Hilda Pertinax is an Interpol agent who had once requested Inspector Alfendi Layton to help her with the search of a criminal.
Profile[]
Appearance[]
As shown by the ending credits, prior to the events of Mystery Room, Hilda wore a purple-colored set of (white) collared shirt, purple suit with longer sleeves than her current attire and matching skirt with white heels. She was shown to have already worn the pocket watch that she put around her waist in the events of Mystery Room.
For the events of Mystery Room, Hilda wore a vertically striped shirt that consisted of two colors, purple and white with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. Her skirt is also of a matching style, still with the two color, but diagonal stripes. Hilda also wears a blue coat draped on her shoulders, but is never shown with her arm actually inside the sleeves, and the same pocket watch still around her waist. Although during the end credits she was shown to wear a different outfit, just like Justin, Hilda has already worn this attire during the Forbodium confrontation as seen on flashback images when the player investigates case 009. This puts Alfendi as the only one to have changed his attire completely.
Her hairstyle, before and during the game remained consistent, still the same side-swept long, wavy blonde hair.
Personality[]
Hilda made her first appearance on case 007, when Lucy first overheard her conversation with Alfendi, asking him to go and investigate an abandoned house along with Lucy. Hilda was shown to dislike people who attempt to tap into conversations unwanted, as evidenced by how she reprimanded Lucy Baker for attempting to do so. She is a quite stubborn and persistent woman and stands for what she believes and relies heavily on logic and evidence, contrary to Lucy who often uses her instincts and gut feeling. However, during case 009, she was shown to not always rely on concrete evidence, shown by her assuming that Alfendi held Keelan on gunpoint solely based on Justin's yelling, and later turned this assumption into evidence despite not knowing the truth. This was later proven highly fatal and was one of the key points that helped to exonerate Alfendi.
Hilda often puts work above other things, with her not hesistating to arrest Alfendi on the suspicions of murder despite being friends with him, as evidence. In other words, she doesn't let personal affairs get in the way of her job. Hilda is also the type of "guilty-until-proven-innocent" type of person.
Superficially, as in the words of Alfendi, Hilda might be seen as opiniated, stubborn, and a bit bossy at first glance, but there's a softer side to her as well. When she revealed to Lucy the truth of Alfendi's personality disorder, she was shown to care for Alfendi as she told Lucy that she and Justin worked tirelessly to prove Alfendi's innocence, even though they failed to do so.
Plot[]
Layton Brothers: Mystery Room[]
Background[]
In the past, Hilda Pertinax was studing to become a policeman alongside Alfendi Layton, eventually becoming by far the most successfull member of their class by becoming an Interpol investigator. Despite the two of them constantly bickering with one another like cats and dogs, the two grew closer, eventually starting a romantic relationship with one another.
The Jigsaw Puzzle Killings investigation[]
Four years prior to the beginning of the events of Layton Brothers: Mystery Room, Hilda began investigating the case of the mysterious Jigsaw Puzzle Killings, an internal name given to a series of homicides that had reached a whooping headcount of 26 victims in less than a year, with each subsequent murder increasing in violence and gruesomeness with the next one, so much so that Scotland Yard had been forced to keep the matter completely hidden from the public eye, as not only widespread panic would have otherwise erupted across London, but also to prevent any possible wannabe copycat to further muddle the investigations. With no discernible pattern whatsoever, the most vital and sole evidence connecting these seemingly separate murders, were a series of connecting Jigsaw puzzle pieces, with one of them purposely left at each scene of crime for mysterious reasons. Investigating alongside her were, Alfendi Layton, his partner, detective Justin Lawson, and Commissioner Barton himself.
One of the murders they worked on while on the case, was the case of homicide of a millionaire. Unfortunately, some vital evidence disappeared before they could be investigated, and as such, Alfendi was unable to solve the crime.
