Chapter 1-3 Man Without an Eye

Hello everyone, and welcome to our Walkthrough for the Third Stage of Chapter 1 for the Frankenstein Room ESC adventure game. In this chapter, we go back to the present day, and we’re still in the shoes of the chief investigator Schmitz.

After solving the morgue break-in, she returned to the police station and would now like to rest for a bit. She thinks that the morgue break-in and Huskley case are completely unrelated, and suspects that Huskley’s documents might be misplaced accidentally, and not stolen. She recalls how during the trial even the defendant’s lawyer admitted his guilt and pleaded for mercy.

At this point, Erich, the junior detective barges in through the door claiming there was another murder. Schmitz tells him that he should conduct the investigation by himself since she wants to rest after solving the previous case. However, she changes her mind after discovering that the victim is Neumann. Well, she was angry at Erich at first, for claiming that the murder was connected to the morgue break-in, but she calmed down once she was told who is the victim.

Now, we go back to the Huxley’s trial that happened two weeks ago. The defendant’s lawyer said Huskley was guilty of the crime and the argument was that he had a rough childhood and that the relationship with Elizabeth was his way of acquiring money and higher social status. Neumann (the lawyer), pleaded for a quick beheading instead of painful death.

I’m not buying this. It seems this, allegedly, a prominent lawyer was intentionally trying to get the poor Huskley convicted. Even claiming that he killed Elizabeth’s parents out of spite because they were against their relationship. I still think this lawyer was hired and paid by the real murderer, the same man who set up Huskley for this crime, by using one of his knives as the murder weapon. The goal of this scheme was to ensure Huskley’s conviction. No sane person would use one of the knives from his set to commit murder and leave such a recognizable object at the crime scene. The knife is small, and the real murderer could easily conceal it, bring it back home, wash away all the traces of blood, and put it back into the set. Or he wouldn’t use one of the knives from the set in the first place. Well, that’s my theory. Let’s see what happens next.

During this scene, we get back to the present, and we are now in Neumann’s (lawyer) office, trying to solve his murder, let’s begin. It looks Neumann jumped from the fourth-floor window and died and died from the fall. Schmitz believes the lawyer didn’t want to commit suicide, rather, it seems more likely he jumped from the window to get away from someone. Well, he must have been really terrified of that person to choose to jump from the window that is so high above the ground. Also, the office has been really messed up, so our suspect was probably looking for something, just like the morgue.

Just like in the previous two chapters, we will start with the first stage of the investigation, and that is collecting evidence. Let’s see what we can find with the trusty Magnifying Glass that has just been added to the inventory.

Let’s tap on the secretary to hear what she has to say. Well, not much, she just wants to get back home as soon as possible, but we can interrogate her about any evidence that we find.

Let’s tap on her again, this time with the Magnifying Glass selected. The secretary says the street is filled with offices, no residential homes, and after working hours everyone goes home, so the whole area is completely deserted. Well, looks like finding a witness that might have seen the suspect coming into the office will be nearly impossible. “Escape” evidence card will be added to inventory. Let’s look around the office for more clues.

Select the Magnifying Glass from the inventory and tap on the front door. The front door is the only entrance to the office, and it wasn’t damaged. So, it was either unlocked, or the lawyer opened the door for the suspect. “Break-in”, the second evidence card will be added to the inventory.

With Magnifying Glass selected tap on the display cabinet on the right. Well, the glass was broken by strong impact, for now, Schmitz doesn’t have anything else to say about that.

With Magnifying Glass selected, tap on the turned over chair, on the right side of the desk. It looks like Neumann leaped from his chair when he saw the suspect, he was probably trying to run away. “Run”, the third evidence card will be added to the inventory. So far, so good.

Next, we should check the desk. Select the Magnifying Glass and tap on it. Well, it seems that Neumann was sitting at the desk, and was working on something when the suspect came in. After examining the desk we will get “Neumann” the fourth evidence card.

Tapping on the other broken display shelf will get us the same response as the first one.

