The Redville Mansion Murder
An alarm sounds in the tiny one-bedroom Tokyo apartment signaling the start of a monotonous job with the usual nine to five hour shift of hard labor, or it would be if it didn't sit in the bedroom of Haruka Tenoh, Ace detective. Haruka rolled over to the annoying box and pounded the snooze button hard; she could use more sleep after all the trouble she's had to deal with, but upon rolling back over her urge to sleep is replace with a sudden feeling intimacy. The languid, glowing body that lay next to her threatened to sleep-deprive her every time she saw it in bed. Such perfection always melts her stress… Reaching a hand over, she pulls in close as blue-green hair swirls away from her lover's face. A few kisses here and there, and a nuzzle to the neck and everything's gone from her mind. "Haruka… you'll be late if you keep this up." Her lover's voice is so voluptuous and as smooth as satin.
"Michiru, my love, I can't resist this tempting body. You should know that by now." Haruka leans in and plants a kiss on Michiru's head then hops out of bed. She stands in the sunlight stark-naked for a moment before retreating to the bathroom and beginning her morning routine. Michiru idles in bed until the sound of the shower running draws her to the bathroom as well. After a hot shower, Haruka dresses in her usual clothing choice of a short sleeve, white button up with a smooth black tie and matching black slacks and low-quarters. She tousles her hair, letting dry naturally while eating her breakfast. Michiru emerges from the bedroom after her shower sporting the beautiful summer dress Haruka had bought her looking stunning. For a moment, Haruka is mesmerized by her beauty but quickly brought back as her cell phone rings. "Hello, Detective Tenoh speaking… Yes ma'am, I got the proof… I'll be over in a bit to discuss the finding… Yes, good bye."
"Who was that?" Michiru acts almost as if she's completely uninterested, but Haruka knows her better than that. Michiru is dying to know about her latest case, she's big into mysteries and occasionally would help Haruka solve them but this time had to be different. Haruka had been following Mr. Redville -a local millionaire- upon the request of his wife, she has reason to believe their relationship had been a little less monogamous lately. Haruka would tell Michiru afterwards, but in the meantime this was a top secret case.
"Ah, well… It was my new client; we have some business information to discuss… Top secret, sorry love. But I promise I'll tell you when the whole thing blows over
"Oh boo! I'll be waiting…" A coy smile spread across Michiru's plushy lips, Haruka would talk tonight whether she wanted to or not.
"I know," With a quick kiss, Haruka rushes out the door. "See you tonight!"
Haruka pulls up to the glamorous mansion of the esteemed Redville Mansion and walks up to the front door. The Redville's are a foreign family from Britain; the household includes the Father, Mr. Andrew Redville; Mother, Mrs. Leslie Redville, and Ms. Laura Redville the daughter. Also on the premises are the gardener and the maid though Haruka has never seen either. Like any good detective would, she notes the small Japanese gardener tending to the flower gardens that span the length of the drive way. She knocks once on the door and a few seconds later, a younger woman answers the door. Instantly Haruka recognizes her as one of the women she photographed Mr. Redville with in the previous week. She wouldn't mistake such a cute faced girl and her rather bluish hair was unmistakable. Not only is Mr. Redville cheating on his wife with strangers, but now their own maid too…She is a hottie though, I'll give him that. Haruka was lost in her own thoughts; face blushing a bit at that last one before realizing the 'maid' is giving her an odd look. "Hi, I'm Haruka Tenoh. I have an appointment with Mrs. Redville."
"A yes, madam foretold me of your arrival. Please follow me and I'll show you to the living quarters." Haruka notes the cold tone in her voice. What's her deal? Haruka follows the maid to a large sitting area with fancy furniture. Sitting on one of the recliners is Mrs. Redville, "Ciao Darling! We have much to discuss I assume? Ami please fetch us some tea before you return to your duties?"
"Yes, madam." Ami is cold in her reply again, and stalks briskly away to the kitchen. Haruka watches her go and waits for a bit before reaching into her satchel for the incriminating pictures of Mr. Redville and spreads then on the table. Mrs. Redville's smile vanishes; her skin becomes ghostly white as she gazes at the numerous pictures of her husband with somewhere near ten different women. Her eyes scan each photo but before she gets to the last one –the one of the maid and Mr. Redville- she speaks rather loudly. "Well detective-" CRASH. Haruka looks and sees Ami standing there awkwardly with a broken tea cup at her feet. "Ah, Ami please go vacuum the library after cleaning that mess."
