Chapter 232 - Solving Mr Roger's Murder (7)

Once they reached the study room, Edward told Scarlet what he discovered earlier in the day scene. 

"There's a safe behind that painting, you might want to find a way to open that. The fingerprint kit is with you, there should be crucial evidence here. I'll be back soon, don't leave this room and if the officers pass by, hide."

Scarlet nodded and wished Edward luck with a peck on the cheek before the door closed. She took a while to get accustomed to the dim lights. It wasn't the most effective way to work but she would manage.

Looking over the study room, Scarlet tried to remember what they saw during the earlier stage and compare it to the current stage. There were some objects that have been rearranged so Scarlet decided to check those first. If someone took the time to shuffle them, it would most likely mean that they were trying to hide something.

The diary was still on the table and Scarlet decided to leave it. After reading the entry about Mr Roger's fight with his daughter, the book didn't serve any other purpose. The invitation list was where Scarlet had left them and none of the other doc.u.ments on the desk looked out of place. Scarlet decided to check the drawers in case something was out of place there. Nothing amiss there either and Scarlet looked around.

The stagehands added a few more things to the room and Scarlet decided to take a look at those first. The safe could wait till Edward returned, she didn't think that she would be capable of opening the safe herself. There would be some sort of code, key or puzzle waiting that might need two people to crack.

The evening tray was left in the room and Scarlet found a teapot with some remaining tea leaves in it. The fragrance made Scarlet wonder if this was Darjeeling or Assam tea from the scent alone. It was hard to tell because of the dim light but Scarlet couldn't help but frown. Something was off about this teapot. It smelled like tea and something else.

She looked around the tea set to see if there were any tags and found one on the teapot but it was too dark to see the colour of the tag. Scarlet left it alone for now and was very careful not to touch the handle that was tagged. The newspaper that was rolled up beside the tea tray made Scarlet blink. This looked like a breakfast tray for the morning. The date of the newspaper was dated to the mid-nineteenth century so Scarlet couldn't determine which day's paper it was as the storyline didn't indicate what day they were investigating. It was already evening, why was the tray not cleared? Earlier when they came to check on the suspects, it was the morning after the murder. This tray wasn't here. Why would the tray be here in the evening after the suspects were sent away? The house should be cordoned off for only the investigators to search, the tea set looked out of place. Nobody should be serving anything after the master passed away.

An explainable feeling made Scarlet grab the paper and she started flipping through it. So many questions were running through her head and she couldn't understand why this would appear in the study room. Who would possibly do such a thing and why would they do this?

Then, Scarlet paused. She flipped to the previous page and stared at it for a long time. Scarlet placed the newspaper on the floor and flipped between two pages. Where was the other half of this article? Scarlet glanced at the page numbers and realised that something was wrong. Her heart raced as she flipped through the newspaper checking every labelled page number from the beginning.

Although all twenty-eight pages were present, some pages looked odd. The content didn't match. Scarlet carefully disassembled the newspaper and picked out the pages that seemed strange. The realisation that someone slipped through pages of different newspapers into this was a huge red alert for Scarlet. Someone less observant might not notice it and find nothing odd with the newspaper but this was a massive clue! Scarlet wrote down the strange page numbers and the date of the newspaper because she couldn't carry such a bulky thing around. She noted the article topic that was cut off and wrote down the page numbers that she was looking out for. The person who stole and replaced the page numbers of the newspaper must be the culprit.

Scarlet went back to the teapot and decided to pour the tea dredges from the bottom of the teapot into a small paper envelope that came with the clue file. If she found the tea source, she might be able to confirm something else. It smelled strange and Scarlet didn't know what else was in this tea. Something struck her as odd but she would tell Edward that later. It was too dark to see anything now. They would check the colour of that tag later. If it was blue, she would have already collected the needed evidence.

With the newspaper and tea collected, Scarlet looked around for anything different but found nothing else. She didn't see any tags so she looked at the painting on the wall. This was the last place that she was going to look at but seeing as Edward still wasn't here, she would investigate it alone.

