Worlds Beyond Number - HINT! ep2: Hate the Player

Episode Date: September 16, 2025

As blood pools upon the thick pile of the Boddie Estate's imported rug collection, our players, and the game, are afoot. Bodies on the move in voluminous pants and long, dark secret hallways. Revelations and aspersions fill the air of the mansion like fingers between the keys of a grand piano, like a sky-darkening murmuration of starlings, as our heroes begin to uncover the culprit behind this murder most...fowl.We are:Brennan Lee MulliganErika IshiiAabria IyengarLou WilsonHINT! was designed and edited by Kate Sanders at Fortunate HorseSPECIAL THANKS TO: Shannon, Melanie, Amanda Freberg.Transcript of this episode coming soon! You can find transcripts of all our episodes here, for free, on our Patreon. Just navigate to the post for the episode and the transcript will be attached. If it's not there, it's on the way ;)Our album art is by the great Corey BrickleyOur music appears courtesy of Artlist.io, Musopen.org, and Archive.orgLa notte, S. 112/2 - Mauro Tortorelli (https://musopen.org/music/37594-la-notte-s-1122/)Broadway (Manhattan Mary) 1927 Cass Hagan Orch. v. Frank Luther (https://archive.org/details/FavoriteShareFlagAudioFrankLutherPopularVocalRecordingsCollection1925-1935/z+Good+News+1927+Fred+Rich+Orchestra+v.+Frank+Luther.m4a)https://archive.org/details/JV-18202-1940-Qmd5eseFw7icWTHEX1fsM1HUoJeJwCAYyAR8AzBWCdgmyN.mp3https://archive.org/details/JV-26792-1947-QmfW6Wz4vaz3ecX8ZBXLsjhoxSC4C7FFARt4bvKNB5W8kj.mp3https://archive.org/details/JV-6591-1930-QmVUah4peJwEHcczgW8DYHFi8D5Xnqwazq1iA9syPbNnNa.mp3https://archive.org/details/JV-1395-1924-QmVPw1kBvGMJkZysN5m8stCjVD5jpHwCYEgWZsHDodhW3E.mp3

This is the sound of Worlds Beyond Number. Last time on, Clue. You know, for ASIO purposes, maybe we should think of a different title. Let's name this. All right. Let's name this. All right.

Mr. Green has opened the door to this scene. You see the study with its myriad of dead animals and now a dead host. There's a moment of. silence as you all take this in. I'm going to shakily walk to try to look at the body. Don't. We should just call the police. Don't touch anything.

I am in a haze. I'm not looking to bend down, but I'm just trying to look to if I see the gun on the floor. You do not see a gun on the floor. Mr. White is right. He's been shot. I mean, do we call the police? I'm going to go do it now.

Turn and storm around the road. Miss Scarlett, thinks to try to stop you, but does not lay a hand on you, thinks better of it. I says, wait, we're all, this is a house that is full of booze. We're all a little tipsy

and, I mean... I'm going to stand up. Are all six of us in this room right now? Yes. Everyone came in. Yes. Mustard, Scarlet, and Peacock have all filtered in behind you. I'm going to look up to Claudette and take one last look around. I don't see a gun anywhere. Do I see two wounds in... Just one. Just one.

Well, I stare for a moment. at my best friend's ruined head and step away and am clearly in a place of mental, just noise that I can't, but I'm going to walk up right next to Claudette and go quietly to her, even if other people are looking at me, but just like, don't want to speak in a group setting and just go up and go, murderers standing here within arms for each of us. Mrs. Peacock looks around, she's shaken, but she taps you and she says, Why don't you? Come with me. Don't go, don't be in here. Thank you, dear.

Yeah, come on, come on. And I'm going to help kind of usher her. What's a nice, close room to this? Because I don't want to move far from the group. You are next to the hall and the library. What if we all go together into the library? Yes, I suppose that. She is incoherent. Scarlet nods at you and moves over, shaken but quickly to the library. Mr. Green, mustard turns to you and says, are you all right?

I mean, not all right, but come with us. And he closes the door to the room and ushers you out. Hand on your shoulder. Are they not coming with us all to the library? They are. They are. Cool. As we walk to the library, I'm just looking at Fred, with my eyes sort of furrowed,

stepping away. And I'll look at him and say, where were you? heard the gunshots. I... I was in the hall. I heard the gunshot and, you know, I had to take a moment, but ran over.

Where were you? With Claudette and Arnold. I'm going to look over and just... As we get into the library, I'll look out at everyone, looking at Clodette. and Arnold, who I was with in the lounge from well before. And I'm thinking about, like, okay, the three of us were in the lounge well before the gunshots rang out.

And then I'm going to suddenly realize that I've left my briefcase in the lounge and realize that I cannot, under these circumstances, dart out and go get it. And another kind of panic. So I leave my mental haze into something like an adrenaline kicks in. and I have a new form of fear and go, Colonel Mustard, if you'd be so kind. And I'll turn to look at everyone and say, I think we would all do well to turn out our pockets. Very well. Miss Scarlett says, I'm sorry. Are you accusing us of something?

Every person in this room is well aware that the staff were sent home. Bill? Rutherford is dead. We heard two gunshots, and there's no gun lying within arm's reach of him on the floor. That gun has been taken from the crime scene by someone who used it to murder Rutherford. And we are the only six people in this house. We can call the police. If we do, they will come in and see a mansion filled with illegal narcotics, prohibited alcohol, and I'll be frank, stolen curios and goods.

And all of our important reputations will be permanently soiled by a visit from the law to this establishment. A good point. So what do you suggest, Mr. Gray? That we need... Figure this at ourselves. says Colonel Mustard. Especially the ones who got into a fight shortly before the murder of our host. Hmm.

He nods. Yes. I will turn out the pockets of my suit showing nothing. I am a woman. I don't have pockets. Do you have any handbag or? I've forgotten it in another room. But it was small and stupid.

Mrs. Peacock, who is wearing, like, voluminous skirts, somehow has pockets. How? And she's like, oh, you make them yourself, dear. Oh. Yes. And she turns them out, and there's a couple of candies and, like, a tiny sewing kit. And clippers, actual, whole small clippers for the flowers. but nothing else.

Miss Scarlett balks. She clutches her small, beaded handbag to her. I... Susie, don't well. You're not under suspicion. We all heard you playing piano in the other room. Well, all right, I just...

And she opens it up, and she does have a little flask in there. And we all have a little flask, and I'm going to walk across the library. And, like, there's like a couple... Uh-oh. when did Hemingway right? Yeah, we're good.

There's some, there's some Hemingway. I think it's the old man in the sea and she pulls it out and opens it. And there's just a flask in there. All right. Okay. There's a little flask and a compact with just a powder and a lipstick. And it's also, and it's a bunch of other odds and ends. It's not a very well-kept purse, clearly.

but no gun. Mustard has a couple of pockets in his suit. He turns them out and there is nothing in them. Professor Plum turns out a small box of pipe tobacco, his pipe, his pocket watch, and a silver spoon. And then promptly with shaky hands goes to pack a pipe. You got the closest to a pipe. but Cass, I hate to be morbid,

but did it look like maybe he could have shot himself? No. Two gunshots. Typically, people don't miss. And if they do, they don't typically try again. If we're determined to figure this out ourselves, I did study anatomy at Howard and would be willing to do a cursory examination of the body.

Mustard looks at the three of you and says, so you can all account for each other's whereabouts when the shots happened. We? Yes, we were together in the lounge. We? Oh, yes, yes. Yeah? Aren't you gentlemen?

I'm not even French. I'm just going to talk normal. Sorry, this is very stressful. There's a dead man in the other room. Let's examine the body, and I'll try to, I have a passing knowledge of forensics, and I can attempt to at least look for any signs of where this may have happened. You learned forensics at Yale?

