Sorry to say, but bad interface.
I am playing through the game, and I noticed a few things.
A) when you use an item on another, it only gives you a message for the first thing you use it on, or at least only vocalizes it. Not sure if this is only for invalid combonations or not.
B) after talking to the detective, there's a smell link that doesn't work in subsequent looks.
C) the guide on you website refuses to load, despite the rest of the site running fine. Possibly something wrong with the .swf?
D) A possible bug, or maybe just a block in the game, that I can't get past without the guide, Why doesn't the traveller take my mostly new guide?