Run: 2026-02-24-01KJ8W09QRRSAF0Z2F5MDKPCG8

The body lay crumpled at the foot of the grand staircase, pale hands still clutching a broken string of pearls. Detective Sarah Morgan stepped through the front door and immediately felt the heavy silence pressing against her tired, aching bones. The mansion smelled of old money and fresh death, a combination she had grown far too familiar with over time. A maid stood trembling in the corner of the parlor, her white apron stained with drops of deep red blood. She said she had discovered the body at half past nine, but her trembling voice seemed to betray something darker. Outside, rain hammered the tall windows while thunder rolled across the black hills surrounding the isolated estate like a warning. No one had entered or left the property since midnight, which meant the killer was still somewhere inside the house. Morgan knelt beside the victim and studied the deep bruises circling his throat like the fingers of some violent ghost. The dead man was Richard Holloway, owner of the estate and patriarch of a family built on carefully hidden secrets. His three children waited upstairs in separate rooms, each one claiming ignorance and grief in almost perfectly rehearsed measured tones. Morgan stood slowly and looked up the long staircase into the darkness where the shadows seemed to breathe and watch. Someone in this house had killed tonight, and she knew with cold certainty that the truth would not come easily.