Murder at the Manor

By Zeorymer. 28/04/10, 11:30 am

This fanfic is a variation of the story 'And then there were none" by Agatha Christie. I don't intend to replicate the novel, it will be a more bare-bones murder mystery. It will be between 7 and 10 parts, plus an epilogue.

Rules of play(should you wish to play)

Spoiler:

If you don't wish to play, just enjoy the story.

Murder at the Manor -1-

Quote :: It was quarter to six, and ten guests stood dripping in the large entrance hall. The rain had only started recently, but had quickly increased to a torrential amount, which had unfortunately started some awful time between getting off the ferry and arriving inside.
“Some holiday this will be, if the weather keeps up” one of the women remarked.
“I wouldn't worry about it too much” remarked a man to her right, “I'm sure we can find things to do indoors if need be.”
The group approached a plinth in the entrance hall with a paper with fancy looped writing attached to it. One of the men who approached it first read it aloud to the group
-Dear guests, you will find that the ten bedrooms on the second floor will be more than adequate for your stay. Each bedroom has its own sink, towels and spare clothes can be found in the dressers. The dining hall and kitchen are immediately to your left, while the sitting room is to your right. If you have any questions, please ask one of the servants or dial 01 on any indoor phone to immediately get in touch with the servants room. Enjoy your stay, Lord and Lady Fenbrook-
The group moved upstairs, and found that there were ten guest bedrooms, five on either side of the
hallway. They split up to claim a room and get changed out of their damp clothes.
Martin took the first room closest to the grand stairs before anyone could object with a grunt that could have been translated as “Mine”.
Alicia then took the second room, Ben the third, Eloise the fourth, Tom the fifth, Richard the sixth,
Violet the seventh room, Selene the eighth, Jack the ninth and Kit took the last room, which was next to the servants staircase.
There was much fuss for the next fifteen minutes or so, dressers could be heard banging as the drawers slid open and closed, doors in the hallway were opening and closing as the guests visited each other, hoping to borrow items that had been damaged in their luggage by the rain. It seems no one had remembered to close the main doors to the entrance hall, for a chill breeze would often come down the corridor, slamming shut any open doors.
A loud ringing was heard throughout the manor, as the large grandfather clock in the entrance hall struck six. Jack came out of his room to find himself alone in the hall.
“I'm going to the kitchen to see when dinner will be guys, anyone hungry?”
More doors opened, and there was a general murmur of consent, and so the guests moved down the staircase and went right at the base into the kitchen.
The kitchen was huge. Stoves, ovens and sinks lined two of the walls, and a large table was in the middle of them room, with rows of cooking utensils and knives neatly arranged in holders in a row down the centre of the table. But there was nobody in the kitchen. Violet was first to notice.
“No servants cooking us dinner after our trip?” she remarked.
“Come to think of it, nobody met us at the pier or at the entrance hall.” commented Eloise.
“It could be that they are having a late briefing of our trip, or just waiting in the servants room” said Ben, turning to go back into the entrance hall. He nearly bumped into Kit, who was standing in the doorway.
“Aren't we missing someone?” she asked. The group was puzzled, but nearly all of them started performing a headcount.
Martin was first to notice. “We're missing Richard. Someone go to his room and tell him we are going to eat now if he wants to get fed.”
“Yeah, I'll go get him” Kit volunteered, turned and headed back up the staircase.
There was a pause while the listened to her climb the staircase, which was broken by Jack's growling stomach.
“Right, well I'm just going to call the servants room, see if we can't get some grub made”. Jack grabbed the phone on the wall, but before he even began to dial, a terrible sound pierced the air. They immediately identified it as Kit screaming.
Martin was first out of the kitchen and up the stairs, elbowing and pushing people out of his way. He was the first to find Kit standing at the open door of Richard's room. He would've asked what was wrong, but one look inside told him why Kit was white-faced.
Richard was lying face up on his bed, clutching a knife sticking out of his chest. He was most certainly dead.

By Zeorymer. 29/04/10, 08:05 am

Murder at the Manor -2-

Quote :: Eloise and Violet stayed in the hall to comfort Kit, who was crouched and crying quietly into her arms. The remaining five followed Martin into Richard’s room. Richard was lying face-up on his bed, his left headphone nearly touching the floor, still playing some sort of music. While Martin stood back and looked at the scene, Jack had brushed past him before he had a chance to say something about the crime. And before anyone had thought to stop him, Jack was pulling the knife out Richard, with a wet sticky sound. Blood dripped from the blade, but it was clear to anyone that this knife would not look out of place in a kitchen. Martin moved forward and smacked Jack on the back of his head with his palm.
“You idiot, disturbing the scene like that! How the bloody hell are they going to identify the killer with your grubby fingerprints on the handle?” Martin was fuming.
“Should I put it back in then?” Jack asked sarcastically.
“You should… just put it down.” Tom looked worried.
There was a pause in the room, as Jack put the knife on Richard’s body. And then Selene spoke up.
“How did he die?”
“Stabbed himself” Tom wondered. “Or did someone stab him?”
“And which do you hope is more likely? That he came here to kill himself and implicate us in an investigation, or that someone stabbed him while we were in the kitchen?” said Ben.
There was a brief silence, but Martin broke it quickly.
“Jack, did you get a hold of the servants room?”
“Oh, not yet” Jack look flustered, but composed himself and began dialing the phone on Richard's dresser.
“Hey guys” Violet interjected from the doorway, “We're going to see if we can't get a drink or something. Anyone joining us?”
Selene and Alicia volunteered, anything to get out of the room with the corpse. The guys remained in the room while Jack waited with the phone by his ear.

