Run: 2026-03-18-01KM08ZT7JSYJ3EAN2WAEWF4W2

Rain streaked the courthouse steps as Detective Mara Quinn arrived, coat dripping, searching for the missing gavel before sunrise today. Inside, the clerk whispered that Judge Ellery had died quietly, yet the room smelled of lilacs and smoke too strangely. Uniforms sealed the jury box, and Mara noted fresh mud prints leading from the coat stand to glass doors outside. On the floor lay a broken watch, stopped at 3:17, beside a torn ribbon from her own file folder case. When she knelt, the judge's spectacles gleamed, and a single drop of ink marked his cuff precisely at midnight exactly. The coroner reported no struggle, but the ceiling fan turned slowly, despite sealed vents above where no draft should exist. Mara asked for the bailiff, and he answered with trembling hands, pointing toward the locked storeroom door right behind her. The latch clicked open, revealing a violin case, still warm, and a note written in lilac ink for her alone.