Part 52: Blackwell Deception - Update 11

Update 11

With Lisa having come to an uneasy truce with Rosa, she gives us information about the last two clients she sent to Gavin.

Late Night



Hm? Oh, sure. Who are they?

Rosa pulls out the piece of paper to show Joey, who is still lost in his thoughts about Danny Marconi.

We've got a Tiffany Walters. She lives on Thompson street, just south of Washington Square.
And the other?
Jamie Graham. She's a student up at Columbia.
Didn't you go to school there?
Yeah. It's been a while.

That's two leads. Much like in Unbound, you can choose to tackle both leads at the same time, switching from one case to the other when you get stuck, but the game is set up in such a way that you can do them individually without requiring any inventory items or information from one to solve the other.



We'll focus on Tiffany first. To Thompson street!

Thompson Street Apartments



Rosa and Joey find themselves entering a sparse foyer, complete with cracked walls and dripping pipes. This place is pretty dank.



Rosa quickly scouts out the area.

Although, this one looks interesting...

A particular piece of paper on the pinboard catches her attention.



That's an oddly specific thing to bring to our attention. We'll probably need to use that later on.



Rosa and Joey have a quick chat.

I wouldn't be surprised. I think streets are here get cleaned about once a decade. What's with all the kids out there tonight? The circus in town?
They're just NYU students. I think there's a dorm on this block.
That explains all the bars.

It's nice to know the NYU scene is so glitzy!

We should scope out the area. See what's what.
Not much I can do here. The door is locked.
Must we go over this again?

Of course, despite this dialogue, we're not actually sure which apartment Tiffany lives in yet.



The obvious solution is to check out the list of names on the buzzer system.

She's in apartment 2. Right on the ground floor.

Conveniently, apartment 2 is the one door we can actually see on this screen.



After you, Joey.

Let's see what we can find! Hopefully there will be some evidence of whatever Gavin has done to this girl, if anything at all.

Tiffany's Theme



Joey enters Tiffany's apartment, and doesn't have to wait long to find evidence. A ghost, presumably that of Tiffany herself, is floating around and looking wistfully out the window.



After Isaac, Mavis, Allen, Frank, the Countess, Ryan and Jeremy, we finally get an attractive young lady ghost for Joey to pull out the Joey Charm on It's been a over a month of LP time since we saw him fail in his clumsy attempt to chat up Alli

What?
Who are you? How'd you get in?
Oh, I...

Now it's Joey's turn to think on his feet! He can claim to be a new neighbour:

I just moved into the building. I live down the hall.

He can claim to be the ghost's new landlord:

I'm your new landlord. Just checking to make sure everyone's happy.

Or he can just take advantage of the ghost's inevitable foggy head by simply lying and pretending to be a friend:

I'm a friend. I came to check up on you. I heard you weren't feeling well.

Whichever way he goes, the ghost is not buying it, and immediately becomes hostile.

Really? Oh, how NICE. It makes my day when people care.
Eh?
I can see right through you, Mister.
You're not the only one.

Hahaha

Oh shut up! You think you're so clever? You think you're so charming?
Can't blame a guy for trying.
Well, take it somewhere else. I've had enough.

Something has put her defences way up.

Enough of what?

Joey tries probing...



...but she isn't interested in talking. This conversation is over, unless Joey can find a topic that will spark her interest.

There are a pile of papers on the desk, which Joey looks at.



Looks like a pretty threatening letter from someone called "STP".

It seems she was harrassing one of their clients, but they also mention paying her money, so she must have been an employee of STP, or a contracter, or something.



There is also a photo displayed on one of the cupboard shelves in the middle of the room.

There's a message written on this photo. "Rachel and Tiff - we... rocked?" I don't get it.

Adorably, Joey is not quite hip enough to be familiar with modern lingo

We... rocked? What the hell does that mean?

Joey looks at the blonde girl on the left, who he recognises as the ghost.

It looks like Tiffany. I guess she worked in an office before she died?

Joey makes the assumption here that the ghost is Tiffany, though we'll want to confirm that soon. He also looks at the brunette on the right.

I can only assume her name is Rachel.



Joey inspects the ghost before speaking to her again. Penelope was an elderly lady, Jeremy was a young man, this ghost was a young lady, and apparently Jamie was (or, hopefully, still is) a college student. It doesn't seem like Gavin has any particular "type" that he targets, other than people who seek guidance from street psychics.

