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I have reworked a story I was working on and never completed many years ago.  I have taken the original fragment and have refomed it into an extended prologue.  The new story itself will appear in the old format of about 1000 words every couple of days. 

 

Admiral Vladimir M'Dhu is my Battlefleet Gothic commander and I wrote a bunch of stories and battle reports about him which now seem to be lost.  If there are ancient STC archives containing this information, I would greatly appreciate having those records re-posted.

Hope you like it.  Let me know.  This thread is intended for you to post your ideas, comments, suggestions and whodunnit guesses or, in the case of this story, ifanyonedunnit.  This may or may not be a murder.  I'm a tricky devil.  It may be a suicide, it may be a murder disquised as a suicide, it may be a suicide covered up as a murder, it may be a suicide made to look like a murder made to look like a suicide .......

Any comments so far?  I've noticed a slight change in my own style.  You do need to read the prologue.  I may reweave this story back into the prologue background, but I figure that it will be more intelligible as two 10,000 word stories rather than a 40,000 word monster like RB VI.

Any opinions?

Comment on RB VII: Well... it was enjoyable as always. This one seems a bit less subtle than the other ones, so I think I may have figured it out on the first read through.

Predictions and spoilers ****

The Fleet Grand Confessor's bionic leg seems to be the main thing here. The inquisitor himself noted that it caused almost crippling pain to move about on a defective leg, so we can rule out the victim doing any sort of vigorous activity that would alow him to slip into the chapel. In fact, if the leg was so problematic, he'd probably be unable to kick over the stool to kill himself. (Espescially if he had to use his good leg to do it.) Ergo, I think he was killed.

Good ideas Keezus.  Of course they may not be right.  Locked-room mysteries can be quite tricky.

 

From the hits, it looks as if five or six people are following the story.  Great!  I hope to bring in some more readers.

I'm not posting the next part until I get some input!

It's pure blackmail, but, as the Inquisitor would say,  There is no Innocence, only degrees of Guilt.

Don't make me get out the pain frames and the neural probes!!  Joy Through Pain!

Where are the guesses?

H'ok. So nobody lied. (directly)

The Stormtrooper Cmdr can't have done it, since he was particiapting in the drill and never went inside.

The Deakon was probably mistaken that the chapel was empty due to his visual sensors lacking detail - He is absolved of guilt as well, since if he were guilty, the visual record from his implants would have revealed him to be the killer.

The Grand Confessor did not have much mobility. Despite the fact that the inquisitor can jump a great distance with his bionics, the Grand Confessor was a cripple, and there is no evidence that he would be able to attach the tether himself, so that rules out a suicide.

So, the chain of events is thus:

Confessor talks with the Commissar and the Admiral, Admiral leaves to supervise drill.
Deakon talks with the Confessor
Drill is announced
Deakon seals the chapel
Drill concludes
Deakon unseals the chapel
Corpse is found
Stormtroopers seal the chapel

This chain of events would suggest that the killer was in the chapel with the corpse - and escaped through the service hatches, since they did not come out through the main door. As we have already established the Deakon could not have possibly done it, that leaves the Commissar, the Admiral and the acting Grand Confessor.

The Commissar and the Admiral were outside Inquisitor Brake's door. Considering the Deakon's comments about the distance from the service access to the chapel and the main entrance, it seems unlikely that either of these fellows would be able to kill the confessor, crawl through the access tunnel and then meet outside the Inquisitor's room (conjecture, of course, without the layout of the ship). The acting Grand Confessor was at the door when they arrived however - meaning that within the given time-frame, he seems to be the most likely suspect, though, there's no way he could have hung the confessor either due to the location of the tether.

There is one other explanation. The Grand Confessor was praying in the chapel to request forgivness for tampering with the suit of armor. The drill caught him by surprise and he was unable to exit the chapel due to his debilitiated state. It is possible that the Grand Confessor attempted to exit by reaching one of the access hatches via a buttress only to fall off during the lurch and "accidentally" hang himself. The location of the stool may be coincidence.

That's really good Keezus.  I'm impressed.  You have identified many of the key points.  The access hatches were not used.  There is still fragments of cleanser in the cracks.  Also, I hope that I have established that you would need to change clothes or clean up your uniform if you used the access hatches.  The 'accident' hypothesis is VERY good.  The stool would/could be there of the Grand Confessor were praying.  He doesn't like to stand for long.  The Grand confessor's mobility is only somewhat hampered.  When you read the prologue, the Inquisitor does not even notice and the Grand Confessor turns up in several places.

