A solitary thunderclap shattered midnight silence while flickering candles cast dancing shadows across the grand foyer’s antique elegant marble floor. A figure lay motionless at the base of an ornate stairwell stained crimson deeply by viscous, ominous droplets of blood. Detective Marlowe exhaled a long, smoky breath beneath his wide-brimmed fedora while surveying the gruesome tableau with silent, icy determination. A chorus of whispers echoed through moonlit corridors as anxious guests huddled behind closed doors, fearing hidden murderer among them. Somebody’s desperate scream still resonated eerily inside ancient walls, promising that tonight’s silence would suddenly break in bloody, unforgiving revelation.