No. I've learned forensics in court. A passing. I'm not a forensic scientist. but I know enough to know a few basic elements to look for. One thing I do think we should address. We are all the suspects, the comings and goings. We all move together, or are people free to go about as they may?

Don't think we should separate. I'll stay. I think I'll stay here, dear. I think. Miss Peacock should sit down. Yes. I'll go with you. I'll go with you.

Why don't we, well, I'm just, I'll look and say, Professor, why don't you stay with Mrs. Peacock? Fred, why don't you stay with Susie? And I'll go with you to go get your hand back. Plum, you are in the library. There's amongst its shelves of leather tomes reaching up to the ceiling, with wheel ladders on racks running the perimeter of the room. There's a couple of leather studded armchairs,

one of which Mrs. Peacock is collapsed in, and there are little cupolas and reading nooks under tall, millioned windows. But the two things that are a bit obtrusive to this serene atmosphere are two massive fireplaces made of handsome Brazilian rosewood. On the left side there is a fireplace with a boss relief carving of scrollwork banner with the script that says imagination etched into it and under which is depicted fantastical creatures. Griffins and dragons and unicorns with a spray of flowers and clouds with a woman in a Greek Khitan holding a tome.

And on the other side of you is a large mantle piece that reads science. the columns underneath of which are intricately detailed with the depiction of a man, evolving from a primate and Sir Isaac Newton holding an apple under a tree that turns into swirling galaxies over a nude Greek woman, carrying a celestial globe which she points to with a small staff. This is Mr. Potty's library, and you notice that the books, except for the Hemingway section, are mostly dusty. and unused.

Can I add to that? Because that's where I spent my unaccounted for a time. Yes. So in the corner on like a little like chest table would be like a folio of papers that are like reed like shut and sealed and bound contracts and proposals. And like a small model of like a restaurant is. smashed on the ground next to it. You can tell that the splinters, from the splinters,

that this building, this model building, was art deco with all the joints and the angular sides. There are also little model figurines of people on the table that have been scattered around if you decide to look closer. I do. You see that one is a dark-haired male figure that is in front of the wreckage face down at the feet of a feminine figure

in a black and white dress. Oh, claw. I don't think Mr. Plum can help himself and is going to open the folio. In it, you find blueprints, contracts, a stylized art deco menu for Project Claw's place.

That's imaginative. Professor. Yes, Miss Peacock. I'm none too broken up about his death. Does that make me a bad person? Death is a incredibly complicated thing. And the ways in which you process it are your own. Well, I think this one is not quite so complex, so much as it is,

inconvenient for all of us stuck in this old place. I can agree with that. So, did you do it? Of course not. Did you? Oh, no, no. Much too frail. Let's hope that the rest of those youngans can find out who did then.

I had, is there a little, give me some of that. Good Hemingway, please. Coming right up. So you see that Mustard and Scarlett move over back to the hall. She is shaken, but doesn't look too upset. Colonel Mustard has the focus of a man who has seen death before. And the two of you, Mrs. White and Mr. White. You're green. Where do you go?

I am trudging, sort of vacillating between a vacant thousand-yard stare and then a more like panicked thousand yards stare. Like sometimes going into my mind and coming back out and then just looking straight ahead because I don't know what to look for. And I'm walking forward towards the lounge, probably like slightly like stepping out in front or like a little bit of an urgent pace. I think the moment we hit the part of the hallway where you go from like the wood and tile of the library and hit like runners and carpet. So footsteps are covered. I will grab you if you're starting to like build a little bit of a lead and just give you a hug. Uh, I go very limp and... You okay.

He's dead. He's dead. He's dead. He's dead in there. He's dead. He, did he know? No what? look up at you and go, I, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.

How are you? Are you okay? I, uh, um, I'm, I'm, I'm fine, I'm fine. You mean, between, I didn't want to cause a panic, but turning out my pockets, I have a fountain pen, a cigar cutter, a small billfold, and a thin, uh, legal, notepad. Theoretically, it could be Mrs. Peacock or

Ms. Scarlett. We heard the piano playing that would seem to rule her out. I mean, things are not looking good for Fred right now. Yeah. You heard him at dinner, and Fred is a man who has taken life before. Yeah.

Let's get your... But there was an argument. Susie was arguing with Rutherford earlier. Okay, I don't know how to account for the bad jazz coming from the piano room. But it was noticeably worse than before. That is true. But maybe she was just sad and ran out of songs that she knew kind of what. I don't have to make excuses, but I do have...

Did you, by any chance? And I'm so sorry for asking, did you see a second bullet hole anywhere? No. We need to go back in and search for that specifically. And frankly, I would believe that a young ingenue would be more likely to miss her first shot than Fred would. Let's get your back. Oh, yeah.

Sorry. It's probably in the kitchen. But that was also in another. Let's check. Kitchen. Kitchen. Kitchen. You sure you didn't leave it in the lounge?

Well, maybe. Let's go lounge first than kitchen. I just don't remember. It's little. It's a stupid little, yeah, lounge, lounge. We go to the lounge. I help you look for your bag. Is it in the lounge?

No, it's not. All right. On the way out of the lounge in that case, you'll just see me look around and say like, okay, and gun and candlestick missing from Plinth in here. Oh. And then I'll pick up my breech case on our way out. Oh, okay.

Why would the candlestick be gone? Yeah, hold on. Are there like little, no. It was just what he knew. Are there little placards? But there are little placards there still. Yeah, what's the candlestick's deal? The candlestick says lists and fathers.

List the composer? Oh, yeah. L-I-S-Z-T. Lists and fathers. Do you know anything about this? Lists and fathers, and there's no other text after that? That's it. Lists and fathers.

Is that like lists and sons? Yeah, why would it be the other? He's so... He was... We don't speak ill of a dead. Cassidy, you do know that Johnny Body was a big fan of romantic and classical era of music. Well, I know that the elder body was a fan of the composer.

Okay, but again, what does a composer have to do with... Workers of the work. The theme, yeah, the theme sort of falls apart pretty quickly, actually. But, all right. Did I watch you grab your briefcase? I leave that to you. I definitely have it as we're walking out of the room. Then, yeah, I think I'd probably just do the, like,

little gentle throat clearing as we're, like, taking off, like, briefcase. Did you, you left it in here? Yeah, yes. Well, I heard the gunshot and I ran. Is it important? Is it important? Is what important?

You're the one that has all turn out our pockets. Is what's in there important? In the briefcase? Well, no, not particularly, but would you prefer I leave it in the lounge? I'd prefer you open it. I will look at Claudette and go, I will do that for you. but I would ask you that you not make me do it right now.

Okay. And I will accompany you to the kitchen to get your back. Yeah. It's also not in the kitchen. Do you just do you do any amount of searching for it? I'm ripping this. I am ripping this kitchen apart. Okay. The echoing black and white tiles are strewn.

with various spices and cuttings, and you do not find your bag. I don't know where I put it, and now I'm getting, I'm starting to freak out. Because if I can't find the bag, is everyone going to think that it's got like a good, what if someone else found it, and then they put the gun in the bag,

and I was going to get that. And she just starts freaking out. You don't remember where you put it down? I don't, no, no. I came in, and I thought we were just going to go to the dinner, and then he was like, go to the kitchen and didn't want to go to the kitchen. I didn't want to start. Listen, listen, listen.

All right. Sorry, right. You know why we need to find this quickly, right? No. Why? Why? What? Because you don't want someone else to be able to put something in that bag.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Listen, we never parted ways. We stayed together the whole time. You keep looking in the kitchen. I'm going to jump into the dining room because maybe it's by your chair, all right? Okay. Thank you.

