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Nov-24-2009 20:42

(Everyone's a suspect!)

There was a quite noticeable scuff on the floor.

The creme de la creme of the world's crime-fighting society were at a formal dinner at her modest country residence that evening, and there was a scuff on the floor.

Molly Maltese sighed in tones of great irritation and wondered how she hadn't noticed the mark BEFORE all her guests had arrived. They were in the dining room now, chattering happily and dining on the delicious meal she had hired a cook specifically for. Many of her friends and associates were then, including some new faces. One new face in particular; a Mr. John Harlequin. He was a new politician in the area, determined to take on Joe Hollis for mayor. His past was basically unknown; his favorability extreme. Citizens either loved him or hated him.

Just as she had this thought, someone shrieked.

"He's choking!"

Raising a brow, she hurried from the parlor to look in. All the guests seated at the long table were either standing or sitting with shocked expressions; and John Harlequin was quite shockingly purple.

Even as she rushed into the room and neared him, Harlequin gave one final gasp and died. Silence descended as she grabbed his glass and sniffed at the rim delicately. She turned, and countless eyes bored into her.

"Alright, which one of you poisoned my guest?" she snarled.

Whispers and titters danced along the table, before a very familiar man stood. "We should call the police." he said.

Another raised a brow. "There's a room full of detectives here. I'm sure that's not necessary."

"It is when one of those detectives may be a murderer!"

"We can't send for the police anyway; can't you see its been snowing all this time? We can't go anywhere!" another shouted. Molly went to the window and looked out. Sure enough, snow blanketed everything in sight. The cars parked out front were completely obscured by white.

"Nobody is leaving! If you try, I'll shoot every last one of you!" Molly yelled, pulling out a pistol.

Nov-27-2009 19:01

Elizabeth slept like a baby all night. Not because the whole murder thing didn't worry her, but because she was really tired.

She didn't notice any of Marc's moves as she slept, and went down to the breakfast table light spirited, despite her attention to everything.

Speaking only when something was directed at her, the woman cruised through the meal until the moment they went to Elsie's room to find her dead body.

She remained as quiet as usual during the mess, her eyes and ears working a lot more than her mouth.

As Marc invited her into the now empty room, she followed him obediently, roaming the place with her eyes, paying attention to every little thing. As Marc found a clue, she kneeled besides him and looked at the hair. Her hand went to her head, out of instinct.

"Thank goodness mine's straight", she thought to herself.

She stood up, moving some hair away from her eyes and blinking a couple times, slightly dizzy. She said nothing about it, though.

"Let's go find Molly and tell her what was found.", were the only words from her mouth before leaving the room.

She stopped by the middle of the hallway and leaned against a wall.

"You can go.", she murmured, "I need a minute".

Nov-27-2009 22:53

* Back in the study *

"Where did you go last night?" Molly asked Zeo, "After everyone had returned to their rooms. You left, I heard you. Where did you go?"

"I went to confirm some of my earlier findings." Zeo replied with a straight face. "And I think I was right. Let us return outside, I will make the announcement, and everything will become as clear as day."

"What earlier findings? Do you mean the fingerprints? I thought those were dusted and done." Molly questioned suspiciously.

Zeo did not reply her, and forced his way out of the study. Molly had no choice but to follow Zeo back to the dinner hall.

Just as Zeo was about to speak, Marc interrupted him with the new finding. Zeo eyed the strand of long curly hair carefully and remained quiet for a while. "This strand of hair belong to the person who also wrote the threatening note." Zeo finally said, with a tinge of regret in his voice. His then cleared his throat and announced to the crowd, "I am sorry to say, that both PE belong to none other than our host, Ms. Molly Maltese."

Everyone in the room gasped.

"Just a moment ago, Ms. Maltese was trying to question my whereabouts last night, when she was actually the one I saw leaving the room." Zeo stated. "Obviously Molly would have access to all the rooms in this house, have the authority to order Elsie to do the poisoning for her, and when she fear that Elsie might spill the beans on her, she told everyone not to leave their room so that she can silence the poor girl and made it look like a suicide."

