Consulting Detective Vol. III - Watson Steps In

 Written by Morpheus Kitami

As could be expected when Joe announced a hiatus on his contributions to the blog, someone else had to step in to play Consulting Detective Vol. III. I was the most enthusiastic...in the sense that I was the only one who really offered. During the playthrough of II, I tried the DVD version of I, which ended badly, but this time that isn't an option, and most importantly, since then I've had a renewed sense of appreciation of Holmes thanks to the Russian version starring Vasily Livanov. As such, whenever I'm stuck, I'll ask myself, what would he do? Er...what would his character do. Also as is usual when I take over a game, you may change your score guesses at no penalty. Without ado, let's begin.

Holmes' Introduction

Holmes introduces London as an unpleasant city full of danger lurking behind every corner, but that there are people who can help the player. Firstly, we have the daily newspaper, a source of invaluable information regarding our cases. Then, we have the Baker Street Irregulars, a group of vagabond schoolchildren who perform tasks for Holmes. In game, as you may recall from previous games, these guys basically just perform actions instead of Holmes or Watson going there, lowering your score. (Higher is worse) Then, the Baker Street Regulars, various doctors and reporters Holmes knows and can gather clues from. Some are vital to the success of a case, others are often just a source of clues.

Also, for readability's sake, I'm going to be putting in bold the names of people or places you can visit. At least the first time.

The Solicitous Solicitor

Holmes has a headache and needs his "cures", but Inspector Lestrade has arrived with an interesting case. Melvin Tuttle, junior partner at the prestiguous law firm Sloane, Swathmore and Cartwright died of a heart attack, which Lestrade suspects was poison. Lestrade has already talked to the partners, Cartwright has been on a mysterious leave of absence since yesterday and can't be found. There's also Harold Diggs, a former employee. Diggs was passed over for promotion, owing to his feeling that Tuttle was unqualified for the position. Holmes then kicks out Lestrade and we may begin. I feel like this is an odd case to start the game on, at least with the intro. I don't know where along the line this happened, but it makes Holmes out to be a pretty big jackass and Lestrade as an entirely reasonable man out of his depth. Usually they make it so even if Holmes is an ass, Lestrade comes off as worse.

Polite, well-mannered and entirely forthcoming, are we sure this isn't another inspector?

The best place to start off is with Scotland Yard, which has two locations, Investigation, where Lestrade is, and the Lab, where H.R. Murray is, who you probably remember from the previous games. First, let's see Lestrade again. Here he has the contents of Tuttle's desk. A folder containing information on textile products. Two trust files, one for the British Museum, and one for a Richard Mainhart. A list of various properties they've owned at one time or another, which has Disraeli O'Brian's name on it. A key for Bell's Baths, and a gold locket, saying "Love to VM, from MT". Holmes asks the name on the box, JW Benson, Limited. Holmes then notices a bill for the Knight's Arms Hotel, which seems to be a monthly rate.

This guy is so forgetful, that if you send the Irregulars, he replies that he doesn't even know a Holmes!

To the Lab, where after an amusing interaction where Murray forgets the names of our two heroes, we discover that the poison is Chinaberry. A deadly nerve poison which smells faintly of lilac. Where would someone acquire it? "Strike up an acquaintance with a South Sea Aborigine." Seems like we know what we need to do, find the dealer and then we've found the murderer. That said, Murray mentions that the poison was on the dead man's cup and pipe, but judging by the way it was described, I suspect the poisoned object was something else. He suggests I read his book on poisons, but I doubt I have the need to do so.

In retrospect, maybe this was VDP? Either way it was a red herring at best.

I'm going backwards, and in the June 26th paper, I discover some stuff relating to the textile business. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree, but perhaps the textile account is what did our poor guy in. Big moves are happening in the textile business. Maybe this EC or VDP relates to a person I need to find. There's another entry where Heathcliff and Son, Ltd has been making moves, rumors abound about a merger between them and a German textile company. Ermen and Engles has also been doing well.

This is the right paper, because then I find the article. Curiously, it lists Tuttle's age as 28, whereas I heard Murray state his age was 22. Mistake on the game's part, an inability to properly hear the words, or intentional jab at newspaper accuracy? I'm going to lead towards the middle, I keep hearing V as B. We get four more names. Secretaries Margaret Porter, Alice Spring and Brenda Walker. Along with physician Jerrold Mason. Porter is the one who served Tuttle tea, but we can rule her out owing to the rule of that being too obvious for a game.

Murder? Who cares, my textile business might be affected!

