Blue Bloods

The Moroni Harris Story

Character Profile

Moroni Harris is a 54-year old man who is a retired medical war veteran that was forced into early retirement due to a bomb crippling his left leg. He came home to his lovely wife, his 9 year old and 6 month old daughters. To make ends meet, he started writing war stories and made millions. He is also a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; as such, his faith helps him to overcome trials that come his way. Moroni Harris visits New York from time to time during his book tours and slowly becomes friends with the Reagan family.

First Appearance of Moroni Harris Chapter 1

The first episode that we see Moroni Harris is an episode where Danny Reagan is investigating the murder of a high end prostitute. In the prostitute's bag there is no money, no phone and no ID. The only thing in there is one of Moroni Harris' business cards. Danny and Baez get DNA back from the body and discover the ID of the victim. They look further into Moroni Harris and notice that he visits New York only a few times a year and pays a large sum at a hotel that he always stays at when he is in town. Danny and Baez talk to the manager and the manager reveals to them that Moroni always asks for Jennifer, the prostitute, to come to his room when he comes to town. The manager says that he doesn't know what happens while she is in the room, but she always leaves with a smile on her face.

Danny and Baez decide to do a sting on Moroni to give them probable cause to arrest him and question him further. They arrange one of their younger female cops to pose as a replacement for Jennifer. She goes into the hotel room. She sees Moroni in a nice suit unpacking a few things.

Moroni then notices the girl and asks with confusion, "Who are you? Where is Jennifer?"

The undercover cop calmly replies, "Jennifer is not doing so well. She asked me to fill in for her."

Moroni nods his head and replies, "Well, I hope she's doing alright. Please take a seat for now and I'll be ready for you shortly." Moroni walks into the bathroom and comes out wearing a T-shirt and shorts. He lays on his stomach on the bed and says, "Alright, I'm ready whenever you are."

The undercover cop becomes confused at the statement and asks "Ready for what?"

Moroni, with a little impatience, says "For my massage. I assumed Jennifer told you that I have a bad leg that needs a little TLC every now and then. So, if you can please be gentle with it, that would be great."

The undercover cop starts massaging Moroni's leg. Moroni grunts and says, "A little more gentle than that, please. Try thinking that my leg is a baby horse that you are trying to sooth." The undercover cop, without realizing it, continues to be a little too rough. Moroni then stops her, sits up and says, "Alright, I think I'm good for now, miss. I will still pay you for the hour. If you can also please tell Jennifer to call me back so I can make sure she is doing alright, I'd greatly appreciate it."

Moroni hands the undercover cop the money. As soon as the money leaves his hands, Danny and Baez come in. Danny, with great authority, says, "Mr. Harris, you are under arrest!"

Moroni becomes stunned at what is happening and asks, "For what, officer!?"

Danny replies calmly, "For paying for sex."

Moroni becomes filled with confusion and disgust and says, "Paying for sex!? Wait! I think there has been some kind of misunderstanding here. I was just paying this lady for a leg massage. That's it."

Danny smirks a little and replies, "Sure you were. You can tell us your story at the precinct."

End of Scene

We return to a new scene with Moroni, Danny and Baez in an interrogation room. Baez, with politeness, says, "You know Mr. Harris, you can call your lawyer."

Moroni takes a deep breath and calmly replies, "I did nothing wrong, so I don't need one at this moment."

Danny, with disbelief, asks, "So, you can tell us why you were paying for sex and why you like sleeping with Jennifer. She seems to be your favorite prostitute when you come to town."

Moroni couldn't believe the words he was hearing and replies, "Wait, Jennifer was a prostitute?"

Danny, with a hint of sacasim, says, "No duh, Sherlock. You only paid her about 5,000 dollars every time she came to your hotel room."

Moroni calmly replies "That was for massages. Until now, I didn't even know she was a prostitute."

Danny was unconvinced and asked "Really?"

Moroni replies with a hint of worry, "Really, officer. I thought she was a high valued masseuse. You see, officer, I have a bad leg. It got injured during the Gulf War and it hasn't been the same since. In fact, I still have shrapnel in it that I have to get removed every now and then. After a long day of signing books and walking your beautiful streets, it gets stiff and sore. A massage before I turn in for the night helps me to sleep peacefully. I first met Jennifer when I came to this city. I asked the manager…" Moroni stopped when he realized what he said and started beating himself up internally.

