Police Quest: Open Season: Welcome to the Jungle

By Alex

Exciting police action! I spent three hours playing, and did a lot of questioning witnesses and gathering evidence and taking notes. I mean, legitimate, real-world by hand notes. I really feel like a cop! I even got to shove a reporter!

No, not in real life, sadly. That was in the game.Let’s begin at the beginning. We ended our first session with Carey being tasked by Lt. Block to find both Hickman and Bobby Washington’s killers . . . but then a funny thing happened: I looked at my screenshots and noticed that there was an entire other witness in the game’s first scene I neglected to talk to, the guy in the red hat.

See him talking with Officer Woodbury?

To be fair to me, both witnesses were gone after I first examined Hickman’s body, but—hey! Who’s the guy in the hat, jacket, and blue jeans near Officer Allen? He doesn’t come back as far as I can tell. What’s going on with this game?

Anyway, I restarted in the off chance I missed something important. I really didn’t. Carey shows the man his badge (2 points) and learns that his name is Two Jack, and he’s pretty drunk. He did hear shots and said “They killin’ the children.” Makes sense, since Hickman wasn’t shot but Washington was. I use the notepad on Two Jack (2 points) and then finish the scene as usual, ending up with a grand total of 42 points.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled game.

Carey leaves Lt. Blocks’ office and comes to the homicide division. I only knew due to the subtly placed banner. Seriously, though, while I applaud Sierra for trying something different, the world of Police Quest IV looks just as ugly and dingy as the real world. Video games are supposed to be an escape, right? Lytton this ain’t.

Anyway, the office is pretty cluttered. There’s a computer in the back near the door to Lt. Block’s office, some file cabinets you can’t do anything with, a detective named Phillip Jurica on the phone who is originally from Houston and is, according to the game, a “damn fine cop,” and Carey’s partner, Hal Bottoms.

Hal is desk-bound for this game, calls Carey “Junior,” and expresses that he’d love to beat criminals if he could. There’s that Daryl F. Gates influence on the game, I guess. Otherwise, Hal tries to console Carey, says we’ll get the bastards who did this, etc. and so on.

Carey sits at his desk, which brings us to a close-up. There’s a memo in the basket (2 points, 44 total); reading it (2 points, 46 total) informs Carey that he’s due for a renewed Combat Qualification this coming Wednesday due to last month’s score being so low. We play as a slacker? Come on! Quite a difference after three games controlling over-achieving goody-two-shoes Sonny Bonds.

The desk to Carey’s left belongs to Det. Cynthia Joey, and the game makes a point of telling us “Yes, there are such things as female homicide detectives.” I didn’t think otherwise, but okay. The desk to Carey’s right belonged to Carey’s old partner, Ken Williams, who relocated to Seattle. Fun fact: Sierra did in fact relocate to Seattle (well, Bellevue) in 1993. There’s a phone as well, but Carey has nobody to call.

In the left desk drawer is a photo of Carey and Hickman at the lake, the time they caught “the big one.” I take the photo (2 points, 48 total) and look at it (2 points, 50 total). Besides the two happy cops (Carey is the taller one on the left) are the words “Gunner 8-8326” written in blue marker.

If you’ve played enough adventure games, you know this is important information.

The right desk drawer contains 3.14 follow up forms. I take one out and use Carey’s notepad on it in the inventory screen to write the report (2 points, 52 total). It’s good to see that the spirit of the Paperwork Police Quest series is alive and well even in Walls’s absence. I don’t know if there’s any benefit to this stuff besides points, but I’d rather err on the side of not having to replay this entire sequence later.

I chat with Hal a bit more, and there is actually a dialogue menu with options and conversation trees a la the point-and-click Quest for Glory games. Hal has a few things to tell me:

• Cigarette: SID found DNA on it, so if we can connect it to “somebody’s butt” we’ve got ourselves a case. Now, I didn’t realize some people smoked cigarettes with their butts, but this is L.A. we’re talking about. California. Hollyweird, etc. Maybe butt-smoking was a big thing in the 90s—who knows? Not me. I grew up in New Hampshire where people smoked cigarettes the old-fashioned way.
• Coroner Results: Hal laments that he can’t get any information from Nobles. Maybe because he hasn’t done an autopsy yet, but why let that ruin a good complaint?
• CRASH Unit: Hal waxes poetic about how manly the CRASH Unit manly men are. So manly! He does inform Carey that CRASH had been working in the neighborhood Hickman was found in for months, and that if I want to talk to someone there, I should get in touch with a Varaz.