I go for the textile stuff first. I strike out on everything but Albert Heathcliff, the owner of Heathcliff and Son. Heathcliff is somewhat confrontational, but mostly just about his contracts. The law firm was handling his contracts, with that "top secret" merger going on. Sloane undertook the negotiations while Cartwright drew up the contract, but Swathmore stepped in on the contract at the final hour. Watson asks to hold onto the envelope, apparently Holmes adores scented stationary...oh my god it's the murder weapon, isn't it?

Next, let's go to the secretaries, starting with Margaret Porter. At first she tells us that Tuttle was perfect and successful with the ladies, but soon reveals that he's extremely calculating and okay at his job. She doesn't know why Tuttle was promoted, but does tell us that Swathmore and Cartwright would have made the decision together. She goes on to mention that Tuttle was in a relationship with Alice Spring and Mrs Cartwright. And of course, more things relating to the textile contracts.

Spring is quite unconsoleable, but does reveal that her relationship with Tuttle ended a week ago. She tried to return a watch he gave her, but he wouldn't hear anything of it. Walker, meanwhile, is quite an airhead who doesn't pay any attention to what she types, but reveals a few pieces of information in her rambling. Swathmore and Tuttle were working on the contracts last night and that Swathmore is a bachelor.

Let's now go through the three partners. Starting with Sloane. Sloane semi-retired a few years ago, meaning he wasn't much involved with the promotion of Tuttle, but he is deeply involved with the Heathcliff textile contracts. When the initial contract work was done, he turned them over to Cartwright, with Tuttle assisting. Holmes asks Sloane about Cartwright's sudden absence on the day before the murder. These were apparently personal reasons. Despite the sharp deadline, Tuttle was able to finish then, with Walker and Swathmore's to help. Holmes also asks about Diggs, but we don't get any new information, except that Sloane thinks that Diggs wouldn't threaten anybody.

Next up, Swathmore. He doesn't really tell us anything new, except that as far as he knows, Tuttle advanced due to hard work. Diggs proved "unsatisfactory". Otherwise, the events of last night went as Sloane mentioned. Swathmore has no idea of why Cartwright left in the middle of the night. Off to Cartwright.

He's not at home, but his wife is, having gotten a note from her husband last night stating that "I know, but if you truly love him, I won't stand in your way." She hasn't seen him since. It seems that she and Mr. Tuttle were doing it behind her husband's back. Strangely, Tuttle ended the affair 2 and a half months ago. Why someone exposed the affair now is beyond her. She thinks her husband might be at the Criterion Club. She makes Watson promise to tell her husband that she loves him and will try to make it up to him.

Yeah, that's what drinking a ton of whisky will do to you.

He's at the club, where someone tells us that he's been there since yesterday, doing not much else but drinking decanters of whiskey. When Holmes meets the very hung-over Cartwright, he's shocked to hear that Tuttle is dead. Holmes ask why he left so suddenly. It turns out that Cartwright received a note, written in rhyme stating that she's cheating on him, but not with who. He figured out through hints he previously missed. He tried to wait at home to confront his wife, but lost his courage and came here. After hearing his wife's promise, he says that perhaps they can make it up to each other.

Well, that pretty much conclusively rules out that anyone working with Tuttle poisoned him. The textile business shows no hint of any assassins working in the shadows to stop the merger; and the only person at the firm who would want him dead has an alibi and no means of using the poison. That leaves Diggs.

These are roses, so no subtle clue to be picked up on here.

Watson sees Diggs in his garden. Diggs has one of those prissy, pretentious personalities. Like Gil Chesteron from Frasier, only without the good traits. Diggs doesn't tell us anything new, but does expand on his leaving the firm. Finding Tuttle's promotion as a sign that he had no prospects at the firm. He personally disliked Tuttle too, finding his treatment of Miss Spring awful, and his attempts to woo her himself failed. Good motive, but we don't actually have anything linking him to the crime.

Let's check out Tuttle's apartment. Seems it's been ransacked, probably by the murderer. Curious. Watson finds correspondence. Mrs. Cartwright sent one to Tuttle begging to be taken back. More interestingly, letters from someone named VM, the person Tuttle had a gold watch for. They go back as far as December. The writer, "Ginnie" tells Tuttle that she'll wait for him as long as it takes for him to overtake her father's objections. Watson comments that Tuttle was just a studhorse in disguise. 

Reading this properly is important to the solving of this case.

