When Mr. David was a commissioner, he had worked with Mr. Arthur in the development of the city, the projects labelled as Projects of Public interest. Which were more profitable to Arthur than the public itself. Arthur was a mastermind of business and through the loopholes in the system and of course David, he had acquired a huge land around the city which had become prime property and a great source of income for Arthur. Also, once David retired, they did a few projects together on their good will in the society to raise more businesses out of the same land parcels.
But recently Arthur was tired of this, he had earned enough, and wanted to come out clean on this matter. He wanted to donate back the land parcels announcing this project was a failure. That is why he started another project along with Oliver, which he would ensure will fail too in near future, so he can shut multiple projects and clear the projects settlements by huge amounts of donations that will be called projects of Good Deeds and gain some love from the community as well.
But when he comes clean with all the projects, David’s reputation comes down drastically because of his seal of approvals and his goodwill on the line for all the projects. David had been already accused multiple times in his career for his support to Arthur’s businesses and benefits from him, there are news reports of the same. But David always managed the situation and came on top. David tried multiple times to convince Arthur and change his decision but Arthur had made up his mind. There was nothing David could do much about it. His best idea was to steal the papers and buy some time out to figure things out.
When Oliver went in for drinks with Arthur that night, the door of the study was open. Because David had sent a local thief to the house around 11:00 AM in the night. He was tasked by David to get him a document that had a seal of approval from the commissioner. But he failed and got only wrong documents which were of the fresh deals Mr. Arthur was going to do the next morning. This made David very furious and he decided to do it himself.
Arthur closed the study door as he said goodbye to Oliver. Then Tom came in and out of the study room while Arthur was in the mansion and he forgot to close the door.
Then David came to the mansion that night and went to the study. He then exchanged the set of documents carefully as only those were missing from the study. Before he could head out, he heard Mark walk in and eventually Mrs. Pettersen, that is when he learned about their relationship. When they both walked past the door of the study, it was closed because David was already there in the study.
He was about to leave with a successful job done when Arthur walked in and caught him red handed, Arthur only saw someone standing there and rushed for his gun. Seeing him reach for the gun David panicked and hit him in the head with a vase which impacted Arthur’s death. He then got to cleaning all the prints and making sure he’s not leaving the evidence behind along with the murder weapon which was Vase in this case.
When he finally made it out of study, he saw Maria coming in, so he rushed from the scene through the window and from the back of the mansion in order to escape. But, due to his foot injury he could not jump a wall that high and Maria had already called Mrs. Pettersen, cops and others and they were reaching one by one.
So, with no choice left he had to blend in with the crowd acting like he had arrived at the crime’s scene along with others. When investigation started, he was in full control of it with his contacts and goodwill until Oliver hired me; then his plans took a U turn. At the same time the local thief started seeing him and threatening him. He was the same guy who accidentally bumped into me while leaving David’s office the other day during the investigation.
On the day I arrived in the city, I first visited the city police station. Luckily, Mr. Frederick also happens to be one of my old friends. We have worked on a few cases together before as well. He introduced me to the staff for the support in solving the case and informed me how I was associated with this case.
When cops updated me on the case there were footprints of all of you and only one outsider. That was misleading in the case and the cops search focused and outsider throughout.
I researched a part of murder weapon from an old antique shop in town. A small piece that was broken from the vase which took Arthur’s life at once had Arthur’s blood stains and its remaining piece which was almost the entire vase was found in the back exit.
The case was not easy. I started digging through details of every one of you to understand your past and relation with Mr.Arthur. I realised it had to be one of you, because you were the only possible lot which could have had a motive. And a murderer was possibly a contract killer. Then I asked for help from Mr. Frederick to get you all in one place which will help me keep an eye on every individual when they step out. That’s where Mr.Clarke came in with the first part of the will which was never really a part of the will, by the way.
Once you all were in place, I could keep my eye on everyone, I kept following you all in the last two days. I also learned that most of you were already being followed. No one was at harm but, someone had an eye for you.
Two days ago when another murder near the King’s road exit took place, I mentioned it over the breakfast table to you Oliver remember? That day I met Mr.Frederick and he told me, it was a local thief. Now who would kill a thief and for what? Probably revenge or the goods he had stolen or maybe to silence the loose end. When I saw the photos of the body something about it seemed very similar and noticeable to me.
The chief also mentioned how David was passing by the crime scene and stopped to help them out. At first it seemed so great at first, what a personality! Even after years of retirement still committed to betterment of the society and the duty. The chief also said that it was David’s idea to match footprints of the thief with the outsider in the mansion and they did match. So the thief was the outsider in the mansion but there was no evidence that he was the murderer yet. I asked the Chief to keep this a secret for now.
David kept following up with the cops to know the results, he was not informed yet. On my request Mr.Frederick lied to David saying the footprints did not match. David wanted to push off the load of murder over the dead thief so he was then out of the situation. When he saw me getting into details of the death of a local thief and connecting the dots along with cops, he had me follow and warned.
Yesterday when we discussed that person who can have such connections and does not need to be fit it clicked with me and came to me together at once. I went through all the notes to find that no one knew how David arrived at the crime scene. Also, in the thief’s murder David had reached the crime scene without being informed, this time accidently while passing by the same locality when police were investigating which seemed very fishy to me.
This morning, I left the mansion to find more information on David’s career. I went through his career records. When I went further into details, I found some old articles that slayed David for supporting Arthur in getting the land parcels. The clearances Arthur received for the same were clearly a loot but David’s contacts and Arthur’s money silenced everything.
And that would be all.
Mr. Frederick took David along with him to jail and he was eventually sentenced to life for two murders.
There was complete silence in the room now. As if nobody knew what to react further. We still couldn’t believe what we were listening to was true. First I had lost my friend and now I had lost the hope for the project too.
I walked towards Mark and Maria to console them and then walked out of the mansion with detective Vardhan.
Vardhan: “What are you going to do now?”
Oliver: “I am not sure. There is nothing for me here in this city now. I will probably move out. I should have gone much earlier. What are you going to do?”
Vardhan: “I will head back to Mumbai tomorrow. Hopefully the client waiting for me there has a drama of similar intensity.”
As we walked towards a hotel on Brick Lane where Vardhan was going to spend his last night in London, I thanked him for all his help.
Oliver: “Thank you detective, no one would have ever got to David without you.”
Vardhan: “Thank you Oliver. I’ll keep in touch.”