Here we go my friend. The beginning of it all. First episode of the Nights of Payne Town story arc: Killing her Softly.
Performing as MC: Pavel
So let me tell you the very first part of this story. This one’s about jazz, broken hearts and even more broken minds, but most importantly: it’s about this City. The City which seems to have it embedded in its nature to ruin, corrupt and devour everything inside itself.
Eddie played by Kapik
Could it be just the way that people are in this place?
Or is it something woven into the very fabric of its streets? Something ancient, spiteful, slumbering beneath the concrete crust, poisoning citizens’ minds like a rotten carcass in a well?
Well (pun intended...), that’s why we’re here. To play to find out.
How about we start with Sammy Jefferson Jr. and the day he visited Eddie’s office to ask him for help?
“See Mr. mayor, I got this club, right, Washboard it’s called, right on fifth, erh, great place, really!” Sammy rambles on while munching on his hat. “You should definitely visit sometime, take your wife for a nice night out, you know. We do live music or you can shoot some pool if you’re into that… Yeah, that support program you greenlit last term, that really helped us out! We fixed the wet basement thanks to that, hehe, yeah, I knew why I voted for you!” His wide smile stretches his lips in a violent matter. “But um, see, the thing here is um, this little inconvenience happened that, well… somebody died.”
It turns out that about a month ago, certain Darnell Fox suffered a heart attack in Washboard. The circumstances were more than confusing for a regular Sleeper such as Sammy: Darnell was found after hours by club’s bouncer and Martha Ellis, Washboard’s singer who had been performing that night. Darnell was lying beneath the stage, clutching his chest, with a hooded figure standing above him. The perpetrator then escaped through the back door. Based on Martha Ellis’ description the police is now looking for a “tattooed skinhead in a hoodie” but…
“…but that’s the thing, Mr. mayor sir, the police ain’t doing shit, pardon my manners. It’s been a month and the case is still open, but Washboard, well, pnly just. People are scared, sir. Say the place is cursed. No one from Cryfield will set foot in there no more. Few more weeks like this and it’ll go under. So I reckoned… Maybe if you’d put in a word for me, you know? Perhaps it’d speed things up a bit?”
Oh, Sammy, Eddie will do much more than that. He’s going to get the Crew together.
Freeda played by Terka
Nathan played by Pida
Rupert played by Tom
While Eddie heads to Cryfield’s police precinct, the rest of the Crew sets off to check out Washboard. And honestly, my friend, I was a bit worried first that this case might be a bit tough to crack at times, but for this session all the players brought their A-game. When they were done with that place, there was not a piece of evidence undiscovered and not a witness who hadn’t been heard out.
They get a ton of clues to go on, but one motif seems to be coming around like a bad penny with every new piece of information they find: that everyone in this story is down on their bloody luck.
Take Sammy, the erratic owner of Washboard himself. He may pretend to be orderly businessman – and he may even honestly wish to be one – but as the Crew finds out early on, along with his club he inherited ties to the City’s underground which aren’t exactly easy to cut loose. This is the first time the Crew hears the name "Belenko". Though it definitely won't be the last.
Or Martha Ellis, the singer, who used to be one of the most celebrated jazz voices in Downtown before her career took an unfortunate turn. Now she’s drowning her depressions in alcohol and bittersweet memories of glory she’ll probably never get back.
And as the Crew goes on and on, every new clue unravels another foiled destiny.
Meanwhile at the precinct, Eddie has to face another common but equally dismal reality of this City. Darnell’s case was assigned to the detectives Archer, Porter and Atherton: the infamously corrupt trio dirtier than miner’s rug and unfortunately they are the main torso of Cryfield precinct’s police force.
“Oh, sure we’re working on it,” Porter reassures Eddie while shaving his beard with an electric shaver above his desk filled with unresolved files. It’s obvious these are not being paid more than the absolute minimum of attention. “We’re crunching hard,” Archer nods in between bites of his sandwich. “But you know how it goes, Mr. mayor,” Atherton adds, sketch of the suspected skinhead in a hoodie in his hands, “after the first week most cases go cold, that’s just how it is….”
