Run: 2026-09-03-01M1KAVVWR94V0C5DXQ7F7W3WK

The old manor stood silent beneath the starless midnight sky. Detective Eleanor Voss stepped through the creaking oak front door. Her flashlight beam sliced across the dust-filled grand hallway's gloom. A single crystal chandelier swayed though no wind stirred inside. The faint metallic scent of fresh blood hung heavy everywhere. She crouched beside the body sprawled near the marble fireplace. His dead fingers still clutched a torn, bloodstained playing card. The card was the king of hearts, bent nearly double. Eleanor frowned and pulled her wool coat tighter around herself. Nobody else had entered or left the locked manor tonight. But someone had killed Lord Ashford in his own study. The study door was bolted from the inside, she realized. A single window stood open just a crack behind him. The drop to the frozen garden below was thirty feet. She turned to the butler trembling in the shadowed doorway. "Where is everyone who was in the house tonight, then?" The butler swallowed hard and wrung his pale, bony hands. "All six guests are in the dining room, Detective, waiting." Eleanor's eyes narrowed as she studied the butler's twitching face. His left cuff bore a dark stain that resembled port. But port did not smell like iron in cold air. She said nothing, only nodded and stepped past him softly.