Tilt: You then understood the mechanism of the piano, but without using it?
J.L.: No, but I was right to wait... The next day, while I was searching Roy's cabin, I was most surprised to find the coded sheet discovered the day before in the piano! So it was Roy who used the rigged instrument. Back in Mary's room, I found out that the bookcase had just been broken. A visit to Roy confirmed my suspicions: I discovered the stolen book, a chess manual titled "52 Chess Games".

Tilt: I don't see the relationship between chess and the piano?
J.L.: It only appeared to me after a few minutes of deep reflection. You see, the coded sheet in the piano had some bold letters. I counted these characters: they were 64, the exact number of squares on a chessboard! It couldn't be a coincidence... I reproduced a chessboard on a blank sheet, and then copied the 64 letters. Unfortunately, it was still unreadable. It took me one more element to understand how this complex code was handled. I noticed this element on the kitchen calendar. The numbers of all weeks of the year were hand-drawn, a total of 52. 52, like the 52 chess games detailed in the book. Add to that the 12 pieces of music on the list, such as the 12 months of the year. This time, I was getting to the point! I went to the living room as fast as I could. Strange, the piano pedal was now lowered. I put a coin in the instrument and chose the second piece from the list, since it was February, the second month of the year. I turned the foot of the piano to discover a printed sheet in the secret compartment!

Tilt: That you've decoded...
J.L.: Thanks to the chess book! I copied the bold characters on a blank chessboard. Then, since we were in the fifth week of the year, I opened the book to the fifth chess game. With each piece played, I copied the letter occupying the corresponding square on my chessboard. Finally, I got the following message: "Tribes need guns. The Lion." Remember the information collected in Anita's newspaper or in Chris' cabin folder. It was about the revolution in Ethiopia and the rebels of Menelik, aka the Lion. Everything became clear to me. The message was about a shipment of weapons bound for Asmera!

Tilt: This deduction was certainly famous, but did it allow you to unravel the secret of Mary's disappearance?
J.L.: No, but it was from this research that I started to direct my investigation. I had two clues in hand: Juste's medallion discovered at the northern beach after his death and, above all, a book found in the library and entitled "The Pirates". First of all, the medallion interested me for the simple reason that Mary had a similar one. The triangular jewel showed a skull surrounded by precious stones. It included the letter "V", probably the initial of Vargas. As for the book, it contained a message of the utmost importance. The text said "From the septentrion to the meridian, by the mooring, the monkey and the brothers of the coast, on the skull. Never go backwards. Then you will follow the way of the Zodiac as it is written." It was obvious, all the elements of this message related to Maupiti island. The monkey indicated the basin, the brothers of the coast the two Vargas brothers, the mooring the pier ... As for the septentrion and meridian, they referred to the north and south, the two beaches of the island. That's when I remembered the first message in Maguy's cave. The numbers on the wall offered a geometric design. I tried to make the two pieces of the puzzle coincide. As a result, each figure corresponded to one location: 4 and 2 for the northern and southern beaches, 1 for the pier, 3 for the basin, and 5 for the buildings. For the number 7, which corresponded to the skull, I later discovered that it was the well. By rereading the message of the Pirates, the ranking of the various places finally gave me the following code: 413572.

Tilt: Was it a combination?
J.L.: Exactly, and I soon discovered that it corresponded to the opening of Mary's case, the only object I had not yet been able to use. By pressing the stones of the case in turn, without ever changing the way (the text said "never go backwards"), the case finally revealed its secret to me... Inside, there was room for two medallions. On its lid, the signs of the zodiac. Everything worked perfectly, and I read the last words of the text: "After that, you will follow the way of the zodiac as it is written." I pressed the stones on the medallion, composing the code 54236. A click, a small rod just came out of the jewel! During my investigations in Mary's room, I had noticed in the aquarium a strange stone, marked with a skull.