Violet, Eloise, Kit, Selene and Alicia entered the kitchen. Violet and Kit checked the fridges along the wall but were disappointed.
"There's not much in this fridge” Violet remarked unhappily.
“I doubt this fridge was filled to feed ten guests. In fact, there's not much in here at all” Eloise said from behind the door of the second fridge.
Selene and Alicia had entered the large, double door pantry, but saw that whoever was in charge for food for this mansion clearly hadn't picked up anyway. Kit brushed past anyway, and picked up a loaf of bread from the shelf.
“I need a sandwich”. She slammed the bread on the counter and was ripping the packaging open.
Violet was beside her with some jam she found in the fridge, and they were soon quietly making jam sandwiches. It seemed more of a task to keep Kit calm then to feed anyone.

“Nobody is picking up”
“Fine. Try calling the coastguard on the outside line” said Martin. Another dial, but a pause, and then Jack shook his head and put the phone back down.
“No good. I think the phone lines are down. Probably the bad weather.”
“Fine, listen up”. Martin took control of the situation. “Jack, stay here. I want you to see if there's anything in Richard's luggage to indicate he was going to top himself. Tom, Ben, you two go down to the servants room, see if you can't find them. When you've done that, meet me in the entrance hall.”
“What are you Martin to be giving orders like that, some kind of cop?” Ben was skeptical.
“Yes. That's exactly what kind of person I am?” Martin opened his jacket to show a holster for a handgun. “And here are my credentials.” He flicked a badge at Jack, but Tom caught it instead and inspected it first, much to Jack’s annoyance.
“Yeah, fine” Tom shrugged. He and Ben left the room and headed to the servants staircase.
“I'll be in my room for a bit. I need to get some things out of my bag.” Martin turned and followed Ben out.
Jack sighed, and opened Richard's bag.

A cold breeze blew into the kitchen. The sound of rain was louder than it had been when they arrived, and made the place feel much spookier.
“You know, I've had it. I'm going to do something about that front door.” Selene was out of the kitchen before anyone could offer to help.
“Shall we go see if anyone is hungry?” Alicia volunteered, but Kit had turned and was already back into the pantry, no doubt looking for more edible bread.
“I'll come with you” said Eloise. “You alright staying here with Kit, Violet?”
“Yeah, I'll stay here” Violet agreed, and leaned back against the pantry door.
Alicia and Eloise headed back into the hall, and hunched their shoulders against the cold wind blowing inside. They couldn't see Selene, but they headed up the stairs anyway. When they reached the top Eloise made an apologetic face to Alicia, and headed into the bathroom beside Martin's room, claiming she needed to wash her face. Alicia shrugged, and headed towards Richard's room.

Tom and Ben were only halfway down the servants staircase when Ben tapped Tom on the shoulder. He said something about a body function, and headed to the toilet at the top of the stairs. Tom shrugged again, and headed downwards to the servants room alone.

“We got some food, you guys hungry- Oh. Just you?” Alicia had a puzzled look on her face. She wasn't expecting just Jack, she was expecting four people. He was in the middle room with Richard's clothes strewn across the floor. He looked up and smiled.
“Oh, Martin wanted me to check if Richard was planning to off himself. Found nothing, except these.” Jack tossed a small bottle of pills at Alicia, who fumbled the catch, but didn't drop them.
“Sleeping pills?”
“Yeah, some painkillers too. I don't know, I wouldn't find any of these things unusual.”
“Did you find his cellphone?”
Jack shook his head. “No. You would think a guy would keep one on him. Anyway, lets get out of this room, I heard you say something about food.”
Alicia and Jack closed the door to Richard's room, and walked down the hall to Martin's room, where Jack rapped loudly on the door.
“Martin. Food time”, said Jack as he opened the door. Martin was sitting on his bed, tucking his handgun into his belt.
“A gun? You have a gun! On holiday??” Alicia was startled.
“Im off-duty” Martin replied. “and terribly hungry.” He shooed them out and closed the door behind him. The three guests began to head down the main staircase when Jack felt his foot slip. He caught himself on the railing, but when he looked down, water was beginning to spread on the wooden floor.
“Anyone in there?” Jack jabbed his thumb at the bathroom. Alicia looked concerned.
“Eloise is in there washing her face”. Her voice trailed off. Water shouldn't be leaking out the bathroom in any situation involving washing one's face.
She tapped on the door and called Eloise's name. There was no response. She went to knock harder but Martin caught her arm and stopped her. He pulled out his gun and motioned for quiet.
“Eloise? We're coming in.” He turned the handle and burst into the room, gun raised.
Water was overflowing from the sink to his right. And it was overflowing because Eloise was kneeling, arms limply be her sides, with her head drowned in the sink.

By P-Layton. 29/04/10, 02:13 pm

Hey, first of all - great idea! I just read And Then There Were None, so I'm quite ecstatic about this!
Second, - a question - if I were to suspect someone should I PM the suspected culprit, or post it here?

This is really cool!

By Zeorymer. 29/04/10, 03:09 pm

P-Layton wrote:: Second, - a question - if I were to suspect someone should I PM the suspected culprit, or post it here?

Either, but posting it might generate discussion from other readers as well.

By m4hiain. 29/04/10, 03:19 pm

Well i'm gonna say MARTIN cos i dont like him. He was the most dodgy with the gun (yes i know hes a cop) and he was alone at the time closest to the bathroom. (i think thats more what you want us to think so im thinking it)

But really i wanna keep reading so hope im wrong. Wanna read all ten Very Happy

.

By P-Layton. 30/04/10, 02:56 am

m4hiain wrote:: Well i'm gonna say MARTIN

I disagre, there, m4hiain - Eloise would have to have been dead for quite a while before the water would overflow by that much...
I therefore think that Ben was the murder, because he tapped Tom on the shoulder and said he had to go to the toilet, suggesting he could have murdered Eloise! As for the first murder - of Richard - people went in and out of their rooms constantly and Ben could have struck him down at any moment.

Please tell me I'm wrong; this is so much fun!

By m4hiain. 30/04/10, 06:24 am

Ben was my second choice. The reason i decided on martin was because of the way he choose the first room (closest to exit). And his room was right beside the bathroom meaning he had heapz of tim to kill her and go back to his room.

Can we both be wrong plz Very Happy

i want more.

