Detective Marty Bennetti

Concept: Vice Cop (Crooked)

AKA:  Cops who are wise to Marty refer to him as “The Weasel”  It is kind of rare for someone to call him Weasel to his face directly. Usually, the blood has to be up.

Desc:  He’s got a nice smile. He’s kind of charming in a greasy low-rent way. He shortish and has a decent head of hair still. Curly, a little salt in among the pepper. He’s got good energy and people who don’t know him very well tend to think he’s funny. He’s still got one of those little gold horn deals that Italian men used to wear around their necks in the 70’s. It was a gift from his pop the day he graduated from the academy. He’s never taken it off. Marty’s still got good muscle tone, he’s kind of vain about it.

History: A guy like Marty, he doesn’t happen overnight. It’s the little things that nibble away at a sense of rightness.  A free coke here, a comped meal there. Soon, maybe you stop a guy along the side of the road and he thanks you for pointing out your busted taillight and then hands you 1000 bucks.  Maybe somebody makes an approach in the department and your paycheck starts getting supplemented in exchange for going around and making pick-ups of cash. And maybe you don’t skim...Because that would fuck other cops on the pad. And that would be wrong.

   Marty’s kind of a puzzle that way. He’s crooked. Make no mistake about that. He’s so crooked that he has to screw his pants on in the morning. But every once in a while Marty remembers that there IS a line and you CAN cross it.

   That’s the thing. Some cops are bent because someone owns them and they want it that way. Marty’s bent, because he’s just corrupt. He thinks nothing about taking protection money from pimps and a weekly fuck from street whores to turn that blind eye.  For the most part, if someone on the inside asks Marty to do something. He’ll go along, but every once in a while, there’s a task that’s just a bridge too far.  He usually does it...But he does occasionally ask himself... How far is TOO far?

Attitude: “ Dude. Everybody does it.  Don’t kid yourself.  In some way, in all the ways that matter. Everybody does it.”

Skills: Physically, He’s okay. He’s in decent shape overall, he’ll have dots of boxing and police tactics. Also, he’s been a boxer since he was a kid, so he’ll be very good at it. His Brawl is non-trivial. He’s liable to have brawling dodge too.  He’s got average scores in firearms and weaponry from his days as a beat cop. Socially, He’s got really good people radar and a positive gift for smelling out lies.  He’s also got a certain amount of low animal cunning when it comes to knowing when someone is trying to rock his boat.

Mentally, Well. He’s not the brightest crayon in the box. Most of his investigative chops come from experience, not from any real brains. And he’s not exactly a genius when it comes to hiding his extra income.  It may just be a matter of time now.

Gear:  Sap gloves, A couple of holdout pieces, a smart-phone, Condoms (natch),  He’s got a couple of stashes of money, weapons, and party drugs in various spots around town.

Home: He owns his own home. (Again, not really all that swish at concealing his illicit income.) and he’s got a nice car. (GTO, most hookers know it on sight.)  He’s also got a bolthole or two where he keeps his stashes.

Circle: Marty is known, if not necessarily well liked, by most of his fellow cops. There are a couple that actually do owe him their lives, though.  Marty’s still pretty big on that whole “Brothers in Blue” attitude and unless you’ve got hard evidence linking him to a crime, you might find yourself utterly surprised to find him backing you up or saving your bacon out of pure instinct. Marty actually seems to get along better with beat cops than fellow detectives.  At least some of the Brass have heard the rumors about his moral flexibility...But then again, some of the Brass are on the inside too.

Story Uses:

“Look, if you had anything substantial, you wouldn’t be talking to me like this. You’d have me in handcuffs and you’d be punching me in the dick. So let’s just drop it ok?”

 Marty seems to have one real gift. He’s able to squirm out from under the belt sander of destiny. And maybe that’s not going to last forever. But Marty doesn’t think long term. Never has. He’s got some half-assed idea about retiring some day and buying a boat and living down on the Keys somewhere.

“Ok. Cover me. I’ll circle round and draw his fire.”

Marty’s one of those guys with “Paydon’s Curse”  You never can tell what he’s going to care about. He likes his money. He likes his pussy-for-hire, he likes his occasional party drugs and he likes being able to shoot people with no real consequences.  And if he has to do some sketchy things to maintain that life, he’ll do it with a smile.  But every once in a while, his angels get better of him and he does something selfless and heroic. Not because he knows it will patch his reputation. (although it has done that at times.) but because he figured he’d never be able to look himself in the face again.  So far, these things haven’t proven to be mutually exclusive to one another. One day...They will be.

Connections:

* Detectives Blanchard and Skiggs have kind of a mixed reaction to Marty. Marty once saved Dick's life in a shootout with a suspect. Although later on, he got tagged for that corruption case just because they were hanging out together. So, As far as these two are concerned, he's good people, but it doesn't do to hang around with him too much or too publicly.

* Detective Dana Crowley wants to arrest him so bad that it makes her clit hard. But so far, he's managed to keep his shit under the radar.

* Drago Velikovski doesn't like the guy but understands he's a necessary evil. Police protection is never going to be free.

* Detective Bob Greider has noticed both sides of Marty's character. He hopes the better angels will win out, but he also knows that isn't the way to bet.  He also understands that if Marty DID catch an inconvenient case of conscience.  Somebody would ventilate his brain case.

* He's a regular listener of Alex Mahoney

* Before he moved up to Detetctive the last rookie he was partnered with was Officer Wesley Ullman. As such, Ullman knows a few things about him but doesn't talk about it. As a result, anytime Marty hears that Ullman is having money troubles, he'll find a little cash in his locker. Ullman is grateful...But also bothered.

* Somebody once asked Miss Virgie Hawkins what she thought about Marty. she said, "I'd trust him with my life. But I wouldn't trust him with my money."

* Someone keeps dropping anonymous hints to him about a porn operation in town. The operation belongs to Milo Karanikas and this is just The Vermillion House covering their investment.

* While no one really knows about Bryson Import/Export. Marty has boned most of Esmerelda's staff and Esmerelda herself. He'd know them on sight.  If he ever caught wise to them, they'd end up with an unwanted partner and WAY more overhead than they have now. Even Pablo would have trouble making a cop disappear.

* Marty is Big Dan Tarleton's guy on the inside. It's worked out pretty well for them both.

* He's bought guns off of Homer Conway in at least 2 situations those guns ended up in the hands of people who had to be shot because they were brandishing a weapon. Hey. it happens that way sometimes. Tragic.

* Detective Bela Janofski once put his badge and gun on the desk and said he was not going to work with that fucking weasel. The captain could see that he was serious as a heart attack.