Nevertheless, thanks to his brilliant mind, Alfendi got closer to the truth, eventually concluding that Keelan Makepeace, one of the suspects for murder of the rich man, had to be the one responsible for the physical execution of the Jigsaw Puzzle Killings homicides. However in a reckless move, while his collegues were still prepating, Alfendi went ahead to Keelan's hiding place, Forbodium Castle, without any backup.
The official version of the events that then happened there was as follows:
Justin, Hilda, and Commissioner Barton, all rushed to the scene in a hurry, but as soon they arrived, they heard a gunshot, and decided to split up in order to quickly find them; Justin was leading the charge, as he proclaimed to having visited Forbodium before, and suggested for the Commisioned to prowl the castle grounds, and for Hilda to take the Central Tower. A few minutes later, while the Commisioner was searching the castle grounds in front of the main gate of the castle, and Pertinax was exploring the top floor of the Central Tower of the castle, they both heard Justin shouting from the roof of the East Tower for Alfendi to not shoot anymore and to stand down. While the Commisioner could only see Justin leaning from the East Tower from his lower position, Hilda was instead able to glimpse at the scene from the slit windows, seemingly seeing exactly what Justin would later descibe as Makepeace and Alfendi, both on the rooftop of the West Tower, guns trained on each other, with Keelan holding his right side in visible pain, while Alfendi was closing in to the cornered man while deviously grinning, his gun pointed squarely at Makepeace, the latter too injuried to try to properly fight back. In reality, Pertinax wasn't able to see Layton at all, but in the state of panic she was, she became sure she did.
Allerted by Lawson about the location of Alfendi and Keelan, the Commisioner headed to the West Tower from the ground floor, but eventually found the way towards the rooftop blocked, forcing him to begin to hack at the door with an emergency axe, delaying his arrival. Meanwhile, while he was occupied by the door, both Justin and Pertinax began moving towards the West Tower, Hilda forced to descend the entire Central Tower due to all the connecting doors leading to the western one being blocked with the exception of the ground floor one, while Justin had to descend the roof of the East Tower from the external woodden stair. Just as Hilda had reached the bottom of the West Tower, and Justin the end of the external stairs, two more gunshots rang into the air. After finally breaking the door down, the Commisioner together with Hilda were the first to arrive on the scene, findind both Alfendi and Makepeace in pools of blood, the former barely alive due to a shot in the chest, Lawson joining them soon after. Everything seemed to point out that Layton had shot Keelan in the head in cold blood, only for himself having also been shot in retaliation.
However, this was not what truly had happen:
That first shot that was heard was in truth the gunshot that had hit Alfendi in the chest, causing him to instantly pass out and collapse, entering a coma. While he was laying unconscious, Lawson saw the scene from the East Tower, but instead of calling for help, he lied, creating a hoax by falsely shouting out for Alfendi to put down his gun, misleading both Hilda and the Commisioner. This is because, unbeknownst to everyone, Lawson was in truth all along, for reasons unknown, the one enabling the actions of Keelan to continue, the two of them having also planned beforehand how Makepeace should have acted during their raid at Forbodium Castle. Like they had planned, Keelan, after shooting Layton, began acting as if he had been shot in his right side, making it look like Alfendi had instead shot him, tricking the witnessing Pertinax, who had been directed to the Central Tower for this exact reason, Lawson scream being the final touch to complete the false premise in Hilda's mind.
Following the charade, Lawson, then quickly, and rather recklessly, crossed over the tiny ledge on the outside of the Central Tower, climbing along the ivy vines that grew along it, in order to reach the West Tower from the East one. Once he was on the West Tower's roof, Lawson picked up the gun of Alfendi and then, much to the killer surprise, shot Makepeace two times, once in the left side, then in his head, ending his connection with the Jigsaw Puzzle Killings and pinning Makepeace's death on Alfendi, before fleeing the scene the same way he came from. However he hadn't realized to having erroneously shot the wrong side of Keelan, creating an inconsistency with what Hilda had seen. He also couldn't bring himself to finish of Layton, a dear friend of his, and instead left him alive.
