Session 1: Music of the Spheres

The Investigators:

Rupert Putkin, a newspaper reporter. After graduating from SDSU, he attended the School of Journalism at University of Missouri before returning home to take a job at the San Diego Union Tribune. Having grown tired of celebrity reporting he is looking for his own niche. Friends and coworkers generally regard him as a responsible person, but that did not stop him from recently overextending himself to purchase a black ’07 Dodge Charger SRT8.

Scot Thompson, a disaffected science teacher at Mission Bay High School. A strong swimmer and lifelong surfer, he lives near his school in a sort symbiotic frat-boy existence with roommates a decade younger than he is, some of whom he taught several years back. He is becoming increasingly dependent on marijuana and its derivatives. After an abortive college career on the East Coast, he transferred in his sophomore year to SDSU, where he and Rupert shared an apartment. He does not currently own a car.

Zach Brewer, a private investigator. Spent most of his twenties couch-hopping and taking correspondence courses in such diverse fields as locksmithing, photography and gun repair. It dawned on him that these skills would befit a private investigator, so he saved until he could afford to pay for his certification process, and went on to found ZB Investigations, Inc., of which he is the sole employee. The majority of his work involves staking out adulterous husbands and wives with their paramours and gathering photographic evidence. He is, by his own admission, a “chubby chaser.” Drives a nondescript grey ’04 Honda Civic with surveillance equipment in the trunk.

Session 1:

Rupert gets a call from the parents of an old college friend, Stan Arnold. After SDSU, Stan attended MIT, and then returned to work at the prestigious North Shore Cruciform Array (NSCA), a radio telescope observatory affiliated with CalTech, near the Salton Sea. It seems that following a dispute that Stan, normally a mild-mannered individual, killed his girlfriend of six years, Carrie Osbourne. Although he admitted to the crime and turned himself in, Stan’s parents believe that someone framed him, and implored Rupert and Scot, as his old friends, to go look into the situation. Rupert thought that his friend Zach Brewer’s skills might be useful, and on his referral, the Arnolds enlisted his aid as well. The next morning, Scot and Rupert drive to Mecca, California in Rupert’s Charger, and Zach drives up himself to meet them.

Mecca is a town of perhaps 600 people. It’s high summer, and very hot, with early afternoon temperatures around 115 degrees. The investigators first visit the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Station in Mecca, where Stan is currently incarcerated. Sheriff Kaufmann is on duty and tells them that visiting hours are from 10:00am until noon on Saturday, and today is only Thursday. Zach Brewer makes an appeal, as a sort of law man himself, that Kaufmann allow them to speak with Stan, and the Sheriff relents. Deputy Horner escorts them down the hall to Stan’s cell.

Stan is despondent. He readily admits to the crime but can’t explain why he did it. He came home from work, and had been feeling agitated all day. Carrie told him that she had taken his vintage Mustang to the store and accidentally put a scratch in the door. Stan relates that he became enraged, and strangled her with his bare hands. After some time he came to his senses, and turned himself in. Zach suggests that maybe somebody drugged him, and Stan tells him he thought of that already. The NSCA is a very competitive place, and while he is only a computer technician, he would not put it past some of the scientists to do something like that to each other to avoid losing credit for a major discovery.

Scot, on the sly, tries to slip him a bag of pot-laced cookies. The Deputy sees him do this, but fortunately does not recognize the cookies for what they are. Scot apologizes and pockets the cookies again.

Rupert calls Stan’s public defender, and requests blood work be ordered. Zach requests that Stan be put on suicide watch, and he and the Sheriff exchange business cards.

The trio head to the Sunset Café, where they attempt to get a feel for the local reaction to the murder. The waitress says that everyone is disturbed by it, as nothing has happened in this town since a hit-and-run last year. When asked if there’s a bar in town, she directs them to a sports bar down the street called O’Malleys.

O’Malley’s is one of those Irish bars that is Irish in name only; except for the promotional Budweiser St Patrick’s Day banner on the wall, the place is indistinguishable from any other dirt bar in America. Two large screens show monster trucks and UFC. Zach and Scot play pool. Rupert changes the channel to baseball, which causes grumbling among the local patrons. At some point Scot saddles up to the bar and lights a cigarette, blowing the smoke at two rough-looking gentlemen beside him. When they tell him to put it out, he is belligerent. A fist-fight breaks out, and tensions escalate when the bartended produces a shotgun from a low cupboard. Everyone involved flees outside, where Scot continues to antagonize the men, and the fight erupts anew. The bartender comes out and menaces them with the shotgun again, going so far as to fire it off in the air, and tells them to get away from his storefront. Finally the investigators and the other men go their separate ways. Scot leaves this encounter with a shiner.

It is now around 10:00pm, and the investigators decide to go to Stan’s house, which is still a protected crime scene. They park on the main street and begin walking the two blocks to the house, when Rupert notices a large dog skulking near a dark home. It ambles closer to them, and Zach gets nervous and pulls a taser from his bag. Then the dog lunges, and bites Zach in the buttocks. He madly fires the taser and misses. Rupert grabs a wooden stick from a nearby lawn, and they all attempt to fight the dog off. Scot is bitten as well, and finally Zach draws his 9mm and with three bullets, kills the mad dog.

Lights go on in many of the houses as the shots are fired, and soon a man in a housecoat comes walking down the street. He is enraged that the investigators killed his dog, who he claimed to be the nicest dog in the world. Soon Deputy Horner arrives, and as Zach threatens the man with legal action, he diffuses the situation and takes Zach and Scot to the local family practitioner’s home office, where the doctor was still awake, and dresses the wounds. Zach insists that the dead animal be taken by animal control and tested for rabies. The doctor offers Zach a toroidal pillow, of the kind used by hemorrhoid patients, but he refuses.

Finally, after midnight, the group return to Stan Arnold’s house. They sneak around back and find it all locked up. Zach tries all the doors and windows, and eventually succeeds in picking the lock on the back door. Inside, he finds Stan and Carrie’s computer and manages to log in. Without much time to look around, he copies the contents of the couple’s Inbox and Sent folders to a flash drive. Rupert, near the front door, spots Stan’s security badge from the NSCA, a contactless smartcard. Then he notices a car pulling up, and hazarding a glance, sees that it is Deputy Horner. Somebody must have noticed them trying to gain entrance and called the police. They all flee out the back door, but Rupert is spotted by the Deputy, who chases him several blocks before becoming winded and turning back to see if the crime scene had been compromised.