Art of Murder: Hunt for the Puppeteer

Youll arrive on the coast just outside the gate to Carnots walled estate. By now you probably know that a straightforward approach wont work, but you have to try it anyway in order to adopt an alternative approach.

In the close-up view of the gate, ring the bell just above Nicoles head. The guard who responds appears gnorant of Carnots having asked Nicole for help the business card makes no impression on him but not entirely uncooperative. He offers to pass on a message to Carnot.

But Nicole says that wont do. She must talk to Carnot face to face. I’m unsure why the guard doesnt simply say that Carnot isnt here (which youll eventually figure out). I guess Nicole just really wants to climb that wall.

Youll need some supplies to make the attempt. Up the road to the left of the gate is a phone booth. Inside, youll find a large rock atop the directory, a small one atop the phone and a film cannister to the right of the directory. Take them all and pull back to the full view.

Drop down the stairs across the road to the left of the gate to reach a dock and two boats one wrecked and the other intact. From the wrecked one, collect the rope, the two buckets and the green plank that forms a little bridge between the dock and boat.

Back in the dock view, youll find the intact boat intially inaccessible. Look at that boats dock end. In the close-up, youll see at the edge of the dock a metal attachment used for mooring. Use the rope on it and then the green plank on the rope. Bridge built; boat accessible. Back out of the scene again and zoom in on the intact boat and Nicole crosses over and retrieves the anchor. (This looks a lot like a grappling hook.) Take the plank and rope and return up the stairs to the gate.

Note that youve collected more stuff than you think. Left-click on the big bucket in inventory to find a screwdriver and on the film container to extract a suction cup with a hook the sort of thing a businessman might use to hang a suit jacket on a car window. Left-click on the latter in inventory and the hook is gone.

Use the rope on the anchor. But where to climb? A section of wall near the phone booth most clearly visible in the close-up of the booth exterior has deteriorated and it’s a little lower than the sections around it. But if Nicole connects the rope to the anchor and then tries to use the improvised grapple on the wall, shell stop short worried shell attract the attention of the guard.

In other words, the guard must first be distracted. The only way weve seen is the bell. Could you somehow arrange for the bell to ring at the gate while Nicole is preparing to mount the wall to the left?

Yes. Once youve talked to the guard, the gate grows a new hotspot on the ground at the base of the wall under the bell. The only item that can be placed here successfully is the big bucket (inverted automatically). Then the small bucket atop it. Then the green plank.

it’s not immediately apparent from the display, but Nicole is supposed to be standing atop on this pile. With that in mind, look for a new hotspot higher on the gate. Sure enough, you can now zoom in on the cornice above the bell handle. Click on the central portion of this little ledge in the close-up view and Nicole observes theres enough room to hold an object. But which object?

Well, reason it out: Whatevers up here is destined to be somehow knocked loose and set off the bell. Say, a rock from the phone booth. Place the big one up here.

But whats going to nudge the rock off the cornice and onto the bell?

Remember the aspirin you found back in the dressing room at Moulin Rouge? If you look at in inventory, youll see it’s not a capsule but more like a fizzy tablet along the lines of Alka Seltzer. They also have another, more spectacular use, says Nicole.

Say, if placed in water within a small, closed container? Hey, you have a small, close-able container! All you need is water and the oceans right at the mansions doorstep. Down on the dock, youll find a seawater hotspot close by the dock between the two boats. Fill up the film cannister and get back to the gate. Move to the close-up view of the cornice, pop in the aspirin (which starts a clock), use the film container on the large rock, back out of the scene and head left to the climbing wall. (They give you a lot of time here just in case you inserted the aspirin while down on the dock.) When the bell rings, use your makeshift grapple on the lower section of wall and head up and to the right immediately after you reach the top. Thisll plant you right in front of the house and apparently out of view of the gate guard.

(If you wait too long to make the move right, the guard will return to his shady outpost right below you and Nicole will refuse to advance. Youll have to either restore a saved game or climb down again, return to the close-up view of the gate, retrieve the fallen rock and film cannister (both just to the left of the assembled pails and plank), re-fill the cannister with seawater and try again.)

