The Vultures Murder Mystery Hour (And A Bit)

20: Vultures Turned Gamekeepers

As our story reaches its conclusion, our heroes are still at gunpoint. However, Jack Street doesn’t know how timely his arrival was. It gives young Janine plenty of scope to low blow the villainous detective. Furious, Basil goes to shoot Janine only for Street to jump in front of her, heroically taking a bullet. With Street hitting the ground hard, Basil makes his escape towards the maze in Wisteria Lodge. Luckily, Street’s handily placed bottle of chloroform took the bullet.  Unluckily, he’s passing out from the fumes. McGrain is hugging him furiously, which really isn’t a good idea. Janine tells Vultour and McGrain to chase down their old mentor while they head off Dupin’s oncoming detective posse. As Vultour and McGrain run for the maze, the chloroform is playing havoc with McGrain’s consciousness. They get lost in the maze before Vultour trips over something. Which actually turns out to be an unconscious McGrain. The timing ends up being ideal as a lost Maguire careers into the two of them and lands right on his head.  They capture Maguire and drag him out to Dupin and the rest of the DUI posse where they see that yes, he is definitely not dead. Maguire protests his innocence but he’s carted off with his accomplices. Janine draws Dupin’s attention to the fact that by cracking the case they have proven themselves to be the best working detectives in Ireland. Dupin sorely admits that, yes, they deserve to be represented fairly by their union.  With personal and professional validation attained, our four heroes go home where they plan to sit down over a cup of tea, revel in a job well done and get the whole case documented. Then, more tea.

19: The Snitches Dilemma

At the front of the hotel, Murdoch is arresting Moriarty as Dupin protests. The entire murder case has blown up and everyone is pretty confused.  Especially Jack Street who is sadly watching V.P.I. chase a walking bin liner until Hamish Lane tells him that he’s a failure as a snitch and he needs to stop his attempts at becoming legit, because he’ll always belong to the filthy snitching trade. Street loses it and once more, pushes Hamish out of his wheelchair.  He decides to follow after V.P.I. to give them a piece of his mind. However, as he runs around the grounds of Wisteria Lodge to find them, Jimmy Kolchak who is intent on capturing V.P.I. for himself, jumps him. A tussle ensues and Street manages to crack open a bottle of chloroform from Kolchak’s pocket and douse him in it, leaving the Cork gumshoe knocked right out. Street hurriedly runs on and turns a corner to discover our Episode 18 predicament in action.  Basil has V.P.I. at gunpoint. A confused Street has entered at the wrong time! Or the right time? He tells Basil to halt. Jack has something he wants to say to V.P.I. Is Street going to do a mischief to V.P.I.?  And will Basil indulge our sketchy snitch?

18: The Man In The Black Bin Liner

McGrain begins by recapping the events of the murder as decoy, Tom Moriarty’s apparent apprehension and Tennyson’s flight of fancy. Now he is talking about story elements central to the detective genre.  Specifically plot twists. Like this one.  It is revealed that the detectives are being held at gun point by Basil Maguire. He’s not dead. He’s alive. And he stole Ned Savage’s hiding in bin bags escape idea. McGrain is upset, Maguire was their hero, their mentor, why would he do something like this? Maguire says he’s sick of being the good guy. He became the most famous detective in Ireland and now he can’t get any work because he’s too famous to be hired! He’s gone bankrupt, the bank has taken his house and his books aren’t selling. He decided the only thing left to do was defeat the people he knew best: detectives.  He consorted with apparently reformed villain Tom Moriarty and they agreed that they would team up on a huge robbery. And it worked!  Maguire says he would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for them and their pesky dog. Tennyson, confused, says that they didn’t bring a dog. Maguire tells him to shut up and with a smug smirk says they could never outwit Ireland’s greatest detective. He points the gun at Tennyson and demands that he give him their audio equipment and he’ll let them free. It’s a tense moment for our heroes. Basil demands Janine, as a ‘mere’ lady handover the recordings.  Janine takes the recorder from Tennyson and sadly brings it over to Maguire. The smirking Maguire destroys the evidence with a clean gunshot! But then, the villain breaks his word and points the gun to Janine’s head. Maguire laughs, now the only proof of what he has done is them. And he has to dispose of the four detectives. It’s quite the tense moment. Janine is about to be shot.  We bet you can’t wait for our next episode!

17: The Deadly Incident Of The Deus Ex Machina

As they are marched into a waiting squad car, the other detectives mock and chide our arrested detective squad. Our heroes are quite downhearted.  Suddenly, there’s the sound of a van honking and a huge CRASH. Everyone turns around! We can see that Ned has got his van back and he’s just crashed into the hotel sign. He shouts that he hid in his back seat until the villains showed up to drive off. And what’s more, he’s caught both Moriarty and his accomplice Munroe!  And what’s even more than that, they have stolen Lovejoy’s loot!  That’s what the murder was a decoy for! Moriarty wanted to distract all the detectives so he could rob Noel Lovejoy’s valuable antiquities!  Tennyson sees someone getting out of the back of the band’s van, unnoticed... someone in a black bin liner. A deduction hits him, lighting quick. He thinks he has cracked the case! He quietly nudges Janine and says ‘Follow that man!’ As Dupin, Marple, Lovejoy and the other detectives argue and Ned shouts insults at them, Janine and the boys discreetly run to the hotel car park in pursuit of the escaping bin liner!

16: The Case Of The Wrongful Fingering

After a brief but thrilling recap from Vultour, we resume with Janine going toe to toe with bounty hunter Maeve Munroe in the lobby. Hotel staff run for cover as a serious catfight breaks out.  Dupin and Murdoch arrive demanding to know what’s happening. Soon, all the investigating detectives have arrived to surround our heroes. Munroe is protesting saying she’s merely a maid and she’s been attacked. Janine protests that the maid murdered Basil to distract everyone!  Then our four detectives reveal themselves as not being porters. Everyone is obviously shocked and impressed. Dupin, Street, Lovejoy, Marple, Lane and Murdoch all throw out their deductions as to why V.P.I and Ned are responsible for the murder. They all agree that they’ve solved the murder together and congratulate each other. Janine curses their selfish logic as our heroes are dragged outside to go to the police station for questioning!  Vultour notices Munroe smirking, as she exits, free of any accusations. Our detectives have been caught. And the villain is escaping (well, one of them)! What a cliffhanger!