Nancy Drew 01: Secrets Can Kill – Walkthrough (Her Interactive/1998)

Aunt Eloise’s House:

Right in front of you, under the mirror is a letter. It’s a note about the library and where you can find the key. Look at the right drawer under the note. There’s a lot of stuff in it but you only can take the CALLING CARD out.

Turn left and enter the living room. To the right of the sofa is a picture on a small stand. Open the drawer under it and take the REMOTE CONTROL out. Take the notepad and learn about the book sale and the club. There’s also an envelope. Take the envelope and open it. Read the invitation and note the symbols on top: sigma, phi, kappa & delta.

Turn right and look at the cabinet. Behind the doors in the middle is a TV but you can’t use it at the moment. To the left and right of the TV are books. Look at the books on the right. In the middle is a book you can take and when you look inside you can take a KEY.

Turn further to the right and look at the chest. It’s locked. Use the key on the lock and open the chest. You can take the QUARTER out. Turn further to the right and you can see some books and a pair of glasses on a table. Open the book and learn about the flowers. Especially note the green letters: Mitch.

Close the book and turn left, back to the hallway. In the hall turn left again until you see the painting to the left of the mirror. Go there. Clicking on the left side of the painting will make it move aside, revealing a safe. The safe has symbols we’ve seen before: press the delta, phi, kappa and sigma (use the order on the letter) and the safe will open.

Take the silver KEY hanging on the door. Look in the safe and the little box with the flowers on top. Open the box and you’ll have to solve a slider puzzle first. [You can find how to solve a slider puzzle here]. When the puzzle is solved a drawer will open with a note in it. Read the note to learn the username and password (Username: ELOISE DREW, Password: O WISE ELDER, an anagram of the username).

Leave the safe, replace the painting and turn around. Go to the front door and open them (you’ll see a turn around symbol but it exits the house). Select the Paseo Del Mar High School on the map.

Paseo Del Mar High School:

Inside you’ll find a display case of the Fighting Manateed. Turn left and walk into the hallway. On your right is a bulletin board with a lot of messages. Look at the message on the middle left. It’s a bit cryptic but when moving the spaces it says: Find the morning edition and discover an other crime, the answer is in black and white to who will do the time.

Back away from the board and turn right until you see a Senior Prom banner. Walk towards the banner and turn left under it. Another message board. On the right panel is a pink note with a text upside down: In the face of danger against a killer if you dare a very unlikely couple could be a helpful pair.

Back away again and turn right. Walk towards the grey double doors. On the right of these doors is an eyechart. Here the text is written backwards: if you can read this then make no mistake. A genuine first class detective you’ll make.

Back away and turn left. Another message board. This time on the bottom of the right panel are three notes: one upside down, one mirrored and one both. The left one says: Nowhere to turn to, nowhere to hide, let the books in the library be your answer guide. The middle one: A symbol of Kanji, worn with great pride, reflects a big secret, that someone must hide. The right one: He did what it took to make the grade, Even if it meant cheating to keep up his charade.

Back away and turn around. There’s a football player standing. Talk to Hector Sanchez. Ask him about averything and learn that he’s not very touched by the death of Jake Rogers.

Turn to the right and take a look at the judo poster left of the vending machines. Note the number for later. Back away and turn right until you see the three sportsposters again. Click on the basketball poster to turn into the hall. The walk straight ahead to the debate poster. Turn left here and go into the hall untill the blue wall. Turn left again and go into the study. Then turn left into the next hallway. At the art exhibit turn left and look at the notice board. On the right panel is a message in the middle: There’s more than one way to remove a chain so thick aside from the combination mel’s boltcutter can do the trick. Turn around and you’re facing the doors of the library. Use the silver key to unlock the doors and enter the library.

Look at the desk and take a close look at the blue SAT sheets next to it. Read the bold printed words: Sabotage should cause concern but with the gloves you will not burn.

Turn right and look at the drawers agains the back wall. It’s full of maps. Two drawers can open and contain word puzzles. The lower one can make a sentence (start with blue): the boltcutter you must take or you could be the next Jake.