So Hal isn’t totally useless. That’s good. Because the last Police Quest games to feature partners, Keith in Police Quest II and Morales in Police Quest III were pretty much nothing but dead-weight.

I think it’s best to see what other crime-fighting resources are available to Carey, since I can’t talk to Det. Jurica. I check out the computer in the back, because if there’s one thing I’ve learned from Police Quest games, and Blue Force as well, is that when I’m playing on a computer, I want to use a computer, inside the computer. It’s simulation theory all the way down, folks. We are naught but playthings of advanced beings, aka the lizard-people.

As you can see, the computer requires entry of an ID Number and a Password. The ID number is easy—remember how I got points for looking at Carey’s badge? It also made the badge appear larger, and I saw the number 612 (also visible on the regular-sized icon). The password, however, was not “Gunner 8-8326” but just “gunner.” It is not case-sensitive. I log on to the server called “SONNY” (cute) (8 points, 60 total) and see what this baby has to offer.

I can check out gang information, the DVM, and hate crimes. The latter two require either a license number or a last name—I don’t have any of the former, and though I try “Jones” in the latter, it calls up nothing. Gang info, though, gives me a list of L.A. gangs—three pages worth—each with a picture of their tag (aka graffiti symbol) and some background info. I scroll through them all until I find one that gives me points (2 points, 62 total): the Rude Boys Get Bail gang.

This was the symbol at the scene of Hickman and Washington’s murder! From the computer:

This symbol is found on buildings near to where the gang has committed a crime. RBGB is a violent South Central gang led by Ragtopp Spiff. It is believed that Spiff is an alias as no social security number exists under this name. Gang activity centers around gun trafficking. This includes both imported and stolen goods. The gang has claimed responsibility for many violent and torturous deaths. This gang should be approached with caution.

That’s some good info. Hickman sure died a torturous death, and Washington a violent one. Maybe this’ll help narrow our search. We need to find this Ragtopp Spiff guy and, I’m sorry, I don’t think any black gangster in L.A. would ever call themselves “Ragtopp Spiff,” but what do I know?

I think it’s time to explore the Parker Center, so I embark on a mostly useless quest to see what’s available to help me solve this case.

The hallways are just as drab and depressing as real-life municipal buildings, so points to Sierra for the realism in this game! See, this is why you have consultants like Gates on your team. This is why Ken Williams is Ken Williams and you are not.

Either hallway takes you to the same elevator, and hey! The Leisure Suit Larry 6 hallway music is playing! That’s a nice touch.

Our choices are, from top to bottom:

• 8 – Communications
• 7 – Anti-Terrorist HQ
• 6 – The Chief’s HQ
• 5 – Personnel
• 4 – Property
• 3 – Detective HQ (Carey’s office)
• 2 – Records and ID
• 1 – Main Lobby
• B – Basement and SID

I should’ve been cheeky and hit the fire alarm or bell, but I’m trying to crack a case, dang it!

Most of these floors are off-limits in the most contrived ways. Instead of saying “You have no need to go to Personnel, Carey!” or “There’s nothing at Anti-Terrorist HQ that’ll help you solve this case!” there are these really dumb, immersion-breaking obstacles to you leaving the elevator.

For example, the 8th floor is under construction:

There’s a freaking anti-terrorist guy in the 7th floor hallway who looks like he’s fighting terrorism:

And on the 6th, 5th, and 2nd floors, there’s a janitor—the same janitor—who tells Carey to scram because he’s cleaning.

Sometimes he’s on this side . . .

. . . and sometimes he’s on that side.

It’s amazing that the custodians control who gets to go where in the Parker Center. Did Gates have a thing against janitors? It’s a good thing he wasn’t asked to design Space Quest 7: Roger Wilco in Deeps Space: Crime or something like that.

Actually, that would’ve been a hilarious game.

Anyway, of the floors we can go to, the 4th floor property desk is closed . . .

. . . as is the SID office in the basement.

Doesn’t anybody work around here?

I stop back at the 3rd floor because, while I was looking at a walkthrough (I know, I know) about who to give my 3.14 report to because I feared dead-ending myself, I accidentally saw that the numbers on the photo of Carey and Hickman is the phone number for the CRASH Unit. That’s how I’m supposed to get in touch with Varaz. Sort of obscure, but okay.

