HINT! ep2: Hate the Player

This is the sound of Worlds Beyond Number.

Last time on

Clue.

You know, for SEO purposes,

maybe we should think of

it.

All right.

Let's name this.

All right.

Mr.

Green has opened the door to this scene.

You see the study with its myriad of dead animals and now a dead host.

There is a moment of silence as you all take this in.

I am going to shakily walk to try to look at the body.

Don't

we should just call the calls the police.

Don't touch anything.

I am

in a haze.

I'm not looking to bend down, but I'm just trying to look if I see the gun on the floor.

Uh, you do not see a gun on the floor.

Miss White is right.

He's he's been shot.

I mean, we

do we do we call the police?

I'm going to go do it now.

Turn us to around the room.

Miss Scarlett

thinks to try to stop you, but does not lay a hand on you, thinks better of it.

I says, wait, we're all...

This is

a house that is full of booze.

We're all a little tipsy and

I mean...

I'm going to stand up.

Are all six of us in this room right now?

Yes.

Everyone came in.

Yes.

Mustard, Scarlett, and Peacock have all filtered in behind you.

I'm going to

look up

to Claudette and take one last look around.

I don't see a gun anywhere.

Do I see two wounds in just one?

Just one.

Well, I stare for a moment at my best friend's ruined head

and

step away and am clearly in a place of mental

just noise that I can't, but I'm gonna walk up right next to Claudette and go quietly to her, even if other people are looking at me, but just like don't want to speak in a group setting and just go up and go,

The murderer is standing here within arm's reach of us.

Oh, God,

you're right.

Okay.

Oh, Mrs.

Peacock

looks around.

She's shaken, but she taps you and she says,

What's

why don't you

come with me?

Don't go don't come here.

Thank you, dear.

Come on, come on.

And I'm gonna help kind of usher her.

What's a nice close room to this?

Because I don't want to move far from the group.

You are next to the hall and the library.

What if we all go together into the library?

Yes, I suppose that's.

She is incoherent.

Scarlett nods at you and moves over,

shaken but quickly to the library.

Mr.

Green,

Mustard, turns to you and says, Are you alright?

I mean,

not all right, but

here, come with us.

And he closes the door to the room and

ushers you out.

Hand on your shoulder.

Are they not coming with us all to the library?

They are.

They are.

As we walk to the library, I'm just looking at Fred with my eyes sort of furrowed,

stepping away.

And I'll look at him and say,

Where were you when you heard the gunshots?

I

I was in the hall.

I heard the gunshot and

you know

I

had to take a moment, but ran over

Where were you

with Claudette and Arnold

I'm going to look over and just, as we get into the library,

i'll look out at everyone looking at claudette and arnold who i was with in the lounge from well before

and i'm thinking about like okay the three of us were in the lounge well before the gunshots rang out and then i'm going to suddenly realize that i've left my briefcase in the lounge uh and realize that i cannot under these circumstances dart out and go get it and another kind of panic so i i leave my mental haze into suddenly like an adrenaline kicks in, and I have a new form of fear and go,

Colonel Mustard, if you'd be so kind.

And I'll turn to look at everyone and say, I think we would all do well to

turn out our pockets.

Very well.

Miss Scarlett says,

I'm sorry, are

you accusing us of something?

Every person in this room is well aware that the staff were sent home.

Yeah.

Rutherford is dead.

We heard two gunshots, and there's no gun lying within arm's reach of him on the floor.

That gun has been taken from the crime scene by someone who used it to murder Rutherford.

And we are the only six people in this house.

We can call the police.

If we do, they will come in and see a mansion filled with illegal narcotics, prohibited alcohol, and I'll be frank, stolen curios and goods.

And all of our important reputations will be permanently soiled by a visit from the law to this establishment.

A good point.

So, what do you suggest, Mr.

Gray?

I think that we need

to

figure this out ourselves, says Colonel Mustard.

Especially the ones who got into a fight shortly before the murder of our host.

He

nods.

Yes, I will turn out the pockets of my suit, suit, showing nothing.

I am a woman.

I don't have pockets.

Do you have any handbag or

I've forgotten it in another room?

But it was small and stupid.

Mrs.

Peacock, who is wearing

like voluminous skirts, somehow has pockets.

And she's like, oh, you make them yourself, dear.

Oh.

Yes.

And she turns them out, and there's a couple of candies and

like a tiny sewing kit and

clippers, actually,

whole small clippers for the flowers, but nothing else.

Miss Scarlett balks.

She clutches her small beaded handbag to her.

I

CZ, don't worry, you're not under suspicion.

We all heard you playing piano in the other room.

Well, all right, I just

and she opens it up and she does have a little flask in there.

And um, we all have a little flash, and I'm gonna walk across the library.

Uh, and like, there's like a couple, uh-oh.

When did Hemingway write?

Yeah, we're good.

There's, there's some, there's some Hemingway.

I think it's the old man in the sea, and she pulls it out and opens it, and there's just a flask in there.

Like, listen, all right.

Um,

okay, there's a little flask and a compact with just a powder and a lipstick.

And it's also, and

it's a bunch of other odds and ends.

It's not a very well-kept purse, clearly.

But no gun.

Mustard has a couple of pockets in his suit.

He turns them out and there is nothing in them.

Professor Plum

turns out a

small box of pipe tobacco, his pipe, his pocket watch, and a silver spoon,

and then promptly, with shaky hands, goes to pack a pipe.

Um, you got the closest to it,

Cass.

I hate to be morbid, but

did it look like maybe he could have shot himself?

No,

two gunshots.

Uh, typically,

people don't miss.

And if they do, they don't typically try again.

Yeah.

If we're um

determined to figure this out ourselves, uh, I did study anatomy at Howard and would be willing to

do a cursory examination of the body.

Mustard looks at the three of you and says, So you can all account for each other's whereabouts when the shots happened.

We?

yes, we were together in the lounge.

We, oh, yes, yes.

Ya,

aren't you German?

I'm not even French.

I'm just gonna talk the normal.

Sorry, this is very stressful.

There's a dead man in the other room.

Let's examine the body, and I'll try to.

I have a passing knowledge of forensics, and I can attempt to

at least look for

any signs of

where this may have happened.

You learned forensics at Yale?

No, I've learned forensics in court.

A passing.

I'm not a forensic scientist, but I know enough to know a few basic elements to look for.

One

thing I do think we should address.

We are

all the suspects.

The comings and goings.

Do we all move together?

Or are people free to go about as they may?

I don't think we should separate.

I'll stay.

I think I'll stay here,

dear.

I think.

Miss Beacock should sit down.

Yes, um.

I'll go with I'll go with you.

Why don't we?

uh, well, I'm gonna look and say, uh, Professor, why don't you stay with Mrs.

Peacock?

Um, Fred, why don't you stay with Susie, and I'll go with you to go get your handbag.

Okay.

All right.

Um, Plum, you are in the library.

There's amongst its shelves of leather tomes reaching up to the ceiling, with wheel ladders on racks running the perimeter of the room.

Uh, there's a couple of leather-studded armchairs, one of which Mrs.

Peacock is collapsed in.

And there are little cupolas and reading nooks under tall mullioned windows.

But the two things that are a bit obtrusive to this serene atmosphere are two massive fireplaces made of handsome Brazilian rosewood.

On the left side, there is a...

a fireplace with a bas-relief carving of scroll work banner with the script that says, imagination etched into it, and under which is depicted fantastical creatures, griffins and dragons and unicorns, with a spray of flowers and clouds, with a woman in a Greek chitin holding a tome.

And on the other side of you is a large mantelpiece that reads, science, the columns underneath of which are intricately detailed with a depiction of a man evolving from a primate and Sir Isaac Newton holding an apple under a tree that turns into swirling galaxies over a nude Greek woman carrying a celestial globe, which she points to with a small staff.

This is Mr.

Potty's library, and you notice that the books, except for the Hemingway section, are mostly dusty and unused.

Can I add to that?