The painting moved easily but Scarlet couldn't take it down completely to reveal the hidden safe due to her height. It took her a while to move the chair over silently so that she could use it to get herself higher. A patrol officer passed by and Scarlet hid under the desk quickly until they passed. With a sigh of relief, she continued on her mission.

The painting was removed and Scarlet took a while to find out there was a tag near the safe. She couldn't make out the colour of the tag because the light was too dim so Scarlet had to wait for Edward to come by with the flashlight to proceed. Still, Scarlet couldn't help but be curious about the strange tea dredges. 

She didn't have to wait too long because she heard footsteps approaching and hid beneath the desk once more. This time, the door opened and Scarlet kept very still. The door closed silently and the footsteps walked towards the centre of the room, closer to where Scarlet was hiding.

Edward worried for a second when he didn't see Scarlet in the room before he remembered what he told her to do if she sensed someone coming. The spot felt slightly stupid for forgetting to announce his arrival after he told her to be cautious.

"Scarlet, it's me!" he whispered and waited.

Sure enough, Scarlet was hiding as he told her to and Edward felt proud. If he was a patrol officer, he would not bother searching the place if he didn't see anyone in the office. 

"How did everything go?" she asked and Edward gave her a thumbs-up.

"We have more escape routes now. Did you find anything?" he handed her the flashlight and Scarlet nodded.

"Funny tea leaves and smell, a newspaper with swapped pages. Someone was replacing pages that they stole. I don't understand why the tea tray will be here but there's a tag on the teapot. Why would anyone continue to serve tea to a dead master?"

Edward thought about it. "I don't think they were serving tea to a dead master," he said. "With the master gone, there could only be one person here taking over the duties as the head of the house."

Scarlet thought about it and her eyes widened. Edward couldn't see her expression with such dim lights but he saw her freeze.

"Is the murderer attempting a second murder?"

The spy nodded. "Possibly but we wouldn't know for sure. Have you checked the safe?"

Scarlet shook her head. "Not yet, I saw two tags but I can't make out their colour. Now that you're here, maybe we can do that together?"

Edward agreed but told Scarlet to wait. "Let me check from outside what it looks like if you use the flashlight, we might have to barricade the door if we want to search this place for a long time. It's probably the most important place to sieve through."

Scarlet agreed. Edward checked if the coast was clear and left when Jas[er gave him the green light. Once the spy was outside, Scarlet flashed the flashlight and gave the door one knock like Edward requested. The spy noted that the carpeted floor blocked the light for them and that there was nothing to worry about. He knocked on the door once to let Scarlet know he was coming back in., Scarlet switched the flashlight off and waited for Edward to come back inside.

"How was it?"

"The carpet blocked it for us, there shouldn't be a problem. I'm still locking this door just in case, let's get working on those tags."

Scarlet held the flashlight and Edward started dusting for fingerprints. Both tags were red so Scarlet wondered if they would find a match there. They already knew Mr Moreau's fingerprints. She had a feeling one of them would belong to the daughter and the other to the maid but they had no way of knowing whose fingerprints these were.

Nook watched the couple work in sync and fiddle with the safe after getting the fingerprints. He didn't know what to think when he saw Scarlet collecting the tea dredges. The tea dredges and the newspaper missing page was meant to be an easter egg in the game that would give participants big hints to the murderer's methods. He wasn't expecting them to get it all in one try. Somehow, the game master had a feeling that this couple already had an idea about who the murderer was in their minds and was simply looking for the evidence to charge them.

Alex and Jasper watched them from their prison cell. "Do you think they know who it was?" Alex asked.

Jasper shrugged. "I can't be sure but I'd say they've narrowed the list down a lot by now. Scarlet found something strange with that tea set. That might be a huge hint. Also, I don't think they'd be able to open that safe, I don't think they have the right key. Oh look, they're leaving. They don't have the right keys."

Alex nodded. "Where do you think the game master will hide that key?"

Jasper shrugged. "Wherever the culprit wants to frame the scapegoat or wherever is the safest. Hey, pass me the walkie talkie? They're going to run into another officer."

Alex passed the walkie talkie and zoomed in on another camera panel, helping to search for clues in the other rooms.