612. Murder Mystery Story [Part 1] Victorian Detective 3 by Peter Carlson

hello folks and welcome to the podcast in this episode i'm going to go through another online text adventure in order to try to solve a murder mystery set in victorian london it's been a while since i did one of these on the podcast several times in the past i have read through online uh detective adventure stories written by peter carlson and available at textadventures.com so i have done this a couple of times before there were episodes 338 and 339 uh and that was a murder mystery detective story and uh then episodes 425 and 426 called the victorian detectives in which i was uh joined by amber and paul and you can find links to those um episodes uh on the page for this episode all right so they uh so these are based on stories and text adventures that you can find at textadventures.com i only use the ones done by peter carlson and in fact after recording the first one peter got in touch with me i think he sent me an email to tell me that he liked the way that i did it and was i was welcome to use his other stories so kudos to peter for being behind us on this one in the first episode i read through the story entitled victorian detective and then the second one was the sequel victorian detective two and now we're on to the third installment of the series that's right it's victorian detective three so the idea behind these text adventures is that you read through some text on a web page and there are certain words highlighted which you can click on for extra information and every now and then you have to make a decision which can affect the way the story turns out each decision relies on your observational skills and your reading of the information provided and you have to be like a sherlock holmes style detective or a text detective if you will to work out the right choices based on the evidence that you've read this sort of thing is great for learning english because you can do tons of reading with very specific goals each time it's online so you can check out new words when you come across them and the fact that you're part of the story makes it extra engaging you can also read along with me as i play the game or play it uh on your own later and if you do that then consider leaving a comment or review at textadventures.com.uk thanking peter carlson for his work so um yeah you can check out loads of these games at textadventures.co.uk and i will let you explore them in your own time right so what about victorian detective three in this series we play the part of a brilliant detective who has skills similar to those of sherlock holmes you have perfect memory demonstrated by the fact that you can re-read any text so far your super fast decision making ability is represented by the unlimited time that we have to make our choices in the game and our vast knowledge is represented by the internet and we are in fact encouraged to google any things that we don't know about while playing the game and that sort of ability to google is like this detective's amazing knowledge as a detective we have a police partner that we work with called mardler he's a bit like the lestrade character in sherlock holmes in that he is a police officer who often gets things wrong and is a bit competitive with you so mardler is our partner so here's how it's going to go i'll read through each section and read all the other peripheral information that you can get by clicking on different words and i'll explain things as we go if i think it's all getting a bit complicated i'll invite you to think about the right option each time and if you want you can read along with me by following the link on the website i have no idea how long this will take it might be several episodes it might even be more i don't know how long it's going to take we will see it's basically going to take as long as it as long as it's going to take basically i haven't done this particular adventure this game before so i don't know how long it will last in this episode this particular one you're listening to now i think i'll go for about an hour and then i'll find a good place to pause the story some kind of cliffhanger would be good so your task as you listen to this is just to try to keep up with the story perhaps think about each decision too and if i make a mistake at any point then you can jump into the comment section and explain your thoughts but mainly just listen just try and keep up with the story and i hope you find it interesting and enjoyable as a way to learn english through listening now i am slightly concerned that my reading of texts there's going to be a lot of me reading through texts here i'm slightly concerned that that might distance you from the story slightly because we know don't we that for some reason it's much more engaging when you're listening to someone who is kind of speaking spontaneously and speaking to you specifically right so that somehow it grabs and catches and holds your attention a lot more than when someone is reading a text we know this from presentations uh presentations where someone goes up with a script and they just read through the script they're somehow far less captivating than the ones where the person just sort of talks to the people in the room without uh you know reading something from a script so i'm slightly concerned that as i read through a lot of text in this that it it'll kind of pull you out of it or something like that so i'm a bit concerned about that but it might distance you slightly from the story i really want you to concentrate on imagining the surroundings of each scene so try to visualize it if you can it helps if you really visualize each situation as you listen to it any use any descriptive language that you can find listen out for little descriptions of the environment and the characters any descriptive language you can find to help you paint a visual image of what you're hearing in the story and this can make a big difference to your ability to keep up and stay involved all the way through and there's a better chance that you're going to learn remember things as well if you try to paint a visual picture for yourself while listening to the story so for this story we're in london in 1861. victoria queen victoria is on the throne uh the american civil war is breaking out in the usa london at this time is probably quite a dirty smoky sort of foggy sort of place with some very upmarket areas and also some slums people used horses and horse-drawn carriages to get around and do things at night it was probably very dark there were some probably basic gas lights in some nicer parts of town uh it's basically the world of sherlock holmes that we're dealing with here so right without any further ado then let's get the let's begin the story i should say that there's a little bit of chess at the beginning uh you start the story in the middle of a chess game and i admit that i've done this little section of the story several times in order to get the right sequence of moves because i'm not a great chess player which probably doesn't bode well for my skills as a detective either but i'm not a very good chess player so i had to kind of cheat my way through the first three decisions in order to get the right sequence of moves to win the game also as we go through this i'm picking up or losing points based on my decisions each decision that you make gains points or loses points for you and that's based on whether you've made a good deduction or not so it's really all about deductive reasoning and looking at looking at the evidence that you've been given so when i click on different words highlighted in the text we need to really remember this these bits of evidence