Episode 6

Currently on Curtain Call...

Olga's attack during the rehearsal was prompted by Viola's failure to call her and check in, a demand Olga had made of her daughter ever since she had returned from her mysterious retreat. After her mother's attack, Viola decided to take her hidden jewelry and leave to start a new life with her child. But first, she had to make George aware of her plan.

George, himself, was at the end of his rope. Drowning in debt and cracking under the stress of his failing marriage, he had placed all of his hopes for the success of his next show on Viola's shoulders. When Viola told him of her plans to leave the production, George snapped. He grabbed Olga's cane, which Evelyn had left in Viola's dressing room, and bludgeoned her to death. He then cleaned the room, hid her corpse in her own trunk, and hid the trunk in the theater's attic. In cleaning up her dressing room, he hid some of her belongings in the false bottom of his desk drawer, but because he didn't know they existed, Viola's jewels remained hidden and uncollected.

During the time of the murder, Evelyn was arriving at the Excelsior Hotel for her dinner engagement with Ira, while Olga was spending the night in a jail cell for her display outside of the Cadence.

After the murder, Ira finally came clean and admitted to Evelyn that he had fathered Viola's child. In the months that followed, Ira and Evelyn got married and adopted Viola's son, Julian. Hector gave the pair a considerable sum of cash from his personal fortune to help them raise Julian. This sum also allowed them to purchase the Cadence from a debt-ridden George.

This means that not only has Julia been Viola Vane's granddaughter the entire time, but that she is entitled to the fortune Viola hid in the Cadence as Viola's sole heir.

Now, Julia will be able to find her grandmother's hidden jewelry and save the Cadence Theatre from being sold. Years after his loss of the Cadence, George writes a thinly-veiled confession to Viola's murder in the form of a screenplay.

Hints

Appraisal Note

  • Compare the estimated value of the jewelry to the money Julia needs to buy the Cadence Theatre.

Arrest Records

  • Pay attention to the unnamed persons arrested on the night of November 6. Cross-reference this with other documents in the episode.
  • A woman was arrested in Midtown trying to break into a building. She was also publicly intoxicated and assaulted a police officer. The record noted that she had trouble walking.

Bloodstained Letter

  • This is a variation of a code you've seen before. The writer tells the recipient of the letter to think of "Mother's" wedding ring. The year engraved onto the ring is 1903. Use this clue to understand the code variation.
  • The sum of 1 + 9 + 0 + 3 is 13. Applying this to the coded portions of the letter may make their meaning clearer.

Coded Notes

  • This is a variation of a code you have seen before. Use the context of the conversation and the handwriting to determine the authors of these notes.
  • The dots in this code are replacing vowels, however the coded phrases are written backward.

Cufflink

  • Pair this cufflink with the cufflink from Episode 1. Pay attention to the back of the cufflinks, and look for a clue in another document from this episode.
  • With the cufflink from Episode 1, the inscription on the back of both items reads: "1:16". Compare this with information in the obituary on the virtual desktop.

Key

  • Compare the key found on Viola's body to a photo on the Cadence Theatre's website.

Memoir

  • Pay attention to the relationship details in the memoir. Use past handwriting to determine who left notes in the margins.

Newspaper Clipping

  • This document can be used in conjunction with another document in this episode.
  • A woman was arrested in the Theater District trying to break into a theatrical establishment. Compare this document to the arrests on the arrest record.

Obituary

  • A detail in this document may help you determine the significance of an item you received in this episode.

Rap Sheet

  • Pay attention to the pattern of arrests here and to Olga's physical description.

Taxicab Receipt

  • Pay attention to the time and addresses listed on this receipt.

Reveals

Arrest Records

  • This record can be compared to the rap sheet and the newspaper clipping. The unidentified woman arrested around 5:40 PM is Olga Gaina. She was trying to break into the Cadence Theatre and has a history of being arrested for public intoxication. Because she was arrested at 5:40 PM and booked at 6 PM, she could not have killed Viola.

Bloodstained Letter

  • Because of the handwriting and reference to "Mother", we know this letter's author is Viola. This letter is deciphered by shifting each letter by 13 and then applying the Atbash cipher.

  • The deciphered sections read, in order:

    • Hector
    • Mother
    • Evelyn
    • telling her about my child
    • finish out my contract
    • Mother hurts me
    • the father of my child
    • Julian
    • Mother's
    • collect my jewelry from its hiding place in the false bottom of the liquor cabinet at the Grace Note
    • swiped the cabinet's key from George's office
    • Julian
    • Mother
    • find
    • jewelry in that lockbox is worth more than enough to keep me and Julian comfortable
    • my child
    • George
    • Viola

Coded Notes

  • Using the handwriting and the context, it can be determined that this is a conversation between Ira and Evelyn.