All right. I am going to run quickly and, quietly into the dining room. Hold on. Do you head for like the main door out to get to the dining room? I do. Then I'm going to stop you one last time

and go hit the like servant door. Ooh. That sneaks through. Okay. Very good. All right. And I will step out through the serving door to get into the dining room

through the servant's entrance. All right. You step into the dining room and you see the remains of the dinner. The plates have still been left there since there were no staff members. to clear them, you find the purse wedged underneath the table where Mrs. White would have tucked it. The moment I stepped through the door, briefcase is on the counter open. I take the signed

will out and hide it on top of the China cabinet under the least used China above eyeline. Amazing. And then I will grab the purse and make my way back. into the camera. Sweet. In the intervening time, I have grabbed a chef's knife, sharpened it, and it's on my person. Under, like, voluminous pants. We've got

like a leg garter. Voluminous bagel. I swap out the tiny flask, tuck it into a fucking cabinet, and now I've got a knife on me. All right, and I'll step back in and hand you your purse. Oh, my God, thank you. Thank you. We never parted. Of course not. And I will walk back out to go towards the study for us to

investigate the body. I open my purse. Is there a gun in it? There is no gun in your purse. Woo! Okay. Is there a candlestick in there? There is no candlestick in your tiny purse. Yeah.

Okay, okay, okay. I want to grab like a small amount of like a little pouch of very finely milled. Like do plazero, you make pasta level flour. And I'll slip it in my stupid little bag. We're going to solve mysteries, baby. Meanwhile, plum, you and Mrs. Peacock are just sitting, are you drinking? No, plum at this point has kind of moved on from drinking

and is just, I think, heavily puffing on his pipe. And, you know, I really don't think that I'm the only one. I mean, you know, both of those young women, I'm sure I don't. I don't know specifically what's happening with them, but if I were one of the body count, I would also want to, you know. But you, you were a friend of his. Yes.

I'm sorry, I should offer my condolences. No, it's, I think we're all quite shaken up. Mm-hmm. Not that, not that young. Army fellow. He's a mind of steel, that one. Must be nice.

Yeah, well, the colonel has seen a great many horrors in his time. It does something to a man's steel. Hmm. Yes. And Cassidy, both of you, both of you are heading to the study. If I hear them in the hallway,

I'm going to step out. You can hear them in the hallway. The hallway is tiled, and so if somebody is not making an attempt at stealth, then, yes, you'd be able to hear them. Then I'll open the door. You headed to the study. Yes, Professor. Are you going to see the body? We are. Well, watch out out there, I suppose. For the murderer, darling. The murderer.

Okay. Fair enough. I will proceed into the study and start. I'll start making a cursory investigation of the study, just from where the body is. I just want to see if, because there was a music was playing, thunder clap, two gunshots, and then we came here, and he was on the ground, head wound, only one bullet. Only one bullet in the head.

In the head. I'll start to look around the room for that second. And is there an exit wound on the head or no? It has gone into his brain and you don't see an exit wound. Then I will begin to look for that second bullet hole. And I think without touching the body, I think Professor Plum is just kind of observing the wound and trying to get a better sense of mostly distance and where the person would have had to stand in the room. room to make where they would have been standing based on where the bullet struck him. You would know that the gun has been fired not close to the head, as in a suicide would be,

but that the person was not very far away. There is no gun powder residue around the temple, and you notice that it has entered the brain, and for lack of a better word, probably scrambled it. Oh, so it's from the side. Yes. Copy. And I'm going to look for the first four windows. I'm looking for like, was someone standing outside and fired into the room?

No. There are windows around, large windows, but none of the glass is broken. None of the windows are open. If you look around, you do see in one of the walls a bullet hole. Okay. Which wall? You see it in the wall opposite the door. Professor Plum is going to come to about four to five feet from the desk, raise his arm up as if holding a weapon, and go say about right here. I'll look at the angle of where the professor is standing, nod my head, get a letter opener. off of Rutherford's desk and gently prod.

I'll actually look over at you and say, Arnold, if you'd be so kind, would you get out a light of match just so I have a little bit of light to work with? Of course. And I will begin to dig into the hole at the angle from where the professor was standing to try to dislodge a bullet from the wall.

Who needs the police? You do manage to get it. You scratch it a little bit in the process because it is a bullet made of silver. Soft metal. And I'll pull it out, plop it into my hand, and look at it. Is there anything that I can tell? So these were the silver bullets, meaning it was loaded how it was loaded in the lounge when we were all looking at it. That's correct.

These very, like, novelty silver bullets. Yes. I'm going to look at this other bullet and go, all right, well, this would suggest that the missing gun in the lounge is the weapon that was used here. I'm going to start to look at the carpet. Does it look like when the body hit the floor that Rutherford fell out of his chair? He did not fall out of his chair. He slumped in the desk. Oh, he slumped in. Okay, he fell over onto the desk. Yes.

Gotcha. Okay. How much blood is there covering the desk? There is not. I'm going to stand with my head cock to one side and look over at my friend the professor. And I go, no blood on the desk, head wound. How fast does the heart stop pumping blood after a traumatic head injury? Sadly, those classes were much too long ago to say for certain, but there should be blood there. Yeah, I'm going to look and touch my own head and be like, I remember our first lacrosse practice at Princeton.

Old Rudd gave me a crack across the back of the head, and the thing bled like a fountain. There's nothing here. That can't be right. I'm going to look around and say, I think this body was moved. How much would I know about the anatomy of this building? I would say that you know all of the different rooms, but you know that body thought it very fun and whimsical to have all sorts of secrets about the house. And he loved keeping them and hinting at them

but showing them off for his friends. And the carpet under our feet, red? Yes, correct. Okay. I'm going to reach into my bag then and grab that first little handful of flour. Moved body. And it would be really hard, but if it's still sticky,

and just blow a bunch of the powder just to see if it catches all. on wetness in the carpet? There are a couple of drops of wetness that the white sticks to. There's not a trail, but there is an amount of directionality away from the desk. But not much, and you don't see any drag marks. Okay, yeah. Are the sprinkles by the door everyone would know about, or are they just somewhere else in the room?

Uh, there was, like, I'm living in the world where if this was a moved body, in the same way that I immediately, like, redirected Cass through servants quarters, I have, like, there's no universe in which I wouldn't know that servants quarters exist lots of places. The sprinkles are closer to the rhino. Okay, that's the white rhino that Mr. Body was always talking about how he bagged in Africa. completely unassisted. He had waited two full nights, no sleep. And suddenly he was there. And, well, I sure got my man. I'm going to head over to the rhino. Hold on. And like, is it? Oh, I've never interacted with a taxidermied anything. You just see, like, claw gets really uncomfortable and starts physically interacting with this thing. You can see that the rhinoceros, his eyes, they stare.

at nothing. He has been taxidermied into a scowl. He looks like he's ready to charge, but you would know that he had probably been doped up before

the shot actually happened. And it's just like a mounted head? It is a full, small rhino on a wooden platform. It is surrounded by the birds. As I said, there were birds perched at different levels.

All over there were, you know, birds of all shapes and sizes. There was a recreation of sort of the local flora of New York with a tableau of birds there. There are some exotic birds that he bagged, you know, he had bagged a kettel in South America. and there's even a bald eagle spread out in the corner. And there's a little plaque next to the birds that's brass. Is White, do you need assistance? Yeah, sorry. I don't know about a moved body,

but a room full of weird animals might be a good place to hide a gun. not a bad thought well let's let's help you take a look for it we know I'm gonna look around I'll I want to open the

I want to open the door there's no the drops if I press my thumb into it does it come up a certain color like blood or something else the wet drops in the carpet it comes up red with white speckles in it

okay So I'm looking, these are just a few drops, right? I'm going to look over at the professor and go, whatever happened, don't think a gunshot killed him. Why? The number of cases I've done where people tried to move a body, especially with a head wound in the amount of time, I mean, it was less than an hour since we'd all seen him at dinner.