By Zeorymer. 30/04/10, 07:52 am

Murder at the Manor -3-

Quote :: “Violet?...Violet?” Kit called out from the base of pantry shelf. She could have sworn Violet had been standing against the door watching her, but turning around she could only see the kitchen. She could clearly see the table in the centre of the kitchen, with its rows of utensils neatly arranged in wooden holders down the centre. Her eyes followed the horizon of handles until they reached a small, but strange gap. Standing up, she moved out of the pantry to see which handles were missing.

Martin tucked his gun back into his belt and turned the taps off. The sink was quite small, and the water he had first assumed to be overflowing from all sides, was instead pouring steadily out the side closest to the door, where the lip of the basin had been damaged. Jack moved forward to get Eloise out of the sink, but tripped, again, but this time on a rolled-up towel on the floor. Jack found it odd when he fell on cold, dry lino.
“Look at the towels” Martin pointed at their feet. They were rolled up, and funneling the water like a wall of sandbags from the sink into the corner of the room and out the door.
Jack picked himself off the floor, and began to pick up Eloise too when Martin yelled at him to leave her alone. Her eyes were closed.
“She's dead Jack, and once again, you are disturbing the scene. Could you damn well stop doing that?”
Jack looked concerned, but gingerly put the head back in the sink. A small surge of water splashed on to the floor through the cracked side.
“I don't think the killer would be dumb enough to leave her alive Jack” said Alicia timidly from the hall, “in case she got revived and identified the killer.”
“Hmm. I think our killer wanted us to find the body. I mean, the water is being pushed out the door deliberately to tell she's in here.” Martin began checking the mirror where Eloise's head was. It was splintered near the bottom with small fissures occurring upwards.
The sound of a door closing shocked Alicia, and when she turned to where the sound had come from, she saw Ben leaving a room at the far end of the hall. Ben looked just as surprised to see her, and he came running over. He slowed down when he saw Jack and Martin leaving the washroom.
“Ben, don't use this room” said Martin and began to head down into the entrance hall.

Kit was looking at a small knife rack with two handles missing. As she was drawing out a knife to see how long they were, there was a clattering sound from the door at the far end of the kitchen, like someone was trying to open a jammed door. Kit drew out the knife completely and held it in front of her, and edged slowly towards the door.
She hadn't made three steps when the door opened and Tom came through, hands back in his pockets. He looked up and saw Kit standing straight ahead, shaking and gripping a knife. Tom took his hands out of his pockets and raised them in the air.
“Hey Kit, now, I'm not going to hurt you, put the knife down.”
“What's that in your hand?”
Tom realized he was gripping Martin's badge in his left hand, so he held out towards Kit.
“A police badge? Are you a cop?”
“No, it's not mine. It-” Tom moved forward, still holding the badge out in front of him.
“You killed Richard and took his badge?” Kit was shaking, and edging away from Tom.
Tom opened his mouth to say something, but it didn't matter. Martin ran into the kitchen when he saw Tom's hands in the air and he wrested the knife out of Kit's hands.
“It's my badge Kit. Calm down.” Martin banged the knife on the table. Kit fell to her knees, and looked as if she was about to cry again.
Martin turned to face Tom. “Did you find anything in the servants room?”
“I- uhh- no.” Tom shook his head, lowering his arms. “There was a big duty roster on the wall, but the last dates on it were over a month ago. I don't think there any servants here at all".
Ben, Jack and Alicia had followed Martin into the kitchen. Silence filled the air, they found themselves staring out into the night or at the ceiling, not really paying attention to anything, while rain struck the windows. The atmosphere was gloomy. Attention snapped back to the entrance hall when Violet came back with her hair and jacket wet.
“Has anyone seen Selene? She said she was going to fix that front door over ten minutes ago” Violet looked tired and was leaning on the door frame.
There was a general murmur of non-agreement, but it seemed as though the last anyone had seen Selene was when she had left the kitchen. Martin and Ben moved from beside the sandwich pile to the front door while the rest of the group followed one by one after them into the entrance hall.
Martin stood in the rain looking at the chain holding the front door open. It looked as though someone had attempted to shift the iron peg holding the door open, but looking at it carefully Martin could see the peg had rusted in its holder. It would need quite some strength to remove it.
Martin turned back to Alicia. “Did you see her when you were in the entrance hall with Eloise?”
Alicia said no, but Ben had seen something in the rain.
“Martin, is that a light over there?”
“Hmm, I see it. You guys wait here, Jack and I will go see what that is. There shouldn't be anyone else here.”
Jack shrugged, but complied. He and Martin dashed off into the dark rain leaving Tom to turn to Ben and Alicia.
“Where is Eloise?”

They had begun running on a path, but the sky gave them very little light, Martin and Jack soon found they had strayed from that path and were running through nature. The grass and dirt were wet with rain, pools were forming in the dips of the land, and they found themselves slipping on wet earth and hitting branches in the darkness. They hadn't been running long when they discovered the source of the light; a single bulb illuminating a garden shed. The door was open, and a clanging sound could be heard from inside. Martin drew his gun.
The shed was not that cramped, but the tools hung from beams and on the wall made the space seem smaller.. There were various paint cans along one set of shelves.
A figure cast in shadow was rummaging through the tools at the back. The figure was holding a large pair of shears when Martin cocked his gun and called “Freeze!”
Selene was surprised, she dropped the shears. They clattered around on top of the tools before sliding onto the floor. She turned around to see Martin pointing his gun at her face.
“I was just looking for something to cut the chain” she pointed at her feet, dozens of tools and farmyard implements scattered the floor.
Martin relaxed his gun and sighed, tucking it back into his belt. Jack sneezed. Lightning struck.
“Forget the door. Lets go back. I'm getting a cold being wet all over again.” Jack shivered as he spoke.
As the three of them were running back to the mansion through the rain, Martin saw something sparkling, reflected the light emanating from the kitchen. He stopped to pick it up, and saw that it was a cellphone. He picked it up and ran after Jack and Selene, hopefully it would still be working.