Look at the front door. Through the glass, Nicole sees a second guard dozing within. (He looks like the fellow she tackled in Duprees apartment.) Youll have to find another route and you wont go far to find it. The bars are missing from the cellar window just right of the front door and you can cobble together a glass-cutter that permits you to open the window. Just combine the diamond ring from the mannequin arm with the screwdriver from the bucket and the screwdriver with the suction cup. Use this on the right pane and then tap it with the small stone to knock the circle youve cut onto the floor within. Left click on the window to open it and again to climb inside.

Jack Duprees tied up down here. Isnt he supposed to be dead? You can remove his gag youll keep the tape, but may or may not use it and can then question him. Youll learn the shooting on the Pont des Invalides was staged (on the initiative and with the assistance of Marc Taine) to throw the police off Duprees trail; that Carnot blackmailed Duprees girlfriend Jacqueline Lorrain; that Dupree returned to his Montmartre apartment the night of the second murder to find Carnot standing over Lorrains body; that the deaths of the Bougainville family were the result either of outright betrayal or someone involved in the plot breaking under pressure; that Carnot and Dupree are both after a hidden treasure that was intended to win that familys freedom; that the map fragment shows the Marseille of 200 years ago this house (the castle on the sea) once belonged to Duprees ancestors and the missing portion presumably the location of the treasure; and Carnot, while implicated in the killings, doesnt seem the type … and isnt here.

Off you go ostensibly in search of something sharp to cut Duprees bonds.

Dont look too hard. You cant free Dupree and youll eventually leave the house without him. Indeed, you cant find much of any description upstairs right now the four doors are either locked or too creaky to risk opening but you do need to try each on tiptoe to extract more info from Dupree. While you’re up here, take the newspaper on the table in the right corner on the ground floor and left-click on it in inventory to roll it up.

Back in the cellar, talk to Dupree again and hell disclose one of his guards lost his keys under the stove at the far end of the room.

Zoom in on the stove. No fewer than eight hotspots adorn the slot between the stove and the floor but only the leftmost suggests theres something to be found beneath. Here you can extract a 1-Euro coin without any help and, with the rolled-up newspaper, the guards missing key.

This unlocks the left-hand door on the top floor. Enter and the game is saved automatically. Nicole suggests locking the door. it’s a good idea. Do so and Nicole leaves the key in the lock. (If you dont lock the door, a guard enters when you activate a puzzle within. He shoots Nicole and it’s all over.)

Make your way left or down to reach the library. Lots of damning circumstantial evidence here. The picture of the dancer over the fireplace appears to have supplied the model for the posing of the first murder victim. The picture on the mantle shows Louis with his brother the brother wearing a gold bracelet like the one you retrieved from the sewer outside Duprees Montmartre apartment. (Though this is confusing, as Agnes Grouchet reported that Dupree had dropped something. Did Grouchet simply mis-identify him? She saw him only from behind.) The little figurine has no deep metaphysical significance, but it’ll be a big part of your escape from this joint, so take that as well. And behind the picture, youll find an ornate wooden square atop a bolt.

Part of a mechanism, Nicole thinks. In fact, the square is the final piece of a stand-alone puzzle hidden behind the bookshelves on the librarys right side. Zoom in on the center, clear away the four books, then the shelves and youll see the back is a door.

Behind the door, a sliding tile puzzle the pieces scrambled at random, making a blow-by-blow solution impossible. A tricky one, too even with the completed picture on hand as the interwtwined vines and leaves look confusingly similar. I found I was able to solve it more quickly by assembling the puzzle from the top down thus steadily reducing the number of doppelganger pieces.

The piece from the mantel is the missing 10th tile (the lower left corner of the central flower) and inserting it in the hole at that position opens up a secret room. In a box on the table within, youll find a second piece of the map this one intact. Drag the first piece onto this screen, use the tape to piece them together, save your game and step back into the library.

Uh-oh. A clock starts. Somehow, the guards have gotten onto you. (It turns out later that guard dogs mentioned in a sign on the front gate have sniffed you out.) you’re going to be caught. You just have to make sure you’re not caught with the map in your possession.