Turning back, there are bookshelves. The one with green books can be zoomed but none can be viewed. To the left are blue books: The Knowledge Collection. The F can be taken and tell you about fingerprints. Below a section of red books: The Global Book. The B will tell you all about Braille. Look at the coloured letters. When you arrange them you get: Mitch drops a gun. To the left, purple books: Encyclopedia Americana where the K will tell you about the Kanji-signs. Below those are green ones: Libraria of America where the M will tell you about Morse. Again coloured letters that scramble the message: Find VCR Tape. Turn around and face the fiction section.

Walk over there and look at the F-G isle for the Palmstory For All (on the left). In the H-J isle look at Optical Illusions and Facets of Violence. In the N-O shelves you can find Protecting the Manatees and The Zodiac and You. To the right of these isles, against the back wall is a shelf with a book about Dream Symbols and Their Meaning. There are some letters in a different colour spelling: Dont run Nancy.  

Turn right and go up the stairs. Halfway there’s a plaque in appreciation of the principle. Robile Moor Rodo. That’s an anagram for Boiler Room Door. And note the code below: when entered on a phone you can spell: note. Turn left and go up the stairs. In the shelves from left to right you should be able to find: The Judo Handbook, Boiler Operations and Dictionary of handwriting analysis. Also there’s A sign of the Times (note the signs in a different colour! It spells Jake, 235).

Walk further to the left and go to the chairs and tables. On the most right table is a notepad and a book. A lot of notes on the paper. There’s a secret message written. Decypher it with a reverse alphabet (Z=A, Y=B etc) and you can read: The one with the temper and the Iron Fist is more than a prime suspect on Jake’s blackmail list.   Also you can see CW (Conny) and DG (Daryl). The phonenumber is the one of the Judo gym.

Go back down the stairs and to the doors, just click on the desk. Exit the library. Turn right and at the end right again. Turn around in the sports corner and talk to Hector Sanchez again. Ask him about the locker and if he knows Hal Tanaka.

Turn around and walk back into the hall. Facing the prom-banner, turn left and walk all the way to the end to the Student Union. Turn left and meet Hal. Talk to him about the locker combination, Hulk Sanchez and Jake’s locker. So Jake wanted a phone for his locker combination and Sanchez has an injury. Turn left and look at the notice board. There’s a message in the center in mirror: Jake’s locker combo was part of his fame. Just find a phone to decode his name.

Turn around and walk into the hallway with the phone sign on the left. Click on that sign to enter the room. Turn around and talk to Connie at the magazine rack. Learn about Jake and not being populair.  When she tells you she has to go , talk to her again. Ask her what she knows about Hal, Hulk and Jake. Look at the necklace she’s wearing, especially the symbol. It’s a Kanji sign for crane.

Look at some magazines on the rack and all the posters above it. Turn to the right and look at the soda can on the floor under the boxing seal. It’s Hal’s library card. Turn around and face the phones. Look at the yellow pages under the phone. A corner of the page is missing. Use your card on the phone and make some calls. Call the number from the Judo poster: 555-JUDO (555-5836). You are refered to the advertisements and the magazine. You can call the three names in the book and you get three times a different advice: check out the teachers room, check out the library and get into the locker.

While we’re at the locker subject, Jake needed a phone for that. Together with the clue from the book A sign of the Times (JAKE, 523) we can make the combination: J=5,A=2,K=5,E=3.

Turn left and look at the notice board. Under events is a red and white leaflet with the Thrill Of Victory pinned on it. In the red and white checkers is written: side of school.

 Leave the phone room and face the emergency exit doors. Turn right here and look on the ground. There’s a missing piece from the phone book. Look at it. It says 555-DRUG.

Walk all the way down the hall to the other side and find a taped locker on the left side. Ignore the notice, just look at the padlock. Now try the combination we found. There’s an empty VHS cassette in it. A book of English Essays Through The Ages, that you can open and a copy of the Judo Today magazine. Here you can read about the anoymous winner of the Judo tournament: Nineco. That must be an anagram for Connie.  Look at the jacket and find the POCKET KNIFE, a newspaper with an article about a break-in at the local pharmacy. 