Select the Magnifying Glass and tap on the damaged door, on your right side. This a sturdy door, that leads into the storage room. However, the door was savagely hit several times, most likely by some kind of a heavy object, and the suspect managed to break in. With this completed, you will get “Inner door”, the fifth evidence card.

While Magnifying Glass is selected, Look to the right and tap on the ax, that is displayed on the wall. It’s a decorative ax with a plastic handle, but the metal head is solid, although blunt. Still, it is heavy and could be used as an effective weapon. Did our suspect use the ax to break down the door? Hmmm….

Let’s see what we can find in the other room. Tap on the storage door to enter.

With the Magnifying Glass selected tap on the broken window. Well, the window is completely broken and Neumann fell through it and died. That much is certain. However, Schmitz is no longer sure that Neumann jumped, she thinks that the suspect might push him. That’s the second option. Well, if the suspect came at him with a huge ax, and our victim had nowhere to run, then, yes, he probably jumped through the window to save himself. That makes sense. However, we will have to confirm this theory. Anyway, after examining the window we will get “Fall”, the sixth evidence card.  

Select the Magnifying Glass and tap on the open cabinet, next to the window. Hmm, the cabinet is open, it wasn’t damaged, and it’s filled with money. So, if the money wasn’t the motivation of our suspect, and this wasn’t a robbery. Interesting… Let’s see what else we can find.

Turn to the right until you see an ax on the floor. With the Magnifying Glass selected tap on it to closely examine. It looks like the suspect used the ax head from the replica, just like the one from the office, but instead of the plastic pole, he used a more durable pole from some object in the office. He then attached the two pieces with some sort of fabric, creating a very potent improvised weapon. I guess he used this weapon to break down the storage door. Hmmm, Neumann probably ran to the storage, locked the door, and hid in there, while the suspect was making the improvised ax to break down the door. Yes, this makes sense. With this task completed, the “Improvised Ax” evidence card, seventh in a row, will be added to the inventory.

Let’s move all the way to the right, and tap on the documents, scattered around the floor. The documents contain all the information about Neumann’s clients, including the sensitive pieces of information, that could be used to convict them at the court of law or charge them for corruption. Needless to say, these documents were more important to our lawyer than anything else. It seems the suspect was looking for some particular document(s). Could this be a motive? What document(s) was he looking for? Hmmm, this is getting more and more intriguing.

With Magnifying Glass selected, tap on the safe to examine it. The suspect broke into the safe and went after the documents, completely ignoring a bag filled with gold coins. So, again, he wasn’t after the money, he was interested in documents. So, either that or revenge were his motives, at least that’s my conclusion. With this examination completed, “Wealth”, eight and probably final evidence card will be added to our inventory.

Let’s head back to Erich, to conclude the first stage of our investigation. Tap on “Exit” to leave the storage room and return to the office.

Now, tap on Erich to turn in the evidence. This concludes the first part of our investigation, “Collecting Evidence”.

Just like in the previous stage we will now move on to the second part of the investigation, “Assume Action”, in which we will reconstruct the actions of our suspect, step-by-step, by installing “shadows”. Lastly, we will determine the chronological order of actions.

At the beginning of the second stage of the investigation, several action cards will be added to our inventory:

Escape (action): The suspect left the office after committing the crime, and we can install this shadow right away at the front door (no further investigation is needed)

Break-in (action): We should first interrogate the secretary to see if the front door of the office is usually locked or unlocked.

Inner Door (action) – We should find out what the suspect used to break down the storage door. We are already quite certain that he used the improvised ax, so we should take another look at it.

Wealth (action): It looks like the suspect wasn’t interested in money or gold. We should check the safe again to confirm that there is no money is missing.  

Neumann (action): We should ask the secretary why was Neumann alone.

Improvised Ax (action): We should discover how the suspect crafted this improvised weapon.

Fall (action): Consult with Erich to find out what injuries Neumann suffered, and if the fall was the cause of death.

Run (action): We know the lawyer knocked over a chair when he was running away. We should check if there is more evidence of him running away.

OK, this is a very long list, so let’s tackle these problems, one by one.

We can install the “Escape” action card straight away, so let’s do that. Select the “Escape” action card and tap on the front door to install the first shadow in crime reconstruction. Note that this is actually the last action that the suspect took in chronological order of events, I just find it’s convenient to install it right away and reduce the number of cards in our inventory by one.

Well, Schmitz concludes that our suspect escaped through the front door, the same way he entered. The street is deserted during the night, so there are no eyewitnesses.

Select the “Break-in” action card and tap on the secretary to question her about the front door. The secretary says that they never lock the door, as the clients are coming and leaving the office during the day. She didn’t lock the door when she left. So, anyone could enter the office, without difficulty. After questioning the secretary, the second case reconstruction “shadow” of the suspect entering the office will be installed automatically. Obviously, this is the first action in the chronological order of events.

While we’re still here, let’s ask the secretary why was Neumann alone. Select the “Neumann” action card from the inventory and tap on the secretary. Hmmm, this is interesting. After Neumann lost the Huxley case, his reputation was badly managed, and many clients were canceling his services – well he deserved that, in my opinion, since it looks like he intentionally lost that case. However, Neumann stayed at the office, trying to win back the trust of the clients by writing them letters, in which he was trying to persuade them to keep his services. That’s why he was working overtime. After questioning the secretary, the “Neumann” action card will be updated, and we can now install the “shadow” on his table. Let’s do that.

Select the “Neumann” action card from the inventory, turn to the right, and tap on his desk.

Tap on the letters on the desk to examine them. There are a lot of letters requesting the cancelation of Neumann’s services. However, it seems that Neumann was abruptly interrupted while writing one of his letters of reassurance since the letter is half-written, and the pen still soaked with ink is sitting, right beside it. With this task completed we installed, the third shadow in our case reconstruction.

Let’s now see what Erich can tell us about Neumann’s injuries. Select the “Fall” action (represented by the broken window), turn around, and tap on Erich. The autopsy results say that Neumann suffered numerous injuries, including a severe skull fracture, but it seems that all injuries were caused by a fall. The Schmitz is convinced, that Neumann chose to jump through the window, rather than face an ax-wielding maniac. I agree with her logic. So he wasn’t pushed, he jumped (is that technically a suicide?). Anyway, after reading the autopsy report, our “Fall” action card has been updated and we can now install a reconstruction shadow at the broken window.

Let’s first check out if there are more clues about the lawyer fleeing from this room. Turn to the right, select the “Run” action card, and tap on the knocked over chair located to the right of the front door. Well, it was turned over by our victim while he was running away, at least that’s what Schmitz thinks, but there seems to be more knocked over furniture in the room. Let’s look for it.

Turn around, and with the “Run” action card selected tap on the turned over chair, that is located in front of the fireplace. After finding this clue our “Run” action card will be updated and we can now install the reconstruction shadow.

Select the “Run” action card from the inventory, and tap on the entrance to the storage room. It seems our suspect was chasing Neumann around the room, but the lawyer managed to escape into the storage room and lock himself there. Well, the lawyer must have been fast and agile, to avoid the murderer in such a cramped space. Anyway, we have now installed the fourth action card in case reconstruction, so far so good.

Let’s try to figure out how the suspect made the improvised weapon. Sweep slightly to the right, select the “Improvised Ax” action card and tap on the ax displayed on the wall. Apparently, there was another ax. As we already know, the handle is weak, made from plastic, but the ax head is heavy, made of iron, and although blunt, it is still a potent weapon. After examining the ax, our “Improvised Ax” action card has been updated and we now have to discover what the suspect used as a handle.

Select the “Improvised Ax” action card (again) and tap on the broken coat hanger located in front of the secretary.

NOTE: Try to tap at the base of the broken coat hanger, since it is easy to miss-tap and initiate interaction with the secretary instead (she is right behind it).

Just as we thought, the “killer” broke the coat hanger and used it as the ax handle. He attached the two parts with some kind of fabric, creating a very deadly weapon, which he used to demolish the office. Our next task is to check every object that he smashed with the ax.

