Jago and Litefoot are at the Red Tavern. They discuss the recent events that have transpired, particularly Luke Betterman. Despite absolving him of guilt before, Litefoot still believes that Betterman could be behind the zombie invasion and the kidnapping of Jago. But to what end is Betterman working towards?
As they leave the Red Tavern, Litefoot decides they should confront Betterman at his office. Before they can do anything however, the Infernal Investigators are approached by their biographer Carruthers Summerton with Inspector Quick in tow. Despite Litefoot’s attempts to see the two men off, Quick requests their advice on a recent murder and escorts them to a crime scene around the corner.
The group arrive at the scene of a rather grisly murder in a London manor house. The drawing room was ransacked, and scenes of violence strewn all around. Quick shows the Infernal Investigators the pressing evidence…bite marks and claw marks in the body and furniture. It seems the murderer was a vicious animal or alien beast. Litefoot however from observing the irregularity of the claw marks in areas far from the body, believes the attack to have been staged. Jago finds a handkerchief with the initials L.B. embroidered on it. Litefoot recognises it and takes this opportunity to accuse Luke Betterman of the crime once more. The duo quietly sneak away so that they can get away from Summerton and question Betterman alone.
Unfortunately, their leaving does not go unnoticed by Summerton as he accompanies the Infernal Investigators to Luke Betterman’s office. While they wait for Betterman in the waiting room, the Investigators try and fail to politely send Summerton away, but he does not seem to take the hint. The receptionist arrives and informs the group that Betterman is out of the office. But when he realises that they are acquaintances of Betterman, he invites them through into the practice. The receptionist informs the group that Betterman has been missing for two days. He has not even been home. They learn that Betterman’s last appointment was a house call to a Mrs. Thackaray. The receptionist slips the address to the group so they can follow the lead.
The Infernal Investigators arrive at Mrs. Thackaray’s house to find the front door open. They call out to Thackaray to no reply. Despite Litefoot’s objections, the three men decide to cautiously enter the house. They discover a dead body inside hideously burned, which is strange considering the rest of the room does not have any burn marks. Litefoot discovers a calling card near the body for a place called ‘The Museum of Curiosities’. They decide to leave to contact the police. As they leave, Jago trips over a bag with Betterman’s name attached to it – which further solidifies Betterman being the murderer…
Ellie was about to end her shift at the Red Tavern when Betterman came rushing in. He urgently asks to see Jago, Litefoot or Quick as he explains to Ellie that he had been held captive for the past 2 days. He managed to escape but fears that the abductee may go after Jago and Litefoot next. To prevent any harm coming to them, Betterman suggests he and Ellie return to where he was held captive to investigate any potential clues – The Museum of Curiosities.
At the police station, the Infernal Investigators report the corpse discovered at Thackaray’s home. He arranges to send some officers to secure the crime scene. He unfortunately does not know anything about the Museum of Curiosities. He informs the group that he needs their help with another strange murder at a lodging house.
The Infernal Investigators arrive at the lodging house to find the most bizarre crime scene. All the furniture has been attached to the ceiling with the victim still in the upside-down bed! Litefoot climbs a stepladder to examine the body and concludes the victim died via blunt force trauma to the head. He discovers a calling card in the victim’s hand for…Luke Betterman’s surgery! With Betterman being missing for several days, the evidence supporting his guilt is mounting. Litefoot quietly takes Jago outside while Summerton is distracted.
Litefoot confides in Jago about Summerton’s rather upbeat personality. For a journalist not used to grisly murder, he seems to be taking it all in his stride. They discuss the clues they discovered at each crime scene that point to Betterman and try to deduce what could be the connection between them but come up empty. There currently does not seem to be any plausible connection. Litefoot decides to return to the mortuary to examine the corpse further, with Summerton eager to watch. Jago takes the business cards to follow a theory of his own.
At the mortuary, Litefoot confirms his initial diagnosis that the victim died of a blow to the head. He further explains to Summerton that the blow struck blood from the head, but there was no blood at the crime scene. Which means that the victim must have been killed elsewhere, then transported to the crime scene. With samples of mud and rope extracted from the victim’s clothes, Litefoot deduces that the original crime scene must have been somewhere near either a construction yard or a dockyard near the river.