Thanks to the speedy aid from the Commisioner and Hilda, Alfendi Layton miraculously survived his injuries, albeit barely. Despite Hilda having come to belive in the charges, finding herself unable to trust him anymore, she, the Commisioner, and, at least apparently, Lawson, all worked tirelessly to clear Al from the charges, but the investigation turned out to be a disaster, with evidence continuing to stack up against him; furthermore, their hopes, and Hilda's joy for his recovery, being then suddlently and completely crushed by the confession of guilt from an Alfendi Layton none of them knew at all. As it turns out, during Alfendi's recovery in the hospital, while at his bedside, Lawson secretly attempted to hypnotise him in his sleep to influence his memories of what had happen, but due to his lousy job, he instead accidentally became responsible for Al's multiple personality disorder, creating the "Placid" persona, who became the main identity of Alfendi. While this suited Lawson for the moment, since once he awoke from the coma, Placid Alfendi immediately confessed to the crime just as planned, Justin became however afraid that the original persona of Al, "Potty" as he would later be nicknamed, would eventually reveal the truth, so he began keeping a close eye on Al for signs of recovery.
Placid confessed to the crime, but on the other hand, Potty had no recollection of shooting at Keelan, and refused to talk due to his suspicions of having been framed; as a result of this unusual situation, the death of Keelan, and as such the Jigsaw Puzzle Killings case as whole, couldn't be declared solved, and as such remained opened for the next few years. Furthermore, due to the strain put on it by both the confession of murder, the mistrust, and the newfound split-identity disorder, Alfendi's relationship with Hilda fell apart, her feeling as her Alfendi was gone for good; the two grew distant from one another, with Pertinax deciding to dedicate herself whooly to her work, trying to distance herself from the new Layton, so foreign to her, although Alfendi, even in his Placid persona, still held feelings for her.
File 007[]
In a second attempt at raising attention, Diane Makepeace, the bloodthirsty daughter of Keelan, temporarily went back into her guise as Mariana Etista and feigned an attempt to sell the stone idol she previously acquired on the black market, attracting the attention of Hilda Pertinax. Knowing that now New Scotland Yard was hot on her heels, Diane lured them to a house in the woods, before barricading herself in the basement, where the agents mysteriously lost her traces. While she could have easily figured out the conondrum, Hilda, having become suspicious of Etista's identity, instead contacted Alfendi, and askend him to investigate the basement as a "personal favour" while her men were keeping the perimeter safe, being partially overheard by Alfendi's new partner, the rookie detective constable Lucy Baker, as she talked to Alfendi.
She then exited the room, found Lucy trying to tap into their conversation and berated her for it, after which she left to oversee the wodland mansion. There, Alfendi and Lucy found the room indisturbed as, in accordance to Pertinax' instructions, none of the guarding agents touched anything before Layton and Lucy arrived. During the investigation of the room, during which Layton found time to explain to his new partner Hilda's past history, they found hidden in the basement a series of puzzles left behind; in solving them, they were eventually able to open the way towards the hidden secret room, where they confronted Diane. She however gave them the slip, being then able to avoid capture from Pertinax's men due to the hidden room's corridors being connected to an old, hidden subway tunnels adjacent to the mansion.
File 008[]
Not longer after evading capture, Diane Makepeace sent Alfendi an invitation to meet her at the Forbodium Castle, the same location where Keelan was shot and killed four years earlier, luring him into a trap. Pertinax then received a similar invitation, and in shock, rushed inside the Mystery Room, asking the present Lucy and Lawson where Alfendi went, with Lucy telling her that he had gone somewhere, but she didn't know where. They deduced that Alfendi must had gone to the castle by himself; Justin told Hilda and Lucy to go after Alfendi while he stayed behind and coordinate the force to aid them in this mission.
