Week 7 - Trial

[productions]

week seven trial



victim



suspects



Character Statuses
Setting
Manor Rules
Voting

Comments

[inthebones]

If everyone would please stop getting off track. We're here to investigate a murder, not to investigate why Gundam felt the need to overcompensate.

[Her voice is firm. She avoids looking at May as she speaks.]

May did not kill Beat unless she possesses the little known ability of ninja spirit projection. A slit throat, a bullet, and a wound heavy enough to pierce through the chest don't appear of their own accord.

I'd like to propose another theory.

Beat's eyes were bloodshot. His face was distorted in anger. Nothing he did was quite in character. When May walked into the chapel, I believe Beat mistook her for somebody else - somebody who had already attacked him immediately previously. Someone who had attacked him previously and blinded him partially, accounting for his strained eyes. In the throes of anger, I believe Beat would be difficult to shake out of a frenzy; the fight between Beat and May took place too quickly for him to ascertain his mistake. She was knocked out, and he was felled with a knife to his shoulder.

This third person, this person who had been there all along and who had been presented with such a fortuitous accident, reappeared on the scene, murdered Beat, and rearranged things to make it appear as if May had killed Beat in self-defense.

The injury to the shoulder must have been caused by the kunai. Possibly the kunai was used to slit Beat's throat as well. The rest came from a different source.

[allice]

That sounds like a good theory, but who could Beat mistake for May of the three remaining? Even with his eyes disoriented, she's a little girl and all the others are grown adults twice her size. The only one I could possible fathom him making the mistake over is Kaoru.

[inthebones]

...

Their clothing is quite similar in style. They both have dark hair. They have similar features. Kaoru is a foot taller, but Beat could fly - from the air, it might be difficult to tell looking down, especially since something had happened to his eyes.

[Susan speaks gravely now. She doesn't want it to be Kaoru, either, but... For this reward, anyone could and would likely kill.]

[allice]

If we're talking about aerial, Gundam also could look like the person who attacked Beat from above if we're comparing to May. But once Beat made it to the ground, it should have been clear that he was attacking someone much larger than May.

[inthebones]

...Did he, though? According to May, he flung shurikens and used a psychic ability to fling her against the wall. The extent to which his vision was damaged is also not entirely clear.

[allice]

...I guess the next step is to find out what blinded him to begin with. Only then can we be sure just how bad his vision was if he mistook May for someone else. In advance, however, I would like to make clear that I will not blind myself to test the degree of the effects.

[Because ha ha ha she's not getting her eyes bloodshot.]

[inthebones]

I think, perhaps, we can all agree to that.

In the absence of actual injury to his eyes, it seems most probable it was a poison of some sort.

[again]

We all recall Minatsuki's case, I'm sure. The poison drove her own abilities into a berserk frenzy before she expired. This seems similar in some ways.

[souredsweet]

[at this, Kaoru speaks up.]

I was in the manor most of the morning; please excuse my delay, I will fill my card out in a moment. [with May's apparent confession, Kaoru had been distracted. a pause, and then:]

However, both Miss May and myself planned to meet at the chapel the morning of the attack... We spoke of our plans quite openly, as well. There is a possibility that I was his intended target if he knew of this. [which Kaoru suggests largely because the idea of Beat purposely targeting May seems too horrible to consider.]

[inthebones]

[A slight pause as Susan thinks over this information.]

In which case, any potential 3rd party would have known this as well.

I assume you ended up failing to make your appointment if you didn't run into this scene. What happened?

[souredsweet]

We made no secret of it and have picnicked frequently before... [Kaoru feels horrid over it now, realizing that such open chatter might have helped worsen this issue. as for Susan's question:]

We did not set a time to meet, so there was no appointment to miss. Miss May was with me in the kitchen as I cooked and later went ahead to clear a space so that we could lay the blanket down, while I stayed in the kitchen to finish things. I set out myself about ten or fifteen minutes after her, but realized that I had forgotten to make a dessert and memorial bouquets - it was part of the reason we had decided on using the chapel, to pay respects. So I returned to the manor to do so, and the bell chimed as I was working...