Baez asked with interested "Asked him what?"

Moroni sighed and decided to come clean, "I asked him if he could send someone to my room to help me relax. I can't believe how blind and stupid I am. It all makes sense now."

Danny also started getting interested and asked "Sense how?"

Moroni calmly replied "When she first came in she was dressed a little fancy. I just thought that she had a date later and I was her last client before she punched out. I guess I was her date. Anyway, I asked her for a massage for just my leg and she happily did so. I can see why she was surprised when she finished and I handed her the money and thanked her for her time. She did such a good job that every time I visit I ask for her personally. From then on, she wore more casual clothes and actually started bring some oils and herbs for the massage."

Danny started to believe Moroni's story. He wanted more information by asking, "So this whole time you thought she was a masseuse?"

Moroni nodded his head and replied: "Yes. I come from a small town where things are very cheap. I thought because I was in New York that prices for things were off the wall. I mean, she did an excellent job on my leg, and that is why I thought I was paying so much. But now I know the true reason why. It explains everything. How could I be so stupid?"

Danny's suspicions returned and he asked, "Is that why you murdered her? Because she made you feel stupid?"

Moroni's face turned a little blue when he asked, "Jennifer is dead?"

Baez noticed this and asked, "You didn't know?"

Moroni, with disbelief, said, "No. No, I just saw her yesterday."

Baez then asked, "Was that when you gave her your card?"

Moroni calmly replied, "Yes."

Danny, wanting to know the truth, asked, "Why?"

Moroni sighed once more and explained, "Yesterday, when she was giving me my massage, I felt her crying every now and then. So I sat up and asked her what was wrong. She revealed to me that her boyfriend had started drinking again and started abusing her. I told her she needed to get out of that kind of relationship as fast as she could. I've seen too many innocent people hurt by cowardly drunks and I didn't want her to be another victim. She told me that she could never leave him because he has all her money and all her things. I gave her my card and about $15,000 so she could find a temporary place as well as buy a few things she needed. I told her nothing material was worth her life. I gave her my card so she could call me if her boyfriend laid a hand on her while she was leaving him." Moroni's mood changes to sadness when he asked, "Did I get that young girl killed? Is she dead because of me?"

Danny was now sympathetic towards Moroni and replied, "You were just trying to do the right thing. Is there any chance she told you her boyfriend's name?"

Moroni, with regret, replied "No, but as she was leaving, I did get a glance at the first four names on her cellphone that had contacted her recently."

Baez, with a hint of excitement asked, "Do you remember any of them?"

Moroni was filled with pride and said, "I remember all of them. Part of my training while in the military was to observe things quickly and keep them in your memory. The first name was Adam Cain, the Hotel Manager. The second name was Susan Storm, like from the Marvel Comics. The third name was Tom Grifter."

Danny interrupted, "Stop right there. Are you sure it said Tom Grifter?"

Moroni calmly replied, "Yes, I'm pretty sure that was the third name on her phone."

Baez turned to Danny and asked, "You know him, Danny?"

Danny, with a hint of annoyance, said, "Yeah I know him. He's a high end pimp that works on the Eastside usually. We should check him out." Danny then turns to Moroni and asks, "Can you give us the fourth name Mr. Harris before you leave? Just in case this lead doesn't pan out."

Moroni nods and says, "Yes, I believe it was Bob Brown."

Danny sighs and says as kindly as he can, "Sorry for dragging you all the way down here. Thank you for your time, Mr. Harris. Please don't leave town until we have this matter settled."

Moroni hands Danny one of his cards and says, "Please, call me Moroni. And if there is anything more I can help you with, please let me know. Here is my card and you obliviously know where I am staying while in town."

After Moroni leaves, Danny turns to Baez and says, "You know, that's the first guy we've had in here that I didn't want to bash his nose in."

Baez replies with a hint of disbelief "I can see that."

Danny, trying to defend himself, says, "No really. Why can't we get more people like him that are actually willing to cooperate without making a fuss or getting lawyers involved?"

