Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective III - The Thames Murders (Won!)

 Written by Morpheus Kitami

What do you think Gregson would say about the tea at Scotland Yard that makes it worse than Mrs. Hudson's? 10 CAPs for the best answer.

Inspector Gregson is here, drinking tea made by Mrs. Hudson again. Guess it can't be that bad if he keeps coming here. Watson, knowing that they serve tea down at the police station, asks why he's here. Seems Inspector Lestrade sent him, a shocking course of events, as he's at his wits' end. "He didn't travel far to arrive there." We're to solve The Thames Murders, four, now five bodies found floating in the river. The latest is Roland Jaquard, stepson of Lord Astley Denham. He was a ne'er-do-well and a womanizer. His days spent being one of the finest Whist players in London, his nights spent in the drawing rooms of the finest families in London. "He wasn't a traveling chambermaid" quips Holmes. Then Gregson puts the names of murder dates of the previous victims in Holmes's notebook.

Incidentally, if you're not familiar with the time period, you could be surprised to hear that the Thames was pretty disgusting around this time, so hopefully poison can be ruled out.

There are of course, no dates in the notebook, but I do get the names. Nathan Revell, Cyril Maude, Charles Attard, Shepard, Faye & Leo and Jaquard. I go to check the newspaper, only to not see the murders in the most recent paper or the second oldest paper. I do find an article about how the De Vries Diamonds have yet to be found. Well, I guess we're just going to have to ignore the newspapers for now, let's see what's going on at the Criminal Investigations Department.

Come to think of it, I have never seen a case that once Holmes accepted, he quit in the middle of.

Lestrade has been thinking it over and has decided he doesn't need outside help. Holmes doesn't accept that, and says he'll remain on the case until it is solved. Lestrade is annoyed, but offers Holmes his report...which he misplaced. There's the Lestrade I know. But...you know, I can't help but feel like this case is awkwardly trying to work around the fact that this is all video files, and the board game probably gave you paper reports. Going over to H.R. Murray, meanwhile, gets me nothing, he's not in.

Next up, since Watson mentioned he was following the events in the papers, let's see some of those newspaper reporters. Starting with the London Times, which is Henry Ellis, he's off...apparently following Sebastian Moran and James Moriarty. And that's basically it for the newspaper men, unless I go through the Regulars. Let's figure out what it is that we're actually doing here before we go on too deep a fishing expedition.

Starting with Mr. Revell, we meet with what I presume was his landlady. Revell was a quite and unassuming chap, he went to work during the day and to his club at night. On occasion he would play Whist with her, a game he was apparently quite fond of. Then she goes off on a tangent regarding a broken window. Which she first noticed was broken when she was showing the police around his flat after the murder. That's strange.

We don't get anyone in Cyril Maude's place, but Watson describes the contents of an old sea chest he had. £200 in cash, a box of Mauser 11mm shells and a Webley revolver. Holmes admonishes Watson for describing that as nothing much of interest. I have to concur, because this is a very odd selection. I had to go out of the game to check this, because I kept hearing it as Mauser 7mm shells, which, when combined with a Webley, is either a unique gun or a mismatch of ammunition and gun. As Webleys are mostly .455 caliber revolvers. Mauser 11mm shells are a match, but it is an oddity. I know the obvious observation is that this guy is a criminal, but it seems to me like he could be a German spy. It seems like we might be looking for a vigilante?

Died under mysterious circumstances and asked her to give his stuff to whoever had a letter from him? She's not the sharpest lady around.

At Charles Attard's, we find his sister, a Mrs. Jeanette Rooker. Two years ago, Attard gave instructions that upon his death, his sister was to collect a box and hold it until someone gave her a letter from him. What's inside the box? Just files, mostly financial. One file was marked, Lindsey and Co., and that's all we're going to get out of her before she goes off with the box. Deciding this might be worth further examination, I then look her up in the directory. Once at her place, Watson asks if anyone ever came after the box. Sebastian Moran. Ellis wasn't a red herring after all!

Going to Shepard, Faye & Leo, we discover that the dead man was the son of Mrs. Shepard...or not, actually. She alleges that her son has been at sea for weeks. His wallet, it seems, was stolen before he left. Which is why Inspector Lestrade insists that the dead man is her son. So, all we know about the fourth is that he's a mystery criminal who is either a mugger or a pickpocket. This is getting stranger by the moment.

For such a violent struggle, there isn't that much damage.

At Jaquard's, we meet with the housekeeper. She left early last night, after having placed some food for him and his dinner guest. A guest he informed her of in advance. Holmes finds some guns in his desk, a Mauser T11 and a Lockshear pistol, the Lockshear was fired recently. The housekeeper says he was quite the gun collector. He was quite rich, having thousands of pounds in credit and a tidy sum in his wallet. Further clues are a playbill for the Elephant & Castle Theatre, and a missing Persian rug. The maid tells us we might want to ask the local gossip, Mrs. Bettina Ivory.

