C. J. Morse

Morse, C. J. - Reporter

Appeared in Glory in Death (c. May 3-June 3, 2058) and mentioned in Immortal in Death and Secrets in Death (mid-February, 2061)

Personal Information

• Description: His round face was young, beaming, and sly
• DOB: c. 2025
• Age at TOD: 33
• Occupation: Reporter for Channel 75

Description

• He had girlishly long lashes and a smarmy smile.
• He was a head shorter than Eve and had a pleasant, youthful, mobile face.

Personality

• Eve’s opinion of reporters wasn’t terribly high, but Morse was on the lowest end of her scale. She referred to him as a “fang-toothed, dickless weasel” and a “smarmy-faced bastard.”
• Nadine called Morse an asshole.
• When he attempted to charm Roarke, Roarke said to him, “You really are an idiot, aren’t you?”
  • Roarke also said that Morse was better at image than he’d thought. He pulled out emotions, didn’t feel them, but knew how to make them play over his face, in his voice. Roarke said Eve should watch herself as Morse hated her and would ruin her if he could.
• According to Larinda Mars, he never left anything out in his work cubicle and always locked down his computer. He also used an audio enhance so he could whisper on calls so that no one could hear him.
• He thought that women always tried to run the show, always got in the way, just when he was about to grab that fat brass ring; all his life, starting with his mother.

History

• Born in Stamford, Connecticut; his mother had been head of computer science at Carnegie Melon [sic], where Morse graduated with double majors in broadcasting and compuscience. He graduated twentieth in his class.
• He worked one year at a small affiliate near his hometown; six months with a satellite in Pennsylvania; nearly two years at a top-rated channel in New Los Angeles; a stretch in a half-baked independent in Arizona before heading back East; then another gig in Detroit before he hit New York.
• He’d worked at All News 60, then made a lateral transfer to Channel 75; first in the social data unit, then into hard news. He’d been at Channel 75 for three years.
• He quit his hometown job when a female reporter received an on-air assignment before him; he left his second job after claiming discrimination from the female assignment editor. In California, he worked with a weather girl who drew ratings - Yvonne Metcalf; he quit, saying he refused to work with a nonprofessional.

Criminal History

• He had a sealed juvenile record. When he was ten, he didn’t get an A on an assignment from his social science instructor. He broke into her house, wrecked it, and sliced her dog’s throat.
  • He ended up with mandatory therapy, probation, and community service.
• He cut his mother’s throat. He learned, from his mother, that he needed a goal: to rid the world of loudmouthed, pushy women.

Homicide Information

• Victims:
  • Cicely Towers
    • He slashed her throat, cutting her jugular so that she bled to death. He took her umbrella.
    • Towers wouldn’t give him an interview and ignored him at press conferences; he found out about Randall Slade’s gambling problems and an incident in Sector 38 and set up a meeting with Cicely.
  • Yvonne Metcalf
    • He slashed her throat, cutting her jugular so that she bled to death. He took her right shoe.
    • He said that they had been giving Yvonne his air time (back in California); he waited and, when she came to New York, he said he wanted to do a twenty-minute feature on her to get her alone.
  • Louise Kirski
    • He slashed her throat, cutting her jugular so that she bled to death.
    • This was a mistake as he intended to murder Nadine.
• The murder weapon was a thin, smooth-edged blade, nine inches (22.86 cm) in length, tapered from point to hilt - the point was honed to a V. All victims were frontally attacked with one swipe of the weapon across the throat from right to left, and at a slight angle (severing the jugular).
• Peabody found a secret drawer in Morse’s sofa that contained a purple umbrella and a high-heeled red-and-white-striped shoe.
• He kidnapped Nadine, contacted Dallas, and threatened to start cutting Nadine if Dallas told anyone about the transmission; Dallas was to go alone. He gave Eve six minutes to get to Greenpeace Park to “negotiate.” He planned to murder Eve and Nadine and broadcast it live.
  • With his computer skills, he hacked into Dallas’s work system and was keyed in to all of her transmissions.

Interesting Facts

• He hated being reminded of his roots in gossip and society news; especially now that he’d wormed his way onto the police beat.
• He was lead reporter on the murder of Cicely Towers but due to his reporting (insinuating a cover-up), Eve decided to call Nadine and try to get her on the story instead. She offered Nadine an exclusive.
  • Since Nadine had seniority on the crime beat, she was in and he was out. Morse was angry.
• Morse showed up with Sherry from Channel 75 while Eve was examining Yvonne’s body at the murder scene. He arrived at the scene ten minutes after Eve and said the tip he received, on his private line, came in at 12:30 a.m.
• He said he found Kirski’s body at approximately 11:15 p.m. (May 31, 2058); after he reported it, he and Nadine went live and started broadcasting the information - they named her on camera.
  • Eve took him to Interview on June 1st, 12:45 a.m. He said the hood of the raincoat was over her face and he reached down to move it, then saw the blood and didn’t touch her; he mentioned her eyes twice.
  • Eve realized later that no one saw Louise’s face until Eve moved her hood.
• A funky junkie said she saw a man get into a car the night Cicely Towers was murdered; the car had a shine to it - he wore a dark coat and carried a bright umbrella.
• When Eve pulled her weapon on him, he shoved Nadine at her and ran; Eve pursued him and they fought. He got the upper-hand, was about to kill her when Roarke attacked and stopped him.

YANNI

• Roarke “planted” a knife in Morse’s throat at the end of Glory in Death: “It’s too bad Morse rolled on his knife. The PA’s office would have loved to bring him to trial”; Morse was then found to be competent to stand trial in Immortal in Death.
• This trial reference in Immortal in Death was clearly a mistake. Morse was obviously killed in Glory in Death by Roarke.