A COURT OF ACCUSATION AND LIES

[thedirectors]

It's half-past nine when everyone reconvenes in the lounge room once more. The tension in the air is palpable as eyes dart from one suspect to another, wondering who will crack first. As the night wears on, it becomes more and more apparent that something must be done. As interesting as it would be to Weekend-at-Bernie's Mr. Lionheart's corpse, someone will find out about the murder eventually. The culprit must be caught, unless everyone else wishes to hang on their behalf.

You've gathered more clues from the rest of the manor--now, it's time to put everything together and catch a murderer.

---

As before, this part of the murder mystery is a freeform discussion of the evidence and potential theories on whodunnit. Feel free to interject in other people's threads, accuse people, lie, cheat...whatever it takes to get the truth. If you want to ask for any mod clarification, feel free to request it in your comment title.

Remember--the game concludes on Saturday, where you will be asked to vote on who you think murdered Mr. Lionheart. If a majority of characters vote for a suspect, that suspect will be arrested, and you'll be told whether the guess was correct or not. Whatever your conclusion is, make sure you don't split the vote--for splitting the vote will have worse implications for everyone involved. Get to it--there's a murder to be solved!

MAP | GUEST LIST | INVESTIGATION 1 | INVESTIGATION 2

Comments

[scouserer]

[Constantine...seems to be in a good mood, despite the flinging of accusations his way. Better than when he left the lounge. He hums to himself, rapping his fingers against the arm of his chair, his face twisted into a crooked grin.]

Well! This particular little excursion has been very enlightening. Y'know, I'm almost sorry that the man kicked it--would've loved to have questioned him on what I dug up.

[He seems practically giddy about it. He waves about a closed letter, looking very smug.]

I found a little letter from a real estate agent, confirmin' an appointment for an estate appraisal sometime next month. Now, what could that possibly mean for dear ol' Lionheart?

[bydeadly]

Is that all you think about?

[The break has done nothing for Deadly's revulsion at Constantine.]

[scouserer]

Pretty much, yeah.

[He leans back in his seat, propping up his arms behind his head.]

Of course, the old man wasn't my intended target for the evenin'--in terms of information, at least--but I'll take what I can get, eh?

[bydeadly]

And who was your target, pray tell?

[scouserer]

Why don't you give it a guess, old chum?

[end_of_the_spiders_web]

[Moriarty taps his cane on the ground.] Well, well, well. I don't know about the rest of you, but my search was quite fruitful...

Given our last discussion, I figured it would be best if I went to personally check the contents of Mr Edgar's will. As one of his closest confidants, I knew where he kept such things. However, to my great surprise...

The will was missing. Rendering it impossible to determine its exact contents. Now, as previously discussed, last week it was changed such that the entirity of Edgar's estate was going to be distributed to the town... But, with the will missing, we cannot check if that is still the case. How very convenient for any would-be killer.

[scouserer]

The will was missin'?

[A pause. Something itches at the back of his mind.]

Wait--since when did you know about what was gonna happen to the Lionheart estate?

[end_of_the_spiders_web]

I'm sure the best answer for your newspaper would be that he whispered in it my ear like so many sweet nothings after a night of passion. [Moriarty chuckles, then makes a serious face.] But no. I overheard Edgar and Mr McGill talking about it last week.

In fact, my inital suggestion that the will was a motive for murder was merely a ruse to draw out Mr McGill's admission of the will's contents. However, when given the opportunity to say what was actually contained in the will, or leave the Lionheart children to be subjects of suspicion, Mr McGill remained silent, until I pressed him on the matter to make him say the words out loud.

How strange, hmm? A lawyer, seemingly uneager to discuss the will's contents, even when it was crucial evidence towards the identity of the killer... And now, that very same will, missing, while the only man who could authorize changes to it is dead.

And not only that, I believe Mr McGill to be hiding something else as well...

Behind the fireplace, I believe there is a secret door. The very same fireplace Mr McGill stood by while the rest of us were investigating. If such a thing existed, why would he not share that? It seems like crucial evidence towards figuring out what happened here.

[scouserer]

[Constantine runs a hand through his hair, positively beaming.]

A secret door...shit, this is just like somethin' outta those TV mystery dramas or what have ya. That means there might've been another way for someone to access the old man's bedroom in secret. A way that Mikey over there might not have seen....

[A pause. He whips out his notepad and pencil, looking intrigued.]

Curious--was there anythin' else you happened to overhear at the time?

[bydeadly]

A secret door...? [Deadly tilts his head.] Are you sure you haven't been watching one too many films, old boy? The concept seems a touch too fantastical.