What do we know so far? Well, money isn't a motive. The guns probably aren't important outside of being guns, none of them seem to be real weapons, but I'm not an expert on Victorian pistols. I think it's a safe assumption that they were all rogues of some sort, but not necessarily criminals themselves. Just connected to someone who needed something worth killing over. If I check my best lead on this, Moran, I find he isn't there. Well, let's focus on this last murder first, starting with the gossip.

"With my high-powered binoculars I can see everything, muahahahaha!"

Ivory hears and sees all, at least in this case. She has a pair of binoculars she uses to look out her window. No wonder she was known as a snoop. At 12:30, a woman came running out of Jaquard's house and went into a carriage. An hour later a delivery wagon pulled up, one man went in, two came out with the rug. She doesn't know what they looked like, but she noticed what it said on the wagon. Landmark Limited. This is most fortunate, so what's about to go wrong?

Landmark Ltd. is a landscaping company helmed by a rather intimidating guy. After clearing up some initial confusion about Watson wanting something moved, the owner of Landmark notices what's going on. His employee, Juan Escobedo, was told not to take his wagon out without asking him. Apparently he found a rug in the back this morning. Escobedo called in sick, but it looks like his employment with Landmark Ltd. is at an end.

Funny, I was under the impression Watson was against breaking and entering.

Before arriving, I notice two Escobedos in the directory, and I find out why quickly. Juan Escobedo was roped into helping his brother, Marco Escobedo, dispose of Jaquard's corpse after murdering him; Now he's drinking away his mistake. Marco, still in bed, get interrogated by Watson. He gives some half-hearted denials, and then admits that Jaquard was trying to seduce his girlfriend Letitia Garcia. He gives an alibi, apparently he was at The Ring, he's a boxer, and then to a restaurant called the Spaniard's Inn. He then tells Watson to go away, because he has to go to the gym even though he sounds like he's about to hack up a lung.

The gentleman at The Ring quickly disproves Marco's alibi. He's a worthless bum, and the only gym he's been in lately are bars and bedrooms. But he was at the Spaniard's Inn, starting at 10 and leaving at midnight. As the fellow there says, he had dinner if you count six shots of whisky as dinner. Apparently he was quite drunk and in a foul mood. Finally, if I check with Garcia, she is pretty clearly hiding something. I think this has pretty much put the nails in the coffin here for Marco, but he's probably innocent of the other murders. The question I have, is that enough to win the case or do I need to figure out what happened there? I know some are connected to Moriarty, but that doesn't actually mean he's responsible for them. A quick check on the gavel icon shows that I'm missing something, but what?

Hall believes that Attard was in the pay of Moriarty...which is really just spelling out an conclusion I already made. Hogg, meanwhile, mentions that nobody is talking about the murders in the underground. Meek, meanwhile is out, but apparently left some stuff with Holmes' ruffians...AKA the Irregulars. And boy, howdy, did he leave some information. All about the murders, and I finally some dates beyond a casual mention of June at some point. Revell & Maude died on May 30th, Attard on June 1st and Jaquard died after that.

What, a note with actual pages? What witchcraft is this!?

Sifting through it, we know that Revell died of two large calibre gunshot wounds at close range. Possibly .455 calibre wounds, if I may make an inference. Maude died by a long sharp object that entered his armpit into his heart, which sounds vicious, lethal, yet hard to pull off. Attard also died of two large calibre gunshot wounds at close range. Shepard, meanwhile, took some more work. Before his murder he was winged by a small calibre shot, then was murdered by two shots then many stabbings. This still didn't kill him, instead, he drowned. Jaquard, was pummeled then strangled.

Disraeli once again proves useful, as he has criminal records on all the victims, or rather the one that has one. Maude went before the court on violent charges, but was dismissed every time for lack of evidence. Each time, he had a co-defendant Curtis Twiggs. Time to check that out.

Living in cheap housing must be hell if someone can just pay off your landlord like that.

He's not there, but he left a bag, which his shady landlord will let Holmes look at for a few quid. In it, we find jewelry and several objects that belonged to two of the other murder victims, Attard and Revell. Even better, the probable murder weapon in one case, a stiletto dagger. I think I have everything solved, but I need a clue or two more to make the connections stick.

Langdale Pike is willing to expand on Jaquard's lovelife. Seems that the primary woman he was currently focused on was Garcia. But there are two other figures, Lindal Randolph, wife of Vincent Randolph, and Kathleen Lindsay, who might just be a friend. Attard was apparently a friend of Jaquard's, as Holmes asks, and that's all the facts he can get out of him beyond his apparently awfulness.

