FIFTH TRIAL

[bathymetric]

Quite the spread of evidence, isn't it? You have all you need, make your way to the vault door at once.

[ Once you're all at the door, Angel lets you through and into the elevator as always. And speaking of that elevator... your space to roam inside has grown again as you head down. Four is a heavy number to lose in one week, isn't it, between Nova and the three bodies you've just found? Though the number of things to discuss might be weighing heavier on your mind, if you're one of the investigators. The elevator might seem bigger or smaller than usual, despite the increase in space.

The trial room is as it is most weeks, apart from the newly-red podiums, so at least that's not a surprise by now. The screens are lowered, the familiar spiral displayed as ever. ]

That's three down this week. Up to three parties can be found responsible, when all is said and done - so go forth and find whoever did this, won't you? And to whoever did this... as always, best of luck to you as well.

[ The screens raise.

Welcome to your fifth trial. ]

Comments

[bogwife]

[Zerinda, who has joined Team Isle Surrounded By Death, is looking better from the mess she was last week. She's standing straight and determined as she presents her evidence.]

Someone lured Brian into the fitness room last night. They left him a note. [She pulls it out of her skirt pocket to give to the nearest person to pass around.] There were brackets screwed into the door frame and ceiling and a rope tied to the weight rack and under his leg. It looks like they set up a trap for him.

[mouflon]

A trap, huh... So, between that and the poison in the kitchen, two of the deaths were accomplished with subterfuge. What about Rose Quartz?

[nothingcanstop]

As little subterfuge as possible. ...Maybe, given the close proximity of two of the scenes...she found something, just after the fact?

[mouflon]

That's a possibility. So is the idea that we're looking for two different killers. It'd make sense for one person to set up both a trap like that and poison — if no one trips what you've set up in the gym, or if you don't bump into anyone willing to have tea with you, you still have the other option there as backup. Someone willing to get violent themselves just needs to find someone, on the other hand.

[archboxer]

There was a note was there not?

[ladygeryon]

Maybe that lightsaber was used to create the illusion there was someone in the room somehow, so he'd approach it?

[mouflon]

Was it addressed to anyone? Like — are we sure it was meant for anyone in particular, or was it just left somewhere? Because... I mean, they picked kind of a hard target otherwise, didn't they?

[ladygeryon]

Probably. She doesn't-didn't-need to sleep, after all, so she could have been out at night and happened upon the scene. Maybe even tried to intervene. Or-or we actually have more than one killer, this time.

[For the record, she hates that theory.]

[blackmass]

It is not impossible, by the sound of things, that we may only have one. To lay a trap in one location makes it easy to be making poisoned tea elsewhere.

[bolderfell]

Not impossible, but... does anything connect the two scenes? Rose and Sly, yeah, they're more or less in the same place. But Brian?

[bolderfell]

I know she was patrolling at night, like Jasper. She started carrying one of those swords from the vending machine, too.

[ladygeryon]

Hmm... [She holds out the sword she found to him.] Ema was teaching you about fingerprinting, right? Could you check this for prints? If there aren't any at all, even blurry ones, it would suggest someone without fingerprints was the one carrying it.

[bogwife]

Did any of you find a weapon or something that could have done it nearby?

[archboxer]

How devious... they must have had a lot of time to set that up.

[bogwife]

They would have had to work fast but the note just says "tonight", no specifics. Unless they worked on it earlier in the week and we just didn't notice?

[archboxer]

There are many of us who visit the gym. I believe any of us would have noticed such changes.

[bogwife]

That's true...so the current theory is that they worked especially fast, which is possible if they knew what they were doing.

[archboxer]

Either that or, as Anna said, they planned this out. Someone who knew how they wanted to kill and wanted to make sure their presence was not there....

[bolderfell]

If the screws were loose, maybe we would've. If they were just replaced with the wrong ones? They might still hold until pulled.

[emberserker]

More likely, they only set it up last night and had it planned out in advance.

[bolderfell]

[What...]

A rope under his leg, tied to the weight rack... and a bracket on the ceiling? Wait. How was he killed? I only saw the other two.

[ladygeryon]

...he was crushed. Under the weights from the rack. Not even he could survive something like that, it seems like...

[And just after she was fussing over one broken hand...]

[bolderfell]

[He closes his eyes, picturing it.]

Brackets... the ones shaped like this, right? [He makes an L with his fingers.] Some of those were disturbed in the carpentry room, too. His weight would be more than enough to dislodge the rope from both of those and trigger something. Was something done to the weight rack?

Mods?

[bogwife]

The weight rack was hanging by a rope and... [She folds her arms and furrows her brow, thinking back.] The screws holding the weights in place were loosened. They all would have fallen out at once.

[Were the brackets the same ones missing from the workshop?]

[archboxer]

Crushed by a bunch of the barbells, it looked like. Zerinda got closer but it was a bit much for me.