The Weeping Lotus Case
This case involved a murder 20 years ago. Martin promised the victim's mother he'd solve it, and he wants to keep his promise.
A woman named Helen was murdered by someone shooting her. The bullet entered her through her downward trajectory. As she fell, she wrote "HELP" in the dust with her finger.
A Detective Shelby, a vice cop, was in charge of this case. The two main suspects were ex-boyfriends of Helen's - Clive Brisbane, the world famous monkey trainer (alibi - he was at the races all evening) and Robatighe the logger (alibi - he was murdering someone else at the time).
Martin has studied some photos all day and when he goes to bed, Frasier has a try. Frasier wonders - what if Brisbane sent a monkey to kill Helen? But Martin has spent 20 years on this and Frasier has solved it in minutes - this would add insult to injury if Martin knew. Frasier and Daphne rearrange the photos so Martin will come to the same conclusion. Next morning, Martin solves it and goes to the station. Later he comes back saying no one believed him. Frasier confesses how he arranged the photos. Martin thanks him, but now he looks like a fool.
The thing is, Martin hadn't come to the conclusion that the monkey did it, he'd thought of something else. When his friends come round later to tell him he's right and the killer confessed, Martin makes Frasier take some of the credit. But when Frasier starts talking about the monkey, he gets some very strange looks.
Martin had worked out that Helen hadn't written "help" at all. She'd written the name of her killer - Shelby! Someone had rubbed away the S and she hadn't finished the B, so it looked like a P. Shelby confessed and Martin's friends celebrated - he'd finally solved it.
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Frasier created by David Angell, Peter Casey and David Lee. Based on the character "Frasier Crane" created by Glen and Les Charles and featured in the NBC / Paramount production "Cheers". Frasier is a Grub Street Production for NBC and Paramount. All Frasier characters are copyright NBC, Paramount and Grub Street Productions.
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