Part 34: Episode 34: Shockwaves
This update covers:Naomi Kimishima 5 - Crime of Passion (part 2 of 2)
It only dawned upon me when I started uploading that this update is absurdly text-heavy, with not a whole lot of images. That's because there's no more investigating in this case, just logic and recordings. That's just how it is.
LG: What are you up to now?
Naomi: I'm insulted. There's someone I need you to look into. His name is Michael Lang. He's a loan shark.
LG: Planning on buying a house soon?
Naomi: Stop playing around. He called the victim's phone.
LG: Was it a collection call?
Naomi: He hung up before I could find out. That's why I'm asking for your assistance. Make sure to find out if he's employed at a place called "Loan & Taxes." For all we know, the man who called was the bomber himself.
Now, instead of leaving Little Guy to do that, we'll be bugging him to analyze a bunch of things.
To start with, we'll compare the notice that the fourth with victim would be "a white guy" with the victim himself.
Naomi: Hey, Little Guy, did you know the victim at all before the bombing?
LG: No, I've never seen him before.
Naomi: I thought so. That makes this a little odd. He's obviously different from the previous victims. He's not famous. The previous victims were a politician, a celebrity, and an athlete; people in the public eye. This bombing killed an ordinary college student, with no notoriety at all. Maybe this was a copycat crime after all? Or maybe the Raging Bomber changed his modus operandi.
LG: We might be wrong to assume that. Maybe the reasoning behind his previous victims wasn't that they were famous.
Naomi: In any event, we have to keep investigating. Let me know if you learn anything.
Next, the second piece of metal found lodged inside a wall in Stephen's home.
LG: Yep, it's a piece of steel pipe. It could have come from anywhere. The chromotographic scan shows traces of black powder. The powder was used as explosive propellant.
Naomi: Now we know for sure that this was part of a bomb.
LG: Yes, it's likely the same situation that occurred with Aiden's death. The analyses show that the powder and the metal are exactly the same.
Combine this with the other piece of pipe, Naomi essentially just repeats all of that and says "these come from the bombs." Instead, we'll analyze the other similarity: black powder found on the body of the fourth victim.
LG: This is carbon dust, too. No mistaking it.
Combine this dust with the old stuff...
Naomi: But there's one difference between them. That is, it's on different hands. The substance was on Aiden's right hand, but Stephen's left. So many similarities, and one difference. This bothers me a little.
Let's analyze the wounds on Stephen's body, too. I get the feeling it'll be similar again.
LG: It's very similar to Aiden's injuries, although the explosion itself seems to be a little smaller.
Naomi: That tells us that this victim was killed by a close-range explosion as well.
Combining yet again...
Naomi: The condition of both explosions was the same, and they were both about the same strength. There's a good chance that these were caused by the same person.
Now, we can combine the card we got from the pipes, suggesting the bombs were the same, with this new card that suggests the same thing. Naomi summarizes everything yet again and we end up with the first gold card.
With that matter investigated, Little Guy should see the computer in Stephen Eldred's house.
LG: The computer won't boot up? It was in an explosion. It's probably broken.
Naomi: That doesn't really matter as long as we can get the data from the hard drive.
LG: True. Huh... wait a second. This computer's fine. It's not starting up because it's locked.
Naomi: Is there any way to unlock it?
LG: We could try to force out way in, although there's a chance it'll wipe itself and we'll lose the data. It seems the victim was using voice authentication software.
Naomi: So it'll only start up using the owner's voice?
LG: Yes, but it belonged to Stephen Eldred.
Naomi: It may never start up again...
That's another gold card: The "Voice Lock on Computer." One more thing to analyze: that guitar found in the home.
Naomi: Little Guy, are you a music aficionado at all?
LG: Well, I know bits and pieces.
Naomi: Hm, you might not know either. I need you to analyze this guitar.
LG: Woah, this thing's pretty Nasty... Holy--! Dr. Kimishima, where did you find this!? Wait, more importantly, how did this happen to her!?
Naomi: "Her?" It was in the victim's room. Stephen's, that is. It was probably broken in the explosion.
LG: Son of a bitch! The Raging Bomber's going to pay!
Naomi: Hey, calm down. What's wrong?
LG: I can't calm down! This guitar... It belonged to musical legend Ben Frank! Look, it's the 1955 Dagmite model! Ah... I can't believe it...
Naomi: I don't understand. Is it valuable?
LG: It's beyond valuable! Finding this is a miracle! Normally, I'd have it sent to a museum immediately for safekeeping, but... Ugh, dammit! Oh, what? Doesn't this get to you, Doctor!?
Naomi: No, not really.
LG: Augh! You don't understand! Listen to me, if this was on the market, it would go 70 to 80 thousand dollars! I wouldn't be surprised if bids went over a hundred grand! Now it's personal! Dr. Kimishima, we have to put this bastard behind bars!
Naomi: Well, I agree... In any event, a guitar worth over a hundred thousand dollars is not the kind of thing an ordinary student would be able to afford. Can you take a closer look at this guitar?
LG: ...Of course. I am a professional, after all. I can be impartial. There's not much I can say, other that... no, wait a moment. It looks like this guitar was played by someone other than Ben Frank.
