Run: 2026-10-08-01M4DYQVBM6S296BN3PA44PZNE

The rain had fallen steadily since midnight over Ashford Manor. Detective Inspector Helen Marsh stepped carefully across the wet gravel. Nobody had touched the body lying beneath the great oak tree. Her partner, Sergeant Tom Riley, held an umbrella above her head. The victim was Lord Edmund Vale, owner of the estate for decades. A single gunshot wound marked his left temple, neat and deliberate. Beside him lay a silver pocket watch, stopped at quarter past eleven. Helen crouched low and studied the dark stains spreading through the mud. "Someone wanted this to look like a suicide," Tom murmured quietly. Helen shook her head, noticing the missing glove on the dead man's hand. Upstairs, a curtain shifted in the east window of the silent house. Helen rose slowly, her eyes fixed on that small and sudden movement.