Because that's where I spent my unaccounted for time.

Yes.

So in the corner on like a little like chess table would be

like a folio of papers

that are like re like

shut and sealed and bound contracts and proposals and

like a small model of like a restaurant is smashed.

on the ground next to it.

You can tell that the splinters from splinters that this building, this model building was art deco with all the joints and the angular sides.

There are also little

model figurines of people on the table that have been scattered around.

If you decide to look closer,

I do.

You see that one is a dark-haired male figure that is in front of the wreckage face down at the feet of a feminine figure in a black and white dress.

Oh, Claw.

I don't think Mr.

Plump can help himself and is going to open the folio.

In it, you find blueprints,

contracts,

a stylized art deco menu

for

Project Claw's place.

That's imaginative.

Professor.

Yes, Miss Peacock.

I have to confess,

I'm none too broken up about his death.

Does that make me a bad person?

No.

I think death is an

incredibly complicated thing.

And the ways in which you process it are your own.

Well, I think this one is not quite so complex so much as it is

inconvenient for all of us stuck in this old place.

I can agree with that.

So, did you do it?

Of course not.

Did you?

Oh, no, no.

Much too frail.

Well.

Let's hope that the rest of those young'uns can find out who did then.

Is there a little give me some of that good Hemingway, please?

Coming right up.

So,

you see that Mustard and Scarlet

move over back to the hall.

She is

shaken,

but doesn't look too upset.

Colonel Mustard has the focus of a man who has seen death before.

And the two of you, Mrs.

White and Mr.

Green, where do you go?

I am trudging,

sort of vacillating between a vacant thousand-yard stare

and then a more like panicked thousand-yard stare.

Like sometimes going into my mind and coming back out and then just looking straight ahead because I don't know what to look for.

And I'm walking forward towards the lounge,

probably like slightly like stepping out in front, or like a little bit of an urgent pace.

I think the moment we hit the part of the hallway where you go from like the wood and tile of the library and hit like runners and carpet, so footsteps are covered.

I will grab you if you're starting to like build a little bit of a lead and just give you a hug.

Uh, I go very limp

and

you okay,

he's dead,

he's dead, he's dead in there.

He's dead

He

Did he know

No what

I Look up at you and go

I

I'm so sorry.

I I'm so sorry.

How are you?

Are you okay?

I uh um I'm

I'm I'm fine.

I'm fine.

You're you me and

between I didn't want to cause a panic, but turning out my pockets, I have a fountain pen, a cigar cutter, a small bill fold,

and a thin

legal notepad.

Theoretically, it could be Mrs.

Peacock

or

Miss Scarlett.

We heard the piano playing, so that would seem to

rule her out.

I mean,

things are not looking good for Fred right now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Let's get yourself.

But there was an argument.

Susie was arguing with Rutherford earlier.

Okay, I don't know how to account for the bad jazz coming from the piano room.

But it was noticeably worse than before.

That is true.

But maybe she was just sad sad and ran out of songs that she knew kind of.

I don't have to make excuses, but I do have.

Did you, by any chance, and I'm so sorry for asking, did you see a second bullet hole anywhere?

No, we need to go back in and search for that specifically.

Hmm.

And frankly,

I would believe that a young Anjanu would be more likely to miss her first shot than Fred would.

Yeah.

Uh, let's get your bag.

Oh, yeah.

Um.

Sorry.

It's probably it's probably in the kitchen.

But that was also in another.

Let's check.

Kitchen, kitchen, kitchen.

You sure you didn't leave it in the lounge?

Well, maybe.

Let's go lounge first, then kitchen.

I just don't remember.

It's little.

It's the stupid little.

Yeah, lounge, lounge.

We go to the lounge.

I help you look for your bag.

Is it in the lounge?

No, it's not.

All right.

On the way out of the lounge in that case you just you'll just see me look around and say like okay and

uh gun and candlestick missing from plints in here um oh and then i'll pick up my uh briefcase on our way out oh

okay why would the candlestick be gone

yeah hold on uh are there like little no this is just what he knew Are there little placards?

There are little placards there still.

Yeah, what's the candlestick steal?

Uh, the candlestick says, um,

lists and fathers,

list the composer?

Oh, yeah, L-I-S-Z-T.

Lists and fathers.

Do you know anything about this?

Lists and fathers, and there's no other text after that?

Uh, that's it, lists and fathers.

Is that like lists and sons?

Yeah, why would it be the other?

He's so, he was.

We you know speak ill of the dead uh cassidy you do know that johnny body was a big fan of romantic and classical era music well i know that the elder body was a fan of the composer

okay but again

what does

a composer have to do with workers of the world

it doesn't matter the theme yeah the theme sort of falls apart pretty quickly actually

But, all right.

Did I watch you grab your briefcase?

If I leave that to you,

I definitely have it as we're walking out of the room.

Uh, then, yeah, I think I'd probably just do the like little gentle throat clearing as we're like taking off.

Like,

briefcase, did you you

left it in here?

Yeah, yes, well, I heard the gunshot and I ran.

Okay,

Cass

is it important?

Is

is what important?

You're the one that had us all turn out our pockets.

Is what's in there important?

In the briefcase?

Well, no, not particularly, but would you would you prefer I leave it in the lounge?

I'd prefer you open it.

Uh

I will look at Claudette and go

I

will do that for you

But I would ask you that you not make me do it right now

Okay

um and uh I will uh accompany you to the kitchen to get your bag

yeah

it's also not in the kitchen

Do you do you just do you do any amount of searching for it or I'm just kind

ripping this kitchen apart?

Okay, uh

the echoing black and white tiles

are are strewn with various spices and

cuttings and

you do not find your bag.

I don't know where I put it and now I'm getting I'm starting to freak out because

if I can't find the bag, is everyone gonna think that it's got like a what if someone else found it and then they put the gun in the bag and now it's gonna

and she just starts freaking out.

Do you know you don't remember where you put it down?

I don't.

No, no, I came in and I thought we were just gonna go to the dinner and then he was like, go to the kitchen and want to go to the kitchen.

I didn't want to start.

Listen, listen, listen, all right, sorry, all right.

You know why we need to find this quickly, right?

Uh, uh, uh, uh, no, why, what, why, what?

Because you don't want someone else to be able to put something in that bag.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

All right, listen.

We never parted ways.

We stayed together the whole time.

You keep looking in the kitchen.

I'm gonna jump into the dining room because maybe it's by your chair, all right?

Okay, thank you.

All right.

I am going to run quickly and quietly into the dining room.

Hold on.

Do you head for like the main door out to get to the dining room?

I do.

Then I'm going to stop you one last time and go hit the like servant door

that sneaks through.

Okay.

Very good.

All right.

And I will step out through the serving door to get into the dining room through the servant's entrance.

All right.

You step into the dining room and you see the remains of the dinner.

The plates have still been left there since there were no staff members to clear them.

You find the

purse wedged underneath the table

where

Mrs.

White would have tucked it.

The moment I step through the door, briefcase is on the counter open.

I take the signed will out and hide it on top of the China cabinet under the least used China above eye line.

Amazing.

And then I will grab the purse and make my way back into the cabinet.

Sweet.

In the intervening time, I have grabbed a chef's knife, sharpened it, and it's on my person.

Under like

voluminous pants, we've got like a leg garter.

Voluminous pants.

I swap out the tiny flask, tuck it into a fucking cabinet, and now I've got a knife on me.

All right, and I'll step back in and hand you your purse.

Oh, my God, thank you.

Thank you.

We never parted.

Of course not.

And I will walk back out to go towards the study for us to investigate the body.

I open my purse.

Is there a gun in it?

There is no gun in your purse.

Woo!

Okay.

Is there a candlestick in there?

There is no candlestick in your tiny purse.

Yeah.

Okay, okay, okay.

I want to grab like a small amount of like a little pouch of

very finely milled like dop lazaro, you make pasta level flour.

And I'll slip it in my stupid little bag.

We're gonna solve mysteries, baby.