they'll help us to make the right decision but and you get more points if you make better decisions i think it's not possible to die in the game but the outcome might be different and your score can be different each time depending on your decisions each time okay so i think we're going to get started so i just need to go to text text adventures dot co dot uk find victorian detective three and play online and here we go then okay so imagine ladies and gents uh it is london in 1891 late autumn as winter the the tendrils of winter are creeping in here we are in the ashworth bookstore and um indoors probably quite cozy inside and here is where we begin so you sit across from one of your few friends in this world julian ashworth an acclaimed historian staring down at his new wooden chess set he'd carved the pieces himself the odor of varnish still present on his hands and set so with julian ashworth he's an acclaimed historian so a famous historian and we're playing chess and he actually carved these chess pieces himself and varnished them and you can still smell the varnish varnish is like a sort of clear paint that you put on wood to protect it okay so we're playing chess with him and he says it's your move he says tapping the game clock it's rhythmic ticking floating through julian's large bookstore you look up at julian he's carefully focused on the chest game brow furrowed in concentration if your brow is furrowed it means you're kind of your the area just above your eyes and your nose is kind of uh wrinkled together because you're concentrating so julian is is carefully concentrating his his hand is scratching his messy red hair you've always been a loner through life and you consider julian one of your few true friends a loner is someone who just always spends their time on their own so you apparently that we have always been a loner but julian is one of our true through few true friends so let's have a look at the bookstore because the large bookstore is highlighted so we can have a look at that so julian's bookstore is large and well organized overlooking a busy london street you can imagine it's maybe like on charing cross road or something the constant bustle of hooves and footsteps outside blends to mimic the sound of a waterfall or a rushing stream so there's this sound going on outside as loads of people walk up and down their horses trotting up and down as well hooves a hoof is a horse's foot so hooves is the plural and that's horse's feet the sound of hooves and footsteps um okay and the bustle a bustle is like a busy lots of activity the hustle and bustle of hooves and footsteps outside so this is kind of where we are we're inside playing this chess game and there's like lots of people going up and down outside uh julian's expertise lies in military history and his input has helped you on a few cases over the years you visit him every few weeks and over time you've watched his bookmark diligently travel through volumes detailing the napoleonic wars of 1803 to 1815. so he's an expert in military history and um we visit him every couple of weeks and we've noticed that he's reading books about the napoleonic wars and his bookmark has been moving through them okay so he's been slowly working his way through the history of the napoleonic wars okay um let's have a look at julian so julian studies the chess board deep in thought you notice bags under his eyes he's tired up late the last few nights you can smell varnish on his hands from meticulously fashioning the chess pieces and finishing them you spot flecks of black and white ink on his fingers and traces of blue chalk on his thumb looks like billiard chalk like chalk you use when you're playing snooker or pool or billiards sometimes julian goes out to drink and play pool with his publisher martin wells when he finishes a research paper well julian's research papers have been growing popular recently and in his field of study at least he's well known and respected okay so all these details are telling us something about julian what's he been doing he's tired he's been up late he's got ink on his fingers he's got some chalk from playing pool he normally plays pool when he's finished a research paper with his publisher okay well let's carry on and so the um so i now have to go through the chess moves and i'm i've cheated i already know the right move so queen is first and we're kind of blocking the king in a corner and then we go pawn next and another pawn i'm not going to describe the chess moves in any more detail than that but i've got him a checkmate which is like what you say when you when their king is trapped checkmate you say as julian chuckles and slides back into his chair to chuckle is to kind of laugh running a hand through his hair good game he says i thought i had you for a minute to have someone if you have someone or if you've got someone it means that you're going to get them you've got them trapped i have you now i've got you now like i've got you i'm gonna i'm gonna you know get you now i've got you i thought i had you for a minute i truly do enjoy these games as infrequent as they are i know how work as a big famous detective keeps you busy you crack a smile some of your recent cases had landed in the paper the newspapers just make it harder for me to go undercover you joke i'm better when criminals don't know my face okay as we continue are you working on any big cases currently hotshot asks julian no but i'm sure it won't be long before i'm entrusted to catch another raving lunatic or greedy killer you respond but enough about me you have big news too am i right this is where we have to guess what um julian's news is so it's either he's in gay he's engaged like engaged to be married i don't think it's that because we've seen no evidence at all suggesting that he's going to get married next one is you've finished writing another research paper and the third one is you're moving out of london i think we can cancel out moving out of london it's definitely he's finished writing a research paper ink on his hands reading the history books he's also been playing pool which he does when he publishes something so it's definitely that one and it's correct julian chuckles um what's the point of conversation with you you already know what i'm going to say you'd think i'd be used to this by now how do you know that and you say well i figured you've been researching the napoleonic wars for some time now judging by the rate your bookmark has been moving through those books you point out as you gesture to the books on julian's desk you have black and white ink on your fingers from the printing and erasing ink cartridges for your typewriter and there are bags under your eyes so you've been working late typing a lot to finish the paper i also noticed blue billiard chalk on your thumb you like to play pool with your publisher when you finish a big project last night am i right julian laughs his warm and encouraging laugh once again is everything really so transparent to you you never cease to impress me you hear the jingle of the small silver bell on the entrance to julian's bookstore tinkle tinkling not a customer though you recognize the familiar um confident footsteps and rattle of mardler's pistol and handcuffs i thought i might find you here your par your police partner says there's been a murder and it's a weird one you get up and excuse yourself from julian's table always a pleasure you say to him as you leave with mardler into the crowded london streets okay so that was a nice visit to and i wonder if julian's going to come back into the story at some point but mardle has come in saying there's been a murder and it's a weird one i need to find a voice for mardler there's