EXAM 2

[lockdownmods]

Exam 2.

[ Like last time, the exam begins with the desks arranged in a perfect circle; one desk for each person that's participating in the program. There are nameplates for everyone, and they have been bolted to each of the desks, facing the inside of the circle...

...including the deceased. Their chairs have been placed on top of their desks, signifying that they will not be needed. Above of their desks are holograms of their portraits from their profiles, grayed out and bloodstained.

Han is at the front of the classroom again, looking noticeably neutral about the entire setup. His laptop is closed behind him. ]

You know the drill. [his voice sounds soft, tight.]

Be careful with who you pick, as they'll be answering for their crime with their life.

Victim.






Suspects.



[ The physical evidence tray sits in the middle of the circle of desks; you all have the Evidence app on your tablets to access photo evidence. ]

Examination START.

links.
Evidence
Profiles
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Comments

Timeline Attempt

[lovedanime]

Excuse me, everyone...

We made a lot of progress interrogating each of the suspects, but shouldn't we think about the timeline of the murder a little more? Like Henry's movements?

We found him in the garden, but there's blood in front of the office, and we know that Henry was interested in finding Oswald walking out of the office. To be honest, it's also obviously the way Grantaire's head got out of Henry's room in the first place, isn't it? Henry must have wanted to sh-show the head to Oswald... He probably brought the lights and taser with him too. The lights were a really eccentric part of his plans, and there's no evidence that the culprit used the taser on Henry.

When you think of it that way... it stands out that... we never found a weapon. You'd think at first that Henry was struck by a club or something if his poor face was so crushed, right? But there's no baseball bat or anything lying around. That makes it look like the culprit, well, used his own body. In other words, the culprit punched or kicked Henry down to the floor, hard. The culprit was a quite physically strong person... especially because going on to move the body all the way to the garden... I guess that applies to most of the suspect list, though.

One more thing... Henry's cape was torn in the struggle. It's different from the way someone cut that jacket. That would fit more with it getting caught in something on the floor... It seems likelier someone kicked Henry instead of punching, especially because the culprit stepped on the febreeze bottle.

[Saying all these words at once is clearly a huge struggle for Mitarai and there were several times he had to pause for breath or look like he wanted to crawl off into a corner.]

[whatsmytalentagain]

[Rantro nods to Mitarai.]

You're doing good.

[As for the case...] So are you saying the murder might have been some kind of accident?

[lovedanime]

[He gives a flattered little blink - and then his eyes go wide]

I didn't say that, but it would explain everything! For one thing, the culprit didn't try to frame someone else at all, did they? There's no letter or anything like that. And the garden made everything look so peaceful...

[whatsmytalentagain]

Well, I thought you might have implied it.

At least we have one theory.

[blackcatintheruemorgue]

...... I was hoping that I was wrong about that.

[Poe was afraid of that.... he thought that might be what happened when he first discovered Henrys body, what with how peaceful it was.... but he wanted to be wrong.]

I... It could be possible that the culprit attacked Henry due to their own hallucinations.

[blackcatintheruemorgue]

Um... actually... I believe that Henry was planning to murder Oswald. A fair amount of the murder plans in his possession involved the string lights and taser that were found.

[Poe tries to smile at Mitarai. He recognizes the anxiety of trying to speak to a bunch of people all at once from himself... so he can appreciate the struggle he must have had to say all that.]

But other than that... that was an excellent timeline Mitarai-san.

[lovedanime]

Well... that makes the most sense. I sorta thought it went without saying...

[donotlick]

Yeah, the suspect probably slammed Henry into the ground. If you wanna put it in murder weapon terms, the murder weapon was the floor.

[ Hey, good job, kid. ]

The jacket's sleeves were cut cleanly. I doubt that part happened during the fight -- unless we're talking about a different jacket.

The tear in his cape... If somebody tore it with something sharp, maybe they realized doing the same thing to Henry's face would've implicated them specifically, so they went with a kick instead of using whatever sharp thing they used to cut the cape.