Meanwhile, uh, Plum, you, and Mrs.

Peacock are just sitting drinking.

Are you drinking?

No, uh, Plum at this point has kind of moved on from drinking and is just, I think, heavily puffing on his pipe.

And you know, I really don't think that I'm the only one.

I mean, you know, both of those young women,

I'm sure I don't know specifically what's happening with them, but if I were one of the body count, I would also want to,

you know.

But you,

you were

a friend of his.

Yes.

I'm sorry, I should offer my condolences.

No, it's um

that we're all quite shaken up.

Not that not that young army fellow.

He's uh

uh

a mind of steel, that one.

Must be nice.

Yeah, well, the colonel has seen a great many horrors in his time.

Hmm, it does something to a man's steel.

Hmm.

Yes.

Um and Cassidy

both of you both of you are heading to the study.

If I hear them in the hallway, I'm going to step out.

Um you can hear them in the hallway.

The hallway

is tiled, and so if somebody is not making an attempt at stealth, then yes, you'd be able to hear them.

Uh, then I'll open the door.

Are you headed to the study?

Uh, yes, Professor.

Are you going to see the body?

We are.

Well,

watch out out out there, I suppose.

Well, for the murderer, darling.

The murderer.

Okay, fair enough.

We'll proceed into the study and start.

I'll start making like a cursory investigation of the study, just from where the body is.

I just want to see if

there was a...

Music was playing, thunderclap, two gunshots, and then we came here and he was on the ground head wound only one bullet

only one bullet in in the head in the head uh i'll start to look around the room for that second and there's is there an exit wound on the head or no

uh it has gone into his brain and you don't see an exit wound then i will begin to look for that second bullet hole

And I think without touching the body, I think

Professor Plum is just kind of observing the wound and trying to get a better sense of mostly distance and where the person would have had to stand in the room to make

where they would have been standing based on where the bullet struck him.

You would know that the gun has been fired not close to the head, as in a suicide would be, but that the person was not very far away.

There is no gunpowder residue around the temple, and

you notice that it has entered the brain and, for lack of a better word, probably scrambled it.

Oh, so it's from the side.

Yes.

Copy.

And I'm going to look for the first four windows.

I'm looking for, like, was someone standing outside and fired into the room.

No.

There are windows around, large windows, but

none of the glass is broken.

None of the windows are open.

If you look around, you do see

in one of the walls a bullet hole.

Okay.

Which wall?

You see it in the wall opposite the door.

Professor Plum is going to come to about four to five feet from the desk, raise his arm up as if holding a weapon, and go

say about right here.

I'll look at the angle of where the professor is standing, nod my head, get a letter opener off of Rutherford's desk, and gently prod.

I'll actually look over at you and say,

Arnold, if you'd be so kind, would you care to light a match just so I have a little bit of light to work with?

Of course.

And I will begin to dig into the hole at the angle from where the professor was standing to try to dislodge a bullet from the wall.

Who needs the police?

You do manage to get it.

You scratch it a little bit in the process because it is a bullet made of silver.

Soft metal.

And I'll pull it out, plop it into my hand,

and look at it.

Is there anything

that

I can tell?

So these were the silver bullets, meaning it was loaded how it was loaded in the lounge when we were all looking at it.

That's correct.

These very like novelty silver bullets.

Yes.

I'm going to

look at this other bullet and

go, all right, well,

this would suggest that the missing gun in the lounge is the weapon that was used here.

I'm going to start to look at the carpet.

Does it look like when the body hit the floor that Rutherford fell out of his chair or he did not fall out of his chair?

He slumped in the desk.

Oh, he slumped in.

Okay, he fell over onto the desk.

Yes.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Um,

how much

blood

is there covering the desk?

Uh, there is not.

I'm going to stand with my head cocked to one side and look over at my friend the professor.

And I go.

No blood on the desk, head wound.

How fast does the heart stop pumping blood after a traumatic head injury?

Sadly, those classes were much too long ago to say for certain, but there should be blood there.

Yeah, I'm gonna look and touch my own head and be like, I remember our first lacrosse practice at Princeton.

Old Rudd gave me a crack across the back of the head, and the thing bled like a fountain.

There's nothing here.

That can't be right.

I'm going to look around and say, I think this body was moved.

How much would I know about

the anatomy of this building?

I would say

that you know all of the different rooms,

but you know that Body

thought it very fun

and whimsical to have all sorts of secrets about the house.

And he loved

keeping them and hinting at them and but

showing them off for his friends.

And the carpet under our feet, red?

Yes, correct.

Okay, I'm going to reach into my bag then and grab that first little handful of flour.

Move body.

And it would be really hard, but if it's still sticky, and just

blow a bunch of the powder just to see if it catches on wetness in the carpet.

There are a couple of drops of wetness that the white sticks to.

There's not a trail, but there is an amount of directionality away from the desk, but not much, and you don't see any drag marks.

Okay, yeah.

Are the sprinkles by the door everyone would know about, or are they just somewhere else in the room?

I'm living in the world where if this was a moved body in the same way that I immediately

redirected Cass through servants' quarters, I have like, there's no universe in which I wouldn't know that servants' quarters exist lots of places.

The sprinkles are closer to the rhino.

Okay, that's the white rhino that Mr.

Body was always talking about, how he bagged in Africa completely unassisted.

He had waited two full nights, no sleep, and suddenly he was there.

And

well, I sure got my man.

I'm gonna head over to the rhino.

Hold on.

And like,

is it?

Oh, I've never interacted with a taxidermied anything.

You just see, like, Claw gets really uncomfortable and starts physically interacting with this thing.

You can see that the rhinoceros, his eyes, they stare at nothing.

He has been taxidermied into a scowl.

He looks like he's ready to charge, but

you would know that he had probably been doped up before.

the shot actually happened.

And it's just like a mounted head?

It is a full

small rhino on a wooden platform.

It is surrounded by the birds.

As I said, there were birds perched at different levels.

All over, there were,

you know, birds of all shapes and sizes.

There was a recreation of sort of the local

flora of New York

with a tableau of birds there.

There are some exotic birds that he bagged, you know, he had bagged a Quetzal in

South America.

And,

you know,

there's even a bald eagle spread out in the corner.

And

there's a little plaque next to the birds that's brass.

Miss White, do you need assistance?

Yeah, sorry.

I don't know about a moved body, but a room full of weird animals might be a good place to hide a gun.

Not a bad thought.

well let's let's help you take a look for it we we know

i'm gonna look around i'll i'll i want to open

the

i want to open the door there's no the the the drops if i press my thumb into it does it come up a certain color like blood or something else the wet drops in the carpet uh it comes up red with white speckles in it

Okay, so I'm looking.

These are just a few drops, right?

I'm going to look over at the professor and go,

whatever happened,

I don't think a gunshot killed him.

Why?

The number of cases I've done where people tried to move a body,

especially with a head wound, in the amount of time, I mean, how many, it was less than an hour since we'd all seen him at dinner.

It's like a, it's like an Edgar Allan Poe horror story.

It's a paintbrush of gore along the floor.

There'd be a thick band of blood.

The only way that the blood wouldn't come gushing out is if the body had been dead for a while.

The candle?

There were two

of the items, the gun and the candlestick.

So

what's it when you kill someone from hitting doing a hit?

Murder.

It's It's always murder.

In both cases, it is murder.

Yeah, okay.

Bludgeon.

You mean bludgeoning someone?

Thank you, yes.

Uh, can I take another look at the body?

Um, yes.

What are you looking for?

I think looking for this kind of beat that we're on, like, has the, is there anything outside of the wound of the gunshot that suggests like additional damage?

Damage that would go beyond that of a bullet striking, or has the damage of the bullet been so

profound that there is nothing else to gleam?

So

while, as you said, there was no contusion from the entry wound,

there is

a matting in his hair

that is inconsistent with a bullet entry wound.

Look at this.

Right here.

Okay.

Oh,

this verifies, I think,

what you are thinking.

