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This is Part 4 of the Murder of the President brainteaser/riddle series. If you have not already, check out the answers for Murder of the President - Part 1 posted by Nit and the answers for Murder of the President - Part 2 and Murder of the President - Part 3, both posted by Joe Z. Each part will give you a clue and you must solve it. Use all knowledge you have of cryptography, ciphers, past puzzles, etc. This question will have two different clues you have to solve. You should also use Google. This case is meant to take place in the present day, so all politicians, celebrities, places, etc. are who they are now. Please post your answers in spoiler tags.

Here's the riddle:

You arrive back at the White House at 11:18 p.m. EST. You go into the Oval Office and you begin searching the President's desk. All of the drawers are open and filled with paper work, except one. It is the bottom left drawer, not too big and it has a lock with three number codes, the first with two digits and the second and third with a four digit codes. You ask for the codes to the desk, but you are told that no one knew them besides the President. Weird, you think. You are given a piece of paper that has some clues that the President wrote that are the codes to the desk. Weird, you think once again. But you don't have time to worry about that now.

Here are the clues.

The first one seems to be a riddle.

Before you figure out this password
There is a riddle you must master
You must first get the tower that looms
Then you must find the hollow moon

The second one is just some words and letters that don't seem to make sense.

D.R.K Dahanu

The thirds seems to be a code.

Down the Rabbit Hole2

Once you manage to figure out the codes you open the drawer and, once again, you find a coded message.

Bl gl .l_cl_ QQI Z;;.D

What are the codes to the drawer? What does this coded message mean? Where should you go next?

Good luck

Hint:

APPLE is in all uppercase letters. It is not an address. The 118 is not as important as the London part.

Note: I will be posting Part 5 in one to two days. I will select the correct answer for Part 4 before, but I will post the answer for Part 4 if no one gets it

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  • $\begingroup$ I figured out the coded message, but I can't figure out the numbers. $\endgroup$
    – user88
    Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 4:39
  • $\begingroup$ @JoeZ. You can post the coded message, it might help some others out. $\endgroup$
    – michaelpri
    Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 4:47
  • $\begingroup$ Some people just don't like the question. Not every downvote has to have a reason, although if your question is getting dozens of them, then you might want to ask for a reason. $\endgroup$
    – user88
    Commented Nov 16, 2014 at 20:45

4 Answers 4

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First numerical code is 10 (1 = tower, 0 - hollow moon, with credit to FortMauris for coming up with it first)

Second numerical clue is the Kaprekar constant: 6174

Lewis Carroll made frequent use of the number 42 in the novel Alice in Wonderland. 42^2 = 1764 for third number

There's a hotel called "The London" in downtown NYC at 151 West 54th Street. Presumably, it has a room number 118, so let's go there.

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  • $\begingroup$ Correct for the number. Wrong for the address $\endgroup$
    – michaelpri
    Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 12:31
  • $\begingroup$ @michaelpri edited with new number and address theories $\endgroup$
    – el jefe
    Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 15:21
  • $\begingroup$ All you have is right. Do you know the first code? $\endgroup$
    – michaelpri
    Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 15:35
  • $\begingroup$ @michaelpri edited to include answer to first part as well, with credit to FortMauris $\endgroup$
    – el jefe
    Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 15:43
  • $\begingroup$ This is all correct. Congratulations. I will mark it correct later today or tomorrow. $\endgroup$
    – michaelpri
    Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 16:18
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I haven't figured out the numerical clues yet, but here's what I have of the coded message that was inside the drawer.

It appears to have been typed by somebody whose hands were one space down from their correct positions, because if you shift each letter up, you get:

Go to lo?do? !!* ApplE

The question marks don't indicate literal question marks, but ambiguous or unknown characters. There is no character above the underscore key on a keyboard.

However, if we take the underscores to mean the space bar instead, it seems obvious that the message is in fact referring to a location in London, which makes sense because "n" is in fact above the space bar on most QWERTY keyboards.

And, if we forgive the strange misuse of the shift key in certain cases (and treat them as caps lock instead), we get a final message of:

Go to London 118 APPLE

the significance of which I haven't completely figured out yet.

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  • $\begingroup$ Coded message is correct. Your assumption about the location in London is wrong though. $\endgroup$
    – michaelpri
    Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 4:59
  • $\begingroup$ What I mean is, I haven't figured out what the "118 APPLE" part means. Unless it's not referring to London at all? $\endgroup$
    – user88
    Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 5:00
  • $\begingroup$ The location is still in America. To find out what it is you will have to figure out the '118 APPLE' part. $\endgroup$
    – michaelpri
    Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 5:03
  • $\begingroup$ Ah, okay, that makes sense. $\endgroup$
    – user88
    Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 5:04
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$\begingroup$ 
Before you figure out this password
There is a riddle you must master
You must first get the tower that looms
Then you must find the hollow moon

The number 10.

D.R.K Dahanu

D. R. Kaprekar, guy that stays in Dahanu. 4 digits for Kaprekar number.
6174

This is what I have found so far. Will edit post when I find more. Hope my answer can help other people :)

EDIT 1

After analysing the coded messages, I realise that the message are 1 letter up from the coded message (compare it to a qwerty keyboard). The message is:

go to lo_do_ 118 apple which corresponds to london 118 apple in my opinion.

I looked up on:

118 Apple

EDIT 2

And found out that there is a place in America which corresponds to it.

New York City is called the BIG apple, therefore matches hint, APPLE are in caps.

After googling for a bit, I found out that there is a place that matches 118 in its logo.

Therefore, I believe that this is the next place we have to go to.

Opus 118 Harlem School of Music

Changed answer for 2nd riddle. Couldn't figure out 3rd riddle still except for some hints I gathered on myself:

since there is a []2, it's probably a 4-digit number with each number squared? I would lean more towards number 2, since it's a quote from Alice in wonderland. There are 2 movies, 1 in 1951 and 1 in recent years, 2010. I would call for 2010 to be the 3rd riddle's answer.

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  • $\begingroup$ First riddle is right and you have the correct name for the second core but there is another number that it's important in the life of kaprekar. Coded message is right but the address is wrong. $\endgroup$
    – michaelpri
    Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 11:54
  • $\begingroup$ Editted. Am i right? :D $\endgroup$
    – FortMauris
    Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 13:15
  • $\begingroup$ Still not the right place. And its a two-digit number squared. You might get some help from the previous lock. $\endgroup$
    – michaelpri
    Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 14:20
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APPLE is a big apple, so the address is in NYC. There is a London Road on Staten Island, so we're looking for 118 London Rd, Staten Island.

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  • $\begingroup$ Very close. Right city. Wrong place $\endgroup$
    – michaelpri
    Commented Nov 12, 2014 at 12:47

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