Here I go^^
Inspector Landy looked around as he entered the small courtyard where the body had been found, at the center there was a clock with its face facing the sky. The round pillar it was resting on was slightly tilted so that the number six was about four inches lower than the number twelve, the whole thing was about four feet in diameter. The body was draped over the clock, both hands wrapped around the clock hands, the clock had stopped at 8.45.
“I assume that he died around a quarter to nine then?” said Inspector Landy to his colleague Dr. Neill. The Dr. who was just starting his examination of the body, looked up at the inspector with a frown on his face.
“I can’t say for sure yet, he’s been out here all night so the body is all cold and stiff, that’ll make it harder to determine the time of death. He was stabbed in the back though, but we haven’t found the weapon yet. It was probably a knife that the gardener uses, he forgot it in this courtyard yesterday.”
He went back to examine the body and Inspector Landy walked over to one of the officers who had been first to arrive at the crime scene.
“What happened here Jim?” he asked him.
“We don’t know much about it yet sir, only that he was found at 7 am by the gardener. The victim was Howard White.” said Jim.
“Howard White, the famous singer? The one that lost his voice in that accident twenty years ago?
“Yes” said Jim. “He lost his wife in the same accident and then he moved here with his two daughters and he has never left the estate since.”
“Do you know anything else about the crime?”
“He didn’t get stabbed by the clock, he got stabbed over there by the stairs up to the main house, and then he crawled over to the clock. It must have been someone from the inside, the estate is well guarded and this courtyard and the stairs can be seen from any of the houses.”
“Who lives there? I thought he lived alone.”
“He did except for some servants. But his daughters each have a mansion on the estate.”
The officer pointed past the clock to the north, on a magnificent mansion, then to the east on a beautiful but smaller mansion, and then finally to the west on a mansion identical to the one in the east. “Mr. White himself lived the north mansion, his oldest daughter Hilda lives in the east and his youngest, Hedwig, lives in the last one. Apparently their dad was a little overprotective; he didn’t want them to leave the estate, according to the butler that’s why they live in separate houses. He didn’t” Inspector Landy nodded just as Dr. Neill walked over.
“I have a preliminary TOD for you” he said. “I can’t be completely sure until I get him back to the morgue but I’d say around six pm, not earlier than five and not later than eight anyway.”
“Thank you Thomas, you can take away the body now, and call me as soon as you know for sure.”
Dr. Neill walked away and Inspector Landy turned to the officer. “Ask all the suspects for their whereabouts around six pm last night.” The officer walked away to do so.
While he was waiting Inspector Landy walked past the clock and up the steps to the main house. He then turned to look out over the courtyard the midday sun was right in fromt of him and he shaded his eyes to look at the crime scene. He looked at the clock thinking that it would have been more practical if it wasn’t upside-down, then he could have read it from inside the mansion.
“Inspector!” shouted the officer as he ran up the stairs. “The servants all have alibis, they were all having dinner at the time of the crime. So the only ones who could have done it are his daughters, they both claim to have been in their bedrooms, but no one can confirm it.” He said in a more silent voice as he reached the Inspector. Inspector Landy surveyed the scene as he thought about it, then he realized something and a smile dawned on his lips.
“Where are they now?” he then asked.
“Still in their rooms sir, according to the servants none of them have left their rooms since last night, but any of them could have sneaked out by a window.”
“You still haven’t found the murder weapon?”
“No sir, we’ve searched the whole garden but still no sign of it”
“Then I think I know where you should look.” said Inspector Landy.
The Inspector obviously knows who the murderer is, do you?