It's noon and Detective DiCicco is in his office at the Staten Island precinct. He should be working. But he's not -- he's worried.

Not about anything serious. Nothing as serious as a crime, anyone. But his family. He's got a wife and five kids, and if that wasn't a big drain on his time and wallet...

He looks at the calendar. October 25, 1999. Monday. 6 days to Halloween.

Anthony and Salvatore had outgrown trick-or-treating, but they still wanted a costume. And Lucia and Carmine couldn't talk about anything else. "Papa, I want to be a witch! A vampire! A ghost! You're going trick-or-treating with us, right? Right, papa?"

F'ing hell. DiCicco shakes his head.

Next to the calendar is a big news clipping, a photo of him and that psychologist, Pascal D'Encre. They caught The Wolf. That sick bastard. Used to eat his victims with his dogs, just got on all fours with them, ruff ruff, chomp chomp. Thought he was a werewolf.

DiCicco hates dogs now. All of them. German Shepherds. Great Danes. St. Bernards. All the way down to poodles. He has nightmares about them. People think they're loyal best friends, but DiCicco knows better.

Riing!

The phone on his desk rings. He picks it up.

"Detective DiCicco? This is Sgt. McGarnagle."


OOC: give me an EDU roll, please.

23:45, Today: Detective Vinnie DiCicco rolled 61 using 1d100.  EDU target <75.

McGarnagle continues.

"Detective, orders. From Captain Matheson himself."

He emphasizes "Captain Matheson" like it was "Jesus."

"You're to be taken off whatever cases you've got going right now. Don't worry -- we'll shift them to other detectives. Captain Matheson has already authorized it.

"I can't tell you much over the phone, but, listen... the DA is involved, and the Feds have been contacted. They're putting you on a big case, detective. Really big. There's a special task force being set up, and you're all supposed to meet tonight at 8 pm sharp, at City Hall. Conference Room 2B." OK?
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:21, Mon 08 Nov 2021.

If he was worried before, a call from the Department Sergeant didn't help.

~~ Ah, great, ~~ he thought. ~~ The captain's personal attack Leprechaun. Straight out of a comic book, this guy. That's what I need is a kick in the teeth and this cafone yapping at me. ~~

He cleared his throat. "Sergeant. Just about to head over to Lou's for a slice, stretch the legs, ya know. Got that paperwork right here on my desk; gonna get it to Brianna this afternoon. Forget about it."

With any luck, that would answer the motherless Mick's problem and he'd go away. If not... whatever fresh hell the Captain had ready from the Island's gutters was coming his way.

"Detective -- it's an order, not a suggestion. From Captain Matheson. With the direct involvement of District Attorney Chester Boulder, and the Feds are involved. And that Dr. D'Encre, the one you caught Lupus with. It's not your area, but you seen the news? The SoHo murders."

OOC: another EDU roll please, and a Luck roll to see if you have, in fact, seen the news.

07:08, Today: Detective Vinnie DiCicco rolled 21 using 1d100.  Luck target <51.
07:08, Today: Detective Vinnie DiCicco rolled 92 using 1d100.  Edu target <75.

You've seen the papers, or maybe caught the news. You know that a woman was found murdered in SoHo in the early am hours yesterday, and another one this morning. The media stories contained almost no detail. Given your being a cop, you don't need to make a Law roll to know that this means that almost nothing was told to the press about these cases for some reason.

You don't know much about Chester Boulder, except that that he is up for reelection soon.

Vinnie sat forward in his chair. ~~ The DA and the Feds? What the fuck is this? Taking a dick from the Island to take care of some mess up in Manhattan? Those scheeves pucker up tighter than a drum when it comes to jurisdiction on the Hudson or Upper Bay... ~~

"Yeah, Sergeant, I seen 'em. Two birds got winged up in the Bowery in as many days. Read it in the Times, this morning's bus ride. What's that got to do with us? D'Encre's a cuddy, sure, but what'd they do up there in Madhattan, fill Homicide full of home bodies?"

He looked over at his clippings of the Lupus case. ~~ Figa, sono famoso. Sei proprio uno stronzo! ~~ he thought to the world in general.

MacGarnagle sounds fidgety.

"You know I can't talk about this stuff over the phone. But..."

OOC: with a successful Charm or Credit Rating roll (whichever is higher), he will.

Vinnie let the silence stretch out. ~~ Bah, this gagootz not saying nothing. ~~

“… but maybe I can get more up on the third floor,” he finished the Sergeant’s sentence for him. “Ok, ok. Brianna gonna have to wait a bit longer. Forget about it. I’ll be up there in the Capo’s office, what, 1:00? 2?”

---

OOC:
19:58, Today: Detective Vinnie DiCicco rolled 77 using 1d100.  Credit Rating target < 21.

"City Hall, detective. 8 pm. Conference Room 2B."

OOC: Unless you have something you want to do in the meantime, I will advance to City Hall at 8 pm and the meeting.

~~ 8pm… Genevre’s gonna flip with another bunch of late nights… ~~

“City Hall on a Monday night, huh?” Vinnie took his pad out of his pocket and scribbled the time down. “I’ll let Brianna know she’s gonna have more overtime chits to fill and receipts to comp. Conference Room 2B. Ok Sergeant. Ciao.” He hung up the phone. “Ciao you brutto figlio di puttana bastardo.”

The detective stood up from his desk, checked the magazine of his Sig before replacing it in his shoulder holster, and grabbed his jacket off the hook. “Hey Fabbs,” he shouted to the senior detective. “I’m heading out for the afternoon, Capo’s got me cleaning up some downtown merda. Anybody needs me tell em I’m clocking overtime.”

Two minutes later he was walking through the lobby. Twenty minutes after that he was wiping sauce off his chin waiting for the ferry to finish disembarking so he could get on.

~~ Idiota! Gotta call Nevie. Let her know I’ll be late tonight. Do that from the 4th Precinct or I’ll catch hell. ~~

---

OOC:
I don’t want to hold up folks from starting the meeting, but Vinnie is going to find out what folks know from the surrounding precincts (and a few folks he knows in the area) all afternoon before heading to City Hall.

GM, let me know what sort of rolls you want me to make.

There is no "gather information" skill, but for asking around within the police force I'll make it Law or Credit Rating (whichever is higher), since that shows in part how well you're trusted and how well you know who to take to, which you get to make with a bonus die.

In reply to Chris Yog-Dossoth (msg # 13):

23:10, Today: Detective Vinnie DiCicco rolled 16 using 3d10 with rolls of 6,9,1.  Law target <31 tens / ones / bonus.

That gives a result of 19, a regular success.

Would Intimidate be appropriate for a little light harassment of the usual suspects of the neighborhood?

Which neighborhood? You want to run down to Soho? You probably don't have time.

I'll send you a PM.