I immediately smack both of you.

Uh, uh, okay, we didn't hear another gunshot that would have killed.

Someone was playing very loud music, maybe loud enough to cover

hitting someone with a candlestick.

Clap of thunder as well.

Um, let's take a look at this rhino, and I'm gonna help uh Claudia investigate the rhinoceros.

So you take a look at the rhino, and it is just grisly business, um, But

you notice that

there's a little, what looks to be maybe like a poem scratched into the base.

And it says,

charmed, I'm sure.

It's no conspiracy.

Ha ha, you murder me, kiddo.

I always hated his sense of humor.

Charmed, I'm sure it's no conspiracy.

You murder me, haha, You murder me, kiddo.

You murder me, present tense.

You murder me, kiddo.

I want to look at this.

This has been scratched into the base.

Has this base,

knowing that the staff clean in here regularly.

It has been, you can tell that it has been polished since the scratch.

Okay, so this is older.

This was not something written in his dying death row.

This has been here for a minute.

Charmed, I'm sure it's no conspiracy.

Uh, I think, I think immediately, like, Cass is gonna go into full, like, wordplay.

Like, like, how this

immediately already been like, this asshole loves puzzles.

Um, and

there were many times that body would corner you with the New York Times crossword puzzle.

You're like, Cass,

what's uh, what's a synonym for

a Boolean?

Synonym for an above for an abooleant?

For a Boolean.

I don't know what that means.

Booleant.

I don't fucking know what it means.

What is the, uh, can you give us it again?

It says, uh, charmed, I'm sure.

It's no conspiracy.

Haha, you murder me, kiddo.

I will

gaze at this for a little while and

running around.

Uh, it looks like it's been carved.

Does it look like it's significant the place on the base where it's been carved?

it doesn't look like it was placed thoughtfully just that it was on the base of this rhino and i wonder to myself because it's been here for a while

haha you murder me kiddo i wonder if it's a reference to hunting the rhinoceros itself

um

i think i'd like cast to try to like glean if there if this matches any type of word puzzle he's seen Rutherford do before?

Either like an acrostic or is it a scramble or is it every third letter or something like that?

Like he's just trying to see like what are the puzzles that I knew that Rutherford was into?

Rutherford was very into puns.

Oh.

Yes.

He was

not

quite

fast enough, perhaps, to take to ciphers or there were a lot of other things that,

you know, he wasn't very good with

synonyms or jumbles.

He liked nice, straight-ahead,

funny things.

There's birds around here.

Are there any crows in the room?

You do look at the local

tableau of birds, and there is, in fact, a crow there.

Or there's two black corvids.

I'll look up and go, you murder me.

And I want to go and grab one of the crows uh

the crow uh

does not come off its perch but you hear a click

what did you why did you just touch a bird murder me kiddo I was thinking there might be some devious pattern or other sort of

acrostic word jumble something like that but no it's a pun Rutherford it needs to be able to work for Rutherford so it's gotta be it's gotta be right within arm's reach a murder of crows.

The birds around the rhinoceros.

So, oh, and I go, conspiracy.

That's another group word.

Conspiracy.

There's a certain, there's a certain bird.

Ah, I wish I knew about birds.

And I'm going.

I think it's a conspiracy of ravens, but those are both.

It is a conspiracy of ravens.

Yeah.

So it's a raven and a cross.

Playing in the like.

A Brian knows it.

I'm a little dumb.

Dumb.

Oh, hold on.

Charmed.

Like a snake charmer?

Is there a snake?

And a charm of magpies.

God damn it.

All right.

Yeah, I'll look up and go, charmed?

I'm sure it's no conspiracy.

Haha, you murdered me, kid.

So I'll look at the different bird things here and go, I think there might be

that click there, something mechanical.

Rutherford spent a fortune on installing doors and gateways and other things like that, secret bookshelves.

And I'm going to try to interact with the magpie raven and crow.

You would know some of those birds from your hunting trips together.

You are no stranger to the gentleman sport of hunting.

And as you grab the magpie, the raven, and the crow, you hear click, click, click, and the base of the rhino with the rhinoceros slides aside, and you see

a set of stairs.

My God.

I look and I say, we went on a hunting trip to Long Island, and Rutherford said, We're gonna go hunting crows.

And I said, what the fuck are you talking about?

This is why I don't trust white men.

And I'm just looking straight at Professor Plummer.

Oh, hundred, yes, what are you doing?

He's just going to go shoot normal birds.

I mean, at least be like the kings of Europe.

Thank you.

He had drank a full-size bottle of laudanum right before we did it.

Well, I'm sure he was just...

I'm sure it wasn't really on grounds.

I'm assuming you were just in other people's yards.

We had pulled off the highway.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

I was about to say, hunting grounds in Long Island.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

You mean people's backyards?

Oh, yeah.

We were in the Hamptons.

Yeah, we pulled over and just said, I know everybody here.

It's all right.

Then let me do this.

And just started shooting at crows.

He shot someone's parakeet through an open window in their house.

You do see in the exotic birds section there is a parakeet.

They found out that he was part of the body family and they let him keep the parakeet.

It's a terrible story.

The amount of people I've watched him him offend, and then they apologized is extensive.

All right, this is incredible.

I'm gonna roll up my pants and like talk.

Look, I'm wearing optic white, and we're walking towards bad stuff.

I'm not getting blood on me.

I'm not gonna look like I killed him.

All right, that's all I'm saying.

Um, and roll it up before we descend.

What of our compatriots?

Oh,

we should tell them.

Should we not tell them?

I think

for right now, let's dive down these stairs.

One of those three,

we all were together.

One of those three people is the murderer.

It doesn't have to be one.

Oh, God.

I think there's nothing better than to play loud music badly to cover up a murder.

That you know someone else is going to execute.

Yeah.

All right.

I think for right now, this is a discovery.

Let's press our advantage and not give someone else the opportunity to cover up whatever's on the other side of this.

All right.

So you descend down.

It's only a couple of stairs before it levels out into a hallway.

And

you move down the hallway

and you get to a metal door.

Are we seeing blood anywhere?

There is.

There is not blood that you see.

No.

All right.

But there is a metal.

I shouldn't say Dora.

There's a metal frame, a block of metal, that you finally come across at the end of the passageway.

Professor Plum gives it a push.

It opens up and you see...

Well, no, before you see anything, you feel a wave of cold air hit you as you've walked into the large walk-in freezer in the kitchen.

My goodness.

Looking at the big ice blocks around and everything else, like

he had a secret passage made from the study to the kitchen.

What an enormous waste of money.

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why?

God damn it.

You see, I can't get this emotional and just punches the wall.

But don't.

Why would you do that?

My father built this.

There's a fun thing about rich people: they want the convenience of things showing up for them and never the inconvenience of seeing those who would make the show up for them.

Why from the kitchen to the study?

Midnight snack.

And you do see, in addition to the kinds of things that a well-stocked pantry would have in the freezer, there's just an assortment, a cup, a tray that is an assortment of delicacies on a little wheeled cart.

This is

must be nice.

You enter out into the kitchen, and it is as you left it when you were searching for your purse.

Nothing much seems to be amiss, except actually the things that you had thrown around in your attempt at searching for your purse.

Oh, yeah, sorry, just for the record, it's messier in here because I didn't know where I left my purse.

Can I make a look around

the kitchen real quick just to see if I notice anything missing?

What would you think would be missing from this?

I think I want to just look around because I,

in terms of being the person who sent the staff home and was like

going, yes.

Right.

So you would have you having requisitioned each of these modern, up-to-date appliances and helping with the design of every every French

sort of pot and pan that he had requisitioned for it.

You wouldn't see anything

really amiss, but it is also hard to tell amongst the chaos of Mrs.

White's search for her purse.

Gotcha.

You don't see any amount of blood anywhere,

But then again, there also

is

mess from the food preparation that had been happening.

I'll look over at the baked Alaska and see if there's still a fork in it.

