100 Ways to Solve a Murder-Chapter 156: Prometheus Ball III

Escape Room, Annecy France

Sam and Levi stood in the room, blindfold over their eyes, "Ready?" Sam asked, knowing Levi was with her. "Yep!" the slicked blond replied, excited.

"Start", Sam said, starting their clock and removing her blindfold, darkness greeting the two of them.

Through the darkness, the Irishman moved carefully around, he could see the patterns of furniture in the room, and it was apparent the first test was finding a source of lighting. From the corner of his eye, he could see something move; he reckons it was the redhead. Suddenly light enveloped the whole room, blinding the two of them for a few seconds.

"That’s better." the redhead commented after her eyes adjusted and she could now see clearly. A few feet on her right was Levi with a look of surprise, "How did you?" he asked, confused and surprised.

Sam just shot him a ’duh’ look, pointing at the witch on her left. "I turned on the switch." She said plainly.

Levi shrugged realizing, of course in the dark a person’s first instinct was to search for a source of light. Like primitive humans relying on the moonlight at night. He then started to rummage around the room. A Study in his initial opinion, with a big shelf filled with books, big wooden drawers, a table with inclining chair behind it, a couch, vase on the top of the coffee table, but what stood out the most was the blood on the wall that said ’turn back’ in Arabic; like a warning. Upon the Irishman’s examination, it was but acrylic paint and not real blood.

He then finally discovered the exit, it was hidden under the rug with some type of underground passage, locked with a code--from what he could see based on the brand and made it needed a six-digit code.

Sam watched the psychologist search for clues like a child left in a candy store, the determined but excited expression on his face made Sam smile. He looked so happy that it radiated to her. He searched everywhere, meaning EVERYWHERE. And that included: In and under a vase on top of the coffee table, underneath tables and tablecloths, behind and inside boxes.

Under carpets, rugs, lamps, candleholders, and any other knickknacks. Till finally, he started removing the couch cushion seats, thus discovering a hidden safe in the couch.

Sam, on the other hand, took a seat in the reclining chair behind the desk. She removed her heels to get comfortable, and opened a jar on top of the table filled with chocolates, yep, and she started eating it.

Pulling drawers from the table, she found a clue, "Levi." She said, waving the paper to him, but he wasn’t paying attention. Too busy studying the safe, from his knowledge, it was a three combination safe. "Levi," she called again, continuing to wave the paper. Levi turned to look at her, and marched towards her, taking the paper in her hand.

His brows rose in intrigued as he read the poem, recognizing who the author immediately was. "The Sleeper by Edgar Allan Poe published 1831." He claimed confidently. He turned to the bookshelves scanning the titles of each book. Sam smiled, watching him work, savouring the chocolate in her palate.

Levi pulled the only book on the shelf with the same year published since there were no books by Poe. He flipped through the pages, in a random page he discovered a photo, he noted the page 42 in case they needed it in the future and showed the picture to Sam.

And like him, she turned the photo around, but nothing was on the back.

"So what’s the significance of the picture?" Levi thought out loud.

"It’s a Family", Sam said, earning his attention.

"...based on the bone structure of the three children, one of them is a bastard", she explained, pointing at the middle child the mother was holding around five years old. Levi examined the photo again, "who’s?" He asked since she was the one with the anthropology PhD. "The Mother’s."

"That explains the body language", Levi commented, noting the way the father had his hands on the other two children’s shoulder, while completely but not obviously isolating the other child.

"So, this is supposed to be his study." Levi surmised. "Seems so."

"Engineer." Levi decided, based on the collection of books on the shelf.

"We should be looking at machinery or something that works with electricity." the Irishman thought out loud.

Sam recalled the photo; the ’bastard child’ was holding a lamp; she looked up at the chandeliers above, providing lights. "Do you think?" She asked, and he looked at the lights too at the same moment.

Levi’s eyes widened in glee, "Oh that is good! Awful good! The darkness was a clue all along. It’s always been the lights." he expressed, grabbing the chair across the table, and using it as a stepladder.

Sam looked at the pocket watch in her hand, "10mins and counting." she informed, and Levi gave an inaudible response, while he tiptoed and examined the chandelier. Finding one dimly lit light bulb, he readjusted it till it shone like the other little lights. Then they heard a pop sound in the corner of the room.