Escape is not an option right now. (The key you left in the door is now stuck.) Nor is concealment. You need to remove the map to a location where you can pick it up on your way to the wall in other words, outdoors. The undraped window in the librarys upper left corner is your only option.

But you cant simply toss the map down into the front yard. Unweighted, it could flutter around and land in an unpredictable place. You need to wrap it around something heavy the figurine from the mantel and secure it with either the tape from the rehearsal room or the one you pulled off Duprees mouth.

Once the maps out the window (or time runs out), a guard or guards enter the room. If you still have the map, Nicoles dead. If youve disposed of it properly, youll find her in the foyer and trying to talk her way out of this jam. The guards debate shooting her and then settle on a bet: Can Nicole make it safely to the wall or will the two dobies get her first?

Still on automatic, Nicole runs, snatches up the map-wrapped statue and is hauled to the top of the wall by FBI colleague Nick. Hell suggest an anonymous call to let the police know Duprees being held captive if made, this is unavailing and provide a contacts phone number to help Nicole get to Havana.

Why Havana? Again, Nicole doesnt make the connection in-game and youll have to read her journal to learn this is Nicks handiwork and that a descendant of Edouard Montoute may live here. (Confusing, for, as mentioned earlier, Montoute did not appear on Sourians list.)

Nicoles cell phone has vanished either into a dobermans tummy or a goons hip pocket so get over to the phone booth where youll make the call on automatic (using the 1-Euro piece from beneath the stove in the process.) After the return call, move to the motorycle and use the key on it. Next thing you know, you’re leaving on a jet plane.

Odds & ends: Out on the street, you can also examine the high section of the wall; in the cellar, the boiler behind Duprees back, the Distillator to the left, the barrels to the left of the Distillator and in the near left corner, the bottles in the near left corner, the wine racks in the upper right corner and the stove at the far end of the room; and, on the ground floor, the sleeping guard.

You can also try to ring the bell at the gate using the small rock, but it’s too light and flies off course.

You can then recover the rock and container from beside the buckets below, but, naturally, you will have to collect a second helping of seawater to try again.

A rickshaw ferries Nicole to an archive. Naturally, the archive isnt open. A note in English on the front door reports that the clerk is drinking coffee at La Catedral (The Cathedral).

it’s not far. Back out of the close-up view, go left twice and approach the café on the left side of the screen. The archive clerk is the fellow sitting at the table outside. Have a chat with him and youll strike a deal: Hell return to work to help you if you bring him some cigars. (If he wont talk, you haven’t read the note on the archive door.)

Way too easy. Back out of the café scene and cross the street to the building on the corner. (This is tenement in the exterior view but a hotel in the closeup. Well call it a hotel.) Cross the lobby to the elevator, zoom in on the elevator floor and take the can you find here. A left-click in inventory opens it. Cigars! Just as though someone had put them there for you to collect. A second click removes them and also some tobacco leaves. (These never find a use. I wonder if they were originally intended for use as an herb later at Las Tunas.)

This is too easy. Sure enough, when you deliver the goods, the clerk wants to smoke one here and now … and you dont have the light he requests.

Back the archives and then right. Youll see an aquamarine car with a white roof on the left side of the street. Zoom in on the raised hood to take a look at the engine. Four hotspots here: the manifold (which establishes the car has been abandoned), the battery (Nicole suggests using it later), the radiator cap (which you can take) and, on the left side of the radiator, a lighter. Nicole says it’s worn but still works. Grab that, too.

And yet when you get it back to the clerk, hell tell you the lighters out of fuel.

Thats even easier to fix than the cigars were to find. On the table just right of the clerk is a lighter loader. Just use the lighter on it and then talk to the clerk again. (You can also refill the lighter before talking to the clerk.) He visits flavor country and Nicole automatically returns to the now-unlocked archive door.

Enter and discover you’re being followed. A blue-shirted man who previously was sitting outside the café now waits in the archive doorway.

Talk to the clerk. Nicole can asks if she can borrow the clerks cobbled-together radio he refuses, but youll find an opportunity to steal some bits a little down the road and for information on the Montoute estate.

