Police Quest III: The Kindred

Synopsis

‘Lytton, once a quiet and peaceful little town, has been growing like a weed. There’s a new industry, good jobs and a decent standard of living. Unfortunately, progress is not without its side effects. Poverty and crime are going up about as fast as the new cultural center. Homicide Detective Sonny Bonds and his wife Marie are still on a “honeymoon high” from their wedding a few years back. Marie’s got a good job at Oak Tree Mall and the two have a beautiful new home. As for Sonny, he was promoted to Detective Sergeant with Lytton PD. As the story opens, Sonny has just finished his Sergeant’s training and is back on duty. Overburdened as the department is, he’s been assigner to the Traffic Division for a bit […]’ — Jim Walls, Introduction to Police Quest III

Life is good for Sonny Bonds: his long-time friend, Marie Wilkans, has finally become his wife and they have bought a lovely little house in Lytton’s residential district; furthermore, the Police Department, acknowledging his courage, his dedication and his cleverness in handling even the most dangerous situations, has promoted him to Detective Sergeant within the Homicide Division. It’s a job for which Sonny has proven ideally suited, during his previous handling of the Death Angel affair. In these circumstances, Sonny is content even when the Department temporarily assign him to the Traffic Division, to cover the staff problem it is facing.

But if there’s a thing his past assignments taught him, it’s that even the more harmless looking jobs can hide danger. On his first day in the Traffic Division, Sonny faces having to deal with agent Pat Morales, a police officer accused of brutality and profanity. It takes very little time for Sonny to realize that Pat is a ticking timebomb about to explode, and he must use all of his cool-headed judgement when – during a otherwise quiet patrol day – he is called to Lytton Highway to smooth over a dispute between Morales and an upset pregnant woman, who refuses to pay her fine because Morales insulted her.

Back at the station, Sonny files a report on Morales and it’s with a little listlessness that he answers a dispatch call, all the other units being unavailable at the moment. As soon as he realizes that the reported crime has been committed just outside Oak Tree Mall, where Marie works, his heart jumps in his chest: he hurries out of the station, hops into the car and drives steadily to the mall – and there’s Marie’s car, with a crimson-black pool of blood near the wheels! Sonny rushes toward the stretcher and nearly loses his senses when he sees Marie unconscious, suffering multiple stab wounds.

The trip to the hospital is a tough one: the doctors spend hours in surgery operating to save Marie’s life, and it’s only at dawn that Sonny can draw a sigh of relief – Marie is in a deep coma, but she’s alive!

The only evidence found near Marie’s car is a bronze star that nonetheless helps Sonny realize that Marie’s nearly-fatal stabbing isn’t a standalone case. There are at least two other murders with a strikingly similar modus operandi and all the evidence seem to point to an underworld cult, perhaps involved with drug-dealing and mob wars.

With the aid of Carla Reed, a little homeless lady who heard of Marie’s attack on the news, Sonny sketches an identikit of a suspect, a man named Steve Rocklin, but before he can do anything about him a new gruesome murder occurs in town. This time the victim is a man, but the M.O. is just the same. What the heck is going on in Lytton? Sonny had hoped that the death of Jessie Bains would have bought a little peace to his beloved city, but he was proved very wrong. And now that Marie is lying in an hospital bed, the American dream Sonny seemed to live has quickly turned into a nightmare: everyday Sonny visits Marie and searches her face for signs of life, but she lies there unmoving, still in a coma, and can’t advise Sonny the way she used to do, leaving to him the sole comfort of clutching her motionless hand.

The investigation seems to have reached a dead end, when Sonny is suddenly called to a burning house in Lytton. Inside, he finds some shocking evidence: an old photograph portrays the Death Angel with another man. Is it possible than even if he’s dead Jessie Bains is still seeking vengeance upon Sonny? Further research reveals that the other man is Jessie’s brother, Michael, and that he may be the responsible for all the murders that are disarranging Lytton.

Sonny drives to the house depicted in the photo and – with the help of backup units called to assist – he breaks into the crumbling hovel. Here, finally, Sonny finds the secret coven of the cult and gets a chance to settle things right with the Bains family once and for all. After a bloody shootout, Michael Bains gives up and, with a final enraged glance at Sonny, is bought away by the police: cleverly, Sonny thoroughly searches the place and gets rid of all the thugs hidden in the crack house. Now, the Death Angel and his malevolent shadow can finally be erased from Lytton’s skies…

Exhausted, Sonny drives to the hospital, to lighten his burden with the sight of his wife in the pale tenderness of sleep, but this time around he is not greeted by a comatose silence, punctuated only by the metallic bips of the hospital machinery, but by the loving voice of Marie, finally awake. There’s even more joy in store when, amidst the sighs and the laughter of relief, Marie announces that Sonny’s about to become a father…

… When the sun sets over a drowsy Lytton, Sonny Bonds can once again look at the horizon with a heart light with love and pride. Lytton – the world, maybe – is now a better place, thanks to him.