Museum Murder: The Edge

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Kevin looked back at Richter Hall through the museum window.

 

"Think it's safe here?" he asked.

 

Dani carefully checked the museum foyer and the adjoining display rooms before returning to answer his question. They spoke in hushed tones, not out of respect for the museum, but out of fear of being overheard. Besides them, the museum was otherwise empty, perhaps the one good thing to come out of the college attendee's lack of interest in culture.

 

"Yes, it should be" she replied, a faint degree of nervousness in her voice.

 

A tense silence ensued. Kevin finally broke it.

 

"I .. I can't believe they all did it".

 

"It's they only way they could have, Kevin. I don't like it any more than you, everyone we pass in that building there, our very room-mates and peers, and they all have murder in their hearts".

 

"It's just .. ridiculous. I mean, conspiracy?" he said, trying to sound incredulous, if only for his sake. If he could only convince himself that it was a ridiculous idea, he might be able to at least sleep at nights.

 

"Biff was a menace to everyone, Kevin. Even you and I have had, no doubt, the odd thought of doing harm. Sometimes the only thing that can stop someone doing something is the fear of recrimination. Of being caught. His blackmailing practically the entire dorm didn't exactly help his case. It just formed an alliance against him".

 

"So they all work on the murder together and support each other's stories. No wonder it seems such an unworkable mess. No *one* person can be singled out as being the murderer, cos everyone supports everyone else's alibi". Kevin said, in faint wonder.

 

"So what happened, do you think?" Dani asked.

 

"Well, the first thing to do would be getting Biff to come to the museum in the first place", Kevin reasoned, "that's where Scott would have come in. Probably didn't even need to disguise his writing on the note, given neither you or I have seen him write. Scott's pretty careful, however, I say he would have used his left hand to write it."

 

"Scott would be the closest thing to a friend Biff has". Dani winced. "Had. If anyone would have been able to convince him to come and break in the manner he did, it would have been Scott. He probably didn't count on Biff actually calling his name while he climbed in the window. From the get-up Biff was wearing and the bag, he'd no doubt been persuaded him that they were going to rob the place for some cash".

 

"Yeah, Biff loves his cash" Kevin said bitterly, and then winced as well. "Loved", he corrected himself.

 

"Scott deliberately arrives last in the group back in the dorm so that we'd be sure to be late in starting off, and thus in the museum as late as 9:40. From all the notices I'd put up, he would have known the meeting time and how long to delay" Dani continued. "Nothing important happened then until the lights went out".

 

"Scott probably flicked the light switch off as we passed it when you were starting on the Aztec section. He was the one closest to it, and we all had our backs to him because we were following you" Kevin said.

 

"Right. Then.." Dani strained to remember, "then there was the sound of Tony walking to the lights.. "

 

"But actually a double sound", Kevin interrupted. "Biff was a strong guy, and you couldn't expect him to go down without a fight. Those sounds he made as he died, they weren't .. *normal*, either in quality or volume. Someone was muffling him, and that person had to be strong given Biff's athletic build. Tony's voice came from the other side of the room, i.e. direction of the light switch, leaving the person who held Biff to be-"

 

"Cindy" Dani finished. "She's the only one who could have been strong enough. But how did she get over there? With her hooves, she would have been heard on the wooden gallery floor".

 

"Yes, that's what I was referring to with the 'double sound' I mentioned earlier. Tony and Cindy are usually the shy and retiring type, only acting like a couple in the greatest of secrecy. But over the past few weeks, they've been out walking together, in public. Those are the two key words, *walking* *together*. With a few weeks practice, they no doubt could have agreed upon a certain stride in which they could move, *simultaneously*. Thus, when the lights go out, Cindy gives Tony some secret signal like a tap on the arm, and they move in *opposite directions* - Tony to the light switch, Cindy to next to the window. Their hoofs fall at exactly the same time, sounding like one footfall. There was also the echo, which would have helped them cover it up".

 

"Now" Kevin continued, "if the lights had worked and there was no power outage, when he flicked the switch the first time, they would have come back on. My theory is when the lights went out, Mikey, the most athletic of the group, dashes out into the hall in his silent sneakers, down the stairs, flicks the generator off, and then flicks it back on again, and the generator takes the full 30 seconds to repower such that when it comes online again, it'll restore power to the lights - don't forget Tony leaving the switch in the on position means the lights will return automatically with the generator power. Meanwhile, Mikey can return and being in great health as he is, isn't out of breath or even breaking a sweat".

