Munroe Mansion Murder Case [1]:Liz and Adam

"As thanks for the ice cream, you can be my Watson for this case."

This was the first time I caught even a glimpse of fire in those cold dead eyes of hers.

"Your.....Watson?"

"Yeah.... You know, the guy who just stands around like a control experiment to prove how intelligent Holmes is. It's a fitting role for a perv like you"

What's that supposed to mean?! Apologize to Dr Watson right now, you little brat!

"Quit dawdling, let's go"

She said, pulling me along.

We walked past the yellow tape entering the crime scene and none of the officers even questioned our presence there— if anything, most of them saluted us.

The respect that comes with popularity felt kinda nostalgic.

We entered the mansion where multiple officers were questioning the mansion staff on the first floor, each one giving a salute as Liz walked by—

And she flat out ignored them! At least respond to their greetings, you robotic Holmes!

A few members of the forensics team were approaching us from up the stairs to the second floor with what appeared to be a bodybag.

"Ms Andrews, pleasure to see you again!"

One of them greeted with a warm expression. She skipped the pleasantries and went down to business.

"How many victims?"

"One, right here"

The man zipped open the body bag to show our detective the corpse— it was a young male, probably in his late twenties with long blond hair, chiseled abs and pale skin— well, I guess being pale comes with the 'being dead' territory.

Liz knelt down to 'examine' the body a little more closely— she started touching him all over then opened his mouth and took a sniff.

"Really Liz? I thought you were here to work"

"Dumb perverts should shut up if they have no idea what they're talking about. I'm sure your dirty mind's probably thinking I'm admiring his physique right now"

"Eek"

She wasn't wrong. That said, she didn't have to call me a pervert in front of this many people. The forensics team sure were living it up at my expense, doing their best to hold back their laughter.

They were all already used to Liz doing this sort of thing.

"I'm all done now, you can take him away..... And perv, I don't recall giving you permission to shorten my name"

"I know you keep calling me that on purpose, quit it!"

She replied with a smirk.

The forensics team proceeded down the stairs laughing while we headed up to the office on the second floor— The scene of the crime.

The room was about 8-10 sqm give or take with wooden-themed tiling and two smaller adjoining rooms— one for the toilet and the other for miscellaneous storage with documents and files neatly arranged in there.

The room itself had a desk at the other end of the room with a rotating chair at one end and two chairs for visitors at the other. Following the desk was an open space with a large, long table aligned with the left wall and on it —a notepad, phone, a stack of books and an empty space where something like a large box used to be.

Judging by the shards of glass on the floor and water residue, it must've been an aquarium. On the wall there was an air conditioner and a convection heater stationed next to each other.

There were two detectives in the room, one tall, young man dressed in a three piece suit with combed black hair parted to one side, giving off the image of the slick officer you see on TV. The other was a scruffy, chubby detective probably in his mid forties wearing a flat cap and the usual shirt and suit pants.

The slick one was the first to notice us and he uttered the words I've been expecting to hear since I entered this place.

"Who let a couple of brats into the crime scene! Listen you too, in case you missed the sirens and patrol cars outside, this is an active crime scene. I mean, you can't be in here!"

Liz walked right past the slick detective ignoring his protests.

"Hey!"

Slick grabbed a hold of Liz's shoulder infuriated. I moved in to stop him however I was a step too late.

*WHAM

I could hear the sound of the older detective's iron fist running through Slick's skull, the young detective couldn't help but grab a hold of his head as he was processing the pain. Damn! That's gotta hurt.

The old man turned his attention to Liz. His mean face was replaced with a car salesman's smile and his posture resembled the stereotypical merchant trying to rip you off.

"Ms Andrews, I apologize for my subordinate's rude behavior. You see, he was just transferred here last week so he didn't know about you, I truly am sorry about that"

"If you want to apologize for something, apologize for calling me on such short notice. I had to cancel my date because of this"

"Hahaha, Sorry about that too"

By 'date', she was talking about her plan to blackmail me into buying other sweets for her once she was done with that ice cream.

Thanks for saving my wallet old guy, you're the man.

The old guy finally noticed me.

"And who might that young man be? Your boyfriend?"

"That's perv and he'll be assisting me today. Pay him no mind"

"Hey!"

I protested but she ignored me as usual. I was starting to think she didn't even know my actual name.

