CASE 106

The Seven Pieces of Silver

1914. The year that snuffed out the partnership of Grayjoy Private Investigators and blipped the 12-year straight streak of cases that had been the bread and margarine (who can afford butter?) for Chiarascuro Gray and his partner, Joy Piccante.
The investigation that would be their last together began as a hunt for a murderer who used the dark arts to commit a series of occult ritualistic killings. Joy and Gray were led by breadcrumbs of silver pieces, seven of them, to the alley outside the clubhouse where the perpetrator, possibly named Sableton, was committing his serial magical murders. In a cruel twist of irony, Joy Piccante was killed not by some psychic spell or demonic force but by a mundane .44 magnum, wielded by the very man they sought to apprehend.
In the aftermath of the arrest, the perp ("Sableton"?) was sent to the chair to fry, but it turned out Grayjoy's investigation into "Sableton" and the subsequent arrest and even death penalty had been the criminal underworld's plan the whole time.
Gray's description of "Sableton" continuing his crime streak even after being fried, alongside the criminal's occult leanings, suggest that "Sableton" may have survived the execution, perhaps as an undead - has anyone checked the Cold Hand's payroll?
Whatever the outcome, the Sableton case turned Gray off investigations into the occult for the next five years. It was not until, over 100 cases later, that his brother pressured Gray into once again accepted an arcane assignment (CASE 214). Even now, despite his friendship with occult expert Axel Webb, who is always eagerly available for consultation into the eldritch and arcane, Gray avoids magical investigations wherever he possibly can. He has yet to take Joy's name off the building.

Type

Report, Incident

Year

1914