Murder at the Motel

Hints

EP Release Flyer

  • Pay attention to Eugene's note about Julian. Do any of these sentences draw your attention to keywords?
  • Eugene specifically mentions Julian counted his words. You can apply this information to his poems in Julian's journal.
  • Note the sounds when speaking of the song title "I Want Your Tricks Free".

Julian's Journal

  • In the second-to-last poem in his journal, Julian claimed that someone's name becomes the key that unlocks his heart.
  • Pay attention to Julian's nickname for Veronica in the poems titled "Want Your Tricks Free Pt 2" and "Want Your Tricks Free Pt 3".
  • Note the sentence structure of the poems "Want Your Tricks Free Pt 2" and "Want Your Tricks Free Pt 3".
  • Note the sounds when speaking of the poem title "Want Your Tricks Free".

Keycard Activity

  • Matching the keycards with the times they're used will help you discover each guest's movements.
  • Each keycard is registered to a guest, but there is no direct link between the keycard numbers and the guest names. So how else can you determine which key belongs to which guest?
  • One keycard was registered on the day of the murder. Who was charged for a spare key?

Lock Combination

  • Julian mentions in his journal something will "unlock" things important to him.
  • Julian gets familiar enough with another person at the motel to use a nickname for them.
  • Veronica's nickname, Roni, shows up in two of Julian's poems. What do the poems have in common?
  • Eugene specifically mentions in his note on the back of the flyer that Julian counts his words.

Reveals

Keycard Activity

  • The descriptions of each guest on Eugene's map (on the back of the flyer) correspond to the descriptions in Veronica's notes.
  • Richard was charged for a replacement keycard, according to his room invoice.

  • Here are the numbers of each keycard and the name of the guest they belong to:

    • 10000001: Stu
    • 10040180: Veronica
    • 10687221: Julian
    • 10000554: Eugene
    • 10600221: Candice
    • 10004139: Ava
    • 10687220: Buck
    • 10734780: Richard
    • 10071436: Chad
    • 10082016: Richard's lost card

Lock Combination

  • Julian writes, "...Your name, / become the key, unlock my heart, / meet my memories..." in his journal on page 7.
  • Julian corrects "Veronica" to "Roni" in his journal on page 3. Julian's nickname for Veronica, Roni" appears as an acrostic poem in both "Want Your Tricks Free Pt 2" and "Want Your Tricks Free Pt 3".
  • Each acrostic poem in Julian's journal with the letters RONI down the left side (on pages 3 and 5) has four lines with the same pattern: 1 word, 4 words, 6 words, 3 words. The combination for the lock is 1-4-6-3. "Want Your Tricks Free", when said aloud, is a near-oronym with "1-4-6-3". Both of these clues give the numeric code needed to unlock the locked tin.

Room Assignments

  • Here are the numbers of each motel room and their occupants:

    • FRNTDSK
    • POOLDEK
    • ROOM100: Stu
    • ROOM101: Laundry
    • ROOM102: Chad
    • ROOM103: Candice
    • ROOM104: The Crabtrees
    • ROOM105: Richard
    • ROOM106: Under Renovation
    • ROOM201: Vending/Fitness
    • ROOM202: Eugene
    • ROOM203
    • ROOM204: Julian
    • ROOM205
    • ROOM206: Veronica
    • ROOM200: Business Center

Transcripts

Breakup Note

I didn't realize how careful I needed to be. I guess you

stalked me online? I can't be any more clear. I'm

relocating somewhere far away (new phone, don't

bother) and I've found someone to go with me. You

and I were a one-time mistake. Go back to California.

Complaint Form 1

  • Name: Richard Cogswell
  • Room: Room 105!
  • Address:
  • Phone: Let's face to face, shall we?
  • Today: Sunday
  • May we contact you to follow up: Immediately
  • Comments: I reserved 106. I've stayed in that room every year for 41 years. I wanted to stay one more time, remember my wife, but nobody cares. I've been asking since I got here when the room is going to be ready and I keep getting the runaround. I got here Friday at 7. It's now Sunday at 3:15. I've been waiting here 15 minutes and no one's at the front desk. What kind of operation are you running here anyway? And the other guests are rude! Ran into some middle-aged weak-bearded, pretty-boy jerk in the laundry room and he gave me a hard time for bringing my drink in with me! Rude! And get my wife's turtle back to me! Someone stole it. Find out who before I do!

