CTI: Crime Team Investigation

[Laura Hunt]

Two more victims left......
I think that the words in capital letters may contain clues
as to where to find the (potential )crime scenes

Looks like it... Just taking a quick guess (potential solution) can we send a unit to WoodHAVEn?

[Mandle]

Nothing found at Woodhaven.

(OFFICIAL UPDATE)

[heltenjon]

As the three locations i a row remind me of Orion's belt, I'd like to send squad cars to a couple of sites just to make sure the killer is not drawing Orion on the map. This doesn't quite add up, as there are more stars in Orion than sites. If the chief doesn't think it's too far fetched, may we send squad cars to (potential solution) Long Island City Astoria and to the 9/11 Museum? (Marking Bellatrix and Betelgeuse.)

[Ian Aloser]

The idea with the star constellation is nice, I don't have the slightest
clue at the moment and I don't want to search places at random....

[JackPutter]

POTENTIAL SOLUTION

I think I've worked out the locations of the next victims... Our killer calls him(or her)self the "Justice Killer" who wants to even the score on people who escaped punishment. The "Scales of Justice" are a traditional symbol of punishments being meted out fairly. The constellation Libra is also often symbolised using a scales. This is what Libra looks like:

Spoiler

[close]

I took this image and overlaid it onto our map of previous sites (please excuse the awful photoshopping) and there's definitely some similarity.

Spoiler

[close]

Because of this, I think we need to send units to stake out the MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE and the QUEENS MUSEUM as I believe they are the next sites. No idea what the killer has planned there, but hopefully we can catch him (or her) in the act.

[Ian Aloser]

WOW !!!

[heltenjon]

Jack Putter, donuts are on me.

[JackPutter]

Let's not celebrate too early, we don't know if I'm right!

Also, the icons for the New York Hall of Science and the Queens Museum are RIGHT NEXT to each other on the map. Because the stars on that diagram don't align perfectly with our previous sites, I can't really tell which one is more "accurate" and it's a 50/50 shot whether I picked the right one...

[Laura Hunt]

I took this image and overlaid it onto our map of previous sites (please excuse the awful photoshopping) and there's definitely some similarity.

Because of this, I think we need to send units to stake out the MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE and the QUEENS MUSEUM as I believe they are the next sites. No idea what the killer has planned there, but hopefully we can catch him (or her) in the act.

OMG

[Cassiebsg]

  That is brilliant!
If these aren't the exact places, then maybe we could ask the ner IT experts to trace the constellation for us. I'm sure they can do a better job, since it's worth pursuing this path to it's fullest. 

[Laura Hunt]

maybe we could ask the ner IT experts

[Stupot]

My my. Great work. This has to be it.

[Ian Aloser]

Stupot,
How many Ws in the riddle and how many stars in the constellation ?
This is a worthy "Finale Grande", absolutely great !

[Mandle]

Updating later tonight.

[Mandle]

CASE #64

Justice Killer

Still Week Five

The police chief looks over the map put together by Officer Jack Putter, leaps up and slams his fist down right in the middle of it, spilling his open bottle of Tums all over the floor!



"GOD-DAMN! THAT'S SOME POLICE-WORK IF EVER I'VE SEEN IT!!!",
he yells, more animated and healthy-looking than he has seemed for weeks.

He starts pointing every which-way and barking out orders to the point where he almost seems to have three or four hands at any one time.

Units head out, sirens flashing and lights screaming, to both the Queens Museum and the Museum Of The Moving Image.

During the Queens Museum sweep a time-bomb is discovered inside the base of a new sculpture scheduled to be unveiled in a few days by the Governor who, in their past, had fallen under accusation of receiving campaign money in return for rigging certain court trials involving organized-crime figures.

It is safely isolated and defused by the Bomb Squad. It was set to go off at the exact moment of the sculpture's unveiling.

As the other unit enters the Museum Of The Moving Image, the leader, Officer Jack Putter, notices that a showing of the movie "Twelve Angry Men" is scheduled for today in one of the museum's viewing rooms. The guest-list are all figures connected with the court system.

Jack signals to the team to approach the viewing room stealthily.

The door to the viewing room's projection booth shows signs of having been broken open with a crowbar.

Jack slowly pushes the door open an extra inch and peers through the gap.

He sees a hooded figure mounting a film-reel boldly marked "TWELVE ANGRY MEN / INGLORIOUS BASTERDS: GIANT FACE SCENE SPLICE" onto the projector.

Jack pushes the door open a little more and sneaks through into the projection booth.

It is now that he notices the large pile of old film reels piled up between himself and the hooded figure in a kind of barrier between them.

Officer Jack Putter pulls his service pistol from its holster and yells "POLICE! DOWN ON THE FLOOR! SHOW ME YOUR HANDS!".

The hooded figure complies, dropping to their knees, and then going prone, face-down on the floor.

The figure's hands come up. In one of them is a lit Zippo lighter. The hand throws the lighter onto the barrier of old film reels which instantly explodes into a fury of flames and shooting balls of white-hot fire.

