Many apologies for the wall of text that follows!
Tiny Martha watched and listened. As Teo offers his view she smiles and seems genuinely pleased at his deduction. "Splendid, Brother! Splendid!" she nods again. [ Beej ]
"I shall help...if I can...with any examination. I wonder...what do we make of the coffin?"
She looked to Chris Wooding again. Her tie now ready for the tourniquet. "Are you sure you are well, sir?" she asks him, offer her tie for his aid. Her concern, though perhaps misplaced given his earlier rejection of aid, is nevertheless sincere.
"I wonder if there is a connection with this incident and the recent slayings of Kindred? The crimes committed by by Traitor Heathcliff Staley may or may not be connected too...though it is my belief they aren't as he seems to have suffered from some malevolent and internal corruption of his own design."
"Now...Miss Sarah LaFleur and Mr Thomas O'Connor were slain during the autumn...er...Fall...last year. Miss LaFleur slew Mr O'Conner...but...well, the Deputy cadre at the time investigated the matter and..."
As she speaks Martha hobbled back over to the Flip-chart and begins to write out bullet points to clarify the facts she then outlines what she recalled of the report given to her by the then Deputy Grigoriev;
"...Dr Swift , please...if you recall anything I have missed from what I'm about to summarize, please do not hesitate to let me know!" she smiles respectfully to the Doctor before adding,
"...the crime scene was in extreme disarray. The blood spatter was analyzed by Doctors Powell and Swift, and they identified two separate encounters had occurred, one panicked and uncontrolled, and the other efficient. Mr. Heinz proceeded to use the Sight, and was able to identify that O'Connor was killed by LaFleur, using a lamp from the room. Afterwards, LaFleur was killed by a second attacker - an individual who more than likely wielded a sword. The Deputies were certain that it was a double edged sword designed for beheading. No further notable marks. No particular fighting signature. It was done with a single blow. The interval between the two incidents was not long. Miss LaFleur seemed to be expecting someone, which does not preclude a concealed attacker. The investigation of the room was thorough. there was no obvious footprints, trace scents or other physical evidence. Dr Powell and others did and retrieve other items. A journal...two passports. A firearm. Cheque books and credit cards. A cellular telephonic device was known to be missing."
"Further investigation revealed that an object was removed from the Hotel - an object concealed within a handwritten copy of Grimm's 'Fairy Tales'. Unfortunately, we have as yet been unable to identify this missing object. It is unlikely it was the telephonic device...though Mr. Heinz could not get a clear view of it from the Sight."
"Now...in addition, Grand Wyrm Heinz reported during an earlier investigation that he had two visions that illuminated the crime. During these he saw Miss LaFleur and Mr O'Conner engaged in a heated argument, though the cause of it was unclear. Sometime later Miss LaFleur used a lamp to kill Mr O'Conner. Once she had murdered him she made her way over to a safe and opened it. She was looking for something before hearing a noise and looked back towards the bathroom door. She replaced the journal back inside the safe. Closed the safe and left the room."
"Once she was back in the bedroom area of the hotel room, she meet her attacker. She seemed to recognize him, calling out 'No...Not you...No...Please...' and then screamed. She was then beheaded by the figure with the short sword." tiny Martha blinked and silently gripped her pen for a moment before continuing,
"Whatever our attacker was after was concealed inside the journal. Miss LaFleur had cut out a hiding place within it's pages. Mr O'Conner ripped the hollowed pages out and tossed them under one of the beds to hide them."
Martha continued to make notes on the charts;
"Grand Wyrm Heinz wasn't able to get a clear view of what that object was. The best description supplied was that of a metal object, rectangular with rounded corners with...if I recall correctly...holes punched out of it in different locations. Nothing matching that description was found at the time so it was concluded that it went missing along with a cellular telephonic device. It was also concluded that the room was in disarray as, not only was there a struggle between Miss LaFleur and Mr O'Connor, but that the room had been searched by her murderer. Someone known to her."
"Now..." she gestures with the felt-tipped pen she was using to write on the chart as a pointer to identify the Journal over with other items of evidence she had brought along, "...turning to the Journal we identified an acrostic code in text. It read: 'T...H....I...S... T...O... B... A... R... E... S ... P...A...I...N' It revealed itself as the letters are a slightly different design...uppercase in strange places...oddly coloured ink...that sort of thing."
"Now...after giving the matter thought earlier investigation showed that this acrostic cryptogram pointed to the Invictus Ventrue, former Lord of this Domain, Tobias Straiphen."
She gulped. the name carried such power...such threat. She rubbed harder at her crippled hip before adding;
"Former Prince Tobias was later removed from power by various elements in the Domain after a period of chaos and ruthlessness under the rule of Nosferatu Prince Freddrick. At least 70 Kindred were killed under his rule. He himself fell to the rampage of Elder Eric the Ancient...a terrible creature who slew a great many Elders and Officers of Court in the City. It was after that this terror was quelled, a new, brighter, age later followed...Duke Alder Clarke, thankfully, becoming Prince in 2009. I understand that Duke Clarke took an important role in quelling this terror."
"You see, ladies and gentlemen, I applied some examination using Auspex. During this I saw Sarah...Miss LaFleur, wrestling with an inner void of despair...and fear. Sarah worked so very hard to write those clues in a book...to leave the T and S initials...there was some outer force trying to compel her to stop. To struggle against this, it cost her a great deal in Blood and Will. Some other force, it seemed to be causing an outer inertia of despair and...fear...trying to prevent her work." her voice trails off now.
Tiny Martha sags a little. Still troubled by the sorrow of losing her friend, she looked glumly around in silent for a moment before adding;
"Now...there is more...in September last year there was a theft at a retail outlet involving a book written in Hungarian. This other matter was, at the time, being explored by Mr Calloway and..." with a respectful nod to Chris, "...Hierophant Wooding."
"At the time Mr Calloway hinted at Herr Von Schutsen...Herr Von Schutsen once openly boasted of being an assassin to the Mekhet in this Domain. What if he is responsible for all this? He has the lethal skills...he knew all the victims well, or donned the guise of the appearance to that effect."
"Now...I wonder: did the earlier investigation overlook anything? Are there more codes concealed in the Hungarian text?" she nodded to Teo at this, clearly looking to see if he can help before looking to the rest of those gathered, adding;
"So, in addition to the corpse we have here and the lady in pursuit of it, are we faced with the return of former Prince Fredderick...Eric...or some other Elder threat, perhaps related to them, perhaps not? Can anyone supply insight from the clues in the coffin or texts..." she waves her pen again to the books, nodding to Teo and everyone, "...to seeing what we may now face?"