[IC] Act One: Savannah

"Thank you Mrs Henslowe. Much obliged. Oh! You couldn't ever so kindly point us towards Douglas' Study, or Library, by any chance? Perhaps his room?"

"His rooms are in the right wing, dear" she replies to Dr Walker, as if incredulous that the doctor did not know already and talking to a small child who has already been told something.

You leave and head to the left (which would put you in the 'right wing' of the house, where there are two doors. The first door you come to opens into what is presumably Henslowe's study, with a connecting door that leads to the other room in this wing, presumably his bedroom. The room contains a large oak desk with chair, and bookshelves all around the room, a standard lamp, and other assorted furniture.



On the desk you can clearly see a variety of objects that seem out of place for such a room:

A shovel;
A flashlight;
A ball of twine;
A jar of blue ink;
A camera;
A paintbrush stained with blue ink.

Looking at the unusual items on display, he comments, "Hmm. That's the stuff his mother mentioned, what he carried around the grounds, Flashlight, shovel, camera and a ball of twine. The camera might be loaded..." he checks the exposures counter.

He looks around the desk, tries the drawers. "We need to find his book or journal. And let's keep an eye out for the name of Frank Hickering- maybe he is the author of some of these books..."

"Perhaps he developed photographs too. Looks like the blue ink on the stones is part of his ... project after all."

Lillian looks over the bookshelves, occasionally flipping open some of them.

Dr Walker tries the drawers, but finds only the usual detritus that ends up in them - pens, blank notepaper, elastic bands, that sort of thing. Certainly no books that look like Henslowe had written them. He then examines the camera, but finds that there is no film within; if any photos were taken using the camera, they have been developed.

Lillian peruses the bookshelves, meanwhile, noting that there are sizable collections of books on a variety of subjects, including archaeology, anthropology, business, finance, art, art history, and the occult.

One book in particular stands out: Communion Rites of Victorian Death Cults, and whose author is Francis J. Hickering. As Lillian picks up the book to investigate further, a slip of paper falls from within the inside front leaf - no, not a piece of paper, a photograph.



It clearly shows the reverse of the house you're currently in, with a faintly scratched "#1" on it, and on the back, a list of names.

Picking up the Hickering book and the photograph, Lillian explains what she's found as she places them on the desk.

"These names match some of the grave markers outside. We could lay out the twine, to see if we can tell what Douglas might have been thinking about."

She sighs, "Charming title."

"Well... at least we found Frank Hickering. One mystery solved, who knows how many more to go?"

Samuel will pick up the book and leaf through it, looking for any other secrets it might contain. Notes in the margins, papers hidden away, another photograph... whatever form the possible clue may take.

There's nothing else unusual about the book.

As Lillian examines the twine, she notices that there are two distinctive things about it - firstly, there are blue ink marks here and there, in clusters about a foot or so apart, then a length without marks of several yards, then another bunch of marks about a foot apart again, etc. Secondly, there are four knots in the twine within the "clean" sections of twine.

"Look here," Lillian says holding up the marked twine, "I think Douglas buried something."

A moments thought, "Five points, five sides, perhaps at the centre of a Pentagon; wonder how regular it could be?"

"Very interesting theory, Mrs Blakey. A pentagon... And you are right, the names match three of the tombs in the cemetery. Sounds like some experimentation in the grounds is in order... As for the Hickering book, it is possible that Douglas wanted us to find the photograph inside it, and not the book itself? Or maybe reading the book will provide extra context. It will take time, though..."

He looks at the empty camera. "Wonder where the other printed photos might be, it sounds like Douglas took several, in his perambulations outside."

"Or just a square. Let ius go and have look, Mr. Weston and see what we can do with the twine and shovel.

She checks the flashlight to see if it is working.

"Maybe we all go. Three heads think better than one," he says following the others back to the outside.

Once outside, looking back at the the rear of the house he says, "So... we know that Douglas had written '1' on the photograph of the house. We should maybe tie the start of the thread somewhere on the house... Let's see if we spot any blue markings on places where one could tie a string here. Would you shine the flashlight, please?"

He starts looking at window fixtures, railings or fencing in the hope of finding blue ink marks that could indicate where Douglas had tied the string.

Sam is more than willing to hold the light and help the other two with their investigative work.

Dr Walker checks the house, but can't see any sign of blue ink or paint anywhere. The house itself was once painted white, though most of the paint is now peeling or dirt-smeared or covered in plant life, but even so, any blue ink should show up pretty well, and yet there's no sign.

Dr Walker also quickly realises that since the graves did have blue ink on them, the twine isn't long enough to stretch from the house to the graveyard, which is a distance away. There's also very little that the twine could be wrapped around or tied to around the gravestones other than the gravestones themselves.

Gabriel looks at the back of the house in bafflement, sharing his thoughts with the others. Looking at the photograph, he tries to find the exact spot from where it was taken, the one that grants the most similar view of the house.
"Hmm... where did he take this photograph from?"

If he finds the spot, he looks from photo to real-life house, checking for changes and discrepancies.

Dr Walker walks this way and that, looking closely at the photograph and the house, studying elements such as proportions, angles, trees and the like, trying to ascertain exactly where it was taken from. It's difficult, since many of the other features have changed or grown over the intervening years, but he finally finds himself at the graveyard, right on top of the plot for David Henslowe, Douglas' father.

Evening is starting to descend; the heat has started to dissipate a little (though it's still humid), and fireflies and the buzz of mosquitoes start to surround you, as well as tiny gnats that bite you with their tiny teeth.

"Let us try the second headstone and what is hopefully the second set of blue marks on the twine. Then take it to the third an so on. If we get the marks lined up on those, we should be able to figure out where the first site is when we cross the open ends."

"Yes. And maybe the missing '1' is Douglas' father's grave... Not the photo, but the spot the photo was taken from."
He checks said grave for markings, and they test the theory by measuring the thread length that would lead from 1 to 2: from David Henslowe to Grant's tomb.