Also, Carey is supposed to give his paperwork to Hal, so I do so, unloading the follow-up report (2 points, 64 total) and Woodbury’s crime scene log (2 points, 66 total). Then, sitting at the desk, I call 8-8326 (3 points, 69 total). I am answered by someone named Barnes. Varaz isn’t available when Carey asks for him; he’s out in the field, but Barnes says he’ll have Varaz call back when he’s available.

Enough dilly-dallying at the office—let’s hit those streets! But first, the lobby.

It’s certainly beige, isn’t it? Just like Carey’s suit. There’s an ashtray (but no disco pass) and a vending machine. Carey puts in a few coins and gets a candy bar, but no points.

Next up is the front desk, manned by Officer Bill Linder. He has nothing much to say to Carey, though he said he just read Chief: My Life in the LAPD and highly recommends it. Product placement in a Sierra game? Wasn’t the U.S. Sprint stuff in Space Quest V bad enough? Yikes.

Outside there’s a reporter discussing the Hickman murder, and Carey’s role as lead detective. This is Kristie Bilden of KRAT TV along with camera man Joel Miller, and while Bilden has the common courtesy to explain how Carey is a great cop of the utmost integrity with a great reputation, she will not let Carey pass, peppering him with some interesting questions, including whether Hickman was on duty at the time of his murder, Carey’s personal relationship with Hickman, and about the rumors that Hickman had a drug problem. If you clock “Talk” on her, Carey just says “No comment,” and clicking “Talk” on Miller makes Carey tell him to get that camera out of his face. If you try to move past Bilden, she gets in front of Carey. Eventually her questions cycle, and nothing happens, so you just push past her using the “Hand” icon (4 points, 73 total), and move on your way. Bilden, of course, complains about the “physical abuse” she just received and plays the victim. Man, no matter how much you hate journalists, it’s not enough.

Going off-screen brings up a map of Los Angeles. The numbers represent different districts or areas or whatever they call them out there, while the red hotspots are places Carey can visit. They are:

• The Parker Center
• The Morgue
• South Central L.A.
• The L.A. Police Academy
• The Hickman Residence.

I’m slightly bummed there’s no driving mini-game. I’d love to try navigating Carey’s sensible sedan along congested, smog-filled freeways, trying to get off the 405, and in general resisting the urge to use his sirens just to blow through red lights. I never thought I’d miss Jim Walls design touches, but—

--a ha ha ha! Sorry to break character, but I can’t write that with a straight face.

For the rest of this post, I’ll go location-by-location. Spoiler: I was hoping to reach the end of the first game day by the end of this post, but I didn’t. I stopped when I got stuck. Here are the highlights:

Morgue

I figure it makes sense to check out the autopsies of Hickman and Washington first. There is some oddly funky music out here. Inside, receptionist Sheri Moore, “the girl everyone adores” is a stereotypical ditz and has a whole raft of dumb things to say when you calk to her. Even though she knows Carey, he has to show his badge for her to let him in.

The first person we encounter is some dork named Russell Marx. He’s Nobles’ assistant, tells really bad jokes, has nothing useful to say, and is the first really bad voice actor I’ve encountered so far. The less time spent wasted with this clown the better.

Even the florid way he gestures Carey to go on in screams “Punch me!”

Nobles is there with Hickman’s body, doing actual work unlike Marx.

Carey writes some notes but gets no points. But there is a dialogue tree when you talk to Nobles. First, I ask about Bobby Washington:

• Dead Child: ID confirmed by mini-mart owner. The Washington family has been notified. His mother, Bernadette Washington, lives near the alley, but hasn’t come to claim the body or Bobby’s stuff.
• Cause of Death: Gunshot wounds to the head and body, 17 points of entry. Nobles chalks it up to “gang violence.”
• Autopsy: Nobles pulled three 9mm slugs from Washington’s body and sent them to Chester in SID for a ballistics check. The body is in cold storage, waiting for the family to come pick it up.

And then Hickman:

• Autopsy: Ruptured GI tract. Fluid samples were taken and a toxicology report is being run.
• Cause of Death: No gunshot wounds, but two injection marks on the upper-left arm. Hickman’s eyes were glued shut. There is also the missing index finger and cigarette burns.
• Physical Marks: The two injection marks, burns on the face and upper torso, restraint marks on the ankles and wrists. A fibrous material consistent with what you’d find at a torture scene were collected and sent to SID.
• Lividity: Two places, the buttocks and the upper back and shoulders. The redness on the buttocks indicates Hickman either died while sitting down and was left in that position for a while, or was killed and then moved to a sitting position. The redness on the upper back and shoulders is consistent with the time the body spent lying prone in the alley.
• Toxicology: Not yet in, but Nobles thinks Hickman was poisoned to death. There were also signs of stress around the eyes, indicating that Hickman was alive when they were glued shut.
• Fibers/Hairs: There were fibers from the areas of restraint, and he was also covered in alley debris.

