The Echo Bay Murders

**The Echo Bay Murders** is the thirteenth murder mystery featuring Kate Gray. It includes the return of Darius, a character from the second mystery game, Cult Mystery.

## Synopsis

Several women have gone missing from the small town of Echo Bay. Detective Kate Gray is called in to investigate, but things quickly go south as she finds herself the next target of a highly trained serial killer.

## Characters

* Detective Kate Gray
* Lieutenant Aaron Murphy
* Darius
* Mila
* Luca Patel
* Phil Rogers
* Nicholas Chandler
* Chelsey Patel
* Benjamin Lee
* Ava McWilliams (✝)
* Ellie Dixon (✝)

## Plot

Kate is driving in her car when she gets a call from Murphy, who asks her if she'd like to go have sushi together at a new restaurant downtown. Kate explains that she will be away for a week, meeting an old friend in a coastal town called Echo Bay. That friend turns out to be Darius. He calls Kate and informs her that there has been another missing woman in Echo Bay, the fifth one in 10 years. Kate suspects that there must be a serial killer.

Kate meets Darius at the Echo Bay gas station. The gas station worker, Mila, tells them that a woman entered the bathroom one hour ago and never came out. The bathroom is still locked, but Kate finds spare keys in the garage. Suddenly, Kate sees a flash coming from the forest. She tells Darius, who goes to look while Kate searches the bathroom. The missing woman is not there and the window is broken. Kate finds the victims phone and her wallet with a driver licence that identifies her as Ava McWilliam. On the broken window, she discovers a piece of fabric with blood on it, and suspects that Ava was kidnapped. Finally, Kate views the security footage and discovers a man dressed in camo coming from the woods around the same time that Ava disappeared.

Kate leaves the crime scene and is heading downtown to check into her hotel room, when she gets shot at with a rifle. It's the suspect from the security tape. Kate's car is thrown off the road and when she opens her eyes, the killer holds a gun at her.

Kate wakes up in a basement with the killer standing before her. He hands her a glass of water and demands to know what she was doing at the gas station. Suddenly, his phone starts ringing and he says he has to go. Kate escapes the basement and finds herself in a cabin in the woods. She searches the cabin and finds an attic with a large window. She makes a make-shift zipline and escapes just in time as the abductor enters the cabin.

In the forest, Kate finds a women's shoe and suspects that it might belong to Ava McWilliam. She finally finds a road and discovers a loose patch of earth indicating that something was buried there. She removes the earth and finds the dead body of Ava. Her hands were tied and her mouth gagged with pieces of cloth. Kate removes these ties and further explores the area. She finds a hidden cave, where she finds the killer's dog tag, implying he's ex-military, with the name scratched out.

Suddenly, a vehicle pulls up outside. Kate is worried that it's the killer, but it's a local hunter named Phil Rogers. They can't get a phone signal to call the police so he offers to drive Kate back to Echo Bay. While they're driving, the killer's truck shows up behind them. He rear-ends them and Phil's car crashes into a delivery truck. Kate wakes up with an injured leg while Phil is still unconscious. She patches herself up, gets out of the car, and finds herself on a bridge outside of Echo Bay, when the suspect shows up in his truck. She hides between several crates that have fallen out of the delivery truck and pushes them into the way of the killer, damaging his car. He gets out and shoots at her. Phil wakes up and gives his gun to Kate, who then returns fire in order to disarm the attacker. She succeeds but instead of surrendering, he jumps off the bridge. Suddenly, the local police show up and Kate, who has no badge or ID and is still armed with Phil's shotgun, is arrested.

At the Echo Bay police station, Kate is put in a cell until Darius arrives and confirms her identity. Police also found her car on the side of the highway and return Kate's badge, her phone and her luggage. In the police office, Kate and Darius recontruct the timeline of the five disappearances with pictures of the missing women and the places that they were last seen. They were all dark haired and in their mid- to late thirties, so Kate suspects that the killer chooses his victims based on some sort of personal trauma. Also, the disappearances are becoming more frequent, which means that the killer is getting more unstable and dangerous. Kate finds that the killer's vehicle is registered under the name Benjamin Lee, who owns a fishing company. The company is currently under investigation because human remains have been found along their delivery route. Because the search warrant is still pending, officer Nicholas suggests that Kate compares her kidnapper's DNA with a hair that was found in the car of Ellie Dixon, one of the missing women. It's a match, so the tree set off to confront Benjamin Lee.

