This Homicide desk grand finale features a deadly “treasure hunt” that leads you to a series of major city landmarks in search of clues, apparently placed by the Black Dahlia killer. The case opens with a short scene as Phelps and Galloway report to Technical Services to examine yet another taunting special delivery from the killer. Captain Donelly, Coroner Carruthers, and Ray Pinker all watch as Phelps takes a look at the latest letter.
Objectives
- Examine Items from Black Dahlia Killer.
- Search Pershing Square Fountain to
- Find Evidence and New Poem.
- Decipher Location Indicated in New Poem.
- Investigate New Location to Find
- Evidence and New Poem.
- Repeat Process at Five More Locations.
- Apprehend the Killer.
Case Report
Total Number of Key Clues 14
Total Number of Interview Questions None
Fail Conditions
- Phelps dies.
- Killer escapes.
Location: Central Station (Technical Services)
Examine the items on the table.
Pick up the Black Dahlia Letter constructed of cutout letters from newspapers. The message includes the same words that the coroner said were carved under the dress of Theresa Taraldsen. Only her killer would know it. Then it challenges you to “find me where I hid myself”.
Pick up the red book of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley and open it to find a passage from Prometheus Unbound bookmarked and underlined in red. Then pick up the sheet of paper and unfold it to read the Shelley Excerpt. Setting it back down triggers a cut-scene: the team tries to make sense of the new clues.
The Shelley excerpt contains a line that indicates a specific Los Angeles landmark. In this case, Phelps deciphers the key line during the cut-scene: “I hid myself/Within a fountain in the public square”. This gives you a new objective: Investigate the fountain in Pershing Square. As Phelps leaves, Pinker issues a warning. You’re moving onto the maniac’s turf now.
Key Clue Checklist: Central Station (Technical Services)
- Black Dahlia letter
- Shelley excerpt
Location: Pershing Square Fountain
Investigate the fountain.
Travel from Central Station 
to Pershing Square 
. Upon arrival, approach the fountain and walk around it in the lower pool until you hear the evidence chime. Climb the fountain and find the two items at the base of the statue.
Pick up and examine the Social Security Card. It belonged to Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia herself. Then examine the folded sheet of paper to reveal a Second Excerpt from Shelley. (This updates the clue in your notebook from “Shelley excerpt” to “First excerpt”.)
Decipher the second excerpt.
The key words in this excerpt refer to an overgrown mountain cave with a frozen fountain hanging down from its curved roof. Open up your main map and move the cursor over the Hall of Records, just a few blocks northeast of your current location. Read the popup text about the hall’s domed skylight and chandelier: sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it? Press the button indicated onscreen to set the Hall of Records as the current destination.
Key Clue Checklist: Pershing Square Fountain
- Social security card
- Second excerpt
Location: Hall of Records
Investigate the Hall of Records.
Travel to the Hall of Records 
, just a few blocks from Central Station. Enter to trigger a cut-scene: Phelps asks the desk guard how to get to the top of the great chandelier hanging from the skylight. He sends you to a maintenance room on the top floor.
Get atop the chandelier.
Climb both flights of stairs and turn right at the top. Veer into the second corridor on the left and enter the door marked “Maintenance”. Approach the ladder on the far side of the room, just to the right of the locker row. (The ladder starts a few feet from the floor.) Climb to the top and open the door to a small platform overlooking the atrium.
A length of cable runs from the platform out to the hanging chandelier. Proceed carefully across to the top of the chandelier; use the control stick as indicated onscreen for movement and balance. If you fall off the cable, Phelps manages to grab the line and can pull himself back up, but this only works twice; the third time, he falls to the floor and you must start over.
When you reach the chandelier, find and examine Deidre Moller’s Watch and a Third Excerpt from Shelley’s poetry.
After examining the second item, the three stabilizing cables suddenly snap! Use the control shown onscreen to have Phelps create momentum and swing the chandelier. When you swing it far enough to the left, Phelps automatically jumps to safety.
Decipher the third excerpt.
Now open your main map and find the Landmark that best matches the excerpt: the “high temple” of the L.A. Public Library with its torch-bearing sculpture at the top.
Key Clue Checklist: Hall of Records
- Deidre Moller’s watch
- Third excerpt
Location: L.A. Public Library
Climb the library tower.
Travel to the L.A. Public Library 
. The building is undergoing renovation and has scaffolding all over the place. When you arrive, Phelps ends up at the foot of a staircase. The climbing route to the top of the tower is fairly linear, but we’ll guide you through it anyway. First, climb the drainpipe at the top of the stairs on the right. Then use the low section of scaffold to climb to the next roof.
Turn right and go to the next section of scaffolding. Pull yourself up onto the first section and use the ladder to climb up to the next platform. Turn right and cross the narrow plank, balancing and moving carefully. You can fall twice and Phelps will catch the board so you can pull yourself back up. (A third slip causes a fall that forces you to go back to the scaffold again.)
Climb the next drainpipe and ladder, then make a running leap across the subsequent pair of gaps, hopping across from one scaffold to the next. Climb another ladder up two levels of scaffolding to another narrow plank and cross it carefully. (You should see the names “Shakspere Goethe” etched on the wall next to the plank as you cross.) At the far side, you reach a ladder going back down!
But don’t fret—as Phelps says, “Sometimes a step backwards is a step in the right direction”. Slide back down through two levels of scaffolding, then go around the corner and hop down two more levels to reach a ladder with several broken rungs. Climb up to reach a series of steeply angled stairs and another ladder; these take you up to the base of the tiled roof pyramid.
Follow the walkway around to the far corner of the roof structure to find items on the ground. Examine Antonia’s Medallion—Our Lady of Guadalupe, torn from the slain woman’s religious necklace—and a Fourth Excerpt from Shelley’s poetry.
