“There isn’t any really have proof but I am certain about the deduction. When we arrived in Nitzan’s room your immediate leap to theft and that he must have search the room for it suggests that you know what it would be that was stolen. Indeed since that room you have been acting more distracted.”
Quincy stayed quiet as Marylou spoke and his placid face more than confirmed her suspicions.
“So, Quincy, care to open up and tell me what this is all about?”
“This… really isn’t relevant to the investigation I would think.”
Marylou just stood there silently judging that comment. Finally be broke and said, “Alright, alright, I’ll come clean. But you will have to wait. I want to tell everybody together. If I just told you then it would be unfair to them.”
“This sounds extra suspicious. As the second potential victim wouldn’t it be better to tell me now so that you aren’t killed before you get a chance to tell everybody.”
“Still… It was something I was planning to reveal after the end of this event so it would be better if it remained that way. The fact that the murderer knows and is using it as the catalyst for this game is just… well appropriate I guess but doesn’t actually reveal anything about the murderer.”
“If you want to remain dodgy there isn’t much I can do to change your mind but I’m going to keep an eye out for you. Who knows what strangeness you might be planning?”
—-
It wasn’t until the next day that everybody got together to talk about the details again. They were all sitting in the circle again. Quincy raised his hand to call everybody's attention.
“Alright, it is now time to explain everything that people have learned during the last day. Does somebody want to start first?”
Isaac raised his hand, “Me, Severina, Somarliðr, and Demetra worked together to do some tests with the entrance to deep sea diving. It took us multiple tries to get it working but we were able to get a tied up Severina through the airlock without the airlock showing that anybody else had gone through.”
“Really?” Asked Quincy, “That does open up the possibility of somebody faking the entrance.”
“There is a problem though. Putting somebody outside is pretty time sensitive. If a body is left in the airlock too long it closes again and removes all the water. If you wanted to pull off this trick you would need an accomplice on the outside to pull the body out of the airlock otherwise it will fail.”
“Are you saying that the murderer had an accomplice?”
Somarliðr shook his head regretfully, “Unfortunately we can’t tell that. If Nitzan left and arrive by his own power then no accomplice is needed since the murder happened after that point. If it really was a body that was brought in and out than an accomplice is necessary. We tried all kinds of things to avoid the need for that but weren’t able to come up with anything.”
“I see, Quincy and Zosi, did you come up with anything?”
Zosi said, “We have some clues but nothing definite. We found the other entrance to Poseidon Resort and what we learned was interesting. One one side there is only one possible person that accomplice could be, if indeed there is an accomplice. One the other side that accomplice isn’t any of us here.”
There was a moment of confusion among the crowd before people began to understand what was said, “You mean the accomplice must be Sarita?” Asked Marylou.
Clemens sighed and said, “Yes, she is the only possible candidate. She left the resort approximately six hours before the murder took place and, since the last time we checked, she hasn’t returned. She is still out there in the ocean.”
“Still not a 100% proven, but a likely scenario.” Said Quincy. “Now I will explain what we found in the rooms. No information about the murderer but there were some interesting tidbits. Nitzan’s room had been thoroughly searched. We suspect that the murderer stole something from Nitzan and used that to lure him out when he was then murderer. There was a note in his room that confirmed this.”
Marylou spoke out, “Are you going to explain the rest too?”
“Yes, yes, I’m getting to that. Because of this raid I believe that I am going to be the target of the next murder.”
“I figured that out, you were trying to stay all secretive.”
There was a bunch of surprised mutterings from all the different members. As it began to quiet down Zosi asked, “Any why would you be the next target? The first murder node mentioned a partner.”
“Yes, well, I’m just about to explain that. Me and Nitzan were going to explain the situation together at the end of this event and it seemed strange to announce this by myself so I am kinda nervous.”
Then the lights in the room suddenly shut off and the entire room was cast into pitch blackness. There was loud sounds as chairs fell over. Then a scream that immediately silenced into a gurgle. It was then than a full minute before a glowing light appeared, the light from a screen held by Marylou.
It cast very light illumination but enough for people to recognize each other. She too a few steps forward and said, “Damn, I knew he should have fold be everything when he had a chance. Now we are going to have to wait until the very end to get anything out of him.”
Beneath the light that she held was the collapsed form of Quincy. A ring of blood around his neck was clearly visible. She knelt down beside him and was quickly joined by the others who had composed themselves.
“A metal wire.” She said as she pointed toward one end. “It would be razor sharp, able to kill practically instantly.”