Nov-27-2009 23:11

Molly looked on Joseph with an expression of perfect horror.

"What on earth are you saying?" she asked in a confused voice. "This must be some mistake, you have to believe me!"

"I always said you could have been a star actress, Maltese." a voice said from the assembled crowd, but Molly seemed to pay no mind. She focused on Joseph, her eyes narrowing.

They watched as she stepped forward. "You will not get away with this, Joseph Zeo." she said in a low voice, but Marc, seeing her move forward pinned her arms behind her and shoved her to her knees in a blur of motion. She grunted as she hit the ground, and looked up at Joseph, who was outlining the evidence eagerly.

"I can't believe it was Molly all this time!" Vulkie said to Elizabeth who was standing near her. But Elizabeth frowned.

"I don't know if I quite...buy it..." she said doubtfully, but Vulkie scoffed. "Oh please, acting is second nature to Molly. She jerks people around as if they were on marionette strings, she could easily have played us with none the wiser! Joseph is a hero for catching her in time!"

But there were still some mutters of vague unease as the room looked in Molly's unwavering eyes.

Nov-27-2009 23:23

"Just a moment, Joseph," Marc said. "That's a frame up right there. You shouldn't jump to conclusions. I've made that mistake before and I've had to lean the hard way not to do it again."

"What do you mean?" Zeo replied.

"I'll explain it." Marc said, "first off, that bottle may have Molly's finger prints on it, but, it was never proven that was the bottle that had the rat poison. If you recall, I said it MAY have been THE bottle that contained the poison. Not that it WAS the bottle. Second off, as you can see, this hair that I found is curly. Not straid. Ms. Maltese here, has strait hair. And thirdly, have you even decided to compare that handwriting to anyone's handwriting in this house?"

No one spoke for a full minute. Marc stepped forward and took the note from Zeo's hand and began to examine it.

"If you ask me," Marc said, "It looks like someone who is.....left handed wrote that note."

"That's amazing for you to know that," someone said. Marc didn't look up to see who it was. "How do we know you didn't write that?" they asked.

"Because, I'm right handed. I have terrible left handed hand writing and this here is pretty neat writing," Marc said.

"Well then how do you know that someone who is left handed wrote it?" Joseph asked.

"Very good question, my friend. Take a look at the slant of the words." Marc replied.

"What about them?"

"They are too slanted for a right handed person to have written it. If you ask me, I think the same person who wrote this note, also had their hair pulled out by Elsie. So who in here has curly hair and is left handed?" Marc said.

Nov-27-2009 23:48

Molly got to her feet and as she listened to Marc speak she slowly approached Joseph.

"Someone who has curly hair and is left handed?" she asked sweetly, and then slapped Joseph as hard as she could.

"There's MY left hand, ya bastard!" she shouted, and he rocked back on his heels with a stunned expression.

Molly smiled. "Just wait a few minutes boys, I'm sure you can pull my fingerprints right off of that sorry face of his!"

Nov-28-2009 02:31

Zeo smiled at Molly, feeling the sting on his cheek. He was sure it was already turning red. "I'm only reading out what the evidence is telling me, Molly. Just because your cover is blown, there's no need to get angry."

Molly tried to slap Zeo again but Marc stopped her. "Easy, my lady." He muttered.

Zeo turned to Marc, "My dear friend, if you have forgotten, 30 minutes ago Molly asked everyone write something down for me to analyze. Well, everyone except for her. However, I do have the dinner invitation with me, which Molly had written personally to all of us. Is that correct, Ms. Maltese?"

"Yes, I wrote those invitations to everyone myself, but I did NOT write that threatening note!" Molly defended.

Zeo compared the invitation with the note, "See how the person slant the 'l' and cross the 't'. It's an exact match." Everyone nodded. "And we all know that Molly here IS left handed, as you can also tell from the strength of her slap just now."Zeo added, rubbing his right cheek.

"But this only means someone had tried to fringe Molly's handwriting. Everyone has that invitation so everyone is still a suspect." Someone remarked.

