Game 35: Deja Vu II - A Spoonful of Sugar

Ace Harding Journal Entry 4: "Things are moving along quite nicely now, although I'm still struggling to put all the pieces of this puzzle together. The evidence I found in Joey Siegel's office led me to a woman I thought I'd put behind me. Her name was Sugar, and I'm glad I paid her filthy apartment a visit, as one of her costumes just happend to be a police uniform! This little find got me into the morgue freezer, where I found enough leads to keep me busy for a while. If I can just get inside that damn laundry, I might crack this case wide open!"

There better bloody be something good in this office!

The board was off, and it was time to head inside Joey’s office (well, former office anyway). I climbed in, and noticed that the room was rather dark. I turned on my torch, and was very surprised to find the blood from Joey’s murder still all over the table, albeit dried. I excitedly set about exploring the room, quickly finding a pencil within the desk drawer. The safe was unlocked, but there was nothing inside. Surely I didn’t go through all the pain involved with getting inside to get a pencil did I? I opened the phone, out of desperation really as who opens a phone, and found an oddly shaped key. Now that was more like it! I knew exactly what to do with that key, and since there was nothing else to investigate in the office, I turned off my torch and climbed back out through the window. I made my way further into the alley and once again used the knife to break the lock on the door into Joe’s Bar. I entered, turned on my torch again, and made my way down into the Wine Cellar and onwards into the Hidden Casino. Once there, I used the key on the first slot machine. It didn’t work! I held my breath, and tried using the key on the other slot machine. It worked!!!

Someone really should have a chat to the cleaner!

As good a place as any other I guess!

Inside the slot machine I found a business card and a diary. The business card was for Sugar Shack: “You notice the words, “Come and see me, Joey” scrawled on the back of it. Sugar and you go way back. You remember many hot nights on the town with her. You also remember the last time you saw her. She was carrying a grudge, a .38, and six bullets with your name on them.” Was Sugar the crazy hooker that tried to kill me in the first game?! There was an address on the card, so I figured I’d find out eventually. The diary had belonged to Joey Siegel, and contained a list of payments of various amounts. There were dates and reference numbers next to each payment, making it appear as though a recipient #0 (I’m assuming the payments were handed over rather than received but there’s no evidence either way) visited Joey on numerous occasions. “The list continues, but you notice that courier number 0 is not shown again.” What did all this mean? Who was courier #0, and why did they receive monthly payments between the 15th of April and the 15th of July? I knew that Joey was a bookie, but couldn’t come up with any connections between this and anything else I knew.

This guy clearly had expensive tastes!

I hopped back into Gabby’s cab and showed him Sugar Shack’s business card. He recognised the address, and drove me to her apartment. There appeared to be two entrances to the building, but every time I tried to approach the main door a homeless bum on the sidewalk outside accosted me and begged me for a nickel, preventing me from going in. He repeated this, even after I gave him a quarter, so eventually I assumed that there was no way to enter through that door. The other door was locked, but I quickly dealt with that by “operating” my pen knife on the lock. Sugar’s apartment was a complete dump, with cobwebs all over the place and various items strewn on the bed and floor. There were lots of things to explore though, and I decided to begin with the closet. Inside were five costumes, a shoe and a vacuum cleaner. The clothes had obviously been used for fantasy role-play (and no, I don’t mean the type that involves twenty sided dice), and I immediately noticed the police uniform. That was exactly what I needed to get into the morgue, so I added it to my inventory (at least I did after I removed my overcoat to make room). I couldn’t think of any reason why I might need any of the other items in the closet, so I moved on.

The only bum that should be attached to my leg is my own, you hear me!?

I considered wearing the red number, but thought better of it in the end.

