It was simple enough. There were four of them. Four suspects…and one dead victim.

They said it would be an “easy case” for me. The only reason they said that was because Richard Strout, the world famous detective himself, had shown up and said that this case “wasn’t worth his time; give it to one of your novices.” Honestly, I didn’t know whether I should have been happy or depressed because I was chosen.

Back to the case, the body of Ted Slemp was found in his mansion, lying on the floor of his bedroom at 9:00pm. He had been shot in heart with an m1911 pistol- His blood had been splattered in almost every direction. Since the Forensics team couldn’t find any piece of clothing that had any trace of blood on it in the household, they decided. Oh, and did I mention that his mansion was placed on top of a mountaintop? When Forensics found his body, the window had been opened and it was raining outside. So we assumed that the culprit had thrown the piece of clothing they had been wearing off the cliff, and into the forest that lay under. They had already started searching the treacherous terrain to find it. It also seemed like he died a few hours ago because his body was still warm and it seemed like rigor mortis had just kicked in, making his body just a bit stiff. If I were to guess, I would say he was murdered at about 6pm-7pm.

After looking at the body for a while, I turned my attention to the four suspects lined up perfectly on the other side of the blockade of policemen. One was Ted’s son, Alex, who was 27. His daughter, Christie, 23, his butler, Bernard- around his 50s, and finally, a fellow business owner, Robert, who had just visited to discuss business plans but was forced to stay over for another day because they had not finished discussing what they needed to. Each of them has motives for the murder. Alex wished to break away from the family business but also needed a loan for starting a new business. But when he asked his father, he was rejected brutally. The father also made cruel comments, making fun of his “son’s stupidity.” Christie had a relationship with someone that she had been secretly dating someone name Adrian for a year. But her father found out and bribed Adrian into permanently leaving the relationship by moving far away. At first Christie didn’t know why Adrian just suddenly left. She thought that it was because he didn’t like her. But when she realized that her father had bribed him, she became enraged. Next in line is Bernard. Bernard has one daughter who is in college and the one who is providing for her is Ted. One day, Ted called Bernard into his office and told him that “he no longer wished to waste money on something that wouldn’t profit him.” Bernard tried to protest, saying to just pay for two more years. But Ted wouldn’t have it and froze all transactions between him and Bernard’s daughter. Last on line is Robert, a proud business owner. But pride alone won’t help bring back a company that was near bankruptcy. The reason for his near bankruptcy was Ted, who had forced Bob into taking on many foolish deals that would only hurt Bob’s company. The reason Bob had come to Ted’s house today was so that they could discuss the terms of Ted saving Bob from Bankruptcy.

But today, Ted couldn’t talk. A recent visit to the family dentist forced Ted to be silent the whole day. So all he did today was stay in his room and rest. But the dentist also told him that he didn’t have to starve. But before going into his room, he specifically told everyone that he wasn’t going to talk to anyone and took refuge in his room.

I asked each of them if they had an alibi. But all of theirs was shaky. They were either in their rooms, or they went outside for some fresh air. But since no one else was with them at the time, none of them could prove their alibis.

But by then, it was obvious who the culprit was. All I needed was some solid evidence. I asked each one of them to sit down in the living room with me. Each one of them sat down except the butler. I took nothing of it because I thought it was how butlers just were. For one last time, I scanned the room, silently interrogating each and every one of them with my eyes. Finally something caught my attention. Something was protruding from near the ankle portion of the person I suspected to be the criminal. The protruding object seemed to be long and cylindrical. “What’s something that’s long and cylindrical,” I thought.

That’s when I figured it out! So to enlighten the people that were present, and to express my excitement over solving the case, I jumped up and shouted, “You killed him!”

Do you know who the killer is?