As I mentioned in my note, I’m sure that my conclusions will match Sullivan’s. That being the case, if you’ve already asked him about these clues, you probably won’t learn anything new here.
If you do choose to use this site, you’ll still need to email Sullivan when you know who the Thief is so that he can check their office. You’ll also need to email him the case’s Solution once you’ve figured out where the stolen money has been hidden.
If you haven’t emailed Sullivan yet, you can visit SleuthKings.com/Case-016 to send him your first email. When you want to address either of the issues above, just include the appropriate underlined word from above in the body of your email.
If you want to see my thoughts on any of the clues in your case file, just click the corresponding button below.
Before I say anything about the clue itself, I just want to point out the homework assignment on the back. It’s the best thing I’ve read in a long time – especially the teacher’s note. Ha! It probably has nothing to do with the clue itself, though.
OK, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, I’ll try and focus. I’m sure you’ve noticed the red section toward the bottom of the note, right? If you put your red glasses on and look at it, you’ll see a message that reads:
-3 VWRUDJHILOHV.QHW/IKVOHLODK
I haven’t decoded this yet, but I think -3 is telling us that we need to try shifting the letters so we can get a coherent message. By the looks of things, I’m guessing it’ll be a website.
So, the trick is that you have to shift each letter back 3 places in the alphabet. When you do that, the message becomes:
Given the note’s context, I think you’re going to want to pay attention to the file named “Asuna, Use This One!” The file itself is password-protected, but I’ve got a feeling that Clue 2 will help you crack it.
If you’ve been to the website that Clue 1 pointed us toward, I’m sure that you’ve seen the anonymous helper’s long itinerary, right?
Aside from the fact that they ran all over at the festival, what sticks out is how the person mentions calling teachers by their first names. It seems out of place, doesn’t it? That being the case, I think it’s telling us to focus specifically on some teachers’ first names. Of course, before we can do that, we’ll have to figure out which teachers to look at.
Since the password itself is only supposed to be 8 letters long, we’ll probably only need 1 letter from each name to spell it out.
One more thing – when you go to plug the password in, remember that each letter should be lowercase, too.
In order to figure out which teachers’ first names we need to look at, the key is to study the itinerary posted on the website. The writer mentioned attending 8 events, so you’ll want to pay attention to the teachers who hosted these events.
Once you’ve got the first names, you also have to remember that only 1 letter from each name is needed. If you take the first letter from each name in the order that they’re mentioned in the itinerary, you get the word “innocent,” (all lowercase) which is the password.
So far, I’ve been able to figure out about half of this, but not enough to solve anything yet.
The “Happy Birthday. Rewind Time,” part is telling us that we need to find someone’s birthday (MMDDYYYY format) and shift the letters backwards accordingly. You’ll want to put the 1st number under the 1st letter, the 2nd number under the 2nd letter, etc. You can skip spaces and repeat the pattern once you run out of numbers, too.
The problem is, I’m not sure whose birthday to use. I’m sure there’s something on the card that can give us a hint, but I haven’t found it yet.
All right, I finally figured out the trick to this, thanks to Cavallo’s lesson plan.
The quote on the card about the word “impossible” wasn’t said by Da Vinci – it was something Napoleon said. That being the case, if we use Napoleon’s birthday (08/15/1769) as our pattern and roll the letters back, we get:
“History is a set of lies agreed upon. Your Hero, Napoleon.”
If Sullivan’s theory about this being the thief’s card is right, it sounds like their favorite historical figure is Napoleon.
Even though we haven’t learned much about the thief, between this and what we found on the website, I think we should be able to identify them.
When you’ve figured out the thief’s identity, you can email their name to Sullivan and he’ll check their office. If you haven’t sent Sullivan an email about this case yet, you can do so at: www.SleuthKings.com/Case-016. When you email him, be sure to include the word “Thief” in the body of your email so that he knows what you’re talking about.
So, I don’t think Sullivan thought about this, but I got the rest of the missing weekly lunch calendars by calling into the school and asking for them. It was pretty straightforward and didn’t require me to break into anybody’s office. To each their own, though!
On the large calendar, there are 4 scrambled words and 9 symbols, right? I’m sure that means there’s a string of 9 symbols somewhere in the thief’s office. Once you give Sullivan the thief’s identity, I’m sure he’ll find it.
Regardless, I’d recommend starting by unscrambling the 4 words written on the calendar. The Pugicorn poem at the top of it should help you do that.
Anyway, once you’ve unscrambled the words, the symbols drawn beside them on the calendar should tell you which letters are important. From there, you’ll need to use those letters to figure out what the string of symbols in the note from the thief’s office is telling us to look at.
Once you’ve figured out what the symbols are telling us to look at, you’ll probably want to consider trying to figure out why the calendar’s meals are so different from the weekly lunch menus. When you’ve fixed it, things should start making a little more sense.
I was able to unscramble the words and thought I’d share them with you.
“Slick” is “licks,” “crumpets” is “spectrum,” “decolor” is “colored,” and “wrathm” is “warmth.”
Since I don’t have the note that’s most likely in the theif’s office, this is slow going for me, but I’ve still managed to figure a few things out so far. The first three letters of the word you’re looking for are probably “c,” “r,” and “o” respectively.
We know that the letters s, s, w, r, c, o, o, r, d are important, right?
I tried a bunch of different combinations with them, but only one makes sense: “Crossword.”
Conveniently enough, there’s actually a crossword on the back of Asuna’s interview that Sullivan included for you to read. What are the chances that’s the crossword being referenced here? If it is, though, the rest of the handwritten letters and numbers from the calendar might help you figure out where the stolen money is hidden.
When you’ve figured out where the money is, you can email Sullivan its location. If you haven’t sent him an email about this case yet, you can visit www.SleuthKings.com/Case-016 to get in touch with him. When you want to tell him where the money is, be sure to include the word “Solution” in the body of your email so that he knows what you’re referring to.
Also, if you need help with the crossword or figuring out where the money is, you can ask Sullivan, too. Let him know that you’re working on the “solution” and I’m sure he’ll do whatever he can to help you!