been a murder it's a weird one maybe mardler could sound like that modelers are a bit of a cockney there's been a murder it's a weird one or maybe murder could sort of sound like that like he's from the west country well we've got a murderer it's a weird one no i think he's going to be a bit of a cockney mardler yeah like he could be the sort of sort of character that you'd find on eastenders or something he's a bit of a cockney okay let's continue as we go uh with mardler the cockney who i think mardler should always be smoking a cigarette while he's talking that's what marlo is going to be doing whereas i you me us in this story we're cut above the rest we're these this brilliant detective okay let's continue harrison way you and mardler take a cab across to harrison way you walk out past the police perimeter around a mutilated corpse oh by the way ladies and gents this story might contain some graphic details and sort of descriptions of violence and blood and guts and other disgusting things it's a murder mystery story after all so if that's not your cup of tea if you're squeamish and you don't like death and bodies and blood and guts and murder and all the gru gruesome and grim things that you would find then you may as well step away now step away from the podcast if that's not your cup of tea if you love that if you love blood and guts and violence then come with me as we continue the story okay so we walk out past the police perimeter around a mutilated corpse you know the way they put a perimeter around a dead body you stand over the naked body of a woman who looks to be about 50 years old there's a her there's a look of horrific terror on her face mouth gaping open eyes lifeless and cold most shocking though is the fact that this woman's chest has been violently slashed open and her heart has been removed no identification no clothes no possessions at all besides a hairpin says mardle bleakly she was uh just found like this a while earlier gutted like an animal and thrown out like trash preliminary tests are showing that she probably wasn't sexually attacked only violently killed mutilated and tossed out onto the street who was this woman okay so there are some bits of information that we can gather so who was she was she an actress a doctor or a teacher let's have a look at the naked dead body of the woman you kneel next to the corpse studying the fingers and feet there's white chalk dust and dots of black ink on the fingers of the right hand on the left hand the fingertips are blistered you look down at the feet and notice small strings of black lint from high quality fabric between the toes she must have had nice socks white chalk dust sounds like a teacher left hand fingers are blistered why would that be and what's the thing about the socks i don't know let's look at her face the woman had a truly traumatic death the corpse has long black hair that's been well kept and cared for you see a small fashionable pin in the woman's hair it's silver and violet this looks like the only possession of value that's been left on the body a hairpin there's also a mini school meaning very small wad like a little folded piece of dried paper stuck in the woman's hair you unfold the wad but find it's no more than a blank thin piece of paper what is that further down on the woman's neck you see a red mark below the left side of her jaw some sort of irritation from long-term subtle friction black hair well kept hairpin in her hair a tiny bit of dried paper in her hair which is nothing and a mark on her neck mm-hmm are we getting anywhere i'm i'm getting more like teacher type vibes from her at this point especially because of the white chalk her heart has been removed this is horrible such violent behavior this looks like the work of a savage animal let's hope so let's hope there's some sort of horrible psychotic monster in this story that would be good so is the woman an actress a doctor or teacher i think she's a teacher right folks sounds like a teacher i got one point good good what does she probably teach maths music or chemistry uh i think it's gotta be music because the mark and the blisters it's got to be a violin which sits under your under your chin under your jaw and the fingers on the strings might give you blisters so i think she's a music teacher yes very clever she was probably a is it a private school teacher a public school teacher or a college professor oh gosh um just a hair pin no clothes no possessions um traumatic death long black hair that's been well kept and cared for and she had what was the thing about the socks um nice socks quality fabric private school public school college professor i'm gonna go private school teacher because it sounds like she's fairly well kept you know like she's got good socks which suggests that if she's a private school teacher maybe she gets more money she can afford to buy nice socks and the nice hairpin i'm going private school teacher could be wrong yes good i got it excellent deduction okay let's continue i think she was a music teacher at a private school you tell madler how do you figure which means how do you work that out how'd you figure that out asks marla looking closer at the dead body trying to see what you had seen and pieced together she has chalk and ink on her fingers you begin a telltale sign of a teacher plus there was a dried spit ball in her hair ah so she works with children because that's too childish for an adult remember spit balls do you ever do that at school you take a little bit of paper you put it in your mouth and you you chew on it until it becomes a little pellet and then you get an empty pen like an empty biro and you fire this spit ball at various things you could fire the people or the blackboard or windows and stuff so this teacher obviously had a little spit ball in her hair there so she worked with children okay so she works with children because it's too childish for an adult she has well groomed hair a stylish hairpin and was wearing quality socks at one point so i'm probably leaning towards private school plush plus she teaches violin so her students aren't too young to play or too poor to afford instruments wait wait violin mardler interrupts that or viola you say she has blisters on her left fingertips from the strings and a mark on her neck commonly known as fiddler's neck from the instrument constantly resting against her skin judging by the severity of the blisters and the fiddler's neck i'd say this woman was a very well practiced musician mardler nods smoking in comprehension he's always smoking that's his main character trait okay ladies and gents mardler he smokes and he's a bit of a cockney right i say we start at archfield academy you recommend why there asks mardler well they're known for their outstanding music program and their school colors correspond with this woman's hairpin silver and violet you say okay so let's go to um archfield academy okay let's move let's keep the story moving there's a picture of archfield academy looks very posh good catch on the school colors mentions mardler as you stand with him in the archfield academy office the principal of archfield academy devon gray confirmed moments ago that an annette tone their most esteemed music teacher didn't show up to work today and matches the description of the dead body at harrison way hold on a minute so they've gone to this school and it's the right school and uh the um principal says yes she didn't come in her name's annette tone i can't believe this mutter's grey as he slumps down into his chair slumped down in your chairs like sit in the chair uh with like your back bent and your head down he's slumped into the chair the principal grey is obviously quite devastated