Part 6: Chapter 2-3

So back over at Hernandez’s place, this…guy…is snooping around in the closet?



And it’s Vickie. Maybe now we’ll



Stop that!

“All right, Garris, what’ve we got?”

Oh, so this guy is Garris. No Mass Effect jokes from me, nope nope nope.



Garris, much like Paloma, has a voice actor who sounds like he doesn’t really want to be here.



“There is something different this time ‘round. The killer went after Hernandez. She’s connected to the case. It’s not a coincidence...”





“Thanks, Garris. All right, let’s get to work! We have to gather as many clues as possible.”



But before that, Claire texts us. It’s…not really important at all. I’m not sure why the game threw this in.

We’ll immediately bother Garris some more.





So about that homicidal maniac...



“This asshole needs to be in complete control. That’s his trip. He’s taking a real risk filming his murders. He knows that if he makes even the smallest mistake, we’ll use it to find him.”

Seriously. This guy’s apparently been sending you *videos* of his crimes but you haven’t caught him yet?




Well, let’s ask Garris what’s up in this room.





See, the guy’s apparently so careful the cops can’t keep up, but he purposefully does dumb shit like this and leaving clues for Paloma to find. It’s like he *knows* everyone is incredibly inept so he’s all trah lah lah.



The what?

“The…what?”

Thanks, Vickie.



“Claire would be so jealous if she saw this thing.”





So who’s up for some dull-ass CSI work? Me me me!

We have revealer spray.



A 3-D scanner.



An electr…y’know what, you can read the labels to these in the screenshots.











And the question mark takes us to an instruction booklet telling us what the hell this stuff actually does.







This is not terribly important.



Nothing in the opened safe. A bit to the right of it though…



Well, yeah, but probably just Paloma’s. Unless you think the killer grabbed it to smack her in the head or something.



Nevertheless, we have to investigate everything to proceed. So grab the fingerprint powder.



Use it like so.



Grab the 3D scanner. Use that on the prints.



And we get a print added to our inventory.



Do a database analysis of that…



Shock of shocks, the prints are Paloma’s. You’ve established that she was in her own room using her own TV remote. Damn fine sleuthin, Vickie.



Next examine the spot down here on the floor.



We saw in the cutscene a bit ago that it was Chuckles who left this print. Maybe Garris was right and he’s just doing this shit on purpose.



Use the scanner on the print.



Yup, Chuckles. And we have his shoe size now.



So checking over here next...



The answering machine has a message from the killer himself.



Y’think?











And the killer is disguising his voice, apparently well enough that we can’t descramble it.



Scoping out the closet over here…



…leads to a suitcase we can’t get into. Come on Vickie, Gustav could crack this. Granted, it would take him a mind-shatteringly stupid puzzle to do so.



In the bathroom, we can look at where Chuckles shot through the door and into the wall.



Clever, clever Chuckles.



The vent up here…





Fortunately, we have an electronic nose.



Knockout gas. Well we knew that already.



The shower is hidden in the corner.



And there’s a slightly discolored splotch.





Grab your revealer spray and use it.





We’ll just grab our Q-tips and swab that up.



Analyzing it gives us a blood type. Helpful…?



When we try to leave, Vickie automatically notices this.



Grab it with the tweezers.



Okay. I kind of thought chlorine gas was fatal, but what do I know?

That’s about all we can do now, so let’s bug Garris again.





Yeah, about that.

“You know anything about lock picking, Garris?”





You’d better not be setting me up for a lockpicking puzzle, game. I swear to God I will murder your children.



…



…and it opens without a puzzle. There’s a DVD in there.



Paloma’s camcorder is the tiny batch of pixels right here. Use the DVD on it.

“Tell us your theory. It’s…quite different from the leads the FBI are currently chasing.”





He picks on the incredibly stupid.

“James Hawker…he hasn’t given up on the case.”

Oh, so I guess Vickie does know Hawker.



…and there’s your contrived reason why.

“…find Hawker for me, Garris. And get me his file.”



Come again?

“It was a suspect…it’s a fine line between the two sometimes. Whichever it was, Hawker lost his head and killed a man who did not present an immediate threat. It’s inexcusable. ”

Because you’re a model example of playing by the rules, Vickie.





Tee hee.

“You’re too curious, Garris. Focus your brain cells on what happened in this room. Well, let the search continue. Time’s not on our side.”



“You’re a brave man, Garris. Continue.”

At this point I become very confused, as the damn game wasn’t letting me progress and Garris kept repeating himself.



The answer being that you have to run two scans on the damn blood sample, one a chemical analysis, then another database analysis. This shows that it was Paloma’s blood in the tub, I guess from where she fell after Chuckles gassed her.



And then Vickie’s phone rings. Nice camera work, game.

“Help! Help me! The killer’s abducted me!”

“Hernandez? Where are you? Are you okay?”

Fade out. Fade in on…



Almost like some tall goon in a gasmask strangled you and punched you in the head.



…I feel like we’re in the Saw sequel no one wanted.