robowest | [ WEEK TWO

Entry tags:

murder: trial

[ WEEK TWO – TRIAL ]

TRIAL

In the morning, the town comes back to life. Birds crow overhead, a snake nearby hisses, a lingering coyote dips behind a shop before disappearing into the wild. It's a frightening contrast to the stillness of yesterday but it doesn't mean it's over yet. After all, today is the trial.

The Sheriff stands on the porch of the Town Hall and brings his hand up to his mouth to let out a whistle. He'll thumb back to the Hall behind him and very clearly state --

"Trial time, folks. Get in here and figure out who did it."

And then he'll turn to leave before pausing and adding on,

"Bring a snack or somethin' too.

The Town Hall is set up more like a court house, a Judge's bench at the front but instead of at center, it's off to the side as if more for observation than participation. There's a table at the front of the room already holding a small box and a pad of papers and pen, for voting apparently. A side room containing only a metal gurney is next and today it's obvious why there's a gurney there at all with the corpse, resting right on top of it. Aside from that, there are rows for everyone to take a seat and it's only after everyone is inside and settled, that the doors close and the Sheriff speaks.

"Well, have at it. You've got till nine."

And then, he points to a clock on the wall that reads 12:00. Good luck.

Welcome to the trial post! Characters are free to discuss everything related to the trial here. They won't be let out of the room until 9PM when voting ends. Every character must vote and the voting post can be found here.

If there are any questions, please shoot a message to this journal or to

robowest.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He's mostly chiming in where necessary, but there's something about the evidence that's making him wonder...]

Okay, can we go back to talking about the note for a minute? We know it was addressed to Manfred, but there are some things about the note that don't make sense. If what Xion says is true that the camera showed those two leaving right before our rooms were supposed to lock for the night but after the front doors of the hotel locked, why would that be the only time Manfred could meet someone? Why not during the day? A lot of us are scattered in the day anyway. And the other thing is that whole "take the information for themselves" thing. What kind of information would Manfred have even wanted? Which...I guess is the same as "what information was available."

[...yeah this might not go anywhere but it's something to think about.]

It would be less suspicious if you meet up during regular hours than after curfew... Especially since we already knew about the camera by then.

Edited 2017-01-28 21:24 (UTC)

That's my point. Why would you do that after hours? Rin left the hotel after we found the camera to go tell Jason, but from what I know she came back after that, I think. [Probably.] So why would anybody else be sneaking around that night? It doesn't add up what information they'd suddenly get that they'd need to explain it then instead of doing it Thursday morning or Friday morning.

Well, there was that part, um, about no one disturbing them? Maybe they thought that was the only way they could guarantee privacy. After all, most people would have been in the hotel for sure, so they wouldn't miss curfew.

"Most people." You just said it right there. There's still no guarantee they would have been alone at night, too.

Maybe the person with the information is one is one of the ones with a role?

[ she scratches her head. ]

That... still doesn't explain why after hours. When did he get the note? Annnnd where did they give him the note? I wouldn't want someone accidentally finding it.

[...oh.]

I didn't think about that, but that's a good point. The rulebook says not to share that information with the public but it doesn't say anything about not telling one other person. But then you have to wonder why would they tell Manfred? And those are good questions, too. They'd have to give him the note in some way that nobody else would notice, too. Manfred had it on him when he died but what about before then?

The timing is what's not making sense to me.

Okay, so, three things! [ she holds up four fingers. ]

One! If they handed him the note, why couldn't they tell him right then? Two! If they hid the note for him to find, they had to be super confident no one else would find it. So they could have left the info there and not meet up at all. C! Everything you just said.

[...he's...just going to gently reach over and fix that so she's holding up three fingers instead.]

Yup. All of those are missing pieces but knowing all of that makes it more suspicious. Chane brought up a good point, too. [And he'll just kind of direct her attention to Chane's notes.]

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"Take the information for themselves" suggests, at least, that the information was in some kind of tangible form... written down, or on a device, or some kind of notable object.

Not sure if that really contributes anything to this, though.

Like another camera maybe? If there are cameras there might be audio devices hanging out where we can't see them, too. [Hm.] Unless they mean take it and use it against someone else. Blackmail of some kind. Something like that.

It's possible, although I'm not sure how much blackmail material could exist at this point, especially if Mr. Sheriff might be messing with things.

Back to physical objects then. Since we didn't thoroughly dig at the crime scene I'm wondering if we accidentally missed something without meaning to.

[ That gets her frowning. ]

If it was so important that they had to meet in secret, why would you write it down in the first place to risk it being stolen? If there really is an object or something like that ... if we didn't find it yesterday, does that mean someone took it after all?

Who knows? The place was a mess, so we could've missed something.

.... I wonder if we should look again, after this ...

[ there isn't much they can do about it now. ]

... [ Well, there's that, and... Chane's brow furrows as she works through her thought before writing it down. ]

What if the note concerned Manfred but was not for him?

[Hi Chane. Percy looks surprised as he reads her message because it's clear that didn't occur to him either.]

You mean like someone was warning somebody else about Manfred and he intercepted? Maybe that's why Manfred was the victim. Our murderer wanted to kill a witness. [But don't murders have to be pre-planned? He's unsure of that.]

It is only a thought. But the note... It mentioned him by name, and he had it in his possession. Those facts alone suggest the note was meant for him, but certainty is not absolute.

[ Figuring out who wrote it should be a higher priority, she feels, but she's not about to push the matter. ]

Some of us also thought it's not even clear that Manfred himself didn't write it to act as a decoy of some kind. Without being able to tell whose handwriting it is we're having a hard time figuring it out. I guess we'd need to know who else besides Higekiri knows anything about the guy that would be worth mentioning.

[A pause as he seems to realize something.] If we go with the theory that it was a note about him, somebody else could have actually given the note to Higekiri, he left it somewhere, Manfred also left to go confront whoever, got himself killed to get him out of the way and then Higekiri fought with our murderer. There's no saying that Higekiri wasn't the original intended victim.

[Please stop him, this is way too elaborate and this happens when he's just talking out loud.]

Maybe they thought they'd be overheard if it was during the day?

It's possible, but the town's actually pretty big. The walk from here to the farm takes a really long time, there's space out there to talk to people if you really wanted privacy, I think. Why not do it there?

Someone could follow them there, couldn't they? Ooor maybe, they were meeting about something really shady and thought it'd only be right to do it under the cover of darkness! [ a small gasp ] What if they were planning to murder someone together?

[Opens mouth.

...shut mouth?]

Can they do that?

Iiii don't know? Is there a rule against it?