The White Wash

The White Wash is a side quest in Fallout: New Vegas.

Detailed walkthrough
Get I Put a Spell on You from Colonel James Hsu, then talk to Captain Ronald Curtis. Once this is done, the Courier will be able to talk to Lieutenant Boyd about missing people. After talking about Bryce Anders, there will be an option to ask who else is missing. She will say that Cpl. White has gone missing and will direct the Courier to Dazzle, a prostitute at Gomorrah. Make sure to check Corporal White's things and get Corporal White's journal entry. Then go to the Strip and meet Dazzle, in the Gomorrah courtyard. She will talk about how White used to always talk about the water treatment plant and mention a man named Trent Bascom (the same info can be found on her body, if she's dead). Bascom is located on the east side of the NCR Sharecropper Farms.

After talking to Trent, the Courier will discover that White talked to Lieutenant Romanowski but got nowhere. Pickpocketing Note from Corporal White from Trent will yield the same information. Talk to Romanowski to reveal that White went to Tom Anderson, a Follower of the Apocalypse in Westside. Alternatively, Romanowski holds a note called Reprimand recommendation that contains this information.

Travel to Westside and head to Casa Madrid Apartments. Anderson's apartment is on the north side on the ground floor. Talk to him and pass an Intelligence check (6) to discover the truth behind White's disappearance. Alternatively, if the Courier is on good terms with the Followers of the Apocalypse, they can convince him to tell the truth.

If the Intelligence check is failed and the Courier cannot convince him otherwise, Anderson will tell them to ask around Westside to find out what happened to Corporal White. Hector, a young boy working on the farms, has a Speech check (80) that can be used to get him to tell the Courier that Anderson confronted Corporal White and he thinks something bad happened. Alternatively, one can follow Hector during the day, where they will find him stealing water from the North cistern. Hector blames it on Anderson, and a new objective to interrogate Anderson appears. Find Anderson and confront him to finish the quest by doing one of the following:
 * Turn Anderson in (this will turn him hostile), kill him, and take the note Anderson's confession. (This might give the Courier a negative reputation towards the Followers; if so, load a previous save and try again, or use a companion to deal the killing blow on him.) If Arcade Gannon is a companion, he will comment on how it was unnecessary to kill him; an Intelligence of 7 can justify how it was for the better. Return to Boyd and tell her the truth. She will send troops to stop water from being stolen. The Courier can then go to the Sharecropper Farms and talk to Trent, who will comment on a sudden increase in water and reward them with 10 maize, 10 banana yucca fruit and 10 coyote tobacco chew.
 * Keep Anderson's secret by telling the NCR that White was killed by the Scorpions gang. This increases reputation with the Followers of the Apocalypse. If Arcade Gannon is a companion, he will also comment on the issue. Return to Boyd and either keep Anderson's secret, or tell her the truth (if Boyd is told the truth, she will react the same as if the Courier killed Anderson. When going to Sharecroppers Farms and talking to Trent, he will still comment on the rationing of water by the NCR and he and the other farmers are heading back west).
 * Convince Anderson to turn himself in, by lying to Boyd about a fall out with White over Dazzle (there is no option to tell the truth about the missing water) in exchange for keeping Westside's secret and receive good karma. Trent still complains about the water shortage and talks about leaving.


 * NOTE: Helping to keep Westside's water secret will open up dialogue allowing extorting the co-op's profits (10% of earnings (or 20% with a 50 Barter skill), paid by Clayton Ettienne in the Co-op. There will be 250-400 caps every 24 hours, however finishing the quest and speaking to Boyd will end this arrangement. Trent still complains about the water shortage and talks about leaving.

No matter which option is chosen, Boyd will reward the Courier with the key to the MP confiscated goods trunk, located across from Boyd's office in the jail. In the trunk will be magazines, a super stimpak, and possibly antivenom, doctor bags and Mentats.

Behind the scenes
This quest contains a few references from the 1974 film Chinatown. Like the movie, the mystery involves water, which is also referenced in the quest's title. A character present in the quest named Romanowski is a portmanteau of the name Roman Polanski, the director of Chinatown.

Bugs

 * Boyd won't talk about the missing people if the unmarked quest Silus Treatment is completed. For PC users, the quest can be started with the console command.
 * It may still be possible to receive and finish this quest after completing Silus Treatment if I Put a Spell on You is not completed, as speaking with Boyd about this quest will open up multiple dialogue options with her in spite of the initial, "Haven't you done enough," greeting.
 * For some reason, if choosing to turn Anderson in (or letting him turn himself in), he can be seen walking around Camp McCarran some days later. He can be talked to, but is also found in the cells relentlessly pacing.
 * If one acquires Corporal White's journal entry before speaking to Boyd, the optional task "search Corporal White's personal locker" cannot be completed. This might lead to a savegame issue where the loading screen dialogue says that the memory device is no longer present due to inaccessible DLC objects. The game will then restart upon loading dialogue confirmation. This repeats with the next loading attempt, rendering the savegame useless.
 * Tom Anderson can disappear into the wall, though he still shows up on the radar. Without talking to him, the quest cannot be completed. This MAY however be resolved by normal reloading procedures or even exiting and re-entering the building.
 * Upon triggering a hostile conversation option, such as telling him that the Courier won't keep Westside's secret, or they'll "take him out", Anderson will say the Courier has "left him no choice", and turn hostile. However, if he is seated during this encounter, he will simply stand up, turn hostile, and then sit back down before turning non-hostile again. He can still be talked to as though he were a normal non-player character, and he will not attack. If one wants him to turn hostile and have one of their companions kill him without losing any reputation with the Followers, then attack him until he turns hostile.
 * In the German version, Lt. Boyd won't have a dialogue to tell her that White was killed by a gang. This happens if the truth is uncovered about White via both dialogue options with Anderson, as well as following Hector. Not tested on other platforms.