[THE DAMNED DON'T CRY!]

The Prodigal Daughter (part 1)

Game Date: Monday, 03 March 1947
Date Played: 16 August 2003


Monday morning, Jack Ryan is chatting away with Dolores, the secretary, when in walks Joan Sternwood with a problem. Her sister is missing and she wants to hire Gallaway, Ryan and Associates to find her. By the time, Jeff Gallaway arrives, Ms Sternwood is explaining all she knows and why she fears for her sister's life.

Her sister, Vivian Sternwood, is a wild and headstrong girl and has accumulated a large gambling debt to Vincenzo Giuliani, the man who runs the Los Angeles underworld and the Blue Parrot nightclub and illegal casino. She says she last saw Vivian Saturday evening as she was getting dressed to go to the club and confront Giuliani. Joan saw she slip a pistol into her purse before she left. Joan says that the agency is not to contact her at the house for fear of alerting her father to what is going on and that she'll call around tomorrow. She hands over a photograph of Vivian and offers the agency $120 up front to take the case.

While Jack and Jeff are rubbing the dollar signs from their eyes, Gabriella (Gabi) Rosini, is puzzled. This supposedly wealthy woman is not wearing a coat even though the March morning is brisk and raining and her shoes are not Fifth Avenue quality. She could not remember what her sister was wearing Saturday night. Also, why not contact the family. Surely they are worried about Vivian as well? And why is the only photograph Joan has of her sister clipped from a newspaper. Something is not right.

Legwork reveals that the photograph is from the society column of the Los Angeles Times of several weeks ago. Searching further finds a photo of Joan, who looks nothing like the woman who visited the agency this morning.

They discuss the problem with Nathan Sherwood (Nate), long time associate, and Benny Chambers, the financial backer of the agency and decide on a two-prong approach. While Jeff, Jack and Benny pay a visit to the Blue Parrot, Nate visits the Sternwood's on a pretext to discover the truth of the home situation. Gabi, of course, branches out on her own but doesn't tell anyone.

Nate fakes an automobile breakdown in front of the Sternwood residence and asks if he can phone for a tow truck. The Hispanic butler allows him in but controls tightly Nate's access to the house. Soon, the tow truck has arrived and Nate is on his way without learning much of value or even of interest.

Benny rustles up a couple of dames and the fellows venture out to the Blue Parrot for an evening of classy dining and dancing to the melodic strains of the Blue Parrot Ensemble. Jeff sees and is recognised by several faces from 'the old days' -- racketeering before the war, when he did several discrete 'jobs' for Mr Giuliani.

After dinner and after being given the okay by Nick 'The Claw' Hamer, a mob enforcer from 'the old days', they venture up stairs to the illegal casino. They talk to James Grey, the nightclub manager, and learn that Giuliani is not here tonight but that he was very upset on Saturday when Vivian paid off her debts. Giuliani had been carefully allowing her to build her debt for months. Grey remembers that Vivian paid $6,000 in cash. A very pleasant evening, all told.

Meanwhile, back at the Sternwood residence, Gabi slips quietly over the fence, runs across the lawn and enters the garage. Why is Vivian's car there when she was supposed to go out on Saturday night? After some fruitless searching, Gabi quietly backs out and goes home.