Hello again.
What?
So, you're Tiffany Walters, aren't you?
Yeah yeah. That's me. Whatever.
Well, we've confirmed that at least.

Good, that's confirmation. Now to figure out what is keeping here from moving on.

So what's your beef anyway? I've never had a broad so angry with me. Not before dinner, anyway.
Just leave me alone.



As always, Joey tries the direct approach early.

What?
You're a ghost. You're haunting your own apartment.

It goes about as well as it normally does.

I'm what?
That's rich. REALLY rich. I thought I'd heard 'em all, but that one! Just leave me alone.



Let's see if we can figure out whether Gavin has anything to do with Tiffany's death. I suppose it could just be a coincidence that she passed away after being referred to him.

Gavin?
Yeah. You know him?
I... don't know.

On the other hand, Tiffany's response carries all the usual tells of a ghost trying to ignore a topic relating to its death.

You don't know?
No. Forget it.



Joey tries pushing her a bit further...

I told you. I don't know!
So you say.
No, I... can't.
You can't say?
Why are you bothering me? Just leave me alone!

...but it only leads to Tiffany getting angry. I think it's safe to conclude at this point that Gavin had a hand in her death.

Still, irrespective of the nature of Gavin's involvement, it's Joey and Rosa's job to help Tiffany to move on. The first step is to try to learn a bit more about her.



Nice try, but I don't think so.

She's really not interested, though.

Could you tell me what STP stands for?
Stop with the personal questions! It's my life. I made my choices. I'll deal with them.
Just leave me alone.

We're getting stonewalled here.

That's a cute picture there of you. Who's your friend?
Stop with the personal questions! It's my life. I made my choices. I'll deal with them.
Just leave me alone.

Jesus. This is going absolutely nowhere. Tiffany was actually more responsive about Gavin than she is about this stuff.

Well, see you around.
Yeah. See you.

Joey decides to head outside to confer with Rosa.

Thompson Street Apartments



She's a spook, all right. A pretty recent one too.
Just like Jeremy.
Yeah.

Somehow I just can't imagine that Gavin shot her, though. Whatever happened here isn't the same as what happened with Jeremy.

What do you make of her?
A bit of a sad sack, if you ask me. She's been hit hard by something. We just gotta sort out what. She sounds like she's given up on life. But for some reason she's sticking around. Something's got its claws into her.
So, any ideas?
We need to find out more about Tiffany. Her friends. Family. She's gotta have somebody.

The only two real leads we have on that front are the letter from STP, and the photo of Rachel, and Tiffany isn't willing to talk on either subject. Perhaps we'll have more luck with some cyberstalking!



Speaking of stalking, Rosa whips out her smartphone and finds yet another letter from someone demanding she stop bothering them It seems Madison's husband has asked us to stay out of their affairs, which won't be an issue. I've got no interested in talking to Penelope again, anyway.



Rosa tries searching for STP, but it's too broad a search phrase.

There must be hundreds of possible results for STP. This isn't going to help me at all.



We're not licked yet, though! There are still the more traditional methods of stalking to fall back on Rosa decides to sift through Tiffany's mailbox.

It looks the same as all the others. It's locked.

Unfortunately, it's locked, but that doesn't mean anything to Joey.

Let's have a look-see.



He phases his head through the mailbox door, but there's barely any light inside.

It's too dark to make anything out.

There's some kind of letter here, but Joey can't make out the name on it.



The solution here is one of the most obscure in the whole series. Remember how Rosa has a glow-in-the-dark business card? You could be forgiven for having forgotten, since we haven't had any reason to look at it since the start of the game.

By "mailing" the business card to Tiffany, Rosa is able to light up the mailbox.



The card's spooky green light provides just enough visibility for Joey to read the envelope.

Who knew that thing would be useful after all? I can just make out the return address. This letter is from someone named... "R. Abu."

Now, in defence of Gilbert, this puzzle was a bit more obvious in the original design document. Initially, the plan was for Rosa to come into contact with a still-alive Jeremy while investigating these two cases. Then, at some point midway through the game, Jeremy would get shot. Since these cases were investigated early, you would only have recently become aware of Rosa's glow-in-the-dark business card (it probably would have been mentioned in the standard Rosa/Joey dialogue) and this solution would have been more obvious. Unfortunately, when Gilbert decided to switch things around, this puzzle kind of fell through the cracks. I got stuck here for quite some time when I first played Deception.



Shouldn't be too hard to find, if we have enough information.

Before we do that, let's just ask Tiffany.



