Trial 2 - John Paulo Augusto

[Chatt]

The screen crackles to life with an image of the late king.

"The second one down! Just so you know, I have 28 more of these to record."

"Well, let's bring the killer to justice!"

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Use this thread to debate the murder of John. Use the colored truth system please. Remember if you are not the murderer, no lying using purple.

[Arie Camillia]

I believe this will be a quick and painless trial. 01 is our culprit.

Starting with what happened to John, he approached me in the laundry room complaining of chest pain and saying he was having a heart attack. This happened at approximately 9:30PM UTC. I asked him what happened, but he didn't give me a clear answer. His only concrete memory of someone attacking him was, and I quote, "a ghost." I escorted him to the infirmary where the physicians immediately brought him into emergency surgery, saying he had an air embolism. This was not confirmed by any pre-operative diagnostics, but since the used and bloody syringe in the infirmary was free of any liquid, it may be safe to assume that the doctor's diagnosis was correct. Additionally, there was a pinprick wound on John's arm, which we can assume to be the site of injection. The cause of death was ultimately an ischemia-induced cardiac arrest at 9:45PM UTC.

When we arrived into the infirmary, there were destroyed bottles of drugs like warfarin and adrenaline on the floor, meaning that 01 was clearly trying to prevent John's treatment. This could have happened at any point before or after 01 injected John, but judging by the trail of glass leading to Deck 3, we can assume that 01 injected John with a deadly bolus of air before retreating to the infirmary to destroy life-saving medication. After doing so, he left towards Deck 3, creating the glass trail. But what did he do in Deck 3?

If you recall, John said a ghost attacked him, but this is not a specter or apparition of any kind. 01 donned a simply laundry sheet as a disguise to run around the ship. Evidenced by his previous use of disguises, we can assume he has a penchant for such nonsense. The sheet was discarded in the storage room and shredded, but if one took the time to put the pieces back together, you can clearly see splotches of red, green and blue. I was rather puzzled by this, but when I took a spare laundry sheet from the laundry myself, I recreated the pattern and donned it to approximate where the stains would be. Simply put, the stains were close to where one's face would be if you were to put the sheet on in a similar ghost-like manner. I was curious and decided to try and take a piece of the original soiled laundry sheet and ask 01 what he could figure out from the smell or... taste of the compound. However, upon finding him, he was wearing a full face of clown makeup.

Jekyll holds up a soiled laundry sheet.

I took a fresh sheet from the laundry room on Deck 2 and pressed 01's face into it to see if it would imprint with similar markings to the destroyed sheet, and the colors and pattern almost perfectly match. Of course, it would not be a perfect match given that the sheet mostly likely just grazed 01's face whilst he was wearing it, not pressed into it.

Thus we can conclude that after retreating to Deck 3, 01 destroyed his disguise and walked off to do whatever he was doing before.

[King V]

"Let me make an addendum to your accusation. It's unlikely that 01 performed this murder alone as neither 01 nor the ghost were recorded to have passed through the reception recently, therefore it would have been difficult for them to both attack John on deck 1, and also hide evidence on deck 2."

"It's likely that two different people were involved, one that stabbed John with the syringe on deck 1, and another who hid away the evidence on deck 2. Given what all the evidence found on deck 2, it's likely that 01 simply hid the evidence there, while the real culprit donned a second ghost disguise and attacked John on deck 1."

"And that person is Albert! Albert quickly snuck away from prince 5's room, donned a 2nd ghost disguise and attacked John, then snuck back in and allowed 01 to cover up his trail."

[Xaniks]

"How terrible that you would accuse His Royal Highness the First Prince's guard so soon! Though I will admit the Detective has been going through a circus phase..."

[Grug]

"I suppose in theory Otoshin could be right, considering the only alibi I have that someone else can attest to is that I spent a good chunk of time in Tubeppa's rooms, something Hu Tao can confirm, in addition to confirming Otoshin attempted to sneak into our Prince's room before running off after triggering Hu Tao's clever alarm system! Anyway, beyond that I went to the main kitchen to help out for a bit before beginning to head upstairs to do the same for the crew kitchens, where on the way to the former I saw John looking a tad unwell..."

[Daiwa Scarlet]

Hu Tao hums to herself, "It should be noted that the reception logs may not be accurate during a blackout as the cameras don't work."

[King V]

"And that's precisely why I suspect you, Albert. You see, Prince Tserriednich gave us a great hint at the end of the discussion, blessedbehisnamelongmayhereign... that the time of death was completely wrong, and the murder occurred far before anyone had anticipated. At that time, Ruka would have still been in the bar, and would have had to pass through the kitchen in order to grab a knife to perform the murder, thus you would have seen her if your alibi was true. Meanwhile, you, Albert, had the perfect opportunity to grab a knife and return it back in a short period of time, enough time to-..."

