MOUSE: P.I. For Hire – The Vanishing Act Walkthrough

Just as Jack is falling from the airship while chasing his mysterious target in MOUSE: P.I. For Hire, the game pulls you back to where it all began.

Jack begins to narrate how everything started. A few weeks earlier, he received a call from Wanda about a missing person case, setting off a chain of events that spirals into the story of the entire game.

Note

This is part of our MOUSE: P.I. For Hire – Walkthrough Hub, so if you want more content about the game, be sure to check it out.

Talk To Wanda

As soon as you start playing, you will find Wanda standing near her car in front of you. Approach her and speak to her. Jack is not sure why this time, she asked him to meet him in person in order to discuss this case.

She will start talking about the magician who disappeared mid-act, but she suspects it is more than that, more than just an act, it could even be a kidnapping. Wanda mentions his name, Steve Bandal, it seems that he knows the fella.

Now you need to investigate the theater where Steve disappeared, but it is under police control. Wanda gives you a “pass,” which is just a picture of her, and she believes it will fool the officer guarding.

Go past the door there, and you will find the officer in front of you. Interact with him and show him the “picture pass.” He will let you in without even blinking; it worked.

Investigate Bandel’s Greenroom

Enter the building and then progress ahead until you spot another officer and a locked room. To the right, you will find a room where there is a vent that you can go through. This will get you to the other side.

Here you will find some switches and a key inside the water tank. First, climb up the ladder and go inside the tank and pick up the key, then interact with the switches there to unlock the stage.

If you go left and make your way to the lockers, you will be able to pick up a newspaper.

We missed this when we first went inside after showing the pass to the guard officer.

Head back to the locked room that you passed by earlier and use Bandal’s Greenroom Key to open it. This is Steve’s room and you need to find any clues that you can use to know what really happened to him.

Find And Collect Any Clues

Go to the vanity table and open the drawer there, you will find a book, pick it up. This will give you a piece of paper with an address as a clue.

Before you leave, look at the poster of Steve and take a picture of it. Now that you have an address, leave the theater and head towards her apartment.

Leave The Theater

You will find the officers have left the theater, and you can progress freely. Make sure you use the typewriter to save before moving on.

Open the door with the barricade tape and go through. Here, you will be attacked by two enemies; defeat them. Follow the path where they came from and take the stairs up.

Before you go through the next door, look to your right, and you will find a secret, a baseball card sitting on the table. From here simply follow the Detective Brush to make it outside of the theater.

Reach The Assistant’s Apartment

Just outside you will be attacked by some enemies that will come out of the garage, deal with them, and then make your way to the Assistant’s Apartment.

You will come across the entrance to the apartment; it will be labeled Here, but do not go inside yet. Instead, check the garage to your left for some goodies and a safe. The solution, per usual, is below.

Go inside the apartment and take the stairs up. One set of stairs up, and you will see a window. Kick it to break the glass and circle around to the other room by breaking its window as well. This is another secret.

Here you will find another baseball card sitting on the small table next to the wooden box. Pick it up, then break the wooden box to continue your path upstairs.

At the top, the stairs will end, and you will need to jump to the other side. The door to your right will require the Loft Key to unlock, so you need to break the wooden box and go to the door on the left side.

Here, you will come to a dead end but you will be able to see a “totally normal wall” and a barrel behind it; shoot the barrel to destroy the wall.

Tip

For future reference, all these “totally normal walls” are breakable using barrels or explosives once you get some, so keep that in mind.

Unlock The Loft Key Door

Before you move forward, look at the crack on the wall to your left where the bathroom is and shoot the barrel. This will open the door and you will be able to obtain the Loft Key.

No need to track back, just take a few steps back and shoot the barrel inside the bathroom to open a shortcut.

Jump to the other side and unlock the door, this is another secret. You will find a Schematic on the table, pick it up.

Back To The Assistant’s Apartment

Now back on the main track, you will see an enemy unaware of your presence and an anvil on top of it. Shoot the anvil so it will drop on its head. As soon as you go down, more enemies will come to you.