about this uh white-faced and exasperated i just can't believe something like this would happen to annette did annette have any enemies asks mardler angry husband did she owe money there's a long pause as principal grey thinks over mardler's question well there was an incident he admits professor gray is going to speak like this okay posh and little bit camp well there was an incident he admits gray rummages through the desk draw for a moment a desk draw it's like thing you open you keep pens and paper in it he rummages through it gray rummages through his desk drawer for a moment before retrieving a piece of paper someone left this uh someone left her this anonymous hate mail at her desk a couple of weeks ago it was just after she got promoted to head of the music department so someone left us some a piece of hate mail which is a letter that you write expressing how much you hate someone well it was probably someone from the school a student or fellow teacher because it was left in her classroom you say maybe a frustrated music teacher that didn't get promoted uh can i see some notes written by some of the other music teachers at this school principal gray sends his assistant to retrieve documents written by other music teachers at archfield academy that have typewriters he gives you ones by albert york the piano teacher janet helsi the flute teacher marilyn sampson the cello teacher and who are you most suspicious of right what the hell is going on here folks are you following this yes okay so gray is gutted he's like oh i can't believe this has happened to her oh i can't believe this has happened to her and um did she did she have any enemies and he did remember gray remembers that she got some hate mail left on her desk so who was it one of the teachers let's have a look at the hate mail we can read it annette and this is the hate mail annette you deserve death you're a disgusting pig you should leave and die you're a terrible person that doesn't deserve to be happy strong words there you deserve death you're a disgusting pig you should leave and die you're a terrible person that doesn't deserve to be happy oh okay right so let's have a look at albert york actually wait a minute let's look at this again in this note the o's are all weird it's like the o's are zeros instead of o's on a typewriter it's like they're weird o's it's also very short sort of punchy sentences you're you deserve death you're a disgusting pig simple short sentences and it's it's addressed annette okay let's see albert york dear students someone left behind a watch at yesterday's class if you can describe the watch to me i will gladly return it to you come to my office room 342 for more information so this is albert york the piano teacher i can't see anything suspicious about this the writing style doesn't match the writing on the hate mail i'm not very suspicious of albert york let's have a look at the next one janet helsi the flute teacher class will be moved to room 132 next thursday due to renovations make sure you remember your textbooks on that day because we will be going over chapter 12. we will have a quiz on the material on the following week i don't see anything suspicious about that to you the writing is a bit more direct but it's not the sort of basic sentences that we had of the last one i mean of the hate mail it's not as nice as the previous as albert york's one but i don't really see anything suspicious about that either so maybe it's going to be marilyn sampson the cello teacher yeah it's marilyn sampson because remember the thing i said about the o's that they look weird is the same in hers so this is it's her she definitely wrote the hate mail and she wrote this dear class don't forget there is a test next week on friday make sure you study hard and especially focus on proper finger positioning this exam will count as ten percent of your final grade good luck everyone so not particularly cruel sounding but uh the weird o's it's her so we're suspicious of marilyn sampson definitely yes we got a point so why her asks mardler look closely you say as you hold the anonymous note and one of marilyn sampson's notes side by side look all typewriters have inherent imperfections though they're often quite subtle look at the letter o in the hate mail versus marilyn's note they both have the same imperfect size that's the most obvious connection between the two papers of course i've noticed six other more subtle imperfections which means we can safely assume that this hate mail was typed on marilyn's typewriter right let's go and see marilyn you and mardler confront marilyn sampson about the hate mail so what if i wrote it well she's not a good employee anyway shouts marilyn trying to justify herself i mean she's not even at work right now mardler speaks up in your note you wrote you deserve death and this morning we found anetone dead in the street marilyn is taken aback her face grows pale and scared wait do you really think it was me i didn't have anything to do with it i swear marilyn hastily digs through her bag and her hand returns clutching two ticket stubs to an orchestra performance from the night before i was watching the red mast or i was watching the red mask orchestra last night with my husband madler takes the tickets and examines them he turns to you this is a pretty good alibi assuming we can hear from some witnesses that confirm her whereabouts so listeners are you following this so um yes she admitted to writing the hate mail but she denies accusations of murder and she says she has an alibi she was at the theater watching the red mask orchestra with her husband so we need she's got ticket stubs to prove it but we need witness testimonies so that's chapter one done chapter one heartbreaker is now complete and i've got seven out of seven points doing okay so far so i no idea how many chapters there are in this thing but let's just keep pressing forward i said before um i think i said before that i would do this for an hour and then find a place to stop before part two i don't know how long the story will be anyway let's continue you and mardler spend the rest of the day going over clues from their case and confirming marilyn's samson's alibi it appears she was indeed occupied at the probable time of the murder but you don't rule her out as a suspect entirely just yet the afternoon turns to night and you find yourself going over evidence in your lonesome london apartment gazing out into the smoggy metropolis sleep doesn't come easily smog you know it's like a mix of smoke and fog so smoggy air pollution is smog basically so cinder street it's morning in london as you and mardler walk down cinder street in response to calls of another body there's a thick cold fog hanging suspended in the air chilling you through your argyle sweater and coat you come upon the body a middle-aged man stripped naked and left lice lifeless his chest torn open and heart removed you study his pained face he suffered as he died looks like we have a serial killer sighs mardler and whoever it is he's active and restless mardler stares down at the cold dead body any ideas of these guys any ideas of this poor guy's origin you think for a moment so what's this guy's origin now so this middle-aged man dead naked with his heart removed let's have a look at the middle aged man so you carefully investigate the dead body the hands are slightly irritated from chemicals and you can faintly smell carbolic acid on them you notice that they're very clean with no grime or grit under the nails an impressive and uncommon feat for the common londoner there's a faded scar on the left thumb that looks like it was caused by a cut with a finely serrated blade so he works with chemicals