Part 56: Blackwell Deception - Update 15

Update 15

Having confirmed that Jamie also died shortly after meeting Gavin, Rosa and Joey head to her favourite nightclub to see if they can find some information about her.

In The Club



Regin tries his hand at some wacky dance techno music here. The room does a good job of showing off the lighting effects that are used in Deception.



Joey is thoroughly unimpressed with Munray's.

What?
I said you got robbed!

These two are yelling, but still can't hear each other

I look like a slob?
No! Well, yes. Kinda. Eh, just forget it.



This isn't exactly Rosa's scene. Or Joey's, for that matter.

You call this music? Forget it. She can't hear me over this racket.



Rosa tries to talk to a group of people, but...

Hey... They're ignoring me.

...they just plain ignore her. It's not as though they just didn't hear her, they literally don't even bother to look at her even though she's standing right there. Jerks.



This guy is sitting on his own, but he's not interested in talking to Rosa either.

Um... He's just looking at me funny. I guess he doesn't want to talk to me.



Hey... I can't just chat with some strange. Not here, anyway.

This dude is just standing around, but he doesn't really want to talk either. I guess that's why he placed himself literally right underneath the extremely loud speakers.



Awkwardly, even the barmaid won't talk to Rosa.

Hi, got a sec? Hello? She's serving a bunch of customers on the other side. I can't get her attention.



Rosa tries heading out onto the dance floor, but just ends up getting jostled. Poor girl is so out of her element here



There's a cordoned-off area here.

Looks like it goes to a room upstairs. I could try and climb over, but I'd get caught instantly.

Sounds like a job for Joey!



Joey floats upstairs where, conveniently, he discovers a ghost just kind of hanging out. Could this be our Jamie?

Jamie?
You're Jamie Graham, aren't you?

Joey Charm: Engaged!

Do I know you?

Joey can either lie:
Sure. You go to Columbia, right? I think I've seen you around there.
Aren't you a bit old to be hanging around a college campus?
I'm a late bloomer.
Is that right?

Or he can just start flirting:

Not yet, but I hope to change that.
You think so, huh?

Either way, Joey continues his "subtle" charm.

Anyway, I'm Joey.
Uh huh?
Are you alone here, tonight? That's a crime.
Whatever. I'm here with friends.



Joey makes a show of looking around at the empty room.

They'll be here any minute.
Well, in the meantime, how about we get to know each other?
How about not.

I'd comment on how this isn't going well, but to be honest, this is miles better than the response Joey got from either Alli or Tiffany.

You come here often? Don't think I've seen you before.
Maybe you have, but I know I've never seen you.
Eh?
I wouldn't forget a rat pack reject like you. What's up with that, anyway?
Reject? I'll have you know this fabric is top of the line.
Look at me. I'm impressed.

Hahahaha, I love the way Joey is so defensive about his outfit



It's all right.

Joey continues with some small talk.

Are you even old enough to be in here?
Sure I am.
I've got the best ID money can buy.

Smooth.

So, how bout a drink?
No thanks.
Come on. Just one drink, and a conversation. If you still don't like me, you can dump it on me. Deal?
Don't tempt me.

That would be worth seeing, though!



Joey asks Jamie to dance...

Whatever. No. This music sucks.

...but she hates the music. To be honest, I can't blame her. It is pretty bad.

So what brings you here?
It's a place to go, right?
It's a place, I'll give it that.

Joey finally starts getting put out by Jamie refusing to respond to his flirtateous charm.

Why are you being like this? You barely know me.
Please. I've already got a dog back home.
Hey, now that's a bit uncalled for.
His name is Benji. You'd like him. You've got a lot in common.

Now this is a bit of a strange puzzle, and it's the only real cross-over between this case and the Tiffany case, but remember the message on the pinboard outside Tiffany's apartment? It said that using your dog's name as a password was a bad choice. Since coincidences never happen to Joey and Rosa, perhaps 'Benji' will be Jamie's laptop password?

I've gotta scram, but don't you go anywhere.
I make no promises.

Joey quickly excuses himself and gets out of this noisy hellhole.

Columbia University Dorm



Back in Jamie's apartment, Rosa tries entering 'Benji', which annoyingly doesn't work because once again, this password is case-sensitive. We'll try 'benji' with a lower-case b, then...



Bingo! All we can access is Jamie's mailbox, but hopefully that will be enough. There are a few saved emails, and three unread ones. Presumably the unreads ones are emails she received after she died.

The first email is from Jamie's father. Apparently Jamie is originally from Illinois.



