Evelyn Mora & Margaretha Hari

What we know about Mrs. Darragh before becoming Evelyn’s tutor is that she “[runs] a club” and attends the [3rd] charity event each month” at the orphanage Evelyn lives at in order to find “candidates”. Mrs. Darragh apparently preferred “quiet but intelligent children”, and despite being the “frailest among them”, Mrs. Darragh selects Evelyn.

The author of Evelyn’s letter describes her as (initially) “youthful, impetuous, sometimes awkward”, but also “clever”, “docile”, and “[beautiful]”, while possessing an “incredible memory and an innate talent for performance”. Whether out of self-preservation (her trying to secure an extra piece of bread) or for a way out of the orphanage (draw another glance from a patron), Evelyn looked forward to her meetings with Mrs. Darragh: “if I make it from the hall to the western corridor in 3 minutes, I might just ‘bump into’ her admiring the water lilies there”. Mrs. Darragh gauged Evelyn during these meetings, until eventually deciding to adopt and train the girl to become a “Faro Lady”.

In the 18th century, women who engaged in gambling (an activity at the time viewed as only for aristocratic men) were at risk of being outcast from society if caught. This didn’t stop the most eager from getting involved though. One of the most notable groups of female gamblers from this time were the “Faro Ladies”, a group of women who ran private gambling dens out of their own homes, socialized, discussed politics, and spent their recreational time playing cards. The most infamous of the group were Lady Sarah Archer, Albinia Hobart (Lady Buckinghamshire), and Lady Elizabeth Luttrell. For this perceived breach of the social order, these Faro Ladies were scolded in the newspapers and condemned by the press for gambling and leading double lives as “respectable” citizens by day and “rabble-rousing” gamblers by night. Eventually, the ladies were charged a £200 fine for running a table, and £50 for participating (somewhere around £31,000 and £8,000 respectively in today’s money, or somewhere around $40,000 and $10,000).

1 of the games they played was “Faro”, which was similar to roulette. It was also spelled ‘Pharo’ or ‘Pharaoh’, derived from French playing cards whose backs sometimes bore the likeness of an Egyptian ruler. Some early Faro cards also displayed a portrait of a Bengal tiger, inspiring terms such as ‘bucking the tiger’ or ‘twisting the tiger’s tail’ to describe playing the game. It was eventually overtaken in popularity by poker at the end of the 19th century.

It was a simple game. The dealer acted as banker and either set out 13 cards of 1 suit on the table (usually spades, but suits didn’t matter in this game) or used a cloth or board with the image of 13 cards of 1 suit, upon which bets would be placed. An employee of the banker (or anyone not playing) would act as “case-keeper” to keep track of each card as it is revealed.

The dealer draws the top card, shows it to the players, then sets it off to the side. After this, 2 cards are dealt per turn from a standard deck of 52. 1 card was the winner, while the other was the loser. The goal of the game for players was to predict which card will win. Cards, as they were discarded, were displayed to the side, so you know which have already been played (making it clear this game is susceptible to card counting). Players that placed their bets on a losing card lose their bet, while Players that did the same for winning cards win their bet (as well as whatever was lost by the others).

Additionally, players can “short” bets (bet that a card will be the losing card) using their penny. There are also special bets with the banker without using chips. Betting High meant the player bet the winning card will be higher value than the losing card. Betting Low meant the losing card was higher than the winning card. If both cards are the same value, the banker takes half the bet from any player betting on that card.

Faro lost popularity in part because it was hard for bankers to make a profit (if not lose everything) while playing. High-rolling gamblers liked the easy odds of faro, while others enjoyed the quick action.

There were also plenty of opportunities for cheating (which could lead to gunfights if caught). In gambling, people can cheat via sleight of hand, distractions to change bets, card manipulation, rigged decks, or dealing boxes to know which card was next. Other techniques included bottom dealing (dealing from the bottom of the deck), false shuffling (making it appear as though the cards are being mixed while keeping them in a desired order), and palming (hiding cards in the hand to be switched in later). “Quick wit” and the ability to talk one’s way out of trouble if caught red-handed was equally important.

Over time, Evelyn masters “the art of achieving her ends through engaging in conversations, charm, and some special ‘tricks’, albeit at the cost of losing her sense of smell and taste” (Evelyn’s backstory). What is meant by losing her sense of smell and taste is given no additional details, other than the wording may imply her “tricks” (aka cheating) are what led to their loss.  Her aromatherapy cane is stated (in the design notes) to emit a special fragrance, something that can affect a person’s sense of smell. Maybe it was something she was able to use against others but caused her to lose her sense of smell over time. Or maybe she had to lose it to utilize that fragrance as a trick against others (to avoid being affected by it herself).

Evelyn’s success is clear as she becomes the “center of attention in social circles” (Evelyn’s deduction 2) and receives gifts from various gentlemen. Mrs. Darragh compensated Evelyn for this by providing her a life of luxury and serving as her “mentor and friend”. This lasts for at least 10 years, but trouble builds during that time from Mrs. Darragh’s “outstanding debts” due to “inclusion of expensive ‘ingredients’ such as Bellona in your order, we cannot guarantee a stable supply in the future” (deduction 3).

