They Never Talk

Our visit didn't go as expected.....

**They Never Talk** is the 15th case in The Origins and the 5th and final case to occur in the Pacific Region.

 Summary

## Plot

After finding a document in the late Mayor Hall's folder, saying that the organization JUSTICE's headquarters was in Las Vegas, Nevada, so the team decides to head there next. We head to the interrogation room, as our ally, Amanda Middleman, said that she found JUSTICE's interrogation room and that we should come immediately. When Max Snowcone and the player head to the interrogation room to investigate, we discover Amanda dead, as well as the table, flipped over. We decide to search around the interrogation room that she died in, and we find a poker chip with a clear substance on it. After collecting a sample of the liquid on the gambling chip, Max decided to send the clear liquid to Sandra Davis, the team's lab chief. After examining the substance, Sandra said that the lab sample sent to her was a tear, who's DNA matched Artie Choke, the photographer that the team met back in Alaska. The duo met up with Artie at the nearby casino. He told us that after the death of his long-lost sister, he had quit being a photographer for her and took up his hobby of gambling. We ask him if about Amanda, to which Artie replies by saying that he does know Amanda and recently won a game of blackjack against her. He mentioned that she seemed super suspicious, which is when we told him about Amanda's grim fate. Artie acted shocked and saddened by the news, and he said to let him know when they found her killer. After Artie left, Max and the player decided to search the blackjack arena since, based on what Artie said, Amanda was recently in the casino before her death. After searching the blackjack arena, the duo finds a hat that looks familiar. It ended up belonging to Remington Dunn, the president of the U.S.A., whom we met back in Salt Lake City. When we ask Remington about his hat, he replies that Amanda took it as a joke, as she's always made fun of him because of his height. He also said that he is the average height for someone his age. the duo also finds a cigarette in the blackjack tables and end up sending it to Sandra. After finishing the analysis, Sandra told the duo that she found DNA on the cigarette, belonging to an ally to the team and an agent in Amanda's agency: Ronda Warner. The pair finds Ronda in the casino and delivers the news to her. Ronda tells Max and the player that Amanda was one of the best spies in her agency, and she doesn't know where the agency will go with Amanda gone. After getting back to base, Hunter Hondo, the team's informant said that he and Lily Hall, whom we also met in Salt Lake City, found JUSTICE's headquarters.

After Hunter and Lily tell the duo about JUSTICE's headquarters, the four of us get into a car and head to the base. While Hunter drives and the player sits in the passenger seat, Max asks Lily about how she found JUSTICE's headquarters. Lily tells the three of them that as she walked around the coordinates that her mom gave to her, she stumbled upon a beautiful but mysterious building. Lily entered the building only to find JUSTICE logos all over the wall. This scared Lily, as it made her run back to base. They parked next to the headquarters as the four enter. As Lily and the player entered to investigate, Max and Hunter stood outside the building to stay on guard. After finding a ripped note and a necklace, Lily and the player decide to go outside to tell Max and Hunter what they discovered. Instead, Max and Hunter come running into the base, saying that a suspicious and scary-looking person is walking towards their headquarters. The four of them hide in different places, and the suspicious person enters, looks around, and leaves. After they leave, the four of them escape through the back door with the evidence they acquired. We get back to base and piece up the letter, which says, "girl, you're not good enough for this job, go home!" It was analyzed by Aaron Hall, who is the team's profiler and Lily's father, who tells the duo that it was written by Amanda, as it matched her handwriting perfectly. He couldn't tell who it was for, so he got Sandra to do a DNA test. Sandra entered the room and the team that she found two DNA samples. One DNA sample matched Amanda's, and the other matching Ronda's. He stayed with Lily at the base while Max and the player went to interrogate Ronda. We ask her about the letter, and she said that Amanda wanted her out of the agency, as she believed she wasn't fit enough for the job. Ronda did everything possible to keep her position and was almost let go until Ronda killed Rostya Pushkin, a Russian secret agent we met three times before his death. Ronda said that she could handle Amanda's position better then she could, but Ronda would never kill over her job, only on the preferences of her spy job, like when she killed Rostya. We also send the necklace to Sandra, who tells us it belongs to Vivian Jacobs, a model we also met back in Alaska. When we meet up with Vivian again, she says that she saw the building and thought it was pretty, and did some photoshoots there and happened to lose her necklace there. When the duo heads back to the precinct, we see Remington, who says he needs to speak with us right away.

When the duo arrives back to base, they stumble across Remington, who says he needs to speak with Max and the player right away. Remington tells the pair that he and Amanda were preparing a sting operation on JUSTICE, but that she refused to cooperate, as she works alone. He decided to tell us this now as the plan failed. He wanted to get us involved and informed. After our encounter with Remington, we decide to head back to the casino. While there, we find a faded paycheck, a familiar-looking mirror, and a dagger with "you almost killed me!" inscribed on it. We decide to check out the large knife first, and we send it to Aaron. He tells us that Lily was recently in his room with him. She explained to him that the dagger belonged to her and that she's waiting in the interrogation room to give us an explanation. After arriving in the interrogation room, the duo asked Lily about the dagger, before Lily told us the story about how Lily heard of Amanda a couple of years ago and that Lily always looked up to Amanda. When she finally met her idol, she accidentally almost killed her. Lily was heartbroken and depressed for months. When she saw Amanda at the casino, she purchased a dagger to give to her to remind her. Lily admits it might've been too harsh but that Amanda should've known better. We then analyze the familiar-looking mirror, which still has cracks from when we last saw it in Alaska. The player immediately realized that the mirror was the same one used when Vivian and Whitney Bradford got into an argument. We ask Vivian about the mirror ending up in the casino, and she says she must've lost it while she was gambling. When we ask her if she knew Amanda, Vivian said that what she said was just a lie and that she was looking at herself in the mirror during a game between her, Amanda, and Artie, when Amanda called her fat and ugly and told her to put the mirror down. Vivian got angry, threw the mirror to the ground, and stormed off crying. We later reveal the faded paycheck, which showed that Artie owed thousands of dollars to Amanda after beating him in many casino games. We talk to Artie about Amanda winning all the casino games against him, and Artie said that he's glad she's dead because he would go bankrupt if not for her death. We remind Artie that nothing is worth murdering over. We leave the casino to recheck the interrogation room where Amanda died. After getting all the evidence needed, Max and the player were finally ready to arrest Amanda's killer.

## Killer and Motives

The killer turned out to be Vivian.

Upon admitting to the murder, Vivian revealed herself to be the Russian Hitwoman Esfir Volkova, who was sent from Russia to gain information on JUSTICE. Esfir thought that Amanda would know information on JUSTICE, so she locked the door to JUSTICE's interrogation room and attempted to grill Amanda. When Amanda refused to talk, Esfir lost her temper. In a fit of rage, she bashed Amanda's head with a vase, killing her. Judge Virgo sentenced Esfir to life in prison without parole in solitary confinement.

## Faces of Evil (5/5)

After arresting Esfir, we storm the JUSTICE headquarters, but at the time we get there, the whole building got emptied, and any documents we found were gone. The only paper we find unharmed, says "Go To Flagstaff, ASAP" on it, so that's where we're heading next.

## Suspects

Artie Choke (Traits: 1, 2, 3)Remington Dunn (Traits: 2, 3)Ronda Warner (Traits: 1, 2, 3, 4)Lily Hall (Traits: 1, 5)Vivian Jacobs (Traits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)