[gimmejimmy]

[ Jimmy scoffs, addressing Moriarty with an eyeroll. ]

Yeah. I saw the secret door too. First time seeing it myself - along with one in the projector room. Sorry I don’t exactly want to talk to a guy who’s insistent on prying into my business every other goddamn minute here.

But fine. Whatever. You want to talk about the will? Let’s talk about it.

[ And just like that, Jimmy’s very quick to pull the damn thing from his jacket. Holding it up in the air for everyone to see, but keeping it close. ]

I took it from Edgar’s office before he bit it. Whoops! Silly me for not wanting to bring the secret door and have you immediately try and call me a murderer. I tried to catch the lesser Lionheart on his way up the stairs and talk about his father’s incredibly rational business decisions, but of course I’m blocked by Michael before I get anywhere near him.

So I dunno, maybe if I got to go up those stairs, he’d still be alive. Who knows?

[bydeadly]

[Back at it again...Deadly wonders if this will ever end, and if not - will they ever leave this manor again?

Best move forward with it, all the same.]

I took a good walk outside during our brief intermission, which was refreshing, if nothing else. I found a bloody candelabra - our murder weapon, I presume. Of course it was far too heavy for the likes of myself to lift and so I left it where it was. And on my way back, I spotted that one of the windows to the living room was ajar. It looked like someone had been at the lock.

[scouserer]

So looks like the man was done in by the candelabra, huh?

[He scratches his head.]

Maybe it was someone who broke in and scampered off afterwards. Maybe they're already long gone.

[bydeadly]

In that case, every minute we spend in this farcical trial keeps us further from them.

[end_of_the_spiders_web]

That's simply impossible. Our numbers now are exactly as they were at the start of the party. And there's no way a would-be assailant could have gotten upstairs and back downstairs without Mr Myers, or for that matter, the other guests, noticing.

Additionally, surely in the rain they would have left muddy footprints you could have seen while you were outside?

[littlefreeloader]

[Ugh... he's going to have to agree with Deadly, huh.]

Someone's definitely been through the window. There were metalic scrapes on the sill and dirt right under the window in the living room. So I guess someone broke in from the outside.

[gimmejimmy]

Yeah, I saw the damage from the outside. Lotta scratched metal and the window was jimmied open.

[littlefreeloader]

[Damien exhales. Every moment he wished they would just call the cops so he could just leave but...]

So the Dining room is an absolute shitshow. It looks like someone turned over the entire fucking place to find something. I also found some stuff pops wrote me about liquidating the company. Shit like “it’s time for this bloated empire to be laid to rest” and “to free myself of the industry that so haunts me”

[He places the papers down. This time he isn't leaving out important information!]

There was also a book in the living room called "How to Get Away with Murder", which talks a lot about Agatha Christie and how she used rat poison in her stories and how it fucks you up. Apparently that stuff takes hours to kill you.

[scouserer]

So a slow and painful death. Hardly the stuff of dramas and murder mysteries...and I doubt it was the way dear ol' daddy wanted to go.

[A pause.]

Unless he didn't know it took that long to take effect?

[end_of_the_spiders_web]

Is that right? That certainly leaves room for the 'two killers' to be the same, then... Perhaps whoever it was truly did wish to speed up the process... [Moriarty lifts his cane, turning it over in his hands, thinking everything through.]

[He frowns.] ... That's all rather convenient, is it not? Are we to believe the killer left behind a book called "How to Get Away with Murder" just lying around for anyone to discover? Can we take it at face value that they were that bold? Or perhaps foolish is the better word.

[littlefreeloader]

I guess it could have been my dad's. Maybe the killer stumbled upon it after giving him the poison and realized they fucked up.

[end_of_the_spiders_web]

... I see. Well, if that's true, they'd probably rush to Edgar's bedside to finish the job in quite a hurry, wouldn't they?

If only we knew... Someone who rushed up the stairs just before the murder...

[smithsgrove]

[Michael's head tips, his eyes narrowed. He taps the one of the bottles of medication again.

If the pills in the bottle he carried upstairs this evening were laced with rat poison- there's no way it would have taken effect so quickly. Only about half an hour passed between him bringing Lionheart his medication and Lionheart's body being found.]

[scouserer]

You went upstairs at 7:20 with the medication, didn't ya? And you posit that Mr. Lionheart was alive then. Then, the body was found at 8:10. Someone could've murdered him anytime between then. Let's pretend that he took his medicine right after ya gave it to him....

[He sniffs, rubbing his nose.]

It takes hours for that stuff to kill...but how long does it take for poison itself to take effect, exactly?

[littlefreeloader]

About 10 minutes, according to the book.