The Murvelli Murder

21. A game of detection

At about 10pm that evening an arrest was made by the officers stationed by Detective Max Kole at the international airport in the city. At about the same time, a great inferno had broken out at the Murvelli Aurum corporation and it took tremendous effort from the fire service to put the fire out. The suspects arrested at the airport were brought to the police station.

Chief Inspector Kennedy and Detective Max were still conversing.

"This is all still very strange to me," said Kennedy. "How did you come to know it was the seemingly innocent cleaner, Martin, and the good gardener, Cyril, who were the actual murderers?"

"The simplicity of the general theory proving Jason guilty," Max replied, "led me to believe that there was another reasonable theory which was out of plain sight and required detailed examination to be brought to light."

"But you have given me all the facts as you saw them, from the evidence of the dagger up to the information we were able to gather about the deceased and his family. I still do not see how it points to these two men."

The detective smiled. "You see, Chief, I know you are my superior and you have been in this much longer than I have, but it is my watchword that hardly anything of such importance can be so simply explained. There is a murder committed and the victim is a physically active man. The fingerprint on the murder weapon and the fight between the man and his son all point a guilty finger at the son. But my first line of thought was that this boy could not have been so stupid as to leave the dagger with his fingerprints for everyone to see. Then I spoke with the boy himself. He didn't know how his fingerprint got upon the weapon and I believed him because no sensible person would deny such an obvious thing, unless they were telling the truth. The photos taken of the dead man on the chair, and the description given by the son of the appearance of the dead man gave me more reason to believe this man saw what was coming to him, but had absolutely no way of defending himself. What could have caused such a thing save poisoning?
Recall that Jason Murvelli had made mention of the victim's habitual coffee and another bottle of drink which he takes nightly. This made me to conclude that anyone who knew of these habits and had access to either the coffee or the bottle, was a suspect.

"Next I visited the lab where the weapon was kept. Recall I told you of the strange feeling I've been having in my guts starting from the moment I saw the engraving on the blade of the dagger? The crocodile and the word with missing letters held the answers that I've been searching for: Motive!

"I had once come across a literature of several African cultures. There is a myth about a secret organization of men who were under oath to protect and fight for each other. If anybody harms their own, they pay back with death. They go after and kill their traitors with a mysterious jagged dagger, jagged like the scales of a crocodile, with a crocodile engraved in the blade. The crocodile is the symbol for vengeance, and the word underneath the crocodile is Rhamnousia, also known as Nemesis, the Greek god of retribution. Revenge-this was the sole motive of the criminal, or criminals as in this case, but damn my brain it didn't recall the significance of these symbol at the time and all I had was a feeling deep in my guts...

"It has been concluded that Jason murdered his father out of rage, after having a fight about money. This was motive. But then I had to give this already complicated yet seemingly simple crime a closer look."

The Chief inspector sat with his arms folded like a school student listening attentively to the narrative of his teacher.

Max went on. "I then visited the morgue to see the body of the victim. The body of a muscular man I saw, one who must have wielded much strength in his life. Stabbed twice on his chest while he just sat and watched  helplessly? By his own son of 24? You'd agree with me chief, it didn't make sense. Something else was at play. I was so sure it had to do with poisoning.

"When I got to the house and met the household, everybody was a suspect in my eyes and yours as well, you'd agree. The cook could have poisoned the man, likewise  the son and the wife who was not around although she could have manipulated one of the employees into giving to her will. The motive we could see was to lay claim to the husband's wealth and marry her boyfriend, having made the original heir in the person of Jason, become the prime suspect, therefore stripping him of his claim to the empire.

"The cleaner, Martin was a suspect as well being that he cleans the house and so he has access to the victim's room and study. The gardener, Cyril, could have come in from outside through the window which the victim is in the habit of leaving open when he is keeping a late night in the study. Likewise the driver and the security.

"But Who could have poisoned the victim and then stab him? I'll say Anyone! Anyone who had access to what he eats and drinks. But then If you wanted to get rid of someone and had the opportunity to poison that person, you would give them a deadly poison that'll cause death ultimately. But in this case, it was not so. The murderer  needed the victim to see their face before executing him, therefore they used a special kind of poison, one causing total paralysis. There was motive, a deep desire for vengeance.

"But was it just one person? The evidence of the window gave me the clue. You see, the victim was in the habit of opening his window at night. The murderer counted on this. But unfortunately it started raining that night and so Murvelli must have locked the window. But still someone was able to come in using a rope and a hook(this was obvious to me because of the mud and scratch on the window sill). This means somebody from the inside had opened the window again. It couldn't have been Murvelli as the time of death was slated at about 2-3pm, during this time it was still raining. He wouldn't open his window while it rained. This led me to conclude that the criminal which came through the window has an inside man within the house.

"Of course it could have been either Jason or the cook or the cleaner. But I've already explained why we can safely rule out Jason as a suspect. Mrs. Murvelli could have bribed the cleaner or cook. But you see, this cook had been with Murvelli much longer than Rose, and had grown very fond of the man. It is very much unlikely that the cook, Beatrice, could be so manipulated into deliberate poisoning. This leaves only Martin the cleaner.

"The floor of the study had covertly been cleaned by someone after the murder. Martin had been in the house for about two years. He limps and have scars and has a very strong right arm and a touch palm, evidence of strenuous labor, yet he claims to never have been engaged in such activity. That was a lie. He obviously was hiding something. Something quite important to him and of immense concern as he wouldn't hide something from someone who it feels it doesn't concern.

"This same theory applied to Cyril. The scars, the damaged eye. It became apparent to me that they had both encountered something very damaging to their bodies and it couldn't be shear coincidence that they have come to the same mansion within the space of a year.

"This was my surmise until information came to us about the life of Murvelli before he became rich. Alas there was no record on him until age thirty when he formed his corporation. This pointed me to the fact that he may have been in some other country for sometime, had stumbled upon a fortune, and had grave reasons to change his name.

"When I at last remembered the meaning of the crocodile and Rhamnousia, everything became clear to me. Someone or some persons are out for revenge against him, and they have finally got him.

"Now we'll go and I'll recount to the criminals how they carried out their affair of the night. And wherever I've deduced wrong, I hope they'll throw more light."