Devil's Night Follow-Up Notes
Unexpectedly Eliot Sihn is offered an opportunity to become involved in a purchase of the Blue Moon agency, rumored to be up for sale shortly (but not yet). Terwilliger presents him with that knowledge as well as information on how to apply for an appropriate loan to bankroll that. The application requires it be submitted or co-submitted by a bona fide detective, in order to keep the building operating in its tradition. Sihn contacts Laughton and Davis and gets the ball rolling. Sihn determines this is a great opportunity to create an off-site lab to do his work and Stark Industries agrees, apparently with some government prodding. In the meantime Sihn is also busy examining the tissue samples of Octal Fist, Pterodactyl, and Slayer. He is unable to get Shooter's as he is both out on bail and made unavailable by his lawyers. He also examines Bud Girl's strange brew. Finally, he makes contact with Professor X to ensure the safety of the Pterodactyl's egg. Professor X pays a visit to Aela to get the egg and say hello before going to interview the mother (of course he has a special container for the egg - he wants to show the mother the care he's capable of).
A couple days after Devil's Night, the police are contacting Laughton and asking him to bring his car down for examination. They also ask if he has anything to "add" to his testimony. Sihn hears from Terwilliger that the police are going to make a scapegoat out of Slayer, whose only lawyer is a public defendant; moreover, the mob connections to the warehouse have been deemed "low priority" for investigation upon an internal recommendation that the trail is too cold with the warehouse's owner dead. It's also clear from Laughton's sources that the Shooter is going to get off free of all charges; the police will not indict unless Laughton is going to press charges.
Meanwhile, Laughton divides his time between examining the evidence Hell gathered (with Hell's dubious assistance) and harassing Caruthers. Davis does the investigative foot work, surveilling Sol Bernstein and following up on Hell's persona life and background.
Bernstein is a Jewish fellow who has either converted to Catholicism or taken an unusual interest in it. Hell discovered him attending Catholic masses and thus began his investigation of him (in fact, Hell has begun building dossiers on all mass attendants but is only up to "B"). Hell is convinced that Bernstein is conspiring with the Catholics and the mob (whom he lumps in together as involved in some conspiracy that he is evasive about). To that end he began illegally wiretapping Bernstein and obtaining a log of where Bernstein called and when. He believes that Bernstein is managing a number of Hamtrackn warehouses holding "something". No proof of ownership is evident in Hell's records, however there are several phone calls in Bernstein's phone logs that do demonstrate that he has contacted these warehouses. In fact, after Laughton distracted the increasingly-drunk Hell and Davis snuck out to make photocopies of his encrypted material, the detectives were able to piece together that Bernstein's conversations with people at those warehouses were unusually and suspiciously brief, albeit very social in nature. They consist of 2-3 minutes of small talk, where Bernstein (on the other end referred to simply as "Solly") asks the well-being of the person on duty and they respond, only on rare occasion including anecdotes on specific events on their day. Those events include such items as "Stepped in dog doody today, what a downer" and "Got a parking ticket". Bernstein always follows up with one of six responses:
Re the Catholic church investigation, Hell has made complete records of the mass attendees. Culling through those, there are of course lots of regulars (it's a big church), approximately 75 who attend almost every Sunday morning service. Laughton and Davis note the following notables:
Hell has taken copious notes on each mass, including the speeches and interactions of people. Laughton surmises nothing interesting, basically, out of this, and, in fact, the detail notes directly contradict the perception Hell has in his "summation" of the notes, where he indulges in interpretations of various nods and eye-winks and appears to add dialogue to the notes. This is reconcilable in that in the original notes, scribbled in margins, sometimes it can be deciphered that he's reading things into the events after the fact. At the time, though, his notes appear remarkably detailed and objective. A quick deduction roll and it's rather clear that he interprets the notes after drinking - the drunk scrawl becomes distinguishable from the clear-headed writing.
Davis' following of Bernstein and Laughton's follow-up indicate that he visits his chain of laundromats daily but in a different order. It is apparent from the phone logs and conversation write-ups they eventually decode, as well as observing his habits, that he calls each morning to determine the order. At each laundromat he goes in the back room briefly. It's clear he's feared and respected.
In addition to his laundry holdings Bernstein has a considerable portfolio of blue chip stocks, including AT&T, IBM, Proctor and Gamble, and Xerox.
Re investigating Hell, the following highlights are revealed:
His car is apparently owned by a Ms Tatum Grant who lives in Gros Pointe; the license plate says "FOX E LDY". She reveals she has loaned it to Hell but is unwilling to give out more info.
Hell himself lives in a run-down, dangerous neighborhood in SW Detroit. He rents a house there that is decaying and uncared for. Undoubtedly it violates many building codes.
An investigation into his associates reveals only one of the three is able or willing to talk. Nat Kingsley was found dead in an alley of severe alcohol poisoning, was known to have a severe drinking problem. Sarah Parker refuses to discuss anything; she apparently works in a small local security company, doing internal office work of some kind.
