[THE DAMNED DON'T CRY!]

Photographic Evidence

Game Date: 12-14 May 1947
Date Played: 10 January, 14 February 2004


Jeff is waiting on a street corner for a cab when three thugs approach and demand he hand over the photographs. Not knowing what they are talking about, he cracks wise and they crack his skull. From the gutter, through the pain, he watches them climb into a police cruiser and drive away. Jeff's taxi never arrives.

Nick 'The Hammer' Hamer delivers a message to Benny from Giuliani, who is out of town at the moment. Giuliani wants Benny to hand over to him the reporter that hiding and keeping safe. Benny protests that he knows nothing about this. Nick, confused by Benny's denials, leaves to phone Giuliani for more instructions.

Nate arrives late at the warehouse for his regular Tuesday night poker game. He was waiting for Jeff but he didn't show. All conversation stops as Nate walks in. His poker buddies have been hassled by the cops all afternoon. The coppers demanded to know where Nate was and whether he'd given them any photographs to hold. One poker buddy watched the coppers turn over Nate's boat.

Jack, arriving home after a late baseball game, finds Violets McGee sitting in his living room. McGee says that the DA is very interested in recovering the photos that the agency is holding. He doesn't care about the reporter. He only wants the photos. McGee doesn't believe it when Jack denies all knowledge of both the photographs and the reporter but accepts that it's part of the game. When Jack pulls his gun on him, McGee leaves but promises to be back.

Gabi returns home from a night on the town to find her place turned over. Furniture, clothes and other possessions are strewn across every room in the apartment. It's not a professional job by any means but thorough.

As early as possible the next morning, they meet at the office and interrogate each other about any special cases they are working on. It soon becomes apparent that no one is working on anything which could have prompted the events of last night. However, someone thinks that they have a reporter with photographic evidence of something incriminating is in their possession. That someone, it seems, has enough power to cause the agency a great deal of physical pain to find out that his or she was mistaken. The only course of action is to get on the case and discover who and what it is they are meant to have.

As soon as they have sorted out a plan of action, around lunchtime, Agent Smith and Agent Johnson of the Federal Bureau of Investigation barge in and demand to know where Simon Rosenthal, the reporter, is being held. Benny throws his hands up in frustration -- why does every one think we've got him. Jeff gives the federal agents a hard time and they respond by threatening tax audits -- that's how they got Al Capone, remember. After convincing the Hoover boys that they we're getting no answers here, they leave.

Jack, Benny and Gabi follow up all the leads they can think off, followed incompetently by the federal agents. All clues lead nowhere so, after shaking their tail, they motor over to the offices of the Los Angeles Examiner, the paper Rosenthal worked for.

They arrive at closing time. Gabi, dolled up to the nines, saunters into the reception foyer with a package for Jimmy in the copy room which she has to deliver personally. The receptionist raises one eyebrow and phones through for him. Jimmy, on seeing Gabi, thinks all his Christmases have come at once. He can barely keep his eyes in their sockets and he patters around after Gabi everywhere she wants to go, believing all the while that he is the big man showing her around the company and the building. The office workers leaving for the night can't believe Jimmy's luck. The women take a second look at Jimmy -- what does he have which could interest the dame hanging off his arm?

On the tour, Jimmy tells Gabi that Rosenthal is the paper's chief investigative report and that he hasn't been seen for the last few days. He was working on a big story that was so secret even he wasn't allowed to know about it. He tells her that Rosenthal and the social pages editor, Maureen Coffey, are sweet on each other and that she has phoned in sick every day since Rosenthal disappeared. If she doesn't turn up to work soon, she'll be sacked.

Gabi soon maneuvers Jimmy to the Personal Department and tells him she wants Simon Rosenthal's file as well as the file of Maureen Coffey. Suddenly, things have gone too far for Jimmy and he doesn't know if he should.... Gabi steps in closer to him and begins loosening Jimmy's tie before the screen fades to black.

Gabi leaves the newspaper offices alone and carrying two folders under her arm. The folders provide the home addresses of both people as well as some basic information on the story that Rosenthal was working on -- the murder seven years ago of Veronica Hart, a reporter investigating links to organised crime within the office of the Mayor of Los Angeles.

They visit Maureen at home. While the boys wait in the car, Gabi has coffee with her. Maureen is deathly afraid for her life. She already believes that Simon is dead. She says he got a phone call at work early one morning, gathered up his notes and camera and hasn't been seen since. Maureen knows Simon was working on the Veronica Hart story and that this had led him to the discovery that Mayor Anderson and Vincenzo Giuliani are 'business associates' who have helped each other maintain their positions in LA society. Without proof, however, no newspaper in the city would touch the story.

She knows that Simon had opened discussions with the FBI about the case and when he disappeared she was on the phone to them to do something about it before he was killed. She knows people have been watching her house but cannot identify them. She has Simon's notes on the case but won't let Gabi see them. She says that Joan Sternwood, a close friend, has said several times that Maureen should phone Galloway, Ryan and Associates to sort out this mess. Maureen, having heard of their links to Vincenzo Giuliani, did not trust them.

They wait for midnight. Gabi (not so) quietly slips into Maureen's house to steal the notes. She cannot find them in any of the obvious place and then begins looking in place where no man would think to search. She finds Simon's notes stashed in the bottom of Maureen's sewing case.

But, before she can make her escape, she hears a floorboard in the hallway squeak. She grabs a flat-iron, the only weapon to hand, and waits by the door, ready to run. The door flies open and a fire poker flies above Gabi's head, narrowly missing her and embeds itself in the wall. Taking this as her cue, Gabi swings the flat-iron and connects, dropping her assailant to the floor. She leaps the body and runs. It's only when she is out of the house and running up the drive to the car that she realises her attacker was Maureen. They drive away.

The next morning, as they sit in the office mulling over the events of the previous night, a phone call summons them to a meeting with Horace Sternwood himself. This time, they allow the FBI men to follow them.

They are shown into the library and Sternwood soon enters. He wants the photographs destroyed. He cares nothing about the photographs themselves or about Rosenthal. He's willing to pay $1200 to the agency to immediately hand over the photographs and destroy them in his presence. When the group insists that they don't have the photographs, he thinks that they're bargaining and raises the offer to $1500. At the end of the audience, Horace Sternwood is very frustrated and says that they have 24 hours or he will need to take 'corrective' action.

On the way out, Benny asks Miguel, the butler, where Joan is. He says that she has spent the last week at the beach house. When Benny asks where the beach house is, Miguel realises that he has exposed too much 'family business' and clams up. They find the address in the records at City Hall without too much trouble.

Benny, Jack and Gabi park on the road overlooking the Sternwood's Malibu Beach beach house and walk down the drive to the front door. They knock and, when Vivian Sternwood answers, barge their way into the living room. There's no sign of anyone else. Vivian demands to know what they are doing. She refuses to admit she knows where either Joan or Rosenthal might be.

Jack and Gabi have had enough and, as they are close to turning violent, Joan steps out of the kitchen holding a pistol. Joan asks what they are doing here. They tell her that everyone thinks they have the photographs, Rosenthal or both. She is shocked that Maureen didn't hire then. Joan assumed, after Joan's prompting, that she had. That changes things, she says. The guns are put away -- Jack's in his shoulder holster and Joan's in her purse -- and all sit down calmly to talk.

Benny convinces Joan that he should speak with Simon so Joan leads them down the corridor and unlocks the door to the spare bedroom. As she opens it, Jack grabs her purse and pushes her inside.

Simon Rosenthal, in a quite disheveled state, sits on the bed reading the newspaper. Benny says that they've come to rescue him. Jack keeps the two Sternwood girls at bay with his pistol while Simon picks up his few belongings and Gabi searches Joan's purse. Gabi removes the pistol, an envelope containing photographs and negatives and a receipt for two copies of additional prints at a photo-developing shop.

The prints show Giuliani and Mayor Anderson in a back room at the Blue Parrot swapping briefcases. The Mayor opens the briefcase he received from Giuliani to check that it contains the correct amount of cash. Taking into account the camera angle, they guess they can see at least $10,000.

Gabi takes the prints and leaves Joan the negatives. Benny, Jack, Gabi and Rosenthal drive away. Rosenthal asks where they are going and Benny replies that Rosenthal has an appointment with Giuliani. Rosenthal groans that he's a dead man. That's business says Benny.

Nick Hamer takes possession of Rosenthal and when last the see him, Rosenthal is being tied to a chair and Nick is practicing swinging a sledgehammer.

They phone Horace Sternwood and tell him that there is no deal. They have the photographs and they're keeping them. They suggest that he should talk to Joan and Vivian.

The next day, they learn from the newspaper that Joan Sternwood and DA John G James have announced their engagement and, in a completely unrelated story that Mayor Anderson has decided not to run for another term of office in the elections to be held in November. From other sources, they learn that Maureen Coffey, now in hospital in a satisfactory condition, was attacked in her own home by person(s) unknown and that Simon Rosenthal is to participate in experimental joint reconstruction surgery to rebuild his kneecaps, shattered in an automotive accident late last night.

Case Closed