murdermanor | week 5

Does anyone know how often Altman and Belarus were at the bar? It seems weirdly coincidental to me that both just happened to be drinking or refilling their flask on the same night. I'd almost say that our killer was just hoping to poison someone, except they knew specifically that Altman and Belarus would die.

We still haven't figured out what the ash is yet either or why there was a burn mark on Altman's clothes.

I don't know, I'm not much of a drinker. But the killer had to have been intentionally targeting those two.

Yeah, otherwise they couldn't have gotten the poison or the skeleton key.

Still...something doesn't really add up. Sure, you could probably have guessed both of them would be drinking or refilling at some point during the week, but on the same night? Was their drinking a daily thing or did our killer just get lucky?

It seems like both of them were pretty heavy drinkers, and liked one type in particular. It doesn't seem a stretch somebody noticed a pattern.

A pattern yeah, getting them both to drink on the same night not so much. Especially in Belarus's case - Altman would have been easier because he was drinking in public, but they would have had to see Belarus refill her flask to know she was dying that night. Unless they just unlocked her room and peeked inside hoping for the best.

Well. One person would've been able to get it in her flask.

But maybe she refilled it every night? It's not that big.

I do not know about Miss Belarus, but I saw Mr. Altman several times at the bar. It was mostly in the evenings, after the dinner hours had passed.

Okay, good. That helps.

It was an easy enough pattern to discern, though there would still be an incredible amount of luck involved. Miss Belarus would be more difficult, though... I had not seen her on the times that I visited.

Hmm, yeah. Unless it was Latvia, who could do it whenever he wanted.

He would likely also have known of Mr. Altman's habits, since I believe he imbibed quite frequently himself. Still...

Yeah...

Is there some other way someone could have poisoned Belarus? Maybe they knew she was running low. They could have just seen her drinking the last of it.

That is possible... I believe that Miss Belarus preferred the type of drink that she arrived with, so it would not be impossible to determine what she enjoyed.

If she was a heavy drinker, maybe she refilled it every day.

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As it's been confirmed already, I drank red wine that night. I don't stop by the bar too often, twice or thrice a week at most. It's a convenient place to find company at a late hour, and we were a good number on Wednesday night.

Poisoning is the easy part, frankly. Anyone could've slipped poison inside specific bottles earlier, anytime during Wednesday. The killer just needs to know when the victims retire, they could keep watch anywhere between the bar and the bedroom wings, as long as it allows them to beat witness. The bar's the simplest place, but they could divert suspicion away from themselves by not being present during the evening. It's not too hard to bump into someone living on the upper floors by the main staircase while they're headed to bed, after all.

[a beat.]

Then there's the speed of the poison, if we can determine what was used and how long it needs to take effect.

If the bottles really were poisoned, then it would have had to be something slow-acting, yeah? Otherwise Altman could have just keeled over there instead of in his room.

Was he acting weirdly that night? Complaining of stomach problems or anything?

Right.

[She grows quiet in thought.]

He's a quiet man, from what I could see, we spoke only once or twice. He did look tired and subdued, but that didn't strike me as unusual. [She glances aside deeper into the room.]

You could ask the others. I left shortly after him, but he had to head for the foyer stairs while I only needed to cut across the ballroom to reach my wing.

I wonder. That seems like a huge risk, if the wrong person drank from it.

Wasn't the entire thing a huge risk? The culprit must be unbelievably lucky, or unbelievably reckless.

[a beat.]

Maybe both, from the looks of it.

Yeah, maybe so. But they won't be lucky for much longer.

What if the murderer had poisoned the flasks rather than the bottles?

[Don't mind her. She was getting bored.]

How would they get their hands on the flask?

I wouldn't know, but if I were to poison someone then I wouldn't go with a hit or miss method of spiking the bottles and hoping for the best. It's too random and messy.

Well.

You are our resident expert on murder.

[it did get the job done.]