This case opens with a quick and disturbing glimpse of the crime: A man staggers from the sidewalk into the path of a speeding red automobile. After the impact, the vehicle veers around the shattered body and roars off into the night.
The scene shifts to the Central Police Station briefing room where Captain Leary reports the fatal hit-and-run incident. It happened just outside of Ray’s Café on North Los Angeles Street, not far from the station. He sends his detectives to the scene to investigate and seek witnesses who can provide details on the car.
Key Clue Checklist: Station Briefing
- Hit-and-run vehicle
Objectives
- Investigate Ray’s Cafe.
- Interview Shannon Perry.
- Interview Dudley Lynch.
- Investigate Shelton Residence.
- Apprehend William Shelton.
- Notify/Interview Mrs. Pattison.
- Report to Central Morgue.
- Apprehend Lorna Pattison.
- Apprehend Leroy Sabo.
Case Report
Total Number of Key Clues 9
Total Number of Interview Questions 10
Fail Conditions
- Phelps, Bekowsky, or friendly NPC dies.
- Sabo gets away or lose Shelton.
- Crime scene contaminated.
Location: Ray’s Café
Investigate Ray’s Cafe.
Follow the yellow map flag to the crime scene on the street outside Ray’s Café. Approach the uniformed patrol officer to get the details: the victim is Lester Pattison, hit by a car as he stepped into the street after leaving Ray’s. A young female witness, Shannon Perry, waits for you near the entrance. She lives above the bar. Investigate the crime scene before you approach her for a statement.
Start with the victim’s body. Examine Lester’s right breast pocket to find his Wallet. This clue adds the Pattison address to your map. Then check Lester’s left pocket for an Insurance Letter from California Fire & Life; it shows an increase in premium and payout, with a note of consternation scrawled in hand.
When you finish examining the body, Phelps automatically talks to Mal Carruthers for his Coroner’s Report. Carruthers notes that the victim was intoxicated and likely died on impact. When Phelps points out the victim’s chest wound, the coroner suggests it’s not unusual in car accidents: “Look for a car with a prominent hood ornament”.
Now explore the area. The blood smear at evidence marker C shows the body traveled a good 20 feet after impact. Marker B shows a blood splatter at what appears to be the point of impact, quite a distance from the body. The car’s skid marks at marker A suggest that the driver managed to brake before the impact. (Note: None of these observations is listed as a new clue in your notebook.)
Head down the alley to the left of Ray’s Café and approach the upright garbage can beside the first dumpster. Examine it to find a Bloody Knife. Turn it in Phelps’ hand until you can read “STA BRITE Stainless Steel” etched in the blade—this adds the knife to your Evidence page.
Interview the eyewitness.
Now that you’ve got the basic facts, approach the young woman standing alone outside the café to trigger an interview sequence. Her name is Shannon Perry.
Key Clue Checklist: Ray’s Cafe
- Wallet
- Insurance letter
- Coroner’s report
- Bloody knife
Interview: Shannon Perry
Topic: Eyewitness report
Miss Perry says she looked out her second-floor window because of an Argument Overheard downstairs. She sounds like an uncomplicated girl, and there’s no reason to doubt such a simple statement.
Correct Assessment: Good Cop
She goes on to report that she saw the car hit the victim and knock him down the street. This exchange adds the new clue plus a new Questions topic: “Argument overheard”.
Topic: Suspect vehicle description
Phelps asks her to describe the vehicle. Without hesitation she replies, “A dark Red Lincoln Continental”. She smiles slightly, as if proud of herself.
Correct Assessment: Good Cop
Phelps follows up by asking if she caught the license plate. She recalls the first three digits: 3C8. This adds a new objective: Call in the suspect vehicle.
Topic: Argument overheard
Phelps asks for more on the argument. Miss Perry reports hearing two voices, a man and a woman. That’s all she’ll say. The look on her face is fairly transparent—she chews on her lower lip and rolls her eyes. She’s holding something back. But you don’t have any evidence to the contrary yet.
