The culprit escaped through the window, which was later locked by one of the servants when they opened the room.
That’s what you get by saying it was locked when the police arrived. I won’t go in details about accomplices, but whether one of them were the culprit or if they did it out of habit, it’s still valid.
Only the two windows in the study open far enough for a person to be able to leave through.
And naturally, since they mentioned no such thing in their testimonies, neither the butler nor the maid ever entered the study after breaking into the waiting room.
Which should mean they never got close enough to lock them after the fact.
The maid, after killing the victim, left a window in the waiting room open, locked the room from the outside, then from the outside used a long spear with a hook at the end of it to set the chain on the door. She then pulled the window to give it the impression of being closed. While the butler was getting the bolt cutters, she once again used the spear, pushed it through the gap in the door made with the chain, and used it to set the latch on the window, locking it. Later she just pretended to find the key in the room.
That one’s pretty good. Would even fit with the whole spear being used and all.
I’ll just augment the window definition.
Windows can only be locked by a human hand. They cannot be locked by utlizing any other tools.
Naturally the gap in the door with chain isn’t wide enough for a hand to fit through, would defeat its whole purpose otherwise.
Sorry but your red made me realise I might be confused, in which room was the victim found?
As I understand it, the layout is this:
The door with the chain is the door to the waiting room. That’s where the victim was found. On the other side of the entrance to that room is the door that leads to the hallway. In the hallway, one door leads to the bathroom, the other to the study. And in the study are the windows a person could go through.
To avoid confusion, the layout looks roughly like this:
The body of the victim was found in the room labeled waiting area (which also had the door with the chain that led into the place).
The chain on the door isn’t actually made of gold, but rather of some material that has a very high coeficient of thermal expansion. Meaning that the culprit used something like a blowtorch on the chain, causing it to expand, set it from the outside, closed the door and planted the key later. By the time the body discovery came about, the chain had cooled off and reverted back to its original length. (It could’ve also been that it was gold and thermal expansion would’ve made it decently long, I’m too tired to sit down and do any calulations.)
While the chain is set, nobody can get in or out through the door. The only way around this is to break the chain, and once the chain is broken it cannot be repaired.
Also it’s made out of completely normal material.
I think you might’ve misunderstood me.
What I meant was, the culprit, while standing outside the door, takes the chain and exposes it to extreme heat. The extreme heat causes the metal to expand - meaning that the rings the chain is made of expand, making the chain itself longer overall. And if it’s longer, one could’ve been able to set it from outside. After that’s done, the culprit immediately closes the door and locks it with the key. Shortly after, the chain cools, reverting back otis original length, making the trick undetectable. The culprit (in this case the maid, let’s say), plants the key when pretending to find it.
My bad. Adjusting that then.
It’s impossible to expand the chain so much it would change anything about what fits through the gap and what doesn’t while it is set. And it’s impossible to set it through the gap. It always functions the same way (until broken).
Just to confirm I’m not being tricked here, repeat this: It’s impossible to lock a window in the study without being inside of it.
The maid, Vanessa, killed Doctor Pahmeyer, locked the door and set the chain, she then escaped through a window in the study and called the butler, they broke down the door to the waiting area and, while the butler was in the bathroom, she was able to close the window she used, with her hand, while outside the study, this could be done even if we consider being inside is the same as having “its entire body inside”, so if she could stretch enough to reach the window while remaining “outside” the study she could have locked it without entering it.
By all means, think of a way to do it. As for simply stretching…
The distance between the door to the study and the windows of the study is greater than the arm reach of any human being, no matter how much they lean or stretch.
But this one is also countered by a much simpler fact:
After breaking into the room, the two witnesses never opened the door to the study. Either of them would have noticed if the other had. Of course, it was closed at the time, and it’s impossible to fit your hand through a closed door.
Well, discord’s down for me, so I’m just gonna throw out ideas here.
Assuming the culprit isn’t the butler, the culprit would’ve had no guarantee when it came to the butler and maid’s movements. If something in the room had made the butler sick, there’s nothing to explain why the maid wouldn’t have gotten sick, as well. In other words, there was no way to predict them going to the bathroom, pretty much eliminating most, if not all, sort of hiding tricks.
The only thing that would escape this would be something like the person that the two had seen was the killer pretending to be the victim (somehow?) and that, while they were in the bathroom, the killer brought out the real body (from somewhere outside of the room, presumably?) This, however, relies on the fact that the two would’ve gone into the bathroom which, as I’ve said, there was no real guarantee of doing.
So, if we assume no hiding tricks, it would mean the killer would’ve had to have somehow left the room by setting the chain from the outside - since locking the windows from the outside after escaping is more or less ruled out.
So, chain’s the best bet for now. Hasn’t been denied it had to have been set by a human hand still, so: the killer used a string running from underneath the door, going around the spear for the sake of gaining height, and using it to set the chain by having the string pulled, setting it in place.
Thinking about it, I seem to remember you once doing a string trick that would’ve locked a door from the inside… I just can’t remember if it set the chain, though.
Nobody played dead in place of the victim. It really was his body whenever somebody saw it.
Would’ve been kinda tricky given just how dead he looked.
As for fancy string tricks… heh, it’s not that easy to set a chain like that. It’s a rather awkward angle for such a precise action.
I won’t let you get through the barrier of this door.
Nothing, neither string nor any other tool, can be passed through any gap in this door to achieve the effect of setting its chain from the other side.
I don’t think that trick involved a chain, by the way.
So there is a trick involved? Huh… In any case, thanks for the map, since I was confused about the arrangement of the rooms as well.
Mmh… I am actually quite convinced that the maid actually is the mysterious visitor and set up the entire thing to put the blame for the murder on the serial killer. It just seems unlikely that the killer would be someone not shown in the narrative.
It is also likely that the maid drugged him during her visit to mess with the time of death. Whether she returned through the window or as the maid through the front door, the only question is how she escaped from the room to meet up with the butler in front of it.
A few silly ideas were floating through my head, but I assume they are all wrong:
There is an unlocked window hidden behind one of the paintings!
Or she just removed the door at the hinges and put it back in after she left!
Or what the hell, she just removed one of the windows and put it back again afterwards!
If you want this game to be about technicalities, well here they are! XD
You can have your confirmations.
There are no hidden windows. The only windows there are those mentioned in the story.
Sadly, there is nothing hidden behind any of the paintings.
Neither doors nor windows were removed or damaged at any point.
Two new theories for you:
There are no hidden passages of any kind. The only openings into these rooms are the door and the windows mentioned in the story.
The body had no other wounds besides the one caused by the long spear in his chest.
To be sure, his hands never opened or locked any doors or windows after his death.
I don’t think this is the solution, but:
The chain not a part of the door in the traditional sense - as in, a part of a chain lock. Instead, after killing the victim, the killer welded a chain between the door and the doorframe from the outside, meaning it would’ve prevented anyone attempting to open the door - be it from outside or inside. In other words - the chain was actually an irremovable chain placed from the outside and indeed couldn’t have been removed through any other means aside from being cut.
