Part 7: The Murder

[Music: The Plot Thickens]



: A man was killed here!
: What?! Who was murdered?
: The victim was a resident of this address, one Simon Reinhold.
: Simon was...

[Music: Silence]



: Upon arrival at the scene, it was apparent to me that Simon was already dead.

[Music: The Plot Thickens]

: I see. And the cause of death?
: I'm currently conducting an investigation to look into it.



: The rest of the details concerning this investigation are classified.
: Speaking of the details, who placed the call to the authorities?
: Are your ears clogged? You deaf? Didn't I just tell you those details are classified? Hmm? All right, everyone. I'll be taking statements from each of you in the other room. Come in one by one. And let me make this clear. Under no circumstances is anyone to leave until I've talked to everyone.



Now we can begin a mini-investigation into this issue ourselves. Not much to do at first but begin by questioning the witnesses. We'll start with Gordon, since he was the victim's uncle and all.



: You're a detective, are you not? Do hurry and find the monster that did this.
: My good sir, I am no detective. But I agree that your concerns are certainly warranted. No one is safe until that criminal is behind bars.
: My sentiments exactly. I just don't understand it. Simon could be snide, but he wasn't the type to be hated. If the criminal was after my brother's fortune, I could very well be this fiend's next target!
: You have a point.



: Good gracious, you don't think I'd do something like this now?! Simon and I got along very well, I'll have you know. He wasn't very close to Augustus though. You know, all this talk of families has me contemplating a puzzle I once heard.



...Not really the best time.



That's all we're gonna get from him, though, so let's go question Matthew now.



: Not a soul, I'm afraid. I-I didn't even know about Master Simon until Inspector Chelmey showed up.
: And where is Simon's body now?
: I didn't see this, but I was told that the inspector carried the body out shortly after arriving.
: I see... Well, it looks like for the moment we are without a lead on this case.
: Ah, but you know, I found this in the room where Master Simon's body was discovered.





: I'm sorry to say I have no idea. But I thought it might be a clue, so I made sure to hold on to it.
: Amazing! It's a cog so small that one could search the room and miss it. Look, it has an engraving.



: A small cog? Now that you mention it, I know a puzzle about an object that almost fits that description.
: Whaaat? Are you joking? A puzzle? At a time like this?



I think I gotta agree with Luke on this one. There's a time and a place for everything; this is neither for a puzzle.



: You see, I just can't fathom it. What reason would anyone have to hurt Simon?

Well, we do have a very real possibility for a motive. Though, the key thing to remember is: motive is not important. Motive is seldom important. It could give us an idea who the culprit is, certainly, but it's nowhere near the be all and end all it's painted as in most fictional works.



Oh and Chelmey's turned up now so let's see what we can get out of him this time.



: I believe we are missing Ramon, sir.
: Ramon! Where is he and what on earth is he doing? Matthew, fetch Ramon at once!
: To be honest, my lady, thinking about it, I've not seen Ramon for a few hours now.
: What?! Don't tell me he was murdered as well!



: Where could he be at a time like this? What if the murderer got Ramon too?

Based on what at least one guy said, I don't think it'll be that big a deal. Might make things more interesting too.

Anyway, we need to prod Matthew for more info to continue.



: I believe my lady has retired to the adjoining room to relax on her own. She's a strong woman, but it's only natural she'd need to rest after a terrible event like this.
: Very well, then. Would you please let her know that I have something I'd like to talk to her about?
: But of course, Professor. Please wait here.



: Luke! If you wish to ever become a true gentleman, you'll need to start showing a little more sensitivity.
: Oh! Of course, Professor. I apologise. That was wrong of me.
: My lady will see you now. Just head back through that doorway on the left.



Not much to do in here but talk to Dahlia, unfortunately. Nothing hidden in the curtains in the back, the prominent vase in the middle, or even the obvious files on the left.



: What?!
: It's too early to say for sure, but I think that it's highly probably the two matters are linked.
: And you think that Ramon is somehow involved in all this?



: I see... If that's the case, I have a request for you, Professor. Find Ramon and bring him back here to me. It sickens me that I am being considered a suspect in this brutal crime. I must prove my innocence at once.
: As you wish, Lady Dahlia. We wil ask around the village to see what we can find.
: I appreciate your help, Professor. Well then, I'll be awaiting the good news in the parlour.