"Ah! Yes madam!" Ami is visibly shaken, but why? Just from hearing that I'm a detective? And Mrs. Redville… Why didn't she turn to see what break? It was almost as if she knew Ami would be there and the way she said 'detective' bothers me too…
"Ms. Detective, please wait in here while I retrieve your payment from our vault… I'm just so angry at that man I could kill him!" Mrs. Redville stands hot faced and walks down the corridor to the left. Ami sets the other cup of tea in front of Haruka and cleans up the glass and tea that was spilt, in the process Haruka notices Ami rips one of the white gloves she's wearing but doesn't take notice before hurrying off into the kitchen through the back arch way. A minute of two later, a taller man enters the room through the right corridor. He's rather buff and clean cut, decent man, Japanese by appearance.
"Oh! I'm sorry; I didn't know Mrs. Redville had company…"
"It's alright, we're about done anyway. Say, who are you?" A good detective always gets the information, even if it's not needed. The sound of a vacuum running comes from upstairs.
"I'm Daichi Fumio, I'm Laura boyfriend. I would be her fiancée if Mr. Redville wasn't so again his daughter marring outside of their culture. That man… he's putting so much strain on mine and Laura's relationship… I hate that man." Daichi clenches his fist as he talked about Mr. Redville but then suddenly relaxes.
"Where is Laura right now?" It seems there's much tension in this house… A low thump sound was heard over the vacuuming.
"She's upstairs, we kind of got into a little argument… I came down here ask Mrs. Redville to talk to her husband again about me purposing… I left after Laura fell asleep…" The house is quiet for a moment and then the sound of glass shattering is heard from the right corridor, followed by the sound of stomping, then again, a small crash sound is heard. Haruka and Daichi race upstairs and as they get to the half-way point, a very feminine scream is heard followed by another voice screaming "Daddy!" clearly the Laura's. Haruka races down the hallway in the second floor, she passes the daughter's room and then the library before she reaches Mr. Redville's office. Inside Laura is sitting on the ground, her look is mortified, Daichi takes her in his arms and tries to calm her down but as he sees the head on Mr. Redville peeking out from the right side of the desk, he faints. Ami is still on her feet looking at the corpse, her expression is not what you'd think of someone who is looking at their dead lover's body. A few tears stream down her face but she quickly wipes them away on her white glove, that's when Haruka notices Ami's lipstick. It looks smeared as if something had been brushed against her lips; maybe she did it herself in shock though... Haruka pulls out her cellphone and calls the local inspector then proceeds to examine the crime scene.
It's obvious that Mr. Redville is dead by his expression, so I'll just leave the body until the inspector gets here… As for the crime scene… small room, desk in the center facing towards the door. His computer must have been shoved off the desk in a fight? The papers and other things on his desk are shuffled up but nothing else in on the floor. His chair is pushed away as if his limp body slid out of it. The glass door has been shattered, but what bothers me is its open. Was the murderer trying to sneak up on Mr. Redville? Why would the murderer open it and then bother to break it when it's open? Probably to use it to kill Mr. Redville… The glass is in small pieced save the large jagged piece used to stab Mr. Redville in the chest, which is odd in size and doesn't seem like it belonged to the same door. Which raises the question of why he broke it…The glass also looked to be shattered from the inside going out, another strange thing and there was blood on a few pieces other than the murder weapon and the ones under it. Did he cut himself breaking the glass? Something else is wrong…the blood pattern shows that he slid out of his chair but for that to happen... It must have happened when the glass was pulled out, but why would a robber bother to pull out it out? Blood is still leaking from him too so the murder just happened…Things just don't make sense here.
A few moments later, Mrs. Redville runs into the room, her face instantly showing how mortified she is, before she even sees the body. "My husband!" how peculiar… she's not even crying at the sight of her dead husband, but then again he had been cheating on her for god knows how long…Mrs. Redville is visibly sweating as if she had run around the mansion. She wipes at her face, her lipstick smudges a bit and her mascara is running. Haruka stands up and gets into her detective mode; the clues circulate in her head along with the suspects. "Detective, what happened? Did somebody break in and kill my dear husband?"
"Well, it sure looks that way… Summon the gardener; he's a key witness." Haruka examines the scene again, something doesn't fit. It's on the tip of her tongue but still not quite there. "Mrs. Redville, please check to see if anything is missing without disturbing the body as best you can." Mrs. Redville cautiously examined everything she opened the draws and looked all around. As she does, Ami uses the intercom to call the gardener, he's upstairs in a heartbeat. "Mr… Um…"
"I'm Honshio Fuuta, I'm the mansion gardener. You summoned-" As he speaks it's clear he's seen the body, his face reflects the surprise. "My god! Mister Redville!"
"Yes, my good sir. Did you see anything strange outside a little bit ago?" Straight to business.