All it says is that “bellona” is “expensive”. The fact it has “ingredients” in quotes implies that isn’t what it actually is. The Japanese and Chinese versions use a word (“香料”) that seems like it can mean either spice or perfume/fragrance. Was it something for Vilhelm’s organization (as we know he’s involved in experimentation) or for herself? As the deduction references “greed” and “self-restraint”, I’m leaning towards the latter. Even if not for Vilhelm, it could still be a drug, or something addictive that she couldn’t do without. Or maybe it was whatever ingredients Evelyn needed for her “tricks” (via the aromatherapy cane). Or it’s something that helped Mrs. Darragh with her illness.

Whatever it was, this leads to the conflict between Mrs. Darragh and the debtor in Evelyn’s trailer.

Evelyn, seeing the fight and worried about her adopted mother’s safety, shoots the debtor, killing him and leading to a warrant for her arrest.

Evelyn goes on the run for a time until she learns her adopted mother is afflicted with a fatal illness: consumption, aka Tuberculosis. The author of Evelyn’s letter states “consumption is not an ailment that may be delayed indefinitely”. This could imply she has been trying to delay it, which could back up the idea this is what the “ingredients” were for.

This same author explains “the gentleman has no intention of rescuing her, at least not at present. The adversity she now faces will only further temper her loyalty”. When combined with Evelyn’s deduction 4 (“traps are always disguised as opportunities”), Vilhelm (the “gentleman”) may have some hand in planning this situation in order to acquire her for his organization. He’s likely the reason Evelyn learned of her adopted mother’s illness. And in return for her training more “Faro Ladies” for him, he’d provide Mrs. Darragh medical treatment. And Vilhelm would be using them for more than just funding considering he describes them as “dangerous blades” for him.

Lastly about Mrs. Darragh, the author talks to her about how her mentor spent “an entire year retrieving her poor successor from the farthest reaches of the world”. This implies that Mrs. Darragh tried to flee from the organization but was eventually found and brought back despite her attempts. This could relate to the author’s other comment: “I cannot imagine what cause you could have for regret”. This is said when referencing Mrs. Darragh adopting and training Evelyn. Maybe this “regret” is her inability to keep Evelyn from the organization, and thus causing Evelyn to go through the same experience she did.

Evelyn, to avoid the “gallows” and help her adopted mother, takes the deal and begins training others. Her deductions mention “4 young ladies of similar build stand facing the camera, wearing knee-length coats and bowler hats that conceal their faces from view”. 1 of these 4 is Margaretha Hari, who is described in Evelyn’s deduction 7: “a woman in her early twenties with her hair tied in a bun to the side, wearing a loose military uniform that clearly doesn't belong to her”. The uniform combined with the line about “knowledge that goes beyond the bounds of formal education” could mean she got some experience with the military as part of 1 of her disguises (relates well to the real Martha). Evelyn’s backstory states her student had “almost perfectly inherited Evelyn's legacy, especially in the field of disguising herself as a different identity, where her talent surpassed Evelyn's”.

Things are looking well until her tenure is almost at an end. After nearly 9 years, Margaretha Hari runs away from the organization. Evelyn, who just wants to be done with this, is ordered to “handle” (eliminate) Martha before she is allowed to leave. Evelyn’s desire for freedom is similar to Margaretha Hari’s and even her own tutor, Mrs. Darragh. We can see it even in Evelyn’s S-tier, Mark of Prey. The backstory for this essence involves Evelyn being “trapped”, unable to “change their current happenstance” or their “fate” as a “sacrifice”. This is emphasized when it mentions her meeting a “man” leading to “the whisper of the devil would sound in her ear”, representing Vilhelm and his “devil’s” bargain (he’ll save her life and her mentor’s in exchange for her freedom). After this, it even says she tried to “find an exit” but was unable to open the locked doors, which “turned into a cage” she struggled against but “could not escape”.

Evelyn’s final deduction references “first-class tickets” with “New York Harbor” as the destination. To me, I think Evelyn meant for these 2 tickets to be for either her and Mrs. Darragh, or potentially for Evelyn and Margaretha Hari. I say this as it would parallel how Mrs. Darragh wanted to keep Evelyn away from the organization and just live a semi-normal life together. Evelyn may have intended to do the same for Margaretha Hari (if not Mrs. Darragh, but it depends on how much her illness has progressed, or if she’s even still alive). They both wanted freedom from their “cage”, it’s just unfortunate that Margaretha Hari had a different plan on how to achieve this.

Maybe it’s because Evelyn had that semi-normal life Mrs. Darragh was able to provide for Evelyn, while for Margaretha Hari, she never had that. It was only ever the organization. Evelyn wanted the life she had back, while Margaretha Hari doesn’t even know who she is or who she wants to be.