[lovedanime]

Sharp thing...

Are you suggesting claws?

[whatsmytalentagain]

I dunno... I think Velvet-kun might be onto something.

[donotlick]

Yeah. Claws. That's what I'm saying.

[devotingly]

[ waver thinks about this, nodding to himself ]

Poe said that there was bruising on the wrists, most likely from the culprit trying to grab Henry. But how large was the bruise? Because we have certain suspects [ viral ] with large and unusual hands.

[lockdownmods]

[they were regular human sized]

[lovedanime]

[okay but this "ten lines" thing is happening now so]

Are we sure Henry's bruised wrist comes from the culprit and not, well... Oswald?

[devotingly]

Han said last week that the culprit was within this group of suspects. Besides...

[ he looks to the side nervously ]

Hank told me that Oswald probably wasn’t around this week.

[buriedearth]

... I think that sounds like a good timeline of events.

[ ... Though - ]

What about if somewhere in there, Henry had an accomplice? [ Since it's been mentioned before. ] Someone who agreed to help him but turned on him when he didn't expect it?

[devotingly]

While I was the one that mentioned it, I think Henry would try to go with someone he knew more— perhaps one of those in the Entrance Exam?

[lovedanime]

If he particularly trusted that person, why not put them into his written plans from the beginning?

[buriedearth]

I don't think he'd necessarily pick someone he'd know more if he was feeling desperate.

[preconstruction]

I think that covers most of it, but I'd like to suggest something a little different about the aftermath. After all, the bottle was found in the shower, not outside the office.

Here's what I think happened:

Henry hit the ground and created an impact outside of the faculty office. As you said, he was on his way to kill Oswald. The killer then attempted to move the body outside - he was laid peacefully, almost as if he was sleeping. The killer obviously intended to make it it seem proper. Henry was a solider, after all.

But there was still the issue of the head. The killer wrapped it in the remainder cape, which was torn. My guess is that the killer didn't want to damage the head any more than he had to to get rid of it. Another sign of respect. But the cape was probably not enough, so he used his jacket. I don't think the jacket had been cut during the murder at all - it was too clean. It's likely been that way since the start.

After the killer got rid of the evidence of Henry's crime, he went to the shower to wash his now dirty jacket. He went through an entire bottle of febreeze, a bottle of soap, and a second bottle of febreeze. But the smell of decay wasn't gone. Frustrated, he damaged the bottle. If the killer could smell the decay, he knew that I could too. The only safe thing at that point was to get rid of the jacket so that it couldn't be used against him the way it had last week.

[donotlick]

In other words... The killer could still smell the decay.

But can anybody besides you or Viral even smell it anymore? All I can smell is febreeze.

[preconstruction]

It's likely, but not certain. It would explain why it was thrown away - as you about Viral earlier, if they were trying to frame him, why toss his jacket over the wall? Leaving it out would have made it obvious.

But I don't know for certain that no one else can smell it. It also could be the case that someone was guessing it could be found.

[lovedanime]

Are you sure the culprit was just frustrated? Why not smash all the bottles if he was in such a bad mood...? Maybe using febreeze on his own clothes and showering himself was one thing, but he wanted to hide the fact that he used febreeze for a separate garment like the jacket. If he hoped we'd all totally ignore the jacket now that it was over the wall.

[covertizer]

What about the string of lights and the taser?

Even if they were planned to be part of Todd's death, the string had a light missing from it and the taser had a cloth scrap on it.

[ Was the cloth from a uniform? Or from the cape? ]

The lights were thrown away, so was there something the killer wanted to hide with them...?

[lovedanime]

Well, Henry brought three things with him. The taser and the lights and the head. And the head would have been very, very impractical to kill someone with... He only had two hands. Maybe he wrapped the lights around the head to make it easier to carry? And show Oswald? And the culprit just left the lights around the head, but the string was pretty long, so the light on the end got crushed in all this struggling.

[y they fite]