"No ma'am, I saw nothing. I was at the front of the house the whole time too so nothing would have slipped past me. I did notice the reflection in the widow of Mr. Redville's office disappear but I paid no mind to it."
"Did you hear any weird sounds, Mr. Fuuta?" He's not lying…
"None, I had headphones in for a while. The only way I was able to hear Ami's announcement was because the cd was done."
"Detective," Mrs. Redville was clearly finished with her search and very restless. "Nothing's missing."
"Mrs. Redville, does this place have security cameras?"
"Only on the outside… They are pointed all over."
"Please bring us to them. Someone wake Mr. Fumio, I want us all together until Inspector Masa gets here." Ami made an indescribable face… Shock? What was that for? Laura retrieves a glass of water from the kitchen and slashes it on Daichi's face. He's up now, but still quite shaken. Either there is now way he killed Mr. Redville or he can fake fainting well… Almost unwillingly Mrs. Redville lead us to the surveillance room, there were six cameras spread throughout the estate, one in specific is looking right down the balcony outside Mr. Redville's office; unfortunately for Haruka, it doesn't look into the office. "Rewind the one that looks down the balcony of the second floor of the right side of the house to about a half an hour ago and play it." She does as Haruka asks, rewinds it and plays the tape. Haruka glances back at Ami who is removing her lipstick. That girl is just so strange… The tape has no action until glass shatters outward onto the balcony. A few seconds later, a bloody glass shard is thrown into the mess. To be sure the murderer didn't come in through a different area; they watched all the other tapes and as suspected, no one entered or exited during the murder. This confirms two of Haruka's deductions -one, the glass was broken outward; two, the murder weapon isn't a part of the door but an outside piece made to look like it was used as a part of the door- and creates several more. The whole room is in shock. "The guilty party is among us..."
"Detective! Are you saying one of us killed my husband?" Mrs. Redville sneers in a mocking tone almost in disbelieve.
"Precisely, ma'am. The killer has to be someone that was in this house during the time the murder took place. That means it had to be either you ma'am, your daughter Laura, her boyfriend Daichi or the Maid."
"I'm scot free?" The gardener heaves a sigh of relief when Haruka shakes her head yes.
"How do you know he didn't sneak in the house and kill my husband?" Mrs. Redville is getting hot-faced again.
"Well ma'am, Mr. Fumio was outside the whole time and as we all saw, no one came inside or exited during the time." Mrs. Redville is angry, scary even.
"You think I killed that good for nothing loser? He isn't worth my time! Plus I was down the other corridor in the basement the whole time; I couldn't have possibly done it! I'm going to the living room to sit down!" Why so angry? That's makes her the main suspect…And she has all the right motives. So many things don't add up about this woman. No one can confirm anything about her story except that she was on the other side of the house, but still there could be some secret passage way or something.
"Detective… You think I killed daddy?" Laura is so innocent, but it's always the quiet ones… "I couldn't have… I was sleeping until Ami woke me up… That's when I heard her scream and I ran to find her and saw…" She busts into tears. Likely story, but no one can confirm it so she's still a suspect. Plus her motive could be that she's angry and her dad for not letting her marries Daichi.
"Detective it couldn't have possibly been me, I was with you the whole time." Daichi is scratching his head as if he doesn't understand.
"Ah yes, good point… You're clear then."
The doorbell chimes and in comes the Inspector; his team swarms the room and takes pictures as Haruka catches him up on the recent details. After they finish taking pictures of every inch of the room, Haruka does a deeper examination. First clue, the body's collar is messed up as if someone put their arms around the victim's shoulders. A hug, probably from the daughter or the maid, doubtful it was Mr. Fumio for obvious reasons or Mrs. Redville considering her distraught from his cheating. The nextclue she finds is a reddish smudge on Mr. Redville's neck. Most likely: lipstick. The third clue is the murder weapon itself; it held no finger prints though some of the blood is also smeared on the top were the murderer would have held it and the fibers of a white cloth are stuck on one of the ridges. This seems like the murder would have gone smoothly if not for the many rookie mistakes. It's as if the murder got nervous… As for the body, I bet the murderer was sticking with the attempt to stage it as a break in. Good thing they didn't think about the security cameras. How did she manage to keep him quiet though? ...I got it. I know how the murder pulled it off, now who did it is the question. Time to examine the suspects' alibis.
According to Mrs. Redville, She was down in the basement of the left wing during the murder and there is no way for her to get to the right side without crossing through the living room and Mr. Fumio and myself can testify that never happened. As for Mr. Fumio, he was with me during the murder and the gardener wasn't even inside the house so he's also ruled out. Laura was in her room sleeping apparently until Ami woke her up right before the window broke, and Ami was vacuuming in the library. That leaves Laura Redville and Ami the Maid as the main suspects…Come to think of it… The vacuuming stopped too, right before the glass broke. The timing is too short too… That's it, I've solved it. "Inspector Masa, please gather everyone in the late Mr. Redville's office."
