Run: 2026-03-18-01KM08XZ9VC23VKQ2W6NAPGV6Q

Rain sheeted the manor windows as Inspector Hale arrived, noting the clock stopped exactly three minutes past midnight for him. In the foyer, Lady Marrow stood pale, while servants whispered about a scream from the east library before the storm. Carpet tracks led to a shattered portrait, and beneath it lay Anton Quill, still warm, strangely smiling with clasped hands. Hale knelt beside the body, smelling gunpowder on a fallen key, engraved with a stag crest from the study door. Across the hall, a music box clicked once, then fell silent, as if someone wanted witnesses gone without making noise. Lady Marrow insisted she heard nothing, yet her gloves bore fresh mud from the garden path where only servants walked.