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Alice DeRoss

I do want to bring up Evelyn’s possible connection to Alice though, as we see Alice’s shadow at the end of Evelyn’s trailer. Contributing to this is the fact Alice was adopted by Vilhelm in the past and Alice’s listed “talent” is “disguise”, just like the others in this organization. Then there’s the involvement of who is likely this same organization in Alice’s deductions via the “investigation reports”.  This could further imply that Alice, like Margaretha Hari, had escaped (from both Vilhelm’s experiments and his organization). Alice’s backstory even mirrors the other escapee, as it says she “returned to England under a veil of anonymity, reinventing herself as a social journalist, similar to Margaretha Hari taking on Martha Behamfil’s identity”.

Then there’s both Evelyn’s 1st and Alice’s 2nd letters referencing Cape Town (on the southern tip of Africa).

The author of Evelyn’s letter is located there, and as this author is clearly tied to Vilhelm, it’s possible Cape Town is also connected to Vilhelm and his organization to some degree.  In Alice’s letter, she asks to use the “encrypted telegraph services at the Cape Town Central Telegraph Office” if the “Editor of the Spectrum” agrees to allow her to contribute to their “cold case investigation efforts” as a journalist. She even says she’ll use a “pseudonym” when she publishes her findings. Again, clear similarities to Margaretha Hari.

The other reason Cape Town is curious is because the only other time it’s been brought up was during the trailer for Ashes of Memory. During it, the bee that was used to kill Melly’s husband travels from there to England. Coincidence maybe, but the possibility of a connection is interesting.

1 stupid question I had while thinking about Evelyn and Alice is whether it’s possible both of them came from the same orphanage. There’s no info about Evelyn’s orphanage, but since they both wind up with Vilhelm, I couldn’t help but wonder.

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Jose Baden & Sam Bourbon

The last topic I wanted to discuss about Evelyn’s letter is the fact the letter implies Vilhelm is in Liverpool. The only other time Liverpool’s been mention is in Jose’s backstory. The day Jose’s father and ship vanish, Jose was “delayed in Liverpool”, and we learn in 1 of his birthday questions that the reason was because “he was drunk”. Related to this, we learn in his relations page that Sam is labeled as a “drinking buddy”. For added context about his drinking, a different birthday question informs us that the reason he started drinking was due to “nightmares”. Jose began having nightmares due to the incident in his deduction 3 and 4. Finally, we know Joaquin Baden (Jose’s father) went on this voyage to “perform trades” and obtain certain goods from an area in the Mediterranean Sea.

So, it’s possible something about this voyage caused Jose nightmares the night before they were to set off, leading to him drinking, and when he did so, he was with Sam.

Sam is a curious person to be “drinking buddies” with considering we know he’s involved with drug experimentation with Vilhelm and Orpheus.

We know Sam created Dovlin, which is likely more than just alcohol considering everything else (Demi’s letters referencing samples and tests with mice, Orpheus’ 3rd letter again mentioning samples and the effectiveness/stability of drugs, and Alice’s flashback near the end of Ashes of Memory part 2, where we see him with the symbol for Mnemosyne/Dionysus).

We’ve also seen him experiment on people.

There’s Alice as we just mentioned during the flashback at the end of Ashes of Memory part 2. Then there’s the “observation diaries” from Demi’s deducitons that could imply he was testing something with Demi. But there’s also the possibility he experimented on Joaquin and the crew of the Parthenope.

We know Sam signed the ledger of goods for that voyage, and Sam is sponsored by Vilhelm, the 1 making the trade deal with Joaquin. It’s very possible that the “things” the crew mention seeing during Jose’s 1st letter were caused by the (fittingly named) Siren’s Song drug, with effects labeled as “terror awake, psychedelic”. There’s also a chance that Sam’s experiment with Joaquin and the crew is the  failed experiment with mice referenced in Demi’s 2nd letter.

And it’s not just Joaquin, as Sam may have experimented on Jose too. This idea is based on Jose’s deduction 8, which is literally titled “drugs” and is where Jose’s dad is telling someone he doesn’t care if Jose “remembers how to be a good man” as long as he does his job. We know Sam and Joaquin knew each other due to Sam’s signature on the ledger of goods, and we know Sam and Jose know each other due to being “drinking buddies”, so it’s not too hard to believe Sam is the 1 Joaquin was making the request to.

As “forgetting” is referenced in Jose’s deduction, it’s possible Sam experimented on Jose with Mnemosyne/Dionysus, or potentially with Dovlin. Not that I know quite yet what the effects of Dovlin are, but we do see Demi drinking a considerable amount during her 4th letter, and the way she talks about doing stuff that wasn’t quite “against my true intentions” but also “was not entirely of my own accord”. It may also have affected her memory based on her talking about the memories becoming a nightmare, so maybe this could be used on Jose too. If Dovlin made Demi do stuff she wouldn’t normally, that could be exactly what Joaquin wants to make Jose do his job despite his nightmares.

