L.A. Noire/The Gas Man

The Arson desk investigates fires and your new partner has been doing it for a long time. He's not very happy to have a partner as he usually works alone, but the captain is insistent. Your first case is a couple house fires, one with a family still in it at the time.

Steffens House Fire
Mr. and Mrs. Steffens are outside mourning the loss of all their worldly possessions and you'll see the house is completely burned to the ground. The officer will give you a little info on the situation, then you can take a look around the lot.

After surveying the damage, talk to Mr. Steffens and see what you can find out.

It was definitely lucky that the Steffens were out of the house on the vacation they won, but maybe too lucky. Use the gamewell down the street to see if you can get some information on the Suburban Redevelopment Fund, who wanted to buy the house from the Steffens.

Sawyer House Fire
At this fire, the residents weren't quite as lucky, still being inside at the time. You'll meet the Fire Chief at the scene and he'll explain the cause of the fire and tell you to look around. Walk into the yard and the coroner will talk to you about the bodies before you get started.

When you've found the clue, an officer will bring over the neighbor who will tell you the Sawyers had won a trip like the other family, but their son became ill and they didn't go. Just then the Fire Chief will spot a known firebug across the street and you'll need to chase him down. When you bring him back, you'll find out his name is Herbert Chapman and he likes watching fires. In his pocket you'll find a makeshift ignitor and the Chief will explain it gives you a couple minutes delay, but a mosquito coil will give you even longer. You're beginning to think there's something about these fires, although your partner doesn't think so.

Gulliver's Travel Agency
Inside, you'll speak with Mr. Cunningham about the competition for free trips the victims of the house fires had won. He'll let you take a look at his ledger, which has the participants. Tap on the names you know (Steffens and Sawyer), then ask the travel agent about the competition.

It seems the Suburban Redevelopment Fund gave the trips to whoever they wanted, instead of randomly selecting the winners. You should go see them and find out what was so special about the two families.

Suburban Redevelopment
You'll find it's an Elysian Fields Development site where the registered address of the fund is supposed to be. Your partner doesn't want to get mixed up with the big company or its owner Leland Monroe, but when you take a look around inside the trailer you'll see that it's the Suburban Redevelopment Fund paying for Elysian to build the houses.

Fire Station No.32
Lynch will tell you that he's been investigating the fires and he has a theory about what could have started the fires. You'll need to use the components on the table to reconstruct the possible mechanism that could lead the gas from the source to the balloon, which should inflate to hit the burning mosquito coil. Since the balloon needs to come in contact with the coil, move it over to the rightmost position. The regulator needs to be in the middle of the line to modify the gas, so move it the middle position on the table. When they're in place, use the lever on the left to turn the gas on and watch what happens. Lynch says the regulator could be the problem, so you'll need to take it down to manufacturer and see what they have to say.

InstaHeat Factory
The secretary will direct you in to see the duty manager, who is through the door at the opposite end of the room. Rasic recognizes the regulator and when he opens it up he'll tell you it's been tampered with. The diaphragm has been flipped over, meaning that gas can still get through, even when it's supposed to be off. Ask him some more about it and see if you can get any more clues.

Rasic will give you a list of all his installers, and you can use the phone in the office to have R&I go through the list looking for anyone with criminal records. She'll give you the names of Walter Clemens, Ryan Matthew and Reginald Varley, and when you talk to Rasic again you'll find the addresses where they're all working. He'll also show you to their lockers, so take a look and see if anyone has anything interesting.

You have all the addresses where they're working, so it's time to hit the streets.

Clemens' Worksite
After pulling him off the heater he was installing, get right into the questions.

Everything seems legit with Clemens, but maybe you'll have better luck with one of the other installers.

Varley's Worksite
Varley's on the lamb, so when two cops show up with guns drawn, he understandably takes off running. Because he may be dangerous, you've got your weapon out and can end the chase quickly with a warning shot if you get long enough window where he's in the open, which you do almost immediately and many times during the chase. Back at the worksite, you'll arrest him, but there's still one more installer to check out.

Ryan's Worksite
Ryan will also run, but he hops in his truck first, so you'll be following him in the car. After driving through a bunch of construction sites, you'll be back out on the streets, where you can spin him out and have your partner shoot his tires. Since he ran, you'll arrest Ryan as well, giving you three possible suspects back at the station.

Wilshire Police Station
You'll find out which suspect is in which interview room, then you can take a crack at them and eventually charge one.


 * Reginald Varley

Since he has an answer for everything, check Ryan's story to see if you can nail him instead.

Ryan has some very suspicious answers to the questions, and in fact won't answer everything, so he looks to be the most guilty. Charge Ryan to end the case and you'll hear from the captain that you've done a good job.