The second is from what appears to be a hometown friend of Jamie's. There's a tiny clue hidden here in that Jamie's hometown is apparently near another town called Mattoon. At this rate, after another few emails and we'll have her street address identified! Rosa has become so adept at cyberstalking

The name "Sarah Elmaleh" is another shoutout to a voice actress, and in this case it is Jamie's voice actress herself. Actually, Jamie's voice actress is Sara Elmaleh, but it's not clear whether Gilbert got the name wrong, or just wanted to change it slightly.



The next email is from Lisa, with what appears to be an indication that she is about to send Jamie to Gavin. At least Jamie had "dark energy" surrounding her, as opposed to Rosa's blocked aura.



Following that is an email from a Seb Fredrick, who seems to have been dating Jamie. Might be worth trying to chase him up.



Here we see an email from the enigmatic Gavin. His writing seems plain enough, certainly nothing there to indicate the persuasive powers he seems to have. That said, whatever those "extreme changes" were, Jamie seems to have died shortly afterwards.



Almost immediately after Gavin's email, Jamie's dad sends her an email asking what is going on with her. After what we heard from Prof. Appleton earlier, it sounds like Gavin's "extreme changes" involved wearing low-cut tops from nightclubs and cutting classes.



Another email from Seb, who seems to have lost interest in Jamie very quickly. Obviously he was unimpressed with her newfound party-girl attitude. The way he phrases this email makes it sound like Jamie was not like this originally, so it's a fair assumption that Gavin's influence led her down this path.



The first new email is from Jamie's friend Sarah, who has presumably heard of Jamie's death. Unfortunately, Jamie never got a chance to read it, let alone answer.



Around this time, Jeremy Sams apparently contacted Jamie. Presumably this was shortly after he met with Penelope, which would make it only days before he died. My guess is Jamie has been dead for roughly a week.



The final email is from Seb, who seems to be writing this email as some kind of coping mechanism. Poor dude sounds heartbroken.

Interestingly, though, he mentions that he still goes to Munray's. Perhaps we can find him there?

In The Club



Heading back to Munray's (and hopefully not getting slugged another $20 cover), Rosa singles out the guy in the room who looks the most out of place.

Hm?
I said, are you Seb?
Yeah, I heard.

That's not exactly a "yes", but I get the feeling we have our man.

Do I know you?
No, but we have a... mutual friend.
Really? Who?
Jamie? Jamie Graham?
...

Upon hearing Jamie's name, his demeanour changes.



Looks like talking about Jamie is the last thing Seb wants to do. Assuming this actually is Seb, of course. Rosa tries getting him to open up.

Do you want to go somewhere more quiet? It's kinda loud in here.
I don't want to talk anyway, so I'll stay right here.
You're here alone?
Yeah, and I like it that way.

Seb is yet another Gilbert-voiced character, but at least it kind of fits this time around.

Why do you come here? It doesn't seem like your kind of place.
You're one to talk.
I'm here on business. Kind of. So why are you here?
I don't know. Does it matter? I just am.

He's not going to talk unless we make him talk. Time to pull out the big guns.



That was private.
Sorry. I know. It couldn't be helped.

Hahaha, "sorry, I couldn't help hacking into your dead ex-girlfriend's emails and reading your private messages, and then tracking you down to talk to you about them. It was unavoidable"

*sigh*
So what do you want?
I'm trying to learn about her.
I'll save you the trouble. She was a drug addict, a dropout, and a tease. Then she spun out of control.

That agrees with what Elaine was saying, alright.



Still, Seb is understandably upset and might be exaggerating. Rosa confirms the details.

Yeah. Big time. Always bragging about getting high on E every night, like she was proud of it. She kept trying to get me on the stuff. Called me boring.
Boring. Right. At least I'm not dead.

Those drugs probably didn't help her brain

She dropped out of school?
Not yet, but she stopped going to class. She was going to drop out or get kicked out. One or the other.
Why was Jamie a tease?
No reason. Forget it.



While Rosa has Seb talking, she asks a couple more questions.

Does it matter?
I guess not. Did Jamie ever mention a "Gavin?"
No.

It's pretty clear that Jamie was talking with Gavin before she went off the rails, so presumably she was meeting with him while dating Seb, and probably seeing Lisa before she even met Seb. I guess she kept it all hidden from him.

So, you come here a lot?
No. Yes. I dunno. Whatever.
Well, I have to go.
Later.

Well, there wasn't a lot there that we didn't already know, but the drugs thing is new. So Gavin met with Jamie, convinced her to get into hard drugs and partying. She subsequently stopped going to class, drove away her boyfriend, and then died of a blood clot?

There's clearly some part of this story we're still missing, but we probably won't learn what it is without getting Jamie herself to open up and talk to us. That's the next step.



Join me again tomorrow as we kick the Joey Charm into overdrive! Poor Jamie won't know what hit her