But Sam we know works for Orpheus, who says he “treasured the opportunity to use [Jose] in the experiment”. So, there’s a very good chance the reason Jose was drinking that day was because of Sam (and he was in Liverpool because that may have been where the Badens got the job request from Vilhelm). Sam knew there was a voyage that day, he signed the ledger, yet didn’t encourage Jose to join it (even if he wanted the crew for another experiment). He probably didn’t want Jose to join that voyage, instead having other intentions for him. Potentially both because Orpheus wanted to use him, but also maybe because Sam wanted to continue working to perfect Dovlin via Jose (especially if Sam is the 2nd author in Wu Chang’s 3rd letter, it would show he was also interested in Jose’s experiment).

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Martha Behamfil & Margaretha Hari

Now from here I’m going back to Margaretha Hari.

Evelyn was told by Vilhelm that she was headed to Oletus Manor. The reason we see is because she was given another identity, “Martha Behamfil”, from Baron DeRoss as well as a promise of safety in exchange for joining his game. The fact Vilhelm knows where she’s headed could indicate he saw their letters. They likely didn’t notice her absence immediately and thus didn’t see the letters until they suspected she’d fled to determine where she went.

In her letter, this “particular business” (Martha’s 1st letter) is the organization, so Vilhelm may be the “gentleman” she referenced. She also reveals she is aware of who Baron DeRoss is and of the tragedy that occurred at the manor, which isn’t a surprise considering what this organization is. An organization that even an “official intelligence agency” (Martha’s 4th letter) had no “relevant information” on.

Martha, a mere “pawn” for others, “yearned to soar”, implying she currently felt shackled to Vilhelm and the organization. Which is why she agreed to Orpheus’ deal.

As for the identity given to her, Martha Behamfil (the real one) doesn’t seem to have been born to a poor family (Martha was taught about maids and arranging finances, and her family was later able to pay for investigators to search for her). Her primary issue is clear from Martha’s 2nd deduction: “Mother told me, Martha you should be complaisant, compassionate and utterly selfless, a house angel. But I don't want that”. To emphasize this point, the title of this is “House Angel”, with the following line being “You’ll be a perfect wife, just like in that poem of Coventry Patmore”.

Coventry Patmore was a poet in the 19th century. The poem being referenced here is “The Angel of the House”. It essentially describes what he felt was the perfect woman (in the Victorian era). Inspired by his 1st wife, it goes in depth into what a man should expect from their wife and how women were to contribute to society. This is clear just from reading the very first lines of the poem: “Man must be pleased; but him to please / Is woman's pleasure”.

It goes on and on like this, without much detail on how the man should love and treat his wife in return. From childhood to adulthood, women were expected to perfect their ability to “please” the man. They weren’t really allowed to be “free” or do what they wanted. The poem even says “yokes her heart to an icicle or whim”, with “icicle” symbolizing the husband. This is quite similar to Martha’s 5th letter describing her like “an eagle shackled to the ground”.

(The poem goes on for quite a bit, but I think this should be enough to get a sense for the poem itself, which would not be viewed as positively as it was back then in the present day).

Martha Behamfil “excelled at riding and shooting as a child and attained the rank of captain after joining the cavalry” (backstory). Her deduction 3 describes her as “wearing the clothes of a cavalry captain, they don’t fit her very well”, which is interesting how this mirrors Hari in Evelyn’s deductions as also wearing an ill-fitting military uniform. This either is meant to show how similar the 2 of them were, that woman weren’t intended to be in the military and thus why both of them got “ill-fitting” uniforms, or maybe Margaretha was already working to imitate Martha Behamfil (we’ll discuss this more later).

Eventually, Martha meets Henry, a glider pilot, who is the likely reason she becomes fascinated with flying as well. Her parents accept him as Martha’s fiancé due to his “position and property”, but she loved him for their shared interest in flying and his acceptance of the type of person Martha wanted to be. Due to her new interest in flying, she leaves the Cavalry to join the Air Force.

Unfortunately for her, “instead of becoming a pilot, as she had dreamt of, Martha became a signaler, a job she performed on the ground” (backstory), which she described as “boring” (deduction 8). Additionally, she mentions she doesn’t like wearing a uniform, which to me reads as again emphasizing how she doesn’t want to be restricted (and the military is very rigid). She “yearns to soar”.

This sadly leads to Henry’s demise. He had been flying on a day the airport was covered in mist. Martha, who should’ve used her flare gun, instead had her “head in the clouds”, causing Henry to die when his glider crashed. I think losing her “other half” (especially when it was at least partially her own fault) was the final straw that pushes her over the edge to run away from her family.

We learn in Martha’s 6th letter that she left on her birthday without telling anyone, leading to her parents reporting her missing. Where she went, we don’t know. All she says is “I refuse to lose my edge under the guise of ‘feminine virtue’, becoming nothing more than a piece of furniture”. It’s possible she went to North America or elsewhere in Europe for a chance at a new life and more freedom. We know she had some money to make this possible based on Martha’s 6th letter revealing Michiko had been funding her. More importantly though is how the letter informs us that Margaretha Hari had already assumed Martha Behamfil’s identity, as she was likely the “Martha” that was spotted boarding a freighter at the Port of Liverpool. The freighter was likely a means of transport as she headed towards the manor as Vilhelm said.