The guests in the entrance hall had returned solemnly to the kitchen. Ben was preheating two large ovens to warm the room up.
“Does anyone mind if I help myself to these? I haven't eaten since breakfast.” Violet was already devouring her first sandwich. The others didn't seem particularly hungry anymore, not with sandwiches with jam the colour of blood spread all over them.
Tom, Ben, Alicia and Kit were hunched near the ovens for warmth when a loud thump behind them caused them to turn around. Violet was on the floor clutching her chest and gulping like a fish out of water. The four of them stared in shock until something clicked in Tom's brain, he yelled something about poison and ran towards the servants room.
Alicia, Ben and Kit were next to Violet now, trying to help her breath. Tom came back into the room with a First Aid kit and began pulling things out frantically. Ben held Violets head, Alicia and Kit went to help sort through the discarded items.
“What are we looking for?” Alicia said, holding bandages in her hands.
“An antidote kit” said Tom, flustered. “Hydroxycobalamin and a hypodermic needle. It's cyanide poisoning.”
All their hands were in the large box grabbing things now, but in the end it didn't matter. Violet died in Ben's arms as lightning began to strike outside.

By Phlaming Phoenix-. 30/04/10, 08:33 am

Loving the story there,
I dont know the original novel you are refering to though :/
I have a couple suspects, but will keep them to myself as of now, will wait for another installment or two to see what happens Razz

By Aikome. 30/04/10, 09:43 am

^ That; haven't read Agatha Christie.
Great story~ love the idea . . it was confusing to keep track of the many people initially.

I was thinking it was Tom after the second installment, but it's difficult to tell what with the perspectives and the fact we know nothing of the characters.

Keep going~!

By Zeorymer. 03/05/10, 07:37 am

Murder at the Manor -4-

Quote :: The remaining seven guests were standing solemnly in the upstairs hall. Alicia had found the needle, but the antidote was missing from the first aid supplies. Martin, Jack and Selene had returned to the kitchen dripping rainwater all over the wooden floor, and had been rather surprised to find a silver blanket, gauze, antiseptics and bandages all across the room. There had been an argument, where Martin, Ben and a rather cautious Jack had opted to leave the body alone, but had lost out to Alicia, Kit and Tom, with Selene swayed to their side. Martin and Tom ended up carrying Violet upstairs to her room and laid her on the bed, while Jack and Ben moved Eloise’s body.
“I think we need to find a place to all sit down. I’m tired and cold, some you probably are too. Maybe we should all go to the dining room?” Selene asked the group. They agreed and were about to head back down the main staircase when Martin, at the front of the group, stopped and jabbed a finger at the double doors opposite them.
“I think those lead to the main bedrooms. Has anyone come out of them?”
They all shook their heads, Alicia crossed to the doors and attempted to open them. The doorknobs rattled, but the door didn’t open. Some people sighed, and they headed down the stairs into the entrance hall.

The cold wind still blowing, they were careful to not slip on the wet footprints that had been made earlier. Instead of heading to the kitchen like they had done so many times before, the group went through the doors leading to the dining room.
The drapes had been shut, the room was dark, they could barely make out the long dining table
that made the centerpiece of the room. They had moved well into the room before Kit found the light switch while she had been hanging back at the doorway, hands fumbling across the wall. The lights blazed on from several hanging chandeliers, and it made Kit regret it.
The table looked nice, but it was not covered with a tablecloth. A long white sheet had covered it up, like someone hadn’t planned to use it in a long time. There were no chairs to be found along the table.
In fact, all the furniture along the walls were covered in white sheets too. But that wasn’t what scared Kit. It was the things written in large dripping red across the walls.
TIME aND TIME aGaIN
FENBROOK IS DISPLEaSED
THIS HOuSE IS MINE
The messages were repeated over the walls and ceiling, yet none of the white sheets had any red on them, despite how the messages appeared to be eerily dripping.
Kit and Selene screamed. They hastily beat their retreat to the entrance hall followed closely by Alicia. Martin walked up to the closest one and began running his finger down a letter M. Ben and Jack approached him.
“It’s dry” he said, rubbing his fingers. “Whoever wrote this, wrote it before we got here”.
“Someone displeased wrote this? Whatever will they do when they actually get angry? Lets find another room we can use” Jack grimaced at the sentences and headed out. The others followed him.

There was only one room left to try; the sitting room. It too had white sheets covering the furniture, but they could see couches and armchairs surrounding a fireplace. They closed the doors and drapes to keep put the sound of wind and rain, and soon, the seven guests were all sitting around a fire which Tom had started.
“How did you know it was cyanide poisoning Tom?” Ben queried.
“I used to be a chemistry teacher” said Tom, stoking the fire. “Used it once in a lesson. Had to explain to my students what happens if you inhale it. Had antidote on hand in case things went wrong.”
“Someone inhaled cyanide during your lesson?” Kit asked.
“No. They weren't dumb kids”.
“Do you think the cyanide was in the bread, in the jam, or added after the sandwich was made?” Martin asked Tom.
“I don't know” Tom shrugged. “They were already in a pile when I reached the kitchen. Kit was in there.”
“Kit. Come with me for a second” Martin grabbed Kit's arm and dragged her with him out of the room. “We'll be right back.”

Martin and Kit left the sitting room and entered the kitchen. It was much colder than the sitting room and Kit shivered.
“Where did you find the bread?” Martin asked Kit. She pointed into the pantry.
"It was the last one on the shelf.”
“And the jam?”
“Violet found that. In that fridge.” She pointed to the first fridge, the one closest to them. Martin opened it.
"There's nothing in here” he remarked at the fridge. “The jam was the only thing in here?”
Kit shrugged, and folded her arms. It was much colder in here than she remembered, she just wanted to get back to the warm fire.
Martin began opening all the cupboards, moving plates, pots and cutlery around for a better look. He didn't seem to find anything. He sighed, and beckoned Kit to go with him back to the sitting room, when he saw the knife he had taken from her on the bench. His eyes followed to the gap in the cutlery, when he turned to Kit.
“Did you take the knife from there?”
“Yes. But there was already some missing.”
Martin moved closer to the knife rack, and including the knife on the bench, there were three knives missing from the rack. Kit sneezed.
“Aah come on then, lets go”. They both headed back to the sitting room.

