Thursday 5th May 2016

L.O. To plan a murder mystery story.

File_000.jpeg

L.O. To write a murder mystery story!

The Castle Conflict

Flowers rimmed the carpet as Michelle glided down the hall towards her room, Amy the designer by her side. Her white dress trailed behind her, hiding her feet from view. Her veil was covered with beautiful roses. She entered the room rushing to her mother, Lisa, and displayed her unique and dazzling gown.

“Wonderful! Amy has done a great job with your dress.” Lisa exclaimed delightedly.

“I decorated the skirt with frills at the waist and silk all the way down,” Amy explained. Twirling in her dress, a waft of perfume reflected off Michelle and filled the air.

Next door, Filip was straightening his attire, a rose tucked in his suit pocket. Admiring himself in the mirror, his designer Ken helped adjust the collar and tie.

“Perfect. The suit is made out of the finest leather in the whole of Australia. Now head out and wait for your exquisite to-be wife!” Ken said, pushing Filip out the door. Everyone was already seated whispering by the time Filip had emerged from the door. All heads turned around and applauded him with smiles spread across their faces. A shiver ran up his back as he waited for what seemed like an hour. After a while, Michelle appeared at the door with two little girls by her side with floor length dresses. A lovely bouquet of flowers rested in her arms as she climbed up the steps, her dress streaming behind her.

The sound of laughter filled the air as wine glasses clinked here and there. Joey, Filip’s best friend, was talking to his brother, Kuon, as Filip reached them.

‘Joey, let me get you a new glass of wine,” Filip requested.

“No let me, you should go see your wife!” Kuon insisted.

“Thanks Kuon,” Joey said thankfully as Kuon collected his glass and headed towards the kitchen. He handed it to one of the waiters and asked him to refill the wine. The wine was then brought to the bar to refill. Soon, the waiter gave Kuon who soon replied,

“Oh no! I’ve left my phone in the hall!” And rushed back towards the hall, the glass still in his hand. He exited the room, just as Filip noticed a lump in his left pocket the size of an oval. Joey went round talking to many of his alumni friends from school, many of which had children the same age. Lots of the people had their children with them but Joey’s children, Rei and Skye, were away at a party. Kuon came back panting as he handed the glass back to Joey and apologized,

“I’m so sorry, I forgot that I was still holding your glass of champagne.” Handing over the glass, Filip noticed that the lump was no longer where it was. Maybe I was just imagining something, but soon noticed that the lump had moved to the right pocket. Tightly wrapping his suit around himself, Kuon caught sight of Filip staring at his pocket.

“Is there something wrong Filip?” he questioned. Joey went over to talk to some other friends of his, and took sips of his champagne. Kuon went off to talk to his friends Sennon, Kyle and Kent.

“Hey Sennon! How’s the company? Is Joey doing well?” he asked a sly grin on his face.

“Your brother always come to work late, but I couldn’t fire my friend’s brother!” he exclaimed. All of a sudden, a scream echoed from the other end of the room.

“What’s going on?” Filip shouted diving over to the scream.

“H-he’s dead!” Michelle screamed frightened in Filip’s grasp. There in front of her lay Joey’s limp body, his eyes left in a state of shock; his champagne glass smashed on the floor beside him. Kuon, kneeling next to his brother, attempted to shake him awake, but not even his mouth stirred. Standing up to look at the door as he was a head taller than the rest, he saw that the ambulance had showed up. They rushed past the whispering crowds and feeling for a beat, confirmed that Joey Van Windsor was dead.

It had been a few days after Joey died, the funeral had come and gone, Kuon’s brother had come and gone. His grave had been visited by many, and the ledge of his gravestone had been surrounded by dainty flowers. His portrait was placed in the middle of the ledge and as the rain fell, Michelle and Filip said their prayers. Rolling down, the tears dropped onto the dirt as Michelle leaned on Filip’s shoulder.

Detective Voisey sat at her desk, looking through the list of suspects and their motives:

She stared at the last suspect, Kuon. Why would he want to kill his own brother? She thought, her mind swirling with different possibilities, all that didn’t make any sense. She heard a knock on her door as Detective Van Rensburg strode into the room,

“Look at what I found!” she exclaimed, smacking a sheet of paper with a castle on it. The castle had ‘Van Windsor’ engraved into the top of the doors.