It’s pretty obvious they know more than they’re letting on and someone’s just paying them to keep it to themselves. Although who and to what end, that remains to be seen.
Meanwhile thanks to one of the few remaining regulars at the Washboard, the Crew finds out about another similar incident: a tragic death of a father at his son’s funeral at Green Meadows Funeral Home – again with the same hooded phantom on scene.
“But the really scary thing?” the woman sitting at the bar whispers so that Sammy, substituting for bartender for tonight, can't hear her. “Martha Ellis was there too, performing the requiem for that poor boy. I’m telling you, that woman is cursed. Misery follows her wherever she goes.”
And not just misery it seems.
[Pida: Could that hooded guy be her fan? Someone from her past, maybe from when she was a big Broadway star…?]
[Tom: You mean he’s some weirdo who’s psychopathically in love with her and murders those who try to get too close to her?]
[Pida: That would work for Darnell. He was found in the club after hours…]
[Kapik: Yeah, but probably not for what happened at the funeral home. I doubt the dead kid’s father was trying to smoosh Martha during the ceremony.]
[Terka: And I’m honestly not sure how many fans Martha would still have. Remember what Freeda found in her dressing room?]
The Crew didn’t leave anything to chance. Freeda used a little frozen water trick to get inside her dressing room. If they hadn’t known known about her alcohol habit before then, the trash bin full of empty bottles in there would have been more than enough proof. The newspaper clippings highlighting the biggest successes of her past career (and black marker lines rigorously redacting even the shortest criticisms) are a perfect showcase of her current mental state, along with a business card of one Mairead Conroy, a therapist working under the Knight Asylum.
Well, at least she’s getting help.
The further the investigation continues, the more another thing becomes clear: Archer, Porter & Atherton are not only determined to stall the case, they are willing to do anything to keep the Crew out of it. The Crew soon realizes they’re being followed wherever they go. And that they need a change of strategy.
[Kapik: Those guys definitely know more than they’re letting on. Remember when Eddie visited them at the precinct? They were hiding some folders in front of him. I bet we won’t find anything in official records, but if we could get our hands on those files…]
[Terka: But how do you want to infiltrate a police station?]
[Tom: Did someone say rat infestation?]
[Terka: No. Police – station.]
[Tom. Exactly.]
Yeah. Unleashing vermin on a place he needs to get into is kind of Rupert’s power move.
When he’s done, this place is going to wish it was ancient Egypt.
About an hour later, Rupert’s green Grab & Yeet Extermination Services van parks in front of Cryfield’s precinct. Rupert talks receptionist’s ears off the way only Tom can pull off, then sneakily takes out his Pied Piper Harmonica a blows quietly.
Ten minutes later the whole building has a serious infestation problem.
After the evacuation is dealt with (and hopefully nor Archer, nor Porter nor Atherton recognized Rupert in his gas mask) and the only other living beings at the precinct are Rupert’s rats, Freeda climbs through the window and they get to searching. The official file on Darnell’s case is indeed surprisingly slim but detectives’ locked drawers hold much more interesting treasures.
[Pavel: Along with the files you’re looking for there’s something else at the bottom of the drawer, something a bit peculiar. It’s a gun with its service number shaven off and a Post-it note stuck to it which reads: “Fridge-bound”.]
[Terka: Wait… Fridge-bound? As in… Heading to a… Fridge? What? That’s actually connected to the case?]
[Pavel: Nah. Just foreshadowing for something I’d like to do in the future. *smirks*]
The files however set the players in a new course. It’s revealed there was another incident in Downtown with similar circumstances like those in Washboard and Green Meadows that APA (the Crew’s new acronym for the detective trio) didn’t bother putting in the official file. Tiffany Bancroft, a trophy wife so obvious it makes the papers blush, died of a heart attack in her and her husband’s penthouse. Again the witnesses described the same hooded man, but this time – according to APA’s files – Martha Ellis was nowhere near the scene.
