Museum Murder: Part III

-=-=-=-=-==--==-=-=-=-=-

 

At first, no one knew what to do. Or rather, no one did anything.

 

"Biff?" Mikey said, from the doorway.

 

"Oh no, Biff!" Tony said, running over and crouching by his side. He rolled Biff over, and shook his shoulders. "Biff!"

 

"He's dead" Lisa said morosely, pointing to a thin dagger sticking out from under his left rib cage. It was small, but lodged deeply in at such a steep angle there was no doubt its point was in the centre of his chest. The blood on it glistened in a darkly sinister sparkle.

 

"I oh.. Biff" Scott said, sadly.

 

"How could this happen?" Cindy asked, going to Tony's side. Everyone else formed a semicircle around the body.

 

"He must have accidently jabbed himself or fallen onto his knife" Mikey said glumly.

 

"Probably was using it to get the window open. Poor, stupid Biff" Brad said sullenly. "What was he doing, anyway?"

 

There was a long silence while they all stared at the body. Kevin noticed the black bag Biff was carrying with him.

 

"Hey, what's this?" he asked, picking it up.

 

"It's his bag, Kevin, leave it alone" Mikey said, quietly.

 

"Biff doesn't HAVE a bag" Kevin replied. "Has anyone here seen him carrying a bag before?"

 

The rest of the group shook their heads. Scott tried to peer into it.

 

"What's in there?" he asked.

 

"Only one way to find out" Kevin said, opening the zip on the bag a little more.

 

"Kevin, don't" Tony said. "It's Biff's stuff".

 

"Was his stuff" Lisa said, and whimpered slightly.

 

"Look, I don't like the fact he's dead anymore than you, guys, but shouldn't we be trying to find out what he was doing? I mean, the whole lights out and torch thing?" Kevin replied.

 

"He has a point" Dani said. "What's in there, Kevin?"

 

Kevin tipped the contents onto the floor nearby. There was a wrench, some tape, some smaller cloth bags and a crudely written note in Biff's handwriting saying "Places to sell the old stuff" and listing a few antique store addresses in the area.

 

The group let out a collective gasp.

 

"Robbery!" Mikey said, horrified.

 

"No wonder he was dressed up in all this black, gloves and all" Cindy said, nudging his body with her hoof ever so delicately. A small sliver of white poked out from a pocket on his black pants.

 

"Hmm" Dani said, crouching next to the body. "Wonder what that is".

 

Brad spoke up. "Instead of playing Sherlock, shouldn't we be letting the paramedics or security or whatever know about this accident. My highly trained legal mind tells me we shouldn't be playing with the dead body".

 

Lisa leant forward and gingerly pulled the white thing from Biff's pocket. It was a slip of paper with "AT 9:40" written on it in pen.

 

"That's strange" Lisa said. "Is it just me, or is this writing different to the one on the robbery list?"

 

Everyone crowded around and compared the two notes. It was obvious Biff hadn't written the one stating the time of the robbery.

 

Dani glanced at the watch on her left wrist. "Hmm. He would have tried to break in at that time, alright. So who sent him the note? Someone else obviously arranged the robbery with him".

 

The small slip of paper stating the time was passed around the group. No one could place the writing. "Of course" Brad said, "it's printed very carefully in just a few strokes. I doubt we'd recognize the writing anyway, the way it's been done..obviously".

 

"Wait, wait" Tony said. "What are you saying?"

 

"Think it out" Brad said. "Biff's told to come to this building at a certain time to do a robbery by someone else, someone else who's gone to the trouble of disguising their handwriting, and Biff's died when he followed the instructions on the note".

 

"Murder!" Mikey gasped.

 

"Perhaps" said Kevin. "Let's not get carried away".

 

Dani clearly had something on her mind.

 

"I should mention at this point in time" Dani ventured, "that Biff couldn't have caused the lights to go out".

 

"What do you mean?" Lisa asked.

 

"The museum layout has the fusebox on the exterior northern wall, and Biff was coming in a window on the southern wall. He'd have to run around the building, perhaps the length of a football field, in under a few seconds".

 

"Well, no quarterback could run THAT fast" Mikey said, shaking his head. Kevin rolled his eyes.

 

"Exactly" said Dani, "and the exterior fusebox is locked, anyway".

 

"Is it?" asked Tony.

 

"It should be" Dani replied.

 

"Let's go and check" Cindy said, picking up the torch Biff dropped.

 

------

 

"Nope, no way that box could have been opened recently" Brad said, tugging on the handle. "It's definitely locked, and you can see the rust buildup here. No one messed with the fusebox".

 

"Could it have been a coincidence, just a University blackout?" Tony asked.

 

"No, I could see the cafeteria lights on in the distance through the window Biff came through" Scott said, remembering his hunger.

 

"Just this building then", Dani said. "Thought it's strange no one's touched the exterior fusebox".

 

"Dani", Cindy begun, "why do you call it the EXTERIOR fusebox? Is there another one for the museum?"