Zosi nodded as he examined it, “The murderer must have know that lights out would have happened and used that exact moment to kill him. They must have had the wire prepared before hand. Any nobody noticed, a failure on our party.”
He glanced around at all of the different members one of which was the murderer.
Isaac, Demetra, Severina, Somarliðr, Marylou, and Zosi. There were only six remaining members among which the murderer hide.
There was an extremely long moment of silence before Clemens broke it saying, “Ummm, when do you think that the lights are going to come back on?”
Isaac looked up, obviously not seeing anything, and said, “Good question. I wonder who turned off the lights. It could have been a timer but I highly suspect the accomplice line of reasoning. Sarita would have the perfect knowledge to know where to do this and if in communication with the murderer would know exactly when to pull this off.”
Severina narrowed her eyes under her long hair and said, “But when did the murderer communicate with Sarita to pull this off.”
Demetra said, “Good question, I suppose it must have been while the murderer was in their room over the night.”
“Perhaps,” Said Isaac as he continued to examine the corpse. He had an inquisitive look on his face as he mentally poured through all of the different things that he had learned. Eventually he looked up and shared a look with Marylou and said, “Marylou, I had some specific questions about what you and Quincy found in the rooms. Hopefully it would confirm my theory.”
Somarliðr stroked his chin and said, “I also have an idea but I would like to go off by myself to check it out. I’ll be back tomorrow when people can provide their guesses.”
“I will join you.” Said Severina. Somarliðr nodded and the two of them began to leave.
“I guess I will go try and get the lights to work again. Maybe there will be some clue there too.” Said Demetra.
“Then I will come with you.” Said Isaac. He then looked over to Clemens and asked, “Are you want to come with us?”
Clemens shook his head, “No, I’ll stay here.”
Isaac nodded and the two of them went off to search for the way to turn on the lights.
Zosi and Marylou were whispering off a little bit from Quincy. Clemens instead leaned down and looked at the fake body. There was very little blood but that was probably expected because of the fakeness.
Everybody else had gone out on their own and Clemens had something else he wanted to do. “I have my own investigation that I would like to do. Like the others I will join back here tomorrow for the next meeting. Is that alright?”
Zosi looked over and Marylou gave a wicked smile, “Have we awakened the spirit of a detective in you?”
“I wouldn’t say that but I am interested in what I can find out by myself.”
“Good luck then.”
—
Several minutes later Clemens as again in the depths of the resort, back in the observatory looking out into the caves. Again it was empty and even darker than usual since the only light was the flashlight he had brought with him. It was a diving flashlight that he had found in the deep sea diving room.
He approached the table once more and picked up the book that was still sitting there. He thumbed it open and then set it back down. He then looked around into the darkness of the other exit.
“You can hide if you want but I know you are there. Your bookmark has moved to a different section of the book since yesterday which means you have to be nearby.”
With that there was a glimmer off down the hallway has his flashlight reflected slightly off almost pitch black eyes and Sarita walked out of the darkness, “You were able to tell from just that. I hadn’t considered that it would give me away.”
“Neither of us as experiences as any of the others but I do think trying to be a detective is a little bit fun.”
Sarita gave a shark smile and said, “Aren’t you worried that I might kill you? After all I’m assisting the murderer.”
“The fake murderer.”
“Yes, the fake murderer, but still. Shouldn’t you play along with the game?”
Clemens gave a light grin and said, “I suppose we should. Although I don’t suppose you can give me any hints on which of them it is?”
“No way, I want them to get away with it since I’m on their team. You haven’t figured out any of the clues yet have you?”
“Not exactly but I think some of the others have figured things out. Plus I got a confession out of you that you were assisting the murderer so at least I have something from this encounter.”
“Ouch… you got me. I should have been more careful about that. It seemed so obvious to me but part of the plan was to cause uncertainty as to whether I helped or not but I guess I gave that away. Maybe I’m just not cut out to be a murderer. Although I suppose if I kidnap you now nobody will be able to extract that information from you.”
“Everybody else has paired up and I’m the only person alone. If I disappear it would be completely obvious that you did it.”
“Ah, well, that seems true. I suppose I’ll just have to hide away from the others so at least I can escape and not get captured.”
“I could try and capture you now but that seems unlikely to work.”
“I’m a lot stronger than I look. I could easily lift Nitzan without much effort. You wouldn’t have a chance against me.”
“You just sound scary when you speak like that. However could I ask for one small favor? Do you know where I can turn the lights back on from?”
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