From there, the real Martha Behamfil vanishes, at least from the details we currently have. Since Vilhelm is located in Liverpool, that could mean his organization is also located there, and so this could be around the time Margaretha Hari also “escapes” (just like real Martha Behamfil from her family) after assuming Martha’s identity. But we don’t know this for certain (nothing says the organization and its members are all in 1 place, as we see in Alice’s deductions, different people are likely on different assignments at the same time).

We don’t know exactly how long before fake Martha enters the manor game, but we do know when she’s in the city near the manor, she’s in contact with Miles, who she’s assisting in locating Michiko’s keepsake.

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Michiko & Miles

Miles is a British Army Officer who met Michiko at a banquet while he was in Japan. Michiko grew up in Eversleeping town before becoming the “most famous geisha in the Yoshiwara entertainment district” (Michiko’s backstory), which is where she meets Miles. They fell in love “at first sight” and married before she left with him to his hometown (England). Sadly, Miles’ father did not agree a woman like Michiko should be able to marry into a respectable family like theirs. He refers to her as unpleasant, mocks her, and even tries to kick her out, but Miles stops him.

Eventually, Miles is ordered “by his superior to go on a 6 month business trip to India” (he was an army officer in the 19th century, so it’s not unreasonable to imagine him getting sent there). Due to worrying she’d have difficulty adjusting to India (especially after she had to adjust to England after leaving Japan), he left her at home.

From here we go to Michiko’s 6th letter, where we learn Michiko had been pregnant, but Mr. Donnelly “had colluded with her doctor to conceal the pregnancy”. Before she disappeared, we also learn she had been providing financial support to a girl, aka Martha, through a foundation that “helped women break gender barriers and pursue their careers”. Michiko had been doing this anonymously under the name “The one who gives wings to the caged bird”.

Michiko funding Martha with her own savings draws parallels with Lady Thirteen in Teahouse Tales, where “those without direction in life, those truly at the end of their rope, head to the teahouse to seek salvation, and more often than not, they will receive their financial aid”. In this, the teahouse is both for her own survival as well as to “protect those like her, her compatriots staying abroad, defenseless, while also collecting valuable information to exchange”. This is very similar to what Michiko tells Martha.

Unfortunately, “a week before Miles returned home, Michiko disappeared in the middle of the night in a thick fog” (backstory). In other words, she was killed not long before Miles was to come home, rather than being killed soon after he’d just left for India (not sure why). Mr. Donnelly tells Miles once he returns that Michiko had “eloped with her servant, and that she had also stolen some of his family’s property” before urging him to “[find] another wife”. Miles refuses, instead spending every day he could searching for her.

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Miles Searches for Michiko (Miles, Margaretha Zelle, and Martha)

We know she was killed from Michiko’s last deduction referencing a “body”. And we know who’d want this to happen due to Mr. Donnelly’s clear dislike of her (especially as deduction 9 is titled “grudge”). Michiko’s 1st letter informs us Eugene is also involvement, with the summary for that letter stating “Michiko ‘has been taken care of’”. This implies Eugene was the one directly responsible for killing her and for hiding her body, both under Mr. Donnelly’s orders. This would fit with Michiko’s deductions, where who we now know is Eugene worries if “he” knows anything before referencing the hatpin, and later refences needing to hide the body before hiding “it”. He’s afraid someone will find out what he did and so wants to hide the evidence of his actions.

We know the hatpin was the murder weapon based on Michiko’s deduction 5 emphasizing it being “6 inches long” with a “very sharp tip”. Though Michiko’s 3rd letter says “the end of the hatpin had been sharpened”. This implies someone got their hands on the hatpin while Michiko was alive and then sharpened it in order to be able to kill her with it.  We know Eugene has the hatpin, as this is the “it” he wants to make disappear after dealing with the body. We know the hatpin is this “it” as the previous deduction has Eugene fearing Miles (the “he” in deduction 9) may know the truth because of “that hatpin”. And the only reason he’d worry about this is if he had the hatpin (either nearby or hidden on his person).

If Mr. Donnelly ordered Eugene to kill Michiko for him, that could mean they lived at least somewhat nearby, and therefore Miles and Mr. Donnelly may live in Lakeside Village. If so, it’d be logical for Miles to begin his search there, as that would be where he last saw her before departing for India. This search then would likely include Eugene’s and Mr. Donnelly’s homes, which would explain Eugene’s fear. Michiko’s last deduction implies he focused on hiding Michiko’s body before hiding the hatpin. So based on Eugene’s behavior, he might’ve managed to hide the body but had either not yet hidden it or not hidden it very well.