Ellie and Betterman arrive at the place where he was held captive – an abandoned dockyard warehouse coloured in a garish lilac. Betterman calls it the Museum of Curiosities, even though the building does not advertise itself. Betterman confirms that his captor was a man covered in tattoos with a starshaped scar on his face. Believing that his captor has not returned, Betterman explains to Ellie that he will wait inside for the villain to return and capture him. Ellie is reluctant to follow through with the plan, but as Betterman explains, any other alternative will take excruciating time.
Betterman narrows down the potential areas of interest where the crime could have taken place, but Litefoot presents one last evidence that could narrow down the search, a dab of lilac paint on Betterman’s bag. Litefoot theorises that the building could be painted in this colour. With the day soon coming to an end, Summerton eagerly encourages Litefoot that they investigate the areas of interest before it gets dark out.
Inside the Museum of Curiosities, Ellie discovers the tattooed villain dead on the floor with multiple stab wounds. Betterman tries to lead Ellie away from the sight of the dead man but is surprised to learn that she is not remotely disturbed, she even tells him she has been one once during a case involving the Necropolis Railway. The mention of the Necropolis Railway startles Betterman as one of the exhibits he spotted was about the very same thing. With her interest piqued, Ellie and Betterman decide to properly explore the museum.
Jago visits the local printing press to investigate his business card lead. He presents Luke Betterman’s business card to the manager, but Jago points out a rather obvious flaw in the business card’s print – it reads ‘Luke Bettermar’, which the manager confirms to be the work of his press. Jago presents the charred card for the Museum of Curiosities and asks who commissioned the job. The manager confirms it to be a recent job and tells Jago that he can not only tell him who commissioned the work, but the quantity and where they were delivered.
Ellie and Betterman enter the museum exhibits and find the Necropolis Railway exhibit. Ellie is horrified to discover pictures of the villainous Sebastian Crow, a villain Jago and Litefoot fought long ago who tried to raise an undead army! Not only does the image have pictures of Crow, but pictures of his lab and replicas of his lab equipment. They both conclude that whoever manages this museum must have been behind the zombie invasion! Ellie decides to look around the museum.
After traipsing around the streets for hours, Litefoot concedes defeat and decides that he and Summerton should pass on their evidence to Inspector Quick. Just before they retire, Litefoot spots a large warehouse painted freshly in lilac, plus the door is open. Summerton excitedly tells Litefoot that they should investigate without haste.
Inside the museum, Ellie and Betterman are disturbed to discover all the exhibits are of the various monsters and villains that Jago and Litefoot have fought during their infernal investigations. Including the mahogany men, Professor Payne’s spheres, Mr Sin, the Wet Men, Kempston and Hardwick, the Colonel’s robots, a roulette wheel from Monte Carlo and the Scorchies (complete with a recording of their sinister singing). All Jago and Litefoot’s rogue gallery are in this very building! They hear the front door open and hide behind the exhibit of a caged baboon.