However, APA wrote down a number that somebody apparently dialed on the penthouse’ landline around the time of Tiffany’s death.
[Kapik: So we just… call it and see?]
[Terka: Before we do, how about the swear word starting with a P…?]
[Pida: Huh?]
[Terka: …a PLAN…]
[Tom: Hahahaha. Yeah, right. I’ll just dial the number, see who it is and then pretend I’m whoever they need to talk to.]
If the Crew knew a bit more about the City’s underground at this point they might not have been caught so off-guard by what the phone call ended up being about. The person – more or less anyway – on the other side of the call was Snatcher, a body-disposal entrepreneur who, as he put it, was promised a body to dispose of.
[Kapik: That’s weird. Shouldn’t he be angry about not getting paid instead of not getting the body to dispose of?]
[Pida: Must be a really dedicated criminal…]
Yeah, no.
Snatcher is a Ghoul Rift. The bodies he’s disposing of are a majority of his actual payment. That’s one of the reasons he’s so cheap, after all.
However, the Crew has no idea about any of that when they promise him his body in hopes that meeting with him face to face might give them some new pointers as to what actually happened at Bancroft’s penthouse. The plan is very non-specific. They’ll cross that bridge when they come to it.
[Terka: So… Are we actually finding a body for this guy now?]
[Tom: Yeah… How about Nathan’s?]
[Pida: Ummm sorry what now?!]
[Kapik: Shouldn’t the body be dead? And also, probably, Tiffany’s?]
[Tom: He can just lie really still. And we’ll put him in a bag. ... Though he should probably take his sword with him, just in case.]
Good call with the sword.
Because when they enter Snatcher’s butcher shop and lay their eyes on its 7 feet tall, partially decomposing owner dressed in a bloody plastic apron, the players realize that putting a live person in the bag might have been a serious hazard.
“Next time payment is late, the price is double,” Snatcher growls, easily lifts the bag with one hand and throws it onto a bloodstained butcher block. “You better leave now,” he continues, brandishing his enormous rusty cleaver. “This will not be pretty.”
Until now this investigation was going relatively peacefully. Which is about to change.
[Pida: Alright, this is Nate’s time to shine. When he hears the *shing* of the blade, he bursts out of the body bag with his claws, buries them in Snatcher’s half rotten face, drags his head down and puts the sword through the bottom of his chin!]
[Pavel: Holy shit!]
[Kapik: You know we still need to interrogate him right…]
[Pida: He’s a big guy, he’s gonna walk that off…]
Okay. This is going to be brutal.
[Also Pida: *rolls 1&1*]
Oh. Okay. Still brutal, just in a very different way.
[Also Pida: WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME?!]
Soooo the Snatcher fight takes a bit longer than expected, but luckily no one suffers any serious harm during it. That is except for Snatcher, who – after putting up quite a fight though – ends up with the hilt of Nathan’s now broken sword buried in his skull and the back of his head blown off by his Dragon flames.
Yup. Still brutal.
The interrogation then goes a little slower, mostly because the interrogated now has only 15 % of his brain matter still inside the skull as opposed to the usual 50 %. It seems however that the killer of Tiffany Bancroft called Snatcher to order his services. However, he distorted his voice as not to be recognized on the phone and more importantly, when Snatcher got there, the place was full of cops already, hence the trouble with his "payment".
[Kapik: Well that didn’t really get us anywhere…]
Well… Maybe not yet.
But in any case, now the Crew has bigger problems to solve. That night when they’re mulling the case over at Cryfield Echo Newsroom, the doorbell rings. Archer, Porter & Atherton are at the door.
They’re here to arrest them.
“Hands behind your back!” Porter orders them as he’s approaching with the cuffs at the ready. “Be smart about this and we won’t have to do it the hard way.”
“This is fucking harassment you pig!” Freeda screams when Atherton pushes her against the wall.
