The Murder Weapon

The Murder Weapon
Alex unwrapped the scarlet scarf revealing the murder weapon. They were all gathered in the living room going over everything again. It had been a rather long day and they all would have rather been asleep already but they pushed on anyway. They were all discussing what had happened in the past few days. This was all so chaotic.

Tracy had found the calendar in the kitchen earlier and hung it up in the living room. Three days had already been marked off with bright red Xs. The 17th was circled with a dark red ink that smeared down along the rest of November. Alex felt the temperature slowly drop as the sun set on another weird day.

At least now they were all working together and Luke was pitching in too. They'd all actually started getting along and he'd actually talked with Tracy and Sam outside of their investigation. All in all things were looking up despite the new deadline. Alex had been listening to everyone go on and on about whether it was Robert or Beatrice and he couldn't help but wonder if there was more than one culprit.

Sam was looking over the bloody dagger, turning it carefully in his hands. His head was bent ever so slightly and Alex couldn't see his amber eyes. Alex wondered what he was thinking only briefly before his eyes caught something on the handle of the dagger. He reached for it and Sam gave it to him. Sam looked at him eyebrows raised but didn't question it.

Alex had been right. There were initials carved in the handle. He hadn't noticed it before only because blood spatter covered that portion of the handle. The initials were barely legible but he could have swore the letters were ‘J.C.R’. The engraving was rather exquisite. Although it didn't compare to that of the rose on the other side it was hardly noticeable.
“What is it?” Sam came closer to see what he was so focused on. Everyone else had turned to them suddenly interested in what was going on.

“There's initials. J.C.R.,” Alex explained. He carefully traced the lettering as to not to get blood on his fingers.

“So the dagger belonged to someone with those initials right?” Luke moved closer and sat next to Alex on the floor. Alex practically ignored his sudden presence next to him.

“It couldn't have Beatrice and Robert don't have those initials.” Tracy sighed. This was just getting worse. Those were the only suspects they had.

“Yeah but James does,” Courtney pointed out. She moved with Tracy in front of the boys and sat down.

“He had an alibi for the night of the murder,” Alex muttered. He looked up from the dagger looking around at everyone.

This supported his theory of more than one conspirator. Even if James hadn't been there he could have had Beatrice or Robert do his dirty work for him. It was the perfect plan if you looked at it. Whoever killed Vivian would do the time for the murder while James got away with everything. He even owned half of Vivian's business after she passed away.

According to news articles James remained a bachelor the rest of his life. And in the research Eliza had done it proved that he'd been rich when he died. He had no kids which was sad. He was actually very popular with just about everyone he met though. So he got to live the high life either way because it couldn't be traced back to him.

Tracy was a little confused as she read through one of Eliza's notebooks. James was back on the suspect list now. Alex had taken a blue marker and wrote James' name back underneath Roberts in orange. For now Alex was searching for something although she didn't know what it was.

She flipped through a few more pages before tossing it on the end table frustrated. There was just too much information to process in one night. She rubbed the bridge of her nose before fixing her glasses. She walked over to her pillow and covers on the floor. One dark purple cover was on the floor to keep her off the cold ground while the other was laid over her pillow. She'd bothered making it earlier and it looked as it had when Alex first set it up two nights ago. She was tired and decided to call it a night while everyone else remained wide awake.

“Oh my gosh. The dagger was in Beatrice's room,” Alex found the book he'd taken from the crawlspace earlier. On the front page in bold black calligraphy read ‘Property of Beatrice Olivia Bucks’.

Sam had been looking out at the stars enjoying the view when Alex's voice shattered the silence. He looked back and was surprised to see Alex right next to him ready to show him what he found. Luke and Courtney were reading through the notebooks Tracy, Alex, and Sam had gone through earlier. Sam had figured they'd go through them again in the morning . He turned his attention back to the book in Alex's hand, his eyebrows raised.

“Where'd you get this?” He was confused as to what this had to do with the dagger let alone the case.

“This was in the crawlspace with the dagger,” Alex explained. Alex knew this was far too easy and he was leaning towards Beatrice being framed but he knew he'd have to discuss it with the group tomorrow. This was still a lead either way they just had to piece all the clues together later.

“Really? Doesn't that mean Beatrice is the murder,” Sam looked back up at Alex after Alex had set the book aside.

“I'm not certain. She could have been framed. There could have been more than one culprit. James could have been involved. There's so many possibilities and we're the ones that have to put the pieces together,” Alex's words came out in a rush as he paced in front of Sam. There were so many puzzle pieces to this puzzle and all they had to do was put it together. It was as simple as that.

“Y’know what we can do that tomorrow. You could use the rest. Also no more sneaking about at night I don't want you to get yourself hurt,” Sam watched Alex move to fix his bed back on the floor. Sam pulled his high tops off and curled up under his own covers as he watched Alex settle in for the night a little ways away.
“Night Sam,” Alex muttered, turning over his back to Sam.

“Good night and remember, no roaming the halls tonight on your own. If you wake up and you can't go back to sleep, wake me up. Vivian's not in the best mood right now and she's on a warpath. We don't need anyone getting hurt,” Sam yawned and turned over to get comfortable.

Timeskip

Luke had only realized everyone else went to sleep when he put the notebook down to take a break. The clock on the wall read 10:30. Courtney and him were the only ones who remained awake now. Courtney's hair fell in front of her face as she sat in the armchair pouring over the little black notebook. Luke yawned as a wave of exhaustion washed over him.

It was late and he heard an owl hoot outside. There was a slight chill in the air as the temperature dropped further like it did every night. There was a bone chilling hum echoing through the halls. Luke assumed that Vivian was roaming and he wasn't sure if they should be awake or not.

“We should probably call it a night,” Courtney said, putting the notebooks in her hand with the others.

“You're right, we'll do better with a fresh outlook,” Luke flopped down on his own makeshift bed. Courtney followed suit laying down for the night.