"True, that was how I was going to announce it as well, before Molly took me into the study and Marc showing us the hair. Yes, about that hair. I was quiet for a while back then because it confirmed my suspicion." Zeo held the piece of hair in the light, "Just look at the coppery color of that piece of hair. There's no mistake who it belongs to. As to why it's curly, I believe Ms. Maltese does set her hair sometimes with curlers. It could have been left there during an earlier visit."

"But not last night." Someone said.

"Perhaps not last night, but there's no mistake that this piece of hair belongs to Molly." Zeo concluded. "As for the bottle which may have contained the rat poison, with Elsie's finger print on it ((yes, Elsie's, not Molly's. read again)), you are right, Marc, we have no way to find out, especially with Elsie now dead."

Nov-28-2009 09:03

" Well Zeo the hair can be explained...this is Molly's house. So that hair could be from anytime she visited her maid." Charlie said lighting a cigarette.

" As for the bottle no one has tested it to see what was inside it." He replied walking up to the head of the group. "And it could have been planted evidence in the first place." He said fixing Marc with a stare.

" That letter could have easily been a forgery." He said coming to Molly's side.

" I say we split up in teams and search the two crime scenes." said Charlie looking around.

Nov-28-2009 09:19

Elizabeth was listening to all the pointed evidence. It was a frame-up. It HAD to be. As much as she hated to speak up, she had to. For Molly.

"I'm sure it was a forgery. I know all of us are suspects until we figure out who actually killed Mr. Harlequin. But I can be sure about certain people in this room."

She looked at each one of the people who had basically saved her life (Read Reformed burglars never rest for more information).

"These people wouldn't kill anyone. Not, at least, unless it was self defense. And I don't think that was the case. This was a vicious murder, perpetrated out of hate."

She rolled her eyes.

"And before someone points a finger at me, no, I didn't. I'm presenting a THEORY. I'd be a really dumb murderer if I killed the man and started telling you guys about it."

A long pause came between two sentences.

"As for the ones who are thinking 'once a criminal, always a criminal', I assure you I was a burglar, but I've never killed one single person. Plus, I've cleared out my life. I swear."

She stopped speaking and went to the window, her finger tip drawing random forms on the glass.

"But since we're all suspects, I assume we could start by being honest and telling our fellow detectives the reason each of us had to kill Mr. Harlequin. I'll go first."

She continued to speak, not looking at anyone in particular.

"It was because of him I got arrested, shortly before I decided to change my life. So, who's next?"

Nov-28-2009 09:59

Molly put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot, glaring at Joseph.

"You have atrocious manners," she remarked. "Coming into my house and my dinner party and then having the nerve to try to frame me? Hell, I let you sleep in my room last night when there's...a...murderer..." she trailed off, making bug eyes at Joseph.

"Say, Joseph, how did you know Harlequin?" she narrowed her eyes, fairly certain that if she was being framed for something she didnt do, the accuser definitely had a reason to cover something up.

Oh, how she wished she could smack him again!!!

Nov-29-2009 17:16

"Before we start pointing fingers at each other again," Marc said, "let's take into consideration, one thing."

"What's that one thing?" Joesph asked.

"There is one other person who has not been interviewed yet. One person whom no one even thought about."

"On with it, Marc!" Molly said.

"Obviously, its a double homoside. I think that Elsie, poisoned Mr. Harlequin with that bottle I found last night. That bottle may have been the one to contain the poison. Let's say for instance that she DID kill Harlequin. Of course, none of the detective saw her do it because she was in the kitchen with none other than Molly's personal cook-"

At that, everyone gasped.

"Yes, the cook," Marc continued on, "The cook saw her do it and wrote the threatening note. As for it being Molly's handwriting, I've worked on cases in which two different notes had similar handwriting. The cook placed the note where Elsie could see it. Elsie read the note and knew that someone knew that they were on to her. To make a long story short, the cook killed Elsie, who killed Harlequin."

"Very interesting theory Mr. Lacrimosa," Zeo said, "Very interesting indeed. However, there doesn't seem to be anysign of a struggle. Nothing is tipped over or broken."

"That is true," Marc said, "But then again...who ever said that a cook can't clean? Who ever said that a chef cannot tidy up a room?"