“Trust me honey, when I harass you, you’ll know it,” he whispers in her ear.
[Terka: Jesus Christ!]
[Pavel: I know. I might need a shower after this.]
At the precinct it turns out that APA knows about their little Rat Infestation Operation. They forgot about the cameras. And APA is tired of their meddling. They have a very simple proposal for every each one of them.
See, Pavel always wanted to try out giving all the players a simultaneous Hard Choice like it’s written in the Shark Tank with Honey Lip, but he never got to do it there. So now Archer, Porter and Atherton put each of the characters into a separate interrogation room and explain them, that either they forget about the case and get back to their ordinary lives (while gaining Attention point in one of their themes), or…
“…or we’ll make sure you lose that rat exterminating company you got,” says Archer to Rupert, “along with the van and your nice little house and every last penny you have. Maybe because of tax evasions. Those forms can be a pain, can’t they? So easy to make a mistake that could cost you a fortune. You’ll live the rest of your lives in the sewers with that vermin you clearly love so much…”
“…or we’ll pin so much shit on you even your daddy won’t be able to swallow it,” says Porter to Nathan. “You think you’re safe just because you’re somebody’s son? After what we’ll put on your record he’ll ditch you to the gutter and never say your name again. See how great you life’s gonna be when daddy’s not around to save your ass.”
“…or we’ll take a look at that community center of yours,” says Atherton to Freeda. “You’re working with kids, right? Those guys have it rough. Half of their parents are criminals, half of their neighbors just as well… You know, anything could happen to thse fellas. A local gang could pick them up. Maybe a shootout happens right in front of their house. This sort of stuff happens every day and nobody bats an eye…”
“…or we’ll make sure you never get a single vote again.” That’s Eddie’s offer. “Maybe we’ll add a little something for your wife too. We already have pictures of arresting you. Who knows what for? How about hiring a prostitute? Maybe even a teenage prostitute, what do you say, how would your missy like that…”
[Kapik: Okay. I’ll stop. holding. back.]
[Pavel: …ummm what now?]
[Kapik: I mean, I know you’re doing the whole Hard Choice thing but I can still play, right? It’s not so heavily scripted, is it…?]
[Pavel: Ummmmm yeah, sure, I… I guess…]
[Kapik: Cool. Watch this.]
Freeda, Nathan and Rupert are still waiting in the holding cell, thinking about their hard choices when APA appears in the bullpen, walking Eddie out. Their faces are pale, eyes blank and movements stiff. As if what they’ve just seen will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
“Thank you gentleman,” Eddie says calmly and straightens out his tie while Porter is letting the rest of the Crew out. “You’re not going to be bothering us again,” he whispers in Archer’s ear then. “Oh, and um… You’re gonna vote for me in the next primaries, got it? Cool.”
“How the hell did you do that?” Freeda asks him when they’re safely out of the precinct.
“I’m a people person,” Eddie smiles.
The really scary part is how much Eddie enjoyed this.
That night he gets another call from Sammy. Martha was attacked. Police is on the scene but Sam is asking Eddie to go check up on her. He obliges – and takes the Crew with him.
It’s the first time they’re seeing Martha in real life. She looks nothing like her glamorous self from Washboard’s posters. Now, dressed in a dingy night gown, with fresh scratches on her forehead and arms, collapsed on a chair in her cramped kitchen and with her breath smelling of cheap wine, she paints an entirely different picture.
Crew explains that Sammy sent her – and she tells them about the attack. It was the hooded man again. He came for her, but she narrowly managed to fight him off. It almost seems as if that realization hit her in the middle of her sentence: he came for her. He’s always been trying to get to her. And all those people died because just because they got in the way.
With that she breaks down.
[Terka: Hm. So this guy can stop people’s hearts by looking at them but he’s trying to wrestle her?]