It's like a, it's like an Edgar Allan Poe, horror story, it's a paintbrush of gore along the floor. There'd be a thick band of blood. The only way that the blood wouldn't come gushing out is if the body had been dead for a while. The can't... There were two of the items, the gun, and the candlestick. So, what's it when you kill someone from doing a hit? Murder. It's always murder.

In both cases, it is murder. Yeah, okay. You mean bludgeoning someone? Thank you, yes. Can I take another look at the body? Yes, what are you looking for? I think looking for this kind of beat that we're on, like, is there anything outside of the wound of the gunshot that suggests, like, additional damage,

damage that would go beyond that of a bullet striking, or has the damage of the bullet been so profound that there is nothing else to gleam? So while, as he said, there was no contusion from the entry wound, there is matting in his hair that is inconsistent with bullet entry wound. Look at this right here. Okay. Oh, to hit.

This verifies, I think, what you are thinking. I immediately, like, smack both of you. Uh, uh, okay, we didn't hear another gunshot that would have killed. Someone was playing very loud music, maybe loud enough to cover hitting someone with a candlestick. Clap of thunder as well. Let's take a look at this rhino. And I'm going to, I want to help Claudette investigate the rhinoceros. So you take a look at the rhino.

And it is just a grisly business. But you notice that there's a little, what looks to be, maybe like a poem scratched into the base. And it says, Charmed, I'm sure, it's no conspiracy. Ha, ha, you murder me, kiddo. I always hated his sense of humor. Charmed, I'm sure, it's no conspiracy. You murder me.

Ha ha. You murder me, kiddo. You murder me present tense. You murder me, kiddo. I want to look at this. This has been scratched into the base. Has this base, knowing that the staff clean and hear regularly. It has been, you can tell that it has been polished since the scratch. Okay, so this is older, this was not something written in his dying death throws. That's correct. This has been here for a minute.

Mm-hmm. Charmed, I'm sure it's no conspiracy. I think immediately, like, Cass is going to go into full, like, wordplay. Yeah. Like, how this, immediately already being, like, this asshole loves puzzles. And... There were many times that body would corner you with the New York Times crossword puzzle.

Like, Puss, what's a, what's a, was a synonym for the, A Boolean. Mm-hmm. Sent it for an abulient? For a bullion. I don't know what that means. A bullion. I don't fucking know what it means.

What is the, can you give a sit again? It says, charmed, I'm sure. It's no conspiracy. Ha, ha. You murder me, kiddo. I will gaze at this for a little while. And running around, it looks like it's been car. Does it look like it's significant the place on the base where it's been carved?

It doesn't look like it was placed thoughtfully, just that it was on the base of this rhino. And I wonder to myself, because it's been here for a while, ha, ha, you murder me, kiddo. I wonder if it's a reference to hunting the rhinoceros itself. I think I'd like have to try to like glean if this matches any, type of word puzzle he's seen Rutherford do before. Either like an acrostic or is it a scramble or is it every third letter or something

like that. Like he's just trying to see like what are the puzzles that I knew that Rutherford was into? Rutherford was very into puns. Oh. Yes. He was not quite fast enough perhaps to take to ciphers or there were a lot of other things that, you know, he wasn't very good with synonyms or jumbles. He liked nice, straight ahead, funny things.

There's birds around here. Are there any crows in the room? You do look at the local tableau of birds, and there is, in fact, a crow there. Or there's two black corvids. I'll look up and go You murder me And I want to go and grab one of the crows The crow

Does not come off its perch But you hear a click Why did you just touch a bird Murder me kiddo I was thinking there might be some Devious pattern or the sort of Acrostic word jumble something like that But no, it's a pun

Rutherford It needs to be able to work for Rutherford So it's got to be, it's got to be right within arms reach. A murder of crows. The birds around the rhinoceros. Oh. And I go, conspiracy. That's another group word.

Conspiracy. There's a certain bird. Ah, I wish I knew about birds. And I'm going to. I think it's a conspiracy of ravens, but those are both. It is a conspiracy of ravens. Yeah. Sorry.

So there's a raven and a crow. Playing into like a brinoes. I'm a little dumbed. Oh, hold on. Charmed. Like a snake charmer? Is there a snake? And a charm of mag pies. God damn it. All right. I'll look up and go, Charmed, I'm sure it's no conspiracy. Ha, ha, you murder me.

So I'll look at the different bird things here and go, I think there might be that click. There's something mechanical. Rutherford spent a fortune on installing doors and gateways and other things like that, secret bookshelves, and I'm going to try to interact with the magpie, raven, and crow. You would know some of those birds from your hunting trips together. You are no stranger to the gentleman's sport of hunting. And as you grab the magpie, the raven, and the crow, you hear click, click, click. And the base of the rhino with the rhinoceros slides aside, and you see a set of stairs.

My God. I look and I say, we went on a hunting trip to Long Island, and Rutherford said, we're going to go hunting crows. And I said, what the fuck are you talking about? This is why I don't trust white men. And I'm just looking straight at Professor Plum. A hundred years, 100%. You're just going to go shoot normal birds?

I mean, at least be like the kings of Europe. Thank you. He had drank a full-sized bottle of laudanum right before we did that. Well, I'm sure he was just, I'm sure it wasn't really. on grounds. I'm assuming you were just in other people's yard. We had pulled off the highway. Yeah, that sounds about right. I was about to say hunting grounds

in Long Island. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You mean people's backyard. Oh, yeah. We were in the Hamptons. Yeah, we pulled over and just, he said, I know everybody here. It's all right. Then let me do this. And just started shooting at crows. He shot someone's parakeet through an open window in their house.

You do see in the exotic birds section there is a parakeet. They found out that he was part of the body family and they let him keep the parakeet. It's a terrible story. The amount of people I've watched him offend and then they apologized is extensive. All right.

This is incredible. I'm going to roll up my pants and like talk about. Look, I'm wearing optic white and we're walking towards bad stuff. I'm not getting blood on me. I'm not going to look like I killed him. All right.

That's all I'm saying. I roll it up. Before we descend. and what of our compatriots? Oh, we should tell them. Should we not tell them? I think, for right now, let's dive down these stairs. One of those three, we all were together.

One of those three people is the murderer. It doesn't have to be one. Oh, God. Look, I think there's nothing better than to play loud music badly to cover up a murder. that you know someone else is going to execute. Yeah. All right.

I think for right now, this is a discovery. Let's press our advantage and not give someone else the opportunity to cover up whatever's on the other side of this. All right. So you descend down. It's only a couple of stairs before it levels out into a hallway. And you move down the hallway and you get to a metal door. Are we seeing blood anywhere? Um, there is, there is not blood that you see.

No. All right. But there is a metal. I, I shouldn't say Dora. There's a metal frame, a block of metal, uh, that you finally come across at the end of the passageway. Professor Plum gives it a push. Uh, it opens up and you see, well, no, before you see anything, you feel a wave of cold air hit you. As you've walked into the large, um, you see.

walk-in freezer in the kitchen. My goodness. Looking at the big ice blocks around and everything else, like, he had a secret passage made from the study to the kitchen. What an enormous waste of money. Why?

Why? Why? God, Dan. You see, I cast against emotional and just punches the wall. But don't... Why would you do that? My father built this... There's a fun thing about rich people is they want the convenience of things showing up for them

and never the inconvenience of seeing those who would make the show up for them. Why from the kitchen to the study? Midnight snack. And you do see in addition to the kinds of things that a well-stocked pantry would have in the freezer, there's just an assort, a cup, a tray that is an assortment of delicacies,

on a little wheeled cart. This is... Must be nice. You enter out into the kitchen, and it is as you left it when you were searching for your purse. Nothing much seems to be amiss except actually the things that you had thrown around in your attempt at searching for your purse.