The sitting room was much warmer than it had been when they entered, so Ben and Selene were now throwing sheets of furniture to see what was underneath. There was a rather nice billiards table, and expensive looking card table, some more chairs and an expensive writing desk. Ben began opening the drawers, but he found nothing but blank notepaper and pens, save that the bottom left one was locked. He was just bending down to go underneath the desk to have a better look at the locked drawer when Martin and Kit came back into the room, escorted by a gust of cold air that made the fire flicker dangerously.
Martin flicked the phone he had found outside out of his pocket, but it wouldn't turn on. He sighed, and put it on the mantelpiece above the fire.
Selene saw the phone and her eyes widened. “Has anyone called the coastguard yet?” she asked the room at random.
Jack shrugged, and explained that the outside line was probably disabled from his failed earlier attempt.
Kit curled up in an open armchair and pulled out her phone. It had no signal, they hadn't had
any signal since the boat trip. She considered hurling it into the fire for all it was good for, but decided against it, putting it back into her pocket.
Alicia saw Ben maneuvering himself under the writing desk, so she decided to see if she could help.
“Stuck?”
“Yeah, just a locked drawer.”
Alicia rapped her knuckles on the wood. “I bet we could force it open without the key”.
“Yea well, hopefully the handle is properly connected to the drawer so it doesn't just snap off”.
Alicia considered it. “I'll push the desk, you pull the handle. See if we can't just break it out”.
Ben agreed, put his feet up against the desk and his hands between them holding the handle. Alicia moved so that her weight would be pushing the desk. They counted to three.

There was a few seconds of the sound of creaking wood, and then a loud bang, as Ben toppled backwards with the drawer. Paper and envelopes flew into the air.

By Lumissne. 03/05/10, 10:53 am

Great story! Got a couple of suspicions, but going to stay quiet for now...

Can't wait to hear the rest Very Happy

By Zeorymer. 04/05/10, 09:38 am

Murder at the Manor -5-

Quote :: ~ ~ ~

Ben turned over. He absent-mindedly grabbed his phone to check the time; it was 18 minutes to three in the morning. And he was thirsty. Very thirsty. He swung himself out of bed, still dressed from earlier, and unlocked his door. His hand was on the cool doorknob when he remembered someone saying something about not leaving their rooms, but he disregarded that. After all, he was thirsty.
His door opened, and he nearly regretted getting out of bed, as a cold draft blew against him. He pulled his door up quietly, and padded softly down the hall past Alicia and Martin's rooms, not wishing to wake them. He could hear his footsteps echo as he descended the staircase, and saw that there was already a light on in the kitchen.
Alicia was standing at one of the sinks, filling a glass with water from the tap. She was staring out the windows, the rain had considerably lessened from earlier and the wind had died down.
“Couldn't sleep?” Ben went to stand beside her.
She turned and smiled at him. “Kind of. You?”
“Yeah. Thought getting a drink would help. Where did you find that glass?”
“This? You can use it, I haven't drank from it yet”.
“Thanks. Although I don't know how much help water is going to be to get me to sleep.” Ben held the glass and looked out through the window.
“Actually...” Alicia pulled out a small plastic bottle from a pocket. “Jack gave me these earlier, want one?” She passed the sleeping pills to Ben's free left hand. He put the glass down and began to open it.
“So which do you think was more likely?” Ben asked, as he fumbled with the bottle, “the resort or the mining?”
“The mining” Alicia answered after a thoughtful pause. “That way, it could still be turned into a resort afterwards.”
“Yes, of course” Ben winked at her. He put the bottle down and held a pill in his hand. “I'll see you in the morning then”. Alicia smiled again.
He popped the pill into his mouth and gulped down the water, bade Alicia goodnight and headed back towards the bedrooms. Alicia began washing the glass out Ben left behind.
Ben was already feeling drowsy before he reached his door. Had it always been open? He lurched through and pushed the door closed behind him. He grabbed the sheets and hadn't even began to make himself comfortable underneath when the pill fully kicked in and he was sound asleep.

~ ~ ~

Most of the envelopes were unused, and a lot of the paper blank. However, Selene had found two envelopes with official looking documents in them, and had passed one to Jack while she checked the other out.
Martin turned to Selene first. “What have you got there?”
“Umm, I'm not sure. Something about a divorce I think.” Tom went to look at what Selene was holding while Martin turned to Jack.
“And you? More divorce papers?”
“No, actually, it says here; 'Application for Planning Permission'. What would you need planning permission for?” Jack wondered.
“I know” Alicia spoke up from beside Ben, “you need it if you're developing something on the land. Like adding a wing to this house would probably need it”.
“But if they were getting divorced” Kit interjected, “It might be that the one who got the house was planning on tearing down the mansion and building something else?”
“It is a whole island” said Ben. “Maybe turning it into a resort? That might need permission.”
“There is cyanide somewhere on this island” said Tom. “Maybe they found something and wanted to harvest it? Turning this place into a mill or a mine or some sort of farm would need it too”.
“I think a resort sounds more likely” said Martin. “I wouldn't tear down a perfectly good house, I would probably add some villas or something”.
The guests lapsed into thought about what they would turn the island into.
“Does it say where the permission is for?” Martin asked.
Jack flicked through the pages in his hand. “No, I think its for the whole island”.
Silence again. The fire flickered alone by the comfy armchairs. They thought about it for a while until Kit yawned. Jack and Tom followed suit, and Ben stretched his arms.
Martin stood up and took control. “Okay, I think we've all had a tough day”. There was a murmur of agreement.
“I think it's time we went to bed”.
Selene spoke up, “What if the killer gets us in our sleep?”
“No hang on”. Martin was quick to respond. “My door locks from the inside, I'm sure yours can as well. And anyway, we are all going to bed together. No more staying by yourself, and definitely no staying awake alone while everyone else is asleep. If we are all by ourselves in our rooms that no one can enter without our permission then we should be fine. So no leaving your rooms until 7am tomorrow, so we can be sure everyone stayed inside their rooms.”
The argument was compelling, and they all agreed. Tom doused the fire and they all headed back up the staircase to the bedrooms.
Martin watched with his hands on his belt as they all solemnly entered their rooms, shut their doors, and locked them with a small 'click'. Satisfied that they had all gone to bed, Martin closed the door of his room and locked it ('click'). He set his phone on the night stand and laid the gun beside, facing the door. He pulled the cover over himself and wondered if he would get any sleep that night. His phone showed 10:34.