It’s not the first time when the right doubts cross the players minds…
[Tom: Maybe she’s somehow immune. I mean, I’m pretty sure she’s a Rift. She probably doesn’t know it, but from the way she speaks about her depressions I wouldn’t be surprised if she wasn’t at least a bit awoken.]
…but they never stay for long.
[Kapik: Can we try to Look Beyond the Mist?]
[Pavel: Sure thing. You can’ be certain what exact Mythos she has, but she certainly does have one. The whole apartment reeks of it. When you Look Beyond the Mist, the wooden floor turns into black mud and heavy, bitter fog fills the air. For a second, it stops you from breathing, while the hungry blackness clutches onto your feet, trying to drag you down.]
[Pida: Holy shit, what is this, a Rift of Depression?]
[Pavel: I can’t comment on that, but she does have a full-of-self-hate-4 status.]
[Terka: Jesus. Isn’t it great how we always choose such positive topics for our leisure time activities?]
The interview continues briefly after Martha regains her cool. She doesn’t know who the attacker is or why he’s after her. They ask her whether she wishes to know if they catch him.
“No, no, please, I just… I just want it to stop. Please. Just make it stop. Whatever means necessary...”
Fortunately for Martha, the Crew is closing in. The police had already collected the blood work from the scene. One Eddie’s visit at the precinct is enough for APA to share what they have found.
[Pavel: You should be careful with APA however. Neither of them are under Eddie’s direct control. They’re terrified of him, but that can wear off. However for now, they’ll tell you who’s blood they found.]
His name is John Nowak: a deaf-mute worker from Industrial Zone with previous charges of violent behavior. And he fits the description like a heavy duty glove.
This is it.
On their way to Harrington Welding & Fabrications where Nowak is employed, one thing keeps coming back to them though.
If Nowak is indeed mute, how could he make the call from Bancroft’s Penthouse to Snatcher?
The foreman at Harrington Welding & Fabrications isn’t keen on sharing where Nowak is. Apparently, he has a soft spot for him. “Whatever it is, he didn’t do it,” he says firmly. “And I sure as hell ain’t gonna help you frame him.” But when Nathan offers him a check that could pay for half of his workers’ medical bills, he eventually reconsiders.
They get an address of an abandoned automobile factory Nowak might be hiding in.
And that’s where they find him.
He tries to run – and he almost succeeds. They chase him through the labyrinth of heavy lathe machines, old engines and generators that served as his hideout. Just before he slips through their fingers, Freeda manages to freeze him in place with the moisture in basement’s air.
And they’ve got him.
Archer, Porter and Atherton arrive minutes later. This time their cocky attitude is gone. They approach Nowak with careful apprehension, admit they were following the Crew and reluctantly thank them for assistance with the investigation. They even agree on giving the Crew five minutes with Nowak in the interrogation room.
The Cryfield precinct gets particularly busy that night. Sammy arrives along with his bouncer to confirm Nowak’s identity. When he leaves the cell he rushes to Eddie, smile on his face looking honest for the first time since forever.
“Thank you, Mr. mayor, seriously, god bless you! I need to call Martha, she’s going to be so relieved! And you, you mister, you’re drinking on the house ‘till the day I die! Washboard’s back in business!”
Nowak’s foreman shows up a few minutes later. Unlike Sammy, all he has for the Crew is an angry scowl.
Eventually they get a chance to talk to Nowak themselves. “Five minutes,” Porter reminds them as he unhooks the camera in the interrogation room. But of course, even if they can talk to Nowak, it’s not like he can talk back. As it turns out, he can’t write at all and can read only the most basic words. They kepp trying different means of communication until somebody hands him a poster with Martha.
He takes the pencil and scrawls all over it violently, putting a hole through the paper where her heart should be.
It’s at this point where the players go into a two hour long discussion on what they are missing.
Cause they must be missing something, right? Nowak doesn’t seem dangerous. He could break a tree in two with his bare hands, but more than anything he looks exhausted and scared for his life – as a person living in a world without any means of comprehending it rightly should be. And if he can actually stop people's hearts, why didn't he use that power to escape? There’s a clear question on all the player’s minds:
What if it wasn’t him?