Everyone walks in one by one, they all look nervous but Ami is a wreck. "Time to kick this into high gear! First of all Mrs. Redville, Mr. Fumio and Mr. Fumio; you can all relax. It's impossible for any of you to have committed this murder. As for you, Laura Redville and Ami, let's see your hands, most specifically your fingers." As Haruka expected, Laura stuck her hands out without a second thought but Ami hesitated. Haruka glanced at Laura's hands but she didn't even need to do that because she had her murderer already. "Thank you Laura. Ami, I already know you won't show me yours. I'd only be catching you red handed… Or should I say white handed, as in your white gloves which you're not wearing right now are you? I bet they are in your pocket though." Ami's face went white and she fell to her knees.
"Ami! How could you?" Mrs. Redville was shocked but not as much as one would expect. The others just listened.
"I'll explain everything. Mrs. Redville had suspected Mr. Redville of having an affair with Ami, that's why she hired me, but she found out it was with several women, not just Ami, but Ami already knew what he was up to though considering she was one of the women he was seeing. She was jealous of all the other ones though and she didn't want to share so I'd bet she's been planning this day for a while now. She didn't know that the woman she let into the house this more than just a friend and when Mrs. Redville made it blatantly obvious I was a detective, Ami panicked and dropped the cup of tea and when she cleaned it up, she created a hole in her glove. When she went upstairs to vacuum she contemplated whether to follow through with her plan or not. It's obvious what she chose, but she was awfully sloppy with her plans. She left the vacuum running while she went over to Mr. Redville's office so we wouldn't hear what happened until it was time. Ami went into his office and found him facing the window. She stocked up to him in his chair and wrapped her arms around him one last time before covering his mouth and driving the glass shard through his heart. Ami noticed a bit too late that this action caused her to leave traces of her lipstick on Mr. Redville's neck and I caught her trying to get rid of the evidence on her lips while we were all watching the security camera, which Ami also forgot about until it was too late.
"She attempted to make it look like a robbery by messing up him desk and throwing his computer on the floor, which explains the low thump sound Mr. Fumio and I heard while we were talking in the living room. Then she walked down to Laura's room and woke her up so she's have no problem hearing the window break. After all, Ami had given her sleeping pills so she wouldn't hear the gist of it. Then Ami returned to the body after shutting off the vacuum, leaving the door to the office open and pulled the glass out of Mr. Redville's chest and shattered the window cutting your hands through the hole in the glove in the process and when you touched the murder weapon you smeared blood and left white fibers on it before casting into the mess of other glass so we wouldn't second guess it being from a different source of glass, one Ami brought from home after shaping it. The sounds we heard after the crash was the sound of Mr. Redville falling out his chair and onto the floor. Knowing she wouldn't have much time until Laura came running into the office, she hurried to the door way and screamed, the rest we all know. Such a sloppy murder…"Ami just looked down at the floor, defeated. "Is that about it?"
"Your right detective…except for one thing, I did this so we could be alone together, forever." All eyes were on her as she pulled out a 9mm as fast as lightning and killed herself. Blood spatters around the rest of the room, Mrs. Redville is coated in it which somehow Haruka sees as Ironic. Marriage is supposed to last forever and in the end, the loves die together and are bonded for eternity. It's sort of funny in a sadistic way how Mrs. Redville isn't the one with him. Ah, how I love people. Mrs. Redville pukes, typical reaction. Laura picks brain matter out of her mom's hair while trying not to throw up herself. Daichi faints, he must be weak hearted. Haruka's spacing out, thoughts fill her head and it's like she's standing in a fog watching everything. This could have been prevented… Such a beautiful life wasted.
The Redville murder case was closed as a murder-suicide and the crime scene clean-up team was called in. After receiving her payment, Haruka returned home to her beautiful gal and told her everything as promised. Michiru would only stress more about the dangers of Haruka's job by doing so though. But something was bothering Haruka about this case and she has a sinking feeling she'd see it again. But for the time she'd let it go as she fell asleep arm and arm with the beautiful Michiru in her arms. Love that lasts forever.
Thank you all for reading, I hope y'all had fun making your own assumptions about the murderer; it's so much more fun that way! I tried to make elaborate clues and give you a good insight on Haruka's thoughts so you could play detective too. Special thanks to my dear friend (my lover I wish), Tinyangrypuppy for helping me with Haruka's catchphrase, because I'm not good at making them up. Again, thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next exciting chapter, A+ in Murder!
The next clue: Chalk