Correct Assessment: Bad Cop
When Phelps accuses her of holding out, Miss Perry apologizes and sheepishly admits she’s a struggling actress and hoped to tell her story to the newspapers! She says the argument appeared to be between a married couple—the woman attacked the man with intimate, embarrassing comments.
Key Clue Checklist: Shannon Perry Interview
- Argument overheard
- Red Lincoln Continental
Interview the bartender.
After talking to Miss Perry, the detectives decide to check with the patrons inside Ray’s. Enter and approach the bartender and press Talk to trigger an interview sequence. The bartender gives his name as Dudley Lynch, and says he’s covering for the owner who left to escort Pattison’s wife, Lorna, to her home.
Interview: Dudley Lynch
Topic: Hit and run incident
Phelps asks what Lynch remembers about the accident. The bartender says he doesn’t know much—the bar was busy, and all he heard was the impact. His gaze shifts away as he says this, then he squints and seems uncomfortable.
Correct Assessment: Bad Cop
When Phelps brings up possible licensing violations, Lynch admits that Lester and Lorna Pattison were having an ugly fight. The owner made them take it outside.
Topic: Association with victim
When asked if he knew the victim, Lynch tells Phelps that he only knows Lester Pattison as a regular at the bar.
Correct Assessment: Good Cop
Lynch admits that Lester was not his favorite customer. Pattison’s wife, Lorna, accompanied him to the bar that night, but “didn’t seem too interested in the booze”.
Topic: Argument overheard in bar
This topic appears after you learn details of the Pattisons’ fight from Shannon Perry, the witness outside the bar. When Phelps asks Lynch, he corroborates that the argument was nasty and aired the couple’s “dirty laundry”. The statement seems straightforward, but then Lynch smirks and glances side to side a few times.
Correct Assessment: Bad Cop
Phelps demands more information. Chastened a bit, Lynch explains that Lorna was very upset, so the bar’s owner, Leroy Sabo, left to take her home. He divulges that Leroy and Lorna are close and recently discussed opening a new bar together. This adds Lynch’s Statement to your Evidence page and tacks on one more topic to your Questions list.
Topic: Joint business venture
This topic only appears if you made the correct assessment on Lynch’s previous answer. When Phelps asks for details on the plans for a new bar, Lynch tries to play dumb, saying, “I just serve the drinks”. But again, his smirk is a dead giveaway.
Correct Assessment: Bad Cop
When Phelps threatens to play rough, Lynch spits out the rest of the story. Lester Pattison was abusive to his wife, Lorna, when he was drinking, and was also a compulsive gambler. So Lorna pitched the bar idea to Leroy. But Lynch admits that Ray’s Café is barely making it, kept afloat by the poker games in the back room. How would Lorna Pattison and Leroy Sabo fund a new venture?
Key Clue Checklist: Dudley Lynch Interview
- Lynch’s statement
Call in the suspectvehicle’s license number.
Use the payphone down the hallway and behind the bar in Ray’s Café to phone in to L.A.P.D. dispatch and trace the partial plate number for the red Lincoln Continental. The only possible match is a car owned by someone named William Shelton. This puts Shelton’s residence on West Temple Street onto your map and adds the objective to investigate the place.
Location: Shelton Residence
Investigate the Shelton residence.
Travel to the Shelton residence 
The red Lincoln Continental is parked out front with its front grille smashed. You also find Mr. William Shelton loading suitcases into the trunk, getting ready to skip town. Phelps and Bekowsky confront the young man, who readily admits to the accident. But then he speeds off in his Lincoln!
Apprehend William Shelton.
Phelps automatically jumps into his car, giving you control of the vehicle. Chase Shelton’s red Lincoln (easy to spot in traffic) as it makes a zigzag route across the city.
Try to run his car off the road, ram it until it stops running, or pull up beside it so Bekowsky can shoot out the tires. When the Lincoln finally comes to a halt, hop out and approach the vehicle to trigger the arrest scene.
