MOUNT MORTIMER HINTS: Phoebe Haig

Before starting the hints for each character, we would strongly recommend building a timeline of events as to when Dr. Achenbach was killed. If you get stuck trying to build the timeline of events, please follow the hints trail – “Timeline of Death”.

Who is Phoebe Haig? Familiarize yourself with the Station Staff list and pay attention to their role at the Scientific Research Station.

Phoebe is a Biologist at the Science Research Station (SRS). What motive does Phoebe have for wanting to kill Dr Achenbach? Familiarise yourself with one particular Diary entry – Thursday, December 1st.

Thursday, December 1st — Phoebe’s diary entry states, “Today has been a BAD DAY!” She describes Dr. Achenbach’s plan to cut power to the CAE, a move that would disrupt an experiment she has been working on for the past four years. Since other entries in the diary frequently mention her work conducting experiments at the SRS, it’s clear this diary belongs to Phoebe. This potential interference with her work could provide a motive for Phoebe. Where does Phoebe claim to be at the time of the murder? Read the Statements.

Phoebe claims she was in the controlled artificial environment, taking measurements on the lichens growing there at the time of the murder. To verify this, we’ll need some solid evidence. Two other documents tied to her work—the “Experiment Outline” and the “Experiment Results”—might help us see if her story holds up.

The Experiment Outline document details the methodology for Phoebe’s experiment, specifying how frequently the “solution” should be applied—“five times a day at intervals of 3 hours and 4 minutes, starting at 10 am.”

1st Application – 10 am
2nd Application – 1:04 pm
3rd Application – 4:08 pm
4th Application – 7:12 pm
5th Application – 10:16 pm

When we review the results, we notice data recorded for the 5th application, which coincides exactly with the time of the murder. However, these entries could have been conveniently added later, potentially to make it seem as though Phoebe was in the lab. How can we verify her account further? Check back to her diary entry, particularly the note about the stain on her page from Tuesday, November 29—there might be more to uncover.

(If you do not want to proceed with the answer to this just yet, we advise you to work on finding an alibi for the other suspects before opening the answer below)

Why is this stain important? Take note of the methodology surrounding the blueness, diameter, time, and the linear correlation of the paper absorption. Now apply this thought process to the stain on the Experiment results photograph found at 23.30. The ruler in the photo will help you!

The stain on the experiment results appears to support Phoebe’s claim that she was in the lab recording data at the time of the murder. Here’s why:

In her diary, Phoebe describes a stain measuring 2 cm in diameter that took one hour for the blue color to fade completely: “That’s the stain there — the blueness is all gone now, of course. But at 2 cm in diameter, it took an hour for the blue to disappear.” She adds that the correlation is linear: doubling the diameter doubles the time for the blue to vanish.

On the experiment results, however, we see a stain twice as large—4 cm across (measurable with the ruler in the image) — and some blueness still visible, showing 1.5 cm of blue remaining while 2.5 cm has absorbed. Working backwards from the time the photo was taken at 23:30, we can calculate when the fluid was initially dropped.

Using the absorption rates, we know:

0.5 cm fades in 15 minutes,
1 cm in 30 minutes,
1.5 cm in 45 minutes,
2 cm in 1 hour,
2.5 cm in 1 hour 15 minutes.

Thus, for 2.5 cm of blue to disappear, it takes 1 hour and 15 minutes. If we subtract 1 hour and 15 minutes from 23:30, we find that the solution would have been applied around 22:15 — placing Phoebe in the lab at the time of the murder. This methodology is further corroborated by Harriet Hiller’s diary entry on Thursday, November 1: “She insisted on showing me how her special blue solution disappears at a ‘linear rate,’ making me measure it every so often, and sure enough, it did!”