~ ~ ~

It was dark. Jack woke up with a terrible urge to go to the toilet. He didn't check the time when he got up, he unlocked and opened his door slowly and quietly. The hallway was dark, he tip-toed past Kit's room and headed for the toilet- Martin probably would have yelled at him if he had tried to go earlier.
He thought he was particularly quiet about this trip when he bumped into Tom, who was leaving the bathroom.
There was an embarrassed pause, and they dispersed for the night. It seemed, Jack thought, that it might have been too quiet after all.

~ ~ ~

Martin opened his door softly, he thought he had heard the sound of creaking footsteps. The hall was dark, and he couldn't see any open doors. He sighed, chided himself for being paranoid, and went back to bed.

~ ~ ~

The alarm on her phone went off at 7am, and Kit could hear the chimes of the big clock in the entrance hall soon after. She left her room quickly, and struggled bleary-eyed into the hall. She could see Martin and Tom were already out there. She was standing there, still not fully awake, when Selene and Jack ('click') came into the hallway. They waited for Ben and Alicia, but they did not emerge.
Martin went to Ben's room first. He raised his fist and knocked on the door, but it swung open slowly on it's hinge. Martin went inside, followed by Jack.
Ben was asleep face-down on his bed, his phone vibrating on the stand to a wake-up alarm. Jack moved forward and shook him.
“Wake up you lazy bastard, it's morning.” More shaking, but Martin stopped him.
“Help me roll him over.” Martin and Jack grabbed his left arm and rolled Ben over. Ben eyes stayed shut, it looked to Jack that he might just have been a heavy sleeper, but rolling him over caused a small object to clatter to the ground. Jack picked it up.
“Hang on... these are the sleeping pills from Richard's bag. I gave these to Alicia.”
“Jack, he's not breathing... wait. Did you say Alicia had those pills?” Martin dashed out of the room.
Selene, Kit and Tom saw him burst out the room. They turned to look, when Jack came out to them and said that Ben was dead.
Martin kicked down Alicia's door but he needn't have bothered, it wasn't locked. It swung quickly on it's hinge and slammed with a bang into the wall. Jack ran up to Martin, and was about to follow him in when he realized Martin hadn't moved from the doorway.
The room was a mess, as if a small hurricane had been inside. Alicia was on the floor head-down facing the bed, blood on the floor with a knife handle sticking out of her back.

By Basaka. 04/05/10, 11:19 am

Selene doesn't seem to have much of an alibi...

By Aikome. 05/05/10, 10:59 am

N`aww. . here I was, thinking for sure it was Alicia.
DDD: /horrible at these mystery things/

By m4hiain. 05/05/10, 11:29 am

Think i know who it is but i bet im wrong, always the one you dont expect. Either that or its someone we don't even know but you wouldn't do that to us.

BTW can you kill martin i really dont like him. Make me so happy to see him dead Very Happy

.

By **Admin**. 05/05/10, 03:46 pm

First of all, I am amused that the women went to search for food. In the kitchen. 8D

Anyway, I'm just gonna dump my notes and thoughts.

Characters:

Spoiler:

Anyway. Alibis for LIVING characters (I'm leaving out Richard's death, as that could have been anyone) :

Spoiler:

It's really quite hard to say who it is at this point. @_@ My biggest suspicions are Kit and Jack.
Kit could have killed Richard before she "discovered the body" but didn't have much of a chance to kill Eloise, her room is also closest to the servants stairs which connect to the kitchen, so she could have snuck downstairs and taken the knife in the ruckus at the beginning. Jack might have touched the knife in Richard's body so that he would have witnesses as to why his fingerprints were on the knife if they managed to search it for prints, but he didn't really have much of a chance to kill Violet.

I wonder if there could be two killers. Or an accomplice. Or another character - say, Lord Fenbrook. I assume the divorce papers and planning permissions documents were there because Lady Fenbrook perhaps wanted to divorce him and take the property. He then could have killed Lady Fenbrook and written the message on the wall. He could be hiding behind the main bedroom doors, and using secret passages in the manor to slip around and do the deeds. Though there's not much proof of that... >_>

Anyway. I want moar story. 8D

By Phlaming Phoenix-. 05/05/10, 03:56 pm

My biggest suspicion is on Kit at the moment, One other suspect, but will keep quiet about that for now Razz

Good notes there admin

By Zeorymer. 05/05/10, 04:27 pm

Sorry there wasn't an update today >_> I didn't feel like it. So here's a minor update.

Murder at the Manor - The explored Fenbrook Mansion so far.

Spoiler:

It is not to scale. The shed can be found somewhere in line with the house to the west.

I'm expecting 8 parts and an epilogue. Hope you guys can figure it out before then - the story ends at 8, the epilogue will be to explain how they did it.

By DeltaBeta. 07/05/10, 03:07 pm

TIME aND TIME aGaIN
FENBROOK IS DISPLEaSED
THIS HOuSE IS MINE

Putting each line in an anagram solver gets nothing glaringly obvious.

(Even removing the lower case letters)

By **Admin**. 08/05/10, 11:13 am

It didn't occur to me that the message could be an anagram...