Oh, yeah, sorry, just for the record. It's messier in here because I didn't know where I left my purse. Can I make a look around the kitchen real quick just to see if I notice anything missing? What would you think would be missing from this? I think I want to just look around because I, in terms of being the person who sent the staff home and was like going, going, yes. Right. So you would have you having requisitioned each of these modern up-to-date appliances, and helping with the design of every French sort of pot and pan that he had requisitioned for it.

You wouldn't see anything really amiss, but it is also hard to tell amongst the chaos of Mrs. White's search for her purse. Gotcha. You don't see any amount of blood anywhere. but then again, there also is mess from the food preparation that had been happening. I'll look over at the baked Alaska and see if there's still a fork in it. There are two forks in it. Great. A couple of bites taken.

And a couple of bites taken out. I'll look over and go, this is melting and take another bite. Wait, do you like it? It's delicious. Absolutely stunning. Wish I hadn't left my spoon in the other room. Oh, hold on, and I'll walk over, I want you guys to notice that it's missing,

pass the knife block with very specifically, like, one missing, to grab, like, a fork for you. If you want to try it. Thank you. I'll follow the block over and do a quick scan and see that that knife is not laying out on the table anywhere. And I'll look over and say, I meant to ask the spoon.

Is that a... I was in here earlier and had a bit of baked Alaska before. What do you think? Quite lovely. It's hard to do a good meringue. Thanks. And I'll just sort of smile and go, like, you helped you talk to the baked Alaska

and pocketed the spoon on your way out? I was eager to smoke the cigar. Ah, understood. And I'll... And I'll continue. So looking around, I'll go like, so the question then becomes the blood, the blood following to the white rhino in the study, we didn't see any in the hallway leading here to the kitchen. And I'm going to look around and there's no blood soaked in the kitchen anyway. There's no blood soak.

Again, hard to tell with all the chaos. You can tell blood. You do see a small smear of red there. It doesn't look like there's been a lot of it, but with your keen eyes, you would notice that there is a small smear of blood that is at the entryway to the freezer. Well, it means they had to have brought him

to the kitchen. I'm gonna cross my arms and cock my head a little bit. What is the smear of blood suggesting? I'm gonna like, forensically looking at it. I wanna look and see a smear because a smear on the ground means a very different thing than a smear on a handle, for example. Yes, a smear on the ground.

It looks like it has been wiped. that there was not a lot of blood there, or maybe there was a lot of blood that got cleaned up almost very efficiently. What do you? What do you see? There's been a clean up here, somebody in the kitchen. I'm going to try to remember, Beck,

did I notice any blood here when we were in the kitchen together? No. No, I did not. You didn't notice it, no. Yeah, same question. Yeah, because it's near the end. entrance to the freezer, it's not, and on the ground. It wouldn't have been in sort of the areas you might have been searching directly for your purse. All right. Well, the gunshots went off one right after the other. There's no way someone could have shot him here in the kitchen. We would have heard the gunshot and they would have not had time. And I'm also going to sort of cock my head and say also, just to say the obvious, Rutherford's not, you know,

an enormous man, but in terms of who could move his body down that hallway, Tootsweet, to get him into the study and up those stairs, it's not, it's Fred or it's nobody, or he moved himself to the study and died there. And the blood here tells some other kind of story. But candlestick, aside the head, blood pools, head wound here. Fred. You think it's here in the kitchen. You don't think it's part of me wonders. There would have been so many people. Hmm.

Sorry, you go. I just mean if it had happened, could it have happened in an adjacent room and then he be brought through here. At this point, you hear hysterical wailing from what you think might be

the hallway. Let's sprint out of here. You sprint there. You burst into the hallway and you see Miss Scarlet on the ground dry heaving and sobbing with mustard somewhat awkwardly patting her on the shoulder. It's not another scandal. I can't. I can't. What's the meaning of us, Fred? She is, I'm sorry, she's hysterical. Oh, it is my career. It's just over.

Hysterical. I'm going to push, Colonel Lester. And he stands in the corner sort of hands to himself style, looking a bit chagrin. I step over to him and put a kind of arm on his shoulder. I don't, she just started it was, I swear it was. It's all right. Susie, let's go, see breath. Take your time.

Take your time. This gets out and I'm a suspect for murder. And listen, this can't be good for you either. Yeah, none of us wants to be accused of murder. What are we going to do? Why are you crying more about being suspected of murder than the dead man that you've been running around town with for the last month? Because he's, because he's, shitheel.

I'm trying very clearly, for what it's worth. When asking that question out loud, It sounds like damning, but I'm trying to telegraph to Susie, like, be sad about the other thing. This is suspicious. Uh-uh. She says, he was a chittyle, but. And then she locked. It was just, listen, I loved him.

I did. It's just so complicated and it's going to look so bad. Yeah. Okay. We're working on it. And there, there, there. Uh, she's wearing all red. She is.

if I can I'm just going to try to to soothe her and scan for any wet spots across her red outfit it is very obvious that she has used her sleeve to wipe her nose

disgusting but other than that wet spot where she has wiped her eye that you can see sort of a full mask of makeup that has taken itself onto her sleeve

but other than that no other wet spots okay then I'm going to like try to like give her a second and then do the like grab you by the shoulders and sort you out run my hand across that to see if any red comes away

no red comes away I'm sorry I'm fine it's okay I know and I'm sorry listen I'm sorry that I've been difficult All right? It's just, I'm going through a lot right now. I'm going to look around. Where is Mrs. Peacock? Yeah, we left her in the library.

Susie, I understand that you're forlorn. But I think we should all go and make sure that Mrs. Peacock is all right. Yes, all right. I'm sorry. I didn't kill him. I didn't. Okay. I did. You were playing piano, weren't you? Yes. What was the name of the song you were playing? I don't know.

It's just whatever the sheet music was. I can read sheet music. Okay. We're very proud of your talent. Everyone agrees. Everyone agrees. It's not just your looks. Like I said, lovely.

Oh, thank you. Obviously, let's all to the library and see if we can make sure that Mrs. Peacock is older. All right. Mustard turns to you, Plum, on the way in. And he says, what did you discover? Quite a lot, friend. Right.

As we're walking out, I'll join the professor with Colonel Mustard here. And I'll say like, oh, Susie, what set her off? I just, you know, we were talking about, we were talking about the situation. And I said, you know, I, it would look bad for me because we had had words at dinner. And then she started crying and said that, yes,

they'd clearly been having an argument as well. Listen, I... You three can vouch for each other, yes? That's right. How am I to know that it wasn't any combination of you? Well, maybe you're right to be suspicious of all of us. In time, it will allow. We just have to keep trying to put this together

because come morning, the staff will arrive and we will be forced to call the police. And then all of our professional lives are over. And if we can at least provide a likely suspect or murder that saves all of us from being brought in. There's a lot of journalists that will be hovering over this place like a murder of ravens. I'm going to look, I'm going to narrow my eyes.

I thought it was a flock. You thought it was a flock? a flock of ravens. I'll make, I'll nod, and I'll make a little look to the professor, like, that's one count that we can rule him out for. I'd be like, looking at Fred, where's Fred from, by the way?

You said he's from Germany or from Europe? Well, he's a third generation, German, American, but they're in New Jersey. He's from New Jersey. I'll nod as he says, flock of ravens. And I'll nod, and I'll be like, no white man can resist the average. To correct on the exact specification

if he knew it was a conspiracy, it would be forced like a vampire picking up loose grains of rice. He would be forced to correct me. It is truly y'all's shape and a haircut. It's a flock of crows and a gaggle of geese. I know that one from the farm. There you go.