Matthew Jackson, on the other hand, is a fountain of information. He indicates that things at Blue Moon got real tense in the last couple months and it was related to Hell's investigation. He believes Hell is a complete nutcase and should be committed, but he also believes that somehow he hit a nerve with Bernstein. Personally he believes Bernstein is involved in some sort of criminal activity, perhaps mob-related, but nothing that can be proven. He notes that several Blue Moon employees started getting threatening calls after Hell's recent investigation got going. Nobody knows exactly what investigation this was supposed to be or who the client is - Matthew believes there was no client as whenever the question came up Jonas would get upset and just indicate "the human race" is the client. In any case, clients started drying up at the Blue Moon, in part due to mismanagement anyway and in part he believes due to some strong-arming by Bernstein's lawyers who managed to procure their client list. He mentions that while Hell wasn't quite so insane when he started, he was never "right". Still, he was functioning well and was one of their best at property-related lawsuit investigation and where the DA's office needed a criminal investigator as freelance. It seemed about 6 months ago Hell started getting unmanageable, throwing his computer out the window, and becoming withdrawn and unwilling to discuss details suitably in staff meetings. The company tolerated this for a while because Hell was generating revenues and their client base was threatened by the former manager's mismanagement. The former manager was Fredrik Woods, who left for a senior investigator job in the firm's prestigious LA office; Caruthers took over and was over his head from day one.
Then in the last month it went downhill quickly after Hell's investigation of Bernstein came to light. That was when the remaining 4 investigators all ended up gone. He (Matthew) quit for a freelance job with the DA's office just because he claims he didn't like the "vibe" but does admit he got a couple threatening calls. Nat Kingsley was fired due to his increasingly bad drinking problem but nobody at the firm believes his death was an accident. Matthew believes this prompted Sarah to quit in fear. Caruthers believed that firing Hell would allow him to rebuild the office with new investigators. He still keeps in touch with Caruthers, who has received a number of death threats. Matthew indicates he feels badly about not really helping the guys out but he has a family and needs to be in a stable environment where he knows his next check is coming from. He's given the DA's office the info but there's nothing solid there nor any evidence legally obtained, so that was the end of it.
Matthew doesn't know anything about Hell's personal habits/hangouts. Hell was always secretive about it and then as he became more erratic the few habits people knew he changed. Matthew believes that Hell shops at different grocery stores all the time, driving as far as out of state to get food and such.
When questioned about Maddy Hayes, she indicates she's a tough-as-nails business woman (but in more colorful language) and quite effective as a leader.
The Pinkertons will reveal absolutely nothing and indicate that ex-employees will be prosecuted vigorously if they do so.
Other investigation into Hell's background and old haunts indicates that while always on the fringe, he was relatively sane and hygienic.
The Blue Moon is undoubtedly guilty of knowing too much and doing too little about Hell's invasion of Bernstein's privacy. However, it does not appear Caruthers knew anything himself, at least not prior to it being revealed. There are pictures showing Caruthers in the company of prostitutes in his office, though no direct evidence he misused company funds, though Hell' s speculation in his "summation" notes indicates it as fact.
Close examination of Hell's notes indicates that Bernstein was corresponding with Bogeyman in the conversations that took place between Bernstein's house and the phone booth in northern Detroit. Laughton believes this from the style of speaking of the unidentified speaker. The conversation itself is not crystal-clear as it's in a general code where phrases speak for entire place names and conditions, but it's at least obvious from what decoding Laughton can do that Bogeyman was speaking about the warehouse that was attacked. They were discussing it's location, Bogeyman confirming it with Bernstein, and they were at least speaking about it's condition and what the plan was, though it's not clear without a code book the exact details. Laughton realizes at least that the "Blue Moon" in the conversations was referring to the warehouse, not to the actual Blue Moon offices, thus accounting for Hell's confusion.
As Laughton and Davis comb through and decode other notes on Bernstein at the laundromat, aside from an amazing amount of minutiae ("SB picks nose at 10:38 AM in his car; 10:39 lights cigarette; 10:41 enters laundromat, steps on a newspaper; close examination of the newspaper later reveals he stepped on an article about a closing veterinary hospital - connection?..."), they finally find a transcript of a conversation at a laundromat. Apparently Bernstein and the laundromat manager at Mexicantown Laundry went back outside behind the laundromat and into the alley. Bernstein wanted to know when a bank transfer would go through and stressed its importance. He indicated the manager did not need to know what it was for other than it was the "most important thing us Bernstein boys will do this decade. It'll avenge our fathers."
Unfortunately further viewing of Hell's details becomes impossible after the Laughton and Davis agency is ransacked late that evening. The entire safe is stolen and in its place are all its contents, including $326.52 in petty cash, untouched except for Hell's notes. Actually that's not entirely accurate. Only $296.52 are actually there; a typewritten IOU for $30 is left behind. It is signed, though, "J. Hell"; Laughton distinguishes this is Hell's drunk scrawl...