The File:
You open the file to find 10 pieces of parchment, bound with waxed thread and treated with a wax or oil to protect the ink. Each page is covered with meticulous handwriting in the margins and notes in tiny elven script outside the margins.
Murder#8, 15 Costus 570 PsA (783)
Assigned Investigator: Udarin Thate, Second Deputy and Chief Investigator of the Royal City of Port Phiam. Special Assignment by order of First Deputy Constable Brentan Firepeak.
Location: Uncertain, likely North of the King's Road, West of the Hall Walk. No crime scene.
Victim: Abram Stormmoon
Race: Human; Gender: Male; Age: Approximately 74; Spouse: Astra, Deceased, age 66, Northut, Main Continent, Disease
Cause of Death: Incision of the wind pipe, arteries and veins of the neck, resulting in asphyxiation and exsanguination; weapon likely a wire garrote.
Location of the discovery of the Victim: City Dump, South side, exposed to the elements. Body was stripped naked.
Person who discovered the Victim: Tama Ember, Resident of Northwest Ward, Age 70.
Classification: High Crime: Intentional Murder
Motive: Unknown
Suspects: None. Target of Investigation: None
Special Circumstances: Victim is a life long city resident. Member of the Directing Council of the City for 12 years at the time of Death. Business interests: Vinter and Brewer. One of the wealthiest subjects of the City, possibly the Kingdom. (Decedent spent considerable sums of money in the months between his wife's death and his own. Unable to account for the purchases. Much of the family fortune had already been distributed to the children at the time of his wife's death.
Subject had seven children, six presently living, three of those in the city, all employed by the family business. The three children in residence cooperated with my investigation volunteering to be questioned in a Zone of Truth despite prohibition against use of the spell in investigations.
No witnesses saw the body deposited in the dump. Body discovered by Ms. Ember near dawn. Every morning residents of the Northwest Ward scour the dump for valuables or usable items. Whoever left the body knew it would be found right away. No fear of capture. Bold.
Responding constables did not disturb the body per standing orders. Does not appear subjects disturbed the body either. No drag marks to the scene. No animal prints. Area too heavily traveled to reveal humanoid prints. He bled elsewhere, minimal blood at the location. There has to be a scene somewhere he was almost empty.
After consultation with the family the decedent was interrogated by high cleric of Stasis, Thelis Cinas. The following questions and answers were recorded:
1) Do you know who killed you? No
2)What prevented you from seeing them? Attacked from behind.
3)Where were you when you were attacked? Near the King's Road
4)What were you doing? Walking home from dinner with Council Lady Fairwind.
5) At what time? around 10. This was a wasteful question posed by the cleric before I could interjectI stand corrected, see below.
6) Did you see anyone suspicious on your walk? No
7)Who else was at dinner? Councilman Corson
8)Have you had any problems recently in the Council? No
9)Have you had any problems with family? No
Following up on the questions posed by the cleric all likely routes from Ms. Fairwind's home to the Stormmoon estate were searched for a scene. None was located.
Ms. Fairwind and Mr. Corson were interviewed and cooperated fully. Their interviews offered little insight. Both council members stated that the primary purpose of the dinner was social; the decedent had been reclusive in the months immediately following his wife's untimely death but had recently regained some of his vigor. Some council business was discussed, centering on the troubled with the stevedores. None of the three are fond of Ward or Pinter Dockwright; hardly surprising.
The most important piece of information from the interviews was that the dinner ended before 700 and that the decedent walked east rather than south, which would be the expected route. Where in the Nine Hells did he go for those three hours? Even at his age its at most an hour and a half to his home and he was very fit.
Based on this new information a five block section east was searched without result.
A review of the council activity in the week before and two weeks after the murder show no council action of controversy.
More to come . . .