[inthebones]

May says she was at the chapel at 10, and the clock chimed at 11.

[Susan frowns, a heavier expression than her normal thoughtful frowns.]

To be perfectly frank, you shouldn't have allowed her to sit about in an remote area alone for an hour while you made cookies. She was on one of the bottom lists this week.

[throe]

I said the same thing to Gundam. Whoever it was, they must have really been good at following Beat around if he's the original target. I guess the chapel is so far out and there are so few people in the morning that it's the only really good opening.

It seems almost too convenient though. Someone would have had to been either really lucky for that to happen or think quickly enough in thirty minutes on how to make it look like May did it so she would confess.

[inthebones]

I don't think it would have been difficult. Simply take the kunai and plant it in the middle of the chest. May would awaken and immediately think that the fault was her own. That May would confess to the crime rather than allow someone else to die in her place has always been evident in her character.

Luck, of course, must have played a part. I don't know if anyone could have expected that May would walk in then.

[throe]

Someone here is certainly fortitudinous then. [ She smirks for a moment, but then goes back to her neutral state. ] I guess they didn't think to consider shooting someone would leave an obvious wound. Or a bullet in the wall.

[inthebones]

...Is that what explains the wound that goes out the back?

[Susan doesn't have the least idea what gonnes can do, in truth.]

Perhaps they took the kunai and stabbed on both ends to make it appear as if it were inflicted by something other than a gun. And, of course, a bullet is quite small. It might not have been discovered.

[throe]

[ She shakes her head. ]

That wouldn't make much sense. Why shoot the gun in the first place then? If they missed and only had one bullet to work with then maybe they'd use the kunai, but that would be cutting it way too close. They didn't know how long May would be unconscious, they would need something quick and efficient to work with.

[inthebones]

...Could the gonne-shot wound have come earlier, then? Before May entered the scene? The alteration was only thought of after the second altercation.

A gonne is extremely loud, though, by all accounts. Why didn't anyone hear anything?

[godwhisperer]

[He's just staring at her, growing visibly more angry with every second, although he doesn't say a thing.]

[inthebones]

Say it.

Your head will pop open if you don't.

[godwhisperer]

I have nothing to say to you.

[pandacea]

[May shakes her head.]

Even with his powers, I do not believe he could have fought the way he did with his vision impaired. And...when he first attacked me, I also thought that perhaps he had mistaken me for someone else, so I shouted my name at him to try to get him to calm down.

It didn't faze him at all. He really did want to kill me, knowing exactly who I was.

[inthebones]

...

It's still inconsistent.

Take a look at this picture, May. Is the blood consistent with the area where you fought? The pool of blood described - your injury isn't severe enough to produce a 'pool'. Only Beat's were, and his body was found directly in front of the altar. A pew was also moved to cover the bullet, and the blood was cleaned.

Somebody else was in the chapel while you were unconscious and rearranged the scene to make it appear more likely that you had caused the death. That much is clear.

[pandacea]

I'm not - I'm not sure. I woke up near the door, so I believe that is indeed where we had been fighting, but I didn't move his body. The blood is likely from where my kunai had hit him.

It's possible someone may have come in while I was unconscious, but I am almost certain no one had been there beforehand. I did not see anyone exit the church as I was walking there.

[inthebones]

It's not simply possible - it's what must have happened. There's no reason for all of these discrepancies if someone hadn't manipulated the scene afterwards. If you think you killed Beat with the kunai to the chest, he would be lying in that pool of blood still.

Is there anywhere to hide in the chapel?

[pandacea]

But I don't understand why. Even if I had not killed Beat, I don't think anyone on the suspect list would frame me.

Possibly behind the pews, but Beat had been flying in the air for a lot of his attacks. He would have seen anyone who tried.