There was a bottle of perfume called “Evening in Pierre” on the table which I picked up, before turning my attention to the newspaper on the bed. “This paper is folded open to the obituaries. You notice that Sugar Shack seems to have cut one of them out.” I can’t remember the first game all that well, but perhaps this is suggesting that Sugar Shack read about Joey Siegel’s death in the paper, and therefore came after me with a loaded weapon. There was a tissue box on the nightstand next to the bed and a loose tissue on the ground, which would also suggest that she had been crying on reading the obituary. Within the nightstand I discovered a “bunch of bank deposit slips bundled together with a rubber band”. I examined them more closely, and found that there were four deposit slips dated, you guessed it, the 15th of April through to the 15th of July, 1939. However, the amounts didn’t match those paid out in Joey’s diary. Sugar’s deposit slip from the 15th of April was for $1200, yet the payment in the diary for the same date was $24000. I quickly realised that each payment in the diary was exactly twenty times what Sugar Shack had been receiving. What did it mean? Did it mean that Joey had been seeing twenty hookers each month?!?! Maybe I was just reading into things too much, but the exactness of the maths made me think otherwise.

Well the girl needs her beauty sleep! That's what they're suggesting right?

I left Sugar’s apartment and made my way back to the morgue. As seen as Gabby pulled up to the curve, I put the police uniform on and entered. The first thing I tried was asking the clerk about Alison (one of the names on the unclaimed bodies clipboard), since last time he’d told me that only officers could see the personal effects of the dead. “Sorry officer, there are no personal effects. The unlucky stiff was found at the bottom of the Chicago River wearing nothing but a pair of concrete boots”. I opened the gates leading into the back area and successfully accessed the freezer room! Inside were four draws that I assumed contained bodies. I opened the first one, and indeed found a body covered in a sheet. The tag attached to the corpses’ toe said “Pierre Maloka”. I immediately thought of the perfume I’d just found at Sugar’s, which was called “Evening in Pierre”! Was there some sort of connection there? I tried spraying the perfume on the body: “The body smells much better now, but he doesn’t appreciate it.” Hmmm...I slid the drawer back in and opened the next one, once again finding a body within with a tag. This one read “June Boeding”, which didn’t mean anything to me.

Classy!

The third body had a tag with the name “Bondwell, Thomas S.” on it. “It looks like someone used this guy for target practice. You notice a scar running through the stiff’s left eye, but before you can get a closer look at what did this guy in, your stomach gives a twinge. You quickly pull the sheet back over the body. Apparently you don’t have as strong a stomach as you thought you did!” Clearly this was the gangster mentioned in the newspaper article, which had also suggested his death might be related to that of Joey Siegel’s. It seemed odd that I couldn’t investigate the body further without feeling sick, and not even spraying the perfume on it made any difference. Suddenly it dawned on me that it might only be the name of the victim that I needed, and the reason for my visit could be in his personal items at the front desk. After finding the fourth and final draw to be empty, I made my way back to the front desk to speak to the clerk. When I said the name “Thomas Bondwell” to him, he placed a cardboard box on the counter! Things were going very well now!!! I opened it up and found two keys, a wallet and a watch, all of which I added to my inventory. One of the keys appeared to be for the front door of Bondwell’s house, but the other smaller one was unmarked. Perhaps I’d find a use for it at his home, if indeed I could get the address from his wallet.

Let's hope it has oh, I don't know, about $112000 in it!

Inside the wallet I found a ten dollar note, a license, and a baggage-claim ticket with the number “526” on it. There’d been a baggage claim desk at the Las Vegas train station, so that seemed a very likely place to make use of that particular item. The license gave me Thomas’ address, which was thankfully in Chicago! I already had a few strong leads to go with, but I thought I would try asking for the personal possessions for each of the other two bodies. I typed in “Pierre Maloka” and received the following message: “The clerk, looks you up and down and says, “I already gave it to you, mac!”” Clearly he hadn’t, so I was bit confused by that. I then typed “Maloka”, and was given the story about the body found at the bottom of the river with concrete boots. Huh!? I’d received that answer after asking about Alison! I tried typing “June Boeding” in, and was once again told that the clerk had already given me the items. By now I assumed that I was just confusing the game by asking about non-relevant things, but I thought I would ask about “Boeding” for completeness. Lucky I did, as the clerk put a box with her name on it on the counter next to Thomas’!!! I could easily have walked away by now, particularly as there was no reason that I knew of to focus on June Boeding.