That’s a lot of disturbing information about both victims. Just horrible stuff.

Hickman’s House

I figure it makes sense to stop by Hickman’s house and talk to his wife, since it’s not far from the morgue. A knock on the door reveals Hickman’s daughter/Carey’s goddaughter Valerie, who’s happy to see her “Uncle John.” Carey talks to her (3 points, 76 total) and she lets Carey in.

Katherine Hickman is obviously a wreck, and although she agrees to answer Carey’s questions, she cuts him off and runs out immediately after I click on the first one, “Drugs & Alcohol.” I wonder if that was the wrong thing to ask. Valerie comes back in and gives Carey a little more info: she’s very sad her daddy is in heaven and not coming back, and she remembers her parents fighting about daddy’s “work coming home.” She says he kept his work “in the closet.” I wonder if that’s a gay reference, and then see that there is a closet, barely there, in the hallway. I don’t open it. I try to look through the box of Hickman’s belongings on the table, but the stupid narrator won’t let me. I leave, and then, thinking I screwed up, go right back in.

The scene plays out identically, except Katherine apologizes for her behavior—which she doesn’t have to, it’s totally understandable—and this time does answer Carey’s questions. So I guess this is just an added scene for verisimilitude, which does make sense.

• Hickman’s Death: She spoke with the coroner for specifics.
• Drugs: Katherine says her husband used sedatives. Combined with alcohol, they made him verbally abusive. She tells Carey that Hickman’s pills are in the closet.
• Work-Related Stress: Seeing all the families and children hurt by gangs really got to Hickman. He hated the gangsters and had trouble remaining impartial.
• Missing Gun: Hickman’s gun is not in the house; Katherine looked for it after learning about it not being on her husband’s body.

Katherine says Carey can take Hickman’s pills, so into the closet we go (5 points, 81 total). I forgot to get a screenshot of this but the closet is filled with coats and other stuff, and you have to click around until you find the jacket with a bottle of prescription pills in the pocket (2 points, 83 total). Katherine confirms that those were her husband’s, and asks Carey to take them out of the house before thanking him for stopping by.

South Central L.A.

Next, we go to the scene of the crime, to investigate and also to check in on Bernadette Washington. The first screen has nothing to do on it—the dumpster, now on the right, is locked, and there is no other evidence to be found—so I walk off to the left until I get to the Mini Mart.

Outside, we see our friend Two Jack drinking from some liquor in a brown bag, as well as a guy that looks like Raymond Jones III on the phone. The phone guy won’t talk, and I can’t do anything with him. I show my badge to Two Jack again and he agrees to talk if Carey gives him some spare change (2 points, 85 total). Unfortunately, he has nothing new to say, other than repeating that he heard a “pop, pop, pop” sound last night. I show both men the photo of Hickman, and get no information in return.

I go inside the Mini Mart instead, and come face to face with the Korean proprietor, Ms. (sigh) Kim Chi. I am not making this up.

Somehow I didn’t get a screenshot of this either, which is weird because I swear I was hitting the correct button combinations on DOSBox, but alas. Suffice it to say, it’s a convenience store with chips and newspapers and liquor and stuff. When Carey walks in and shows her his badge, Ms. Chi tells him she recognizes him from last night, and just then the TV behind the counter shows Carey brushing by Ms. Bilden, which Ms. Chi calls “pushing girl on TV.” All Ms. Chi offers is that she told the police everything she knew last night, and that she knew Bobby, whom she called a “good boy.” I use the notebook on Ms. Chi (2 points, 87 total), which is how Carey learns her name. I do show Ms. Chi the photo, and she recognizes Hickman, whom she said works at a place called the Rainbow as a cook, and that she saw him a couple of days ago. There’s nothing else to do, but clicking around with the “Eye” icon reveals some glue on a shelf. This is the only thing Carey can remove from a shelf (2 points, 89 total) and then buy (2 points, 91 total). Being an adventure game, sure, why not, I’ll buy some glue. You never know what puzzles you’ll encounter in the future! Carey gives Ms. Chi his contact info before leaving, and continues the investigation.