When they arrive at Lepat Fishing, they meet Benjamin Lee, who is not the man they're looking for. He denies that his company has anything to do with the remains found in the harbour, but when Nicholas mentions the incident at the bridge, Lee reveals that the man driving the truck was in fact Luca Patel. Patel is the co-owner of Lepat Fishing, but Lee admits that he hardly knows him as Patel has always been reclusive. In Patel's office, Kate finds a journal which confirms that Patel has suffered some sort of psychological trauma years ago that he blames on a woman. At the bottom of the basin at Lepat Fishing, Kate finds the body of another woman, hidden in a shipping crate. Lee gives the address of Patel's ex-wife to Darius and Kate and they set off to meet her.

They meet Chelsey at her farmhouse by the woods and she states that Luca an her are separated because he had become increasingly detached from reality. She further reveals that Patel had sustained a concussion in a car accident when he was 15 years old and that he was suffering from chronic pain ever since. Darius informs her that he is their suspect in a murder case, and they enter the house, leaving Kate to examine the property. In the barn, Kate finds old news articles that reveal that Patel's mother was responsible for the accident in which Patel was injured and his father killed. She was suspected of drunk driving, but disappeared before her trial. In another article, Kate discovers a picture of Darius with the 2019 victim Ellie - it turns out that they were engaged. Under a crate in the barn, Kate finds yet another body, supposedly belonging to Luca's mother Margaret. Meanwhile Nicholas calls and announces that they were able to locate Patel's cabin in the woods and Darius and Kate decide to head there to investigate.

Darius and Kate arrive at the cabin, where Kate discovers a hidden room under a fire pit. Cemented into the wall, she finds Ellie Dixon's body. Darius is devastated that his fiancée was really murdered. Kate consoles him and they are determined to find Luca Patel and hold him responsible for his crimes. Kate manages to unlock the back gate, but Patel appears and fires at them. Darius gets wounded and Kate follows Luca into the woods. There, he follows her and attempts to shoot her with his rifle, but Kate sets up a trip wire to immobilize his quad. Both take cover for a final shootout and Kate manages to shoot Patel in the stomach. Then, Nicholas arrives and arrests Luca.

In the final scene, Kate is visiting Darius in the hospital, when Murphy calls. He has just seen the story in the news and congratulates her. When he finds out about Darius, he assumes that Kate has something going on with him, but Kate reassures him that that's not the case. They agree to go to the sushi place that night.

## Trivia

* The name of the fishing company consists of the first few letters of the last names of its founders: Lepat = Le(e) & Pat(el)

## Gallery

Journal Entry Chapter 1 - Fuel StopJournal Entry Chapter 2 - CabinJournal Entry Chapter 3 - ForestJournal Entry Chapter 4 - BridgeJournal Entry Chapter 5 - Police StationJournal Entry Chapter 6 - LePat Fishing Co.Journal Entry Chapter 7 - FarmhouseDarius & EllieJournal Entry Chapter 8 - CabinDarius discovers Ellie's remains
## Inconsistencies

* Darius claims that Ava McWilliam is the 5th woman in 10 years to go missing, but the first woman, Jane Lewis, actally went missing 14 years before in 2007.
* Darius claims that Ellie went missing 'about three years ago', but since she went missing in 2019 and the game takes place in March 2021, it would be 2 years and 2 months at maximum.
* Benjamin Lee mentions that the Lepat company has been a legitimate business for over 60 years, but the old sign at Patel's cabin suggests that the business was established in 1927, so 94 years ago as of 2021. So either Lee chosen has an odd way to express this, the business has not been 'legitimate' until 30 years later, or it's a mistake.