Run: 2026-03-18-01KM079AMEC1YNEG3ZC55MD13N

Rain stitched the manor windows as Inspector Vale arrived, carrying the kind of silence that makes servants stop breathing instantly. Inside the grand hall smelled of wax, wet wool, and something sharper, while a violin played from the dark above. At the staircase, Lady Merrow lay crumpled beneath the chandelier, her pearl necklace snapped, her gloves arranged like evidence already. No one had touched the body, the butler insisted, yet Vale noticed muddy footprints circling it, patient and deliberate too. When he lifted the fallen hand, he found a chess piece clutched in the dead woman's fist, black as sin.