Sorry Porky, seems like you weren't quite the lynchpin I thought you were.

Porky Shinwell gives us the final clue we need. He gives us a connection between Moran/Moriarty and Maude/Twiggs. The latter two were regulars and known to be the thugs of the former. Porky also tells us that the guy the police mistakenly identified as Shepard is Twiggs, just as I suspected. We even have Moran coming in on the night they were murdered to talk to them. That, I think, is that. I'm wrong, so I check the papers, now that I know what I'm looking for, and hit paydirt. One of the victims was a barrister, and the other was a clerk at Lindsay & Company.

It turns out that Revell was embezzling securities from his work. This was quite elaborate, as the guy apparently had to go to the right bank with the right number, something that would have been quite difficult for him to pull off. We get from the confused boss the name of his partner, Jeffrey Farber, Mr Lindsay died, his wife Kathleen owns his shares now. Curious, was the Spaniard a red herring? That seems impossible. Going over to Farber, he explains the embezzlement a bit more, but is still puzzled about how he got the numbers. But then we find out their work was done through a solicitor, Charles Attard, and I think we've finally unraveled the case...and I need another clue.

I swear, every time they get someone to play an old woman, it's someone obviously younger, it's a bit annoying.

Mrs. Lindsay gives us the details on three of the victims. Attard was her solicitor, it seems like he was connected to everyone in this case. Because Jaquard introduced Lindsay to Attard. Revell and Attard had no way of knowing one another, but that's okay. This, it seems, isn't enough. How? I don't know. What, do I need to prove a connection between Jaquard and Moriarty? Or do I not have enough evidence to potentially convict Moran? Either way I feel like I'm being made to put in more work than is necessary.

Hello stranger I have never met before, yup, yup, yup.

I guess I should check out the Elephant & Castle, some sort of theatre. The person there saw Jaquard and Garcia there last night. Garcia was wooing multiple men at the same time, how ironic that Jaquard, notorious ladykiller, fell victim himself to his own game. Her other two suiters were Marco and Sir Lester Ogilvie. A Sir? Lester, seems to be played by one of the Regulars, but they try well enough to disguise him. He's not a romantic, but rather a father figure. He basically just expands on the Marco/Garcia relationship, seems they were from the same village. That was a big help. No, I don't have enough. Well, let's make good use of our time and check out some Whist clubs!

The Bagatelle Club links Moran and Jaquard directly, as the two are the best players in the club. The person there, was partners with Revell and played against the two frequently. Losing. Often. Holmes asks if they wagered on the game, and the guy doesn't know how much Revell gambled. On the night before Revell died, it seems that Revell and Moran had a disagreement, with Moran wanting to meet Revell on the day he died. He left before meeting him, telling the guy to send him to the Tankerville Club if he came in. Jaquard, meanwhile, got a telegraph on the day he died, which was apparently very urgent.

The Tankerville Club seems less important. Jaquard was apparently there with Kathleen, whereupon Moran arrived for an hour around 9, then left. Holmes also asks about the last time Jaquard was there, apparently on June 1st, where he mostly just played cards and then drank a little before leaving early. This is still not enough. Making a leap in logic, I figure if I needed to send the Irregulars to Meek, I should send them to the rest of the police, and I hit paydirt with Murray. At least, paydirt in the sense that I finally get to go before the court. (it does at least explicitly say that the Mauser T11 was the same type that murdered the murder victims) This one is going to be a bit trickier because I have to explain who murdered five people.

Who murdered Nathan Revell?

Cyril Maude, which we can tell by the police report, his weapon was the murder weapon.

Why did Maude murder Revell?

He was ordered to by Sebastian Moran to clean up the evidence after the embezzlement.

Who murdered Cyril Maude?

Curtis Twiggs, his partner.

Why did Twiggs murder Maude?

I don't think we actually have any definite reason beyond being ordered to by Moran, but apparently that isn't it. By logical process of elimination, Maude wasn't planning to turn him over and self-defense is out. So he was going to take the embezzled securities for himself.

Who killed Charles Attard?

By process of elimination, Curtis Twiggs, as Moran wouldn't order his death.

Why did Twiggs murder Attard?

He probably wasn't ordered to at this point. There's a real red herring about a blackmail job, but the answer is self-defense. Guess it is possible.

Who murdered Twiggs?

At first I guessed Moran, but I was wrong, leaving only Roland Jaquard. I assumed that Moran would get his hands dirty, but that seems to only happen out of desperation.

What was Jaquard's motive?

The game offers two good explanations, recovery of the securities and retribution for Attard. Judging by the lack of securities, I guess the latter...which I should have taken as a reason to guess the former instead. This shows that I should have paid attention to my notes too.

