This Chapter is taken from the journal of one of the mansion's occupants at the time of the chain of mysterious events. The journal of mister Red Thornwood is now in the caring hands of the museum in Orshin Grove. This is his account for the first night of the events in the mansion.
The night air seemed stagnant, almost dry, as I stepped out onto the balcony above the main entrance, my handgun in it's holster, as usual. Yes, even on the night of a party I remain on watch for any and all irregularities. In fact, not a day of my life was spent relaxing, not even on my birthday, though I never knew my birthday. I guess my birthday is more like the day I can remember waking up in the hospital bed twenty-one years ago. Since then, I was a new person, in body and probably mind.
I took out a cigarette and lit it, taking a small drag. I had no danger of these things, or so the Organization said. Apparently my body had very strong internal organs, including lungs, heart, kidneys, liver, and stomach. A few smokes a month won't hurt me much at all.
I smiled as a red car pulled up, and man and woman wearing Hawaiian pattern shirts stepping out. They were definately here for the party, a Mister and Miss Marte [Mar-tay], two casual but still rather rough and rigid people, each with their own reasons for disliking the host, Arthur Redroot, the owner of this mansion, and the closest thing to "family" I've got.
A yellow van pulled up next, the owners and passengers becoming obvious in an instant. It was Mister and Miss Gavern or more precisely, Peter Gavern and Joyce Gavern, and their sons, Preston and Will Gavern. A family of four that is known for their rather insidious pasts and other than that, for getting robbed blind by Arthur, Preston and Will's inheritance vanishing in a single hand of cards, or so says all of the still sour members of Arthur's household.
Next was a cyan car, the owner getting out and immediately aggrevating me into a state of ill-willed contempt for the men exiting the accursed vehicle. It was Charles Clover, and his assistant, Scott Rinner. These two have showed up to every one of Arthur's parties, invited or not, and have always trashed these special occasions, leaving Arthur in a state of anger and depression. Charles Clover wore a blue suit with a green tie. He had black hair, combed back and brought upward. Finally, pinned to his suit was a green clover medal for good luck. Scott Rinner was a whole different sort in contrast. Scott wore a suit too, but his was the standard black and white, a pack of smokes in the front pocket. His hair was brown, unkempt and messy as if it had never been combed in his entire life. Both of them had different personalities, but were best friends, making it impossible to pick the lesser of two evils.
Next up was a old green car, a smile showing up on my face when I saw it. A woman and a male passenger got out of the car. The woman was Miss Steffanie Cemal [Chem-ahl] and the man was the intern from her business Rodney Devlin. Miss Cemal was a lovely, sweet, and passionate worker, always considering her employee's feelings and consulting them in the case of a mix-up. She had been running the business since she was seventeen, her parents passing away and leaving her the entire family estate in turn. She wore a red dress with fluttered gracefully in the nighttime air, with lipstick of the same fantastic shade. Rodney was different. Rodney was like his boss, kind and sweet, but he was more casual and laidback, often helping with the more delicate situations just by being present in the room. On top of that, Rodney was a pretty smart cookie, able to fix a computer in about fifteen minutes flat if he doesn't have to wait for it to load anything. He wore his simple cream yellow sweater and blue jeans.
Finally, a black van showed up, signaling the arrival of a couple people I was looking forward to seeing tonight. Out of the van came two men and two women. It was the two Law Brothers, Louis and Kenneth Dirk, two of the most well known lawsuit specializing attorneys in the 20th century. Louis was wearing a white suit with a blue tie, Kenneth was wearing a black suit with a red tie. Louis' hair was was black with white highlights, while Kenneth's hair was white with black highlights. Louis was a defense attorney, Kenneth was a court prosecutor. Louis was a family oriented man, Kenneth was always prepared. Louis was married to his wife Cindy, Kenneth was engaged to his girlfriend Nancy. Louis was kind and compassionate with his work, Kenneth was cold and merciless as a killer's blade. Both of them were so much alike, but so different at the same time. I got along with Kenneth at the last party, but not so much with Louis.
