The Name's Oliver - Ben Oliver. Ch. 159: Duty vs Ethics, Pt. II

[MarianT]

Great pictures of Dragon Valley. I have no idea who the blackmailer is (okay, I have an idea, but I'm probably wrong.)

[Danielle Haydis]

I have some suspicions but no clear idea on who the blackmailer could be. But I bet Schipperke would make it someone that would make us go: "Of course! It was so obvious". Great update as usual   

[RaiaDraconis]

Colonel Mustard, with the lead pipe, in the Conservatory.

[Seabody]

Colonel Mustard, with the lead pipe, in the Conservatory.

Everyone knows it was Professor Plum.

[Swirl-Girl]

Miss Scarlett, with a candlestick, in the kitchen!

[Schipperke]

In the Valley of Dragons, Part VI

Diary Entry

Next day, Lady Olive was up before dawn, expecting another early-morning call.  Time crawled by.  Finally the call came just before 10 a.m.  "Go to Cladach Beach.  Bring a suitcase with §50,000 in used bills."



Under different circumstances, Lady Olive reflected, she would have marvelled at the beautiful view.  But now, standing on the dock beside the suitcase full of money, she just wanted this all to be over.



Then she heard footsteps on the dock behind her.



A mocking voice jeered, "Well, well - the oh-so-important Lady Olive Benson!  Not so high-and-mighty now, 'my lady'!"



Lady Olive stood slumped over.  Her whole demeanour spoke of defeat.  "Are you the person who's been phoning me?" she asked.  "The one who told me it would cost §50,000 to buy your silence?"



The young woman grimaced.  "Of course it was me, you silly old woman!  It had better all be there.  Open the suitcase and show me."



"There's just one thing first," Lady Olive said. She began to spin around.  Did the silly woman think she was a whirling dervish?



And when she stopped spinning -



Diary Entry Ends.

Dear Readers:  Yes, the "Lady Olive" who ran around town all day yesterday was our Ben in disguise.  As Audren and others suspected, there was a reason for the similar names.  Last time Ben was in disguise, he used a name similar to his own (remember Olivia?) so I thought he would want to do the same this time.  And yes, there was an ulterior motive for having all those pictures of "Lady Olive" running around town - not to show off the town (although it's a very attractive place), but to give you lots of opportunities to see the character from different angles (but not too close-up).

Obviously there was no way any of you could have guessed the identity of the blackmailer when she hadn't yet appeared in the story.  I confess that was a bit of misdirection on my part.  I wanted to focus your attention on the blackmailer in hopes that people wouldn't look too closely at "Lady Olive." 

So now my question to you is - what did you think of his disguise?  Was it effective?  Who suspected that "Lady Olive" was really Ben in disguise?  And if you did suspect, thank you for not saying so! 

Here's the real Lady Olive again:



And here's Ben in disguise:

[ladybug53]

Oh my , you really pulled the wool over my eyes this time .  I didn't even think that might be Ben in disguise .  One never knows with all the twists to these mysteries . That was a very clever one ! Brilliant I might say !   

[Audren]

Ah-ha! Very tricksy of Ben. I saw the similarities between the names, but I never put two and two together. Now that I look back, it seems rather obvious. Is the blackmailer a Dragon Valley townie, or just another creation of yours? (I assumed the blackmailer would be a townie, hence why I had no clue)

[Schipperke]

Ah-ha! Very tricksy of Ben. I saw the similarities between the names, but I never put two and two together. Now that I look back, it seems rather obvious. Is the blackmailer a Dragon Valley townie, or just another creation of yours? (I assumed the blackmailer would be a townie, hence why I had no clue)

She's a creation of mine.  I don't know the Dragon Valley residents well enough to assign the role of blackmailer to one of them.

[Swirl-Girl]

Oh my Watcher! How did we not see that before? Maybe Schipperke tried much harder on Olive, than on Olivia. Yes, that makes sense. But, wow. How did we not see that!

[RaiaDraconis]

I have only one thing to say: Ben is way too good at cross-dressing. That was a very clever ploy. It will be interesting to see exactly who this blackmailer really is...

[RainBeau]

Well I did suspect that the names indicated that the Lady was Ben, but that didn't make any sense so I had no idea. I didn't think to look for the possibility so late in the game! I did think it would make sense for him to be there during all of that running around though, and I suppose I was right about that! Nicely done, Schip.

[smartburn]

I thought Olive was the female version of Ben, but I didn't realize you pulled another Olivia - your not-so-nefarious scheme of misdirection worked!

[Louise56]

You totally got me! I didn't have a clue.

[Blayzen]

Yep, just like everyone else, I had no idea that Ben was up to his neck in Women's Wear! I thought it odd that the names were so similar but never thought that they'd be the same person...Possibly because Schip had shown them talking to each other, therefore Ben couldn't be Olive, or because our dear author is way to smart for me...Either way, very effective disguise!