And the clerk hesitates. Hes seen the spy, too. (Hes clearly been assigned to follow the clerk.) Youll have to lose that fellow in order to do business here and youll have to talk to him first to get him to clear out of the door. Hell issue a not-so-veiled threat about a cemetery for tourists who didnt watch their step and then back off. (Outside, youll discover hes nowhere in sight, but his absence doesnt register with the clerk.)

In fact, youll find the spy at just one other location: If you enter the lobby of the ruined hotel across from La Catedral and approach the elevator, youll find him watching Nicole from behind a pillar near the entrance as you head back.

Thats a clue: This is the place to lose him. But how?

Electricity is the key. it’s off at the hotel. The fuse box (left from the entrance) doesnt have any fuses. Youll want to borrow a fuse and install it in one particular slot.

The archive has power the radios running off batteries, but not the fan and youll find a fuse box to the right of the door. Once Nicole has talked to the spy and hes disappeared, you can take a fuse.

Notice that the clerk vanishes along with the power. This gives you a chance to borrow some gear from the counter: a rubber band, the batteries attached to the radio and the clothespin on the antenna. Dont worry that none of this making particular sense right now. Theyre now take-able, so take them.

Back to the hotels fuse box. A little experimentation reveals that you cant just screw the fuse in anywhere and produce a result. You want the socket for the elevator and thats the second one from the right in the bottom row. (There is no way to determine this apart from trial and error.) You can confirm youve got the right one by throwing the switch to the right of the sockets. The elevator door should close. Turn it again and Nicole suggests the solution: Trap the spy in the elevator.

How to lure him inside? you’re going to construct a little gadget Nicole once saw in a movie and, now that youve conceived a plan, you can take the final item required: the bricks on the floor to the left of the fuse box.

Zoom in on the elevator floor, use the bricks on the floor to put them down, then use the cigar can on the bricks and the batteries on the can. Use the rubber band on the lighter to keep the flame burning and place the lighter beneath the can. Nicole goes on automatic. A few seconds later, the heated batteries spark and smoke, the spy comes running and Nicole throws the switch beside the fuse box to trap him in the elevator.

Get back to the archives. The clerks talking. Turns out Nicoles not the first person to ask after Montoute. Youll also learn the Montoute estate is some distance away near the village of Las Tunas and this nice fellow lends you his car keys for the trip. it’s the pale green sedan parked just left of the café.

With the keys comes a caveat: Hes not sure the car will run.

It wont. Get in, use the keys on the ignition and turn the key twice. Nothing. Nicoles inner mechanic now opines the accumulator (also known as a rechargeable battery) is dead. Open the hood and look at the engine to find that the radiator also is empty and has no cap. You have a whole new set of tasks.

Solutions should occur to you quickly: Youve already seen a car with a new battery and a radiator cap the aquamarine one beside the archive from which you swiped a lighter earlier. If you didnt take it earlier, youll find the radiator cap comes off easily enough. (It will go on the clerks car with less ease.) Alas, the battery is super heavy. Youll need a vehicle to transport it.

How about that rickshaw out in front of the archive? Commandeer it. Nicole automatically pedals it over to the car, places the battery on the back and makes her way back to the clerks car.

Now for the water and a water container. No, not the café. Too logical and too close. But in front of the hotel entrance, youll find a blue plastic bag beside the trash can. Shame about the hole, but thats what clothespins are for! (Take the rubber glove thats hanging out of the trash can as well.) And in the next screen over, youll find a faucet on the greenish tenement to the right of the hotel. Use the clothespined bag on the faucet, turn on the tap and it’ll fill up. (You can do this earlier in the game as soon as you have the plastic bag and clothespin.)

Return to the clerks car, use the bag on the opening atop the radiator and use the radiator cap on the hole.

Nope. The cap is too big. But cover the hole with the rubber glove first and then use the cap and it’s a good fit.

Finally, the battery. Try to pull out the dead one and Nicole says shell need a tool. The trunks not an option, but what about the glove compartment? Just get in and look right from the drivers seat. This contains a wrench and a bolt (again called a cap). Simply use the wrench on the old battery to remove it and just pick up the new one to install it. Then hop in and fire er up.