Complaint Form 2

  • Name: Ava Crabtree
  • Room: 104
  • Address:
  • Phone: Ext. 4
  • Today: Saturday
  • May we contact you to follow up: Yes
  • Comments: Julian and that woman who I can only assume was the housekeeper (if you even have a housekeeper?) were being very loud outside when I was trying to have some quiet time with my family at night. Please tell them to keep their voices down if they're going to be outside after dark.

Do Not Disturb Sign

Front

  • I'm stuck in a dream but so free

 

Back

  • Ready to be me

EP Release Flyer

  • Gumshoe,
    Julian was a good kid, and I think he could have had a future in songwriting if he could only figure out the structure... I always told him, words count, don't count your words. Who knows if he listened to an old bag like me. Probably not. Well, I have a few words on this map here and I hope they count for something. I wish I could tell him I'll miss him.
    Get the bastard that did this.

    Eugene

  • Overhead view of The Sunset

    • I-80
    • Pool
    • To the Card
    • First floor
    • Lobby/Front Desk
    • 100: This is Stu's apartment
    • 101: Laundry
    • 102: Veronica's ex
    • 103: Real business-like
    • 104: Obnoxious family
    • 105: Old man Rich
    • 106: Where they found Julian
    • 2nd floor
    • 200: "Business Center"... 2 desks, printer and wifi
    • 201: Treadmills, weights, vending
    • 202: This is me
    • 203: Empty
    • 204: Julian's spot
    • 205: Empty
    • 206: Veronica's place

Eugene's Lyrics

Napkin

Left, right, and left again
She got no time to fall in
Lines and lines of words
Figures and numbers
She got a kid back home
Darling baby girl
All grown up
And the world
Just out of reach
If mom can't bring bank home

 

Notebook

The sun was goin' down and a man without a crown
Was clutchin' to a leash and empty collar.
He thought the coyote was mild but lemme tell you she was wild,
Not at all the type to come back at a holler.

Well, the man hunts the coyote
Or the coyote hunts the man
But I'm bettin' that sly coyote
She's got a plan
That the man
Cannot reckon

 

Receipt

He's a miser, that old captain who keeps to his quarters
On a ship, a ship, a ship in sand
And if he don't pay his crew
They'll anchor that old ship down
And then no one gets the treasure
But the crew gets out of town
And he won't pay his crew
Anything they're due
He's owed me fifty bucks
Five years, now.

Julian's Journal

Cover

  • At the Sunset

 

Page 1

  • [checkmark] Update social media pages with before pics from Motel
  • Update social media pages with after pics. Wait for full pay. Go through McBride & Assoc. for Lien?
  • Est. ~ 100k
  • Tab
    • $300
    • $800
    • $800
    • $3,500
    • $54,000
    • $2,000
    • $2,300
    • $4,000
    • $3,500
    • $150
    • $2,100
    • $100

 

Page 2

  • Room 202

    • Music man!
    • Fixed hole in wall
    • 3 hours
    • $150
    • New drywall, spackle, primer, paint
    • 20, 10, 25, 35 = 90
    • $100
    • Service $50
    • = $300

  • Room 106

    • Water damage
    • New drywall, primer, paint
    • 240, 24, 35 = $300
    • Ceiling tiles $50
    • 8 hours $400
    • Service $50
    • = $800

 

Page 3

  • Room 206

    • V̵e̵r̵o̵n̵i̵c̵a̵ Roni
    • New bathroom tile $200
    • Grout $20
    • Caulk (Silicon) $20
    • Tape $10
    • Pipe (PVC) $50
    • 4 hours $200
    • 4 hours $200
    • Service $100
    • = $800

  • Want Your Tricks Free pt 2

    • Run
      Over the water but
      Never let the sky drag you
      Into the clouds

 

Page 4

  • Room 100

    • Office Apartment
    • Electric outlet, north wall $50
    • Leaky sink
    • Mold/new tile $200
    • Carpet $5 x 350 ft² = $1,750
    • 24 hours
    • $1200
    • Service = $300
    • = $3,500