Before moving on to a missing persons search along with everything else we've got on our plate right now, let's finish up some of those loose ends...



[Music: Puzzles]



We'll start with Stachen's since if we didn't, we'd lose the chance to talk to him regarding it during the search.



3. Still stuck, huh? Here's a big hint. Look at how the cards are stacked on top of eac other. Pay special attention to how each card overlaps with the middle card for your answer.

D was completely unanimous here, and it is...






The difference is very subtle but if you're looking for something off it becomes more obvious. Besides, given the layout for this one, anything else would probably be a bit too blatant I think.



: Seems the training I've been giving you has paid off. Feel free to thank me in any way you see fit. Well, be seeing you 'round.



We'll be getting quite a lot of actual tangible rewards from this set. I didn't expect quite so many in rapid succession but there y'go.





2. Let's just keep the match farthest ot the left where it is. Keeping in mind that we need to surround the dirt on three sides, the topmost match in the shape starts to look ripe for rearrangement, doesn't it? Now all you need to do is work out which other match to move.
3. Move the match on the upper-right side of the dustpan and the match directly above the dirt. It shouldn't be hard to determine where these need to go so that the dustpan looks like it's scooping up the dirt.

Apparently this is a bit of a classic puzzle itself, though I couldn't find anything to corroborate that; every reference to it I could find was related to this game. Admittedly, I didn't look very hard or for long, so I can't say for sure either way.






The game doesn't mention it either, and given how (...fairly) well researched some of these are I'd have expected it to crop up here. No such luck, sadly.





And, of course, she gives us our second piece of furniture. That actually makes sense, even if it implies she was just holding out on us the entire time. (I throw it in Layton's room again; poor Luke's got nothing right now.)



Moving on, let's now tackle the two this guy has for us!



2. The path between the B blocks is a straight line. D goes around to the north.
3. As stated earlier, connect the pair of B blocks with a straight line. Then connect the D blocks by drawing a path that arcs up over the B block path. A goes south then east. Got it now?

This one's easy enough; I usually try D with the straight line rather than B but as you can tell that doesn't really work out. There's 3 possible permutations of this solution, though the only thing that changes is one minor part of the D and/or C paths. In the top right corner. So, y'know, nothing really exciting.

Fortunately, it's another one that's technically impossible to fail so you'll always get 50 for it. Since it auto-submits whenever you get it right you don't have to worry about any mistakes.






The dotted lines in the top-right corner are the "alternatives" for C and D. For what little they account for.



: I REALLY mean it! You're a lot brighter than you look! Oh, yeah, let me clue you in. See that big old mess of a tower beyond the village square? Take a tip from me: if you know what's good for you, you'll stay away from that thing.



Well, he did have two for us so we're not quite done here yet.



Gotta admit, I did quite like reading some of the solutions for this one. Mainly because of how massively overthought/speculative some of it was.



3. Keep in mind that the man must start taking his pills today. In fact, he's going to start by taking the pill right in front of him. If that's the case, does he really need to mark which pill he's going to take today?

Well, regardless most people settled on 9 for their answer in the end and it is...




...Well, that's certainly something. I didn't think this'd happen, but somehow 2/3rds of the answers for this one were wrong.



The other answer to come up was this. And this one is...






Well, at least I don't have to intentionally get something wrong later to show off Layton's incorrect animation now.



: And here I was ready to solve it all by myself. Why'd you have to go and ruin everything?! The NERVE! But...with that puzzle solved, I can finally sleep again, so I guess I owe you one. Thanks! I know you both have your work cut out for you, so good luck, yeah?



Gotta admit, I love the implication here that Layton just walks up to the guy as he's looking at this in a newspaper or something, tells him the answer and then wanders off without saying anything else.



Oh yeah and we're coming back to this one for a moment. Nothing major, just showing off the optimal solution since it was posted:



Makes me feel a bit silly for not figuring it out sooner but so it goes.



Ah well, moving on we'll get to the other puzzle that makes me feel a bit silly for overlooking something simple.



2. With four on each side, the large square will be made up of 16 smaller squared. B contains six squares, and the others all contain five. So the unused part must be one of A, C or D.
3. You'll definitely need to use A. So, the answer must be either C or D.