“This may be the reason why Kuon could’ve killed Joey! He may have wanted the castle that Joey had possibly inherited,” Detective Voisey remarked, her hand pointing at Kuon’s name and question mark. His question mark was erased and replaced in scruffy handwriting with:

Castle that Joey had inherited.

Voisey glanced back down at the paper, and questioned,

“If he had a castle, why doesn’t any of his documents mention the castle?”

“I did more research and apparently, their Father brought them away from the castle when they were very young but Kuon found out,” Van Rensburg answered positively. Detective Van Rensburg strolled out as the room and called behind her shoulder,

“I’ll do more research of the castle and see what Joey may have known about the castle.” Voisey stared blankly at the word ‘Castle Van Windsor’ on the picture and grabbed her files of Joey’s father as she felt she had seen the word before but had completely ignored them. Surely enough, the files had a whole paragraph about the castle. Unfortunately, the paragraph had nothing to do with the two men. I’ll leave it with Detective Van Rensburg, she finally decided, right now, I should be researching for more motives why Sennon, Kyle and Kent would kill Joey. 

        After many hours of research, Voisey had her whole page filled with notes from top to bottom about motives. Kent’s description was too vague for any evidence. They hadn’t seen each other in twenty five years. Swiftly, Van Rensburg once again entered the room, waving a printed out piece of paper. Van Rensburg banged the paper against the table with lots and lots of information that Voisey was awed by. The castle was only to be inherited by the eldest child when they become 16 years old. Joey’s older daughter is only 13 years old. The castle is for Kuon! As it became better, Voisey saw that Kuon had been banned from the castle because he was not trusted as he went to jail twice, unless the castle was inherited.

“Where did you find all this? It’s golden!” Voisey exclaimed.

“It was in one of Kuon’s private documents that he had on his computer, written by their father himself. That may have been how he found out about the castle. He found it on his laptop that his father had forgotten to get rid of,” Van Rensburg answered.

“Maybe he didn’t want to get rid of the document, maybe he wanted one of them to know they had a castle, but unfortunately the wrong brother found it. I’m positive the murderer was Kuon. Now we just need the evidence. Check the hotel and I’ll look for more evidence we could use against him.”

“What about the other suspects?”

“Their reasons are too vague, I think we should get over with Kuon first.”

“Then find out more about him, I’ll see him myself.” Voisey hurried around the room gathering her equipment and rushed out of the room towards the reception. She signed herself out and sped away in her car. Kuon’s house wasn’t as big as she thought it was. The roof was made of brick and it didn’t look like it had been painted in a long time. She managed a glimpse of the back with an amazing garden filled with many flowers and a wooden bench. More of a reason to want the castle I guess. Knocking on the door, she noticed that all the blinds were down, but was distracted when she heard the sound of creaking wooden floor. She was answered by a young girl in a beautiful pink dress and was swept off her feet by the politeness of this little girl.

“Welcome. My father, Kuon, will wait for you in the living room,” she said. Her voice was like a rose in a group of daisies. She led Voisey into a cosy living room with: extravagant paintings, charming vases and a beautiful view of the garden. Soon enough, Kuon came into the room, and sat himself down onto a comfy, yet rough chair; He didn’t look the least bit sad, he looked shockingly content.

“I knew you were coming. May I just say, I am so angry at the murderer for killing my brother. I don’t know who would do that. I think he’s coming for me too because this morning I woke up and my brother’s name was written in marker on my mirror,” he muttered, leading Voisey into the bathroom, a slight smirk escaping his grasp. Kuon had not seemed guilty but a talented murderer can do so and he had been arrested two years ago for violation on the streets. His record was filled with things that he just got away with, but altogether, they were a lot of mistakes.  

        Back at the office, Van Rensburg was busy filling out forms and documents about Kuon. The hotel CCTV camera said nothing. All the rooms were empty except for a room with a shadow in it. Voisey walked in with her head down, shoulders slumped.