My uncle's farm. Bang on the money, Fred. You got it. Exactly. And I'll continue to walk towards the library. The most man's got the answers. So that's a deep cut goose reference. You enter the library and Mrs. Peacock looks up from the armchair that she is in.

She says, hello, dear he's any closer to finding our murderer? And she waves the old man in the sea at you. Uh, no, but how are you doing? Deep in literature? Yes, getting quite acquainted with the classics. This is good stuff, Cassidy. I'm glad you enjoy it. Only the finest for, uh, no,

only the finest for Rudd. Oh, come on now. You don't really miss him, do you? I saw the way. We all know the way he treated. you. I miss him. I understand that all of us

depended on his large yes and that his wealth made a supple, vast bed that he was able to lie in and ignore the ways in which his actions hurt all of us. And you can call me a sap if you like, but that was my best friend.

Some best friend. He is a cad, a cat, he was. He did have a way about him, though. We've made some discoveries. Yes. All right. Did you find the gun? We may not be looking for the gun.

We may be looking for a candlestick. Candlestick? That's right. I think it would perhaps be best for us to travel in groups, no one going alone, and take a look if it's possible, not only for the missing gun, but the candlestick as well.

Oh, that's right, the candlestick. I was there for that row. Say more. And I'm going to come down and take the flask from her and like, just I want to see one, how full is it? Because I know it was full when I handed it off. It is not full now. it is. There's maybe a

quarter of it sloshing around in there. She is hammered. But I'm also eagle eye watching Mrs. Peacott. Yes. Her head lulls to the side to look at you. He says, yes, you weren't there was before your time. I think

that there was another heiress that was more around at that time. He certainly swings like a pendulum from type to type. Oh, yes. Oh, boy. But what happened with the candlestick?

Oh, he gave it to his father for a 60th birthday present. He was like, oh, this is from a list himself. It's his candlestick. That was the own. Come here, come here. Yeah. That was the only thing they ever agreed on. They were arguing all the time.

But list. Oh, he loved him too because of the improvisation and him being a regular. Hepcat, he said. You know, Listermania. What about, what about Betty in all of this? Her husband and her son arguing, it was so hard on her. I think she threw herself into all her good works. You know, I say she was.

Uh, uh, too nice for her own good and too good for this world. Yes, that's what I always say. You knew her, Cassidy. Betty? Betty, good old Betty Pink. I did. Mm, well, yes. So that, that candlestick, she blinks at you.

Ha! We're looking for the candlestick, and I'm going to think back. I'll retrace my childhood and try to think if that candlestick had ever come up. Like, it's interesting because these items were collected for this showcase, but the candlestick appears to be like an earlier gift. It's like sort of unlike Rutherford to do one of his big show and tells and like grab something off a home shelf that's like been around for a while. You would also know, actually, now that you think about it,

that the wrench was also something that was just around the house. house, though gold-plated and in a shadow box, it was Mr. Boddy's father. It was the first wrench that was used to turn the first bolt in the first steel mill that Jonathan Body ever opened. That's very interesting, unlike Rutherford. To your point, Mrs. Peacock, yes, we will be continuing to look for the candlestick. I think that we should travel maybe all together, and just see if we can find that candlestick wherever it is in the house.

All right, it's a big, big house, though. That's true. Hmm. Full of secrets. Oh, Rutherford loved his secrets. I'm going to squint my eyes at Mrs. Peacock and go, well, let's start. We've already scanned a couple of rooms

and haven't found it. I'd like to start maybe in a room that would have been less trafficked. Let's go to the Conservatory and try there if we can. Good luck. Do you want to come with Mrs. Peter?

I can, yes, and she claws at your arm. I've got you, come on, come on. And, you know, and also Miss Scarlett, takes the other arm and that you two support her together as you walk out to the conservatory. As we get to the conservatory, I'd like to lean in to Claudette and Arnold. I've got people on me. I'll lean in over to Arnold in that case. I literally shake you off if you like get Elwhose.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll lean over to Arnold and be like, if we're going to take a look for the candlestick or the gun, maybe keep your eyes peeled for one other thing. You, I was like, you've worked with botany before, right? There'll be it here and there. I want you to see if there's any plants that have been cut. All right. And I'm going to walk into the conservatory.

Despite the hint of autumnal chill outside, in here in the conservatory, it is warm and humid. This was the favorite room of Badi's late mother, Mrs. Betty Pink, nay, Body. She loved flower arranging, and the orchids from earlier were from this room. You can see that they seem to be well-maintained.

Other of the flowers, it seems, are not as well-maintained. Perhaps the gardener, or whoever was tending to this, did not have the same kind of green thumb as Mrs. Bodies. if you are looking, are you looking around for the, for any cut flowers? I'm specifically looking around for any cut flowers. Any cut plants of any kind? Yes, you can tell that a lot of the seasonal flowers have been cut. The asters, chrysanthemums, you know, there's an orchid that, or an orchid plant that is missing its bloom.

these have been cut. It looks like earlier today. I think, by the way, if I see you very specifically, like trying to figure out what information may have passed between the two of you, if I see you looking like intently at the flowers, I will start reciting in false conversation with Mrs. Peacock about the different flowers that are in the, like, arrangements that she was working on.

Just to give you a list to check against in case you see cut flowers that are not. on that list. I, you can see, without making eye with you, Cass starts to smile as I continue to look through. I think I'll mutter to Arnold as we start to look through here, ostensibly looking for a candlestick or a gun, that I just go, the blood in the hallway made me think Fred, but Fred didn't know the bird did it.

thought it was a flock of ravens. There's a world where Rutherford died at his desk, and then someone shot him. I think that the hair matting indicates that he was attacked by a candlestick, but something that I can't rule out would be the easiest way to get his body to the study, would be for him to walk there under his own power, dying if he'd been poisoned.

And I'll just start to look through. So that's just something that I, that Cassidy is thinking about as we're looking through, but I'll look for the gun, I'll look for the gun, the candlestick, and for any plant clippings that might be outside of that list of the flowers that got cut. I think, oh, yeah, go ahead.

I think in the other direction, as I'm making conversation with the ladies in the back, I'm going to look at the, like, sort of neglected plant beds and check for turned earth. Yes, okay. So you would see you're checking the flowers. It looks like most.

of the flowers that have been cut were cut earlier in the day and are more of the seasonal sort. Claudette, you find while there is no freshly turned earth, you do see that some of the roses on one of the walls have been trod upon

quite recently. Professor Plum. Yes. Sorry, when I panic, I tend to just keep thinking about, we were talking about one of your sweets earlier. This might not be the time, but thinking of like another note to add to one of those, have you considered something a little like, I don't know, like vegetal, I can't stop thinking about, or like floral, like rose water. Turkish delight, you know? Exactly. That was very big during the war.

We've been very much exploring chocolate and chocolate compliments. I don't think we've explored. We haven't gone so far outside of gummy squids into that world, but something to consider. Yeah. Oh, you make gummy squids? I love those, honestly. Oh, I'm so glad. Yes, one of our earliest confections.

Oh, wow. I'm sorry I would never really talk much. No, you're quite talented. I think you don't have to. And I'll do my best to direct my little pot of fems away from the rose bush. And I'll switch places with you kind of as that happens. Yep. So you see that the rose bushes, you know, there's been some trampling in there.