Well, not this one exactly but the same number at least!

And, of course, everyone agreed on D here too, and it is...






Correct, naturally. Even without that diagram of how A, B and C slot together, it's pretty obvious. No matter how you rotate D it can't be placed without either leaving a gap or overlapping with B (or both).

Anyway, the reason I feel a bit silly:



This one, right here.



2. The last of the four shapes seems to be missing a match. Someone must have made off with it to light the stove and get dinner ready. Say, are you getting hungry at all?
3. Have you ever heard the expression "three square meals a day"? Judging by the matches here, someone was trying to make a fourth but got full before finishing the task. By the way, have you noticed how much that final cluster of matches looks like an uppercase D?

When I said there was no "linguistic" changes that'd need to be made, I completely overlooked something pretty damned obvious!






Namely, the solution. To say I'm usually reasonably good about these things, I completely forgot to take that into account when it comes to things in Europe;


So, yeah, now I look a bit silly for overlooking the obvious... especially since I studied French for about 7 years. Though, in my defence there doesn't appear to be any language options on any European carts; it seems to be fixed dependant on where they were distributed. I could be wrong about that too, though. I've never really looked into it all that much, since it's not normally all that relevant. Though, this isn't something I'm going to forget anytime soon. I'm sure if I do someone will point it out again. (Incidentally, I'm now certain this is the same reason the "Alphabet" puzzle got changed for the European release to a maths one too.)



Ah well, let's move onto something else.



2. Look at how the seven pigs are arranged. Do you see the one pig in the middle? In order to separate him from the other pigs, you're going to have to surround him with rope on all sides. Your three rops need to be arranged in such a way that they surround and isolate the middle pig.
3. Arrange your three ropes so that the little pig in the middle is surrounded completely. Next, look at how your ropes are laid out. You need to keep the middle pig surrounded, but you also need to separate the other pigs. There aren't many configurations that will satisfy those conditions, so you should have the answer before you know it.

In retrospect, I'm not sure why this one gave me a lot of trouble at first. It's pretty obvious...






Ah well, one more to go and then we're done with all these!



2. If you start with one germ, the germ will multiply and fill the jar in one hour. So, starting with one germ, how many will you have in one minute? Read the problem carefully.
3. Let's take a step back and think. Your answer is the amount of time it takes for two germs to fill the jar. If it takes one minute for one germ to turn into two, how much additional time is needed to fill the jar?



The trap in this one is pretty obvious if you're paying attention at all. I don't believe anyone fell for it, so the answer given was 59 which is...






Anyway, yeah, the trap here is that since you start with 2 rather than 1 you're expected to follow the "you start with double, so it takes half the time" train of logic. I don't think I've seen anyone fall for it before though; feels like a waste but, y'know, maybe it trips up kids often.

[Music: About Town]



: This jar's quite nice, actually. Why don't we take it with us?
: But, my boy, it's covered in grime. Hmm, what's this? Something's hidden inside the jar.
: I think you're right!
: Luke, reach a hand in and see what's inside, will you?



...Well, that's kinda gross. Can't even clean it very well if it's been inside such a filthy jar all this time.

[Music: St Mystere]

Ah well, we do have two new puzzles to cogitate over. Doesn't sound like many, but I'm sure we'll find plenty more before too long.



This is a fun little one. A bit simple, but fun all the same.



1. Don't spend too much time trying to think it through. Instead, just move those brothers around and see what develops. There are only three seats 2 can sit in, because he can't sit next to 1. Put 2 in any one of those seat and move on to 3. We know that 3 can't sit next to 2... And so on.



This one, on the other hand, makes me feel dumb. I normally get it wrong at least once... wait this is sounding a bit familiar.



1. If you flip the shape in Diagram A, you get the shape shown in the upper right part of the screen. Try to visualise where that black dot is when the white side is up. Diagram B is just a rotated version of Diagram A, so you know that the position of the black dot in Diagram B must also rotate accordingly.
2. When the shape is positioned as shown in A, the black dot is behind the middle-right prong of the shape. Flip the shape over and you'll see it on the middle-left prong. See how the dot moves when you flip the shape over? Now think about where that dot should be in the orientation shown in B.