As for what happened to Michiko’s body, there’s a good chance it was thrown in the lake. (This village is responsible for multiple deaths aka “sacrifices”. There’s also how they use animal meat in their other sacrifices to throw into the lake while asking for their wishes. Could Eugene have tried to hide her by chopping her up like the rest of the animal meat and throwing her that way in order to prevent anyone from ever finding her or suspecting anything? I doubt anything so grim would happen, but I wondered anyway.)

Eugene reports his success in dealing with Michiko and her body to Mr. Donnelly. He says the “moving expenses exceeded my estimate”.

This could be because he hadn’t initially hid her body very well and had to move it once he started worrying Miles would find. The other possibility for the meaning of this line could be in reference to Michiko being pregnant in her 6th letter.

Eugene continues by discussing how he’s “heard that your son instigated a disturbing investigation”. This investigation being his search for Michiko. We see in Michiko’s deductions, right after Miles puts up missing persons posters, and after Eugene’s worry over Miles knowing the truth due to the hatpin, the very last deduction is “But before it disappears, where should the body go?”. If he’s saying this after seeing Miles begin his search, that implies he hasn’t managed to hide it before now. Maybe he dug a shallow grave initially for it but now he needs to move it to a better spot. I don’t know why it’d take so long, but it’s also possible Miles returned home faster than expected once he knew Michiko was missing. Meaning, maybe he was intended to return in a week, but after seeing his father’s telegram, Miles managed to come home sooner than that. Michiko’s body would’ve already begun to decay quite a bit by then either way.

Back to her letter, it states Eugene and Mr. Donnelly first met 6 months ago. 6 months is how long Miles was supposed to be in India. However, if it takes about 2 months to get to India from England via the Suez Canal, and another 2 months to return that same way, I wonder if Miles was actually away for closer to 10 months. So, if Eugene hasn’t sent this letter until he finished with Michiko’s body, and Miles is already searching, that could mean maybe they met 4 months after Miles left (2 months into his stay in India). Unless the travel time was accounted for by those 6 months and thus he was only in India for maybe 2 months. I’m not sure.

As for the hatpin, we actually do have more info regarding what happened to it (than about Michiko’s body). Martha tells Miles that Michiko’s keepsake was sold at an auction to the owner of Oletus Manor (Orpheus). The seller was “a young woman who's good-looking and slender and had an accent”. We know this was Margaretha Zelle (who I’ll call Margie to better differentiate between her and Margaretha Hari) based on Zelle’s 6th letter. This is reasonable considering Eugene is Margie’s uncle.

We learn from this letter that Margie was with Sergei when she sold the hatpin to a pawnshop. Meaning Margie hadn’t run away to Hullabaloo yet, implying she would’ve been in the village during this whole situation. She’s likely met Miles, even before he began his search for Michiko, who she might’ve met before she’d been killed. We know Eugene didn’t attempt to hide the hatpin until after he’d hidden the body, therefore, as Margie is living with Eugene, this explains her access to it.

It doesn’t appear as if Margie knew her uncle killed Michiko, as Margie in her 6th letter only seemed focused on the hatpin’s appearance and value. Although, if she met Michiko in the village before she’d died, you’d think Margie would’ve seen Michiko with the hatpin at some point, so presumably would know it belonged to her. But I still doubt she knew her own uncle killed Michiko, or the fact the hatpin was the murder weapon. Mostly as there’s nothing that hints at her having this knowledge. At least not yet (if they share any more details about it).

I doubt he’d want anyone besides himself to have it, considering it is the murder weapon and what might happen if Miles were to see it, so I don’t think he just gave it to Margie. Although, Miles likely did see it at some point, considering we know Martha was told by him to look for it, which is how she found out it’d been auctioned. It would also better explain Eugene’s reaction in Michiko’s deduction 9.

The issue is we have no idea where it was (prior to Margie taking it) or how Miles saw it. Considering there’s no hints in Martha’s letter that Miles told her Margie had it. All Martha says is the lady doesn’t seem to be Michiko. I also doubt Eugene simply left it lying around, as he likely wouldn’t have wanted Marjorie, Margie, or anyone to discover the truth. If Margie or Marjorie told Miles they saw the hatpin in their house, or if Miles saw the hatpin lying around somewhere, I don’t see why he wouldn’t immediately go to take it. And if Miles saw it in Eugene’s house or anywhere on his person, Miles would potentially suspect him.

If anything, since we know the hatpin had to have been taken from Michiko for it to be “sharpened” to look “more like a tool than an accessory”, that may imply it was stolen. Michiko then could report the theft or ask people if they’d seen it. This could be how Miles finds out about the hatpin to have Martha go looking for it if he encountered people who told him the hatpin was taken from her some time before she died.

Speaking of Eugene and Marjorie, I want to bring up a crack theory I had. Remember how Margie used “Soothing Salts” on them to allow her to run away with Sergei? We know these soothing salts are essentially sedatives, as Margaretha’s 9th deduction implies it caused her aunt and uncle to “oversleep”, long enough that “you might’ve missed the market in the morning”. What if Eugene was the 1 to originally buy those “Soothing Salts” to use on Michiko (and if there was any left, maybe that’s what Margie used to put her aunt and uncle to sleep)? Maybe he used them similar to how Margie did.