There are two forks in it.

Great.

And a couple of bites taken.

And a couple of bites taken out.

I'll look over and go, ah, this is melting and take another bite.

Wait, did you like it?

It's delicious.

Absolutely stunning.

Wish I hadn't left my spoon in the other room.

Oh,

hold on.

And I'll walk over.

I want you guys to notice that it's missing.

Past like the knife block with very specifically one missing to grab like a fork for you if you want to try it.

Thank you.

I'll follow the block over and do a quick scan and see that that knife is not laying out on the table anywhere.

And I'll look over and say,

I was, I meant to ask, the spoon, is that a.

I was in here earlier and had a bit of baked Alaska before.

What'd you think?

Quite lovely.

It's hard to do a good meringue.

Thanks.

And I'll just sort of smile and go,

you helped the baked Alaska and pocketed the spoon on your way out?

I was eager to smoke the cigar.

Ah, understood.

And I'll

continue.

So looking around, I'll go like,

So, the question then becomes: the blood,

the blood

falling to the white rhino in the study, we didn't see any in the hallway leading here to the kitchen.

And I'm going to look around, and there's no blood soaked in the kitchen anywhere.

There's no blood soak.

Again, hard to tell with all the chaos.

You can tell blood.

You do see

a small smear of red there.

It doesn't look like there's been a lot of

it

but with your keen eyes you would notice that there is a small smear of blood that is uh at the entryway to the freezer

well

means they had to have brought him through the kitchen.

I'm I'm gonna cross my arms and cock my head a little bit.

What is the smear of blood suggesting?

I'm gonna like look forensically looking at it.

I wanna look and see a smear because a smear on the ground means a very different thing than a smear on a handle, for example.

Yes, a smear on the ground.

It looks like it has been wiped.

That there was not a lot of blood there, or maybe maybe there was a lot of blood that got cleaned up almost very efficiently.

What do you what do you see?

There's been a cleanup here.

Somebody in the kitchen.

I'm going to try to remember back.

Did I notice any blood here when we were in the kitchen together?

No.

No, I did not.

You didn't notice it?

No.

Yeah.

Yeah, same question.

Yeah, because it's near the entrance to the freezer.

It's not, and on the ground,

it wouldn't have been in sort of the the areas you might have been searching directly for your purse.

All right.

Well,

the gunshots went off one right after the other.

There's no way someone could have shot him here in the kitchen.

We would have heard the gunshot, and they would have not had time.

And I'm also going to sort of cock my head and say, also, just to say the obvious,

Rutherford's not, you know, an enormous man, but in terms of who could move his body down that hallway to its suite to get him into the study and up those stairs,

it's not, it's it's Fred, or it's nobody, or

he moved himself to the study and died there.

And there, the blood here tells some other kind of story,

but candlestick aside the head, blood pools, head wound here.

So you think

you think it's here in the kitchen.

You don't think it's

part of me wonders there would have been so many people

Sorry, you go.

I just mean if it had happened, could it have happened in an adjacent room and then maybe he'd be brought through here

at this point

You hear a hysterical wailing

from what you think might be the hallway

Let's let's sprint out of here.

Let's go

you spring

there

you burst into the hallway and you see Miss Scarlett on the ground, dry heaving and sobbing,

with mustard somewhat awkwardly patting her on the shoulder.

I just, I can't, not, not another scandal.

I can't, I can't.

What's the meaning of this, Fred?

She is,

I'm sorry, she's hysterical.

Oh,

it's my career.

It's just over.

It's Hysteria.

It's far enough for.

Listen, I'm going to push Colonel Left.

And he stands in the corner, sort of hands to himself style,

looking a bit chagrined.

I step over to him and put a kind of arm on his shoulder.

I don't.

She just started.

It wasn't.

I swear it wasn't.

It's all right.

Deep breath.

Take your time.

Take your time.

This gets out and I'm a suspect for murder and and and

listen, this can't be good for you either

Yeah, none of us wants to be accused of murder What are we going to do?

Why are you crying more about being suspected of murder than the dead man that you've been running around town with for the last

month?

Because just because he's

he was

I'm trying very clearly for what it's worth.

Uh when asking that question out loud, it sounds like damning, but I'm trying to telegraph to Susie, be sad about the other thing.

This is suspicious.

She says, He was a shitup, but and then she lost it.

She goes, Listen, I loved him.

I did.

It's just

things got so complicated, and it's gonna look so bad.

Yeah, okay, we're working on it, and they're there there.

Uh,

she's wearing all red, she is

If I can,

I'm just going to try to soothe her and scan for any wet spots across her red outfit.

Um, it is very obvious that she has used her sleeve to wipe her nose.

Disgusting.

Um, but other than that, uh, wet spot where she has wiped her eyes, that you can see sort of a full mask of makeup um that has caked itself onto her sleeve um but other than that uh no uh no other wet spots okay then i'm going to like try to like give her a second and then do the like grab you by the shoulders and sort you out run my hand across that to see if any red comes away uh no red comes away um

i'm sorry

and i know and i'm sorry listen i'm sorry that i've been difficult all right It's just, I'm going through a lot right now.

I'm going to look around.

Where is Mrs.

Peacock?

Yeah, we left her in the library.

Uh,

Susie, if you're...

I understand that you're forlorn, but I think we should all go and make sure that Mrs.

Peacock is all right.

Yes, all right.

I'm sorry.

I.

I didn't kill him.

I didn't.

I.

Okay.

I do.

You were playing piano, weren't you?

Yes.

What was the name of the song you were playing?

I don't know.

It's just whatever the sheet music was.

I can read sheet music.

Okay, we're very proud of you.

Very talented.

Everyone agrees.

Yes.

Everyone agrees.

It's not just your looks.

Like I said, lovely.

I would say let's all to the library and see if we can make sure that Mrs.

Peacock is home.

All right.

Mustard turns to you, Plum, on the way in.

He says,

What did you discover?

Quite a lot, Fred.

Alright.

As we're walking out, I'll join the professor with

Colonel Mustard here.

And I'll say, like,

poor Susie, what set her off?

I just,

you know,

we were talking about...

We were talking about

the situation and I said,

you know, I

it would look bad for me because we had had words at dinner, and uh then she started crying and said that yes, uh, they'd clearly been having an argument as well.

Listen, I

you three can vouch for each other, yes?

That's right.

How am I to know that it wasn't any combination of you?

Well,

maybe you're right to be suspicious of all of us.

In time, it will allow.

We just have to keep trying to put this together because come morning,

the staff will arrive, and we will be forced to call the police.

And then all of our professional lives are over.

And if we can at least provide a likely suspect or murderer that saves all of us from being brought in, there's a lot of journalists that will be hovering over this place like a murder of ravens.

I'm gonna look, I'm gonna narrow my eyes.

I thought it was a a flock

you thought it was a flock a flock of ravens

i'll make i'll nod and i'll make a little look to the professor like that's one count that we can rule him out for um

i'll be like

looking at fred where's fred from by the way he's from you said he's from from germany or from

well his uh he's a third generation uh german american but they're in

New Jersey.

He's from New Jersey.

New Jersey.

I'll nod as he says

flock of ravens and I'll nod and I'll be like, no white man can resist the urge

to correct on the exact specification if he knew it was a conspiracy.

He would be forced, like a vampire picking up loose grains of rice.

He would be forced to correct me.

It is truly y'all's shape of a haircut.

Yeah.

It's a flock of crows

and

a...

a

gaggle of geese.

I know that one.

From the farm.

There you go.

My uncle's farm.

Bang on the money, Fred.

You got it.

Exactly.

And I'll continue to walk towards the library.

This man's got a lot of answers.

That's a deep-cut goose reference.

You enter the library, and Mrs.

Peacock

looks up from the armchair that she is in.

She says,

Hello, dearies.

Any closer to finding our murderer?

And she waves the old man in the sea at you.

Uh no, but how are you doing?

Deep in literature?

Yes, getting quite acquainted with the classics.

