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Dead Man's Briefcase

The Dead Man's Briefcase is a false-lined case holding about $10,000 in banded cash and a slot for a high-caliber handgun. The team pulls it from the Motel and Suites dumpster after the death of the man in the Chewbacca costume.
Type Item (container, evidence)
Original owner The man registered as "John Doe", later named Troy Cleaver
Found at Motel and Suites, dumpster
Holder The task force (the cash is spent in Appalachia 07)
First appearance Appalachia 06

Description

The briefcase is nominally empty, but its lining separates easily when the team pokes at it. Behind the lining are a slot shaped for a high-caliber handgun and about $10,000 in hundreds and twenties, wrapped in paper bands like those a bank uses for a withdrawal. Some of the bills are visibly more worn than others, and the bands carry no dates. (Appalachia 06)

Properties

The case itself has no identifying marks. In the same trash bag the team finds a thick coil of animal hair tucked in one snakeskin boot, a walkie-talkie in the toe of the other, plastic bags and duct tape. Nothing in the bag identifies its owner. (Appalachia 06)

History

The dumpster

The dead man had registered at the Motel and Suites as "John Doe" and paid in cash. The clerk says his things were thrown out after he stopped renewing his room, and warns the team not to open a green garbage bag full of soiled linens. About a dozen bags are in the dumpster, and the snakeskin cowboy boots, which the clerk remembers throwing out, identify the right one. Kurt rolls Investigate a Mystery for a 10 with bonuses, a full success, and uses it to ask what is being concealed. (Appalachia 06)

Kurt notes the walkie-talkie's frequency in case anyone tries to contact the dead man. Andre rules that the contents read as "not spook, but maybe mercenary" to Kurt. Dante theorizes that the man was sent to kill someone and was double-crossed, or perhaps was paid with this cash for a contract. The interns dust the items for fingerprints, and the clerk lets the team take his own prints for exclusion. (Appalachia 06)

The ten grand

At the Spud Hut in Appalachia 07, Huell pays for dinner for everyone, including the Circle Chasers, with the line: "Sure, we found ten grand in a garbage can. Fuck it, it's on me, boys." (Appalachia 07) The episodes never say how much of the cash was spent or what became of the gun slot.

Trivia

  • Kurt's remark that wearing no vest under a Chewbacca costume is "a rookie mistake" accompanies the search. (Appalachia 06)
  • The fingerprints, the walkie-talkie frequency and the dead man's room all remain open leads at the end of Appalachia 06; the clerk has already rented the room to someone else. (Appalachia 06)

Appearances