I go back to the alley and then further into it, bringing up a field adjacent to a burned-out building with a door. Against the wall is the same RBGB graffiti against a wall, as well as a bunch of bullet holes. Looks like evidence! Smells like evidence, too! No, that’s just alley smell. Anyway, didn’t Nobles say that poor Bobby Washington was shot with 17 9mm slugs? Check out this screenshot though—I only see 16 bullet holes. Carey notes the graffiti (2 points, 93 total) and uses his putty knife on each bullet (1 point each, 109 total) and then puts each bullet into a plastic baggie (1 point each, 125 total).

So I’m super-bad with screenshots. On the other side of the door is the street to the left of the Rainbow Café you see in the screenshot above. There are two men out there, one guy standing and bopping and tossing a baseball up and down, and another one squatting on the street. I show my badge to the standing guy first (2 points, 127 total), who seems cooperative enough. Using the notebook on him (2 points, 129 total), Carey learns his name is Emo Jones and gets his address. Showing his badge to the squatting guy (2 points, 131 total) and noting him (2 points, 133 total), Carey learns his name is Herbie, and he lives with his grandma.

Emo offers up the following information:

• He knew Bobby and said Bobby wanted to be the next Dave Stewart, who was a really good pitcher who played for the Oakland Athletics at this time, but had played for the L.A. Dodgers at the beginning of his career.
• The baseball he has was found in a field, presumably the one Carey found the bullets in.

Carey gives Emo his contact info (4 points, 137 total) and moves on to Herbie, who just tells Carey he was with his grandma at the time of Hickman and Washington’s murders. I show both men the photo of Hickman—Emo laughs and says Hickman and Carey look like a couple of “homos,” and Herbie says he doesn’t recognize either because all white people look the same to him. All right then!

I know I need to check out the Rainbow Café, but it’s gauche not to see Bobby’s mother, so I go back to the alley and walk to the right this time.

There’s a little girl playing with a dolly. Carey shows her his badge (2 points, 139 total). This is Lasandra Washington, Bobby’s sister. She said she lives down the street and is having a tea party with her dolly.

The Washington’s indeed live down the street, and I have to mention that as I get to this screen, I see someone who looks like Raymond Jones III walking off-screen to the right. I didn’t click “Talk” on him in time, and I can’t walk that way myself.

Carey shows Bernadette his badge (2 points, 141 total), and introduces himself. Bernadette is doing as well as you can expect considering her son was murdered earlier that morning. Just horrific. However, despite her grief, Bernadette Washington is willing to talk to Carey. We learn the following:

• Ragtopp Spiff, leader of the RBGBs, is Raymond Jones III!
• Bernadette last saw Bobby “after dinner” around 6:30 p.m. the night before; he was going to the field to play baseball.
• Bernadette won’t talk about gangs because she doesn’t want to end up dead, but she says Carey should talk to the young men around the neighborhood.
• Bernadette just wants to know who killed Bobby, and for the streets to be safe for the children.

You and me both, Bernadette, you and me both. You know, so far, this game has done a good job of conveying the desperation of those who live in crime-infested neighborhoods. It’s really sad.

So now I go back and forth, seeing Raymond occasionally but being unable to talk to him. I also can’t find Emo or Herbie, who I really want to talk with now! I go back to Two Jack, thinking he might have something to tell me about the gangs, but after giving him more change (2 points, 143 total), he has the same dialogue as before. Stymied, I go to the Rainbow Café to see if I can get any info about Ms. Chi’s statement that Hickman worked there—likely a part of his cover.

I am further stymied (actual police term) by the owner, who tells me he doesn’t like cops, cops are bad for business, etc. I can’t show him Carey’s badge, the picture of Hickman, nothing. Eventually his dialogue loops. I also can’t go into the service entrance on the right side of the building. What a drag! Maybe what I need lay elsewhere.

Like the L.A. Police Academy!

L.A. Police Academy

When in doubt, go shooting! Sure, why the hell not?

Carey is early, as noted by Burt Arnold, department armorer. There are two forms on the counter on the right of the screen, a green 13.5.0 and a white 13.5.1. Carey can take each and fill them out, but Arnold comments that Carey must be color blind when he gives him the 13.5.0, and only accepts the 13.5.1. I get no points, reload, and learn you only get points (2 points, 145 total) if you select the correct 13.5.1 form and give that to Arnold first. There is no clue in the game about which form is needed, or maybe I missed it by refusing to click the “Eye” everywhere in this pixelated mess. No biggie.

Arnold later brings up some practice ammo, which Carey has to pay for (1 point, 146 total), as well as some headgear. Now it’s time to head to the range!