I'm glad I keep finding visual addresses for Gabby, otherwise I'd be screwed!

I set my frustration aside and opened June’s box of goodies. Inside I found a license that included her address in St. Louis, and a receipt of some sort. “You are barely able to make the first letter of the company name which is a “K””. Well at least I would have somewhere to go when I reach St. Louis, but I didn’t really know why I might have any interest in doing so. One of the most useful things about my trip to the morgue though, was the boxes the personal items came in. I eagerly moved them into my inventory and packed them with similar objects. All the documents, licenses etc. went into one box, and the keys, wallets etc. went into the other. Finally I could manage my inventory properly, although I’d wasted a heap of valuable time dragging everything around and making everything neat and tidy. I hopped back into Gabby’s cab and directed him to Thomas Bondwell’s address. Surely I’d find something there that would really open things up for me! Alas, on arrival, I discovered his home had been burnt to a crisp! “It’s the burned wreckage of Bondwell’s house. It has arsen written all over it.” Well that was unexpected! I still had two more leads though, but neither of them were in Chicago. I had a decision to make!

Check out that inventory. CHECK...IT...OUT!!!!

I assume Mr. Malone didn't want anyone snooping around in Thomas' stuff.

My choices were to go back to the train station in Las Vegas to see what was in Thomas’ luggage at the baggage claim desk, or head to St. Louis to June Boeding’s address. I decided the most logical thing to do was to go back to Las Vegas, as heading over to St. Louis would likely open up new paths that I might not be ready to take. I made my way to the Chicago train station and paid the $20 it cost to get a train back to Las Vegas. As soon as I arrived I entered the baggage claim area and “operated” the ticket on the clerk there. “The attendant accepts the baggage claim ticket and retrieves a suitcase from under the counter.” I opened up the case and found nothing more than a bundle of dirty clothes! Figuring there had to be more to it than that, I “opened” the pile of clothes, and found a letter and a photo inside. I looked at the photo first: It’s a photo of Siegel shaking hands with another man in front of a building, Reliant Laundry, Inc. You squint. You can barely make out the initials “D.V.” on the pocket handkerchief of the mystery man.”

I have to wonder why Mr. Bondwell hadn't picked up his own case. Was he killed within the train station itself?!

The letter had the name A. Malone on it, with the A most likely standing for Anthony (as in Tony Malone). “Boss, I’ve come across somethin’ strange that you should know about. Among other things, I been helpin’ out with makin’ some protection payments to the cops. When Joey got it, I grabbed the books to make sure the cops didn’t get ‘em. They don’t show any of the payments at all! I know D.V. knows about ‘em, ‘cause Joey told me to report by phone direct to D.V. after each payment was made on account of it being D.V.’s operation. But if it ain’t in the books, then you would never see any record of the payoffs. I think D.V. is muscling in on your territory, anyway the whole thing’s weird, and I thought you ought to know. – Tom Bondwell” Hmmm... who was this D.V. character? I assumed from the photo that I’d find him at the laundry, but I still didn’t have a way in. Perhaps if I went there now I’d have more luck!? Perhaps one of the keys I recovered from Mr. Bondwell's personal items would open the door? It seemed to me that Bondwell hadn’t found the protection payment amounts in the books he’d picked up because Joey had been keeping tabs on them in a separate book. The diary I found hidden in the slot machine! If I still can’t get into the laundry, I might be better off restoring back to Chicago to save the train ticket cost. I have a good feeling about it though!

I suddenly realised that I have some clothes that need cleaning

Session Time: 1 hour 00 minutes

Total Time: 5 hours 00 minutes

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: I've written a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no points will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. Please...try not to spoil any part of the game for me...unless I really obviously need the help...or I specifically request assistance. In this instance, I've not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!