Odds & ends: You can also examine the car parked beside the archive and the graffiti on the archives exterior wall; the café and the graffiti on its exterior wall; the elevator, elevator floor (post-cigar can removal), the button to the right of the elevator door and, later on, the spy trapped in the elevator, all at the hotel; the table on which sits the lighter loader; the tenement to the right of the hotel; the desk in the foreground and the notice board to the right of the clerk in the archive interior; the fan and forms on the archive counter; and the two file cabinets behind the counter.

You can talk to the spy outside the café before he starts following Nicole. Youll get different responses depending on whether youve talked to the archive clerk. If you already have, you can ask Citizen of Havana about Cigars and hell offer to show you around presumably the better to keep an eye on Nicole. If not, hes less alert and it’s pretty clear from his reference to field work that hes an intelligence operative of some kind.

Nicole drives kind of recklessly en route but manages to arrive at the Montoute estate in one piece.

Enter the gate and then the ruins of the house. Not much you can do here right now, but all you have to do to progress is satisfy yourself that the final third of the map isnt here. The fragile door to the far right leads to a chamber with a drawing of a ship on the far wall. (This recalls the drawing on the second part of your map.) Below, clear away the remaining stone to discover that the once-secret compartment has already been plundered. (it’s natural to assume that Carnots the culprit, but youll learn later it was removed by a Montoute descendant back at the time of the Cuban revolution in 1959.)

Back out to your car. The scene has changed. Off to the right, youll now see a man working on three-wheeled vehicle. Manual has lost his cap (bolt). You cant find it for him, but you can offer the one from the glove compartment. Grateful, he directs you to a Madame Budoe in the village for information on the estates current owners.

Head right to reach the village note the stick leaning against the left wall (and not yet take-able) and then straight up the street beyond. Youll find a number of people on the steps leading up to the house here. The only one you can address is Ines, whos sitting at the top.

Apparently you’re cutting in line. Madame Budoe is a shaman a healer and Ines her appointments secretary. She puts you on the list for a visit two days hence.

Perhaps you could jump the queue? it’s hot out here and the electric fan beside Ines is broken. Open the engine compartment to learn that the motor itself is fine but the brushes at the top center are worn down. Take them and talk to Ines again to authorize the repairs. And while you’re here, take the pillow near her feet.

Heading back toward the estate, youll run into Manuel again now outside his house in the village. Hes disassembling his vehicles engine and no longer needs the brushes. Theyre yours.

Back at the Shamans house, use the brushes on the motor and youll find theyre too wide.

Re-visit the Montoute estate and explore the central countryard. Zoom in on the location just right of the left column, again on the grinder and finally click on the driving belt slide on the grinders left side to learn it’s missing a belt. This permits you to ask Manuel for his wedge belt.

You can bet hell want something in return and, as it happens, the courtyard holds that item as well. Back out to the full courtyard view and zoom in on the location just left of the right column. At the top center, youll see an spiky green fruit called a soursop (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soursop). You cant reach it, but you need to try in order for Manuel to lend you his stick to knock it down.

Get back to Manuel and another bargain is struck. Get back to the soursop screen, place the pillow on the ground below, poke the fruit with the stick and it’s yours for the taking. (Be sure to reclaim the stick as well it’s now off to the right of the fallen fruit as it’s return is required to collect the wedge belt.)

Jet back to Manuel to turn over the fruit and replace the stick (both in dialogue) and take the wedge belt (hanging from the bars to the left of the stick). Back at the estate, zoom in on the grinder, use the belt on the driving belt slide at its left end, then the engine brushes on the grindstone to put them in place and then the grindstone itself to set it in motion. Youll pick the brushes up automatically (as ground engine brushes) and theyll replace your worn-out ones in inventory. Use them on Iness fan, turn on the power and talk to Ines to for a return favor. Shell send you inside to see Madame Budoe.

Talk to her. After a bit of hocus-pocus, youll learn you can collect the remaining piece of the map by offering a sacrifice to Lazarus of Salvia, Toronjil and Thymus. Ines can explain. Theyre all herbs grown in the area and known more collquially as lemon balm, sage and thyme.