  • Room 101

    • Laundry
    • 8 New Coin-Op Washer x $3,877 = $31,016
    • 8 New Coin-Op Dryer x $2,118 = $16,944
    • New vinyl floor $8 x 350ft² = $2,800
    • Pipe $150
    • 40 hours = $2,000
    • 8 hours = $600
    • Service = $490
    • = $54,000

 

Page 5

  • Room 102

    • Carpet $5 x 315ft² = $1,575
    • 8 hours = $400
    • Service $25
    • = $2,000

  • Want Your Tricks Free pt 3

    • Real
      Once-upon-a-times
      Never ever seem to come around
      In my life

  • Room 103

    • Carpet $5 x 315ft² = $1,575
    • Drywall, Primer, Paint = $100
    • 10 hours = $500
    • Service = $125
    • = $2,300

 

Page 6

  • Room 203

    • New tile $200
    • New toilet $225
    • New mirror $195
    • Primer, Paint $55
    • Carpet $5 x 315ft² = $1,575
    • 30 hours $1,500
    • Service $250
    • = $4,000

  • Room 104

    • Carpet $5 x 315ft² = $1,575
    • Air unit $1,004
    • 10 hours = $500
    • Service $421
    • = $3,500

 

Page 7

  • Room 206

    • Paint $35
    • 2 hours $100
    • Service $15
    • = $150

  • I never thought that I would feel so stuck
    and so free at once. Your name,
    become the key, unlock my heart,
    meet my memories, shake hands,
    say how-do-you-do and good-bye,
    and take me with you.

 

Page 8

  • Page 105

    • Guy who checked in really wants to stay in 106 instead.
    • Careful.

  • Room 106

    • Carpet $5 x 325ft² = $1,625
    • 8 hours $400
    • Service $75
    • = $2,100

  • More water damage 5' from back.

 

Page 9

  • turtle lost
    in the desert sand:
    hidden and forgotten?
    or did you finally see
    there was no race
    to win?

  • Room 104

    • Cranks
    • AC check
    • ~1 hour $50
    • Service $50
    • = $100

Maintenance Request Form

  • Day of Request: Saturday
  • Request for Room No.: 104
  • Maintenance Action Requested: Please fix the AC in our room. the thermostat won't stay put and yesterday it got really cold after the sun went down. My wife was in a terrible mood all night. Thanks in advance.

Solution

  • To determine who killed Julian, there must be a suspect who has the means, the motive, and the opportunity to commit the crime. As the murder weapon (the means) has not been discovered, and the motive of each individual is not immediately clear, the best first step is to determine who was alone with Julian at the time of his death (opportunity).

 

The Locked Tin

  • There may be something of value to the case in Julian's locked keepsake tin, as Eugene found it suspiciously in the river bed. If Julian didn't throw it away, then whoever did was able to get close to him. The next step goes through the process to unlock this tin. Looking at the lock, there are four digits needed to unlock it.
  • According to the contact letter, Veronica mentions that Julian said he kept his "little memories" in the tin. Reading through Julian's journal for clues, there is a line in one of his poems where he writes, "Your name, / become the key, unlock my heart, / meet my memories".
  • Julian and Veronica were close. In this journal, Julian crosses out "Veronica" and writes "Roni" in its place. Looking at some of his other poems, in particular the ones that share their title with one of Eugene's songs listed on his flyer ("Want Your Tricks Free"), the first letter of each line spells R-O-N-I. The RONI form appears more than once. Eugene mentions in his note on the back of the flyer that Julian counts his words when he writes. In each instance of these poems from Julian, the first line has 1 word, the next line has 4 words, then 6, then 3. "Want Your Tricks Free", when said aloud, is a near-oronym with "1-4-6-3". That is the combination that opens the lock.
  • Inside the locked tin is an Ambitious Card "Key to the Casino" touch tool and one of Julian's business cards. The business card has a breakup note on the reverse side, as well as a partial bloody fingerprint. The card was therefore placed in the tin after Julian's murder, and therefore by someone else: his killer.
  • Julian writes in his journal about finding the turtle figurine that Richard lost, and Julian keeps his little memories in his locked tin; because the figurine was retrieved, one can deduce that the tin was open when the killer murdered Julian. The bloodstain on the business card indicates that the murder occurred while the tin was open. This means that the killer was the one to use the tin as a poor means of attempting to get rid of the business card and key to the casino, using Julian's own lock to close it up before dumping it in the river, where it was later found.
  • RED HERRING: Though Richard was clearly upset about losing his wife's turtle figurine and Julian was the one who had it, there is no evidence to suggest that Richard knew Julian had it. Given that the turtle is mentioned on the last page of Julian's journal and the way he describes it, it's likely that Julian didn't even realized before he died that the tutle belonged to Richard.
  • The contents of the locked tin therefore reveal the final two pieces of the puzzle: means (the "Key to the Casino" touch tool was the instrument used to puncture Julian's eye) and motive (Julian's affair with someone was discovered).