Shelton admits hitting the victim, but claims it wasn’t his fault—the guy suddenly jumped in front of his car, he says. Shelton makes another interesting claim: he says a woman and a man were standing right next to the victim just before the accident.
Location: Pattison Residence
Notify Mrs. Pattison.
Travel to the Pattison residence 
on North Hope Street and approach the front door. Lorna Pattison answers the knock and lets in Detectives Phelps and Bekowsky. You can look around the house and examine various objects, but you won’t find anything of interest regarding the case, so just follow Mrs. Pattison into the living room to trigger a cut-scene.
The detectives and the woman have a brief exchange in which Mrs. Pattison appears anything but grief-stricken about the recent loss of her husband. Then Leroy Sabo, the bar owner, appears from a back bedroom. The two explain what happened that evening, and Lorna adds that she was filing for divorce from Lester: mental cruelty.
Interview Lorna Pattison.
When the cut-scene ends, the interview with Mrs. Pattison automatically begins.
Interview: Lorna Pattison
Topic: Hit and run incident
Phelps asks Lorna how the accident occurred. She replies that Lester just walked into the path of the oncoming car. Her smirk is almost mocking. Clearly this is not the whole story, but you have no evidence to suggest otherwise.
Correct Assessment: Bad Cop
Phelps jumps on her statement, but Lorna only adds that Lester’s gambling was like a drug addiction, and he was yelling at her and others. She concludes by saying she almost felt sorry for the driver.
Topic: Nature of argument
Phelps asks her about their argument and Lorna simply says that she and Lester were always arguing, adding, “So what?” As she says this, her gaze flits from side to side. Then she swallows heavily.
Correct Assessment: Bad Cop
Phelps accuses Mrs. Pattison of baiting her husband. This prods her to provide more detail about the argument. Lester was losing at cards and made some impolite suggestions on how she could earn more money for him to get another stake in the game.
Topic: Partnership with Leroy Sabo
Phelps asks how Lorna planned to get money to invest in the new venture with Sabo. She claims she has a little money saved away. But the evasive look in her eye is classic prevarication. And in this case, you have a piece of evidence that can support a challenge to her lie.
Correct Assessment: Accuse
Evidence: Insurance letter
When Phelps points out that she increased the premium on her husband’s life insurance policy, she explains that it was Leroy Sabo’s idea. The rationale was that Lester lived dangerously, so Lorna needed extra protection. Phelps suggests that the fact speaks to motive and premeditation, but Lorna reminds him that so far the physical facts point to a hit-and-run driver. And she’s right… so far.
Call in about the autopsy results.
Exit the house and use the gamewell just down the street at the corner. Phelps gets a message from the coroner to report immediately to Central Morgue for results of the Pattison autopsy. This puts the location on your map.
Location: Central Morgue
Report to Central Morgue.
Travel to Central Morgue 
and enter the door under the Mortuary Night Entrance sign. Veer right through the open door and into the autopsy room to trigger a cut-scene. Carruthers reports a surprise development: Lester Pattison was dead before the car struck him.
A puncture wound to the heart killed Pattison—a wound that most likely matches the bloody knife you found in the alley at Ray’s Café. As Bekowsky points out, your hit-and-run case just got upgraded to “murder one”—a first-degree murder charge, meaning premeditated murder.
Key Clue Checklist: Central Morgue
- Pattison stabbed
- (updates “Hit-and-run vehicle”)
Location: Pattison Residence
Apprehend Lorna Pattison.
Return to the Pattison residence 
and approach the front door to trigger a cut-scene. Phelps reports the cause of death to Lorna Pattison, who immediately points the finger at Leroy Sabo. Leroy emerges from the bedroom waving a gun and raving at Lorna, suggesting the murder was entirely her plan. The scene’s tragic ending is inevitable…
Apprehend Leroy Sabo.
Chase down Leroy! He exits via the back door and sprints up the alley to the left. If you take too long chasing Leroy, he may take a hostage. You can use a warning shot to trigger his surrender, or you can just gun him down. Either way, you wrap up the case and can earn Captain Leary’s praise when you meet him back at Ray’s Café.