he's very clean and he sometimes works with serrated blades like maybe that of a scalpel sounds like a doctor he's not a carpenter serrated blade surgeon i think he's a surgeon yes i'm correct this man was a surgeon you speculate his hands have been thoroughly cleaned with carbolic acid quite often and he has a scar from a fine-toothed saw a common surgical tool if we look at his face we can see four thin lines on his face from where a surgical mask has often been worn well what hospital is he from asks mardler one that uses surgical masks you respond there are many that still don't utilize that sanitary precaution the hospital is also probably near birch trees judging from the amount of birch tree pollen deep in his hair very clever aren't we so birch trees these are like trees with a silvery bark and i think they produce pollen and pollen is stuff that's like trees and plants produce in order to sort of multiply you know i mean it's what like plants produce in order to sort of multiply in that pollen bees like to collect pollen and they transfer it between flowers than they all right so we seem to have worked out which hospital it is hollow leaf hospital you and mardler investigate several london hospitals before coming across hollow leaf a technologically modern hospital surrounded by birch trees the chief of medicine dr howard earning confirms the description of the corpse you found earlier matches one of his brightest and most renowned surgeons dr matthew ander so we've already identified the body it's dr matthew ander all right and ander such a tragedy what's this what's dr earning gonna sound like such a tragedy no too posh um he's gonna be such such a tragedy they're all gonna sound the same all these characters such a tragedy ask the size psy is like that's to sigh such a tragedy sighs dr earning but i must say as a physician i'm amazed at how you identified the body that's how this position is going to speak he's going to speak like this i must say as a physician i'm amazed at how you identify the body dr earning leans in close to your nose studying it in ore your sense of smell is incredible the fact that you recognize the odor of carbolic acid is outstanding is there anyone that would want to cause harm to dr ander asks mardler i've uh who is this speaking who is this i i've noticed that dr ander and dr yates one of our lead heart surgeons haven't been getting along lately there's also been some lunatic that's been showing up and harassing dr ander says dr erning he'll come to the hospital every few weeks looking for drugs they got in a violent scuffle a few weeks back when dr ander threw him out oh my goodness what's been going on so dr ander is the dead guy right and he's not been getting on with this heart surgeon called dr erning and they had a fight and dr ander threw him out heart surgeon all these dead bodies keep turning up with no hearts don't they sounds sounds fishy to me you hear shouting from the entrance of the hospital and the three of you go to investigate there's a crazed man covered in soot and dirt soot is like the black dust that comes from fires covered in soot and dirt causing havoc in the entryway his eyes are wild and dilated as he throws a nurse to the ground in rage ah you can see dried blood under his nose that's him yells doctor earning that's the man that had a conflict with that dr ander freeze shouts mardler as he steps forward the dirty man's eyes grow wide and he turns to bolt for the door turns to run away you and mardle give hot pursuit chasing him into the streets of london okay action suddenly right i've got to investigate a few things though so when dr erning said your sense of smell is incredible um i can click on that indeed your sense of smell and olfactory memory is nothing short of spectacular you can feel yourself bombarded by the odor of dr earnings coffee as he breathes in your direction smells like a colombian strand of the coffee bean plant you catch the distant fragrance of muzo amer of rare french perfume as a nurse walks by each odor paints a vivid picture in your mind so we've got amazing like spider-man level sense of smell is it spider-man despite amount of good smell i don't know we've got superhero level smell abilities and dr earnings taste of coffee like colombian coffee might that be interesting later what else heart surgeons interesting that's the only thing that's written clearly this doctor what's his name again who is the who is the uh the bad guy here the crazy one i can't remember his name dr yates that's it right so let's chase dr yates the man pushes through a crowd of londoners as he rages through the street he grabs a passing citizen and throws him back at you as you chase him the confused scissors and crashing onto the ground a few steps ahead of you huh what we're going to do we're going to jump over the citizen or we're going to go around him so he grabs a citizen and throws him back at you the confused citizen crashes onto the ground a few steps ahead of you we're going to hurdle him right that's when you jump over him like that hurdle right like in mario you do hurtling over turtles that's what mario does we're not going to go around him we're going to hurdle him i hope this is the right decision oh dear investigation fail why did why did that fail you attempt to jump over the man but at the same time he tries to rise back to his feet you catch your foot on him and crash to the ground scraping your palms on the hard road your palms are like the soft undersides of your hands oh come on mardle shouts as he continues chasing the crazy man you stumble back to your feet and catch up with mardler sweat forming on your brow you're catching up with the lunatic when he turns and darts out into traffic so the crazy person has turned and just run in front of traffic in the road he's darted out into traffic quickly there's a cab to your right that's recklessly bouncing down the road oh dear so we need to run into the street but there's a taxi coming and it's recklessly bouncing down the road let's have a look at the cab oh there's a little map here so we've got the london street oh god so we are crossing the street at eight there's maths oh god maths is never my strong point oh dear uh so we're crossing the street at 80 meters a second there's 6.7 meters for us to travel the cab is going um perpendicular to us at a speed of 12.6 meters per second and they've got a distance of 12.1 meters to go okay so if the cab is going 12.6 meters and it's got 12.1 uh meters to go it's going to arrive there in just under a second right it's going to come in at just under a second how much less than a second is it 12 meters at 12 minutes 12 meters a second and it's 12.1 meters so it's going to be just under a second yeah so i'm going eight meters a second and i've got just 6.7 meters to cover i'm going faster it can the distance speed ratio i think i'm going faster i think it's me am i fast enough yes i think i am because like basically the ratio of 12.1 to 12.6 is like smaller than the ratio of 6.7 to 8. so even though i'm going slower than the cab the distance the relative distance i have to travel i think is less and so actually uh the distance i'm going to carry over time or something is probably shorter i think i'm gonna i think i'm gonna uh commit and run past the cab come on maths yes i got it that is that the first time maths has been actually useful in my life i studied it at school never did very well i got a c at gcse level in maths and then said goodbye to maths basically until now so it came in useful okay investigation score plus one you put your head down and sprint across the road you can hear the carriage to your right skidding through loose dirt as it tries to