If youve been thorough in your pointing and clicking, youve already seen thyme and lemon balm back at the estate the former to the right of the pool, the latter at the middle of the room with the secret compartment. The sage (previously unidentifiable) is just to the right of the estate gate.

Back to Madame Budoe. (You wont need Iness say-so for return visits.) Talk to her again and shell instruct you to crumble and burn the thyme. You can do so right here. Use the thyme on the tallest of the mortars on the table at the lower left, then pop outside to ask Ines for matches and use them on the mortar. (The other two herbs never come into play. I guess even dead poeople can change their minds.)

Talk to Budoe again to learn that she is the last survivor of the Montoute family. Shes just about turn over the map when Madames mouth opens in terror. Nicole turns around and is knocked to the ground. She comes around briefly to find Carnot looming above her … or is it Carnot? His image alternates with that of a similar and yet different-looking hooded man from the murder scenes.

Carnots brother?

When Nicole is on her feet again, all three map pieces are gone (along with the remaining herbs) and Madame Budoe has become the Puppeteers newest victim.

Use an evidence bag on the doll at her feet and leave the room to discover everyone has vanished. Ines. The people waiting on the stairs. Manuel and his vehicle (not to mention the tractor that was parked near his home). Kind of creepy. All you can do is return to the car. you’re headed back to France, empty-handed but not uninformed.

Some of Budoes statements in her final exchange with Nicole may seem indecipherable, but their meanings are all within striking distance.

The white man? His ancestor also took the oath. The first appears to be a reference to the Puppeteer and the second to the agreement between Lukas Carnot to spirit the Boungainvilles out of France. Thus, it implies that the Puppeteer has an ancestor on Sourians list. And that points the finger squarely at one of the Carnot boys if for no other reason than that everyone else but Dupree is dead and Carnot is the only remaining name on the list without a victim as counterpart.

It comes full circle. Clear enough. Just as the Bougainvilles died, so relatives of those who agreed to help them in the unsuccessful plot to escape France have now died.

We will depart but dont stand between us. A seeming look into the immediate future. Madame Budoe does depart she dies and Nicole is standing between Budoe and her attacker. (Getting out of the way is not an option.)

Only Bougainville will stay. Stay on the living side? Is this a prophecy that Bougainville ancestor Dupree will survive?

Odds & ends: Outside the estate, you can also examine the gate and the vegetation to the right. (This doesnt become identifiable as sage until you’re instructed by Madame Budoe to collect it.) Inside the gate, you can have a look at the pool and the house. In the inner courtyard, the vegetation straight ahead. In the village, the tractor. Outside the shamans house, the vegetation at the far right. Inside, the herbs strung along the ceiling, the shelves at the near right and far left , the table at the near left and the altar in the far corner.

After Nicole determines the engine brushes are too wide, you can check back in with Manuel to learn he might have smaller brushes available tomorrow a red herring and, oh, dont get any bright ideas about taking his stick.

Really just a pitstop. On the trail of Carnot, Nicole arries outide the Marseilles mansion at night to find the gate and front door unlocked and the guards, dogs and Jack Dupree nowhere in evidence.

You cant search the place properly. The locks upstairs are still intact and the once-creaky door on the ground floor is now locked as well.

But youll find a note on the cellar floor just to the right of where you originally found Dupree. Apparently hes been taken to the Montmartre cemetery. He reports that Carnot has the third piece of the map actually, he has the whole thing now and begs Nicole to save him.

Odds & ends: Visit the dock. it’s now low tide and the intact boat is beached.

Another pitstop. Enter the gate, head straight, then right at the T intersection and then straight again. Youll find Carnot, his guards and a struggling Dupree. Click on the scene and Nicole edges close enough to overhear the exchange.

Carnot asserts that the map is useless and that some additional tool must be needed to read it correctly. Dupree finally concedes it has to be used in tandem with a dagger hidden behind a poster in his apartment and a key in the box that was hidden in the secret compartment between the windows. (You already have this box and found no such key even though Nicoles journal says you did). Carnot then dispatches one goon to the apartment and, after backtracking two steps under the players control, Nicole follows the goon automatically.

