Deja Vu: Dick moves

They're to be expected.

I've finished mapping out the immediately accessible areas, which are partly interconnected by the sewers, the building fire escape, and Joe's secret elevator, and noted a few dangers.

• As I learned last time, an alligator patrols the sewers. A bullet takes care of it, but if you don't already have your inventory open and your gun ready when you see the gator, it's too late to do anything.
• An unarmed, tattooed mugger appears randomly on the streets. Punching him does nothing, and shooting him in broad daylight seems like a bad idea. I gave him a quarter - he dumped me in the alley behind Joe's bar and took every cent I had.
• Another mugger also appears randomly on the streets, and this one has a gun. With no money to offer, punching him, rather amazingly, works, but he shows up again with a black eye (so I gave him another).
• The east end of the main street has a police station. Unsurprisingly, you are busted if you go inside, and given a nonstandard game over - they pin the murder of Joe Siegel on you, but your brain turns to mush in jail, you're judged unfit to stand trial, and die in a mental asylum.
• Going east from the police station kills you immediately, as pictured above. 

I restarted and did a quick run-around of Joe's bar and office, mainly to trigger some memories and grab some valuable items, but I also played the slots in the secret casino - a good investment as $0.75 earned me a $7.50 payout.

Lucky thing you can multi-select all those quarters before moving them.

I save and hit the streets.

 

Joe's car key doesn't open the trunk or the backseat, but it will open the front seat door, where I find:

• A photo of a very large woman, which triggers a deja vu moment.
• Siegel's car registration and home address - 1212 West End St.
• A street map with some instructions. Some very incriminating instructions.

Is she still in the trunk?

I try popping the hood - and the car explodes. No need to guess what happens when you start the ignition, I'm sure. Reload!

Heading west - there's nothing but trouble going east - I encounter:

• A newsstand. The headlines state "Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor," placing today at December 7th 1941. The newsboy advises me that the cops are looking for me - a woman across the street saw me doing something sketchy and tipped them off.
• A gun shop has a Luger in stock. I can afford it, but I've already got a piece. A piece that will get me fried, but having a spare won't change that.
• Two cabs, one blue and one yellow, are idling on the west end of the street.

A dame approaches.

I punch her out before I can find out what she's got for me.

In her purse is a Saturday night special, a makeup kit, and a $20 bill, which I take. And soon after I meet a bum who wants $20 for a tip - I give it to him and learn that Joey's hit man is waiting for me in "my office."

I enter the blue cab and take it to 934 West Sherman, the pharmacy's address. As it turns out, also my address.

I see the goon through the window and plug him with a .38. But the door's locked and I haven't got the key, and I can't break though the glass and open the door that way. Dr. Brody's office is also locked.

Next I go to 1212 West End St. to check out Siegel's apartment.

I find nothing here except a broad's photograph and an address - 520 S. Kedzie. I go there next.

The door's locked, but I can shoot my way in. This doesn't spook the cab driver at all.

There are a few things in here - a familiar scent of perfume, an earring, an unmarked key, a combination "33-24-36" written on a pad of paper, and a diary with the letters "M.V." embossed on the front, accounting the owner's past relation with Joe Siegel, and an ongoing affair with one John Sternwood.

The key opens Dr. Brody's office. Why does she have a key to this?

 

Two marked vials are here - one labeled Sodium Bicarbonate, another "SPECIMEN - 11/13 Todd Zipman." The cabinet here is combination-locked, and M.V.'s combination doesn't work, but my last bullet does, and there are many files inside:

• Multiple orders of sodium pentothal for Joe Siegel, all handled by Marsha Vickers.
• A carbon-copy of the pharmacy bill found in Siegel's office.
• Several drug cards, starting with one on sodium bicarbonate. An alkaline gas relief solution. What kind of a pharmacist needs to keep a file to remember what that is?
• Biosodiumitis - An antidote to diethanol trimene.
• Diethanol trimene - An experimental memory-loss drug.
• Sodium pentathol - Lowers inhibitions, and induces unconsciousness and veracious verbosity. Wrong, guys, that's hypnotism... though they do spell it wrong here.
• Chemopapain - Pyschoactive euphoric drug.
• Medrezine - Nerve gas counteragent.
• Ofreeall - Anti-arrhythmic heart medication.
• Several deranged memos detailing symptoms of conditions such as "cardiovascular shutdown" (e.g. death).
• A copy of an advisory to Mr. Ace Harding, recommending that I quit smoking.

 

The key also unlocks my own office.

There are spare bullets in the desk, and some notes in the filing cabinet.

• "Sugar Shack" has it in for Siegel. Reason unknown.
• Some case notes concerning a blackmail against the alderman. Sugar Shack was the culprit, and our evidence put her away for a nickel.
• Lastly, a letter from presumably Joe Siegel, asking me to kidnap a wealthy lady.

Evidently I took this job and things didn't go right for either of us. Clearly I have a (very possibly criminal) past history with Siegel, left him for the private eye business, and got into some trouble with the mob. He'd have me do one last, high-risk job to clear my name. But then, why would he want Mrs. Sternwood? More likely that Miss Vickers... or Mr. Sternwood... would want her (and Siegel) out of the way. And Vickers had been supplying the office with Dr. Brody's sodium pentothal, for whatever reason, giving her opportunity to be in on this.

My thinking - both Vickers and Sternwood are behind this. Sternwood, who we know is very wealthy, hired Siegel to kidnap his wife, promising him so much money that he could afford to pay off the mob. I did the job, but someone in their employ shot Siegel, blackjacked and drugged me with the cocktail that Vickers supplied, and hauled me, along with the murder weapon and Siegel's trenchcoat, down to the bathroom to take the fall. Ironically, they could have done nothing, and Sugar Shack, the one fly in the ointment, would have blown up both of them.

I'm still not sure why Vickers had a master key to 934 West Sherman, or why they bothered getting antidote, or who actually shot Siegel, or the point of giving me his coat (or at least putting his stuff in my coat), or why his hitman was after me. Perhaps Siegel intended to double-cross me so that the kidnapping couldn't be linked to him.

But now I'm stuck in a stupid way. I can't return to Joe's Bar because the cab driver needs an address, and I'm not sure what it is! It's just as well - the game warns me that I'm rapidly turning into a vegetative state, and it's not clear that I'm even on the right track to curing this. I suppose the antidote ought to be found in Siegel's office somewhere, but if it's not in his combination safe then I don't know where else it might be.

My Trizbort map: