Run: 2026-07-09-01KX400QCBYVEZ8AAMVRG4HFT1

At dawn, the lighthouse bell rang thirteen times, though storms had severed its rusted rope three nights earlier without explanation. Inspector Mara Vale arrived by ferry, carrying one suitcase, two warrants, and a letter addressed in her own shaky handwriting. The islanders waited silently beside the pier, each wearing black gloves despite the bright and strangely warm October morning sunlight. Behind them, Gull House stood locked against the cliffs, its highest window glowing like an unblinking, watchful amber human eye. Inside, Sir Edmund Rook lay dead at breakfast, his silver spoon balanced carefully across his open, bloodless mouth like scales. No footprints marked the dusty floor, but seawater dripped steadily from the chandelier onto yesterday’s untouched newspaper below his chair. Mara opened the letter, and one sentence beneath her signature made every watching islander step backward together in sudden fear. “You have until sunset to prove which of us murdered him, because tonight the bell will name its next victim.”