Update 2: The Trib Only Hires Men
From outside the Tribune building, we can use the Taxi sign to instantly summon a taxi using whatever black magic they use in movies about New York to make taxis appear on command.
Here, we meet our amnesiac cabbie, Rocco, who is willing to give a ride to anyone with money.. or members of the press. If taxi drivers actually did this, I would never have used my own car when I worked in the media.
I dunno, I think we should check his taxi license. I think Ol’ Buttsy disappeared after Dracula Unleashed and no one really knows where he went off to.. and this guy talks an awful lot like him.
Nope, he’s legit. Rocco is kind of a jerk in that he forces us to show him our press pass every time we want to take a cab ride - he won’t just remember that we’re a reporter. Showing him the pass opens Laura’s notebook, which allows us to pick a location to visit.
Not all of the locations work - New York obviously is too vague for him to understand - but the rest do. Surprisingly, Rocco knows EXACTLY where the speakeasy we want to visit is located, despite there probably being hundreds in New York City at the time. For now, we’ll go to the police station.
Welcome to the local police precinct.. and wait.. is that a drunk guy over in the corner? Haven’t I seen this guy somewhere before?
Uh-oh. Hey, buddy, you might not want to take any trips to England anytime soon. In fact, just stay away from British people altogether. Especially detectives.
Anyway, we can take a look at the drunken guy and.. wow, Laura’s even more twisted than Detective Halligan.
We can also try the “use” action on the drunk, which causes Laura to try talking to him.
: “Excuse me, sir?”
: “Don’t bother me, lady! I’m sleeping!”
This also causes the drunk to roll up into a.. oh no, Laura.. did you feed him some of Halligan’s death alcohol when I wasn’t looking? It’s even more unsettling in-game because the drunk stops snoring.
Anyway, we can now continue into the police station.
We can examine the man at the desk to learn that he is Sergeant Dennis O’Flaherty. Dagger of Amon Ra is kind of racist against Irish people in particular, which was an actual thing back in the 1920s. This is the description you get if you look at him:
We can also look at the notices on the post across from Sgt. O’Flaherty’s desk.
Yep, sure is a great time to invest in stocks. No way that market could go belly-up in about three years, no sir. Market’s strong as an ox, it is.
Carrying on, we can talk to Sgt. O’Flaherty. Let’s try to ask him something, like where Detective O’Riley is.
: "Well, take yerself down to the Liberry, then.
: “Pardon me, Sergeant, but I happen to be a reporter with the Trib.”
: “Oh, well strike up the band, then.”
: “Look, lassie, I’ve been on m’ dogs all day.”
: “I ain’t had m’ lunch, and I’ve got better things to do than to jaw with some slip of a girl reporter.”
: “G’wan witcha, now.”
Jerk. Essentially, we won’t be getting anything out of him until we get him something to eat. Surely there has to be an eatery nearby. Let’s leave the police station, and…
Uh-oh. I told you not to leave for England, and look what you go and do! The drunk was nice enough to leave behind his newspaper, though.
Oh, so THIS is what Luigi was busy doing before the whole Mushroom Kingdom stint. I guess Mario being from Brooklyn actually is canon. Who’d have thought?
We haven’t actually seen Luigi’s yet, and there’s no real hint as to where it is. Luigi is actually a cart vendor who sells corned beef sandwiches. We’ve been right by where his cart is, though if you check the images from the end of the first update and the beginning of this one you’ll notice that he wasn’t there at that time. This is kind of a dickish move by Sierra to force you to check every location and hope you get lucky. Fortunately, we know that Luigi is parked right outside the Tribune building. This means we need to call Rocco again.. but this time, Rocco has a little bit of banter during his cab ride.
: “Imagine hearing someone’s voice from that distance. Just amazes me!”
Back at the Tribune building, we can now see Luigi selling sandwiches from his cart. Your guess is as good as mine to why he’s wearing teal rather than his usual green. Come to think of it, maybe teal fabric doesn’t exist in the Mushroom Kingdom. Makes sense. Let’s try talking to him.
: “Is that corned beef lean?”
: “I believe I would like a sandwich.”
: “Mama mia, another coupon! I’m a gonna go broke!”
: “Whatta crummy idea I had, attsa da last time I advertise inna newspaper.”
: “Take’a you sammich and get outta here before I change’a my mind.”
Back at the police station, we can give the sandwich from Luigi to Sgt. O’Flaherty, which allows us to ask him questions. Naturally, the first thing we ask him about is the totally illegal under prohibition which is still in effect speakeasy.
: “What can you tell me about the speakeasy?”
: “Now, I don’t know anything about a speakeasy, not in this town.”
"But there are some nice places where a lady like yerself kin sit and relax, and enjoy a bit of the high life, if y’know what I’m sayin’."
: “Course, some of these places are restricted, dontcha know, so you’ll have to be givin’ 'em the right sign, so’s they know yer ok.”
: “But just mention the Charleston, and you’re in like Flynn, you got that now?”
: “I think so. Thank you kindly, Sergeant!”
: “Don’t mention it. And I mean it now, don’t you go mentioning it. Not to ANYone!”
We can also ask Sgt. O’Flaherty about Detective O’Riley. He’ll point us to the door in the back.
Meet Det. Ryan Hanrahan O’Riley. For some reason, the game doesn’t give him a dialogue portrait the way it did for Laura and Crodfoller (which is weird given that O’Riley has WAY more screentime than Crodfoller does) until much later in the game. For now, I’ll be using his black-and-white portrait from the game’s hint book.
: “I’m Laura Bow from the New York Daily Register News Tribune.”
: “I’m looking into the burglary at the Leyendecker Museum, and I understand you’re the one handling the case.”
: “Would it be possible for me to look at your report?”
: “You can’t be a reporter, lass. The Trib only hires men.”
: “I AM a reporter, sir, and you can check with my editor, Sam Augustini, if you don’t believe me.”
: “I thought that Crodfeather guy was going to be writing the robbery article.”
: “Crodfoller WAS assigned to it, but the story is mine now. Can I see the report, please?”
: “It’s very technical, lass. I don’t think you’ll be learning much from it.”
: “Thank you for your concern, detective, but I’d like to be the judge of that.”
: “You’re a determined girl, I’ll say that much for you. Have a look, then.”
: “There’s only one page to this report! Where’s the rest of it?”
: “That’s all of it right now.”
: “It’s rather vague, isn’t it?”
: “Good police work takes time, and I’m a very busy man.”
: “I haven’t had time to follow up on the burglary..”
: “So what if a museum loses a knife? There are people being murdered left and right in this city, dropping like flies.”
: “Cars are being stolen. Booze is being smuggled into speakeasies..”
: “Pedestrians are being mugged, firebugs are burning down half the city, they’re running out of grapes at the corner market, and I’ve got a headache!”
: “And you know who gets to investigate all the crimes in this district? ME! So, I don’t need any nosy reporters hanging around telling me my reports are VAGUE, girlie!”
: “Well, excuse ME!”
: “Talk to the Desk Sergeant if you have any more questions. I haven’t got time for you right now.”
If O’Flaherty was a sexist jerk, O’Riley is a sexist jerk in addition to being a walking Irish stereotype. Our job at the police station is over. Join us next time for a trip to a Chinese laundry and our first visit to the speakeasy.
Footnote: Image credit for the Mystery of the Druids shot goes to Slowbeef, as I am far too lazy to reinstall that game just to get a screenshot.