But there’s still too many gaps in the story for their taste. The events at Bancroft Penthouse are still unclear just as Nowak’s motives for stalking and attacking Martha. And so, eventually, rather than going with their gut feeling, the Crew decides to let Archer, Porter and Atherton do their job.
Nowak goes to jail.
And life in Cryfield goes on. The District can actually sleep a little bit safer now.
Some time later the Crew gets invited to Washboard for a grand reopening by Sammy. Martha’s going to sing and they all get VIP places on the house, of course.
“Just you wait, guys,” he promises them on the phone. “I’m so glad you’ll have a chance to hear her. Her talent is… Just indescribable. You won't believe your ears.”
Yeah. That they won't.
In a short moment of doubt, Eddie asks his wife, a nurse, to arrange an ambulance in front of the club should anything happen.
Which it will. And the Crew will witness from the front row.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Washboard!” Sammy grins from the stage where the band has already set up, ready to get to business. The club is packed. Sammy’s eyes shine with satisfaction of a fulfilled dream and hopes for his bright future. “I immensely value all of you coming here, I truly do! But you're not here for my rambling, are you? Please welcome with a round of applause: the lady of the honor, Martha Ellis!”
Martha approaches the stage with a light step, casually putting an empty wine glass on the bar as she does. In a black velvet dress, with her hair put up and lights of reflectors gazing upon her, she really does look like she’s made for broadway.
“Thank you,” she says timidly, as if she was actually shy. “I hope you’ll excuse a quick sentiment on my part… I must admit, last few months have not been easy for me. Now standing back on stage I finally feel like I have firm ground beneath my feet, but not so long ago… I had to cope with many terrible things. Depression, loneliness, insomnia…” She breathes in. “I could barely stand to look in the mirror sometimes. And that’s what this first song is going to be about.”
And then she sings.
Say my friend, I’ve never got to tell you about that incident which ended Martha’s career in the first place, have I?
It was one just like this. When she mentally broke half of the audience in Metropolitan Opera with her voice.
Only back then she wasn't half as strong as she's now.
Her melody freezes the Crew to their seats and pierces their minds like needles. But it’s not actually her voice they hear – it’s just something it awakens inside of them, something much closer, much more intimite and much, much worse. And now they’re locked with it in the tiny space of their own helpless minds. Trapped there with the worst nightmares their psyche could ever think of.
[Pavel: Alright guys. Roll Face Danger.]
Eddie, Freeda and Nathan manage to fight back. Hard to say how long they were out of it, but when they finally open their eyes again, the whole room is silent safe for Martha’s eerie voice. The whole audience is frozen in their seats, eyes wide open and fingers clutching their armchairs in spasm.
Rupert included.
After all, there’s not much that could beat his nightmares.
[Tom: I’ve got no tags for this. This is going to be bad.]
[Terka: Can we give him Help? I still have one point for him!]
[Pida: Me too!]
[Kapik: As do I.]
[Pavel: Alright. Won’t be enough to shield him completely, but at least his heart will hold.]
All of them jump to Rupert and start shaking his head, calling out his name. He finally snaps out of it. The rest of the audience isn’t so lucky. People start pulling their hair, gnawing at their eyes and screaming in horrific harmony with Martha’s song. Sammy Jefferson Jr. sitting at the table next to them is banging his head violently against the table.
[Pavel: Alright guys. The song goes on and so do its effects. If you don’t do something soon, audience’s hearts will give up. And yours possibly too.]
[Tom: Well, it’s our mess, isn’t it. Let’s go and fix it.]
Eddie goes first. “MARTHA! STOP THIS, NOW!” he orders her just like he’d ordered countless people before her, but her voice responds with a fierce aggression and pushes him back into his chair.
Audience’s screams slowly die out. Now they’re just dropping to the ground. Dead silent.
Nathan’s hands start sparkling with fire uncontrollably. His nightmare’s coming true.