stop and you feel the rush of wind as it careens behind you missing you by a fraction of a second why is this cab driving like like that no idea mardler is running beside you again as you close in on the fleeing man he looks back and sees you jumping in surprise before tripping on a discarded piece of garbage and crashing to the ground so because i'm i managed to catch up with him he's surprised in trips on a piece of rubbish on the ground mardle uh oh no this is not mardler mardler is running beside you and clothes on the fleeing this is the fleeing man the fleeing man fleeing means running away he looks back and sees you and then he trips on a piece of rubbish marla tackles him like a rugby tackle and restrains him restrains him stay down he barks uh let me go let me go the the man howls horsley what's gotten into this guy madler yells as he struggles to contain the man the man is under the influence of morphine alcohol or cocaine is it morphine alcohol or cocaine well knowing what i know about morphine alcohol and cocaine i would say that this guy sprinting like a crazy person is probably not on morphine i think morphine is more likely to make you want to just sort of sit down for a bit i would not that i would know from experience but just you know it's common knowledge isn't it alcohol it could be alcohol because he sort of um seemed to fall over but he fell over because he was suddenly shocked and surprised i think the guy's on cocaine because he's you know like full of energy and seems to be uh manic i think it's cocaine yes i'm right he's high on cocaine you say dilated pupils bloody nose ah of course hoarse voice oh look at that he speaks like that that's how this bloke speaks because i guess the cocaine's done something to his voice aggressive behavior he has all the symptoms of a cocaine addict that's why he's always lurking at hollow leaf hospital he's trying to score some drugs mardler pats down the suspect this searches the suspect and reveals a few bottles of pills from different hospitals around london no wonder he ran from us this addicts been stealing drugs from hospitals all around town so the guy's a a drug addict and a thief hmm i want to see yates no it's what's his voice i want to see yates i want to see yates cries the addict yates mardle looks over to you wasn't that one of the surgeons the heart surgeon that didn't like dr ender you nod in agreement i'll go and find him in the hospital you take this guy in for questioning you say mardler cooperates and you venture back towards the hospital you find dr erning and he points you towards dr yates you catch up with dr yates just as he's leaving the grounds uh dr yates you say i have a few questions for you it's about the man that just caused a scene at the entrance of the hospital uh dr yates is going to be like look right he's northern doctor yetz is northern he speaks like this look detective says dr yates i really don't have time for questions about some cocaine addict vagrant my assistant and i just finished up up a 12 hour surgery do you realize how much focus you need for that i've been here since yesterday night and i don't know where my accent's from at all it's just generic northern okay your instinct tells you that dr yates is an innocent man dr yates is the killer dr yates isn't the killer but he's hiding something look i really don't have time for questions about some cocaine addict vagrant my assistant and i just finished a 12-hour surgery do you realize how much focus you need for that i've been here since yesterday night i think that uh dr yates is also taking cocaine because in order to get the energy to do a 12-hour surgery i think he's probably taking the pills too and that somehow he's been dealing them so i think he's not the killer he's just a drug dealer yes jurassic park i never told you the man was high on cocaine you say how did you know that dr yates looks a bit taken aback he stutters for a moment and scratches his nose before responding oh this the signs are obvious of course he says i study drugs and medicine for god's sake you take take a step closer to dr yates what is going on with your accent you say your cold analyzing eyes piercing through him i know a liar when i see one doctor yates and i'm looking at one right now you say that's part of my job now i've heard you've been having disputes with dr ander who just happened to turn up dead this morning but of course you couldn't have killed him because you've been in surgery for 12 hours dr yates looks shocked ander is dead he chokes anders dead you continue what's in your bag dr yates you ask the surgeon clutches at his black bag tighter no he clutches his bag tighter and moves it away from you like you can't look at this there's a moment of tension before yates gives in he passes the bag over to you and slumps down on the ground defeated another person slumping down you rifle through the bag we've had rummage now we have rifle through the bag and find exactly what you'd expected you pull out several vials of drugs little glass containers can you explain these you ask dr yates says nothing it's obvious he was stealing the drugs and selling them to people like the addict that was causing trouble at the hospital you're gonna need to come with me you say all right hmm so yates has been taking and dealing drugs from the hospital he had a run-in with the dead doctor he is a heart surgeon what's going on is he just dealing and taking drugs or is he involved in the murder of but he seemed to be shocked and devastated about the death of his colleague even though they hadn't been getting on hmm let's continue a few hours later at scotland yard the police headquarters another dead end shouts mardler in frustration our records show that the addict we caught today at the hospital ed cook was in the drunk tank at the yard sleeping off a binge drinking uh a day of binge drinking on the nights of both murders there's no way he could have killed a net tone or dr matthew ander so the crazy cocaine addict guy is innocent because he was in prison because he was drunk both nights you bite your nail reflecting on the clues there you sit at your desk leaned backwards in your weathered wooden chair deep in thought we can't afford to have a new dead body heart torn out and mutilated every day says mardler in an accident that wasn't his we can't we can't afford to have a new dead body heart torn out and mutilated every day says mardler there's already panic growing on the streets they're calling him the harrison way heartbreaker there's a man out there that grabs people off the street strips them naked cuts their arts out and then tosses them out for us to find rain begins to come down on the streets of london the gentle pitta patter grows into a powerful thunderstorm but you can't help but think that you'll need more than that to wash this city clean you spend the night at scotland yard meticulously going over the evidence will there be another body in the morning as the sun sets does so another londoner's life let's carry on come on we need some action to end on a um a cliffhanger at the end of this episode flander drive you and mardle stride through the fog past police officers surrounding the third body there's been a third killing the trilogy a familiar scent of varnish drifts past your nose hello varnish have we heard varnish before in this story i think we have julian our old friend julian could he be involved in this somehow you brush away thoughts of dread dread of like could it be julian you brush away those thoughts all you can think about is the wooden chest set oh the dread of the body i mean oh dead body push that away all you can think about is the wooden chest set hand carved by julian ashworth