Ok, let’s first check the damaged displayed cabinets. Turn to the right, select the “Improvised Ax” action card and tap on the first cabinet. Well, our suspect smashed it to get something from the inside and did not care about the nose that he was making.

Let’s check the other one. Just like with the first one, select the card and tap on it. And we get the same conclusion as with the first one.  

Hmmm, let’s now go back to the front door. Select the “Improvised Ax” action card again and tap on the broken yellow object on the floor, located between the lamp and the desk. It looks like our suspect trashed the office while he was looking for something, but Schmitz is convinced that he wasn’t looking for money. After completing this task we will install the fifth shadow in the reconstruction of the case. 

It’s now time to move leave the office. Turn around and tap on the storage room entrance.

Select that “Fall” action card (presented by a broken window), and tap on the broken window. Well, Schmitz’s conclusion didn’t change. The Neumann was terrified of the ax-wielding suspect opted to jump through the open window, rather than face him. Also, the lawyer wasn’t really a “light” person, so it would be quite difficult for the suspect to throw him out of the window. Besides, why would our suspect risk brawling with the lawyer, if he can just use the ax to kill him? In short, Schmitz’s theory is the most probable one – Neumann jumped. With this task completed, we have just installed the “Fall”, our sixth shadow in case reconstruction.

We should now select the “Wealth” action card and tap on the money cabinet. As we suspected, all the money is accounted for, so the suspect wasn’t interested in money. After checking the cabinet, the “Wealth” action card has been updated, and we can now use it to install reconstruction shadow on the safe.

Sweep slightly to the left, select the “Inner Door” action card, and tap on the improvised ax. Well, nothing new. We already know it’s a quite powerful and sturdy weapon, in spite of it being hastily crafted, from improvised components (well, the handle is improvised, not the head). After examining the ax, we can now install the shadow of the suspect breaking down the door.

Select the “Wealth” action card from the inventory and tap on the safe on the right. The Schmitz says: “The suspect persistently unlocked the safe and finally opened it”. Very interesting choice of words. Well, I guess that’s one way to say that he smashed it with an ax repeatedly until it was busted open. Anyway, he wasn’t looking for money, he was probably looking for some incriminating documents instead, just as we suspected from the beginning. With this, mystery solved we have installed the seventh shadow in our crime reconstruction. Only one more to go.

Tap on “Exit” to get out of the storage room.

Select the “Inner Door” action card, and tap on the entrance to the storage room. Well, even the strong security door as this one, good withstand the powerful ax blows and broke eventually. With this, we have installed the last shadow of our crime reconstruction.

.

Get back to Erich, and tap on him to conclude the second stage of the investigation “Assume Action”.

We have now reached the third stage of the investigation, “Case Reconstruction”, in which we will reconstruct the entire case, in chronological order, using the “figure” cards. Let’s begin.

The first thing our suspect did was to casually walk in through the unlocked office door. So, select the cards of the figure walking (the second one from left to right) and place it into the first slot.

When he saw the suspect, the lawyer leaped from his chair. He definitely knew the suspect and was certain that the suspect will harm or possibly kill him. Why? What was the motive? Well, that part is still a mystery. So, let’s select the card of Neumann leaping from his chair and (the fifth one from the left) and place it into the second slot.

Insane Idea: It would be really crazy if Victor has brought Huskley back to life, who then gets into the office and “murders” the Neumann. Well, the lawyer would be definitely terrified upon seeing an undead human (that he screwed over at the trial) walk into his office. That would explain why the lawyer was terrified as soon as he saw the suspect. But this is just one of mine my crazy theories. 

After running away from the suspect, all over the office, Neumann finally managed to reach the storage room and lock himself in there. So, we should now take the card of Neumann running with outstretched arms (the last one on the right) and place it into the third slot.