 

"Well" Dani begun, "there's a generator for the museum power in the basement. It actually supplies the power to the museum.. and.. oh, of course!" She started to hurry off.

 

"What, what is it?" Kevin said, hurrying after her.

 

"Come and see" she said, hurrying back into the museum.

 

-----

 

"Big ol' generator" Scott said, whistling with awe.

 

"That's the old one. It's this one that actually powers the building"

Dani said, touching a smaller box sitting in the corner. "More importantly, the way it works is if it gets switched off and on again, the power takes maybe a minute, minute and a half to return. Biff could have flicked the generator off and on and .. no.. it wouldn't work"

her voice trailed off.

 

"Because the power goes off right away" Mikey said, continuing Dani's thought, "and a few seconds later Biff's at the window. He'd have to run the football field in a few seconds again, clearly impossible".

 

"Maybe his accomplice snuck in and did it" Lisa suggested.

 

"We would have seen him pass the doorway" Cindy said dismissively. Right up until the lights out, we were standing right there in either the foyer or in front of the doorway".

 

"Well, maybe his accomplice was already waiting in the generator room when we arrived. He or she flicked the lights off at 9:40 like the note said, and then slipped out of the building under cover of darkness. We were facing Biff's window anyway, and it was dark. He or she could have slipped out then" Lisa reasoned.

 

"No, because this evening I opened the main doors with my swipe card. No one else would have been able to get in before then without using a swipe card as well, and then it would be on the record" Dani said.

 

"But Biff had got in through a window, maybe his accomplice came in through a window as well and waiting in the basement like Lisa said" Scott ventured.

 

"No to that as well" Dani shrugged, "the motion detector would have gone off. I switched it off when we came in this evening".

 

Brad cleared his throat. "I know how the accomplice did it. And who he is. Let's go back to the main room".

 

-----

 

"Now" continued Brad, "everyone stand where they were when the lights are out". People moved into positions. "We've established the fusebox couldn't have turned the lights out in the room, and that the generator couldn't either. That leaves only one option. The switch. Now, when the lights went out, Dani told either Kevin or Scott to stop screwing with the lights, but which of them is closer to the light switch?"

 

All eyes turned onto Scott, who was standing right in front of the switch. Kevin was about two paces away.

 

"No" he protested, "I didn't! It wasn't me, guys!"

 

"Who was Biff calling to when he came in the window?" Brad continued. "Scott. We all heard him. Scott's the accomplice".

 

"I don't know why he was calling my name" Scott said, "and you gotta believe me, I was as surprised as you".

 

"You didn't know about the museum tour tonight" Dani interjected. "You were surprised and even opposed to the idea, I would say".

 

"It would have ruined your plans if we were all in the room when Biff comes around to do the robbery, that's why you didn't want to go to the museum" Brad continued.

 

"That's ridiculous, guys" Kevin said, "stop it. Why would Scott shut the lights off and cause Biff to assume a room's empty and that the robbery can go ahead when he could warn Biff of the danger by just leaving them on? Biff may have been dumb, but he wouldn't try and rob a well-lit room full of people".

 

"And I wasn't trying to warn Biff anyway" Scott added, "because I didn't know he was coming because I didn't have any arrangements with him".

 

"To the contrary, you had to turn the lights off" Brad argued, "that way Biff would try and continue with the robbery, and you could sneak up and stab him. No doubt Biff would have exposed Scott's robbery scheme the next day if he hadn't been silenced".

 

"Stop it" Tony said, "with the accusations. Assuming Scott had planned the robbery with Biff, Biff wouldn't expose the scheme at ANY time because it would be admitting to doing the crime himself. And Scott can barely sneak all the way across a pitch black room and back again wearing sunglasses".

 

"And he was standing next to me, anyway" Kevin added.

 

"Hmm. Okay." Brad said. "Sorry, Scott. Practicing cross-examination".

 

"Don't mention it" Scott said, clearly still harbouring some resentment towards Brad.

 

"The torch was shining through the window before it slid open, wasn't it?" Cindy asked aloud.

 

"I think so" Tony said. "I remember both happening at about the same time. Come to think of it, which WAS first?"

 

"The light shone through the window first" Brad said with conviction, "and then the window opened. I think. What does it matter?"

 

"I don't know" Cindy replied, "but it's always important to remember these kinds of details, especially when we're being questioned later".

 

There was a pause.

 

"What are you looking at?" Mikey asked, as Kevin picked up a broken pot piece from the center of the floor. He then picked up another and tried to fit them together, shrugged, and tossed them back on the pile.

 

"I'm just curious" he said, looking at the pieces, "as to who broke the pot".

 

There was a long silence.

 

"Anyone?" he said.

 

They looked at each other, nervously.

 

"Hmm" he said. "No one's broken the pot. And yet it's broken. Isn't that weird to you?"

 

Tony stared thoughtfully at the broken pieces, deep in thought.

