Page 191 of King’s Ransom

4071AY: OVERALL RIDDLE: HOLMES BOOK SLEEPY HOLLOW. COMICS S.H. CEMETERY

BETWEEN CARNEGIE AND CHRYSLER GRAVES.

1. OTIS EXPRESS ELEVATOR UNDERNEATH

2. DENNIS RODMAN L.A. LAKERS 73

3. WIVES AT HELIPAD ON ROOF

4. 44 NANNY’S APTMT.

5. GARBAGE CHUTE ON 98

3765AZ: COPY. GOT IT.

4071AY: LET OTHERS SOLVE SOME IF THEY CAN. MAKES IT LOOK BETTER. THEY WON’T BE ABLE TO SOLVE ALL.

3765AZ: OK

4071AY: HERO MOMENTS FOR YOU: I’LL DROP BOY FROM ELEVATOR AND YOU CATCH HIM. USE WINDOW CLEANING HARNESS TO SAVE CASSANDRA K. MY COLLEAGUE WILL MAKE SURE G.M. IS AT S.H. CEMETERY FOR YOU TO SHOOT. IF ANY OTHERS WITH YOU, YOU WILL HAVE TO NEUTRALIZE. GET G.M.’S PHONE AFTER. IT WILL HAVE FAKE TEXTS WITH YASMINA K.

3765AZ: OK

Sam, the second person in this text exchange, 3765AZ, is Merritt Garrett.

He had the answers to all the riddles in advance. He was even given ‘hero moments’. He was the one who shot the Grandmaster and his goons at the cemetery. He even knew to check the Grandmaster’s phone at the end of it all. Merritt Garrett was the third client!

Call me as soon as you get this.

Monty

Back in the elevator, I stared at Merritt Garrett.

‘You were the third client. You hired Modern Alchemical Solutions to transform you into the world’s greatest detective. So they did, by setting up all those traps and riddles, and having you outdo four other well-known private investigators. Modern Alchemical Solutions just combined your goal with those of two other clients in one giant blockbuster event on December 21st.

‘First, Winnie Tan: once a mousy tech girl, now trim and terrific, she’d rekindled her relationship with Aristo King and wanted him back.

‘So she paid Modern Alchemical Solutions to destroy the reputation of King’s current wife, Yasmina Ivanova, which they did in the most public way possible.

‘The second client was the Chinese spy service, the Ministry for State Security. Since they worked often with Xiao, Modern Alchemical Solutions added Xiao to the list of five detectives to be brought to 59West. Their goal: the QuantumSpeed-7 chip.

‘And the third client: you. A man who wanted to be known as the world’s best detective. So he brought you and four of America’s best detectives to 59West, only he gave you all the answers in advance.’

(To be honest, that last part irritated me.

Actually, it pissed me off.

The riddles that I’d solved, I’d solved them cold, under pressure, with my own brain and reasoning. Garrett had known the answers all along.)

I continued: ‘After all the media attention I’d received after solving that big case in the South, Modern Alchemical Solutions had been forced to include me on that list. They told me so.

‘And finally, to carry out all three cases at once, Modern Alchemical Solutions kidnapped, drugged and set up the Grandmaster, a nasty killer-for-hire known for employing elabo­rate traps.’

(I recalled asking the Unperson why he’d bothered with all the traps and riddles.

He said there’d been a reason for them.

That reason: to create the illusion that the Grandmaster had been behind it all.