Case 017

Case 017: The Cupid Killer

Celest St. Claire's Notes

Hey,

My notes are a little unusual this time because I’m taking a closer look at some weird mail that I’ve received over the past few weeks. Sullivan isn’t technically investigating anything, yet, but I’ve got a feeling there’s more to this mail than either of us realizes. By the time you get this, I’m confident a case will actually be underway.

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 the Identity of who sent us the strange mail. You’ll also need to email him the case’s Solution once you’ve figured out whatever it is Sullivan says he needs to know.

If you haven’t emailed Sullivan yet, you can visit SleuthKings.com/Case-017 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, just click the corresponding button below.

This really is such an awkward card, isn’t it? I hope it’s just a prank, and not something from some kind of psycho axe murderer.

So far, I’ve figured out the first three words, which are, “Words on door.”

Using “destroy” on the poster (that’s not ominous at all, is it?) should help make sense out of several other hearts on the card, too.

Once I figured out a few more letters, unscrambling the rest of the code went pretty fast. It says:

“Words on door hanger – find poster colored words synonym.”

So, it’s telling us how to fill out the Cupid’s Challenge application (Clue 2)? If they’re related, why didn’t this card have the game show’s logo?

This stuff keeps getting weirder. Oh well – try taking a look at the poster and see if you can use it to help fill out the application marked as Clue 2.

The creepy card marked as Clue 1 told us to look for synonyms of the colored words on the poster. I did that, and I’m pretty sure I’ve got the blank lines on the application filled out correctly. In order from top to bottom, the words are:

“Sweetheart,” “compete,” “cheerful,” “mourn,” and “crushed.”

Once you fill those out on the application, we’ll still need to figure out what the web address at the bottom is. To do that, we’ll have to figure out how to unscramble the letters marked with symbols. Since there are two different symbols, we’re probably looking for two words.

The easiest way to handle this is to group the letters associated with each symbol together and see what word can be made with them.

From top to bottom, the cupid letters are: “E,” “T,” “C,” and “U.”

The only word that those letters can make is “cute.”

If we order the heart letters in the same way, we get: “P,” “C,” “L,” “O,” “U,” and “E.”

It took me a few tries to unscramble the letters, but the only word they can spell is “couple.” That means the website the application wants us to take a look at is: www.storagefiles.net/cutecouple.

I know Sullivan is busy, but maybe I’ll sign us up for the game show, anyway. It sounds like it could be a lot of fun! Of course, if losing means I get to hit him in the face with a pie, I won’t want to win!

What a shame! The site says that Sullivan and I missed the cutoff to register for the game show.

Anyway, I’m sure you’ve noticed the pictures on the front page, right? One of them is the letter “E,” which is the answer to the first riddle on the postcard. When you click it, it takes you to another page with additional pictures.

If you click the picture on each page that matches each riddle’s answer, you’ll eventually end up at a password protected-page.

Somehow, the website feels incomplete to me right now – I’m not seeing any words except for what’s on the front page. Maybe by the time you receive everything, there will be more to the site itself.

Regardless, to get the password, I think we need to pay attention to the numbers on each correct answer’s picture. Somehow, I think the numbers are pointing us toward something in each picture’s associated riddle, which should help us figure out the password.

I think I got it. The number on each correct answer’s picture is telling us which letter to look at in the associated riddle. For instance, there’s a “2” on the picture with an “E,” so we need to look at the 2nd letter in the riddle itself, which is “a.”

If you do that for each picture, you get “arrow,” (all lowercase) which is the password.

When I plug that in, all I see is the sentence “My name is Simon Downing.”

I’m not sure how that’s relevant, but I’ve got a feeling there will be more to it by the time you get a chance to take a look. Anyway, if Sullivan needs to know who sent the stuff, you can let him know it was Simon Downing.

If you haven’t emailed Sullivan to begin the case yet, you can do so at www.SleuthKings.com/case-017. When you want to let him know who sent us this stuff, make sure that you use the word “Identity” in your email when you send him their name so that he knows what you’re talking about.

I’m pretty sure that whoever sent us this stuff must have some kind of plan for telling us how to arrange the scattered columns of letters in the correct order. If you haven’t already, I’d recommend letting Sullivan know what the person’s name is. Once you do, maybe he’ll be able to get in touch with them somehow to find out more.

After you’ve got the columns in the correct order, the grid should help you unscramble the letters. The columns themselves won’t shift, but the letters in each column will need rearranged correctly.

That said, I think I’ve managed to figure out what the first five words of the message are. They say, “Care to save your love?”

“Save?” What’s that supposed to mean? I don’t like where this is going.

This is bad. The message says:

“Care to save your love? Find cupid’s bow and put the correct arrow in it. Come alone or Celest dies.”

I’m calling Sullivan, and then the police. If this guy – wait, I hear someone at the door. They –