"Bring me up to speed"

The old guy gave her photos of the crime scene taken when the police arrived and started sharing his findings, I moved in closer to take a look as well but Liz handed me the photos instead and started looking around the crime scene. It seemed she had already gotten all she needed from them.

The photo showed the victim lying on his side in front of the long table with a knife sticking out of his chest. There were also glass shards covering his entire body and he was drenched in water.

"Our vic's name is William Munroe, cause of death a single stab wound in the chest, the door was locked from the outside and the key in the victim's inner pocket making this a locked room murder. As for the estimated time of death, going off of the body's lividity and rigor mortis, I'd say about 9:00-11:30 in the morning. The murder weapon was a kitchen knife from this mansion. It's safe to assume one of the 32 staff members might be our culprit—"

"—Did he have any visitors?"

Liz asked while standing on tiptoes on the long table. I checked the time, it was 5:45

"Uhm, yes actually. However, they were led in and out by the victim. None of them had a chance to grab the knife"

Liz held off on her reply, instead turning her attention to me.

"Perv, carry me"

"Why?!"

"I can't reach"

She said, her index finger pointing at the A.C and heater. I climbed up on the table and carried her on my shoulder.

"Don't you dare look up"

"Just get it over with sheesh, for someone so small, you sure are heavy. Must be all those swee—"

She responded with a strong kick to my chest which caused me to lose my balance and we both fell on the floor. The old guy started laughing really hard.

"I didn't realize I was putting on a comedy act, detective"

"I'm... sorry. It's just....rare to see you this active. You're usually a lot colder"

The old man replied while trying to contain his laughter.

"Anyway, I want you to call in the visitors our victim had today."

She completely ignored his comment, didn't she?

"Visitors between 8:30 and 12, got it!"

"No, bring in everyone he saw today"

The old man was rather troubled by that statement but still fully intended to comply. However—

"What a ridiculous request! The victim didn't have an itinerary or anything we could use to identify those visitors, I mean, all we have to go on are their descriptions from the staff. Getting a sketch artist to work on each of them then cross-referencing with our database to find a match will take way too much time! And all for the stupid hunch of a high school girl?! Don't make me laugh!"

Slick had gained his second wind. The old man tried to caution him

"Hey! Watch it rookie"

"The police are capable of solving this one on our own. We don't need help from some pint sized wannabe detective who thinks it's okay to raid the fridge of a man who just died!"

He retorted, his piercing gaze fixed on Lizbeth Andrews who was looking through the fridge in the office.

"Such a big fridge with nothing inside, what a waste. Hey you! The dumb looking officer...."

She said while pointing at slick.

"..... Go buy me chocolate milk"

"Huh?!"

"GO! THAT'S AN ORDER!"

The old man growled, looking at slick with frustrated eyes. Slick reluctantly complied and begun heading out.

"Perv, go with him as well"

"What? Why?"

She ignored me yet again. I joined slick on the snack run, saluting the security guard at the gate on my way out. Slick kept grumbling during our walk and I felt the need to break the ice.

Watson exists just to show how good Sherlock is, huh? Might as well try.

"Listen, I know Liz might come off as kinda rude and emotionless, but she's actually a great detective. She's just bad at expressing herself"

"I'll believe that when pigs fly!"

Can't exactly blame him. Well, might as well clue him in to a bit of her reasoning.

"For example, you said she was acting on a hunch when she said to call in all visitors, right? Well, that's not actually true"

"Huh?"

"You see, when she inspected the convection heater, she noticed the heater had been on for a while, however the room wasn't warm when the police arrived. If it was, the old man would've included it in his report"

"You're right, the room wasn't exactly all that warm. It was sorta okay."

"The culprit probably turned up the heat and set it to go off after sometime so as to hasten the rigor mortis process and alter the estimated time of death, that way they can fake an alibi or not even get considered a suspect at all. A culprit that cunning wouldn't just pick up something that can be easily traced back to him like a kitchen knife where he works"

Slick was starting to understand her logic. As expected, he brought up the most obvious problem

"Still though, there's no way for a visitor to get access to a knife. I mean, the victim himself escorted them out of the mansion"

"Yeah, that part is actually pretty simple"

"What?!"

"The old man said there were 32 staff members, right?"

"Yes, the employee list with their personal information was in the office—"

"—When Liz and I entered the crime scene, she took note of everyone on the scene—police and suspects alike. She even counted the number of staff members and they all added up to 31"

"31?"

"Yeah, one's missing. So, either he's the culprit and he ran off, or he was an accomplice who made this crime possible"

Slick was quite puzzled.

