The grandfather clock struck midnight as Detective Sarah Chen stepped into the abandoned mansion on Blackwood Hill last night. Rain pelted the broken windows while thunder rumbled ominously across the dark sky, creating an atmosphere of pure dread. A body lay sprawled across the marble floor, one hand reaching toward the locked door in frozen desperate terror. The victim was wealthy businessman Harold Crane, found by his terrified housekeeper who had heard strange noises around eleven. Blood pooled beneath his expensive silk shirt, and his eyes stared blankly at the crystal chandelier hanging far above. Sarah knelt beside the corpse, noting the unusual wound pattern that suggested this was no ordinary robbery gone terribly wrong. Her partner Detective Marcus Webb arrived moments later, shaking water from his coat as he surveyed the grim crime scene. No signs of forced entry anywhere in the house meant the killer either had a key or was invited inside. The housekeeper mentioned that Crane had been expecting an important visitor, but she never saw anyone actually enter the mansion. Sarah noticed a torn piece of expensive fabric clutched tightly in the dead man's rigid fist, perhaps from his attacker.