There's quite a thick covering of them, you know, on a trellis, up a trellis, and on the ground. So there's such a profusion of them that you can't really see the dirt. But it looks like they've been trod upon somewhat recently. If there's a nearby spade or other tool, I think,

while kind of focusing on his pipe and looking out, just going to start jamming it in there, just kind of trying to churn up a little bit of earth and see if there's anything hidden. So you find a small hand, trowel that that is nearby in a pile of tools. And as you dig around, suddenly you hear a clunk.

Do either Peacock or Scarlett react to that? Mrs. Peacock does is a little, she's five sheets to the wind. Yeah, fair. does not. Scarlet sort of hears it and turns over. Did you find something? Maybe.

I'm going to turn and look at what I've clunked. You've clunked on. There is a square tile in the flower bed. It's raised up slightly from the tiles that are behind it. I'm going to use the trowel to kind of lift it up.

It does not lift up. It is very much in there. Mr. Green, could you give me a hand? I'm no one than happy to. Let me take a look. So are you... Yeah, I'll just like dig in and try to like see what the tile is. Get our hands on it.

All right. When you place hands on it, you can... It gives way a little bit. Oh, almost like a press. Oh, okay. Oh, I seem to have been handling this the wrong way. Anyway, then I'll push.

Click. And the trellis of roses moves over, yanking some of the profusion of flowers below it, and there is a small person-sized hole in the wall. More secrets. Plot thickens. Both of the ladies gasp. Oh, are you really telling me? And I'm just going to look over at Mrs. Peacock in a very, like, joking manner.

Like, you're going to tell me you didn't know that was there. Well, no, not that one. But, you know, again, Rutherford loved his secrets. None of these predate Rutherford having the house? No, he built. He's the one. This is his house. Really, his parents barely had time to live here.

This is his... Well, you know, Katz, it was his mansion, really. He had it all... bought a big mansion, outfitted it himself. His parents sometimes stayed here, but they would never have such an ostentatious spectacle of a place. No, it was made for Rutherford. It was always supposed to be his birthright.

Right. I'll look around. Fred didn't react at all to this opening up. Fred is surprised, but he takes a look at you and he says, well, shall we? Well, let's see where this heads off to. And keeping an eye, especially out for any discarded weaponry. You moved down a dark hallway for some time. And when you reach the end of the hallway, you see. a short ladder that leads up to, uh, what looks to be a rectangular hole in the ceiling covered with the trapdoor. How are the people in heels navigating right now?

It's all right. It's clearly, uh, been paved, uh, to be convenient for people in nice footwear. Okay. Cool. Uh, Fred.

looks over and says, shall we? Um, yes. After you. Oh, all right. Excelsia. Are we not worried that there's like a secret murderer? In addition to the murder in our party now? Or do we think that there was the secret murderer all along?

That. And then they were hiding in the passageways. Uh, are any of us armed? Uh. What do you mean? No. I mean, are we anticipating that someone else is going to jump out and try to kill one of us? I'm just saying he sent away all the servants, but that could also, someone could be hiding.

And I just, we're all walking into rooms without thinking that there could be something scary in a room. And I just want to mention that now. Duly noted, says Mustard, and he climbs up and pushes open the trap door. And you find yourselves in a corner of the lounge. where the parquet flooring has hidden this trapdoor very effectively. All clear down here. I will look and I'll say, if you're worried about us being in danger, we're back here in the lounge, and there are a number of weapons that we could arm ourselves with if we wanted to.

I'm not worried about us being armed. Then are we going to art? Wouldn't that also be arming a potential moment? murderer? Well, having not found the gun, our murderer is already armed, or at least knows where a gun is. Wonderful. So you merged into the lounge, and as you discussed, there are the six plinths, and on it you see the wrench, a rope, a knife, a lead pipe, and a candlestick. The candlestick is back. Was it missing? Yes.

I'm going to whip over to Claudette and say, do you still have that flower on you? Yes, yes, I do. And I open up my little bag and pull out a small amount of the flower. And even sort of hand sifting it for the little bits that just stick on her fingers, just the lightest blow across it to see what the fiber is. or the granules of it catch on. You see that there are a number of fingerprints on it at the base.

I'm going to look and I will open my briefcase and produce a pair of magnifying glasses. And I'm going to basically try to examine them. And I'm going to turn to everybody else here and say, would everybody here mind terribly are being pressed for fingerprints? Oh, sure. I'll give anybody anything. And Fred nods.

Question. Fingerprints, candlestick, heavier on the bottom. So if it was being used as a blunt instrument, are there fingerprints at the top? There are fingerprints at the bottom. Only at the bottom. where it would be held. Where it would be held as a normal candlestick.

Just, it is worth noting that... You would use this as a weapon and hold it differently. Yeah. I also have to wonder when was the candlestick replaced? Yeah. And who was the last person in the lounge? Yeah, didn't you... Were you two in here?

We were. And it was not in here when we were in here. Yeah. So in someone returned that candlestick to its place here in this... room after removing their fingerprints from the top with the nut, but maybe there's a chance. Are we sure that this is the murder weapon? We're not certain of anything, but we do know that somebody in this room is looking at a candlestick that they returned to this plinth since they knew a murder had occurred.

It is convenient to have enough of distraction by someone suddenly being very emotional. Yes, very convenient. I'd like to start collecting people's fingerprints to match against the... Do you have a little pad? I think I will reach over, like, into one of the desks and literally just make one. I'll just go and get, like, a little piece of fabric, to open my fountain pen, pour some ink onto it, and be, like, press your thumb and fingers into the fabric and put them on this parchment in my notebook.

So everybody takes their time and... is giving fingerprints. Mustard, as he's being fingerprinted, says, there is the potential that all of us who have handled this candlestick before might still have prints on it. Who handled this candlestick before? Oh, well, Mr. Boddy's father, but only for a little bit. That's why it's here, you know.

He didn't want it. He thought it was foolish waste of his hard-earned money. I didn't handle it I don't think Claudette or the professor handled it It's a place to start, Colonel Mm-hmm No one I handled it

I touched it When we were all looking at the things Says Miss Scarlet You chose the rope And you chose the knife I chose the gun And didn't touch the gun Oh

It's a gun Right. Well, I touched the candlestick, all right? I, but you can fingerprint me if that's going to help? It will. All right? And I just want to see if there's, you know, I know the process will probably take a little while, but I just don't want to see if we have any matches from the fingerprints on the candlestick to any of the other people here. Or if we don't, how many different.

fingerprints there are from people that are not in this room. You find Miss Scarlet's fingerprints on it, just at the base, like how you would normally hold a candlestick. You find Mrs. Peacock's, and it's just one finger where it's, you know, somewhere in the middle, as if it has been poked. Did we see her poke it in the room? You didn't see it. but it seems that she has a familiarity with this.

Mr. Picard, when did you first interact with this candlestick? No, I don't know. Whenever Johnny's 60th was and this today, where I think I was pointing it out to that one, and she pokes at Miss Scarlet, one finger poking at her. Yeah, I want her desperately to have left an ink blot on, Miss Scarlet. Yes, she absolutely has on the same sleeve in which Miss Scarlett has makeup and snot.

Now she also has a single dark fingerprint. Is Miss Scarlet upset about this? Yes, this is really, Melda. What? I'm just saying. All right, Mr. Green, have you finished with your analysis? I have. The only fingerprints that we can find on here are presumably Rutherford. as well as Amelda and Susie's. Understood.

I think it might be helpful if everyone talked about what they did after dinner. Right. Because while we were in the lounge after the gunshots, it's clear that people have been moving around the house. I went to the ballroom and I was playing. We heard. We did. It was lovely, right?

As I've said before, Mr. Green. I stayed in the dining room to speak to Rutherford after his dust up with Colonel Mustard, and then joined Claudette and the professor in the lounge. What did you talk about? Did he seem agitated, or was he afraid? He was very agitated, and I was trying to speak to him. very frankly about his lifestyle and growing closer to politics, and that I thought that was a bad idea.

