B Ari

Brunhildr / Bjorn Ari

The police's Crime Scene Investigator

Gender: Male Current Quality: Good

Played by Allan

In Game

Plots: Cover-up, Incriminating Letter, The Break-in, Money Laundering

Bluesheets:

Character Hint

GM NOTE: this character has evolved significantly since this original character hint, to make it more interesting.

You are Bjorn Ari, the crime scene investigator digging into today's events at Decameron Enterprises. Frankly, this is all looking to be a rather fun puzzle -- not so much a whodunnit (all the witnesses seem to agree on that), but figuring out the details and puzzling out why this kid flipped out.

You are the best at your job, ambitious, and often frustrated by the way the detectives steal the limelight and treat you and your colleagues as simply cogs. So you've been making your own friends, outside the force, and this may be a good chance to impress them with your skills. You're not going to be a cog forever...

Character Sheet

You are B Ari, crime scene investigator with the Violet City Police Department. You are loyal and true and honest and blahblahblah.

It's a good job, and it's not just a cover story: you enjoy investigating, figuring things out, and generally showing everyone that the detectives aren't the only smart ones on the force.

But you never forget who your actual boss is: Don Marco Signoretti. It's bad for one's health to ever forget about the Don.

Your Dad has worked for the Signorettis your entire life. You tell folks that he is a middle manager, and it's entirely true: the Don likes his operations to be clean, well-organized and businesslike. The management and accounting departments nowadays run out of an office building not too far from here, and anyone visiting would think it was just another boring cubicle farm.

So there was never much question but that you would go into the family business, as it were. But Dad's sort of management looked dull, and you're no leg-breaker. The life of a cop always appealed, but you weren't sure whether the powers that be would flip out over the idea. The Don, though, is always looking for opportunities, and he loved it. He paid for your college education (through a shell company's scholarship, of course), and right afterwards, maybe ten years ago, you applied for police training. Being a beat cop proved boring, though, so you decided to take your eye for details, and go into the CSI department. You've been there ever since.

The Don always takes the long view, and knows not to over-use his assets, so the truth is, most of the time you're simply a cop in the midst of all the others. Even when a crime scene involves his properties, your job is usually just to keep everyone informed about what's going on.

The funny part came when you developed a second "master". Your parents have been enthusiastic supporters of Senator Newbold, pretty much your whole life, and you had met him several times. You hadn't really paid much attention to that -- you don't care all that much about politics -- until he contacted you, out of the blue, asking for your help. He was running for re-election, and someone had broken into the headquarters of his Democratic opponent an hour or two before. He swore up and down that he wasn't involved, but was concerned that this could be painted as some kind of operation from his campaign. So he needed someone on the inside of the investigation, to keep an eye on what was going on.

That was a little startling, and you weren't quite sure whether this would be a frowned-upon Conflict Of Interest (the way they tell you to avoid those, you can head the capital letters), so you contacted the Don -- and were even more startled to hear him laughing, something you've rarely heard. He explained something that very few people know: that Senator Newbold has been a pawn of his from the very beginning, and it is official organization policy to support him. So you called Newbold back and agreed, and he put in a word to make sure that you were on the investigation.

The actual break-in -- well, it was clumsy work. Somebody was clearly trying to make it look like a robbery, but it was clear that they'd mainly been interested in rifling through the files, so someone was probably in for the politics. You found a laundry receipt on the floor, and suspected it might have been from one of the burglars, so you pocketed it. (Clumsily, as it turned out: Rhona Finlay, one of the beat cops on the scene, noticed you taking it and accused you of hiding evidence. You had to stonewall; fortunately, she already had a rep as being over-imaginative, so it blew over. Still, it was a reminder that you need to be careful.)

Officially, you supported the party line that this was a robbery, and managed to straighten up the files as you were examining them so nobody else would notice. Unofficially, you looked into it after hours, and it didn't take long to trace the receipt back to a local thug. You sent word up the chain to put the frighteners on him to find out who hired him, which turned out to be some moron named Nika Stanimir, the local NRA rep. So you passed the name back to Newbold, who was terribly impressed and thanked you profusely. Which is great, but thanks don't pay the bills.