Baez gets up, starts heading for the door and says, "Well maybe if you were a little nicer, more people might open up. I mean, you did arrest the guy without hearing him out first. I'm surprised he opened up to us the way he did, and didn't lawyer up."

Danny, with a hint of annoyance, says, "Ha, ha. You're starting to sound like my sister."

Danny and Baez then go and question Tom Gifter about the murder. Their questions lead them to another dead end, for they realize that he isn't Jennifer's boyfriend and he was out of town during the time of the murder. So they go and question Susan Storm, her friend and co-worker. She reveals the identity of the boyfriend and also reveals that Jennifer was going to leave the Prostitute business behind and study to become a masseuse. She even shows them the books and college pamphlets that Jennifer asked her to hold on to.

Danny and Baez find the boyfriend of Jennifer at a bar and bring him in. They question him about Jennifer's murder in an interrogation. Danny starts the interrogation by saying, "We know you killed Jennifer. We have an eyewitness that places you at the scene of the crime. We also recovered your DNA under Jennifer's nails. So we know that you killed her; all we want to know is why."

Jennifer's boyfriend snaps, "I did it for love, man! I had to. She was leaving me for some rich punk!"

Baez was confused and asked, "What do you mean by that?"

Jennifer's boyfriend calmly and coldly replies, "I followed her. Ever since I lost my job and started drinking, she started to become less and less supportive. She kept on sneaking away at the same time every night. So one night I followed her. I saw her meeting this fancy rich punk. He must have been her sugar daddy because as soon as she left that room she had $15,000 on her person. I confronted her about it. She told me that she was leaving me to pursue other interests. I love her so much, and if I can't have her no one can. I snapped her neck so we could be together forever, but then you all took her away from me."

Baez became even more confused and asked "If you loved her so much, then why did you take the money and left her on the street like garbage?"

Jennifer's boyfriend, with annoyance, replies, "I was going to come back. I took the money so I could buy her this lovely ring to show her how much I love her."

Danny's blood started to boil. He slammed his fist on the table and shouted, "You snapped her neck! She's dead because of you!"

Jennifer's boyfriend started getting angry as well and shouted back, "I only snapped it to give me more time! I was going to take her to the hospital right after I bought the ring for her! I just needed some time for her to cool off, is all. I didn't kill her. You all did by taking her away from me. She died of a broken heart because of all of you!"

Danny become filled with disgust and said, "You're sick. You know that? Only a sick person would think snapping someone's neck would buy them some time. By snapping that girl's neck, you killed her!"

End of Scene

The scene then opens with Danny knocking on Moroni's hotel room. Moroni answers.

Moroni sees it is Danny and asks, "Detective Reagan, right?"

Danny calmly replies, "You can call me Danny."

Moroni straightens himself and humbly asks, "What can I do for you?"

Danny sighs slightly and says, "I just came by to tell you we caught Jennifer's killer."

Moroni exhales with relief and says, "Well that's good. I'm glad to hear that her killer has been brought to justice. She was a sweet girl that didn't deserve to die at such a young age."

Danny nodded in agreement and said, "I also wanted to tell you that Jennifer was getting out of the prostitution business because of you."

Moroni was surprised at the statement and asked, "She was?"

Danny smiles slightly and says, "Yeah. Apparently she was studying to be a masseuse for real. She was going to use the money you gave her to attend school and change her life around. You truly left a great impact on that girl, Moroni."

Moroni's eyes began to tear up when he replied, "Well, thank you for telling me. I still believe it's my fault she's dead. If I-"

Danny interrupted, "It wasn't your fault. She was killed by a sick, twisted drunk. She probably would have been killed long ago, but you gave her some hope and peace of mind when you came to visit. I truly believe that if there were more men like you, our fair city would be a better place."

Danny then extends his hand and Moroni shakes it and says, "Thanks again, Danny. If you ever need my help, please don't hesitate to call."

The scene goes to the Reagan Family Dinner where Danny tells them about his week, about meeting Moroni and what he thinks of him. Pops says that he wishes there were more men out there like him and how its good honest citizens that makes police work easier and worth doing.