After arriving on scene, unnerved by the ominous absence of the Interpol agents she had sent ahead to secure the location, Hilda told Lucy to stay close to her to ensure safety; once inside the castle however, Lucy was lured away by Diane faking Alfendi's voice, and the two ended up getting separated. Lucy was then captured by Diane and forced to solve a grim reconstruction of a case involving her father, a reconstruction that used the corpse of one of the murdered agents as a stand in. Diane threatened that she would kill Hilda and Alfendi if Lucy would fail to solve the case, or her by pumping gas into the room if she tried to escape, forcing Lucy to play along with her game, while Hilda was left alone in the castle's dark corridors to look for her.
File 009[]
After Lucy succeeded and was subsequently freed, she heard a gunshot from a room above and found Alfendi tied up, blindfolded, with Diane's dead body on his feet and a gun recently fired in his hand. Having also heard the shot, Hilda rushed to the scene and, not trusting Layton one bit, agressively ordered Alfendi to put the gun down instead of freeing him. Once he complied, she began questoning him about his involvement in the whole affair, why he had come alone, how he got capture, and what he remembered happening. However, with no appearant other way for someone else to having done the deed, Pertinax was quite certain that Alfendi had to be the culprint, even somewhat convincing Lucy of the fact. As she was prepared to turn him in on the charges of murder, but Potty decided to show up and argued with her. Justin arrived alone and gave Alfendi time to explain for himself. Potty eventually gained control for majority of the case, even putting Hilda and Justin as suspects when they re-open Keelan's murder case (which is necessary to solve Diane's own murder.)
Potty pointed out the various incostintencies in both Diane's and Keelan's murders, such as the gunshot wound in the temple of Diane, the discrepancy between wich side of Keelan was shot, and the impossibility of Hilda actually witnessing him cornering Keelan, arriving at the conclusion that the culprint of these two cases had to be the one and the same, and that culrint could only have been Justin Lawson. However, when faced with the conundrum on how he would be able to move himself from the East to the West Tower, Potty lost steam, allowing Placid to resurface. Much to the dismay of Lucy, Placid was quite sure of the veracity of his memories, and once again confessed to the murder of Keelan.
While privately giving a pep talk to Lucy, Hilda explained to her who the real Alfendi Layton truly was, apologizing for not telling her sooner, as she couldn't bring herself to do it, after seeing how happily Lucy was chatting with Placid Alfendi. Lucy current sadness reminded Hilda of herself, opening up to Lucy about how sad and disappointment she herself had felt when Alfendi woke up from his coma, only to confess to murder. While her pep talk was more on the line of having Lucy accept it, and move on as a member of the police, Lucy instead found in it a second wind to redouble her efforts to prove Alfendi innocent. Such was her impetusity, that even Hilda joined in her efforts to save Alfendi, having already become half convinced of Justin's guilt.
Supported by Pertinax, Lucy was able to correctly reconstruct the case, proving that the Ivy vines were the key to the mystery. With his horrible memories proven false, Placid gladly teamed up with Potty, Hilda and Lucy to take apart the last of Lawson's excuses. Justin finally gave up, admitting to not having in him to finish off Layton or watch him getting killed, as well as confessing in his role as supporter, then killer of Keelan, as well as killing Diane mostly out of paranoia. He however refused to elaborate as to why he got involved in the whole mess in the first place, simply saying "let's just say some bad people were getting a little too powerful", leaving the mystery behind the jigsaw pieces open.
During the end credits, Hilda is briefly seen in a flashback, bringing a Dale Herl's Deli's take-away lunch to both past Alfendi and Lawson, both busy at work.
Spoilers end here
Trivia[]
- She originally was planned to be carrying a clipboard around.
- According to Lucy, Pertinax wears a sweet smelling perfume.
- Hilda's conversation with Lucy about the Prof's split personality suggests she may have loved Alfendi Layton at one point in time. Earlier, in file 007, Lucy overheard Alfendi say to Hilda "You know, I still feel the same way about..." implyng that their feelings were mutual.
- In Hilda's profile in Case 9 it mentions that she is 29 years of age.
- Hilda's last name, Pertinax, is a latin word that can translate roughly to mean stubborn, obstinate, or persistent.
