1st victim

[stagemanagers]

[The performers have been in the opera house for nearly two weeks now. Overall, despite the captivity, the experience has been a mellow one even with the introduction of the motive. Peaceful almost.

It's 7 am Friday morning. As everyone starts to putter out of their dressing rooms and begin the day, something feels different. A certain heaviness in the air, a sense of dread...oh, and then there's the metallic smell of blood coming from the hallway.

Investigate?]

Comments

HALLWAY

[stagemanagers]

[solomonjihad]

You can all stand around, if you'd like. I'm not going to let a body frighten me.

[She's going to go check out the body. Because she can. So there. She'll even turn it over if she wants. What will all of you do?

...

Anyways, any obvious injuries on his back?]

[stagemanagers]

[His back has no obvious injuries!

...frankly, um, it's sort of unique in that regard.]

[solomonjihad]

[Well, then. She's just going to turn the body over.

Let's see.

Anything obvious on the front?]

[stagemanagers]

[Valjean's front is absolutely soaked in blood.

His face and torso are covered in what appear to be stab wounds. They are pretty obvious, yes.]

[solomonjihad]

[Well then.

Now, to take note. What kind of stab wounds? Knife, sword, a pattern in the stabs...? Perhaps something else? Is there any particular wound that would have been the fatal one?]

[stagemanagers]

[The wounds look like they were made by a small, narrow blade. They're scattered around his chest and face in no discernible pattern, and don't all appear to even be the same depth. With so many, it's hard to tell if any single one was the fatal blow.

The only wounds that don't appear to fit this description are on his neck and right hand.]

[solomonjihad]

[His neck, and right hand. They are definitely different from the others. She looks carefully.

There would be several reasons for it, as, ahem, she very, very, very well knows. The question is just how.

So what is different?]

[stagemanagers]

[Which one are you looking at?]

[solomonjihad]

[The neck, first!]

[onthebusagain]

[Heather can't stand looking at the body anymore- she's frozen for a while, before she musters the courage to go around it. Careful, wife steps- if she gets blood on her shoes, she's going to totally lose it.

Is there anything obvious in the hall behind the body?]

[stagemanagers]

[Most obviously, there is a thick blood trail leading from the body back through the hall towards the dining hall.]

[onthebusagain]

Gross, gross! [She's pressing herself as close to the wall as possible- unable to look away. Does it look like his body was dragged?]

[stagemanagers]

[Sorry, but it kinda looks exactly like that.]

[onthebusagain]

[Oh noooooooo! Poor criminal grandpa. Was there anything dropped nearby, or is it just the blood?]

[stagemanagers]

[Well, it looks like someone dripped a second trail of blood nearby!]

[onthebusagain]

[Ugh, gross! If you can't tell by her little chant--] Gross, gross, gross... [Where is it going?

[stagemanagers]

[It goes right past the body (with no apparent pause) and off into the lobby.

Congratulations, you found all the blood in the immediate vicinity, Heather! Unless you'd like to take a closer look at any of it?]

[onthebusagain]

[NO WAY, blood and murder is so 1987. She's done.]

[irreprochable]

[javert looks around for some big blue paw prints, which are the key to any investigation like every good inspector knows. or, i mean, to see if there's anything trailing from the body like blood or footsteps of blood or just footsteps because someone was dumb enough to step in something else.]

[stagemanagers]

[As a matter of fact...]

Re: HALLWAY

[dechagny]

[Raoul emerges into the east hallway after following the blood trail in the lobby. Does it lead to anything significant?]

[stagemanagers]

[There's nothing super-special about the east hallway, but you could always follow the blood droplets.]

[dechagny]

[Will do!]

AREA CLEAR

[stagemanagers]