This is good stuff, uh, Cassidy.

I'm glad you enjoy it.

Only the finest for uh

only the finest for Rudd.

Um oh come on now.

You don't really miss him, do you?

I saw the way we all know the way he treated you.

I miss him.

I understand that all of us depended on his largesse, and that his wealth made

a supple, vast bed that he was able to lie in and ignore the ways in which his actions hurt all of us.

And you can call me a sap if you like, but that was my best friend.

Some best friend?

He was.

A cat.

A cat.

He was.

He did have a way about him, though.

We've made some discoveries.

Yes.

Alright.

Did you find the gun?

We may not be looking for the gun.

We may be looking for a candlestick.

candlestick

that's right.

I think it would perhaps be best for us to travel in groups, no one going alone,

and take a look if it's possible.

Not only for the missing gun, but the candlestick as well.

Oh, that's right.

The candlestick.

I was there for that row.

Say more.

And I'm going to come down and take the flask from her and like

just, I want want to take I just want to see one how full is it because I know it was full when I handed it off it is not full now it is there's maybe a quarter of it sloshing around in there

she is hammered but I'm also eagle eye watching Mrs.

Peacock yes her head lulls to the side to look at you and says yes you weren't there was before your time I think that there was another

another heiress that was more around at that time.

He certainly swings like a pendulum from type to type.

Oh, yes.

Oh, boy.

But what happened with the candlestick?

Oh, he gave it to his father for a for a 60th birthday present.

He was like, oh, this is

from

List himself.

It's his, his candlestick.

That was the oh.

Come here, come here.

Yeah, that was the only thing they ever agreed on.

They were arguing all the time.

But Liszt, oh, he loved him too because of the improvisation and him being a regular hep cat, he said.

You know, Lister Mania.

What about what about Betty and all of this?

Her husband and her son arguing?

It was so hard on her.

I think she threw herself into all her good works.

You know, I say she was

too nice for her own good and too good for this world.

Yes, that's what I always say.

You knew her, Cassidy.

Betty?

Betty, good old Betty Pink.

I did.

Well, yes.

So that

candlestick.

She blinks at you.

We are looking for the candlestick, and I'm gonna think back.

I'll retrace my childhood and try to think if that candlestick had ever come up.

Like, it's interesting because that these items were collected for this showcase, but the candlestick appears to be like an earlier gift.

It's like sort of unlike Rutherford to do one of his big show and tells and like grab something off a home shelf that's like been around for a while.

You would also know, actually,

now that you think about it, that the wrench was also something that was just around the house.

Though gold-plated and in a shadow box, it was Mr.

Body's father.

It was

the first wrench that was used to turn the first bolt in the first steel mill that Jonathan Body ever opened.

That's very interesting.

Unlike Rutherford.

to your point, Mrs.

Peacock, yes, we will be continuing to look for the candlestick.

I think that we should travel

maybe all together and just see if we can find that candlestick wherever it is in the house.

Alright, it's a big, big house, though.

That's true.

Full of secrets.

Oh, Rutherford loved his secrets.

I'm gonna squint my eyes at Mrs.

Peacock

and go.

Well,

let's start.

We've already scanned a couple of rooms and haven't found it.

Uh, I'd like to start

maybe in a room that would have been less trafficked.

Let's go to the conservatory and try there if we can.

Good luck.

Do you want to come with Mrs.

Scocole?

Oh, sure.

I can, yes, and she claws at your arm.

I've got you, come.

And, you know, and also Miss Scarlett takes the other arm and

that you two support her together

as you walk out to the conservatory.

As we get to the conservatory, I'd like to lean in to

Claudette and

have people on me.

I'll lean in over to Arnold in that case.

I literally shake you off if you like get a little bit of a lean over to Arnold and be like, if we're going to take a look for the candlestick or the gun,

maybe keep your eyes peeled for one other thing.

You, I was like, you've you've worked with botany before, right?

A beard here and there.

I want you to see if there's any plants that have been cut.

All right.

And I'm going to walk into the conservatory.

Despite the hint of a thumbnail chill outside, in here in the conservatory, it is warm and humid.

This

was the favorite room of Body's late mother, Mrs.

Betty Pink, nay, Body.

She loved flower arranging, and the orchids from earlier were from this room.

You can see that they seem to be well maintained.

Other of the flowers, it seems,

are

not as well maintained.

Perhaps the gardener or whoever was tending to this did not have the same kind of green thumb as Mrs.

Body.

If you are looking, are you looking around for

any cut flowers?

I'm specifically looking around for any cut flowers.

Any cut plants of any kind?

Yes, you can tell that a lot of the seasonal flowers have been cut.

The asters, chrysanthemums,

you know, there's an orchid that, or an orchid plant that is missing its bloom.

These have been cut, it looks like

earlier today.

I think, by the way, if I see you very specifically, like trying to figure out what information may have passed between the two of you, if I see you looking like intently at the flowers, I will start reciting

in false conversation with Mrs.

Peacock about the different flowers that are in the like arrangements that she was working on, just to give you a list to check against in case case you see cut flowers that are not on that list.

I, uh, uh, you can see without making eye contact with you, Cass starts to smile as I uh as I continue to look through.

I think I'll mutter to Arnold as I look as we start to look through here, ostensibly looking for a candlestick or a gun, that I just go,

The blood in the hallway made me think Fred,

but

Fred didn't know the

bird,

thought it was a flock of ravens.

There's a world

where Rutherford died at his desk and then someone shot him.

I think that the hair matting indicates that he was attacked by a candlestick, but something that I can't rule out would be the easiest way to get his body to the study would be for him to walk there under his own power, dying if he'd been poisoned.

And I'll just start to look through.

So that's just something that

Cassidy is thinking about as we're looking through, but I'll look for the gun.

I'll look for the gun, the candlestick, and for any plant clippings that might be outside of that list of the flowers that got cut.

I think, oh, yeah, go ahead.

I think in the other direction, as I'm making conversation with the ladies in the back, I'm going to look at the like sort of neglected plant beds and check for turned earth.

Yes, okay.

So you would see you're checking the flowers.

It looks like most of the flowers that have been cut were cut earlier in the day and are more of the seasonal sort.

Clavette, you find

while there is no freshly turned earth, you do see that some of the roses on one of the walls

have been

trod upon

quite recently.

Professor Plum.

Yes.

Uh, sorry, when I panic, I tend to

just

keep

thinking about.

We were talking about one of your sweets earlier.

This might not be the time, but thinking of like another note to add to one of those.

Have you considered something a little like, I don't know, like vegetal?

I can't stop thinking about it, or like floral, like rose water.

Turkish delight, you know, exactly.

That was very big

in the war.

We've been very much exploring chocolate and chocolate compliments.

I don't think we've explored.

We haven't gone so far outside of gummy squids into that world, but something to consider.

Yeah.

Oh, we make gummy squids.

I

love those, honestly.

Oh, I'm so glad.

Yes, one of our earliest confections.

Oh, wow, babe.

I'm sorry, we've never really talked much.

No, it's you're quite talented.

Thank you.

You don't have to.

And I'll do my best to direct my little pot of femmes away from the rose bush.

And I'll switch places with you kind of as that happens.

Yep.

So you see that the rose bushes, you know, there's been some trampling in there.

There's quite a thick covering of them,

you know, on a trellis, up a trellis, and on the ground.

Uh, so so there's such a profusion of them that you can't really see the dirt.

But it looks like they've been trod upon somewhat recently.

Uh, if there's a nearby spade or other tool, I think while kind of focusing on his pipe and looking out,

just gonna start jamming it in there, just kind of trying to churn up a little bit of earth and see if there's anything hidden.

Um, uh, so you find a small hand trowel that that is nearby in a on a pile of tools um and as you dig around

um

suddenly you hear a clunk

do either do either peacock or scarlet react to that uh mrs peacock does is a little

she's five sheets to the wind yeah and does not um scarlet uh look sort of sort of hears it and and turns over is did you find something Maybe.