All the lower case letters are 'a's apart from one u. 8D; /pointless observation.

/eagerly awaits the next story

By SoulessPuppet. 09/05/10, 10:55 am

I just read the first three parts and starting to get some pen and paper for this!! This is more interesting than seeing other people solve their own mysteries... I should read the book as well~

By Zeorymer. 10/05/10, 07:01 am

Murder at the Manor -6-

Quote :: Martin and Jack entered Alicia's room. Everything was a mess. Jack bent down to grab the knife handle in Alicia's back- when he was slammed into the wall by Martin.
“What do you think you're doing?”
“I was just going to-”
“Do nothing. Don't touch the crime scene or I'll arrest you for tampering evidence. Or accomplice to murder.” Martin looked angry, so Jack averted his eyes.
“Fine, fine. Sorry.” Jack lifted his hands in the air and left the room. He walked into Selene, Tom and Kit who were now outside Alicia's room.
“Was there a struggle? It looks like a tornado landed inside” Kit observed.
“It looks like there was a struggle, yes. But there's one thing that bugs me.” Martin folded his hands
and looked at Alicia's body.
“Did anyone hear her?”
There was a pause where they all looked at each other, until Selene spoke up. “What do you mean?”
“Lets see” said Martin, “From just looking at the room like this, you would think that Alicia had struggled against her killer until she died, right?
The four in the hall nodded. It was the conclusion that they had all come to when seeing the room.
“But a closer look at the mess. Look at the sheets on the bed. If she was dragged form her bed, it should look like it. But the sheets are all over the place, like someone threw them onto the bed messily.”
“Then we have the dresser. It's been pulled away from the wall on one side and some of the drawers are open slightly. Why? It implies that Alicia or the killer grabbed onto the handles to stop being pulled. Which might make sense, except the angle that the dresser is now facing is towards the hall. And seeing as she died in this room, it makes little sense for someone to be pulled out of the room.”
There was agreement now. The killing was odd.
“And lastly” said Martin, after taking a deep breath, “did anybody hear this?”
This pause was more awkward than the last.
“Nobody heard her scream for help? Or the banging sounds as she fought the killer and hit the objects in this room?” Martin's hand gestured at the items across the floor and the askew dresser.
Nobody said anything. The sound of the rain against the lonely mansion was all that could be heard.
“I've come to two conclusions about this.” Martin walked out of Alicia's room, closing the door behind him and the blood stained body. “Firstly, she was drugged like Ben, and killed. The killer then destroyed her room to make it look like she resisted.”
Martin moved towards Ben's room, with the four guests following him.
“Secondly, she was knifed somewhere, then moved to her room, then a mess was made. But I can't think why someone would need to make a mess.”
They reached Ben's room and looked inside, but there was no surprise waiting for them, Ben was exactly as they had left him.
“I think he was drugged, then killed.” Martin jabbed a thumb at Ben, then turned to the group.
“Clearly, we weren't safe alone in our rooms. So grab your stuff, and your sheets and pillow and whatever, and we're all moving into the sitting room together. Anyone got a problem with that?”
“What if we are attacked? We'll all die together, quicker.” Kit looked concerned with the proposal.
“If one of us gets attacked, they'll surely be able to wake the others up and catch the killer. Sticking together is the safer option now.”
Martin headed off down the hall towards his room. The others sighed, and followed suit.

The rain beat endlessly on the windows as they filed into the sitting room. The fire from last night was out, and there was no more firewood. Jack and Martin went collecting the blank paper until Tom spoke up against it, they should save it for when it gets dark and colder later. Kit complained that she hadn't been able to get much sleep last night, set up a makeshift on one of the couches and promptly fell asleep. Martin, Tom, Jack and Selene moved away from the couch that Kit was on, and sat in a small circle.
“Some vacation this is turning out to be” Selene sighed.
“Makes me feel wary about winning trips at shopping centers” remarked Tom.
“So wherever a detective goes, a mystery appears? I always assumed that was fiction.” Jack gazed out the window.
“So the first to die was Richard.” They turned to Martin, who had begun speaking. “Anyone could have done it, no one was paying attention to anyone else, no one thought anyone was going to die.”
“Well yeah, we were just unpacking and drying off” said Selene. “It's not like we could have known Richard was going to get stabbed.”
“Does anyone remember who he talked to?” Martin asked.
“I remember him reading a book on the boat.” Tom answered.
“Yeah, but didn't Kit talk to him on the boat at one point?” Selene spoke up. “I could swear I saw them, and Kit was doing something with her luggage too.”
They looked over at the couch where Kit slept.
“We can ask her later” said Jack. “Did anyone visit Richard when he was in his room?”
Selene and Tom shook their heads.
“I did” said Martin quietly. “He was already knifed when I went in.”
There was a gasp of horror, which turned to anger. Martin held his hands up.
“The killer always returns to the scene of the crime, don't they? I didn't want to tell everyone then because I wouldn't be able to tell who might have done it.”
“When was this?” Tom asked.
“A little before six. Then the clock rang and I came out of his room to see Jack in the hall asking who was hungry.”
“Yeah...and then someone noticed he was missing. Who was that?” Jack folded his arms.
“I think it was Kit” said Selene, “then she went back upstairs and found his body... Are you saying Kit did it because she was the first to tell us he was dead?”
“Maybe. It might been because of what was said when she was on the boat with him.”
“Should we wake her and ask her now?”
“I wouldn't worry about it” Martin said. “If she is the killer, then she is asleep over there where she can't harm us. And I can see the doors, nobody will go through the doors without us hearing or seeing them.”

