- **Masks on everyone** ties the erotica to the case's mask motif: Henry Lundine dead in a **white papier-mâché mask** on the roof stairs, the **Pallid Mask** of *The King in Yellow*, The Defaced Portrait's faces scratched out. Identity removed, faces replaced — as pleasure, as death, as a portrait defaced. - The **suspension contraptions** echo the scissor/lift device annotated **"LEÃO" (lion)** — the recurring machinery of the night floors that lifts and holds bodies.