Officer Fuller, SWAT commander, is there, but Carey can’t talk to him. He can put on his headgear (1 point, 147 total) and start shooting, which brings up a target-shooting mini-game. There is a slight element of dexterity here: as you can see, the first two phases of three targets each are at pretty close range:

But after reloading, they get farther . . .

. . . and farther away.

There are six phases total. Finished (4 points, 151 total), Arnold tells Carey “that there was some nice shooting, cowboy,” which I guess means I got a high enough score to be considered competent with a firearm. Criminals, look out! At least Carey doesn’t have to adjust his sights a la one of Police Quest II’s more annoying puzzles. Well, “puzzles”; I’ll never forget the first time I played that game and couldn’t shoot the terrorists on the plane because I didn’t’ fix the sights of Sonny’s gun after it got banged during the incident at the motel like an hour ago. I hate puzzles like that.

Carey, satisfied he’s basically an expert marksman now, returns the headgear to Arnold and goes back to the Parker Center to see if Chester has any info for him, and to turn over some of the evidence he’s found. I make a stop at the morgue first to ask Nobles about Hickman’s pills, but no one is there. I realize I can look at Nobles’s instrument table and get a close-up of his tools of the trade, but can’t do anything with them.

Back at the Parker Center, Linder won’t let Carey in, even though Carey shows him his ID. Linder says something like “I provide a good example by wearing my ID badge at all times,” which is a clue. You have to click the badge on Carey, not Linder, so Carey clips it to his jacket or whatever (3 points, 154 total). Now I can go in.

First things first: SID. And hey, Chester is in the building!

She is very helpful, and provides a ton of good information that may or may not come in handy in the course of this game:

• Body Fibers: They are running tests and will know more later.
• Cigarette: They tested the lipstick on the cigarette (the butt cigarette, according to Hal) and found DNA (which would be butt DNA, I guess). If we can find another butt cigarette with lipstick, it might match, and we can find our killer, whom I will tell to stop putting lipstick on his butt and start smoking cigarettes with his mouth instead.
• Toxicology: In process—no results back yet
• Ballistics: Hickman’s service piece is on record, and Chester is running a match test against the bullets and wounds found on Bobby Washington. Bullets were found? This is new to me.

Anyway, Chester is interested in the bullets Carey found in the alley wall (1 point, 155 total), but can’t take them until Teddy does the paperwork. Who is Teddy? We’ll find out! She also doesn’t take Hickman’s pills into evidence (1 point, 156 total), but informs Carey that, in her opinion, the pills, which are 5mg valium tablets, are unlikely to have killed him given his weight—basically, he’d have to have downed the whole bottle with some alcohol to maybe die. How grim! What do you think this is, a Police Quest game?

So we’re off to find the mythical Teddy and complete the latest round of Paperwork Quest. Forward, ho!

Teddy is officer Teddy Baker of property on the 4th floor, that other window that was closed. He’s an affable chap who enjoys fishing and working out—my guy! He also says he saw Carey on TV and, from the camera angle, it looks like he “swung” at Ms. Bilden. Suddenly, I don’t like Teddy as much anymore.

The pills aren’t crime-related, so Baker doesn’t take them, but he does take the bullets and, when asked where to store them from a list of three options, I pick “shelf-storage,” which seems to be the right answer (5 points, 161 total). Teddy then fills out the paperwork for Chester . . . who didn’t get it yet, because when I go back down to SID, she has nothing more to say.

Hal has nothing more to say either. I try to write another 3.14 report, but cannot. I call CRASH again, but Varaz still isn’t there. The computer doesn’t help me. I’m stuck! I need to find Raymond Jones III, aka Ragtopp Spiff, and get into the Rainbow Café. I end here, upset I didn’t finish the first game day, but satisfied I’ve provided you, the reader, with enough to enjoy for now. I apologize if the post is kind of dry, but that’s police work, right? Asking tons of questions, asking more questions, and then asking questions about which questions you need to ask, and to whom, before filling out a bunch of paperwork.

My to-do list:

• See the Coroner
• Visit Bobby Washington’s family
• Visit Hickman’s family
• Comb the neighborhood where Hickman and Washington were found
• Track down Raymond Jones III, aka Ragtopp Spiff
• Get into the Rainbow Cafe

Session Time: 3 hours, 10 minutes
Total Time: 4 hours

Score: 161

Inventory: Wallet, gun, clip, badge, spare change, keys, handcuffs, notepad and pen, Parker Center ID, candy bar, glue, 3.14 report form, memo from Lt. Block, photo of Carey with Hickman, Hickman’s valium