Case 202

Case 202: DraculArt

Celest St. Claire's Notes

Hey,

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 to let him know the Location where the artwork is hidden. You’ll also need to email him the case’s Solution once you’ve figured out who the thief is.

If you haven’t emailed Sullivan yet, you can visit SleuthKings.com/Case-202 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.

I think we need to arrange the pictures – and their letters – chronologically according to the story. Unfortunately, the story isn’t exactly in chronological order (I guess that would be too easy!), so we can’t just use things in the order they’re mentioned. That being the case, I think we’ll have to use context clues to figure out the correct order.

So far, the only thing I’m sure about is that, chronologically, the sun will be first.

I got it! Here’s how things should be arranged:

Chronologically, the vampire’s day starts when the SUN goes down. Once they wake, the vampire brushes the SPIDERWEBS from themself, puts on their CAPE, and then takes a DRINK.

New vampires move from under their TOMBSTONES, while experienced vampires leave their CASTLES. Regardless, they are often confronted with GARLIC.

If we use the above “story” (for lack of a better word) to arrange the letters, they spell “MaIvone.”

That’s weird – Sully and I know someone with the last name “MaIvone.” He’s kind of a jerk, but there’s no way he’s involved with this.

For now, let’s just focus on learning what we can and worry about everything else later. The heart picture on the pamphlet matches the heart on the sticker, right? I think that means we’ll need to put the word “Malvone” in place of the heart on the sticker.

Once we solve the other clues, I think they should help us figure out where the thief is hiding the artwork. When you think you’ve figured it out, be sure to send Sullivan an email. When you do, include the word Location so he knows what you’re talking about. If you haven’t emailed him yet, you can do so at SleuthKings.com/Case-202.

So far, I’ve found each of the missing words. The full quotes were all in CIue 1’s pamphlet:

FEAR + NIGH = FANG

DEE + PAID = DEAD

STUN + NO = SUN

CORNY + SPOT =

Now, I think we need to see if we can figure out what pattern is being followed in the first three examples. If we can find the pattern, we should be able to figure out what word CORNY + SPOT makes.

My guess is that the pattern will either have something to do with where the letters appear in the words or with what number the letters are in the sequence (1^st, 2^nd, etc.).

I just figured it out! We need to use the odd letters (1, 3, 5, etc.) on the left side of the equation in order to create the word on the right side.

When you do that, CORNY + SPOT gives us the word “crypt.”

Crypt is kind of a foreboding word, isn’t it? I’m a little worried but, that aside, I think that means we need to use the word “crypt” in place of the blood drop on the sticker.

I’ve made a little progress so far. Since “wolf” is the first symbol on the ad, you have to look at the line of letters beside it. The ad’s first number of the first section is “3,” so you want to look at the 3^rd letter beside the wolf, which is “C.”

Next, you’ll want to look at the string of letters beside the bat symbol. The ad’s second number is “6,” so we need the 6^th letter beside the bat, which is “R.”

I think if we can follow that pattern, we should be able to crack the rest of the message. Give it a shot to see what you can find.

Wow – this one was more than a little tricky!

The first thing to keep in mind is that the following numbers are giving us a message:

“3645 1582 8971 7829 9364”

We also know that the order in which we need to look at the symbols is:

Finally, we know the strings of letters beside each of the pictures are:

As I mentioned before, the “3” in the first set of numbers is telling us to look at the 3^rd letter beside the wolf, which is “C.” “6” tells us to look at the 6^th letter beside the bat, which is “R.” Then, “4” tells us to look at the 4^th letter next to the coffin, which is “O.” After that, “5” tells us we should look at the 5^th letter beside the rose, which is “S.”

Once we’ve gone through all four symbols, the pattern repeats. That means the “1” in the second set of numbers is telling us to look at the 1^st letter beside the wolf, which is “S,” and so on. Once you’ve found each of the letters, the message says:

“Cross-is-mausoIeum.”

This is another weird message, but there’s a picture of a cross on the sticker, isn’t there? I guess that means “mausoleum” belongs in place of the cross on the sticker.

I don’t know how it’s helpful yet, but the sum of the handwritten words equals 120. I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do with that, but it has to be pointing us to whatever word we’re looking for.

Believe it or not, I just figured out why 120 is important!

In order to get 120, we had to figure out what number each of the handwritten words was in the “About Us” section. Then, we added those numbers together to get 120.

Given that word placement was important in the first step, I decided to take a look at the 120^th word, which is “Mina,” the restaurant owner’s name. I doubt she’s involved with the art theft, but her name is four letters long, which matches the number of spaces beside the vampire smile at the bottom of the page.

As you’ve probably noticed, there’s a matching picture of a vampire’s smile on the sticker. I think that means we need to replace it with the name “Mina.”

Once we’ve replaced all four of the sticker’s pictures with the words we’ve found in Clues 1-4, they should tell us where the thief has hidden the artwork. When you’ve put everything together and know where we need to look, be sure to send Sullivan an email. When you do, include the word Location so he knows what you’re talking about. If you haven’t emailed him yet, you can do so at SleuthKings.com/Case-202.

Once Sully gets your email, we’ll go check the place out together!