Fortunately, the Don backs up his thanks with cash, so your association with him has been fruitful. Lately, he's been diversifying into more or less legitimate businesses, so your favors to him have mainly been focused on that sort of thing -- hiding evidence that a company is linked to the organization, helping to hurt a competitor, that sort of thing. For example, a few months ago, you were called in on a theft of a lot of high-tech equipment at some kind of pharma company across town. You quietly checked with your higher-ups, as usual, and were told that the company was a competitor to a Signoretti investment. So you made sure to clean the one relevant fingerprint you found (on the suspicion that it would trace back to one of the Don's men), and then quietly leaked word about the theft to Vasily Leonard, the reporter from Fox News. You told him that you were simply doing this as a favor, because it never hurts to make friends (which is true); he ate that up with a spoon, put the news of the theft on the evening news, and by the next day the company's investors were pulling out. The Don was quite happy with you about that one, and gave you a fat bonus on top of your stipend.

As for today, so far it's just another day at the job. Some loony went and shot up his office, people killed, etc. The main job is probably why he did it, since so far nobody seems to be denying that he did do it. (Although that mustn't be assumed: you've always got to assume that everyone is lying, and focus on what the evidence tells you.) As usual, you should find a chance to check in with the higher-ups -- you see that Regan Archie is here, so that's probably the best contact -- and see if they have any special instructions for you. But mostly, it's a normal day of showing that you are better at following the trail than the detectives are...

Who You Know

Regan Archie: The Don's right hand, not that anyone outside the organization knows that. Officially, she is a fancy uptown lawyer, and it's very important that nobody ever gets disabused of that illusion. Probably knows more about the running of the organization than anyone save Don Signoretti himself.
Reagan Newbold: The current Senator from Vermillion, who the Don wants kept in place. He thinks that you work for him, and the Don wants you to maintain that, and keep him posted if the Senator does anything out of line.
Maeve Caoilinn: The detective in charge of the investigation. Straight-laced, sometimes a bit of a pain in the ass, but good at her job. Pretty senior on the force, and pretty well-respected, so not someone to cross casually.
Rhona Finlay: A loudmouth beat cop who you've crossed swords with before -- she was the one who accused you of concealing evidence six years ago. In a nice bit of accidental revenge, she got blamed for your leak to Vasily Leonard a few months ago. Why the heck is she dressed like a detective?
Jeri Ferdinand: The Mayor of Violet City, enemy of the organization and supporter of the Latin gangs. The Don does not like her one bit, and there are standing orders that inconveniencing her is always a Good Thing, provided that nothing can be traced back to the organization.
Fred Ronit: The Tea Party candidate, running for the Republican nomination. Truth is, you kind of like him -- he's a straight-shooter, and more honest than most politicians. But Newbold is the Don's official selection, so your vote is pre-selected.
Vasily Leonard: Reporter / anchor over at Fox News. You like his broadcasts, so you've begin cultivating him as a contact in the media. That needs to be done with some care -- the Captain doesn't want to hear that a cop is leaking information about an investigation -- but you should keep an eye out for appropriate opportunities.
Nika Stanimir: Six years ago, the NRA rep who almost got Newbold's campaign in trouble. Now, Newbold's campaign manager. Politicians are just strange sometimes...

GM Notes

Kate suggests: loyal to no one, very good at hir job, and bribeable.

This character is likely a good way to get information into the game -- in particular, sie should be feeding info to the rest of the police, to invite questions.

Should be in a specific rivalry with at least one of the other cops.

His parents were avid supported of R Newbold when he was young, so the Senator knows him moderately well, and helped him get a job in the police force in the first place. They aren't exactly friends, but he looks up to the Senator, and has always said that he would be available when the Senator needed him.

A few months ago, there was a theft at a different office about four blocks away. He was one of the investigators, and quietly leaked word of the investigation to V Leonard, simply as a way to establish good relations -- he wants to move up the food chain, and has always heard that networking is everything. And when the story broke, the blame for the leak fell on R Finlay, who was one of the cops on the scene, and is a loud admirer of Leonard.

Member of: Police