Open Case File · DAILY-SCORE-CUT
Score
A sixty-eight-year-old man was found dead in the last unit of Row B at Willowbank Mobile Home Park, on the outskirts of a small Southern town. That night the electricity to his home cut off on its own, and the electric oxygen concentrator he'd kept running all day for his chronic lung condition stopped with it. He died over the course of several hours, and a neighbor opened the door the next morning. This park buys power in bulk from the utility on one meter and resells it to each unit through individual meters, so it falls outside the regulations that govern electric companies—only the laws between landlord and tenant apply. Twelve days earlier, his unit's billing method had been switched from postpaid to prepaid, and the park says it was done per contract and that maintaining the balance was the tenant's responsibility. Five people had access to that account during those twelve days. Each one must be questioned.
Scene
an operating mobile home park management office and residential zone · early autumn, late heat lingering
5 suspects
Bernice Colterpark operations office managerFifty-seven-year-old manager who has run the park's affairs for eighteen years. Whatever you ask, she starts by laying out document numbers and dates before beginning the story.
Jody Prescottbilling and accounts clerkCounter clerk who receives payments and handles accounts, thirty-four. When asked a question, she leads with the name of the procedure and tries to make clear where her responsibility ends.
Rubén Castillofield maintenance and metering workerMaking the gravel-road rounds morning and evening is his daily work. Forty-one-year-old maintenance worker who knows all the residents' names but answers only what is asked and does not voice guesses.
Hank Dempseypark ownerSixty-one. The person who bought and runs this park, and drops by once every two months. Leads with calculations of loss and gain, and openly cuts down anyone he dislikes to their face.
Cheryl Hainespart-time counter assistantTwenty-six, less than two weeks at the counter. Separates what she saw herself from what she heard from others, and if she is not certain she stops mid-sentence without finishing.
Exhibits
Office intake box and that week's intake binder
Several stamped documents are stacked in the intake box. One of them is the request Mr. Langford wrote by hand. It asks for the billing method to be switched back to postpaid, and the date is nine days ago.
That month's metering-system processing summary printout
A single line states that eleven billing-method changes were processed at once twelve days ago in the afternoon, and that the processing location was the office workstation. The counter screen displays units in unit-number order.
That unit's prepaid meter and indoor display
The meter is stopped in the cut state. The remaining balance shown on the indoor display is zero, and the last time an amount was added was twelve days ago when the activation amount was automatically deposited at the time of the billing-method switch.
Field terminal repair invoice and that week's field log
There is an invoice for sending one field terminal to the metering company for repair. It was sent fourteen days ago and returned the day after the incident.
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Field Guide
One question = one turn. Examine the clues, shake statements with confrontations, question everyone, then accuse — there is no undo.
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