You have all, or almost all of the parts, they are not quite put together properly.  The Inquisitor would be please to have you as an assistant.

 

I'm waiting a little longer to before posting the next section.  I will add clarification about the access hatch use when the Inquisitor visits Magos Technicus Mechanicus Bohr.

Come on folks.  Keezus has some great ideas.  What about the rest of you?'

What's the matter, Colonel Sanders?  CHICKEN?  (Dark Helmet)

I'm posting the 'answer' on Friday.  So you have untill then to post your analysis.

Be brave!

It has already been explained that with the Grand Confessors broken leg implant and the heavy maneuvering during the fleet drill it cannot be a suicide. I also do not believe into an accident, because that would not explain the severe blow to the head of the victim.

Why did he get killed? Because he was a witch sniffer. Whatever is going on abord the Rex, he either found out about it or knew about it from the beginning and got cold feet when the Inquisitor threatend to inform the Ecclesiarch. I dont think it was only a punishment for interfering with the Chaos Armor, something like this would be carried out openly. And the correspondance with the flag captain suggests involvement in a greater plot.

I'm pretty sure who did it. First I thought of Flag Lieutenent Verdi, but he was with witnesses all the time and too fat to climb the ladders quickly. The Admiral and the Commissar were at the Inquisitors Quaters too fast.

It must have been Confessor Vindire. He was the last to see Grand Confessor Morion alive, and he came out almost immediatly after he went to see him in his private Chapel. He must have had information about the upcoming drill from high authorities. He visited the Grand Confessor to lure him into the Chapel, then talked to the Commissar to keep the fasade that everything was normal. Morion was probably sitting ín the chapel before the drill started, so that the Deakon didnt see him when sealing the doors. When the Drill started, Vindire sneaked into the Chapel via the maintenance hatches, hit the trapped Grand Confessor unconsious with some kind of weapon and then killed him by hanging him. Morion was light enough to be lifted around. After that Vindire prepared the murder to look like suicide, sneaked out of the Chapel again and got rid of the weapon in the process.

He must have always had a bad relation to Morion, because the otherwise emotionless Commissar was suprised when Vindire was worried about saving Morions soul when the Inquisitor arrived at the scene. And because he had to dispose of his regular clothes from crawling the maintenance hatch, he had to wear his most elaborate robes...

Great Story!

Thanks APEX.  The answer is out now.  Anybody feel swindled?

Damn, thats, unexpected. But makes sence nonetheless. I made some mistakes in my analysis i realize now. Hell, Inquisitor Brake is good. Cant wait for the next part!

I think that it makes more sense when you read the prologue. It shows that 'something' is going on and the story helps explain what. I'm still not happy with thenext story and I'm still working on it. I may change the identiyu of the murderer.

APEX, you do agree that the broken neck was a key piece of evidence which showed that it cannot be suicide. I assume that most readers are familiar enough with modern forensics to know something abut the various forms of violent death.

My eldest dog, only 8, has a serious liver problem and I'm in 'baby' mode (as in new mother), getting only a couple of hours sleep each night because he cannot get ouside by himself at the moment.  I'm going to post the intro to the next stor, but it may take a while before I can hammer the bits out in a way I like.  I hope those of you who have not replied (Thanks Keezus and APEX) liked the last story.  I see only 15 hits on the solution, two of which are mine checking the text.

I never thought about the broken neck. Afterwards of course it sounds reasonable.

My key pieces to non suicide were his injured leg combined with the heavy maneuvering during the drill.

Thanks for the input APEX. Anyone else out there??  This goes for the Style topic too,  The more the merrier, you say.

My dog, which I have had for seven years, has died.  Blood chemistry went bad, had a seizure, fell into a coma and died quickly and peacefully.  I have three other dogs but it does not soften the blow.

In a couple of days I'll get back to the story.

I didn't get back as soon as I thought.

The Commissar story is well under way. You ave most of the important information, including the 'Big Clue'

I'm running an Inquisitor RPG on Asrai.org in Grove of Tales where my happy victims are travelling on The Miracle of Saint Basil to Pleasant Hill. They have a locked room murder on their hands and some of the player characters are trying to solve it.

If anyone is interested in running some NPCs for me, PM me.

Good thinking.

If you read the story carefully,you will discover a very small thing that is a big inconsistency (it is an action, not words). Like many of the other stories, this inconsistency is almost trivial, but starts the wheels turning.

Keezus, if you have the time and inclination, I'd bevery happy if you wanted to insert yourself for a while into the Asrai.org RPG/Mystery. There's several characters you could run for me.