and varnished the smell gets stronger oh wait a minute maybe julian is the dead guy oh no his old friend julian is it him your fears are confirmed oh no as your eyes find the body ripped open like the rest and missing the heart that familiar head of curly red hair lies motionless on the hard cold london street oh no julian no you pause it's almost too much to take in as you see julian ashworth dead in the gutter mardler sees your pain and then makes the connection is that wait is that the historian madler asks trying to find words stumbling through his sentence wait is that is that who is that the historian yes you reply coldly as you continue to walk over to the corpse you look down at julian's face the same tormented look etched on it as the others mardler is paralyzed in shock trying to understand your emotions what is this sick fiend after what is this a deranged nut case black market organ stealing satanic ritual you're not frozen like mardler you're the opposite your mind is in overdrive fueled by emotion controlled by logic the deaths are probably due to is it a crazed murderer with no restraint an organ trading business a religious or philosophical ritual oh my goodness well are there any clues the only clues we've got is julian's face a few days ago you'd seen that same face full of life and happiness now he's no more than a decomposing conglomeration of carbon nitrogen oxygen hydrogen phosphorus and sulfur nice you see a bruise on julian's left cheek and his lip is busted there's a point on his cheek that's bruised in the vague shape of wolf wolf a wolf like a wild dog as if he was hit with something hard in that image hit with the image of a wolf judging from the amount of damage to the cheekbone depth of the indentation and the fact that bone density is about 1.9 grams per cubic centimeter you figure whatever hit julian had a density between 19 and 20 grams per pup per pubic centimeter not pubic i mean cubic whatever hit julian had a density between 19 and 20 grams per cubic centimeter that's quite dense so he was hit with a very dense object with the image of a wolf in it what crazed murderer with no restraint an organ trading business a religious or philosophical ritual wait a minute well it's not a crazed murderer with no restraint because pulling a heart out like that seems to be quite specific an organ trading business you can't you can't trade hot hearts especially at that time you can't do a heart transplant then it's got to be a religious or philosophical ritual let's go for that i want it to be a cult i want it to be some crazy cult yes brilliant whoever is doing this has rules you say mardler looks over to you a look of perplexity washed over his face what rules you call those deaths within a system of rules and regulations all three bodies were stripped killed the exact same way dropped off 24 hours apart from each other and none were sexually assaulted whoever is doing this wants to be powerful which usually leads to sexual assault but it hasn't because they have rules you say right as if a religious cult would would wouldn't commit sexual assault because of their the rules of their religion right um okay well i'm a little skeptical about that one but anyway uh apparently it's not the religious cult because they have rules the killer or killers aren't evolving they're sticking to a routine a ritual okay ritualistic which sort of fits in with a religious cult mardler is speechless you can tell he wants you to relax to express your emotions in a healthy manner what you continue it's not organ stealing either why steal the hearts of three middle-aged londoners you'd want to go for younger healthier citizens and you'd take more organs all right what's the pattern here uh why why these victims one of the killer's choices based on asks mardler so what is the link oh god the victim's intelligence so who are the three victims well the historian the uh the surgeon the teacher at a private school could be could be that i don't think it's anything to do with their bodies is it occupation teacher um now this is where you feel the the gears of my brain slowly grinding [Music] the old rusty gears of my brain sliding into place could be the intelligence because you know we've established we've established that they're all sort of special individuals right victims occupation teacher surgeon and historian teacher surgeon historian teacher a surgeon in his story like i can't see a link there and the victim's body good hair the woman had good hair julian had good hair did the doctor there was no mention of the doctor's hair i think no it's gonna be the uh intelligence yes oh my god i'm an amazing detective all three victims anetone dr matthew ander and julian ashworth were all scholarly academics you say tone was a renowned musician ander was a brilliant surgeon and ashworth was one of the leading minds in military history your mind feels like it's burning mardler puts a hand on your shoulder we can pass this case to someone else he suggests this is getting too personal you turn and look at him your eyes cold and stabbing i'll find whoever is responsible for this you mutter the other two victims were picked off after work but julian almost never left his bookstore let's go there that's where he was abducted from okay we're looking for the cliffhanger here at any point to bring this episode to a close we'll continue in the next part we continue to ashworth bookstore julian's bookstore from the beginning of the story a suitable place maybe to end part one the overhead silver bell jingles dingling lingling as you enter julian's bookstore your eyes go to footprints on the floor dried mud tracked in during yesterday's rainstorm footprints you know if if you if you walk through some water and then walk through the along the pavement you'll leave wet footprints mud is that brown stuff on the ground like if you go into a field and you pour water all over the ground there's lots of mud right so there's mud on the floor after someone walked in from the rain there's a few books scattered on the floor and you see julian's knife discarded on the ground more of the same footprints here but more chaotic there was a fight here but julian was overpowered so the attacker was wealthy middle class or poor so let's have a look at the footprints on the floor the footprints are large judging by the size of the foot and stride length you put whoever made these at around six foot six inches tall it's very tall the shoes are formal enough to belong to someone of average to above average wealth looking closer at the prince you see traces of a distinct red clay in the mud particular to a few london districts with high iron content so the guy's got good shoes he could be rich it could be wealthy or above average and he comes from a specific district of london i think he's probably upper class because he's probably wealthy because there are certain districts specific districts in london where only a few people live that's probably the wealthy district so i think he's wealthy am i right yes got it good now what weapon was used against julian was it a cane like a long thin piece of wood that's curved at one end a cane was it a fist with a ring on it was it a knife or was it an improvised weapon remember the density the density was important it's not the cane not dense enough there was also the imprint of a of a wolf i think it could be a fist maybe the ring is the the thing maybe the density of of the the the ring if it's a jewel that could be it but with a wolf on it improvised weapon i think it's a the fist with a ring on it yes oh my god i'm brilliant let's continue julian was attacked by a wealthy man you say look at the shoe prints formal shoes he fought with