Enter the apartment building and make for the top of the stairs. From the stairs, Nicole sees the guard struggling with the door and speculates the police would take an interest in his activities.

And how. Drop down to the next landing and knock on Agnes Grouchets door and ask her to report the attempted break-in. She evidently does, for Inspector Pety shows up in good time and places the fellow under arrest.

Thankfully, the inspector forgets to re-secure the apartment. Seems the guard got in before he was arrested and Nicole, hiding outside, can now re-enter and capitalize on this oversight. The poster on the brick wall can be flipped to reveal a broken medieval dagger. Take it, leave the building and use the keys on the motorbike. Nicole then returns to the cemetery with the box having invisibly retrieved it from her hotel en route.

Back to Carnot & Co. Once Nicole appears on the scene, a conversation starts automatically and you strike a bargain: Duprees freedom in exchange for Nicoles help in opening a hidden passage. For this purpose, Carnot turns over the final third of the map. (Youll get the rest a little later.)

Look at it. Youll see a skull in the upper left corner, and youll want to look for something similar in the cemetery. Mercifully, the choices are few. You can get close-up views of the two tombs behind Carnot and his remaining goon and the two to the right. The closer and more elaborate of the latter two is the one you want. A skull identical to the one on the map fragment decorates the top of the door.

Which cant be opened conventionally. But youll notice that you can zoom in on the base of each of the columns that flank the door. Youll see holes at the base of each and, since this is an adventure game, you can pretty much guarantee you’re expected to fill them.

The newly-acquired dagger? Again, thatd be too simple. Youll have to hunt up the right item in the cemetery and, to claim it, youll have to have first made a thorough effort at the tomb door itself left-clicking on the skull in the close-up view, right-clicking on the drilled holes in a close-up view and trying the door.

Make your way back to the T junction and then head left. Along the right side of this path, youll find a monument topped by a bust. The fence around the monument is incomplete and one of the bars is leaning against the front. Grab it. Thats going into the twp column holes.

Looking forward a bit, you’re also going to need some lubricant. (An old metal rod in an old hole in an old cemetery cant be expected to turn very far.) At the T, head back toward the cemetery entrance. Off to the right, youll see a garbage cans and, in the close-up view, a bottle of oil beside them. Snag that as well and return to the tomb.

In close-up views, insert the metal bar in each of the drilled holes, then use the oil on the base of the respective pillars and then activate the metal bar. In its turn, each column will turn outward. Pull back to the tomb-door view and use the door handle again.

Now youll have to master a special lock on the near end of the sarcophagus within. The three protrusions here match up nicely with three holes in the handle of dagger you retrieved from Duprees place. Place it on the lock and it’ll fit nicely with the broken blade now a hotspot. But try to use the blade bare-handed and Nicole refuses. It may be old as the hills, but it’s still sharp.

So off you go again to find something to the make the hotspot less hot. To the right of the fenced-in monument where you earlier found the metal bar is a heavy rag. (it’s hard to see at first, hidden as it is behijnd Nicoles starting position on this screen.) Grab it and return to the tomb. In the close-up view of the lock, cover the dagger blade with the rag and then activate the rag. Below the dagger, a panel descends. The entrance to the catacombs.

Retrieve the dagger and report your success to Carnot. He now commisions Nicole to determine the proper path through this labyrinth and for this purpose turns over the remainder of the map. Combine them in your inventory and then use the tape to paste them together.

What did Dupree say was required to read the map properly? The dagger and a key. A key was supposed to be in the box, but all it contained was the fragments of the first third of the map and the unreadable diary of a Dupree ancestor.

Perhaps you haven’t seen everything yet. Use the dagger on the box to rip open the lining within the lid and reveal an unconventional key. The sun-like symbol at the center of the handle looks a lot like the red symbol near the center of the map and the ornate tip like the twisting catacomb passages on the map. Clearly, they go together.

Use the key on the map in inventory or simply drag it onto the open map to place it there. Now drag the key handle onto the sun symbol Nicole says it’s in the right place now and then, with right-clicks on the key, rotate it counter-clockwise. This may take more than one rotation but sooner or later, when the key points north (up), Nicole will note that the configuration of the tip matches a portion of a route through the catacombs. This is outlined in red. Continue the right-clicks until that tip points west (left) and more of the route is revealed.

