Run: 2026-09-03-01M1KYCH821PH3E4WCQ8RNXA5C

The old grandfather clock in the dark hallway had just finished slowly striking midnight when the lights suddenly went out. Outside, the cold wind howled through the bare old trees and rain lashed against the tall windows of Ravenwood Manor. Detective Eleanor Vance stood in the grand empty foyer, shaking water from her coat as thunder rolled above the house. She had been summoned to the remote estate by a frantic telephone call from the manor's owner, Mister Alistair Gray. The message had been brief and very strange, warning of a terrible crime that would happen before the night ended. A nervous butler with trembling hands led her down a long corridor filled with many old portraits of stern ancestors. He stopped before a heavy oak door and whispered that the master was anxiously waiting inside with the other guests. Eleanor pushed the door open and stepped into a warm lamplit room where several tense faces slowly turned toward her. In the center of the room, a crystal chandelier cast flickering light across a Persian rug and a small table. Upon that table lay an open leather ledger, a silver candlestick, and a glass half full of deep red wine. But it was the motionless figure slumped in the tall wooden chair beside the fireplace that held everyone's terrified attention. Alistair Gray sat motionless with his head tilted strangely back, a single crimson wound marking his cold pale waxen forehead. There was very little blood on his snowy shirtfront, yet the room felt heavy with sudden unspoken fear and suspicion. Five guests sat frozen around the dim room, their eyes nervously darting from the body to one another in silence. Eleanor recognized the local doctor, a famous young actress, a retired colonel, and a very quiet nervous lawyer among them. She stepped closer to the body and asked in a calm voice who had found him in exactly that way. The doctor cleared his own throat nervously and said that he had discovered the body only minutes before her arrival. The colonel loudly protested that all the heavy doors had been locked from the inside since early dinner was served. Eleanor noticed a small smear of blood on the dead man's cuff and a torn note in his clenched hand. She looked at the frightened faces around her and knew that a long, dark, dangerous night had already truly begun.