On their way back to Britain from India , Holmes and Russell stop at Russell 's childhood home in San Francisco . As they approach San Francisco , Russell becomes more and more distracted . Holmes concludes from this , and her recurring dreams of falling objects , a faceless man , and locked rooms , that she is repressing some unpleasant memory . Russell denies this and tries to track down the psychiatrist who helped her recover from the trauma she suffered when she precipitated the car accident that killed her family . On the way , she meets a Chinese man , Long , who was the son of her parents ' good friends . Long saves her from a murder attempt before introducing himself and saying that his own parents were killed shortly after her own parents died . When Russell finally tracks down the name of her psychiatrist , she learns that she was murdered after Russell departed for England several years ago . Holmes determines from the fact that there was a recent break-in at Russell 's house , Russell 's anxiety and distraction , the murder of the psychiatrist , and the most recent attempt on Russell 's life , that there is something serious amiss . He hires Dashiell Hammett to join his investigation . They conclude that Russell was present during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake , despite her denial of this fact , and it was this experience that produced the dream about falling objects . He learns from an interview with a survivor of the earthquake that Russell was very frightened by a man with several bandages on his face looking for her father — he had covered up his face because he had been burned while fighting a fire , and this made him appear faceless
1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
Locked Rooms