With the guests arriving slowly still, I figured that everyone had arrived and that the party would start soon. Just as I went to go inside, a purple car pulled up, two men exiting from it's leathery interior. I recognised them immediately. It was Phineas Diamond and Timothy "Quartz" Johnson. I had met them at the last party too. Phineas Diamond was an old friend of Arthur's since about the third grade. Arthur invested his money into factories while Phineas devoted his savings to mining and exploration. Quartz was more like me, a jack of all trades, and always on guard. Me and him had a close encounter last time we met, where we became rivals. Just as Arthur goes nowhere without me, Phineas goes nowhere without Quartz. Quartz was calm and collected, always looking before shooting, and never taking an unnecessary gamble. I was quick witted and fun loving, willing to shoot at anything without looking, and I was always prepared to gamble my life and limb if the need arose.
Quartz looked up at me, and I looked down at him. Phineas started walking toward the door, and Quartz followed, an obvious bulge in his suit revealing the safely secured handgun that he was bringing into the party, another bulge on his inner thigh revealing a combat knife, and two spare clips of ammo. I smiled and headed inside the house. The festivities were about to begin.
*** ***
Once inside I couldn't help but smile as I breathed in the air of the room, rigid with tension at the last minute party. Kenneth and Louis were seated on the red velvet couch, smiling and laughing, their accompanying ladies over at the refreshment table. Rodney was fidgeting with his sweater, obvious discomfort showing on his face. Steffanie Cemal was relaxing in a comfortable chair while the Gaverns made a closely knit circle of defense like somebody was about to shoot them. Quartz was straightening his tie while Phineas had headed off to find Arthur. Clover and Rinner had already begun drinking, which I stopped to note the time and date of their start, as making notes of events of interest had become somewhat of a habit for me, as you can never be too careful to remember the specifics. So, my time card read as follows: October 22nd, 9: 51 PM, Charles Clover and Scott Rinner begin drinking. October 22nd, 10: 00 PM, the party hosted by Arthur Redroot begins.
I couldn't believe how fast the night turned around. Arthur called everyone to the dining hall after some very unnecessary introductions took place, leaving me to the pleasure of making the acquiantance of Steffanie Cemal. I mean, she's an amazing person but I'm not supposed to become personally connected to anyone other than Arthur, and that included the small handful of people I call "friends".
Either way, everyone looked at the food gleefully, smiling at all the different dishes on the table, from filet mignon to kababs, even lobster to citrus chicken. From all the different dishes around the world, Arthur picked all of the different choices he could pick and put them all together. Fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy, grains, and of course, amazing presentation, went into every dish.
Arthur sat at the head of the table, with Phineas and Charles sitting first to the left and right of him, followed by Quartz and myself, Steffanie and Rodney, Scott and Peter, Joyce and Preston, William and Nancy, Cindy and Louis, and finally, at the very other side of the table was Kenneth. The table seemed to be dispersed based on a certain chain of command, those with factorial power were closer to Arthur, while those with more legal influence were closer to Kenneth. Arthur was always smart enough to figure people out. So Arthur, Phineas, Charles, Quartz, me, Steffanie, Rodney, and Scott have high factorial influence, while Peter, Joyce, Preston, William, Nancy, Cindy, Louis, and Kenneth have high legal influence. I quickly marked down the order in my notes.
I saw Kenneth staring at me with interest, and Quartz was staring me down as well. I felt a bit uncomfortable, but continued to carefully eat my kabab. After all, if I stabbed myself, Arthur would laugh at me, and that would not be very good for my appearance. I looked around the table and spotted Preston also looking at me, but his gaze was more of fascination than anything else.
I quickly excused myself and exited the room, walking toward the bathroom. I wish I hadn't, cause I missed something. Something that would shake the boundaries of right and wrong inside the Redroot mansion for a very long time.
The recorded information on that particular entry stops and is resumed much later, as something stopped Red from returning to the dining room for awhile, which puts him as the most likely murderer of the entire bunch, but we have no proof that he did anything, and he has a solid alibi and a witness that he was in the bathroom. This entire entry had one small problem, and that is the mentioning of an organization of some sort, which hasn't been adressed by name. This leads many of our detectives wondering if Red had some sort of dimensia, though his story does very much so fit with other accounts. We also believe that Red had some sort of paranoia, coupled with a mild form of OCD, which would explain his constant note taking and his umcomfortability with being stared at, though I can safely say I don't blame him.