
N-Squad Episode Three: Synopsis
Using a computer with floating screens, Detective Smart presents his interview with Anna Ellis. She believes either Cody's housekeeper (Amanda Doors), Racerball teammate (Serge Blakeley), or ex-girlfriend (Toni West) is responsible for the hit-and-run. Tragically, Anna slipped back into a coma before saying more, so Smart assigns the player the task of investigating the three suspects.
Upon unscrambling an alcohol-related password, the player accesses a map in the casebook showing the Dragons' Lair, Chateau Q, and Sunrise Treatment Center as the suspects' locations. The sites are searched to uncover each person's motive, as well as to determine whether the suspect drinks Blu Dog beer. A can was found at the crash scene. Before the player can leave a location, he/she must pass a quiz on the clues found at the site.
THE DRAGONS' LAIR
The Dragons' Lair is the hangout of Serge Blakeley and Cody's other Dragons Racerball teammates. Racerball is a collegiate sport played with a ball and three moving hoops between two teams of five men.
IMPORTANT CLUES
Danger Road
In this virtual driving game, the player must safely navigate his/her vehicle down a street strewn with obstacles. This task becomes more difficult on Level Two where "tokens" must also be collected. Each time one is gathered the player's ability to react gets slower, an effect he/she is later told is similar to that of alcohol on a person's driving ability. Before the player can exit the game, he/she must take a "Road Test", a quiz on the consequences of drinking and driving.
Cans of Blu Dog Beer
The batch number and manufacture date of beer stored in a mini-refrigerator are the same as the ones on the Blu Dog beer found at the crash scene.
Racerball Game Highlight
As shown on Sports TV, Serge was booed in his first start replacing Cody as the Dragons' Center. In pre-season Serge accused Cody, a fan favorite of becoming team Center by underhanded means. The two got into a nasty shouting match about it.
Serge Blakeley
Serge states that he and Cody were very good friends. He claims to have been asleep at the time Cody crashed, and denies being a Blu Dog Beer drinker. Serge can't understand why he is a suspect in the hit-and-run. He doesn't even own a car.
CHATEAU Q
Chateau Q was the home Cody Mara and his father, the late music legend Double Q. Now this luxurious estate is overseen by Amanda Doors, the live-in housekeeper.
IMPORTANT CLUES
The Will of Quentin Quarles Mara (Double Q)
According to this document Amanda Doors gets Double Q's money and property since Cody died less than 60 days after his father.
Amanda Doors
Amanda admits that she and Cody argued about his friends. She claims to have been vacationing at Sepa Lake at the time of the crash, and not to be a Blu Dog Beer drinker.
Sort It Out
Alcohol use is influenced by several factors. The player sorts photos of Cody and his friends by the factor depicted. Upon completing this activity, the student learns that genes, peers, family, and the community affect whether a person will begin drinking and how much he or she will consume.
A Receipt from Twisted Metal Collision Center
A WHITE car belonging to Amanda Doors was in a crash recently; this shop hurriedly repaired it. Curious... Paint chip analysis indicates that a WHITE vehicle struck Cody's car.
SUNRISE TREATMENT CENTER
Sunrise is a treatment facility for people with alcohol abuse problems. Toni West, Cody's ex-girlfriend, is in residence here. Also present is Dr. Tilda Riggs, an addiction treatment psychiatrist.
IMPORTANT CLUES
Shop n' Hop Receipt
Toni West purchased a 12 pack of Blu Dog beer the morning of Cody's crash.
Photograph of Toni and Cody
Toni found out Cody was seeing someone else the day this picture of the two was taken next to her new WHITE car. She vows Cody will be sorry he dumped her.
Operation: Plastic Brain
The brain is plastic, meaning it has the ability to change based on a person's thoughts or actions. To understand the role that plasticity plays in alcohol-related brain damage in teens, the player creates a neuron model and explores it parts. He/she observes how a person's thoughts and actions "wires" neurons, and learns how drinking during the teen years can damage the hippocampus and pre-frontal cortex, two brain areas which undergo extensive wiring during adolescence.
Art and Alcoholism
Art and Alcoholism is a virtual exhibition showing the role neurotransmission plays in producing alcohol's effects. Through a series of animated illustrations, the players learns general steps in the neurotransmission process, as well as how alcohol changes neurotransmission to produce the short-term effects of intoxication and the long-term effects associated with alcoholism.
Mind Storm
In Mind Storm, the parts and functions of the brain affected by alcohol are explored. The player's knowledge of this subject is tested in an exercise in which he/she must match areas of the brain with the symptoms produced when alcohol acts on these parts.
Dr. Tilda Riggs
Dr. Riggs refuses to discuss Toni West, but she does answer questions about the nature of alcoholism. From this psychiatrist, the player learns why alcohol addiction is considered at disease and its symptoms and treatments.
After all locations have been searched, the player tells Detective Smart via email which suspect he/she thinks committed the hit-and-run. Smart thinks more evidence is needed that connects the suspect to the crash. He asks the player to return to headquarters and help the N-Squad's DNA expert. Since no two people have the same DNA content or profile, a suspect's DNA at a crime scene can connect him or her to the misdeed.
In the forensic biology lab, Dr. Josh "Genes" Lorean and Zeta have processed DNA taken from the beer can found at the crash site. After examining a graphical representation of this DNA profile, the player identifies whom it belongs to by matching the DNA from the can to Serge Blakeley's profile in CODIS, a DNA database.
Later in Detective Smart's office, he reveals that other evidence surfaced which connected Serge to the crime. A white car with front-end damage was found abandoned in a warehouse. The stolen vehicle had Serge's DNA and fingerprints all over it. When confronted with the evidence against him, Serge confessed to hitting Cody while intoxicated. The teen accidentally dropped his beer near the crash site when checked to see if Cody was dead.
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