Ian Duffy is a murdered, closeted gay fireman.
Background[]
Ian was a beloved fireman married to a woman named Claudia. He stuck with his fellow fighters in the fire house, to the point he was a public advocate in a group called Forgotten Heroes, who fought for needed support for injured and traumatized civil servants and veterans. Brendan Keele, who worked for the city health department, was Ian's man on the inside who assisted him in protests and even got arrested together with him, the charges later being dropped.
Ian was also a closeted gay man, frequenting a gay bar named Julian's to find men to go out with. When he found out Keele is gay too, they started a steady sexual affair. Claudia found out about the affair, but not that Ian was gay. Insisting they keep their family together, she informed Ian she was pregnant. Ian swore to end the affair to start a family with Claudia. When Ian was walking away with Claudia from a charity event, he saved drag queen Chantuse Johnson from being beaten to death by Darnell Thomson, his brother Ty, and their friend James Decker. Ian punched Darnell, breaking his glasses and making his cheek bleed. Darnell made a finger gun motion at Ian to threaten him, then the trio ran off and Darnell was treated at the hospital.
Keele didn't take to breaking up too kindly shortly after, having already been rejected to a married lover named John T. Hoffman. Keele stabbed John to death, but a convict in prison was manipulated into confessing. Keele was enraged enough to stab Ian to death as well, stabbing him twenty-two times, which was implied to be how many meetings they had during their affair. Ian escaped in his car and drove right over to his fire station. Despite his fellow firemen's efforts to save him, he collapsed when inside, having bled to death the whole way from none of his major vessels being slashed.
Maltese Cross[]
The detectives were met with resistance from the fire squad, and Claudia was badly devastated by Ian's murder. After Darnell was arrested and his alibi was cleared, Keele was tracked after Claudia mentioned Ian's Forgotten Heroes work, and a tape of Ian's protest at a political press conference shows Keele behind the politician giving Ian a thumbs up. Keele clarified with his own grunt work at the health department, he couldn't stand civil servants and veterans didn't get the benefits they needed from a lack of policy and enactment, so he became Ian's inside man. The detectives notice Keele knows about the affair, but just assume he's covering for a woman instead of being Ian's lover. Keele evades and just says Ian was a good man.
After going between bars, the detectives confirmed Ian was gay from the bartender at the gay bar Julian's knowing his drink. Claudia isn't informed just yet, but she does admit she's pregnant and told Ian to end the affair for their family. When the fire house was a questioned again, Charlie Hugo and Logan get into fisticuffs, as due other police and fireman called in as reinforcements. But Keele's found out as the secret lover because of the two men's ties being the same designs so they'd match and each other in crowds. Keele was tied to John's murder from fingerprint evidence from an assault he committed in college, but only Ian' murder could be prosecuted to not cause a sociopolitical fiasco for the system since John's murder was poorly "closed". Charlie was briefly arrested for the brawl to impose on him to pretend to be Ian's lover, to make Keele jealous when he witnessed the "confession". It worked, as when Keele failed to attack Charlie, he screamed his confession to murdering Ian and was arrested. Claudia was warned she'd have to testify and Ian's orientation would go public, but Claudia said that would only further show the hero Ian lived as, which she hoped for their baby to know. (CI: "Maltese Cross")