But thats the end of it. Nicole says the key by itself isnt enough to sketch out the route.

This is where the dagger comes in. Use it on the map in inventory or drag it onto the open map and it’ll replace the key. Look at the map again and Nicole observes that three triangles on the map seem to match up with the three triangular holes in the handle. Right-click on the dagger until the blade points north-northwest and then drag the dagger onto the triangles.

Again, Nicole says it’s in the right place. But what does this mean?

The dagger just provides a different frame of reference, and you’ll have to use the key within this new frame to complete the path. Use the key on the map and then drag it so that the sun symbol on the key handle lines up with a different sun-like symbol on the dagger handle. Then right-click on the key to rotate it until it sketches out the remaining two legs of the route. (It should do so first when pointing west and then southwest.)

Now Carnot takes over. He refuses to release Jack, denies being the Puppeteer (he makes no admission about Lorrain) and marches Dupree down into the catacombs while the remaining goon keeps watch over Nicole.

Big mistake. Nicole quickly knocks out and disarms the guard and can finally slip through the open panel in the tomb to a very brief endgame.

Right away, you run into trouble. The second set of stairs is damaged and slippery. You’ll have to bypass it using the metal hook hanging over the middle of the walkway at the top. A good place to attach the rope, says Nicole.

Only, you haven’t had a rope in your inventory since your first visit to Marseilles.

Perhaps a hose would smell as sweet? Back on the surface, youll find a blue hose to the left of the path just one screen down from the tomb. Use it on the hook and climb down to find yourself on the floor of a large room with impassable passages up and to the right, a wooden plank in the upper-right corner (take it) and a rope just below and to the left of the central down staircase (ditto).

Drop down those stairs to discover the ledge Carnot and Dupree used to cross the room has collapsed into a dark pool. Happily, you’re equipped to cross the gap thanks to a protruding metal bar on the wall (again unsubtly identified by the cursor as A good place to secure the rope). Connect one end of the rope to the bar and the other to the plank, then left-click on the plank to push the improvised catwalk into position.

And oddly enough, thats the last challenge here. Simply walk into the exit at the far end of the empty room beyond to set off the final scene. Nicole finds Carnot and Dupree seemingly stalled at a metal door. She rushes Carnot not the brightest thing she’s ever done but Carnot gets the drop on her and threatens to kill Dupree unless Nicole drops her gun. She does and pleads for Carnot to let them go. A fed-up Carnot knocks her down and is about to permanently rid himself of these meddlesome kids when a hooded figure steps from the shadows and stops him: Carnots brother Al. The Puppeteer.

You cannot kill him, he says. I’m trying to clear us of this odium.

I’ve heard Lysols good for that.

The brothers have been working along parallel courses with different dark purposes Carnot to recover the treasure hidden by Bougainville 200 years before and Al in a kooky effort to somehow reset the karmic scales and ward off the hand of fate by killing descendants of the conspirators.

The alliance of the nine! he says. Our ancestors killed the whole family. Women! Children! I had to fix it! … I killed eight criminals.

Carnot, aghast, protests that Als own victims were innocent , says there is no fate and calls his brother a fool.

And, you know, that was probably the wrong thing to say to the crazy guy. Al shoots Louis. The Puppeteer’s final victim is indeed a Carnot. Nicole goes for the gun she dropped and shoots Al. Rocks loosened by the reports begin to tumble down and we find Nicole and Dupree returning the way they came (but for some reason emerging from a neighboring tomb) to blinding sunlight and a predictably crabby reception from Inspector Pety. He does not explain how he happens to be here. In fact, nothing is explained Dupree seems more interested in having coffee with Nicole and the treasure is utterly forgotten.

Odds & ends: Nicole can examine the three statues on the screen down and to the right of the catacombs entrance, the wheelbarrow, toolbox, axe and bucket around the monument where you found the metal bar and rag, the fallen gangster (after she overpowers her guard), the hose and bricked-up passages (after descending to the bottom of the first catacombs room), the pool in the next room and the three niches on the walls in the third.