Where he would’ve used this on her before killing her is a bigger question. Eugene likely couldn’t kill Michiko at his own house as he couldn’t let Marjorie or Margie see what he was going to do. He also likely didn’t kill her at Mr. Donnelly’s home, as Eugene in his letter to Mr. Donnelly implies they haven’t seen each other in 6 months. Wherever he did it, it still makes some sense he could’ve used this to knock Michiko out, at which point he’d easily be able to stab her with the hatpin, killing her without a struggle.

Regarding the soothing salt, I believe it may actually be Potassium Bromide. Potassium Bromide can be described as a salt, was a sedative that was widely used in the 2nd half of the 19th century, it’s soluble in water (which could be how Margie was able to add it to the borscht she gave to her aunt and uncle), and it can taste bitter in higher concentrations (and Margie’s 9th deduction describes the soothing salt as “a bit bitter”). Not super important, but I thought it an interesting note.

Going back to Michiko’s 2nd letter, Martha said “quite some time had passed”. As Martha seemed focused on the seller, her comment may be in regard to the time since Margie sold it. We don’t know how long Margaretha was at Hullabaloo, but we know the hatpin was still at the pawnshop on her 2nd visit to the pawnshop. As she is alone during this visit, this may imply this visit was after the tragedy at Hullabaloo, after Sergei’s death. Her 3rd visit is some time later, while she’s been trying to provide for herself. So, the hatpin was sold some time between that 2nd and 3rd visit, and Martha only found out once it had been sold. So, Martha likely found out the hatpin had been sold around the same time Margie did.

My best guess is Margie was at Hullabaloo for at least half a year to a full year. Joker is smitten with Margie fairly quickly after her arrival, and the acid burn to Joker’s face occurs soon after he finds out Margie is being abused. She had to have been abused for at least a couple of months before Joker finds out. She likely wasn’t at first, so maybe another month or so before Sergei really starts being cruel with her. We also know her role at the circus was as an animal tamer, so she’d need time to become skilled enough to be selected with Sergei as the main event on the day of the tragedy. Therefore, I think at least a year (or half) is believable.

So, Miles might’ve been searching for Michiko for at least a year (it had been “quite some time” either way) before receiving info about her keepsake. That then brings us to the question of is the Martha he’s in communication with the real one or the fake one? Considering in the relations page, the line between Martha and Miles says “deceit”, it was likely the fake one.

We don’t know when or how Martha and Miles met. All we have is the communication between them while he’s searching for Michiko. He knew she was an Officer considering his info request to the Department of Veterans Affairs in Michiko’s 4th letter. They’ve both served in the military, him in the army and her in the Cavalry and Air Force. However, she was a signaler at an airport, and the Wright brothers didn’t perform their first sustained flight until 1903, so I don’t see Miles visiting her airport for a flight to India or anything. That could leave us with the Cavalry. I don’t see Martha being sent to India, but it’s possible they interacted in England, such as if they were ever stationed at the same location together.

The fact Martha refers to herself as “your loyal friend” is the primary reason for this question of when they first met. If they were friends, that could mean they knew each other even before Miles’ search for Michiko, and thus Miles might’ve known the real Martha. However, it’s possible they really did only meet during this search, and ergo only after Hari began pretending to be Martha. My thought about this though is if they only met when Miles commissioned her to find Michiko, wouldn’t it make more sense for her to instead refer to herself a different way? Unless she used the word friend just to gain his trust (maybe she wanted to lure Miles to the manor for Orpheus, who knows).

For now, I’m instead going to focus on when did Miles send his request for info on Martha. The answer here is likely given in Michiko’s 3rd letter. Miles is at the manor, and despite how Martha should’ve arrived 3 days ago, there’s still no news of her whereabouts. Thus, it makes sense for him to send the request now. We don’t know how long it takes for the reply to come, but when they finally answer and attempt to send it to his home, it keeps coming back. Likely because Miles hasn’t returned from the manor. “3 months” after their initial attempts, they instead send their reply to Michiko as the “beneficiary nominated in Officer Donald's information form”. However, they don’t know that Michiko is already dead.

The info on Martha that they share states that Martha went missing “6 months before the document was issued”. Again, we don’t know how long it took for them to respond, but I doubt it was more than a month at most, maybe a week at the earliest. Martha’s 6th letter implies her parents reported her missing fairly quickly, potentially the same day she ran away, as they knew she left on her birthday. We know they also hired private investigators and ran ads, not to mention when Alice visited the Behamfils it says “Martha had been missing for days”. So not overly long. Thus, I think by the time Miles filed his info request, it wouldn’t have taken long for Veterans Affairs to collect the info already available on her and send it to Miles. A week seems believable in this case.