Who murdered Jaquard?

Marco Escobedo, which I think is a gimme.

What was Escobedo's motive?

Finally, something I can get right at once, jealousy over Leticia Garcia. Wait, Leticia? Is it Letitia or Leticia? They spelled it differently in the only two places it appears. Wow.

My final score is a quite low 338 against...47. HOW THE HELL DID HOLMES GET 47!?!?!?! Ahem...I know Holmes usually skips over a few steps in his scores, but that seems a lot less skipping over a few steps and outright cheating to declare yourself the winner. Even on my second attempt when I knew roughly what I was doing I still had three times Holmes score. Not that it helped me much in the end.

Going for a low score...

• The Bagatelle Club (7)
• Elephant & Castle (7)
• Roland Jaquard (7)
• Kathleen Lindsay (7)
• H.R. Murray, Irregulars (5)
• Porky Shinwell (7)
• Tankerville Club (7)

That's 47, which I got because, frankly, the game made it too easy outside of the two Irregular report destinations. (The other being Jasper Meek) I just checked my score after every trip and cut it down to 42 before Irregular trips, then it was just brute-forcing. 

Like The Adventure of the Fifteen Venuses, this one had a lot of locations that seemed essential but actually weren't. The really odd part is that we didn't really need to do anything regarding Jaquard's murder, just visiting his home and then going to the Elephant & Castle is apparently enough to establish what happened. Exploring Escobedo, at any length, is apparently pointless to the investigation. Likewise, we just need Kathleen Lindsay to figure out what happened with the securities. Twiggs is connected to the murders exclusively through Shinwell, which is frankly quite unsatisfactory considering that the only way we would know that it's Twiggs is because we know it isn't Shepard or whatever the guy's name is.

Reconstructing the story. Maude, Twiggs and Jaquard are all agents of Moran/Moriarty. Nathan Revell unwisely gambled in his Whist games against Moran and Jaquard, resulting in significant debt to the duo. Blackmailing him, Moran has him embezzle the securities his company Lindsay and Co. obtain for their clients. With the help of Charles Attard who was turned for unknown reasons. Once he embezzled enough money, Moran had him killed.

This is where things went sideways for Moran. Maude killed Revell, but Twiggs, being your typical low-life thug, killed Maude and took the money for himself. At this point, Twiggs has gone rogue. Attard, considering Revell his friend, goes after Twiggs and dies in bitter failure. Moran then sends Jaquard after him to recover the securities. Befitting a man who has caused so much carnage, he dies horribly. Jaquard gives the securities to Moran and in a cruel twist of fate is killed over a woman who did not even care for him. 

Holmes' reconstruction goes a bit more into Revell's role in this. His one passion became his undoing. Moran and Jaquard were cheating at Whist, which meant the second he fell into the gambler's fallacy he was screwed. Holmes doesn't know the reason why Attard starting working for Moran either. Revell's suicide note, which I ignored as irrelevant, but Holmes suggests he wrote it as a change of heart. Which sounds odd when you use it to describe someone being blackmailed. Everything through goes as I mentioned it until Jaquard gets the securities.

At this point, I missed a step. Jaquard still had the securities. In fact, he had a dalliance with Garcia right after killing Twiggs, being caught in the act by Marco. Marco kills the nude Jaquard, then hastily dresses him, rolls him up in his rug, then dumps him in the Thames, an ironic resting place for a man partially responsible for the previous four. Holmes ends the game with "Elementary, my dear Watson." Seems somewhat fitting. As per usual I'm pretty sure there's no final grand won video bragging about what a good detective I am.

Despite the exhaustion I felt doing this case, I liked it. It wasn't one of the best cases, but it remains solidly in the middle, and the game could have done worse than end on this one. My big problem with the case, once again, is that it feels like I have to trawl through either club locations or the newspaper in hopes of finding something relating to Whist. I realize the lawnmower approach to deduction might be closer to reality, but in a game I feel like I need slightly better connections than this. I wonder if the board game did it any better.

Speaking of which, at this point, if Joe were playing, he would probably be saying that next time, we'll get to see the board game and the final case. I wasn't going to do this for a variety of reasons, I got a bunch of missed classics for 1994 games that I want to start on; Another digression would be annoying; I don't have the space to do it easily; If I did it would just me me narrating this stuff, no multiplayer effort. But I found a cheap enough copy of the original printing and it'll clear up what seem to be obvious text to video issues along with a lackluster playthrough of the final case. In the meantime, I'm going to start up a Missed Classic involving Dracula, which, when you think about it, is an ironic next choice of game.

This Session: 3 hours 40 minutes

Final Time: 12 hours 10 minutes