Means

  • Between Chad and Buck, Buck was the only one who went to the Ambitious Card Casino, and he went more than once. He won a poker tournament there, for which the "Key to the Casino" touch tool was his trophy and later, his tool for revenge.

Motive

  • Julian had an affair, and by the bloodstain found on the note inside the tin that could have only been put there by someone close to the other person involved, the affair must have contributed to the motive to kill Julian. Of Chad, Richard, and Buck, Richard's love interest has already passed away. Therefore, Chad (because of his affection for Veronica) or Buck (because of his marriage to Ava) are the final two suspects.

Opportunity

  • The keycard activity printout shows which keycards were used to open which rooms at what time on the day of the murder, but not the names of the guests who had those keycards. Eugene's map on the back of his EP release flyer has a brief description of each guest attached to each room, but not the names of those guests. Veronica's notes include brief descriptions of each guest and their names, but not the room numbers. Using these three documents and Julian's journal to fill in the gaps, it can be determined who had which keycard:

    • 10000001: Stu
    • 10040180: Veronica
    • 10687221: Julian
    • 10000554: Eugene
    • 10600221: Candice
    • 10004139: Ava
    • 10687220: Buck
    • 10734780: Richard
    • 10071436: Chad
    • 10082016: Richard's lost card
  • Using this information, it's clear that Julian entered room 106 at 2:19 PM. Veronica found Julian at 3:29 PM, which matches her story. Had she murdered Julian, Richard would have seen or heard something from the pool outside. This means that Julian was murdered between 2:19 PM and 3:29 PM.
  • Eugene didn't murder Julian because he was next door at the Ambitious Card Casino for his show, where he would have been seen by all the attendees, and the police saw him arrive at the motel after his show.
  • Candice didn't murder Julian because she entered the business center at 12:32 PM and has no later record of activity until after the police arrive. As the police noted when Eugene arrived on the property but made no mention of Candice arriving from somewhere else, it can be deduced that Candice emerged from the business center when the police arrived and was therefore in that room when Julian was murdered.
  • Ava didn't murder Julian because she returned from Olivia's tournament in Reno at 3:55 PM, less than two hours after the earliest moment Julian would have been alone. According to the police report, Officer Kline lost sight of Chad after reaching Reno in 51 minutes. Even accounting for time spent searching for Chad, Ava could not have left Olivia in Reno, driven to the motel, murdered Julian, driven back to Reno, picked up Olivia, and returned to the motel in that time.
  • RED HERRING: Eugene wrote some lyrics on the back of a receipt. The receipt side of the document does not relate to any of the suspects. It is merely a scrap of paper that Eugene had, on which he wrote down some lyrics.
  • Stu wasn't the murderer, as he went into his room only a minute after Julian entered room 106 on the other side of the motel. One can deduce Julian was alive at that time because he had just entered room 104 to address the maintenance request Buck entered regarding the air conditioning in their room.
  • This leaves Chad, Richard, and Buck as the three primary suspects.

The Killer's Identity

  • Buck is the only suspect with means, motive, and opportunity. Therefore, Buck killed Julian.

Recreating the Events

  • Buck, returning from the casino to search for Olivia's good-luck charm, instead finds the note from Julian to Ava and discovers their affair. Shortly after, Julian arrives at the room to fix the air conditioning. He wasn't there long. Perhaps the mood was awkward, perhaps tense: Buck had just discovered his wife's infidelity and before him stood the man with whom she had cheated. In a fit of jealousy and anger, he followed Julian into room 106, confronted him, and used what tool he had to murder him, the key to the casino. Seeing Julian's tin of trinkets open, he put the breakup note and key to the casino inside, locked it with Julian's lock, and threw the tin into the river along the highway in an effort to hide away the evidence.

Exclusive Epilogue