it by accident."

While Thad's gone, Lara starts pulling up case files mostly figures out what the printouts refer to. All of them are complaints filed against officers in the 23rd precinct which were dismissed, either because the 23rd's IA adjunct decided they lacked evidence and declined to pass them up the food chain, or the complainant recanted. Included are the name and badge number of the accused officer, the name of the alleged victim who filed the complaint, date of filing, date of alleged incident, date of dismissal. It looks like someone just did a database search of dismissed Internal Affairs complaints at the 23rd and printed out the results. Most of them are from around 2-3 years ago, when the Surge went into effect. There's a lot more than you'd usually expect from a single precinct in that small of a time frame, but then Brookvale at the beginning of the Surge wouldn't have been anything BUT unusual. Herman's notes are less clear. There's no indication why he crossed out some, circled others, and left the rest unmarked, nor any clue what the dates and names he wrote in refer to.

OOC: Significant typo/retcon. I've been getting my Latin and Spanish mixed up, and I need to fix that. She's known as "La Loba", not "La Lupa". My bad. Carry on.

OOC EDIT 3: Fixed minor details to conform with DKS's post.

[Kislath]

"Hmmm.... these tats tell a sad story. It looks like Herman lost someone dear to him named Mariala.
Semper Fi- although no other?
Who watches the watchers?
Oh, ho, what's this? I knew he liked her, but to get a tattoo of her? Iron she-wolf? Gotta be La Loba.

Better run a check on this Mariala Rodriques."

Which I do.
While that's running, I hold up the printout to a bright lamp, turning it to various angles. If there's any fresh ink on this, it'll look different than Herman's old long-dried ink.

[D.KnightSpider]

Well, Thaddeus had turned out to be half correct, which was better than entirely wrong. I studied the data for a moment. It was going to take some more legwork to make sense of this.

I decided to start with the cases that Rodrick had marked in one fashion or another. There had to be some factor tying them all together; I just was wasn't seeing it. I cross-referenced those complaints, trying to see if there was anything linking the data fields on the printout together. The person who lodged the complaint, the AI official, the whole nine yards, I started checking them against each other.

A quick glance at Thaddeus' desk showed me that he wasn't back yet. I started doing a records search on the individuals who made the complaint, focusing, of course, on those that Herman had indicated. Maybe they were all Wolfpack members. I didn't know. But it was as good a place to start as any. If I ran into a dead end there, then I'd just move down the line checking out the other individuals listed in the data fields.

(OOC: Let me know if Thad did return; I couldn't quite tell and I'll edit accordingly.)

[Reltzik]

Not only is there no fresh ink on the returned printouts, every last page of them is penciled up in what looks like Herman's handwriting. Seems legit.

Mariala Rodrigues isn't that uncommon a Hispanic name. Doing a search for it is a bit like doing a search for "Carol Smith". Thad gets over fifty hits of (living) Mariala Rodrigueses in the police databases, and that's just people with arrests in the state. The biggest hits on Google are about the victim of a kidnapping-rape-murder that happened upstate roughly 18 years ago.

Lara's database queries reveal that almost all of these dismissals were made by one Ian Sloduski, the IA adjunct at Precinct 23. That's not surprising. Typical procedure for complaints at the precinct level go through that precinct's IA adjunct. Either the adjunct determines that it's baseless, or handles it in-house with the local brass. It only gets tossed up to Metro IA if there's need for a full-scale investigation to make a determination of whether there was an infraction, or if the infraction is both determined to have happened and sufficiently severe. Other than that, there are a few repeat-complainants, but not many. Quite a few are in the database with "known associates" in the Wolfpack, and a few are listed as members themselves, but these people make up at best a plurality of the complainants. There doesn't seem to be much of a factor tying Rodrick's notes together, save that the dates that Rodrick penciled in correspond roughly to the time frame of the cases themselves.

We'll say that Thad gets back to do that search after Lara's made that connection and while she's started her next round of database searches. No editing required. The GM is forgoing exact chronological correctness in order to speed up the game a bit.