The Perplexing Case

By Vihaan Dhir

During, my long years as a detective, I, James Arent have never come along a case so perplexing that for a minute, I thought I won’t be able to crack it.

It all started about a week ago during a dark and damp morning. I was finishing a scrumptious breakfast when a call came. I answered the telephone banana in the other hand. There were sniffles, rather loud sniffles which were followed by a faint voice, it said “Is this James Arent?”. I assured the stranger it was me when she said that there had been a murder.

I ran as fast as I could to the address that had been given to me and came across a lavish mansion. I knocked on the door when I saw a woman, presumably of the age from thirty-five to forty. Her eyes were dried from crying and her cheeks wet for the same reason. She welcomed me in and I saw a middle-aged man and two young boys, one who had just stepped into his teens and the other on the brink of adulthood. . Just then, a man, radiating in his youth came in with some water. He was their butler. He was a few steps away from me when he tripped and fell. I could tell that he was new but ignored the thought. I went on to inquire the sequence of the events of the day.

They told me exactly the scenario. Their twelve-year-old daughter had returned from school and when everyone came back home, she was found dead.

I asked them if anyone was at home when the incident happened. The sorrowing family thought for a moment and said that the butler was there.

I then asked the butler for his perspective. He told me that he picked up the girl whose name was Amara from school and let her go up so she could change her clothes. A few minutes later, Rose, Amara’s mother came to check on her, when she found Amara dead.

I then thought for a minute and asked them if I could inspect the room of the death scene. They led me to it.

I then inspected the room and found out that Amara had been brutally injured on the head and there was not only blood but also droplets of wine, which had blended in with the colour of the blood.

The family told me that they do not keep wine in their house.

I went to the kitchen and found out that they were honest.

For a minute, I thought that this case was unsolvable and it perplexed me greatly. The kitchen is right next to the servant’s quarters and when I was thinking I unknowingly opened it. Right there on a table I saw a bottle of wine! Even though I was shocked at first, I quickly deduced that this was staged, to mislead the unravelling of the case as the wine bottle had not been touched.

I remember thinking that the butler was new so I asked the family about, the old one.

His name was Rochester Anderson, when he had first come into the house, he was humble but he had a small fire of greed inside him, the fire grew bigger and bigger and they had to let him go.

I asked them if Amara had got anything valuable recently. They told me that Amara had got a necklace. I also asked them if Rochester had the keys to the servant’s quarter, and they responded in the affirmative.

On further inspection of Amara’s room, I found a big shard of glass with blood stains on it under the couch and on further examination I saw minute glass particles that were stuck to the carpet. I then realized that Rochester must have wanted the necklace and snuck into Amara’s room when she entered. Surprised that she came he took a wine bottle and hit Amara on the head with it. He then saw the wine had spilled so he took a new wine bottle and staged a scene in the servant’s quarter’s using his key.

Rochester had been sentenced and I had solved possibly the hardest and most perplexing case, I have ever been through.

By Vihaan Dhir