  • Decoded, the notes in their entirety read as follows:

    • Ira: Can't we wait until later to discuss this further?
    • Evelyn: You expect me to just continue rehearsing after what Hector told me?
    • Ira: I know you're upset, darling, but it's the right thing to do.
    • Evelyn: For you, maybe. I never signed up to raise someone else's baby.
    • Ira: Would you rather leave him on somebody's doorstep?
    • Evelyn: Hector's been doing a find job so far.
    • Ira: He's not Hector's responsibility.
    • Evelyn: Well, he's not mine, either! I've got enough to worry about as it is.
    • Ira: But he's all alone now that Viola's gone.
    • Evelyn: That's not my fault!
    • Ira: You have every right to be angry. I should've told you the truth from the start.
    • Evelyn: Yes, you should have.
    • Ira: Are you really going to turn your back on a helpless child because I made a mistake?

Cufflink

  • The inscription on the cufflinks is a reference to the bible verse mentioned in the obituary. Ruth 1:16. It can be concluded that these cufflinks were the gift Ruth left for her husband, George, that she mentioned in Episode 3's telegram.

Key

  • The key found on Viola's body can be seen in the photo of Ira in George's office. By comparing the Roman number above the key to the blueprint, it can be determined that this key opens something in the Grace Note bar.

Memoir

  • In his memoir, Hector explains that Julian was Ira's son, and he was adopted by Ira and Evelyn after Viola's disappearance. This makes Viola Julia's grandmother.

Newspaper Clipping

  • The woman arrested in the Theater District is Olga. This can be confirmed by the woman's description in the arrest record and the detail about her resisting arrest and injuring her leg.

Obituary

  • The obituary references a bible verse, Ruth 1:16. These are the same numbers that are inscribed on the cufflinks, implying that the owner of the cufflinks had a connection to Ruth.

Rap Sheet

  • Olga is frequently arrested for public intoxication. Her physical description in this document matches the description of an unnamed woman in the arrest records.

Taxicab Receipt

  • This receipt shows that Evelyn went from 39th and Broadway, the address of the Cadence Theatre, to 200 Central Park South, the address of the Excelsior Hotel, and arrived at 6:08 PM on the night of the murder. This confirms her testimony from the police report in Episode 2.

Solution

  • In the finale, you can definitely prove one suspect's guilt by eliminating two other suspects. Olga and Evelyn are both innocent. Olga had already been arrested at the time of the murder for her drunk and disorderly behavior. Evelyn, on top of no true motive, also has an alibi that checks out. That leaves George as the sole remaining suspect.
  • Evelyn claims to have arrived at a dinner engagement a few minutes after 6 PM. To eliminate Evelyn, pay close attention to the taxicab receipt. Evelyn traveled 1.4 miles by cab, arriving at 6:08 PM. Whoever killed Viola at 5:57 PM also placed her body into a trunk and dragged that trunk up to the attic. There was no way for Evelyn to have committed and cleaned up the murder, hailed a cab, and arrived at her destination in 11 minutes.
  • Olga claims not to remember her whereabouts on the night of the murder. The newspaper clipping references a woman being taken into custody for causing a public disturbance in the Theater District around 5:30 PM on the evening of the murder. Prior testimonies of other suspects in Episode 2's police report already suggest this is Olga, but the local precinct's arrest records confirm this to be the case. This document describes a woman of Olga's physical characteristics being apprehended at the same place around the same time. The rap sheet shows that Olga has a history of similar arrests.
  • George has no proveable alibi, a motive to kill Viola, and several pieces of evidence against him.
  • The last thing Viola mentions in the bloodstained letter is her intention to tell George that she is leaving his production. We know from previous episodes' rehearsal notes, poster proofs, and ledger that George was an overbearing presence in a desperate financial position who had placed all of his hopes of future success on Viola's shoulders. We also know from the divorce papers that George had a tendency to carry out affairs with younger performers. The desk drawer photo and accessory also show that George had amassed a collection of Viola's personal items in the secret compartment of his desk.
  • Most damning for George, however, are the cufflinks.
  • In Episode 1, one cufflink was found underneath the trunk that contained Viola's body. It had to belong to the killer, as the trunk was not discovered or moved after being initially placed in the attic. This cufflink was engraved with "1:". The matching cufflink is engaged with "16". Together, they form the phrase "1:16". In Episode 3's telegram, Ruth mentioned having left George a wearable gift on the day of the murder. In her obituary, Ruth's favorite bible verse, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay," is referenced. This verse is Ruth 1:16.
  • The cufflinks had to have belonged to the killer. They also had to have belonged to George.
  • Therefore, it stands to reason that George Erikson killed Viola Vane after flying into a possessive rage when Viola told him that she wanted to break her contract and leave his production of "You Can Leave It Right Here".
  • Once you send Julia this answer, you should receive a thinly-veiled confession from George in the form of a discarded screenplay that makes overt reference to the circumstances of Viola's death, including secrets only the killer could know.
  • Julia is also still looking for Viola's jewels, which are hidden in the Cadence. The bloodstained letter confirms that the jewels' hiding place is in the Grace Note, the bar at the Cadence Theatre.
  • Now that Julia knows the identity of her grandmother's killer and the location of her jewels, she can put the dark past of the Cadence Theatre to rest and bring her family business into the future.

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