Sam scanned the room with her eyes for any change and noticed the mantle of the fireplace had moved slightly. She approached it, and Levi jumped off the chair following her, inspecting it both with curious eyes.

The Irishman decided to pull it, and it completely detached from the fireplace. Upon further examination, the two found the number 3.

Sam watched the blond busy himself trying to find another clue so that they could open the safe---he tried retaking his steps in case he missed anything. Sam let him do his thing---he liked being left alone, and usually, he would ask for her help if he needed it.

One thing bothered Levi the most, and it was the sign on the wall that said ’turn back’.

On the other hand, Sam narrowed her eyes on the antique apothecary cabinet with 50 small drawers with a design she found annoying. The surfaces of the cabinet had scratches on it which was unnoticeable at first glance.

Odd, the scratches do not match, she thought.

Then it hit her, and she made her way to the drawers.

And she started rearranging it so the scratches would meet.

Levi turned when he heard noises to his left, and there he saw the redhead rearranging the cabinet drawers. He approached her, deciding to assist her, seeing as she wasn’t precisely clothed for hard labour.

"The patterns don’t match," Sam explained, earning a nod from him. And he started rearranging the rest of the drawers so each mark would meet, and finally, they saw it the number 66.

Levi approached the Safe, and dialled 3-42-66----Nope, Levi thought. He reset the dial and tried a different combination.

42-3-66----Click. He turned to grin at Sam, and she nodded satisfied. He pulled open the safe, and inside he saw a piece of paper.

’11-14-3-18-1-21-2-20’

He frowned, looking at it, lost as to what it may mean.

He knew it wasn’t the code for the exit; there were too many numbers. Leaving them to the only possible explanation, this was a cypher. But for them to be able to break the cypher, they need the code. But there’s nothing there.

"20mins," Sam informed him. Levi ran a few standard ciphering methods in his head. He tried using the Caesar Shift Cipher, used by Julius Caesar himself that was actually 26 different cyphers, one for each letter of the alphabet. A person only needs to be told which Caesar cypher was used to decipher a message. If the G cypher is used, then A becomes G, B becomes H, C becomes I, and so on through the alphabet. If the Y cypher is used, then A becomes Y, B becomes Z, C becomes A, and so on. But that didn’t work.

"Any ideas?" He turned to Sam, who wasn’t even paying attention to the paper in his hand but was gawking at the sign on the wall.

He handed her the paper; he knew her brain worked like a computer. She looked at the paper and did what he did, trying to match the cyphers available in her head.

She looked at the watch, "22 minutes." She said, still thinking of both cyphers. Levi noticed how she was looking at the sign on the wall; he knew she too was bothered by it.

Levi huffed, "We won’t get out in time if we don’t have the code to break it with!" he spat frustrated, rummaging around the room. "Clues! There has got to be clues!" He started yelling, going about the place, rechecking his steps and wondering if he missed something.

Then suddenly Sam’s eyes widened in realization, "Levi!" she shouted for him.

"Shut up for a second and give me a piece of paper", she demanded taking the paper in his hand. His eyes narrowed at her, watching her grab a pen from the desk and start writing. "What are you doing?" He asked.

’11-14-3-18-1-21-2-20’

"I have an idea." She said, he watched her write from behind and frowned looking at her write

KNCR AUNT

"It’s not an alphabet number "cypher he informed her, but she continued writing.

"No, it’s not JUST Alphabet Number Cipher--- I think it’s a combination of Ciphers", she explained, now proceeding to use Reverse Cipher.

KNCR AUNT turned to TBUA RCNK---’It still doesn’t make sense.’ the two thought.

Then she continued, yet another Cipher called Jump Text Code.

Taking each other letter,

T

U

R

N

B

A

C

K

"TURN BACK." Levi read out loud, and the two whiplashed to the sign on the wall.

Levi came towards the wall in a heartbeat and started tapping the wall. Searching for something behind it, till he found it and he pushed with just enough force causing the wall to flip horizontally. And the two watched as the ’turn back’ sign disappeared and was replaced by a huge artwork.

"The last puzzle..." Levi said, clenching his jaw in frustration.