- - -

“Next was Eloise.”
Selene spoke up first. “Last I saw her alive, she was in the kitchen with Kit, Violet and Alicia. Kit and Violet were making sandwiches.”
“Hold up. When I came into the kitchen, it was just Kit with the knife.” Tom looked puzzled. “Where did you all go?”
“I went outside to try and fix the door. Couldn't budge the chain. Went looking for a garden shed, thought I saw something to the right and went for it.”
“And Alicia visited me in Richard's room” said Jack.
“So we have a period where we know Eloise went to the toilet, and we don't know where Violet was.” Martin thought for a moment. “When I came down the stairs afterwards, Kit was alone in the kitchen with the knife facing Tom. And we ran into Violet who came back from outside.”
“She ran outside to hide the fact that she was wet from drowning Eloise?” Tom asked.
“Maybe. But there were towels in that bathroom, the killer could have dried themselves off easily. So maybe it was Kit, who ran back downstairs into Tom while Violet actually went outside?” Martin pondered.
“Yeah, but maybe it was you Martin, who was in the room just across the hall. You could have stepped in at any time, then gone and hid in your room.” Jack accused Martin, finger pointing.
“But you ran into me in my room, and I was definitely too busy to go outside and get Eloise. Besides, I
only heard one set of footsteps go past my room. I would have had to know that Eloise was in the bathroom to kill her.”
“What were you so busy doing in your room after you made me go through Richard's stuff?”
“I was loading the gun. I don't usually do it, and I was a bit rusty.” Martin pulled the gun out of his belt and laid it in front of him.
“How many bullets Martin?” Tom queried.
“Eight.”

- - -

“So how did Violet get poisoned?”
“Well” began Tom, “The poison was in the sandwich. It could have been in the bread or in the jam.”
“Violet found the jam in one of the fridges” Selene volunteered.
“And when I checked the fridge afterwards, it was empty. That jar of jam was the only thing in it.”
Selene was thinking. “I don't think that the jam jar was sealed.”
Tom spoke up, “So it was probably added to the jam. Seeing as it was the only thing in the fridge, it might have been set up so that we would use it to eat.”
“I didn't find any cyanide in the kitchen when I checked.”
“And I don't recall there being any in the servants room” Tom responded.
“So what you're saying” said Jack, “is that the jam jar had the poison in it, but no one added it while we were here, because there was no cyanide supply to be found that it could have been taken from.”
“It seems most likely.”

- - -

“I don't like this” Selene grimaced. 'It's like we were set up to be killed here.”
“Who the hell” said Martin angrily, “sets up a competition to kill the ten winners on a island?”
“Ten?” Jack was confused. “I only recall there being nine winning tickets.”
“Excellent” said Martin, “we have someone on this island who wasn't a clueless winner of a prize. Just excellent.” His voice was bitter.
“Hang on” said Tom. “Why would you kill nine strangers on an island, other than some insane fetish?”
“For this.” Jack got up, and went over to the writing desk. He grabbed some of the papers they had been looking through last night and sat back down in the circle.
“There's planning permission here for this island. Lets say it was being turned into a resort. I'm sure killing people on the island would prevent the resort from being successful. Who wants to spend a holiday on an island where there was once a huge, brutal, serial murder?”
“So, lets say one of the Fenbrooks was planning on turning this into a resort” Selene commented. “And there's someone who doesn't want this resort to happen, so are killing people here to prevent it from ever being able to be successful and therefore the building won't happen.”
“But then who?” asked Martin.
“Another resort that doesn't want people cutting in on their market? Somebody with a grudge against the Fenbrooks? A crazy activist who doesn't want this island changed to save wildlife in the area? It gets a little silly.”
“It's probably a multi-million dollar- maybe even billion dollar deal. That might be worth killing strangers for.” Jack seemed depressed about the idea, but it wasn't hard to see why. At this rate, they were sacrifices for someone much greedier than themselves.

- - -

Kit woke up when the clock struck three. She got off the couch and scanned the room, finding Martin, Jack and Selene playing cards in a circle on the floor. Martin was fiddling with the phone he had found the night before.
“Where's Tom? Aren't we all supposed to stick together?” Kit asked, mumbling through the sentence.
“We thought it would be alright for him to go get food if he went alone. I mean, there's no chance of us killing him if we're all in here” Jack joked.
“Although, he has been gone a while now.” Selene looked concerned. “Maybe one of us should go check up on him?”
“Fine, I'll go.” Martin put the phone down and stood up.
“Wait” said Jack. “Leave your gun here. Can't have you shooting him and say he was the killer without us getting to hear his confession.”
Martin hesitated, but agreed. He pulled the gun out of his belt and handed it to Jack, then headed out of the room. Kit watched with wide eyes for him to leave, then when the door was shut turned to Selene and Jack.
“Oh god, oh god, we have to go, we have to go.” Kit began urging them to stand up. Jack and Selene were confused at this reaction to Martin's gun.
“Why are you worried about Martin having a gun? He's a cop. When he gave Tom his badge, I saw it, he's legit.” Jack was unable to understand why Kit was worried.
“No, nononono, no no... That's not Martin's. It's Richard's. He said he was a cop to me on the boat investigating why an illegal competition was being run. He showed me his badge when he confiscated my sleeping pills.” Kit was flustered and pale-faced.
Selene and Jack looked at her confused for a moment.
“I did” said Martin quietly. “He was already knifed when I went in.”
“I was loading the gun. I don't usually do it, and I was a bit rusty.” Martin pulled the gun out of his belt and laid it in front of him.
“Excellent” said Martin, “we have someone on this island who wasn't a clueless winner of a prize. Just excellent.”
They didn't need to hear any more. Selene picked up the phone Martin had found, and the three of them ran out of the sitting room and out the front door. It may have been raining, but it was surely safer out there.

By Phlaming Phoenix-. 11/05/10, 04:42 pm

Im fairly sure its Kit. I dont know why, but i trust martin. It could easily have been him since he seems to weild a fair amount of authority in the group, but i still find kit more suspect. i have one other suspicion, but yeah..

By m4hiain. 11/05/10, 05:20 pm

Always disliked Martin. Right from the beginning. Kit is very high on the suspicion list. Whos lieing Kit or Martin. Or maybe they're working to together Murder at the Manor Icon_eek

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