Run: 2026-09-29-01M3P2BJ7VX1MYWK26XEX9R6FK

Rain hammered the windows of Blackwood Manor the night Lord Aldrich Pemberton was found dead in his locked private study. Inspector Maren Cole arrived at midnight, soaked and irritated, carrying a battered notebook and very little patience for wealthy families. The butler, pale and trembling, led her down the corridor where portraits of dead ancestors watched every step she took. Pemberton lay slumped across his desk, one hand clutching a broken pocket watch stopped at exactly nine minutes past eleven. The door had been bolted from inside, the window sealed by painted shutters, and one key hung around his neck. Cole knelt beside the body and noticed a faint scent of bitter almonds lingering beside the nearly empty brandy glass. Someone in this house murdered him, she whispered, and everyone beneath its roof had good reason to want him gone.