Homicide - The Truth of the Matter

Gabe Babbett. Our two detectives, Evan Stacy and Jeff Long, were finally sitting across the interrogation-room table from their primary suspect. They know quite a bit about Babbett already; felony record, parole violation, lied on his job application, fingerprints on the murder weapon, witnessed fighting with Marin, ID'd trying to sell the stolen documents. In short, he's screwed.

But that's the external view. Let's find out a bit more about his personality and behavior. I'll use the NPC trait generator. The result:

• Appearance: mature, foppish
• Sanity: stable
• Traits: exacting, foul, malevolent
• Personality: hostile
• Nature: jealous
• Morals: perverted
• Energy: normal
• Interests: collector of trophies & skins

So... a nice guy. Foppish and foul don't really go together appearance-wise, so I'm envisioning him as a sort of well-packaged jerk, ready to explode at the slightest provocation. Sounds like just the sort to commit violent murder over stolen goods. Interests, well, probably not applicable here, but maybe he's a hunter and collects badly stuffed animals. Jealous and perverted. Hmm. Maybe he was interested in his cousin, Michelle Allen, as more than just a cousin. Motive perhaps? Icky, but possible. Let's give Babbett some attributes. Recall we're using a real simple Brawn/Mind/Charm attribute set based on the Fate ladder. Babbett's an important character, so we'll give him a PC-level of attributes, rolling at random:

• Brawn - Fair (+2)
• Mind - Great (+4)
• Charm - Fair (+2)

Babbett's really smart, but given his violent/hostile nature, he's probably not as charming as he thinks. I'm getting a real control-freak vibe out of this background. Unfortunately he's probably smart enough to lawyer up. On to Mythic GM. Note that I've dropped Chaos to 4, given the winding-down nature of the case.

• Q1: Has Babbett requested a lawyer? (very likely)
• Answer: Extreme yes
• Q2: Is he willing to answer any questions? (very unlikely)
• Answer: Extreme yes

Umm, OK. It seems like Babbett has a story to tell here. Let's set the scene, Babbett's interrogation, and see how it rolls. The dice tell us the scene proceeds normally. The actors here are our detectives Stacy and Long, Babbett, and his lawyer, Matthias Collier. A d100 (result 31) tells us Collier is nothing special. Given Babbett's employment and history, perhaps a court appointed public defender?

• Q3: Is Collier a public defender? (likely)
• Answer: Yes

So he's not bending over backwards to help Babbett out. Let's see what Babbett admits to, confronting him with witnesses and evidence at each step. Since I'd like to wrap this game up in this session, I'll also be resolving actual who did it questions along the way here, to see if we actually caught our murderer, or if we've been engaged in a miscarriage of justice all along. I'll put those questions in bold italic. Let's start with the easiest. Babbett's false work application and the weird theft at the office. We have the work application, and Woods's testimony that he was coerced into the theft by Babbett.

• Q4: Did Bennett lie on his job application? (has to be)
• Answer: Yes (of course he did)
• Q5: Does he admit it? (likely)
• Answer: Yes
• Q6: Did he send Woods to steal records from the apartment office? (very likely)
• Answer: Yes
• Q7: Does he admit it? (likely)
• Answer: No

OK, I guess we'll have to go with Woods's testimony here. Maybe we can come back to this and leverage Woods further, depending on what Babbett says. Let's move on to the robbery at Allen's apartment, the gun and the documents. Again we have Woods's testimony concerning this theft.

• Q10: Did Woods and Babbett rob Allen's apartment? (near sure thing)
• Answer: Yes
• Q11: Does he admit it? (likely)
• Answer: No

OK, this one we'll pressure a bit, because Babbett's fingerprints are on the stolen gun. I'll do this as a test of Stacy's Great Interrogation Methods skill vs. Babbett's Great Mind. Result: 5 (Superb) vs. 3 (Good). Let's ask again and apply a two-rank shift to the question likelihood. Again, not standard Mythic, I'm making it up as I go along.

• Q12: Does he admit to the robbery under pressure? (near sure thing)
• Answer: Yes

Hmm. I kind of like that shift-rank model. Let's keep using it. Babbett cracks under questioning, admitting to the robbery at Allen's apartment. We have him dead to rights on the parole violations for leaving the state, so we can skip that. On to the document theft. We have his prints on a bloody implement at the church, plus witnesses that place him there, plus a parking ticket stub from his truck.

• Q13: Was Babbett part of the theft at the church? (has to be)
• Answer: Yes
• Q14: Does he admit it? (likely)
• Answer: Yes
• Q15: Does he admit to fighting with Marin? (likely)
• Answer: Yes

So he's implicated himself in a bunch of stuff with this, theft, assault, transporting stolen goods, attempted sale of stolen goods. It sounds like he's copping to all the theft-related stuff, but resisting the stuff tied to the murders. Let's check that out.

• Q14: Does Babbett admit his role in the non-murder aspects of the theft? (likely)
• Answer: Yes

To the meat of the matter then. The murders. Recall we have Babbett's prints on the stolen gun, a bloody print in Marin's apartment. Looking back there are a few bits we never followed up on, notably the bloody shoe-prints in Allen's apartment, and the keys to Marin's apartment. Let's check.

• Q15: Do the shoe prints match Babbett's shoe size? (very likely)
• Answer: Yes
• Q16: Did forensics find the key to Marin's apartment? (50/50)
• Answer: No
• Q17: Did Babbett have a key to Marin's apartment? (likely)
• Answer: No
• Q18: Did Babbett have a key to Allen's apartment? (likely)
• Answer: Yes
• Q19: Did Allen have a key to Marin's apartment? (likely)
• Answer: No

So, Babbett's shoes fit, but no key to Marin's. He could have ditched it, especially if he had a master key for the complex from his maintenance job. Let's ask the real questions:

• Q20: Did Babbett kill Allen? (near sure thing)
• Answer: Extreme yes
• Q21: Did Babbett kill Marin? (near sure thing)
• Answer: No
• Q22: Did Allen kill Marin? (near sure thing)
• Answer: Yes

Ouch. So let's see if Babbett admits to this, because if so, I'm betting he claims self-defense. The only way this seems plausible is if Allen kills Marin during a fight or confrontation, then tries to kill Babbett too. He's obviously not going to allow that...

• Q23: Does Babbett admit to killing Allen? (50/50)
• Answer: Yes
• Q24: Does Babbett admit to killing Marin? (impossible)
• Answer: No
• Q25: Does he use self-defense as a reason? (likely)
• Answer: Yes
• Q26: Did he hide/move the bodies? (has to be)
• Answer: Extreme yes
• Q27: Does he admit it? (likely)
• Answer: Yes

So there we have it, a common story. A robbery where the thieves turn against each other after the deed is done. In this case, two of the three thieves are dead, and the stolen documents (fakes mind you) are lost. Our sole survivor has admitted to most of the crimes, and given his record and the evidence, he's going back to prison for quite a stretch. It's unlikely he'll be granted bail, given his recent flight to another state. There's still work here, but for our detectives, things are about done. The rest is up to the court system.

I could drag this out another turn or two, try and solidify some of the evidence, fill in some details, and run through the plea-bargain / trial, but I don't think I'd have much fun with that. Rather I think I'll do something I almost never get to do: reach the end of a story. And so, with that in mind... fini.

• The final Mythic GM game state