CRIME SCENE REPORT
- Victim found in his own cellar, hung from his wrists. Hands spread about a metre apart. Head and body limp. In rather bad taste, it has to be said.
- Cellar bare aside from the body and a creaky ladder on the opposite wall, leading up to a trapdoor.
- Trapdoor opens right outside a door that leads to the living room.
- Living room somewhat homely. Long sofa against the wall. Quite soft and comfy. Has direct view of the staircase landing opposite, halfway up to the second floor, though stairs do not end in the living room -- rather impractical.
- Discoloured patch on floor in front of sofa suggests previous presence of rug; said rug is rolled up at the far side of the patch, opposite the sofa. Patch is flanked by two armchairs facing each other, unfortunately neither as comfortable as the sofa. Armchairs are the same width as the rug.
- Somehow-dying cactus plant in large pot, next to the sofa, in south-eastern corner of room.
- Coffee-stained side table on other side of sofa.
- Upright piano against northern wall, right beside armchair. Out of tune. Piano bench missing.
- Living room door is opposite the piano and opens to a narrow hallway extending out to the left and right.
- At the left end of the hallway, a large painting takes up top half of the wall. Very abstract.
- Narrow floor-to-ceiling cabinet (possibly containing cleaning supplies) stands to the left of the painting.
- Fallen broom leans against the mid-point of the cabinet and obstructs the whole corridor. An ineffective way of stopping anyone from getting close to the painting.
- Very narrow door at the other end of the hallway. Staircase to the second floor located to the right of the door.
- Door leads to what might have once been a ballroom. A curtainless window directly faces the door.
- Large grandfather’s clock in the corner, to the left of the window. Seems several hours slow.
- Some very gaudy bunting lines the top of the northern, western, and southern walls.
- On the other side of the room, a tall floor lamp stands across from the grandfather’s clock. One of the bunting flags from the south wall lies partly inside the lampshade.
- Seems that a half-hearted attempt was made to decorate this wall. Instead of lining the top of the wall, bunting starts at the top corner of the door and runs along the lintel -- but end of the line has fallen to the foot of the lamp.
- On the other side of the door, not far from it, is a neat ceiling-high stack of boxes, probably containing more ugly decorations. Lots of empty space on the far side of the boxes; hard to understand why they were not stacked against the corner of the room instead.
- Between the lamp and the clock, a long shelf runs across the wall, dividing it in two. Nothing on the shelf but dust.
- Opposite the shelf, a ladder leans up against the middle of the wall, reaching the ceiling.
- Overall, not an aesthetically pleasing room, in stark contrast to the gorgeous setting sun outside the window.
You scoff at the entirely unprofessional report, which hasn’t gotten any better upon rereading. Now that you’re here at the house -- and haven’t found anything on the second floor -- you decide to investigate the lower floors for yourself.
While taking the stairs towards the ground floor, you pause to gaze down from the staircase landing and out over the room below. Then you continue down the stairs and open the door on your right. Having entered the room, you walk towards the centre of the room and look to your left. Then, you return to the doorway and peer straight back out through the open door. Taking a few steps backwards, towards the centre of the room once more, you turn to your left and stare at the wall. Finally, you head out into the hallway, go down through the trapdoor, and scrutinise the scene of the crime.