Jack tells the team behind him to fall back, pull the museum's fire alarm, and start an evacuation. He tries to find some way to the prone figure but there is no path around the conflagration.

He hears only the sound of cackling laughter, and the words "GUILTY AS CHARGED", from behind the fire before the screaming begins.

Two hours later, the fire has been brought under control. Massive damage was caused to the viewing room and its projection booth but no lives were lost.

Except, that is, for the life of the hooded figure, whose body has been reduced to mere ash and bones by the intensity of the fire.

The attempts to identify the body of Justice Killer are still underway.

Officer Jack Putter is invited by the FBI to enter their Special Agent training program. It is up to him to decide if he will do so, or remain with the NYPD.

What say you, Jack Putter?

[JackPutter]

This was a tough case to crack, I'm extremely flattered by the FBI's offer but really I only connected the last link in the chain. A lot of the major breakthroughs in this investigation were made by my extremely talented colleagues, and I would never have been in that projection booth at the right time if it wasn't for their hard work. In my eyes, we ALL earned that Special Agent training invitation together. I think I'll have to respectfully decline the offer to leave and join another agency, here at the NYPD we work well as a unit and I'd hate to be responsible for breaking that up.

Besides, on the very same day my invitation letter from the FBI arrived, a strange package landed on my desk, the contents of which are VERY concerning and might need looking into right away...

(Breaking the fourth wall here just to say thanks to Mandle for constructing such a detailed, intriguing, and compelling game for us all to play! There was a lot to sink our teeth into and I had a blast looking for patterns, finding hidden meanings, and piecing together the clues of a killer who, at times, always seemed one step ahead of us. It took a lot of hard work and creativity to keep it interesting and fair over so many weeks, and your efforts did not go unnoticed Mandle!

I have an idea for a similar investigation game, and if folks still have an appetite for this kind of thing then I would love to try my hand at running one.)

[Laura Hunt]

This was a tough case to crack, I'm extremely flattered by the FBI's offer but really I only connected the last link in the chain. A lot of the major breakthroughs in this investigation were made by my extremely talented colleagues, and I would never have been in that projection booth at the right time if it wasn't for their hard work. In my eyes, we ALL earned that Special Agent training invitation together. I think I'll have to respectfully decline the offer to leave and join another agency, here at the NYPD we work well as a unit and I'd hate to be responsible for breaking that up.

Yay group hug!

(Breaking the fourth wall here just to say thanks to Mandle for constructing such a detailed, intriguing, and compelling game for us all to play! There was a lot to sink our teeth into and I had a blast looking for patterns, finding hidden meanings, and piecing together the clues of a killer who, at times, always seemed one step ahead of us. It took a lot of hard work and creativity to keep it interesting and fair over so many weeks, and your efforts did not go unnoticed Mandle!

Agree! I have one small criticism, and it's that I found it frustrating at times that the puzzles were half logic half guesswork (like when I cracked the bridge-troll/nest-airport/guv'nor-Governor Island clue immediately but then we got stuck checking every single bridge one by one until we found the right one) but in a way it also fit with the Crazed Killer theme, and at least we got to send as many units as we wanted. So yeah, nitpicks aside, this was fun! Great job, Mandle

I have an idea for a similar investigation game, and if folks still have an appetite for this kind of thing then I would love to try my hand at running one.)

Please do!

[Mandle]

CASE #64

Justice Killer

Epilogue

Officer Jack Putter remained with the NYPD and was promoted to Detective First Class. Everyone rallies around him in support of his loyalty to the squad!

Officer Ian Aloser was promoted to Detective Second Class for his outstanding work on the case, and was partnered with Jack Putter.

Officer Laura Hunt was promoted to Detective Third Class for her excellent work on the case.

These, and all other Officers were awarded medals of honor for their input into solving this horrible series of crimes.

The Police Chief eventually went to a doctor and was diagnosed with a stomach ulcer, most likely caused by stress. He underwent treatment and is now back on the job, no longer needing his massive bottle of Tums heartburn tablets.

THE END

[Mandle]

I have an idea for a similar investigation game, and if folks still have an appetite for this kind of thing then I would love to try my hand at running one.

Sign me up!!!

(And if anyone has any niggling questions about anything in the Justice Killer case, please PM me. I have already answered Stupot's questions privately. Best if we don't jumble the thread with too many others I feel. But feel free to PM me about anything you want answered for closure.)

[Mandle]

Under Stupot's suggestion we might want to split this kind of game off into a different thread from The Black Stories one though.

I kind of hijacked the thread for my game but that might not have been the right thing to do.

I'm going to ask Snarky to split this kind of game off from the Black Stories and make it it's own thing, maybe titled "CTI: Crime Team Investigation"

This could be anything from this kind of map-based police investigation to an even more personal "Nancy Drew" or even "Scooby Doo" kind of case setup.

EDIT: So yeah, I have sent Snarky a PM asking for this to be done so that both genres of games can continue without getting in the way of each other for fans of either or both.