Run: 2026-04-24-01KQ081F9X8Y7KKM05JA0QPMDJ

Detective Vance stepped beneath the flickering gaslights of Thornwood Manor's iron gates, knowing tonight would change everything about justice here. The butler waited in the foyer, his white gloves stained crimson, his expression frozen somewhere between terror and profound guilt. Lord Ashford reclined upon the velvet settee with a silk cord knotted tight around his pale throat, now quite blue. Crystal champagne flutes littered the Persian carpet beside a toppled candelabra still leaking wax onto the dead man's patent shoes. Someone locked the terrace doors from inside, yet every guest claimed they never left the ballroom during the fatal hour. Detective Vance touched the velvet cord and smiled grimly, recognizing the work of someone who knew this house intimately well.