 

Dani nodded. "Of course, with fluorescent lighting, they take awhile to turn on anyway, so flicking the switch really quickly wouldn't affect the room being dark. Mikey could have just waited by the switch and flicked it on and jumped into whatever position he wanted to be in by the time the light returned. His reflexes are good like that".

 

There was a pause while Kevin looked the room over.

 

"Lisa broke the pot. It made us look in the direction of the window so we'd be sure to notice someone trying to break in. Meanwhile, she's an emergency backup alibi, so that if either of us figured out someone wasn't where they should have been, she could have been surprised to bump into them and that's why she broke the pot. If you'd said Cindy wasn't next to you because you accidentally passed into the area she SHOULD have been in, Lisa just pipes up "Oh, no, she was with me, and I was so surprised I broke the pot, sorry", a perfect alibi".

 

Dani grimaced. "And meanwhile I tell people not to move around in case they break something, so now they can all can say they were wherever they wanted to be, since obviously either me or you weren't going to be moving and thus bump into where they were, or weren't. Hey, wait a second - why didn't we hear Cindy return to where she was? When the lights went on she wasn't by the window?"

 

Kevin frowned. "Cindy was only standing by the window to hold Biff while the real murderer did the dirty work. Our stabber had to have a both the kind of callous attitude that it takes to stab someone as well as the physical bulk to CARRY Cindy silently across the boards back to her original position. I'll give you a hint. He sleeps in the same room as me".

 

"Brad" Dani said, with awe. "You're right. He's hardly the conscience-having type. And when I threw the clipboard at where I thought you were, it hit Brad. He must have been moving into position".

 

"Yes" Kevin agreed. "We both assumed you'd lost your orientation in the dark, but it was a case of everyone *else* moving. Brad does the dirty work, picks up Cindy, whisks her back to her position and probably gives some kind of silent sign to Scott (a tap on the arm like Cindy did to Tony probably) to say the word 'What' which signifies a mission success, and everything's to go as planned".

 

"Then they go into their prearranged stories, each accuse each other whilst strengthening someone else's story, thus making it impossible to discover one murderer, because they were really ALL murderers" Dani finished, with a shiver.

 

Kevin stared morosely out the window back at the grey college.

 

"We have to go back there, don't we?" he said, quietly.

 

"Yes.. they'd be suspicious if we both suddenly tried to transfer out. And if they can plan this kind of thing together for one person they know, then they can just as easily-". She left the sentence unfinished.

 

"Maybe.. maybe Biff prized the window open with his knife, pushed it open with his shoulder and started to ease his way in with a knife in one hand and the torch in the other. A sudden wobble, like we saw with the torchlight, and he unwittingly stabs himself while moving his arms to steady himself. Falling onto that would drive the knife fully home. It was all an accident", Kevin reasoned.

 

Dani considered.

 

"Hmm. It's possible. Yes. Maybe Scott had told Biff to come and pretend to break in as a joke, Scott flicks the lights out, Biff comes around to scare us and things go horribly wrong. Meanwhile Scott's so horrified about the whole thing, he denies ever arranging anything - last thing he needs is to be associated with that kind of death occurring, on campus, while he's in the same room. That could be what happened, sure" she finished, somewhat uncertainly.

 

"The difference between our two theories are either everyone we know are insidious murderers and accomplices, or they're all innocent, except maybe one guy who tried to arrange a joke that went wrong through no fault of his own" Kevin concluded.

 

There was a short pause while they considered the options.

 

"I'm going to sleep in the dorm of innocent friends tonight" Dani said.

 

"Me too" Kevin agreed. "But .. watch my back, okay?"

 

"And you mine. We're the only ones left, Kevin".

 

"Well.. I don't know" Kevin said, with slight doubt.

 

"Me either, Kevin. We'll never know".

 

And with that, she walked out of the museum.

 

"God help us all" Kevin said, and left a minute later when he was sure there was no one watching.

 

THE END.

 

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