Stop with the personal questions! It's my life. I made my choices. I'll deal with them.

Unfortunately, Tiffany isn't any more willing to discuss "R. Abu" than she is any other matter.

Just leave me alone.



I love it when Joey gets frustrated

So... par for the course, then?
Don't worry. We'll get her. We always do.



Rachel starts with "R", that probably isn't a coincidence. Rosa combines the clues in her Note Collector.

I think it's a pretty good bet that the "R" in "R. Abu" stands for Rachel.

Again, the whole combining clues mechanic is one that we've barely used to this point of the game. If this puzzle had come shortly after the tutorial section, it would have seemed obvious. Instead, we almost need to remind ourselves that combining clues is even a thing that we can do.

Let's see if we can find anyone called Rachel Abu.



Bingo. We're only guessing that the R. Abu who wrote the letter is actually the Rachel who made this post, but it seems a reasonable guess at this point. We'll need to go and ask her if she knew Tiffany.

Cup of Clay



Rosa and Joey arrive at a cozy little coffee shop. I love the little detail of Joey phasing through the window while Rosa opens the door Joey watches as Rosa immediately perks up when she smells the roasted coffee beans.

She keeps looking at menu. I think she's calculating prices in her head. Four bucks for coffee? I get the feeling we'll be coming back here, once we're done.
Caramel espresso shots? I am so coming here when this is over. I shouldn't have any more coffee though. I've already had four today.



Speaking of Joey, he's busy eyeing the barista.

She seems a little too happy about selling coffee for a living.

She certainly looks like she could be the Rachel Abu that was in the photo.



Hi. You're new here, aren't you?
Yeah. My first time.
I knew it. I never forget a face.

That's a good sign. Hopefully this girl, if she is the Rachel from the photo, will have some useful information for us.



Adorably, Rosa has the option to ask for a coffee instead of actually following up on the case, but even she knows her limit.

It's so tempting, but I've already had more coffee today than I should.

Let's focus on the case at hand, instead.

Are you Rachel Abu?
Yeah, that's me.

Our stalking prowess continues to serve us well!

I wanted to talk to you about Tiffany Walters.
Tiffany? What about her?
You were friends, right?
Sort of. Yeah. We were friends before... well, before she died.

Rachel sounds a touch hesitant here.

I'm looking into her death.
Why? Wasn't it a brain aneurysm or something?
That's what I'm trying to find out.
Well, okay. But I'm not sure what kind of help I can be.

A brain aneurysm, hey? At least we've confirmed she wasn't shot, though a brain aneurysm could imply she just died of natural causes.



A few years ago. We were both office temps, and when our jobs ended we got close. I went on to start this place. She stayed on with the temp agency. She was trying to find her way, you know? Maybe she thought she found it.

Sounds like they weren't really that close in recent times, although Tiffany did still have Rachel's picture in a place of prominence. Lisa said that she only sent Tiffany to Gavin recently, so it may have happened after these two stopped being close.

What do you mean?
Oh, she met some guy named Ken at one of her temp jobs. Then she stopped hanging out with me. Same old story. I don't blame her. It happens.

Ken? That sounds like a lead we should chase up.

Is there anything else you can tell me about Tiffany?
I've told you everything I know. Really.



Rosa asks the important question.

Funny. I think Tiffany did mention that name, once or twice. But I don't remember the context. Sorry.

Obviously they were still talking recently, though I guess Tiffany didn't discuss Gavin in detail.

Have you ever heard of STP?
Nope. I don't think so. Sorry.

Hmm. Rachel said she worked with Tiffany as an office temp, and then Rachel quit while Tiffany continued temping. My guess would be that STP is a temp agency that Tiffany worked at after Rachel left.

What do you know about the guy Tiffany was with?
Only that his name was Ken, and she met him while on one of her office temp jobs. Tiffany was... kind of intense about him. She really fell head over heels. I couldn't tell if it was sweet or if it was scary.

Perhaps that explains why Tiffany has stuck around? If she was that intensely in love, she might not be willing to move on.

You wouldn't know where Ken is now?
No I wouldn't. Sorry.



I wouldn't know. She never told me. And those temp agencies bounce you around.
What about the agency she worked for?
We didn't work at the same agency, so I wouldn't know. I'm sorry.

This conversation has been useful, but only barely.

Thanks! I'll see you around.
Have a good night.




Well, at least we've made a good start. Tomorrow we'll see if we can figure out what STP is, and try to track down Ken.