"Oh... sorry, ahem... excuse me..."

"That is to say, Hu Tao not only confirmed that I was the one who triggered your silly door trap, but that you, Albert, were the one who went to reset it. This small window of time gives Albert the perfect opportunity to slip away from the others in order to put on a simple sheet as a disguise, stab the unsuspecting John in the hallway, very close to Prince Tubeppa's doorstep, and return as if nothing happened. All the while the 'ghost', who was likely 01, was hiding evidence and preparing for murder on decks 2 and 3, unaware that he had been inadvertently framed. Or he was simply an accomplice and knew about the plan the entire time."

[Arie Camillia]

"Like Hu Tao said, we cannot fully rely on the reception logs in this case, especially with the public knowledge of at least one passageway."

"Additionally, I would like to continue entertaining the possibility of 01 being involved in this murder. It is strange that the bottles in the infirmary would be destroyed after John was attacked, since you would presumably want to destroy these before he even had a chance to make it to the infirmary. It would make sense if 01 wasn't on Deck 1 in the first place, as it would have been easier for an accomplice to assist in removing the drugs without having to worry about beating their victim to the infirmary. This still maintains the glass trail leading to Deck 3 for 01 to dispose of his sheet, as well."

[Daiwa Scarlet]

"It is difficult to tell how many there are, but Prince Carmilla's room also has a passageway. As for the passage from Prince Tubeppa's room, unless Carmilla's guards decide to use our passage instead of their own for some reason, I do not believe anyone could have slipped into the room this evening. Albert and myself were in the room with our prince for most of the evening, and had set up an alarm to catch any who felt inclined to barge in."

[Karenina]

Knight of Despair suddenly snaps her head up in an unnatural, twitchy way. She faces Hu Tao

"Ahh... But we... were together for most of the time... In our room... Kaede had to throw John out into the Princes Hallway... Wouldn't leave... Refused to leave. I have not... seen him since. None of us went anywhere... until later... where I left first... Empty, empty hallway... I do not think... it was possible for anyone to have used... our passageway... No time... no time... Lady Carmilla... Kaede... Guarding... Please... Leave us be... You said so yourself... that our alibi matched... When checking my clean... clean shoes..."

"Were you... fixing your door together... You and Albert..? Can you... truly cover for him..?"

[Daiwa Scarlet]

"Albert and I watched Otoshin leave, with him fixing the alarm shortly afterwards. I cant say that we were together the whole time, but we were with the prince for what I believe to be at least an hour."

[Arie Camillia]

"If we are going to pin this crime on two people, I'd like to hear a better construction of how the crime would have taken place.

"While we cannot solidly confirm 01's whereabouts besides his presence on Deck 3, he did pass through the Prince Reception at 9:16PM UTC the night of the murder. If we recall, John approached me in the laundry room at 9:30PM UTC. The gap of 14 minutes leaves him plenty of time to have made it to the infirmary, destroy the drugs, then destroy his disguise on Deck 3."

"If 01 were being assisted with the murder, or if he were the accomplice, he would have had to move to Deck 1 then back down in order to transport the bloody syringe to the infirmary. However, when checking the reception logs, 01 did not make any entries in quick succession. If we are to narrow down the time frame a bit more, I left Deck 1 at 8:47PM UTC to pursue more puzzles aboard this vessel. When I had left my Prince's foyer, John was alive and well from what I could tell. This means that John should have been attacked anywhere after 8:47PM to 9:30PM UTC."

"Additionally, 01 would thus need to have been on Deck 1 with Albert in order for this movement to agree with the reception logs, assuming that they are accurate. Otoshin, if you are convinced that there is a second player in this crime, please elaborate further."

[Daiwa Scarlet]

"While searching for another witness for the body, I came upon Kaede in the deck 3 storage and 01 in the workshop. This was shortly before the announcement itself as another had wandered into the infirmary."

[Barrett Bear, esq.]

"Your honor, I was only clowning around"

[King V]

"Didn't you say so yourself, Jekyll? The reception logs cannot be trusted to be 100% accurate during a blackout. Your counterclaim against Albert seems to hinge on 01 being where the reception logs say he is at very specific times. But then you claim that 01 committed the entire murder by himself when, according to the logs he should have never left the deck he was situated on until after the murder happened, whether that be deck 1 like you claim, or deck 2 like I claim."

"You'll have to pick one or the other, Jekyll. Either the logs are inaccurate, thus 01 could have snuck through to deck 2 to destroy the evidence. Or the logs are accurate, thus 01 never left deck 1 or deck 2, whichever deck he was situated on before the murder. Either way, your counterargument does not discredit an accomplice."