Follow the Detective Brush, and you will leave the building. More enemies will be waiting for you outside, so use the explosive barrels to kill them easily.

Behind you, you will see a ladder that you can use to jump behind the wooden fence, you will be able to collect some additional money from here.

Go to the main road, and many more enemies will attack you. Defeat all of them and then go all the way to the end, where you will see the bench with the Heal-D bottle, which is a secret, and you will be able to pick another comic page.

Now head back and take the stairs down to the subway entrance to go underground.

Go Through The Subway

Follow the Detective Brush and go through the numerous passengers until you find a door that is labeled Staff Only. Go inside and crouch to pass the pipes ahead.

As soon as you pass them, turn right and approach the pile of money, that is another secret, no collectible this time.

Open the door and use the typewriter to save, you will find an additional Schematic that you can pick on the table in front of it. In the next room, you will be attacked by enemies, deal with them.

Head back to the top and look to your left, you will see another “totally normal wall”, use one of the explosive barrels here to break it.

In case you used all of these on the enemies, simply circle around and break the glass on the side to go in.

Use the switch here to unlock the door below and make sure to pick up anything useful here. Go through the door you just unlocked and keep progressing forward.

Once you come across some boxes that you need to climb up to reach the door, just circle behind it and you will find a secret pile of cash that you can grab.

Open the door to the next room and you will hear a subway coming, but it will not be passengers only, but enemies. Defeat everyone here.

Before you take the stairs up to the streets, go to the left and to the back where the bathroom is. Here, you will find a janitor that you can speak with.

We have no idea what his purpose in the game is but at least you can pick up the Schematic from the table behind him.

Now take the stairs up, defeat the enemies along the way and make it outside of the subway. You will find yourself in front of the assistant’s building.

Find Betty Deux-Fiddle

Go inside the building and take the stairs up all the way to the top. You will find Betty’s apartment just ahead. Go inside and talk to her.

You will find her, well, her body is detached, not sure if it is some sort of a magic trick or not, but Jack is not here for this. He asks her about the disappearance of Bandel. She herself does not know what exactly happened to him.

Steve is famous, and naturally, this comes with a lot of enemies, but Betty mentions a specific party, the Big Mouse Party, where Steve might have talked to some people. Specifically she points you toward the Stage Designer at the Opera House since both worked a lot together.

After you finish your conversation, go behind the counter toward the kitchen and you will find a secret, a newspaper lying on the table. Pick it up.

Now exit the building and head toward your car that is magically parked on the street. Interact with it to return to the main town where your office and your friends are here, this is the hub area between missions.

When you first arrive here, and when you look back, you will see the janitor from earlier for a second before he disappears.

Explore The Town

Wanda is waiting for you at the Little and Big bar entrance to your right, but feel free to explore around. John, the owner of the bar, is sitting at the counter, there alongside Stilton, your old war buddy.

Inside, you will be able to play a mini game called Baseball Cards, but it requires $25 to participate.

To your left, you will see Tammy standing, and just behind her a general shop that sells ammunition and other collectibles like newspapers, baseball cards, and comic pages.

Go inside the bar and go to the kitchen area, here you will find a locked door, tailpick it and go down to the basement.

This is a secret location that has one of the ten figures scattered around the game.

Talk to Wanda again

When you finish exploring, go talk to Wanda in order to keep her updated with what you have found so far. Jack will mention that he met Betty, the assistant, and she mentioned the stage designer.

Wanda, the journalist she is, got all the tea, and of course, she knows the Stage Designer, and she tells you a bit about him.

Pin your Vaudeville clues

After you finish your conversation with Wanda, head to your apartment, which is located just behind the bar on the first floor. Enter your office and interact with your Crime Wall.

This is where you will pin all the clues that you found throughout your investigations in order to connect the dots and figure out what to do or where to go next.

Pin all three clues that you collected. Jack will put them in the right spot, so you will not have to think about that. If any of the clues have a connection, you will get a resolved lead; this will help Jack move on in this case.

You will learn that your next destination is the Opera House, where you might find the Stage Designer and hopefully learn more about the story of Steve’s disappearance.

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