“No evidence?” Van Rensburg questioned. Her head bent over a piece of paper, pen moving furiously.

“The only thing is his brother’s name written on the mirror which could either mean that the murderer was going to take Kuon or he was just injuring himself so no one blames him. What have you got there?” Voisey answered harshly.

“You’ll be happy, I found a shadow in one of the rooms of the hotel thanks to CCTV cameras, but I can’t figure out who he is. We’ll need to figure out the degree of the light so that we can roughly guess how tall this man is.”

“Well what are you waiting for? Let’s get moving! Quick!” The two once again tore out of the building and headed towards the hotel.

The hotel was filled with customers as Van Rensburg and Voisey slithered through the crowd towards the room. To their relief, the room was empty and they immediately spotted the CCTV camera nested in the corner of the room. From the CCTV camera, their shadows would make them much taller.

“Move a bit to the left, no a bit to the right. Perfect,” Van Rensburg commanded, standing back and admiring her work. “From here, the CCTV camera can see your shadow the same way that the murderer’s shadow was shown. From this angle, we can guess how tall the murderer is. If it truly is Kuon, his shadow will be taller than the rest. The shadow is already taller than yours and you are average height.” They had their proof right there, in the room. As they walked out of the door, Van Rensburg slipped and fell abruptly onto the floor.

“Ouch! What happened?” she shrieked. Stepping away, Van Rensburg realized that she had slipped on a yellow liquid.

“This may be the poison that Kuon used!” Voisey exclaimed contently. She transported some into a flask and they set off, back to their offices. They rode back to their office and studied the height. They estimated around 200 cm which only left them with one suspect. Kuon.

“Kuon was about to give Joey back his glass when he said he forgot his bag in the hall so he rushed back and that’s when I saw that there was an oval lump in his pocket. When he came back, the lump was on the other side of his pocket, which only means that he could’ve taken it out. When he saw that I was staring at it, he covered it up. I only caught a glimpse of glass,” Filip said, Michelle clinging to him, unwilling to let go. “He could have only poisoned him, so I could’ve seen a glass bottle if you are so sure.” Kuon did kill his brother. Voisey and Van Rensburg had all the evidence they needed. Now all they needed was court and Kuon to admit it, whether he wanted to or not. Now all the other suspects were free to do whatever. As they walked out of Filip’s home, a gentle breeze sent their hair flying and they felt extremely refreshed, ready to start anew.

The court room was covered with marble that reflected off light, blinding the two women. The room was filled with all of Kuon’s relatives and friends, worry written all over their faces. The lawyer was called Ariana, and just looking at her sent chills up your back. Her large body covered her whole arm chair.

“What do we have here? Is he innocent or guilty? Now, who was murdered or hurt?” Ariana demanded, her voice echoing around the room. Making hairs stand up on everyone’s necks.

“Kuon killed his brother Joey. How do we know? First, Kuon escaped to get his ‘bag’ but went to another room and hiding from the CCTV camera, poured poison into Joey’s wine glass. Kuon managed to hide your body from view, but forgot all about his shadow. The poison had an after affect, only poisoning Joey after a while. He then threatened himself so that no one would suspect you. Filip saw the poison move from your left pocket to your right pocket and he used yellow poison but Kuon wasn't careful with the poison. Some of the poison fell onto the floor and I slipped on it. Sure enough, it was the poison used in the champagne. The castle that Joey had inherited is yours. One good reason for a murder. So you could inherit a large castle. I’m sorry, but there are some more exceptions. We have inherited the castle to Rei,” Van Rensburg answered confidently.

“But, the document said that you had to be 16 to inherit the castle!” Kuon blurted out, immediately regretting he spoke.

“If you read further, you would have seen that the castle could be inherited to a younger child if needed.” Voisey shot back, knowing that she had put him onto the spot. His expression was priceless. His mouth seemed to reach the floor and his eyes were widened so far, he hands clenching the table.

“Guilty,” Ariana decided, pounding her hammer onto the table. Kuon was taken away, not showing any sign of struggle as he knew that he had nothing to prove that he was innocent. He knew he wasn’t.