Detective Case Files

Detective Case Files is a miscellaneous quest in Fallout 4.

Quick walkthrough

 * 1) Head to Nick Valentine's Detective Agency.
 * 2) Talk to Ellie Perkins.
 * 3) Accept her request in solving some cases.
 * 4) One will acquire the Earl Sterling case notes and Marty Bullfinch's holotape. Picking up the former will start the side quest The Disappearing Act, while listening to the latter will start The Gilded Grasshopper.

The Disappearing Act
The quest is started by reading the case file on the table. The Sole Survivor can optionally ask about Earl Sterling but it's not necessary. When one asks Vadim Bobrov about Earl Sterling, he will provide the player character with the keys to Earl's house, allowing them to look around. There is a surgery receipt on the floor next to the sofa - alternatively, Yefim can be persuaded to tell the Sole Survivor that Sterling told him about getting the surgery. This will lead to the Mega surgery center in Diamond City. When interrogating Dr. Sun, one can ask about the bloodstains on the floor leading to the cellar. If the interrogation is successful he will hand over the keys to the cellar. After entering the cellar, one will encounter Dr. Crocker speaking with the corpse of Earl Sterling, talking about how he shouldn't bleed during the surgery. When Dr. Crocker notices the player character, he will say that the surgery went bad and that he is high on Jet. One can either choose to kill him, arrest him, or let him go, but he will kill himself no matter what, injecting his body with a lethal dose of Psycho. A few seconds after that, Dr. Sun enters the cellar to discover what really happened. One can explain to him that the operation went badly and Dr. Crocker wanted to hide the body in the cellar.

The Gilded Grasshopper
The Sole Survivor begins the quest by listening to a holotape lying on one of the desks, informing them of the possibility of a note located in a gold grasshopper statue. The holotape directs the player character to Faneuil Hall, where the statue is located. After acquiring the statue, which is a unique Junk Item, and reading the note that accompanies it, the player character is directed to North End graveyard where they are required to dig open the grave of Shem Drowne. After Shem Drowne's grave has been opened, the quest will be completed and one is awarded with some XP and the Shem Drowne sword, a unique revolutionary sword with additional radiation damage.