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 about the Dumping Grounds where the Moretti family hides their victims. You’ll also need to email him the case’s Solution once you’ve figured out where Giovanni Moretti’s ledger is hidden.
If you haven’t emailed Sullivan yet, you can visit SleuthKings.com/Case-019 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.
The Events Calendar is so colorful that it’s almost difficult to know where to start, isn’t it? I know the colors are important, but we’ve got to figure out how they’re important before we can find any kind of hidden message here.
I think John’s right – the notes attached to the calendar must be telling us which events to look at. There’s not much to go off of, but my guess is that the pictures associated with each event are telling us which words or letters to focus on in the event itself.
I was right about looking at the picture associated with each event. The trick is to notice which color the image is, and then read only the words or letters associated with the event that match the color.
Here’s what I mean. “Casino Royale Tens Win” is the first event mentioned in the notes that were attached to the calendar, right? The “10” is red in that section, which means we have to look at the red letters, which spell the word “note.”
When you do that for each of the events mentioned in the attached notes, the message says:
“Note on ad: Line up map dealer with chip J.”
Ugh! I’ve dealt with Moretti before, and I see he hasn’t changed. His redundant messages that tell you how to find other messages have always been annoying. The man is paranoid beyond belief!
Then again, I guess we really are out to get him, so maybe it’s justified in this case.
Nah.
Here’s something I noticed that might help – do you see the symbols in the center of each slot machine grouping? They’re in the center of each table on the poker tournament map, too.
Assuming that John is right about how the poker chip will help us decode the random letters on the ad, we’re going to need to figure out how to line the chip itself up correctly inside each of the circles on the map. Luckily, Clue 1 already told us how to do that.
By the way, if I’m looking at everything correctly, I don’t think we’ll need to pay attention to the tournament names on the back of the map. All we need to look at are the initials for each player that surround the tables.
Clue 1 said that we have to align the “J” on the poker chip with the table’s dealer on the map, right? When you place the chip inside of a circle and line it up correctly, the chip works like a decoder wheel.
For instance, if you want to decode “JAOKCT” from the ad, you’ll put the chip on top of the heart symbol on the map. Then, once the “J” on the chip is pointing to the table’s dealer symbol, the chip and the letters on the map will decode the block of letters on the ad. Here “JAOKCT” ends up being decoded to read “expect.”
After you decode each of the blocks of letters on the ad, the message reads:
“Expect Boss’ letter soon. Watching punctuation marks highly commands dividends.”
Great – Moretti is still giving us the runaround. At least now we know that we’ll have to pay close attention to the punctuation marks if we want to find the hidden message in his letter, which John marked as Clue 3.
I don’t know about you but, after reading this letter a dozen times, there aren’t any specific words that jump out at me. I think what we need to do is focus on looking for individual letters instead.
Once we find all of the correct letters, they should spell out a message. The problem is figuring out what we need to pay attention to in order to find the letters. Clue 2 mentioned looking at the punctuation, didn’t it? I’ve got a feeling that’ll help us here.
I got it. Between Clue 2’s message about looking at the punctuation, and the letter’s awkward line that reads, “Paying close attention to things is important because no one will be looking after what I tell you for a second time,” I figured out that the trick is to read the second letter after each punctuation mark. When we do that, the message says:
“Rules border use even symbols and look at ad.”
This has to be talking about the border on Clue 4. It also sounds like the ad labeled Clue 2 will be helpful here, too. I think what we’ll need to do is pay close attention to the decoded letters from Clue 2 and their corresponding symbols in each slot machine grouping.
Since it’s only every other symbol that matters in Clue 4’s border, Clue 2 should be able to help us figure out which letters are in each word. Considering how Moretti is, though, I’m sure we’ll need to unscramble the letters once we get everything in order, too.
Deciphering this message is going to take a few steps. First, we’ll have to determine which symbols we need to look at in each line. Once we’ve got that figured out, we should be able to replace the symbols with the corresponding decoded letters from Clue 2. Finally, after you know what letters we’re working with for each line, we’ll probably need to unscramble them to spell out a word.
Since Clue 3 told us which symbols to focus on for each line, I’ve already gotten started with all of this. So far, I’ve figured out the top line, which is “dumping.”
Judging from the first word I’ve decoded, I have a feeling that this message is going to give us the location of Moretti’s burial ground. If I’m right, that means rereading the interview John had with the rookie detective might help you unscramble a few of these words. The detective did mention the five places Ray was investigating as potential burial grounds, after all.
Remember, when you’ve figured out where Moretti’s “dumping grounds” are, you can email their location to Sullivan and he’ll get in touch with John. If you haven’t sent Sullivan an email about this case yet, you can do so at: www.SleuthKings.com/Case-019. When you email him, be sure to include the phrase “Dumping Grounds” in the body of your email so that he knows what you’re talking about.
Since Clue 3 said that we want to pay attention to the even symbols in the border, I’ve been looking at these:
$$$$$$$ δδδδδδδ ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ √√√√√√√√
After I matched those symbols up to the decoded letters from CIue 2, I got:
N I G P U M D
O S R N U G D
L O O W A N D D
E E C T E R Y M
Then, finally, I unscrambled the letters to get:
“Dumping Grounds: Woodland Cemetery.”
Well, at least this finally gave us the location for Moretti’s burial ground, although it’s kind of dark, isn’t it? It kind of makes sense in a twisted way, though. I mean, a body isn’t going to look out of place in a cemetery.
I hate to say it, but this is as far as I can go with this case. As much as I’d like to help more, I can’t do anything that might attract Moretti’s attention. If I do, he’ll come after me and – more importantly – my sister. I can’t put her at risk over this. I’m sorry.
Even so, between Sullivan and John, they’ll probably have this under control. Hopefully. Actually, it’s probably safest if you babysit them.
When you’re ready to have Sullivan and John check out Woodland Cemetery, you can send Sullivan an email. If you haven’t emailed him about this case yet, you can do so at: www.SleuthKings.com/Case-019. When you email him, be sure to include the phrase “Dumping Grounds” in the body of your email when you tell him to check Woodland Cemetery so that he knows what you’re talking about.