Litefoot and Summerton enter the museum and into the main exhibit hall. Ellie and Betterman spot the two men from their hiding spot, but Betterman advises her to stay still while they explore, especially when Summerton mentions whether this could be the lair of Luke Betterman. Litefoot is rather surprised to see all the exhibits relate to his and Jago’s infernal investigations. He spots an exhibit with a complete account of their battle against Gabriel Sanders the vampire. Summerton is now sure that Betterman could be the only one behind this. This was all Ellie needed to hear as she jumps out of hiding and alerts Litefoot and Summerton to Betterman. Betterman emerges and calmly tries to explain his side of the story, but Summerton takes the initiative and excitedly presents all the incriminating evidence that point to Betterman. Litefoot has heard all he needs to know, he apologises to Betterman for believing him to be the criminal, but he knows now that he couldn’t be behind the zombie invasion, the recent spate of murders or this creepy museum. He explains that to create the zombies that plagued London, one would need Sebastian Crow’s notes like the ones on display and only a person with intimate knowledge of the Infernal Investigators could possibly know that. Perhaps…a biographer like Carruthers Summerton? Litefoot explains that he had suspected Summerton for some time. When Jago mentioned that the murders had no connection whatsoever, they did have one detail in common. They were all bizarre scenarios that Summerton had devised to observe how Jago and Litefoot investigated. Plus, each crime scene had a piece of evidence that incriminated Betterman. Summerton does not attempt to hide his guilt, and admits to the murders, the zombie invasion, poisoning Jago and placing him in his coffin, hiring Adella Lestrange (he admits her real name is Hetty Tavistock), planting the newspaper and train ticket to incriminate Betterman for that escapade, and the kidnapping of Betterman. The tattooed man on the floor was also Summerton’s handiwork to lead Litefoot on a further wild goose chase. Summerton explains that he has been watching Jago and Litefoot for a long time, as far back as their battle against Doctor Tulp. He pulls a gun on the trio and threatens to kill Betterman and Ellie but would like to preserve Litefoot. He leads them all through the museum at gunpoint while eagerly talking to Litefoot about his collection like a psychotically obsessed fanboy…
As he leads them through the museum, Summerton lets slip that he told Sanders that Litefoot was suspecting him, and he told the Colonel where to find them when they returned via time cabinet from the 1960s. He leads them to a curtain with two empty plinths behind it with which he plans to display Jago and Litefoot immortalised. Summerton orders Betterman to pull a lever which opens a grate in the floor to reveal a pool of wax, courtesy of the villainous Jack the Ripper. This is how Summerton plans to display his idols, encased in wax. Litefoot and Ellie are not impressed by the museum as it seems to just be about the Infernal Investigators and is missing a lot of key players in their adventures, notably Ellie, Inspector Quick and the Fourth and Sixth Doctors. Litefoot even goes as far as insulting Summerton’s lack of intelligence when it came to planting his misleading clues, clues that Jago will discover the source of and send him here along with the police. Summerton refuses to accept criticisms and threatens to execute them. Before he can do so, Jago sneaks up from behind and punches Summerton to the ground. Summerton finally snaps and begins insanely firing his pistol, screaming that he will hunt them all down and that there is more to this museum than they realise! The Infernal Investigators, Ellie and Betterman retreat into the depths of the museum.
As the group run through the museum, they realise that the exhibits are not static at all, they are all robots! All Jago and Litefoot’s enemies start to attack. They narrowly avoid being decapitated by a mahogany man and dodge gunfire from the Colonel’s sentinels. The group take shelter in another room where they are confronted by a Wet Man…which is completely oblivious to their presence. But the sinister giggling and singing of the Scorchies’ Magic Mice gives them away. All the monsters converge in the room and surround the investigators. Summerton arrives and demands they give up, but Jago and Litefoot are defiant, stating they have been in worse situations and have always survived. Betterman instructs the investigators to distract him while he devises a way to disable the exhibits, as he will not notice him slipping away. Jago tells Summerton that the police are on their way to bring him in. As if on cue, the sound of a police whistle rings out as Inspector Quick and several officers barge into the museum. Summerton is not worried as his autonomous monsters will kill them all, suddenly the monsters slouch over powerless as Betterman emerges successfully disabling all the exhibits. Exasperated, Summerton shoots at Betterman…and misses every shot wasting his ammo. With no other options and surrounded by police, Summerton decides to turn himself in…but not before trying to grab Jago and Litefoot and suicidally dive into his wax pool. Thankfully, Quick and his officers free the Infernal Investigators just in time before Summerton took his fatal dip…
At the Red Tavern, Jago, Litefoot, Betterman, Ellie and Quick celebrate another case solved. Betterman decides to leave to inform his receptionist that he is safe, and his business can resume as normal. Quick notices his subordinate by the door trying to grasp his attention, which can only mean there’s trouble afoot, so he decides to leave as well. Jago and Litefoot continue their celebratory victory.
Quick is escorted by a constable to a railway arch. The constable explains that a hooded man is squatting there and refuses to leave unless he meets someone in authority. Plus, his appearance has been intimidating people. Quick takes charge and approaches the hooded figure. Quick is disgusted by the horrifically burned face he has confronted and demands to know who he is. The figure laughs evilly and identifies himself as…The Master…and Quick will obey him…