The suspect was very persistent and would not let one door, no matter how sturdy they were, stop him. He grabbed one of the axes displayed on the wall, broke off the ax head from the plastic handle, then broke off the upper part of the coat hanger, and used fabric to connect the two pieces, crafting the Improvised Ax. His fast wits and strong arms enabled him to quickly make this deadly weapon, which he then used to break down the storage room door, after several powerful blows. So, our next card should be the figure with the raised ax (the third one from the left) and it should be placed into the fourth slot.

Upon seeing this, Neumann chose to jump through a fourth-story window, probably thinking that it was better to jump from such a great height than face this powerful (and probably enraged) men and his deadly ax. With that said, let’s now pick the card on which Neumann is jumping through a closed window (the second one from the right), and place it into the fifth slot.

After the lawyer jumped through the window, our suspect broke into the safe by smashing it with the ax. He searched through both the safe and the money cabinet, completely ignoring the money and the gold. So, our next card should be of a figure searching for something, and it should be placed into the sixth slot.

When he was done searching the storage room, our suspect went back into the office, smashed the display cabinets, and something near the front door. After that, he was looking for something on the ground, in front of the table, located next to the front door. Our next shadow should be the one figure kneeling and looking for something on the ground, and it should be placed into the seventh slot.

After he searched the place, the suspect ran away through the front door. The final card is the one on which the figure is running, and it should be placed into the final eighth slot.

Tap “OK” to confirm the case reconstruction.

After exiting the screen, Schmitz will summarize the case, very similar to what we described above. However, she now says the suspect dropped Neumann from the window. She just can’t make up her mind. We were on the same page earlier when we both thought that the lawyer was terrified and jumped through the window to save himself. Weird.

Since the suspect wasn’t after the money nor gold, we should check with the secretary what other valuable items might be present in the office.

Tap on the secretary. She claims, that she doesn’t know anything. I sincerely doubt there’s anything of value inside her own desk, so let’s check Neumann’s desk.

Select the second option “Ask to see the Neumann’s desk”. Again, she claims she doesn’t know anything about the Neumann’s belongings. Let’s rough her up a bit.

The secretary just wants to go home as soon as possible, so let’s select the first option “If you don’t cooperate the investigation will be longer”. Reluctantly, she admits seeing Neumann hide a key, and she hands it over. The Neumann’s key had been added to the inventory. Now, we just have to figure out what does this key open.

Turn to the right until you see a Neumann’s desk. Select the key from the inventory, and tap on the desk. We unlocked the drawer.

There is a letter in the drawer. It was probably very important to the lawyer since he kept it lock inside his desk. Let’s read the letter.

The recipient of the letter was Huxley. Wow! This is very surprising! It seems Elizabeth’s father, Francis Lavenza, wrote this letter. He was against his daughter’s relationship with Huxley, at first. However, he didn’t want to lose his daughter or let her live with Huxley, in a poor part of the town. Instead, he invited Huxley, to move to the Lavenza mansion once he and Elizabeth are married. Also, he didn’t want Elizabeth to discover this and asked Huxley to keep it a secret until the marriage ceremony is over.

The chief inspector Schmitz came to the same conclusion as we did. Francis Lavenza was initially against the marriage, but he definitely changed his mind, even inviting Huxley to come and leave at the mansion. This letter is definite proof of Huxley’s innocence. He had no motive to kill Elizabeth’s parents. Huxley turned the letter over to Neumann, but the corrupted lawyer didn’t want to present it to the court. Instead, he even testified, at the court that his client admitted committing murders to him, claiming that the accused was spiteful and angry because Francis wouldn’t allow him to marry his daughter.

So, Neumann the prominent lawyer intentionally withheld the crucial evidence and gave false testimony at court. Even without knowing these two facts, his defense of the client obviously looked crappy to anyone who was present in the courtroom. So, he must have known that doing something like this will seriously damage his reputation. Schmitz believes that gold coins were his motive. Well, he already had a lucrative business, and doing something like this was definitely a bad idea, so I wouldn’t exclude the option that somebody also threatened him and forced him to do it. In other words, he got the offer that he couldn’t refuse.