him here you gesture to the toppled books but julian was overpowered then probably drugged there was a bruise on julian's face from a signet ring in the shape of a wolf based on the damage versus bone density i guess the ring was made of gold so who would wear a wolf signet ring asks mardler i'm not sure you respond but we can check the family crests of all older families in london that live in areas with red iron-rich soil like the mud i found on the footprints the net is closing in on the perpetrator of these these horrific horrific murders as we've worked out this is an upper-class wealthy person with a signet ring with a wolf on it they must belong to a family who has the wolf on their crest and this person lives in a part of london with uh red soil on the ground we're going to get this guy as we move towards the authoris estate very posh looking area it's late evening as you knock on the door to the club to the clyde authorises extravagant home we knock on the door of clyde orthrus extravagant home you had spent several hours sifting through the family trees and heraldry of prominent london families and he found that orthrus's family's author's family's crest matches the bruise on julian's face so it's the authoris family they're the one with the wolf wolf uh on their crest clyde orthruth's lives alone and is as mysterious as he is wealthy and i'm going to have to think of another accent for clive arthur's i'm so i feel like i've run out of old posh accents at this point the grand door swings open and you're confronted by a tall dark-haired man clyde orthrus he holds a glass of wine and wafts it calmly gently swishing it back and forth what's his accent he's terribly terribly terribly posh can i help you detectives detectives he maybe i should give him a speech impediment so he thought of speaks like this you see can i help you detectives detectives mardler and henderson are behind you mardler steps up we've got some questions for you about some recent murders in london i'm thori says authoris coldly i'm quite busy at the moment he's quite busy you don't have time for this you think to yourself we don't have time for this [ __ ] you think come on you shove past orthrus and walk into the house hey he shouts angrily you can't just barge in here i have right the subtle scent of burning incense hits your nose and you follow it to orthorace's massive living room the floorboards creak noisily as you walk over them ahead of you there's a large oil painting of clyde orthrus propped above the fireplace it hangs over an elegant glass table which holds an empty crystal wine glass and a freshly opened bottle of wine to your left there's a bookshelf stacked full of volumes you decide to further and guest investigate the floorboards the painting or the bookshelf oh well large oil painting of clyde arthurs empty crystal wine glass freshly opened bottle of wine bookshelf or the floorboards i'm going to check the floorboards maybe there's something underneath them but let's check out some of these things let's have a look at the picture the artist captured the coldness of clyde orthrus's eyes quite well so we've had a look at the picture there the empty crystal wine glass maybe he was expecting a visitor and the bookshelf stacked full of volumes it says at orthrus's eye height you see multiple newly purchased books about the small countryside town of winterdale there's a woman on the cover of one of the books wearing a speckled necklace which is apparently a winterdale custom so he's interested in this place called winterdale and the speckled necklace is a winterdale custom that's bound to be information that's useful later on so the oil painting he's cold he's not it doesn't seem very nice maybe he's expecting a visitor that's the wineglass and the book is all these uh books about winter dale and the speckled thing so let's let's investigate the floorboards oh i got a point for that i don't know why marla henderson an authorist join you in the living room as you're prying up loose floorboards prying them up means kind of like maybe using a screwdriver or a tool to like open the floorboards little bit by little bit what the hell are you doing cries arthuris get out of my get out of my home the smell of incense grows stronger with each removed board you can always tell when someone badly replaced their floorboards to hide something beneath their house because of the looseness of the boards you say they just creak so loudly by removing boards you reveal a trapdoor this is the source of the incense the incense smell you look up to authoris open this now orthrus takes a cautious step backwards and glances nervously at the cabinet drawer behind him contemplating you seem to have finally broken his composure leave my house now he hisses i'm warning you right okay i think this is the the cliffhanger so we've we've discovered that there's a trapdoor under the floors it smells of incense wasn't there something to do with um colombian coffee earlier i don't remember what that was if someone's breath smelled of colombian coffee maybe that's a red herring and not important but um so we found the trapdoor although suddenly this this rich guy this weird rich guy suddenly acting very very sort of disturbed he's glancing at a draw in the table behind him i think he's got a gun or a knife in that drawer so if we break open the trapdoor he's going to go to the draw and get the weapon and attack us with it i think we need to confront him now and have it out with him so that he doesn't go to get to go to the draw get his weapon and freaking kill us man that's what we're going to do we're going to confront although we can have a fight there you come on man let's have it that's what's gonna happen but we're gonna leave it there that is the um cliffhanger ending so we seem to have narrowed down let's see if we can just backtrack so there's been a murderer killing people with regularity three people in a row removing their heart um and we've worked out that it's this upper-class guy called authoris he's maybe a member of some sort of religious uh sect or cult um why has he been murdering people in this fashion and removing the hearts we think it's like some sort of ritual of some kind is the incense something to do with that maybe this is incense connected to this weird religious cult he's related to i don't know and what's going to happen if we attack him is he going to fight back if we go to the trap door is he going to attack us with a weapon what's going to happen when we confront althous and is he going to be the murderer maybe there's going to be some action coming but we're going to stop right here and i'll carry on in the next episode thank you so much for listening to luke's english podcast i sincerely hope that you've been enjoying this story and that it's engaged you all the way through don't forget you can check out this story it's called victorian detective three and it's on textadventures.co.uk you could play through the story yourself uh but part two of this will be coming very soon i've no idea if the story is going to conclude in part two or if it'll keep going but we will see thank you so much for listening and i'll speak to you again on the podcast soon but for now it's time to say goodbye bye bye bye bye [Music] thanks for listening to luke's english podcast for more information visit [Music] teacherluke.com

Channel: Luke's English Podcast

Views: 25,017

Rating: 4.9605131 out of 5

Keywords: learn, learning, english, lesson, lessons, luke, podcast, luke's, vocabulary, native, speaker, interviews, listening, pronunciation, british, accent, london

Id: HeyMw-8bWyk

Length: 71min 39sec (4299 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 29 2021