I'm going to turn and look at what I've clunked.

You've clunked on there is a

square tile in the flower bed.

It's raised up slightly from the tiles that are behind it.

I'm going to use the trowel to kind of

lift it up.

It does not lift up.

It is very much in there.

Mr.

Green, could you give me a hand?

I'd be more than happy to.

Let me take a look.

So, are you?

Yeah, I'll dig in and try to see what the tile is.

Get our hands on it.

Yeah.

All right.

When you place hands on it, you can.

It gives way a little bit.

Oh, almost like a press.

Oh, okay.

You seem to have been handling this the wrong way.

Then I'll push.

Click.

And the trellis of roses moves over,

yanking some of the

profusion of flowers below it.

And there is a small person-sized hole in the wall.

More secrets.

The plot thickens.

Both of the ladies gasp.

Oh, are you really telling me?

And I'm just going to look over at Mrs.

Peacock in a very joking manner.

Like, you're going to tell me you didn't know that was there.

Well,

not, no, not that one, but you know, I, again, Rutherford loved his secrets.

None of these predate Rutherford having the house?

No, he built he he's the one, this is his house.

Really, is his

parents barely had time to live here.

This is, this is his, um,

well, you know, cats, it was, it was his mansion, really.

He had it all, uh,

bought a bought a big mansion, outfitted it himself.

His parents sometimes stayed here, but they would never have such a ostentatious spectacle of a place.

No, it was

made for Rutherford.

It was always supposed to be his birthright.

I'll look around.

Fred didn't react at all to this opening up.

Fred is surprised, but he takes a look at you and he says, Well, shall we?

Well, let's see where this heads off to, and keeping an eye, especially out for any discarded weaponry.

Right.

You move down a dark hallway

for

some time,

and when you reach the end of the hallway, you see a short ladder that leads up

to

what looks to be a

rectangular hole in the ceiling covered with a trapdoor.

How are the people in heels navigating

right now?

It's all right.

It's clearly been

paved

to be convenient for people in nice footwear.

Okay, cool.

Fred looks over and says, Shall we?

Um, yes.

After you,

all right, excelsia.

Are we not worried that there's like a secret murderer in addition to the murder in our party now?

Or do we think that there was the secret murderer all along?

And then they were hiding in the passageways.

Uh,

are any of us armed?

Uh what do you mean?

No,

I mean, if we're are we anticipating that someone else is gonna jump out and try to kill one of us?

I'm just saying he sent away all the servants, but that could also someone could be hiding.

And I just, we're all walking into rooms without thinking that there could be something scary in a room.

And I just want to

mention that now.

Duly noted, says Mustard, and he climbs up and pushes open the trapdoor.

And you find yourselves in a corner of the lounge where the parquette flooring has hidden this trapdoor very effectively.

All clear down here.

I will look and I'll say,

if you're worried about us being in danger, we're back here in the lounge, and there are a number of weapons that we could arm ourselves with if we wanted to.

No, I'm not worried about that.

Then are we going to art

wouldn't that be also be arming a potential murderer?

Well,

having not found the gun, our murderer is already armed, or at least knows where a gun is.

Wonderful.

So you emerge into the lounge, and

as you discussed,

there are the six plinths, and on it, you see the wrench, a rope, a knife, a lead pipe, and a candlestick.

The candlestick is back.

Was it missing?

Yes.

I'm going to whip over to Claudette and say, do you still have that flower on you?

Yes, yes, I do.

And I open up my little bag and pull out a small amount of the flower.

And, like, even sort of like hand sifting it for like the little bits that just stick on her fingers, just the lightest blow across it to see what the like fibers of the granules of it catch on.

You see

that there are a number of fingerprints on it

at the base.

I'm going to look,

and I will open my briefcase and produce a pair of like magnifying glasses.

And I'm going to

basically try to examine them.

And I'm going to turn to everybody else here and say,

Would everybody here mind terribly

being pressed for fingerprints?

Oh,

sure.

I'll give anybody

anything

and uh Fred nods

question

fingerprints uh candlestick heavier on the bottom.

So if it was being used as a blunt instrument, are there fingerprints at the top?

There are fingerprints at the bottom, only at the bottom where

it would be held as a normal candlestick.

Just

it is worth noting that

you would use this as a weapon and hold it differently.

Yeah,

I also have to wonder

when was the candlestick replaced yeah and who was the last person in the lounge yeah didn't you were you two in here we were and it was not in here when we were in here yeah so in

someone returned that candlestick to its place here in this room after removing their fingerprints from the top

with the not but

maybe there's a chance are we sure that this is the murder weapon we're not certain certain of anything, but we do know that somebody in this room is looking at a candlestick that they returned to this plinth since they knew a murder had occurred.

It is convenient to have enough of abstraction by someone suddenly being very emotional.

Yes, very convenient.

I'd like to start collecting people's fingerprints to match against the

little pad.

I think that I will reach over like into one of the desks and literally just make one I'll just go and get like a little piece of fabric pour to open my fountain pen pour some ink onto it and be like press your thumb and fingers into the fabric and put them on this parchment in my notebook so everybody takes their time and is is giving fingerprints uh mustard as as he's being fingerprinted says there is the potential that all of us who have handled this candlestick before might still have prints on

Who handled this candlestick before?

Oh, well, Mr.

Body's father, but only for a little bit.

That's why it's here, you know.

He didn't want it, he thought it was foolish waste of his hard-earned money.

I didn't handle it.

I don't think Claudette or the Professor handled it.

It's a place to start, Colonel.

No one I hand I handled it.

I

touched it when it when we were all looking at the things um says Miss Scarlet

you chose the rope and or you chose the knife I I'm I chose the gun and didn't touch the gun

because it's a gun

right well I touched the candlestick all right

I I

but but you can

fingerprint me if that's going to help it will

Alright.

And I just want to see if there's.

You know, I know the process will probably take a little while, but I just want to see if we have any matches from the fingerprints on the candlestick to any of the other people here.

Or if we don't, how many different fingerprints there are from people that are not in this room?

You find

Miss Scarlett's fingerprints on it, and just at the base, like how you would normally hold a candlestick.

You find

Mrs.

Peacock's, and it's just one finger

where it's you know, somewhere in the middle, as if it has been poked.

Did we see her poke it in the room?

You didn't see it, um, but

it seems that she has a familiarity with this.

Mrs.

Peacock, when did you first interact with this candlestick?

No, I don't know.

Whenever uh

Johnny's 60th was, and this

today,

where I think I was pointing it out to that one, and she she pokes at Miss Scarlett

one finger point poking at her.

Just

I want her desperately to have left an ink blot on Miss Scarlett.

Yes, she absolutely has.

On the same sleeve in which Miss Scarlett has makeup and snot, now she also has a single dark fingerprint.

Is Miss Scarlett upset about this?

Yes, this is.

Really?

Melda?

What?

I'm just saying.

All right, Mr.

Green, have you finished with your analysis?

I have.

The only fingerprints that we can find on here are presumably Rutherford's, as well as Imelda and Susie's.

Understood.

I think it might be helpful

if everyone

talked about what they did after dinner.

Alright.

Because while we were in the lounge after the gunshots, it's clear that people have been moving around the house.

I went to the ballroom and I was playing.

We heard.

We did.

It was lovely, right?

As I've said before.

Mr.

Green.

Uh,

I

uh

I stayed in the dining room to uh speak to Rutherford after his dust-up with Colonel Mustard, and then joined Claudette and the professor in the lounge.

What did you talk about?

Did he seem agitated, or was he afraid?

He was very agitated, and I was trying to speak to him very frankly about

his

lifestyle

and growing closer to politics.

And that I thought that was a bad idea.

Yes.

The politics of it all.

Do you think you're the last person that saw Rutherford alive?

Couldn't be.

I mean, that conversation was a few short minutes and then I and then I went to the lounge.

Unless he I could have been the last person to see him if he went and was in private for something like 45 or 50 minutes.