Naomi: What does that mean? Is the guitar a fake?
LG: Definitely not! The scratches, the wear... everything says this is the real deal. But Ben Frank was right-handed, and this guitar's been set for a left-handed player.
Naomi: The difference is the string order, right?
LG: Right. I'm surprised you knew that, Dr. Kimishima. When the thinner strings are on the right, it's for right-handed players. It's the opposite for left-handers.
Naomi: The fourth victim owned this guitar, and I don't think he'd lend a $100,000 guitar to anyone else. That makes it likely that Stephen Eldred was
Indeed it could. We also know the dominant hand of our other victim. Comparing his calluses to this new information yields results.
Naomi: The callus on Aiden's palm is proof of his dominant arm. He was right-handed. Stephen Eldred's guitar tells us he was left-handed.
A more interesting question, though, is "so what?" But this is the second difference in the victims we've found. The other was the dust being found on opposite hands.
Naomi: In both cases, the dust was on the dominant hand. I think we've gotten a little closer to finding out its meaning.
This is the third gold card, titled "Dominant Dust."
Naomi: What man? Who are you talking about?
LG: Oh, uh, Michael Lang. He really does work for Loan & Taxes. Michael Lang is his real name, although what he does is barely considered legal.
Naomi: Is there the slightest chance he's the bomber?
LG: I don't know about that, but I'll send you the recording of his interrogation anyway.
He seems very focused on something a little above his head.
Lang: Yes, that's correct. I'm his financial agent. He's dead? Hm... that's a problem. If that's true, our company will be gravely affected. It seems you don't know, but Mr. Eldred owes us one hundred thousand dollars, including interest, of which he has paid twenty-five, leaving seventy-five. The Raging Bomber... well, I've seen the name in the news. This will be problematic. He'll have to take on the debt, then. We extremely regret having to hear about something like this. Yes, it's true that we issue unsecured loans, but there's no reason to loan money to people with no means of repaying. In all honestly, Mr. Eldred agreed to make a down-payment of $10,000 for the loan. Not only did he make that initial payment, he paid $5000 in the first month, and $10,000 the next. His source of income? I'm sorry, but our consumer financial group does not search within other people's private concerns. Yes, we did loan $100,000 to Mr. Eldred. This was based on the assumption that he could repay the loan. We killed him? You must be joking. If we killed off our customers, we'd never reclaim what was owed to us. I'd say that we take a much more... pragmatic approach.
LG: Oh, I have some additional information about Michael Lang. He's a veteran loan shark who's been working with Loan & Taxes for the past twelve years.
Naomi: It looks like we'll need to do some investigating into the victim as well. From the information at hand, it seems he borrowed a hundred thousand dollars to buy a guitar. The value and the amount he owes fit together. Still, how did an ordinary college student get such a loan? It must be because he had periodic income. Indeed... there was a deposit made to his account. A large one, of unknown origin. That was why the loan shark accepted his means of repaying the debt. This led to him being loaned a hundred thousand dollars.
She pulled some of that conjecture out of thin air, although it seems to be a likely possibility.
LG: Dr. Kimishima, I've asked for another recording from HQ. I ordered a copy of the announcement made before Aiden Posner was killed. I thought it might be useful.
Naomi: I see. I'll check it out.
And just like that, we have another recording from "the Revolutionary." I guess it would make sense to listen to that.
Revolutionary: Oh, man, this sucks! I'm so embarrassed that you're taping my voice. Doesn't matter anyway, though! You'll never catch me. I mean, that singer died because you morons are so incompetent. You can't stop me. Do the ignorant masses out there hear that? Here's a little hint! Next up is... an athlete! Who? Well, I can't tell you! Think about it yourselves! And...! Well, never mind. Good luck!
Naomi: It seems like he was rushed at the end. I wonder what happened. Little Guy, what's your opinion?
LG: It did seem like something caught his attention and he wanted to finish quickly.
Naomi: Why would he do that? Can we think of any possibilities?
LG: Maybe someone interrupted him? Or he spilled coffee on his desk?
Naomi: There's no way to prove those, though. We need evidence of some kind.
LG: Let's check the spectrogram of the recording. I'll put emphasis on the background, and reprocess it to make background noises easier to hear.
Naomi: That would be helpful. Send the recording when you're done.
Now, we can listen to the recording one more time. This time, we can clearly hear...
An extremely old telephone!
Naomi: That was the phone in Stephen's room. Why would that be in the background of the revolutionary's threat?
Another gold card: the "Familiar Ringtone." We can now combine the revolutionary's identity with the victim's identity.
Naomi: Stephen Eldred, the fourth victim, had been periodically receiving large deposits from an unknown source. The voice we can hear in the recording of the Revolutionary was not digitally altered. A distinctive sound, like the victim's phone, can be heard in the background of the recording. The most likely answer that we can deduce from these facts is that Stephen was the Revolutionary. Little Guy! I'm borrowing the recorder!
Crime of Passion: Ending
Medal Challenge Answers
25
C
D
C
A
Wikipedia gives the first answer as a range, which makes it harder to looke up, whereas the others are, if nothing else, multiple choice, so you can force your way through. Only one more of the field-specific challenges remain, luckily.