[Terka: Freeda’s going to put it out! I’ve got on more Help point for Nathan as well, I can help him Face Danger.]
Meanwhile Rupert grabs his Relic harmonica in his shaking fingers and blows into it. The melody that comes out clashes with Martha’s as only a major with minor could. And Rupert steps forth, shielded by harmonica’s tune for long enough to get to the bottom of the stage. He takes out the sedative he had originally prepared for Nowak but never had to use and he buries the needle in her calf.
[Pavel: It’s something – but it’s not enough. You’re not sure she even feels it in her current state.]
[Terka: Goddammit, let me have her! I burn my Juggling equipment Power tag for a hit and finish her off!]
[Tom: What, are you going to knock her out with a juggling pin?]
[Terka: No, something cooler.]
Freeda takes out her poi-rope, swings it above her head and slings it with deadly precision around Martha’s throat. Her voice gets strangled right before her final crescendo. She comes out of it and locks eyes with Freeda, her sight being full of spite and hatred – and Freeda jerks the rope down with all her power, flipping her down from the stage onto the Washboard floor.
Her song dies out. Show’s over.
It’s only thanks to the ambulance waiting in front of the club that nobody died. The few who were close got immediate attention, the hearts of the rest fortunately held for as long as they needed to.
And while more and more paramedics arrive at the scene and tend to the shocked and terrified audience, our Crew kneels down to Martha.
[Pida: So… What do we do with her? I mean… She probably doesn’t even know she’s the one doing all of it…]
“Of… of course I know…” Martha mumbles.
[All the Players: What?!]
“It just… can’t be helped,” Martha whispers. Her voice is coarse from her ruffled voice strings, her mind cloudy from the sedatives. “That… hunger… inside…”
“Hunger?” The Crew exchanges a long look. “That’s what it is? That thing inside, it’s making you do this? Because whatever it is, you can fight it…!”
“But I don’t want to,” she shakes her head. As if she were tired of arguing about this. As if she’s done it a million times on her own and repeating that same discussion annoyed her. “Because if I don’t feed it… Then the voice… My voice… It goes away. And I’ll be like everyone else and… it will never be… like it used to…”
It’s at this moment the Crew realizes that soft, fragile, poor Martha Ellis has been playing them from minute one.
She wasn’t John Nowak’s victim. She wasn’t even victim to whatever it was hiding inside of her, or at least not exclusively. She was victim to her own pride. Her inability to let the past be past. And so, in the end, were all of those she had killed.
Or at least that’s what it seemed to be from where the Crew was standing. But as they had couldn't possibly know at this point, that was merely a tip of the iceberg now, wasn’t it?
In the end, Martha Ellis was handed over to the authorities. Rupert’s rather brutal suggestion of dripping acid down her throat to prevent her from ever singing again was quickly dismissed and instead, Nathan walked in with his family's squad of lawyers. Of course, no Sleeper judge or jury would ever buy into a story about a woman literally breaking people’s hearts with her voice. They had to make it look believable and that unfortunately meant dragging somebody down along with Martha. After all, she was the one who’s performance was deemed unsuitable and possibly even dangerous way back when that fateful Opera show tanked her career. But Sammy Jefferson Jr. was the solicitor who knowingly endangered the whole audience of Washboard by irresponsibly getting her back on stage.
He lost the club. Along with a lot of money for court fees. Money which, as the players have probably realized by now, were not always strictly his. And Martha? Her arrest had to fall to someone’s lap, at least on paper. And detectives Archer, Porter and Atherton were happy to take that fall.
But it was worth it, right? At least she’ll no longer be able to hurt anyone when she’s safe behind bars.
Except…
Martha never made it to prison. Due to her mental state, she was instead moved to a secure department of the Knight Asylum.
And as you might suspect, her role in all of this was far from over.
But that's a story for another time.
[This episode is based on a scenario from an official CIty of Mist book Nights of Payne Town written by Amit Moshe.]
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