"Remember, the victim led his visitors out of the mansion, not the premises. With someone on the inside, he can sneak back in, switch clothes, acquire the kitchen knife and move around without arousing suspicion, then the accomplice walks out of the premises as him. We can rule out an outsider because they'll have to get past the security guard, however, if the culprit was already in the premises, it's no problem making a visitor the most likely suspect."

"That pipsqueak really considered all of that? Amazing. I mean, I'm sorta ashamed to call myself a detective now"

"She's still an annoying brat though"

"Still though, I have a little more respect for her now. You also deserve respect for being able to figure out that much about her reasoning"

"Yeah, well...."

If you want to thank something, thank my curse.

"I'm Sean by the way, Sean Bright"

"Adam, Adam Graves"

Sean and I bonded a bit while buying chocolate milk and his mood seemed to have calmed down a bit. Now things won't escalate so much when we get back, at least I hope so.

We returned to meet the crime scene a mess with documents spread randomly across the floor. Sean was about to blow his top.

"Quit contaminating the crime scene, you brat!"

She ignored his provocation and instead stretched out her hand.

"My chocolate milk"

"Why you little—"

The old man returned in time to remedy the situation.

"Now, now, don't be like that. The little lady's helping us out a lot."

"But she's—"

"—While the two of you were gone, she found out our vic wasn't really named William Munroe. He was actually a conman with several identities— Francis Sawatari, Oliver Queen, Paul Reynolds, you name it. The staff were also just hired to play the part for this day. Their uniforms were also provided by our victim"

"Yeah, well—"

"She also found out our vic belonged in a team of three and they were probably planning a large scale heist. She also managed to fish out the identities of our visitors from these documents after listening to their descriptions from the staf—"

"I get it! She's sorta amazing okay?!"

"I knew you'll come around eventually"

The old man said with a smirk.

"Stop it, old man"

Sean was getting a little embarrassed and the old man couldn't help but laugh a little. I moved around the room glancing at the documents scattered around the floor. There were multiple fake passports, invoices for disguises as well documents detailing their research into past targets. Ofcourse, someone this meticulous would've researched the people he was meeting with today making it easier for us to uncover their identities— Nice job Liz

I noticed something else I felt the need to point it out.

"Hey, this photo....The person here looks like our victim but not quite"

"That's his brother and second member of their group. Get with the program already"

My rude underclassman said while sipping the chocolate milk I bought with my own money.

Shortly after, the police rounded up the suspects— well, only the visitors. The other two con artists had still not been found. According to the information Liz gathered, the other two went on ahead to prepare for a job so they might not even be in stone valley anymore.

We moved on to question the six suspects who were all dressed in their corporate suits, giving off the aura of bankers.

The old man called in the suspects one by one to a separate room for questioning. He started off with some casual chatter before getting down to business.

"So, what did you come to see Mr Munroe about?"

"Well, you see... He was looking to open an account with us for some business transactions so we were hashing out the detai—"

" —You're lying"

Liz interjected, her eyes as emotionless as always. The suspect quickly retorted.

"W-What are you talking about? How dare you accuse me of lyin—"

"— Did you know that when people lie they tend to look right due to neuro linguistic programming? Essentially constructive imagination rather than recalling from memory"

"I-I.... I swear I am not lying, I am telling the truth!—"

"— However, there's actually no concrete scientific proof. People are different and breaking eye contact doesn't necessarily indicate lying. Although, everyone's heard that myth at least once in their lives"

"Which means you just made a baseless accusation without proof!"

"While eye contact isn't an indication of a lie, your body language while I was explaining my reasoning is— fight or flight, cognitive complexity, grooming gestures, fidgeting, forced eye contact..... Ha,you couldn't be more obvious if you tried"

The old man asked casual questions first for Liz to gauge his natural reactions. After giving his testimony, she wasn't sure if he was lying so she accused him boldly to check his reaction.

Naturally, the fear of getting caught in lie showed in his body language but he still kept fighting. Her final blow then made him start rethinking his position— To carry on a losing battle or cooperate and work out a deal. All he needed was one more push in the right direction.

She set him up and was glancing at me to knock him down. How could I say no to those blackmailing little eyes.

"We already know William Munroe was a con artist and was looking for a collaborator. I suggest you cooperate with us if you don't wanna spend the rest of your life in jail for fraud"

The man submitted and told us everything on the record. Our victim was looking for a collaborator on the inside of the bank to provide them with access codes and other relevant information for their heist.