He said he was going to the lounge to get it ready for the salon.

Rutherford did.

Oh, no, he did he.

Well, we were supposed to all meet in the lounge again after the hour, was that?

At midnight, yes.

At midnight.

Did anybody see him?

He never no, no, he never showed up in the lounge.

So, wherever he went after the dining room, he didn't go to the lounge.

I went there to wait because that was the next place that we were all to meet.

And if you don't have anything else to do in the house, the lounge is where you go.

Well, I was in the conservatory doing some pruning.

Didn't see him.

Didn't see anybody.

You were doing some pruning, Mrs.

Peacock?

Why?

Yes, because, well, as you can see, the place is in a bit of a state since Betty,

Betty passed.

Right, but we had just had a full meal and had been drinking.

Hmm.

Yes, what do you what do you do when you've had a few too many?

F flower arrangings, my little vice.

Did you make a did you make another arrangement?

I did not know.

Okay.

Well,

I was in the library.

I'm sure everyone has seen the evidence of my time in the library.

Yeah, I was going to say, I hadn't heard about your restaurant with Mr.

Body.

A delightful delightful surprise from him.

Oh, he was trying to control you with a gift, then, was it?

Yeah, yeah, he was very good at that.

He was a generous man, but maybe not the most considerate.

I had stepped into the kitchen to cut my cigar, as well.

We had been distracted before Mr.

Green could do it for me earlier.

Had a bit of baked Alaska,

Then realized I was perhaps too deep in my cups.

Stepped outside to smoke.

So did anybody see him

at all?

After Mr.

Green did?

And Fred, you were in the hall the entire time.

Yes, yes, I was.

Why did you go to the hall?

I

feel

terrible about losing my temper in front of all of you.

It was a discussion that I had meant to have with Rutherford for quite some time, and I did not have the courage to do it.

And to have it come out like that is not one of my prouder moments.

The war had

a great deleterious effect on me and

my

resolve.

I'm afraid that I have become a bit of a coward since then, you know.

You're anything but, Fred.

Anything but.

Thank you, Arnold.

But

you went to the hall to compose yourself, to prepare to leave?

I had considered it.

But you made no such decision in

an hour?

I did not leave because I thought perhaps if I continued in this company, I could yet continue to steer him away from this path.

Okay, okay, but again,

you were in the hall by yourself at a dinner party for an hour.

Yes.

Yes, I was.

I mean,

we all were

on our own for that time,

were we not?

I mean, doing things.

The hall,

And I kind of just gesture in that direction.

Like, what?

There's nothing in that room.

Nothing but my thoughts.

Young lady.

I would like for us, if we can, to adjoin to a room that we have not yet visited, but seems to be strangely connected, like a thread, through all of this various tapestry of what's gone on this night.

Something that every single one of us, no matter what room we were in, would all have some reason to be aware

I think we should pay a little visit to the ballroom.

Certain I was there for the entire time.

He didn't make his way in at all.

Still, I think it's worth leaving no rock unturned.

And after all, to put this in a legal perspective, we are still looking for the murder weapon.

That gun.

It's possible that the candle here was taken, but there's no blood on the candlestick.

So

a coroner is still going to rule this,

likely as a gun wound.

So we need to find that weapon and find it quickly.

And I.

It's not here in the lounge, and I think that the ballroom may have some answers for us.

All right.

So you move

down the quiet, dark corridors.

to the ballroom.

As your heels and loafers click on the Versailles floor, the red oak parquet floors with an intricate interwoven pattern of rectangles and triangles, you look around and the walls reflect yourselves back to you.

They're mirrored under

fine Baroque arches.

There's a chandelier of French crystal on the ceiling, and there's enough room in here for a small orchestra, which on occasion Body has brought in for his various big soirees.

There are some darker corners with settis for the wallflowers and love seats for the less shy.

There is a piano in the corner, and this piano that you have all heard Miss Scarlett playing all night, it puts the grand in grand piano.

It is an ebony and ivory affair with rather smug-looking Renaissance-style cherubs playing instruments and a tableau painted along the sides.

On each ivory key there is an inlaid

set of abalone initialed with letters A, B, C, D, E, F, or G.

And the top of the piano is propped open.

A ledge above the keyboard is stained with years of wax, perhaps a sign of many late nights of good or bad music filling the hall.

Above the piano is a classical oil painting of more of the plump and supercilious looking cherubs.

I'd like to walk over to inspect the sheet music.

Before we go in, I'm going to feign adjusting like my heels after walking this much.

And I want to put me and this goddamn flower, I swear.

I want to put a thin layer on it.

My thought being, if anyone was trying to do a quick wipe job,

there might be enough residue from a quick wipe.

Where was this?

I want to put it on the bottom of my shoes.

So as I

walk around the ballroom, if this is where

the hit happened and it was wiped up quickly, it might have a slightly different viscosity than the rest of the floor.

You actually see that the floor has recently,

probably earlier today, been polished and waxed.

So it doesn't, so far as you're going, it doesn't seem to be doing any of that.

Mr.

Green, you go look at the sheet music

and it says Red Hearts and has what looks to be handwritten scrawl on it.

Red Hearts.

I'll look at that and I squeeze.

I don't think that

Cassidy's like a big music guy necessarily.

No, but after many, many years of paperwork and contracts, you would know that it is rutherford's handwriting red hearts does it look like he wrote this sheet music yes

well that's why the music was so bad

um

just say how you really feel

uh i'll say can i say can anyone hear a play from from music play from

i can uh i'll say claudette would you mind taking the keys for a spin here sure

uh and sitting down,

she immediately goes to grab the sheet music to turn it back to the front.

I will.

Cassidy will stop and say, why don't you play from right here if that's all right, Claudette?

Okay.

Cool.

Yeah.

I pick up from wherever we are in the sheet music.

As the strains of your piano playing

echo through the ballroom, my friend Duke taught me.

Mr.

Ellington,

you know, Mr.

Ellington.

We all know each other.

You're not supposed to say that in front of me.

We all agree.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I, I, I.

Um.

Uh, and you noticed that it is the music from earlier in the day when uh it was before dinner, but not the same tune as you just heard.

Uh,

I'm going to furrow my brow because I think I'm catching Susie in a lie here

because she said that she was playing from the sheet music when the gunshots were heard, correct?

Yes, that's correct.

I

don't think it's that bad, is it?

I,

you know, sometimes he would write me little songs and things, and I thought it was just very sweet.

You say you play from sheet music?

Yes, I was.

I was.

This was not the song you were playing when those gunshots fired.

Well, I don't remember what I was playing.

It was.

I was playing this earlier, and I'm I've

gotten confused.

Miss Scarlett, I think it would be best if you remembered what you were playing earlier.

I

am.

She looks over at you, Claudette.

I do the like dun-dun-da, staring on the piano.

I

fine.

And she goes over to the open piano and

she puts a finger in, it's inside of it.

You hear a click,

and the piano begins to play itself

in kind of a monotonous and

very

clunky fashion, but it is a jazz tune nonetheless.

Does this sound like what we were hearing earlier?

It does, yes.

I'll be very plain,

Susie.

Telling a room full of your fellow partygoers

that you were playing music during the time of the murder at a piano that can play itself, that you alone seem to know how to turn on and off,

is exactly the kind of information that a jury would be very interested in.

So, why don't you tell us what you and Rutherford discussed

as the strains of this

still not very great jazz piece echo through the halls?

Susie gulps and says,

All right, I'll tell you everything.

That was Abria Iyengar as Miss White, Lou Wilson as Professor Plum, Brendan Lee Mulligan as Mr.

Green, and Erika Ishii as everyone and everything

else.

Hint was edited and designed by Kate Sanders.

Music appears courtesy of artless.io and the Creative Commons and the great public domain.

Thanks for joining us here on the ghastly grounds of the Body Estate.

But even more wonders await you beyond the Vale on our Patreon.

Come and join us by the fireside, won't you?

We'll see you there.