Time to find the mysterious VM. So we open up the ol' directory and find anyone with those initials, and conveniently we do. Virginia Monroe, probably "Ginnie". We find out that her father quite disliked Tuttle, enough so that he forbid his daughter to meet him, and upon Ginnie stating that she disobeyed that wish, tried to backhand her before Holmes stopped him. We get another clue out of Ginnie, a note containing lots, with who and for what amount they changed hands on. If I check with Disraeli O'Brian, I discover that Tuttle spent his lunch hour checking out when properties were sold and who to. Another potential line of inquiry or red herring? I don't believe that Papa Monroe is capable of the cleverness of this poisoning and I can't go any further with Diggs, so this is all I have left.

I start with the Bank of England, which results in nothing and leaves me to suspect the later, but the second guy I go to, Cedric Livingston, talks to Watson. He seems quite unpleasant, but outside of some minor dealings with Tuttle, has no real connection to him. Next up, British Museum. It seems that the museum's investment trust is under the control of Swathmore, who has been growing under his stewardship. Next a Featherstone, which says about the same. The rest say much the same. Okay, this is pointless, it's Diggs.

Which leads us to the next problem. What's going on with this poison? In deparation, I check the library to read Murray's book on poisons. Which just tells me that the berry is yellow, and not anything useful. So, I do what means I am completely out of ideas and start looking through the London Directory searching for anything relevant. There's a Pharmaceutical Society, who tells me that there is no Chinaberry in England, if you want it, you need to get it illicitly. Well, I guess it's time to just go through the rest of the Baker Street Regulars.

Pike is available to talk about the case. He's just talking about the partners. Sloane attends every social event he can, even the boring ones. Swathmore only attends events essential to the prestige of the firm. Cartwright doesn't attend, but his wife does, often with Tuttle, basically telling us what we already knew. So I go over what I've written down and see that I missed the important piece of the puzzle.

Somehow, the most important figure in this case.

Bell's Baths, a bath club or something, which completely upends my previous conclusion. Swathmore is apparently here a lot, but they won't tell Holmes anything about him, privacy, of course. The janitor of course, does, he was an old shipmate of Livingston, who owns this place. Livingston, it seems, used to work on the "China trade" as a first mate. His last captain died under mysterious circumstances and yesterday he met with Swathmore. In addition to meeting, they cleared out Tuttle's locker, searching for something. We now have everything we need to prosecute. I click on the gavel and off we go to solve the murder once and for all.

As with previous games, the judge asks a series of questions. The first, who is the murderer? I imagine you already figured out the answer by how this was presented, well, you have a 50/50 shot at it. I got it wrong, it's Swathmore. Figures, I figured the guy who obviously procured the poison was the responsible party.

How did he poison it? Well, you already know this one too, because I pointed it out earlier. The poison laced envelope.

Why did he murder Tuttle? This one is laid out in a way to fake you out, but it's that Tuttle was blackmailing Swathmore for misusing funds in his care. The note you get, which I assumed was just transfers of money, was actually properties being sold. Properties were sold to Livingston at a cheap price, then Livingston jacked up the price to other parties.

Who was his accomplice? Livingston, obviously. What role did he play? He was the partner in the scheme and provided the poison. That is that.

Now, for my score, which was terrible in every respect. Obviously it was really increased by the number of times I went to an empty place looking for something which was not important to the case at all. I try again and get 54, by just doing:

• H.R. Murray (7)
• Inspector Lestrade (7)
• Bell's Baths (7)
• Melvin Tuttle (7)
• Virginia Monroe (7)
• Albert Heathcliff, by using the Baker Street Irregulars (5)
• Brenda Walker (7)
• Margaret Porter (7)

Alas, I don't really see any option to get less points by having the Irregulars go instead of Holmes himself. None of the other important figures really offer much option to use them. Those two final points will forever be out of my grasp.

There's a postscript. Holmes finds Tuttle's rise from junior clerk to junior partner in one of the best legal firms in London to be interesting. Holmes put together some pieces that I didn't. While Swathmore was obviously pressured to promote Tuttle, Mrs. Cartwright's affair resulted in Cartwright favoring Tuttle. But what tipped off Holmes to Swathmore was that he personally handed the envelopes to Tuttle. A fact I entirely glossed over.

But, that does leave the question of who informed Cartwright of the affair. That little addition saved us the work of getting an alibi for another person. Cartwright, by no means, would have ended up guilty. He had no access to Chinaberry, but it was convenient for him. We know it isn't Livingston or Swathmore, they didn't know about it, and most of the rest don't seem to know either. Oh, well.

This Session: 5 hours 00 minutes