The Agency¶
The cases that don't fit the mold.
The door on the third floor over a dentist on Merchant Street reads Blum & Cole, Inquiries. Nobody calls it that. It's a licensed, bonded inquiry firm on retainer to the County Coroner's office, which means that when a death goes to inquest instead of Homicide, the agency gets a carbon copy and a scene pass. Homicide is usually glad to see them.
History¶
Esther Blum opened it in 1951 as the investigative arm of a one-woman law practice that kept losing condemnation cases and winning appeals. Odessa Cole came back from Korea in 1953 and took over operations inside a month. The Coroner's retainer arrived the same year. George Oyama joined in 1955 after the agency subpoenaed a set of records he'd spent three years trying to see.
The agency has closed cases that should have stayed open. Cole does not discuss which.
Cases arrive as a six-line carbon from the Coroner's office. Nobody at the agency has ever met the Coroner. The radiator is always losing on the mornings a new one comes in.
Staff¶
- Odessa Cole — Operations. Former Army nurse. Triage, worst bleeding first, feelings later. She answers the phone mid-first-ring and has already thought of what you're about to say.
- Esther Blum — Counsel. Knows every condemnation statute in the state and which sentence in them is honest. "You can't subpoena a pawn ledger. You can, however, be standing beside it when someone opens it. Stand better."
- George Oyama — Records. Reads documents upside down across desks. "Paper doesn't lie. People lie, and then they make paper, and the paper remembers what order they lied in."
- Pearl Nazario — Front desk. Switchboard, typing, the door. Delancey block born. Two pencils, one cord.
Investigators¶
- Stillwater Rise/06 Campaign/Party — the player characters. What they bring that the staff can't: the street, the pier, Little China, the end of the bar, and whatever it is they see that nobody else in the room does.
How it works¶
- Cole briefs. Blum tells you what you can't do and how to stand next to it. Oyama reads what you bring back.
- The scene pass is signed by the Medical Examiner. The precinct honors it because it has to, not because it wants to.
- The retainer is a county budget line. There's always somebody on the county board asking why.