City Hall, New York City, NY

Friday, April 13, 2001, 10 am

Mayor Rudy and Police Commissioner Merton have called a Press Conference in the Blue Room to talk about the hunt for the Subway Killer. All of the Player Characters are in attendance, though they certainly do not know one another at this point or even that they share an interest in the case. The public figures, who will be acknowledged during the press conference, but not required to speak, include:

Captain Dombrowski - NYPD (NPC)

Detective Lysette Vargas - NYPD

Detective Bryan McWhirter - NYPD

Special Agent Jason Welles - FBI

Special Agent Giselle Vasquez - FBI

Lawrence Carter, Forensic Pathologist

Scattered through the crowd are the other Player Characters who have their own reasons for being interested in the case:

Anthony Lawrence, NYPD Policeman

Jakob Devanti, NYPD Policeman

Jacob Breen, Private Detective

Sandra Scarlett, Criminology Student

Danielle Jennings, SWAT Sniper

Mayor Rudy welcomes the press and passes the meeting over to Commissioner Merton. Merton is clearly relieved that the FBI has been called in. He praises the efforts of the two Special Agents assigned and tells the press that the FBI will have the full cooperation of Captain Dombrowski's Task Force, which will stay on the job until the killer is caught.

The Commissioner does not invite any of the principals to speak, instead he wraps the conference up quickly, asking for questions at the end. Several reporters jump up to ask what is being done to patrol the subways, etc.

None of the official investigators (NYPD or FBI) will be able to ask him a question, but one of the unofficial investigators can ask a question at this point. There are two beat cops in the audience, in civies, I expect since they would not be welcome in uniform. They can ask a question at this time, but they run a risk of being recognized as a cop by one of the Commissioner's lackies. He's too high up to know, however, and may answer the question as if it came from a bona fide member of the press. The retribution if you are recognized, will come later.

This situation is also a good opportunity for the non-official investigators to make their overtures to the official investigators. Take a day or two, send messages to anyone you wish (copy me on all correspondence) and set the stage for how you will conduct your own investigations. For those not in the loop (FBI/NYPD) it may be hard to get good access to evidence and reports. The newspaper, for instance, has reported that the heads were cut off the victims, which is not the case. They do this to conceal details that only the killer should know. About a dozen sorry specimens a day are confessing to being the Subway Killer at police stations all across America and even in foreign countries. The police need to be able to establish quickly who knows more than they should. Everyone who says "I cut his head off with a axe" is shown the door.

For those of you in the loop, what do you want to know? You can ask me specific questions and I will reply to them as if they were extracts from reports. I do not intend to mock up the voluminous paperwork that would really exist in a case like this, nor do you want to read through pages and pages of ass-covering to get at the real stuff. The FBI Agents have the best access. They can ask for all of the NYPD stuff and they also have their own facilities. There is a big FBI office in New York with labs, etc. The NYPD guys have less information but better contacts. The beat cops can ask general questions about the investigation, but must come up with reasons to read detailed reports.

I will be running all of you as individuals. Do not expect to know what the others are doing unless your characters are physically together. With cell phones, email, etc, I will assume constant open communication options, unless I decide that you are in a dead zone -- deep in the subway, for instance.

Police Officers and FBI Agents who discharge their weapons in the city will be in for a bitch-load of paperwork. Private citizens who do so will have to avoid capture by police to avoid arrest, overnight imprisonment, and a hefty fine. The purpose of a police investigation is to catch the killer, not waste 'em.