Well, my theory from the last chapter, that everything about this case looked very fishy is true. Neumann was dirty, intentionally lost the case, and the only crime that the poor artist Huxley committed was falling in love with Elizabeth… Ugh! This is a very sad, poor guy.

Let’s ask the secretary about the gold coins. Tap on the secretary. Looks like Huxley paid for his defense with a single gold coin. Something doesn’t seem right. We should more thoroughly examine the secretary.

Tap on the first option “Was Huxley hiding his wealth”. Well, as we already suspected Huxley was a poor man. In the secretary’s word “I don’t think he ever saw a gold coin in his life”. So, somebody else paid for his defense. We suspected that it might be either the Elizabeth, who believed in his innocence, or the real killer, who paid to set him up. The second option seems much more likely, considering everything that we found out, so far.

Tap on the secretary again.

This time, let’s select the second option “Were there any third parties in the process?”. As we already guessed, somebody paid for the Huxley’s defense. Neumann wouldn’t even consider defending a poor individual like Huskley if it wasn’t for this mysterious person who “persuaded” him. However, the secretary refuses to uncover the identity of the mysterious person. We should rough her up a bit.

I have no more patience for the subtle approach, with all the shady business surrounding this case. So let’s select the first option “Threaten her”. Well, even after threatening the secretary, she didn’t buckle and refused to reveal the identity of the mysterious person. Let’s try this again.

Tap on the secretary. The third time is the charm.

The second option, again.

Let’s now chose the “Make her resign” option, although I have no idea what the developer meant with this weird wording. The secretary claims that one of the most important aspects of a successful law firm is secrecy and keeping the privacy of its clients. Well, I suppose this true. However, Schmitz points out that with the Neumann’s death, there will be no more law firm – things were going downhill even before that, after the fiasco that was Huxley’s case.

 

Apparently, Neumann was a very capable diplomat, dealing with many influential individuals and organizations, and keeping all the acquired information confidential, ensuring the privacy of his clients. Secretary says that one of these was an underground organization called Aegyptus.

The Schmitz screamed “Aegyptus” in a very surprised and probably angry tone. Apparently, Aegyptus is a radical group that was exiled to Sachen by the Vatican. Also, there is a portrait of the president of the group, Samuel, hanging on the wall behind Neumann’s desk. So, he was hired by this group on a regular basis, he maybe even had full-time employment. They were obviously one of his most important clients.

Schmitz is wondering if the leader of the Aegyptus offered Neumann the gold coins as a fee for Huskley’s defense. Secretary, confirms this, but she also points out that the lawyer never met Samuel in person. Instead, he met with one of his men. The secretary couldn’t remember the name of this person, but she said he was missing an eye. The chief investigator Schmitz seems to know about whom she is talking about. Henry Cleval. The doesn’t seem very happy.

The secretary confirms, that this person was indeed Henry Cleval. Junior detective, Erich, has no idea who is this person they are talking about, but it seems important. Apparently, Schmitz had already dealt with the Aegyptus in the past (they were probably somehow involved in the case she was working on). It looks like she (the detective) really hates Henry Cleval, which was also an intermediary between Samuel and Neumann. The Schmitz thinks she should have killed Henry the last time she dealt with him – I guess we will also play this story at some point.

The chief detective is now convinced that Samuel and Henry hired Neumann, and she thinks that the person who broke into the morgue did it in order to clear the Huxley’s name and bring true justice for Lavenzas murders. She thinks the same person broke into the Neumann’s office. Schmitz is also convinced that if this person knows everything that we do, it will go after Samuel and Henry, and our good detective is certain that we will have a bloodbath, in this scenario. I hope our mysterious vigilante won’t get himself killed. There is still a possibility that my crazy theory is correct, and that this vigilante is actually Huxley, after being resurrected by Victor, the main protagonist from the first chapter. That would be very interesting!

In the next stage, Schmitz returns to the present time and starts the search for Henry. Join us in the next stage of the Walkthrough for Frankenstein Room ESC, to find out is the Schmitz’s secret going to be revealed. I just hope she won’t choose even darker path, to cover up her sins…

Thank you for reading.