 

"And then", Kevin said, "there's the window". He walked over to the window which Biff had come in, carefully positioning himself to avoid standing in Biff or Biff's mess. He slid it up, rested his paws on the sill and stuck his head out and looked down. "Hmm. Only one set of footprin-" was as far as Kevin got before the window dropped onto the back of his head with a sudden crack.

 

Kevin screamed, jamming the window open again and staggering back into the room, holding his right paw to his upper neck to staunch the blood.

Cindy rushed to his side, and spun him around.

 

"Kevin, lift your hair up so I can see the cut" she ordered him. Kevin gingerly lifted the soggy hair back, trying to hide a wince of pain.

 

"It seems okay" Cindy said, "just a superficial cu-". At that point the metal clasp on Kevin's watch dug into the wound and he went into a spasm.

 

"SUPER FFFFFFFFFFFF-" he yelled, biting his lip. He waited a moment and swallowed. "Okay. Okay. I'll be okay now". He wiped a small tear from the corner of his eye. Brad laughed quietly, then put on a straight face. "Sorry" he said, while mentally filing the image away for future enjoyment.

 

"As though we needed any more drama" Dani said. Mikey had wandered to the western wall of the gallery and was examining the velvet curtain that hung there.

 

"What's that?" Tony asked Mikey.

 

"I was wondering the same thing myself earlier" Brad said, wandering over.

 

Mikey pulled on the velvet sash and the curtains majestically parted revealing a drink machine.

 

"A DRINK machine? A hidden drink machine?" Tony asked.

 

"I, uh, did that" Dani said. Lisa gave Dani a strange look.

 

"Why?"

 

"I didn't want Brad to be distracted from the tour" Dani said, pointing to Brad who was now trying to get the thing to work.

 

"Whatever you're saying about me" Brad said, hitting the display in the hope of either getting his money back or a cola drink, "it had better be polite".

 

Dani gave a 'see what I mean?' look to Lisa. Lisa nodded in return.

 

Dani crouched by Biff's body and started to rifle through his pockets.

 

"Are you sure you'd better be doing that?" Mikey asked.

 

"There's gotta be SOME other clues in h-" Dani started, and bit her lip. In Biff's pocket there had been stuffed an unrealisitically large wad of papers. "Big pockets" she said.

 

"What are they?" Tony asked, trying to look over her shoulder.

 

In order, there was an enlarged photograph of Cindy holding a beer bottle in one hand and being sick in an alleyway behind a bar, a photo of Brad reading Little Women, a photo of Mikey eating a chocolate bar, a picture of Scott doing some sort of math work and a typewritten paper with a cover-note telling Biff to write it out by hand so it would look more like his own work, signed Kevin.

 

A long pause.

 

The innocent explanations then came quick and forthcoming.

 

"I was just on a hen's night with some friends, I'll never drink that much again" Cindy said.

"I was just helping Biff proofread his paper, some editorial suggestions" Kevin explained.

"I was checking someone else's math for them" Scott offered.

"Fudge can be VERY nutritional" Mikey stated.

"I didn't look at the cover when I started reading, I thought it was John Grisham" chimed Brad.

 

There was another long pause.

 

"He was blackmailing us all, right?" Kevin asked, glumly.

 

"Well, not me" Lisa said.

 

"Besides you". Cindy said, perhaps a little too bluntly. Lisa shot a hurt look back to Cindy.

 

"Yeah, yeah" Brad said. "I told him to cram it, but he knew he had me. I gave him dough".

 

"You know how this looks, right?" Tony said. "It gives you all motives".

 

"What about you, hornhead?" Brad retorted, "I have no doubt you would have protected Cindy from Biff's blackmail".

 

"I didn't even know about it" Tony replied.

 

"I believe you" Brad said, conveying to the group just how little he believed Tony.

 

"Guys, let's not fight among ourselves" Mikey interjected.

 

"And what were YOU doing in the doorway when the lights came back on?" Scott asked Mikey.

 

"I got.. scared. I went into the foyer" Mikey replied.

 

Lisa looked at Mikey somewhat sadly. Mikey would never.. .. would he? Over fudge, of all things?

 

Scott spoke up. "Has anyone got a pen? We could make people write out 'AT 9:40' and see who has the closest match".

 

No one had a pen.

 

Kevin shook his head. "It wouldn't matter anyway. The murderer would know to disguise their handwriting so it looks nothing LIKE the note".

 

"We're getting nowhere fast" Tony said.

 

"Agreed" Lisa said. "Let's just call the police and go to sleep. We can't do any more here. Maybe the police will figure it out".

 

The group shuffled out of the museum. Either the answer was clearly there from the facts already or it wasn't. No more would be learnt, anyway, that was for sure.

 

Or would it?

 

End of Part III

 

(End of evidence. Reread parts I-III and try and see what can be figured out. Could it have been an accident? Could it be a murderer? Was it one of the gang or an outsider? And just what are the nutritional ingredients in fudge? Continue only onto the final part when you're sure you can get no further and want the solution).