M Caoilinn
Maeve / Murphy Caoilinn
The lead police detective
In Game
Bluesheets:
Character Hint
You are Maeve Caoilinn, detective with the Violet City Police, and you are not having a good day. This kind of sick shooting is bad enough to begin with, but the fact that the shooter was the son of your old friend (and sometime partner on the force) Tadg O'Malley makes it personally touchy. Since your actual partner is out sick, you've been saddled with that loudmouth Rhona Finlay, a beat cop who finally badgered the Captain into letting her show that she is ready to be a detective. Oh, that can't go wrong. And you are surrounded by every politician and talking head in the city, poking their noses in about things they don't understand.
Yeah, today is going to be special...
Character Sheet
You are Maeve Caoilinn, homicide detective with the Violet City Police. Another day, another tragedy, but this time, pardon the blasphemy, the person you'd really like to question is God. Specifically, why He seems to have it in for poor Tagh O'Malley and his family.
Tagh is one of your oldest friends -- you made detective around the same time, and the Captain decided to make you partners. You were good ones, too: you shared the same passion for finding the bad guys, but more importantly helping out the people of the city. Yeah, some people liked to joke around that you were sleeping together or something, but that just misunderstood the nature of the bond: he was always like a brother to you. (And he would never, in a million years, cheat on his Mary. It was really great, seeing somebody that devoted in this world.)
But things went sour for him about 15 years ago. Vasily Leonard, an up-and-coming brat reporter with Fox News, got wind up some stuff in Tagh's past that he hadn't told anyone. Once it broke, he spilled his guts to you -- that his family and friends had all been IRA, and that he'd worked with them eagerly, thinking that he was helping his community to drive out the English, until the first time he actually helped out with one of the bombings and was sickened by the outcome. The reporter made him out to be some kind of mad bomber, leaving Ireland one step ahead of the police, but the truth was that he left because it was the only way to get away from the IRA and leave behind a life he didn't want. The act itself was wrong, of course, but he'd made his contribution long ago, and had spent the time since being a good man.
Not that the politicos and all saw it that way, of course. Once he had Fox News sticking microphones in his face any time he stepped out, he became a liability. The Captain was nice enough about it, but made clear that he wanted Tagh's resignation, and the Tagh wasn't well-enough connected for the union to stick up for him much. So being the good man, he left the job he was really meant for.
You figured he would land on his feet: he had a good mind, a strong back and clear principles. And for a while things went find. But then Mary got sick a year or so later, and she was never the strongest body -- the flu carried her off, leaving Tagh as a single parent with two boys.
Aidan was fifteen at the time, and had a real crisis of faith, angry at God as you would expect. He might have gone down a dark path, so you decided to step in, befriending the boy separately from already being so close to his parents. You encouraged him to seek out comfort at Church, and were pleasantly surprised when he took to that with a will. Tagh seemed rather shocked when Aidan told him that he was going into Seminary (you suspect that he had always hoped for grandchildren through Aidan), but you argued him around to being proud of the boy. Since then, you've become close friends with him, maybe closer than with his father.
As for Seamus -- well, he was only nine, and was disconsolate at losing his mother. He'd always been a sensitive boy, wrapped around her whenever anything seemed frightening. Heaven knows, he's always been emotional -- probably part of why Tagh never quite understood him. But you can't see how he could do what they are saying: the initial reports of him going on some sort of cold-blooded rampage through Decameron Enterprises just doesn't sound like him.
Well, your job is to get to the truth, and that's what you're going to do. The Captain was very clear that you aren't to allow your friendship with Tagh to color the investigation, but he didn't need to say it: you know your duty.
Of course, you're not entirely overjoyed about having to wet-nurse Rhona through this. She's been insisting for a year now that she is ready to make detective. You're unsure about it -- she is certainly smart enough, but hasn't yet learned that part of being a good detective is listening more than you talk, and keeping an open mind to the facts that present themselves to you. Certainly this isn't the case you'd want to try her out on, but you're kind of stuck: your usual partner Jake Lacosta went home vomiting shortly before the call came in about the shooting. (You're just a little suspicious of that -- Finlay took the coffee order this morning, so your antennae are kind of up. But you prefer to believe the best of a fellow cop.)
Today's lead CSI is Bjorn Ari, which doesn't entirely thrill you either. A bunch of years ago, there were rumors around the station house that he had destroyed evidence in some kind of political thing. Not that that would make him the only cop with questionable ethics -- heaven knows there are times you think a third of the station house is on the take to somebody or another -- but it always makes you a little nervous when it's around your cases. And come to think of it, you're pretty sure it was Finlay who first told you that rumor. Special.