Turn around and walk all the way back to the blue wall and turn left there. Go back to the magazine stand and talk to Connie again. Ask her about the camera. Go to the study dome and talk to Hal about the camera. Turn left and walk into the hallway all the way to the end to talk to Hulk Sanchez. Aks him about the camera and the robbery.

Turn around and go left. Walk towards the stairs and turn left there. The first turn right and you’re facing the front door. Use it to exit the school and go to Maxine’s Diner.

Maxine’s Diner:

Enter the diner and look at the menu. Notice the different colours on the menu? The left one says: soup ladle, the right one says: boltcutter. Turn right and look at the menu on the table next to the ladies room. Open the card and read in red: DANGER and in purple: ATOSBAGE (sabotage).

Turn left again and talk to Daryl Gray behind the counter. Ask him all about Jake and the murder. When he drops the converation just start again until you know everything Here you’ll learn about the film club Jake was in and the project he was doing. He wasn’t into sport and knew about the injury of Hulk and the money problem of Connie.

Walk to the left and enter the kitchen in the corner. Turn left and look next to the dish rack into the black tray. Take the LADLE out. Now turn right and look at the tomatos.  Look at the message carved in the board. There’s a danger sign. We’ve read a hint for that  before so look under it. The WIRECUTTERS. Take them. Now hear the gas flowing? Bad sign. Appearantly the cutters were closing a gap. Put the ladle in it’s place.

Turn right and look at the work schedule. There’s a code underneath. When substituting the numbers with the letters of the alphabet you can read: Jake’s fate happened deliberately, gravity was not his worst enemy.

Leave the diner and go back to school.

Paseo Del Mar High School:

Don’t enter the school through the main entrance but when standing in front of the school, select the right side (remember side of school?). Take the right most window and when you’re looking through, you can see the teachers lounge.

Use the green pocket knife on the third pane from the left and cut a hole. Then you can open the window and enter the lounge.

Start by looking at the computer. When looking at it, it asks for a username and password. Now we found those earlier in the house of Aunt Eloise. Enter Eloise Drew as username, then ENTER and o wise elder as password. ENTER again. Then zoom in on the welcome page. When we open the file cabinet icon the first thing we see is the missing book. That’s the book in Jake’s locker! The icon below it tells us about the Video Lab having a broken lock and the password for the boiler room needs to be changed. Click on the printer icon and a document is being printed. Click on the key on the right side to learn a lot of passwords. Especially the maintenance room is of interest: NOTE. The email icon tells us there was somebody in the library very late. Leave the computer.

To the right of the computer, next to the phone is a pink notepad. A message is written on it: B-4 U C D N-M-E, X-M-N D L-F-8-R. You can translate this into: Before you see the enemy, examine the elevator.

Turn left from here to the printer. There’s a paper on it and when you look at it, you see the security details. The incidents of 8:05 (Hal?) and 8:30 (Jake?) are interesting. At the bottom of the form is a code: BR19LL5.K5YP14 When the numbers are replaced by their equivalent letters it reads: braille keypad. Leave the note and printer and look above the printer. There’s a periodic table. Note that the red squared elements read Se Ar C H (backwards), the blue ones: Be Hi Nd and the green ones: B O I L Er. Turn further left.

Open the file cabinet of the Senior Final Papers. In the left row, second from the front is the file of Hal Tanaka. Take it out and read the essay. It’s like the one in Jake’s locker. So there was some cheating here. Put the file back and close the cabinet.

To the left of the caqbinet is a map. Take a close look and read the top and bottom border: A trophy was not the only prize, but also money of a greater size. Left and right is CW written. So can we conclude that Connie participated in the Judo contest and won? 

Turn further left, past the table to see a bookcase. One of the books might be of interest. Open it to find a piece of paper with sign language on it. The book from the library helps a lot here. In signs it says: Connie Watson.

Turn left and look at the Administration In/Out board. All the first letters spell: Tanaka Cheats. Leave the teachers lounge the way you came: through the window. Turn to the front of the building and enter the school again. After the main entrance turn right and at the end turn left. Walk straight ahead to the study dome and talk to Hal. Talk to him about Daryl (and his father) and about the essay and the blackmail.