Decipher the fourth excerpt.
Return to your automobile. Read the excerpt: monstrous “uncouth skeletons” and “prodigious shapes” that are “jammed in the hard, black deep”. Then check your main map and move the cursor almost due west from your location to the Westlake Tar Pits on the edge of the revealed map.
Key Clue Checklist: Hall of Records
- Antonia’s medallion
- Fourth excerpt
Location: Westlake Tar Pits
Reach the island.
Travel to the Westlake Tar Pits 
and approach the pits; Phelps automatically changes into waders for the trip across to the central island. Start at the broken gate and dock. The idea is to follow the old walkways made of wooden planks that are just below the surface. You can see these as the camera view moves overhead. The problem is that the planks are so old they collapse if you stand on them for more than a few seconds, so you must move quickly and without much hesitation or else you sink into the black muck and have to start over.
Here’s the route:
When you finally reach the island, walk straight ahead to find Theresa Taraldsen’s Shoe and a Fifth Excerpt from Shelley’s poetry. This one speaks of a sphere set amongst wood rushes.
Decipher the fifth excerpt.
After your partner Galloway rows you back to shore (where was that rowboat earlier, right?), open up your main map and find the Landmark that fits the clue. Move the cursor over the nearby L.A. County Art Museum to learn of its rose garden that holds a sphere-within-a-sphere celestial model called an “armillary sphere”. Set the museum as your next destination.
Key Clue Checklist: Westlake Tar Pits
- Theresa Taraldsen’s shoe
- Fifth excerpt
Location: L.A. County Art Museum
Reach the center of the maze.
Travel to the L.A. County Art Museum 
. Your arrival provides a peek at the armillary sphere. Follow the signs that say “This Way to Maze” and then start working your way through the hedges. Use our overhead map for quick passage to the sphere in the center.
When you reach the sphere in the center, approach it to find the items on it. Examine Celine Henry’s Garnet Ring and the Sixth Excerpt of Shelley’s poetry. This one refers to thrones, altars, and obelisks. Sound familiar?
Decipher the sixth excerpt.
Open your main map and move the cursor over the Landmark location of D.W. Griffith’s “Intolerance” set. Return to your car.
Key Clue Checklist: L.A. County Art Museum
- Celine Henry’s garnet ring
- Sixth excerpt
Location: “Intolerance” Set
Climb to the throne.
Travel to the Intolerance movie set 
and watch the arrival scene. Phelps points out the high throne you must reach, and you catch a glimpse of the staircase leading up toward it. After regaining control, jog straight ahead under the fallen column and through the big iron gates to the staircase. Then start climbing the stairs.
It’s a long way to the top. When you get there, run through the short corridor and hop onto the square wooden platform. Upon landing, much of the platform collapses around you, leaving only a small section where you stand. Use the control stick to have Phelps lean in counterbalance to whichever direction the platform starts tilting—e.g., if the platform tilts left, walk to the right.
Keep this up until Galloway can push down a wall section directly in front of you. Once he does this, walk forward (away from you) so the platform starts falling toward the collapsed wall section. Phelps automatically jumps across to that new platform as the one under his feet falls apart.
After reaching relative safety, proceed along the walkway to the first ladder on the left and slide down to the throne platform. Then approach the throne.
Pick up and examine Evelyn Summers’ Ring, the one made from a typewriter’s E key. Then examine the Seventh Excerpt from Shelley’s poetry. This one indicates that your search may be over. As Phelps says, “The place he calls home. End of the line”.
Escape the movie set!
When you finish examining both items, the platform starts to collapse. Run! Hurry through the arch ahead, then turn right and sprint down the walkway, hopping down from level to level until you reach the ground.
Decipher the seventh excerpt.
This excerpt speaks of a “thorn-wounded brow”, tears, and a crucifix. The description certainly matches up with that of Christ Crown of Thorns, a Gothic Revival church now in disrepair. Set that landmark as your next destination and return to your car.
Key Clue Checklist: “Intolerance” Movie Set
- Evelyn Summers’ ring
- Seventh excerpt
Location: Christ Crown of Thorns
Investigate the abandoned church.
Travel to Christ Crown of Thorns church 
. Enter to trigger a dramatic cut-scene. As the detectives move across the nave, they find candles lit on the altar and Phelps notices a light coming from the presbytery (the priest’s residence). And then they confront, at last, their nemesis: a surprising and familiar face.
After the scene ends, rush toward the altar to trigger a quick follow-up sequence: the detectives discover that their suspect has disappeared into the tunnels below the church. When control returns, exit the church via the side door to the right; it should lead you straight to the presbytery.
Find a way into the catacombs.
Approach the door of the house; Phelps kicks it open. Work your way through the candlelit interior into the kitchen, then kick open the door in the back corner to reveal the killer’s grisly “work room”. Here you find a treasure trove of gruesome physical evidence, including dissecting tools, a tire iron, and a statue of Prometheus.
When you’re finished exploring the bloody evidence, approach the open shaft leading into the catacombs and climb down the ladder.
Kill the murderer.
Move cautiously along the catacombs, using cover and peeking carefully around each new bend. The killer is waiting for you! After taunting you and firing a few shots, he retreats from each corner, so move ahead when he withdraws. Keep chasing him deeper into the tunnels until you force him to step out. Then aggressively gun him down.
Watch the bittersweet conclusion as Captain Donelly appears with unexpected news about the shakeout. Although things don’t play out as Phelps or Galloway expected, “young Phelps” receives a reward of sorts: a promotion out of Homicide to the L.A.P.D.’s glamour desk, Administrative Vice, based in Hollywood.