Week 7 - Trial

[cartesio]

Week 7: Trial

When everyone arrives at the trial room, the tribunes are already filled with townspeople. Until now, the public had been so angry, waiting to see what the outsiders would do. Now they're calmer. Not indifferent, just waiting to see what will happen.

There are so few of you left. So few people, surrounded by a town that once hated you, and now don't know what to think. Will this trial change their opinions of you again?

Maybe that doesn't matter. You're here to solve a murder, after all.

"Today the victim is Kinzie Kensington. This may be the last chance any of you get the chance to earn a medal. Let's see if this culprit gets away with it successfully."

You receive your list of suspects. Five small photos appear on the podiums.

            

"When it's time, you shall cast your vote. It has been a while since there was one culprit."

The trial room went completely silent, all the visitors can feel the attentive stares of the townspeople gathered to watch. It's up to them now to find the culprit.

Let the trial begin.

Links

Evidence
Guestbook
Voting

[Welcome to the trial! Please remember to cash your votes here!. Your deadline is 8:00 PM EST. Good luck!]

Comments

CW: sex toy, thanks kinzie

[marmoron]

[Keith begins by plopping down a bunch of evidence on Oda’s empty podium. There’s a lot of it so take it all in.]

Natalie and I found Kinzie’s body lying face up outside the Lodge walls yesterday. There’s a lot to talk about so I’ll start with the body first then move on to what was around her.

Her body was in bad shape. Severe burns all on her front with lots of cuts and deep gashes.. There was bruising on her back, like she hit something hard, but no burns or cuts there. No broken bones.

The ground around her was scorched. Judging from the pieces of metal shrapnel everywhere and the device I found makes it obvious she got caught in an explosion.

The device got banged up, but it was made of three parts as far as I could tell. A pipe, a fuel canister and a can of compressed air. The can of compressed air was empty, pipe’s seen better days. The fuel canister had a serrated cut in it, which might’ve been made by a hunting knife that was lying around. The blade was serrated. There was blood and soot only on the hilt. The blade itself looked clean. Didn’t see a detonator or an accelerator around.

There were also some jagged rocks lying around her that stuck out to me because they weren’t charred like everything else in the area was.

It looks like someone was trying to help Kinzie. There was a first-aid kit lying next to her body. Most of the stuff in it wasn’t used, but there was gauze covering Kinzie’s most obvious injuries. There was blood and grime around the outside of the kit, but none inside. There was an imprint of someone kneeling in the ground next to the kit. Whoever made it was probably around my size.

[A beat.]

And before you get the wrong idea, it wasn’t me who made it.

[Sigh.]

There was rope that I found a bit further away from the scene. Might’ve been dropped there by someone who was headed to the Lodge from the general direction of the pharmacy.

[Aaaaand finally, with some reluctance that’s obvious as all hell, Keith grits his teeth and just points at a three foot long, purple, half melted piece of silicone with a metal hilt like handle that's just hanging out on Oda’s lonely podium. Because fuck no, he’s not keeping it on his.]

That was also there. Near her feet.

[clearities]

[ ... poor Oda's podium, tbh ] You found some rocks? Maybe they were the ones that the culprit-san took from the park, can I see them to compare? [ so that she's absolutely certain about it ]

[marmoron]

Go for it, Sakura.

[He gestures at the podium. Where the Object also is.]

mods!

[clearities]

[ just going to pointedly ignore the Object Which Must Not Be Named and go for the rocks. she did bring the ones from the park, so are these rocks similar/match the ones from there? ]

[cartesio]

[They're pretty much identical!]

[clearities]

They're the same!

[ or at least, identical, but look.

Sakura feels proud of that, at least. ] So the culprit-san did go to the park.

[ a determined huff. ]

[marmoron]

...That's weird. Why would they be carrying around pointy rocks?

[clearities]

They were pointed, so maybe they wanted to hit someone with it?

[ they probably would be good for that. ]

mods!

[marmoron]

I suppose... Bit messy to go about like that.

[Let's take another look at those pointy rocks from the Lodge though! Any traces of blood or gore on them?]

[relieable]

[EYES THE THING ON ODA'S PODIUM. of course he knows what that is. wow]

Sounds like you found the stuff that was from the hangar.

[marmoron]

[YOU EYE THE THING, OSO. Keith will pointedly not be looking anywhere near Oda's podium, tyvm!]

Right. Seems like they meant to do some kind of rescue attempt by causing an explosion outside the Lodge as a diversion.

[relieable]

Really? What makes you think that?

[marmoron]

A bomb's a bit overkill if you're just trying to kill a person. Plus that device wasn't exactly the most convenient thing to carry around.

[relieable]

Yeah... [he's heard all about the air canisters] You think Kinzie was trying to make the bomb?

[marmoron]

She probably would know how to make one, yeah.

[There's a thoughtful look.]

Cuprit might've interrupted her.

[relieable]

[that's what he was thinking, too]

She was, like. Super smart. A hacker, or something. But I can see her knowing how to make bombs.

[marmoron]

[A nod.]

Do you know who her hostage was?

[robitussin]

...If someone was trying to help her, do you think this might have been an accident?

[marmoron]

Might've been.

But I'm not sure. The uh.... [God. Just POINTS at The Item.] ...might've been used to ward off an attacker.

[Guess who didn't actually check it that thoroughly....]

[robitussin]

[As he points at it, she instinctively glances at it again, then... Yep, time to never look at that podium again.]

But, like... If she had an attacker, why would they try to help her afterwards? I mean, I guess she could have gotten attacked by one person and then someone else came across her, but if that's the case, I don't know why the second person wouldn't say anything now.

[marmoron]

I don't know. The knife is confusing to me.

Whoever was holding it was either already injured or they got blood on themselves from trying to help Kinzie. The latter option doesn't make sense because I don't get why they'd slash the fuel container after it'd already gone off.

[robitussin]

Maybe they picked it up for another reason...?

[She frowns.]

You're right, though, it's weird.

mods!

[marmoron]

Getting kinda conspiratorial, but...

[Time to take a look at this hunting knife again. Is the handle or blade damaged/charred in anyway?]

[cartesio]

[There's blood and soot all over the handle of the knife, but the blade is completely pristine]

[robitussin]

...I think they probably cleaned it. I found rags in the pharmacy with blood and soot on them.