Roarke's History

Just Roarke, as far as I know. Big money there. Kind of guy that touches shit and turns it into gold bricks.Ryan Feeney

History

All ages given prior to Portrait in Death have been adjusted down one year; unless solid dates are given.

• Born circa 10/06/2024 in Dublin Ireland to Patrick Roarke (father – killed c. 2036) and Siobahn Brody (mother – murdered by Patrick Roarke c. October, 2024). Roarke believed, for most of his life, that Meg Roarke had been his mother until Moira O’Bannion told him otherwise.
  • Roarke said Meg dusted her hands of him before his sixth birthday.
  • Roarke hated his father from his first memory.
• Roarke grew up in the shanties of South Dublin.
• Roarke Industries established in 2042 when Roarke was eighteen.
• Roarke said that when he was young, and things were bad, he dreamed about surviving, getting out, and having control. He wanted to be rich and not to be hungry.
  • He’d grown up thinking of himself first and last.
• Roarke said he chose New York because he dreamed of New York as a boy. It seemed like a shiny gold ring and he wanted his fingers around it. He said he wanted a lot of places but New York was where he wanted his base – but, different from Eve, he didn’t want to be swallowed, he wanted to own. Then he said he fell for it, like a man might fall for a fascinating and dangerous woman. It became more than the owning, and proving to himself and to a dead man, and became more about being.

Patrick Roarke’s Death

• “Some say I killed my father there when I was half your age [the teenage boy], sticking a knife in his throat the way you’d slaughter a pig.” He hadn’t put the knife in him. But he’d only been twelve or so when his father had met the knife, and he’d yet to kill a man.
• When Eve asked Summerset if he killed Patrick Roarke, Summerset said there was no statute of limitations on murder. When she pressed the point, Summerset then said he had children to protect. She finally said that Roarke didn’t know, did he … that Summerset never told him. He only answered Eve that there was nothing to tell. That it was old business. And she should be off, taking care of new. (Find Nora’s comments on this here.)
• About his father Roarke said, “I’d have killed him. If someone hadn’t done it before me, when I was older and stronger I’d have gone for him. I’d have finished him.”
• Roarke thought to himself that he had reason to wonder if Max Ricker had been responsible for jamming the knife in Patrick Roarke’s throat in that Dublin alley.

Summerset and Marlena

• According to Immortal in Death, Roarke said he hooked up with Summerset and Marlena who ran confidence games (superbly); his father was still alive when he met Summerset, and Roarke said he found Summerset quite brilliant, that they learned a lot from one another. After Roarke’s father beat him (broken ribs, concussion, fractured shoulder), Summerset found and took Roarke in and cared for him. They became partners after Patrick Roarke was killed. (See also Roarke’s YANNIs)
• Roarke said that after Summerset took him in and fixed him up (giving him a chance, a sanctuary, an opportunity), he would have done anything Summerset had asked to pay him back.
• When Roarke was fifteen (adjusted age), and Marlena was fourteen, they had been together, more or less, for about six years (would have known them since he was about nine years old). One of Roarke's gambling projects was profitable, which came to the attention and the disapproval of a small, particularly violent syndicate (they felt like Roarke was encroaching). When they threatened Roarke, he ignored them and, though they tried to get their hands on him, they failed. Marlena, who was in love with Roarke, came to him one night and offered herself. He turned her away, cruelly, and sent her away shattered; by doing right, he felt he betrayed her. She ran away, was found by the syndicate, and was raped, tortured, murdered, and dumped on their [Summerset and Roarke’s] doorstep.
  • When Marlena was taken, Summerset insisted on calling the police. Inspector Maguire did nothing, concluded that Marlena was an incorrigible, that there were illegals in her system, and she’d fallen in with a bad lot who’d panicked and killed her when they’d done with her – he was on the take from the syndicate. Ruled death by misadventure.
• Roarke said he had Summerset, as a kind of compass at a time when he might have taken a much darker path. Eve said he had too much pride to have taken that darker path.

Ex-Lovers

1. Bridgett – Possible lover. The scone baker.
2. Pepper Franklin – Had a brief and mature relationship that included the occasional banging (Eve’s word that Roarke borrowed).
3. HSO Operative – Romantically involved with an operative; mutually enjoyed company.
4. HSO Operative – Romantically involved with an operative; mutually enjoyed company.
5. Yvonne Metcalf – Roarke said they were friends; lovers briefly. Last time he saw her, they had sex but did not resume their former relationship. Last time he spoke with her, he brushed her off because of his feelings for Eve.
6. Madeline Montmart – Possible lover. She was his alibi during the time Lola Starr was murdered.
7. Jennie O’Leary – Loved each other; gave each other what was needed, for a time.
8. Reeanna Ott – Roarke said it was a long time ago; years, eons.
9. Pandora – He said there was a time – briefly, but it was all very vague.
10. Magdelana Percell – Lovers, a long time ago. Running same con with Roarke nearly twelve years ago.
11. Lee-Lee Ten – One weekend in Rome.
12. Unknown Name – The Parisian redhead Roarke seduced as they'd robbed her.
13. Unnamed and unknown number – One reason Roarke stole cars was “getting the girl naked” and/or “to bag the girl.”