This case is going to be extra-fun because of the media circus. The problem with something this loud happening downtown is that the news trucks got there almost as fast as the beat cops; you gather that the guys down there have their hands mostly busy just dealing with crowd control. Which isn't entirely bad -- with something this sensitive, you're always happier if the blues haven't mucked up your crime scene. And this is sensitive: Decameron is a major employer and pretty well-connected, so having their CEO shot is big news. You know the game: they will probably stick cameras in your face, since it's the face of the investigation, and you can't completely stonewall them or they'll just start making stuff up. The trick, as always, is to make sure you keep your comments as factual as possible, sticking to what you're sure is true. And for heaven's sake, try to keep Finlay from saying anything stupid to them.
And then there are all the politicians, tripping over each other to sound sympathetic and spin things their own way. Great: everybody is going to be bloviating, and the Captain is breathing down your neck to be careful with this one. He doesn't much care what comes out, so long as the story winds up clear -- frankly, he'd probably be happiest if this fits the "lone crazy" model and there is no blowback. But you've never been one for simple answers, and you owe it to the O'Malleys to find out what really happened. Even assuming Seamus did kill several people, he's never seemed the type to do so without one hell of a reason.
Who You Know
-
Rhona Finlay: Your wet-behind-the-ears "partner" for the day, a beat cop trying to make detective. Seems to be basically honest, but needs to learn to calm down and listen more.
-
Bjorn Ari: Your CSI for this case. Smart, ambitious, probably connected to somebody, and not necessarily entirely trustworthy.
-
Tagh O'Malley: Your long-ago partner on the force, when you were both young detectives, and close friend.
-
Aidan O'Malley: Tagh's eldest son, now the priest at Lady of Redemption down the street. One of your closest friends, in a way that only a couple of permanently-single folks like yourselves can be. He's married to God, you to your job, so you've basically wound up as each others' closest confidantes.
-
Seamus O'Malley: Tagh's younger son, who graduated from college about a year ago, and has been working at Decameron ever since, if you recall correctly. He was always a good kid, if the sensitive sort who was always too easily hurt. They're saying that he killed all these people, and you don't have any reason to disbelieve that -- yet -- but you're sure it's not the whole story.
-
Jeri Ferdinand: Mayor of Violet City. You don't exactly rub shoulders with that crowd, but she has always struck you as a decent sort, if sometimes a bit too soft on crime for your tastes. You totally approve of making things better for the people of the city as a way to reduce the impetus for robbery and drugs, but you get a little impatient with these liberal sorts who think that's the whole solution. You've worked in homicide long enough to know that there are a lot of Just Plain Bad people out there.
-
Vasily Leonard: The Fox reporter who ruined Tagh's life. You can't quite hate him -- reporting the truth isn't too far from what you do, and he didn't outright lie about anything -- but there was no call for hounding him out of the force like that.
-
Nika Stanimir: Used to be the main NRA representative in Violet City; as such, he would show up at every Police Union event, donating money to the Benevolent Fund and all that sort of stuff. You've heard that he is now working for Senator Newbold in some capacity -- so he is still showing up at police functions. Seems to be a decent sort, but you've never been able to get a handle on what he actually things: that sort's loyalty is always for sale.
GM Notes
Used to be partnered with
Tagh O'Malley, back when he was on the force; might have been his junior partner, and is still somewhat close. Knew Seamus socially, and is finding it a bit difficult to believe he'd do something like this.
Hir regular partner went out sick with some kind of stomach bug this morning, so sie has been saddled with
R Finlay as a fill-in. Sie protested that sie shouldn't be stuck with a beat cop, but the Captain insisted: he promised Finlay a chance to "audition" for detective when an opportunity arose, and this fits the bill. Sie doesn't really trust Finlay, and half-suspects sie did something to said partner to get this (Finlay did bring the coffee this morning?), but isn't going to make a big deal about it. But Finlay had better watch hir step.
She has known
A O'Malley since he was a child, and acted as his informal godparent; she was proud to see him move into the ministry. (And got into more than one argument with Tadg about it at the time.) Their relationship has shifted over the years, with Aiden acting as her confessor in recent years, but more generally as her spiritual counselor. She has come to rely on him whenever she is torn about something, knowing that he will be impartial and confidential. They've gradually become close friends, arguably even closer than she is to Tadg.
To Do
-
Rename this character -- her last name is simply too hard to spell, and typos caused problems.
-
In the first run, she didn't have enough time to interact with Tagh. Make her relationship with Finlay friendlier, and have her offload a bit of the workload.
