Elementary, My Dear Watson!

Mr. Sherlock Holmes here. Most copious thanks to all eight (!) teams who registered for Pieces of Nine‘s cross-Ottawa treasure hunt, and to the nefarious Krigers for playing their dastardly part! Especial thanks to those out-of-town visitors who journeyed from such distant locations as Toronto and Kingston to assist with the retrieval of Her Majesty Queen Victoria’s stolen letter. It is my most sincere hope that everyone enjoyed himself.

And now… PHOTOGRAPHS:

Players were invited to come in Victorian costume – that is, dressed as anything or anyone, fictional or real, from the Victorian era. You see the results before you.

The Clever Dicks of Scotland Yar[d]is, the defending champions

Team iTrans

Team Lazar Wolfe

Team Tardis

Team HMS Bounty

Team Parents of the Bride (Note: ha ha ha, Krigers)

Team We-Haven’t-Figure-Out-a-Team-Name-Yet-What-Do-You-Want-To-Be-Called-Guys

The Victorian Villains

And, of course, myself:

(In shirtsleeves. What? It’s summer. I may be a violin-playing, cocaine-injecting eccentric, but I’m not masochistic.)

Directly before the teams arrived, Watson and I stumbled upon a party of Moriarty’s stupid minions in Jack Purcell Park. Hoping to disrupt them before they could finalize their plans to retrieve the letter from their master, we fell upon them like the wolf on the fold. Unfortunately, before we could restrain them, they made their escape. It was too bad! If only the teams had arrived earlier, we should have captured the ruffians, and the entire wild-goose-hunt might have been avoided!

Fortunately, each miscreant left behind his coat and the unopened instructions he had just received from Professor Moriarty. After one look at them, I had solved the mystery, but, since I am always loath to steal credit from those who lack my genius, I sent Watson to notify Scotland Yard of my discovery and permitted each team to see what they could make of the matter. In an astounding coincidence, there were precisely the same number of coats and instructions as teams!

Since we are all living in 1889, teams could of course not make use of any motorized transportation whatsoever, and everyone knows it would be bad form to enter a private residence. The investigation was restricted to a small area in downtown Ottawa.

As Watson no doubt wishes to write up the case for his editor at The Strand, I shall not go into details, though a full solution is of course available here.

(Photo by Sarah L. G.)

In his instructions, Moriarty mentioned that he had included tokens indicating how the letter was hidden – the following picture:

and a strange yellow substance smeared over the paper. In a strangely anachronistic touch, the two individuals pictured in Moriarty’s rebus were Gloria Estefan and Scott Bakula – or, Gloria Scott, a reference to my case of the same name. In that case, I brilliantly deciphered a secret code used by the my friend’s father’s old comrade:

"And then in an instant the key of the riddle was in my hands,

and I saw that every third word, beginning with the first, would

give a message...” 

– “The Gloria Scott”, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Dr. John Watson, MD

A message concealed with this code had been distributed among the minions. When all five pieces of this message were put together and properly decoded, it informed the reader that one of the “teams” was false and that these rascals could be identified by the fact that they carried something smelling similar to the yellow marks on the paper: popcorn.

Moriarty also mentioned in his instructions that his minions would be able to find the place where the letter was hidden if they remembered the locations of their last seven meetings. Fortunately for us, he did not reckon that they would carry the tokens of those meetings with them! Hidden in each coat were seven items, each indicative of a place in downtown Ottawa.

When these places were correctly identified and marked on the map given to the teams, along with the spot where we apprehended the villains at Jack Russell Park (indicated by the arrow), the points formed Moriarty’s signature – a giant “M”, with one point missing at the apex of the letter:

The missing point ought to have been at the National Arts Centre. When teams went to the National Arts Centre, they found the Krigers, eating popcorn. When accused directly, the Krigers gave into the shame of their unmanly crime and ceded their ill-gotten letter.

 

The nefarious duo (picture by Jenny)

 

Afterwards, the teams and villains celebrated a hard day’s work at the singular establishment known as Don Cherry’s Sports Bar on Rideau Street at King Edward, and all was forgiven.

The hunt was an intense competition.

 

Although some teams are very good at finding things on the street that aren’t part of the hunt…

Here are the finishing times of those who found the letter, taken from noon and not accounting for late arrivals:

Bringing up the rear, Team iTrans, who valiantly strove for the finish line despite the bad luck of running out of cell-phone battery and encountering no one in downtown Ottawa who could tell them that the World Exchange Plaza is where one can find whales on the ceiling.

In sixth, Team We-Haven’t-Figure-Out-a-Team-Name-Yet-What-Do-You-Want-To-Be-Called-Guys, who finished in 5 hrs, 55 min.

Fifth, Team Lazar Wolfe, who finished in 5 hrs, 12 min.

In fourth, The Victorian Villains, who finished in 5 hrs, 3 min.

(Photo by Juliana)

 

In third place, Team Tardis, who beat out The Victorian Villains by a scant 120 seconds and finished in 5 hrs, 1 min.

In second place, The Clever Dicks of Scotland Yar[d]is, who finished in 4 hrs, 47 min.

And, in first place, with an astounding time of 4 hrs, 35 min… TEAM HMS BOUNTY! Congratulations!

As you can certainly tell from the photographs, the winners of the costume prizes were extremely difficult to determine. The HMS Bounty’s two Mr. Holmeses.

(Photo by Juliana)

The Clever Dicks’ travelling cloak.

The Lazar Wolfes’ bubble pipe.

The Tardis’ sonic screwdriver (as they rightly pointed out, Dr. Who belongs to any time period).

Luckily, being moles, the Krigers were excluded from the decision; otherwise it would have been even more difficult.

Alas, the same fate befell any player who had obtained his costume from me.

(Photo by Juliana)

But, in the end…

The winner of “most elaborate costume” was Team We-Haven’t-Figure-Out-a-Team-Name-Yet-What-Do-You-Want-To-Be-Called-Guys:

According to a somewhat loquacious gentleman encountered during the hunt, “maybe Mennonite” and “part magician, part bozo”.

 

Part magician indeed (photo by Jenny)

And, just edging out Team Tardis, the winners of most creative costume were the Victorian Villains:

Victorian Villains at dinner (photo from Juliana)

Rochester’s wife shows her prize from the Sherlock Holmes Museum, London (photo from Juliana)

What can I say? They performed rehearsed, in-character scenes. Which is quite a feat, since, as anyone who’s anyone knows, Frankenstein’s Monster, Rochester’s insane wife, and Mary Ann Cotton seldom frequent the same social circles.

 

Frankenstein’s monster strangles Rochester’s wife (photo by Sarah L. G.)

Thanks once again to all the teams and to all those who gave me their photos! Unfortunately, I, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, will be far too occupied to consider organizing a similar event next year. However, I understand that this fall in Toronto, a top-secret spy agency will be counting on the general public to find and neutralize an enemy threat. And, next summer, King Arthur may be looking for assistance in his quest to obtain that tricky Holy Grail… (To keep informed, check out the Pieces of Nine public hunts page.)

The lady vanishes… (caption by Diane Kriger)