"By the way, the sentence for first time offenders of attempted fraud is just 1-3 years. Mad props though"

The little detective whispered in my ear as we called in the second suspect.

We somehow managed to coax a confession out of all the suspects. They were all employees from either Lion Bank, Princeton bank and Leigion bank—two from each bank, all here for the same reason. I guess the victim wanted a contingency plan in case his first accomplice got cold feet.

For the sake of simplicity, let's call them suspects A-F going by the order they met the victim.

Suspect A met with the victim between 9-9:40, B from 10-10:35, C from 11-11:35, D from 12-12:30, E from 1-1:43 and F arrived at 2:10 but didn't meet the victim as the door was locked. He did give us one useful piece of information. Apparently, as he was leaving, he heard a crashing sound from the second floor but didn't check what it was because he was angry his time got wasted.

The victim escorted all the suspects except F in and out of the mansion so any one of them could've used the trick I explained to Sean earlier. I guess Liz'll have to investigate a bit more.

"So, who did it?"

The little detective asked me while we were taking a short break after the questioning. While I knew the question was coming, it still surprised me that she actually asked.

"I'm not the detective here, how am I supposed to know?"

"You can read minds, can't you?"

"Huh?"

So I wasn't imagining it, she really did know what my curse could do— her deduction on the manga that started this all was under the premise that I knew she was the one coming, she asked me to go with Sean to keep him busy so she could look through the documents without protest, knowing full well I'll get her intention because of my curse.

Them there's the lying first witness, what ultimately gave her the courage to accuse him was my reaction when he told his lie... And she had me bring it home because I had information only accessible with mind reading.

So she had figured out my curse back then but still chose to go with the 'pervert' accusation. What a high maintenance underclassman, you'll never get a boyfriend with that attitude. Back on track though—

"Wouldn't that hurt your pride as a detective?"

"Pride? What the hell is that? I don't care either way as long as the case is solved"

"Quit ruining my image of how a detective should be!"

She remained silent. However her thoughts had a rather peculiar reply

"It's not like I do detective work because I enjoy it or something. It's simply just my duty....the cross I have to bear"

I noticed a deep sadness behind those words. Just what was her reason for being a detective? And why was it so important that she pushes away all those around her?

I flicked her on the forehead

"Quit being cryptic just for the sake of it..... Our culprit is Suspect D. As you initially deduced, he swapped clothes with an insider and that person left through the gate as D"

"Hmm?"

"He grabbed the knife from the kitchen and waited for the victim to be done with E, then he entered, stabbed the victim and set the thermostat to mess with the time of death. As for the locked room, he used the classic fishing line trick— Tie one end of the fishing line to the key and pass the other end through the pocket using a needle. Pull the fishing line with the key to the door and close it. Ofcourse, you're passing the line under the door. After locking the door, you pull the free end of the line, the key tied with the line moves into the room until it enters his pocket. A little yank and the line tied to the key will cut and you retrieve the line"

"Is that all?"

'Is that all?'..... those words gave me a sense of deja Vu. It was the condescending question Sara asked me 3 weeks prior. Hearing it again pissed me off for some reason.

"Yes, that IS all"

"What about the aquarium?"

So that's what she meant.

"Those weren't in his thoughts but we can pretty much deduce how that happened"

"By all means"

"It's pretty simple.... He probably hadn't died yet. He tried walking towards the shelf to grab the phone but didn't make it. As he fell, he held on to the aquarium and ended up pulling it, as he fell, the aquarium fell on hi—"

Wait no, that can't be right.... Not just that, now that I think about it, suspect D's thoughts slightly contradicts the facts we know about this case.... So that means...

I was still in the middle of piecing the real truth together. However, the pint sized Holmes beside me was already done. I could see no flaw in the conclusion she had reached. More so, it explained how the truth escaped my mind reading as well.

So the reason she asked for my input was just to confirm her deductions. You really are something Lizbeth Andrews.

"There's no one like that in the crime scene though"

I retorted to her thoughts with a smirk

"Ofcourse not. After all, there's probably only one person in the world who could've committed this crime"

"Haha,You're right about that.... So then, you ready close this case, detective?"

*Dirring

"Let's go perv"

She said after sending a mail.

"Quit calling me that already, my name's Adam"

We both headed back inside, ready to close this case..... Or rather, light the fuse that ignites the true start to this case.