Detective O'Malley

!Detective O'Malley.webp

Description

Appearance: Somewhere in his late forties, the kind of face that's seen too many crime scenes without enough sleep. Wears the same coat. Drinks bad coffee. Gets the job done.

Personality: Weary, professional, quietly decent. The kind of cop who will bend a rule if it means the right thing happens, but won't break one without a good reason. Has known Chandler long enough to know he's going to be a problem and help him anyway.

Voice / Mannerisms: Direct. Brief. Doesn't repeat himself. The threat to arrest Chandler if he's found at another crime scene was delivered without raising his voice — which made it more convincing, not less.

Background

O'Malley has been quietly feeding information to Chandler T. Harrow about the drowning deaths in Boston Harbor — Wesley Drummond, Roy Tillman, Peter Vance — all found under circumstances that don't add up. He's pulling files. He's not ready to call it supernatural. He's also not ready to close the cases.

He called Chandler about Wesley Drummond's body specifically: no water in the lungs. The man drowned without drowning. O'Malley flagged it because it doesn't make sense and he is the kind of detective who cannot leave things that don't make sense.

Session 01

O'Malley called Chandler with the Drummond lead, then arrived at Long Wharf after a dock worker reported seeing Leonard and Chandler with Diane's unconscious body. Diane was loaded into an ambulance. O'Malley cornered Chandler.

He delivered a full speech about Chandler turning up at scenes he has no business being at. Chandler talked his way through it. O'Malley, at the end of a genuinely impressive sustained argument, said the thing no veteran detective wants to say:

"I fucking hate it when you make fucking sense."

He let them go. As Chandler and Leonard stole a skiff from the dock and gunned the motor across the harbor, O'Malley watched from the dock:

"What boat? — You sons of bitches! You sons of whores! All her paperwork is gonna be unbelievable! God damn it!"

His voice disappeared over the harbor wind.

O'Malley is now short one boat and short any explanation for where Chandler went or what really happened at Long Wharf. He has Diane's recording equipment, which captured the EM spike before the ghost manifested. He does not yet know what to do with this.

Session 02

Arrived at Spectacle Island with a Coast Guard vessel at dawn on October 28, 1986, hunting the boat Chandler had stolen from Long Wharf. Found the party in the Blount Fisheries warehouse, gave them a second sustained diatribe, let them burn the warehouse down as a cover, and called in a favor from Captain Madiera to ferry them back to Boston in a tugboat.

Almost had Pierre deported on his accent alone before Chandler redirected with "he's a hockey fan." Fawned over Jacques for the Cam Neely defense — and asked Jacques for front-row tickets. The tickets were not for him — he intended to pass them to Captain Madiera as payment for ferrying the party off the island on short notice. He pre-spent Jacques's generosity to settle one of his own debts, and neither Jacques nor Madiera were told.

"There's a garbage man, a hockey legend, a boy scout, Prince. You got fucking Prince in there, Harrow? And you adopted a kid from fucking Vietnam."
— Detective O'Malley

Ten days later, drove across town to the South Shore Diner during Chandler's interview with Jacques and slapped a manila folder onto the booth table. Three incidents, ten days apart, different neighborhoods, same log note: cold, not cold weather, just wrong cold.

"See what you find. And Harrow, I'm not looking for a story. I'm looking for a thread I can do something with."
— Detective O'Malley

Chandler connected the incidents to Diane's fractal frost at Long Wharf. O'Malley will keep his ear to the ground.

On his way out, O'Malley walked straight into Bo in the diner doorway, got a face full of kombucha exhale, pulled a handle of Stoli from his coat, downed it, and left.

Connections