Run: 2026-10-08-01M4D9ZDQ631WPWWDQ6KZD3FKS

The rain fell hard on Ashford Manor that stormy night. Detective Mara Quill stepped slowly from her muddy old car. Inside, the long hallway smelled faintly of smoke and lilies. Victor Ashford lay motionless beside the grand winding marble staircase. A single bloodied silver letter opener protruded from his chest. Nobody in the sprawling household had heard a single scream. Mara knelt beside the body and studied the wound carefully. Something about that angle seemed almost unnervingly deliberate and theatrical. Behind her, the antique clock in the study chimed twelve. Midnight, she quietly realized, was precisely when Victor had died.