Therefore, if Martha went missing “6 months before the document was issued”, and it was issued only a week after Miles sent his request, that means Martha has been missing for about 6 months before Miles arrived at the manor (at the time of the letter, Miles has been missing for 3 months and Martha now missing for 9 months). With this, it seems more likely Martha had already run away before Miles ever got in contact with her (if he’s been looking for her for at least a year, based on my earlier explanation). Miles probably commissioned “Martha” not too long after Martha Behamfil ran away, maybe a couple months at most after.

Theory #1: Villhelm Lamb targeted Sam?

Jose in his 2nd letter comments about seeing a “signature” belonging to “a person by the name of ‘Bourbon’” which he saw “on my father’s ledger of goods once before”.

This should be the same “shipment of goods” to be put as “collateral and [given] to the [Villhelm Lamb] for safekeeping” referenced in Wu Chang’s 4th letter. On the “list of goods”, it says 2 things are circled: “an antique umbrella from China” aka Wu Chang’s umbrella, and “a signature that reads ‘Bourbon’”.

The “Bourbon” signature is likely to belong to Sam.

Does this mean Villhelm wanted Sam as collateral (along with the umbrella)?

Villhelm may also be interested in Sam’s “masterpiece” (as the manor owner refers to it in Demi’s 3rd letter) aka dovlin and/or the drugs him or the manor owner are developing. We know he was using Alice as an experiment and subjected her to “prolonged medication and physical therapy”. He was likely the “kind individual” from Orpheus’ letter who “put together an excellent treatment package designed exclusively for Alice”, the same letter that Orpheus wrote “LIAR!” in red on, with the person described as “clearly furious”. Orpheus likely hated Villhelm for taking Alice. There’s also a chance Villhelm is the individual the manor owner refers to when he says at the end of Demi’s 3rd letter “[Demi] is an outstanding pawn in experiments, but I’m not the only player. But perhaps I’m the better one. After all, I found my answer in the end, and he may never find out… The problem we seek to solve has never been the same”.

Another thought, but if Villhelm is also performing experiments, and may be interested in the drugs Sam and/or the manor owner are developing, is it possible he could be behind Joaquin’s and the crew’s hallucinations in Jose’s 1st letter that lead to their deaths? Sam may have been involved with Joaquin in case Jose’s father was supplying Sam and the owner with Delphi for their experiments (or whatever “things” Sam extracted “9 samples” from back in Demi’s 1st letter). Villhelm may have gotten involved then maybe purposefully caused their deaths (potentially making it seem like an accident, or like he had no involvement at least) so he could keep the collateral, which could’ve included the stuff Joaquin was supplying Sam and/or the owner with, or if the only collateral Villhelm took was the umbrella and potentially Sam, maybe his goal was Sam or whatever he knew?

What if Villhelm is the “traitor” Sam and/or Demi references in Demi’s 1st and 2nd letters that “stole” 1 of the samples that “met your expectations”? In which case, Joaquin may be the supplier of the things “they brought back from the Mediterranean Sea” and thus might’ve been working with Sam and/or the owner for some time? Or at least more than once? Maybe Villhelm “stole it” during/as part of the mission when Joaquin and his crew perish?

Maybe rather than take Sam he took 1 of his “samples”?

What if Villhelm is also somehow behind Sam’s disappearance?

Sam should be at the manor considering Jose says the “handwritten note” in the lobby is the same handwriting as the person who signed “Bourbon” on his father’s list of goods. He is also likely the 2nd set of handwriting referenced in Wu Chang’s 3rd letter. So there’s a good chance Villhelm never took him, especially as it sounds like Sam was still working at the manor on dovlin for some time after Joaquin died. I just can’t help thinking/wondering anyways.

Theory #2: Sam wrote the note stating 1 person must drink the poison

The handwriting is the same as a “handwritten note” that “appeared in the lobby some days ago”.

What if the “handwritten note” was the 1 that stated 1 of them had to drink the “poison”?

Vera’s and Patricia’s 2nd letters, which take place on the 1st night, do not mention the poison. Only Kevin’s 2nd letter does, which is stated to be the 3rd night.

Jose’s 2nd letter says the note appeared “some days ago” and we know from Vera’s 3rd letter there were at least 5 nights total before the game started. Jose’s 2nd letter seems to be right before the game starts, in which case there would be “some days” between the 3rd and 5th nights.

The note that 1 of the participants has to drink poison is the only “note” we know so far that the manor owner would’ve written to that group, so there’s a good chance that’s the note Jose was referring to.

In this case, as Jose says the handwriting of that note matched that of the person who signed “Bourbon” on his father’s list of goods, that means Sam may have been the 1 to write the note that stated 1 of them had to drink “poison”.

This “poison”, if the note was written by Sam could have actually been Sam’s “masterpiece” aka the dovlin he had been trying to perfect for Demi. If so, that would explain why Kevin didn’t die after drinking “poison”.

It would also relate to Kevin from the summer event, in the endings involving Demi if he drinks too much Sea Salt Mocktail, where either he knows the secret to her drink and helps Demi manage the bar or he doesn’t know the secret and stays with her to keep drinking more Sea Salt Mocktail (as he’s now become addicted).