Gameplay - Bad Moon Rising Part 2

August 29th

The last few days have been fairly routine. There's been no time to dig deeper into Ekhardt's history and no further clues have come up. The surveillance on the accountants apartment shows nothing out of the ordinary, just an old man going about his every day routine.

That is until August 29th.

Skegg has been reassigned and Phaerin and Noss are now a two-Judge team. On the morning of the 29th, before morning briefing, they are contacted by Tek. It seems there was an explosion last night at the Warren Buffet conapts. All surveillance was disrupted.

Cleanup have made the way safe and a body was found in Bennetti's apartment and Forensics are on route. You are given dispensation to miss briefing and get over there.

Arriving at the conapts, the place is a mess. It seems the two floors above Bennetti's apartment were blown up, causing huge amounts of property damage and at the same time putting out all power, cameras and all.

Heading past the cleanup droids, you find forensics in attendance. Bennetti, as expected, is dead, sitting in a chair where he was shot through the forehead. He is unrestrained and from all the evidence, the accountant may have known his attacker. Forensics are unable to produce any DNA although there are hair and fibre traces, both draw blanks against MACs database. The only piece of evidence is a red scarf.

The red scarf is a trademark of the Van Zandt crime family, noted enemies of the Contraltos

As he's dead, you can access the accountant's personal computer and bank records if you wish

Also, one of Forensics hand you a data memory slug found within his personal belongings. It's data pretected so anyone with Computers 2 can try and hack it with a roll (or Data Access special technique - no roll required)

It turns out the slug is both password protected and encrypted but it's short work for Phaerin who has is cracked in a matter of minutes. Within is Bennetti's daily diary, kept almost consisitently over the last 30 years.

The diary contains personal recollections and observations. Real names for people are not used, so, although the diary contains information that might incriminate members of the Contralto crew in all manner of crimes, there is no hard evidence to use the diary to trigger direct investigations.
Much of the diary is humdrum, however the following entry catches your attention.

‘15th March 2106
I don’t like what I’ve discovered about Jani. She’s
definitely talked to the heat and I’ve seen the
conversations. She really has it in for the for Drum
and what she’s told them will really beat down on
the Drum just like the Sovs beat down on us not
that long ago. If the top of the food chain learns
what she said – hell, if the Drum learns what she
said – that’s it: curtains for poor Jani.
So, here I am, a man who never knowingly took
a stupid breath, about to take the biggest, most
stupid breath I can. Top of the food chain wants
answers about the Drum so I’m gonna feed ‘em
in. Jonny-Boy getting killed like that makes it the
easiest and best way – I pin it all on Jonny-Boy
and Jani stays in the clear. She never needs to
know. There’s lots she never needs to know. Like
how I’ve loved her every day since the day I first
saw her. She won’t look at a schlep like me so I’m
not fooling myself here but I can do things for her
that prove all that love to myself.

Thanks for dying Jonny-Boy – you saved a life.’

No need for a roll, but searching archives for the names mentioned might be a good start.

Archive searches for Jani and Drum return nothing but a search for the name Johnny and 2106 brings back a Justice Department report of a pile-up on the Ralph Little skedway in Sector 9 on October 5th, 2106. Weather Control was out of action following the Apocalypse War and the road was wet.
Some jerk changed lane too rapidly and caused a major pile up that killed thirteen. One of the deceased was Jonathan Bugatti, also known as Bones, a middle-ranking racketeer for the Contralto crime family.

Max Contralto is not an easy man to track down. He lives in the penthouse level pf Jimmy Gandolfini but after asking around, the Judges find he hangs out in the Badaboom Bar and Grill of the Gandolfini entertainment level.

It's a seedy bar offering continual lap dancing, karaoke, shuggy and all manner of low-rent pastimes whilst just remaining within the law.

The head of the Contralto family is a massive imposing man in his mid-40's with slicked-back dark hair. He wears a loud shirt and sharp jacket.