Turn left and walk to the other end of the hallway and turn right to the gym. Talk to Hulk about Daryl. He can tell you a bit more about the sponsoring. Turn around, leave Hulk and walk towards the end of the hallway. At the end turn left and turn right at the first possibility to leave the school. Go to Maxine’s Diner.

Maxine’s Diner:

Enter the diner and talk to Daryl behind the counter. Talk about how everyone is connected to each other. He suggests to pressure the suspects and tells you he received a note. Don’t talk about pressuring the suspects but ask for the note. Daryl will give you a note. After saying goodbye you can open the note. It’s an invitation to the boiler room. Let’s go there. Leave the diner and go back to school.

Paseo Del Mar High School:

Enter the school and turn right. At the end turn right again and on your left is the door to the maintenance room. The keypanel is in braille and the code is NOTE (we know that from the computer and from the library). Number the keys 1 to 12 from left to right, top to bottom. Then press 4, 3, 1 and 8. You can now enter the maintenance room.

Push the red button to take the elevator downstairs. Hear that ticking? Doesn’t sound too comforting. Look to the left on the floor. A toolbox. Open the toolbox and take the GLOVES out. Close the box again and look above at the emergency intructions. These are the values the dials should have. Look to the right on the wall behind the pit. It’s a plate with an establishment date on it. Could it mean more? To the right are levers. They are chained together. Two options: use the gloves on the lock and enter the establishment date or use the wirecutters to cut the chain.

To turn the dials to the correct value, pull the left one twice, pull the right one twice and pull the left one once. The boiler will now cool down and the ticking will stop. Turn around and on a crate is a cup from Maxine’s and a matchbook. Open the matchbook to find a phonenumber. Now that’s a familiar number: 555-DRUG so it’s the pharmacy.

Turn left and look at the right side behind the boiler. It’s a grating of an air vent. Take the grating off and crawl into the vent. Half way you’ll find a VIDEO TAPE. Crawl further until you’re outside again, next to the school. Return to the front of the school and from there return to the map. Select Aunt Eloise’s House.

Aunt Eloise’s House:

Enter the house and turn left to the living room. Turn right and open the doors in the middle to see the TV. Use the remote control to turn on the TV and use the tape on the VCR to watch the tape. You can see Hulk breaking in, see Connie in Judo outfit, see Hal copying an essay and Daryl selling some papers. Use the remote to turn off the TV and leave the house again. Let’s confront some people at school.

Paseo Del Mar High School:

Enter the school and turn right. At the end turn left and go to the phone room. Talk to Connie. Confront her with her winning the contest and learn about the prize money. Leave the room, turn right and enter the Study Dome. Turn left here and enter the hallway and walk to the end. Turn left to talk to Hulk. Learn about the steroids he needed and the messages he had to deliver. So Jake was blackmailing him too. Turn around and go left. At the end of the hall turn left again and halfway turn right to leave the school. Let’s talk to Daryl again.

Maxine’s Diner:

Talk to Jake and tell him about the tape. Learn about the blackmail and the things Mitch was up to. When Daryl suggests to go to the police tell him you want more evidence. Daryl will help you later by dropping off another package and thus confronting Mitch. Leave the diner and return to school. We have to warn the others.

Paseo Del Mar High School:

Enter the school and turn right. At the end turn left and go to the phone room. Talk to Connie.  Ask her to help and tell her Daryl’s life is in danger. She still won’t help you. Actually, no matter who you talk to, Hulk, Hal or Connie, they all don’t want to be involved. Then we’ll have to do it ourselves. Leave the school again by leaving the phone room, turn right and half way turn left towards the entrance. Go to Vandeley Pharmaceuticals. 

Vandeley Pharmaceuticals:

You can see Mitch and Daryl arguing. Suddenly Connie will jump in. Her jump made the gun from Mitch slide towards you. Take it out of your inventory immediately. As soon as Mitch notices you and walks towards you, point the gun at him and click. He’ll surrender.

[Since this sequence is very time critical you might want to use the Second Chance option form the main menu in case you fail. That way you don’t have to start from school again, and saves you a lot of disk-swapping.]