[ WEEK THREE – TRIAL ]

[sheriffexe]

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.

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Comments

[insincerely]

Are we positive that that's how Nui even died? It's possible that she was killed in another way, and once she was dead and nice and still, her murderer just shot through her head. Not like we have the rest of her corpse to check.

[leadastray]

That's not out of the question. You're suggesting this could be a framing attempt?

[insincerely]

Something like that. Someone who actually sucks at using a gun might be trying to mislead us on the cause of death.

Of course, this is just conjecture, so take it with a grain of salt. To answer the original question, long-range weapons aren't what I usually use so I don't know how good I'd be with a moving target.

[expelliarmed]

Why shoot her in the head if she was already dead?

[insincerely]

What would you do if you were bad with a gun but wanted to throw people off your scent?

[expelliarmed]

Fair point, though it still seems a bit excessive considering how the rest of her was disposed.

[ ...Ugh. ]

[insincerely]

Actually, if anything, that's exactly why I'd think they disposed of her corpse.

But I'm not necessarily likely to be any more right than anyone else here.

[impulsiveness]

I don't think her killer was bad with a gun, though. Her skull is fucked up in the back. That matches up with a shot taken from a distance.

[insincerely]

I'll take your word for it. Like I said, firearms and the kinds of wounds they cause aren't my forte.

[uraniumnumnum]

To throw us off the trail.

[ he's actually interested in her death. ]

But seeing as we have no evidence one way or another, I suggest we assume the simplest answer is the correct one. She was most likely shot to death with that rifle while she was near the restaurant. That would explain the blood. If her clothes were burnt, she was either leaving the burning stocks or got too close to the bonfire - but knowing her, the latter isn't likely.

[leadastray]

Her body could have fallen over into the fire and have been retrieved.

[uraniumnumnum]

Yes. [ a pause while he considers his next words. ] I suspect that Nui was involved with the death of the girl in the stocks in some way. In what way, I don't know. Perhaps there was a scuffle of sorts there.

[ or... ]

... Alternatively, there could be someone who wanted her dead based on their own suspicions. We already know of one person with a history of burning girls and a fixation on justice.

[impulsiveness]

Seconding this. Considering the way her body was disposed of, it's possible the fatal blow was something else entirely and what we're looking at is a red herring. Riku's body being gone is weird, too.

[insincerely]

Yeah... one of the main dangers we face during trials is our time limit. Get too caught up on a trail that doesn't lead anywhere and we're screwed.

[a_sin_for_him]

All evidence pointed to the gunshot being from a distance, still not an easy shot to make.

[insincerely]

True, although we don't know how far or short of a distance, right? Just that it wasn't at point-blank, unless I missed something.

[a_sin_for_him]

I suppose that's right, but if the gunshot wasn't the fatal wound, we have even less to go on than we'd thought. We have limited time, and only the evidence available to us. If we keep chasing 'but what if this possibility we can't prove or disprove happened?', we're never going to get anywhere.

We have to work with what we've been given.

[insincerely]

Well, I won't argue with that logic, although taking everything at face value is giving a free pass to any murderer who does any basic attempt at misleading.

[a_sin_for_him]

In this case, unless the murderer carved their name on the corpse, I'm not sure what they could have been bothering to hide. We all have access to guns. Most of us seem to know how to use them, to some degree of skill.

[insincerely]

[He shrugs.]

Can't answer that, seeing as how I'm not the murderer.

[a_sin_for_him]

But you broached the idea. The theory is the murderer had something to hide, something identifiable in the killing wound, or is attempting to steer direction elsewhere. There's no direction to be steered to, we all have access to guns. And something that identifiable would be foolish for the murderer to have utilized in the first place.

On top of that, there's all indication that the chemical solution was left for the murderer to make use of, not the murderer's own concoction and idea. They would either have had to have known beforehand, that they would have that method to destroy the body, or it was purely a coincidence.

[insincerely]

... You know, for someone concerned with time, you're spending a lot of effort disproving something I brought up purely as a possibility and asserted repeatedly that it was just a possibility and not necessarily fact.

I get it, I get it. You don't think this was the case. We can move on now, you know.

[a_sin_for_him]

I'm not a legal professional or anything close to it, but it seemed prudent to offer logical reasoning beyond 'I don't agree'. And allow for my own logic to be refuted or disproved.