Yes. The politics of it all. Do you think you're the last person that saw Rutherford alive? Couldn't be. I mean, that conversation was a few short minutes, and then I went to the lounge. Unless he, I could have been the last person to see. see him if he went and was in private for something like 45 or 50 minutes.

He said he was going to the lounge to get it ready for the salon. Rutherford did? Oh, no. He, well, we were supposed to all meet in the lounge again after the hour was up? At midnight, yes. At midnight. Well, did anybody see him after that? No, no, he never showed up in the lounge.

So wherever he went after the dining room, he didn't go to the lounge. I went there to wait because that was the next place that we were all to meet. And if you don't have anything else to do in the house, the lounge is where you go. Well, I was in the conservatory doing some pruning. Didn't see him. Didn't see anybody. You were doing some pruning, Mrs. Peacock? Why?

Yes, because, well, as you can see, the place is in a bit of a state since Betty passed. Right, but we had just... had a full meal and had been drinking. Mm-hmm. Yes. What do you do when you've had a few too many flower arrangements, my little vice? Did you make another arrangement? I did not know.

Okay. Well, I was in the library. I'm sure everyone has seen the evidence. of my time in the library. I was going to say, I hadn't heard about your restaurant with Mr. Barty? A delightful surprise from him.

Oh, he was trying to control you with a gift, then was it? Yeah. Yeah, he was very good at that. He was a generous man, but maybe not the most considerate. I had stepped into the kitchen to cut my cigar. We had been distracted before Mr. Green could do it for me earlier,

had a bit of baked Alaska, then realized I was perhaps too deep in my cups, stepped outside to smoke. So did anybody see him at all? After Mr. Green did. And Fred, you were in the hall the entire time. Yes, yes, I was. Why did you go to the hall?

I feel terrible about losing my temper in front of all of you. It was a discussion that I had meant to have with Rutherford for quite some time, and I did not have the courage to do it. And to have it come out like that is not one of my prouder moments. The war had a great deleterious effect on me, and my resolve. I'm afraid that I have become a bit of a coward since that, you know. You're anything but, Fred.

Anything but. Thank you, Arnold. You went to the hall to compose yourself, to prepare to leave? I had considered it. But you made no such decision in an hour? I did not leave because I thought perhaps if I continued in this company, I could yet continue to steer him away from this path. Okay, okay, but again, you were in the hall by yourself at a dinner party for an hour. Yes, yes, I was.

I mean, we all were on our own. for that time were we not? I mean, doing things. The hall. And I kind of just gesture in that direction. Like, what, there's nothing in that room. Nothing but my thoughts.

Young lady. I would like for us, if we can, to adjoin to a room that we have not yet visited, but seems to be strangely connected, like a thread through all of this various tapestry of what's gone on this night. Something that every single one of us, no matter what room we were in, would all have some reason to be aware of.

I think we should pay a little visit to the ballroom. I was there for the entire time. He didn't make his way in at all. Still, I think it's worth leaving no rock unturned. And after all, to put this in a legal perspective, we are still looking for the murder weapon. That gun, it's possible that the candle here was taken, but there's no blood on the candle. So a coroner is still going to rule this likely as a gun wound. So we need to find that weapon and find it quickly. And it's not here in the lounge, and I think that the ballroom may have some answers for us.

All right. So you move down the quiet, dark corridors to the ballroom. As your heels and loafers click on the Versailles floor, the red oak parquet floors with an intricate interwoven pattern of rectangles and triangles, you look around and the walls reflect yourselves back to you. They're mirrored under fine baroque arches. There's a chandelier of French crystal on the ceiling, and there's enough room in here for a small orchestra,

which on occasion body has brought in for his various big suarez. There are some darker corners with setes for the wallflowers and love seats for the less shy. There is a piano in the corner, and this piano that you have all heard Miss Scarlett playing all night, it puts the grand and grand piano. It is an ebony and ivory affair with rather smug-looking Renaissance-style cherubs

playing instruments and a tableau painted along the sides. On each ivory key, there is an inlaid set of abalone initialed with letters A, B, C, D, E, F, or G. And the top of the piano is propped open. A ledge above the keyboard is stained with years of wax, perhaps a sign of many late nights of good or bad music filling the hall. Above the piano is a classical oil painting of more of the plump and supercilious-looking cherubs. I'd like to walk over to inspect the sheet music.

Before we go in, I'm going to feign adjusting my heels after walking this much, and I want to put me and this goddamn flat. I swear. I want to put a thin layer on it. My thought being, if anyone was trying to do a quick wipe job, there might be enough residue from a like a quick wipe. Where was this? I want to put it on the bottom of my shoes. So as I walk around the ballroom, if this is where the, like, the hit happened and it was wiped up quickly, it might have a slightly different viscosity than the rest of the floor. You actually see that the floor has recently, probably earlier today, been polished and waxed. So it doesn't, so far as you're going, it doesn't seem to be doing any of that. Mr. Green, you go look at the sheet music and it says red hearts and has what looks to be handwritten scrawl on it. Red hearts.

I'll look at that and I don't think that Cassidy is like a big music guy necessarily. No, but after many, many years of paperwork and contracts, you would know that it is Rutherford's handwriting. Red Hearts. Does it look like he wrote this sheet music? Yes. Oh, that's why the music was so bad. Just say how you really feel I'll say

Can anyone hear play from music play from I can't I'll say Claudette Would you mind taking the keys for a spin here? Sure And sitting down She immediately goes to Grab the sheet music to turn it back to the front

I will Cassidy will stop And say why don't you play from right here if that's all right, Claudette. Okay. Cool. Yeah. I pick up from wherever we are in the sheet music.

As the strains of your piano playing echo through the ballroom, my friend Duke taught me. But Mr. Elington, you know, you know Mr. Hylington. We all know each other. You're not supposed to say that in front of them. We all agree. I'm sorry. Sorry.

That, that, I, I, I. And you notice that it is the music from earlier in the day when it was before dinner, but not the same tune as you just heard. I'm going to furrow my brow. Because I think I'm catching Susie in a lie here. Because she said that she was playing from the. sheet music when the gunshots were heard, correct? Yes, that's correct.

I don't think it's that bad, is it? You know, sometimes he would write me little songs and things, and I thought it was just very sweet. You say you play from sheet music? Yes, I was... This was not the song you were playing when those gunshots fired. Well, I don't remember what I was playing. It was...

I was playing this earlier, and I've gotten confused. Miss Scarlett, I think it would be best if you remembered what you were playing earlier. I am. She looks over at you, Claudette. I do the like, da, da, da, da, stay on the piano. I... Fine. And she goes over to the open piano.

and she puts a finger in, it's inside of it, you hear a click, and the piano begins to play itself in kind of a monotonous and very clunky fashion, but it is a jazz tune nonetheless. Does this sound like what we were hearing earlier? It does, yes. I'll be very plain. Susie. telling a room full of your fellow partygoers that you were playing music during the time of the murder at a piano that can play itself,

that you alone seem to know how to turn on and off, is exactly the kind of information that a jury would be very interested in. So why don't you tell us what you and Rutherford discussed? as the strains of this still not very great jazz piece echo through the halls Susie gulps and says All right I'll tell you everything That was Abria Ayn Gar as Miss White Lou Wilson as Professor Plum

Brennan Lee Mulligan as Mr. Green and Erica Ishii As everyone and everything else Hint was edited and designed by Kate Samp Anders. Music appears courtesy of artless.io and the Creative Commons and the great public domain. Thanks for joining us here on the ghastly grounds of the body estate. But even more wonders await you beyond the veil on our Patreon. Come and join us by the fireside, won't you? We'll see you there.