Part 6: Who Dunnit?

You know who the murderer is. However, given that you refuse to oust the murderer inside a small control booth, you exit the control booth and leave Miss Scarlett and Mr. Green to their conversation. 

You move to the center of the theater, where the crime scene was set and Patti's body remains covered by the black canvas tarp. 

You take a deep breath, your body trembling as you make the decision to inform the police that you have an inclination that Miss Aphrodite Scarlett was indeed the murderer. You approach the lead officer, Detective Ketchup, who asks you more questions in the echo chambered hallway.

|Detective Ketchup| "So, let me get this straight. You think that you know for sure who the murderer is?"

|You| "Yes. Miss Scarlet killed Patti out of spite."

|Detective| "Take me back to the beginning of how you found out. Don't leave any detail out."

|You| "Well, you see, when Patrice Brewer was being covered I noticed two people leave the theater in a fit of frustration with one another -- Miss White and Miss Scarlett. I interviewed both of them to which Miss Scarlett had revealed that Mr. Green, her former flame, and Patti Brewer had struck up a romance just weeks after her initial breakup. Miss Scarlett had also revealed that Mr. Green, Patti, and another young girl were working around a love triangle. Miss Patience White, during her interview, had mentioned to me that Miss Scarlett was glaring at Mrs. Peacock, who sat to her left during the film showing."

|Detective| "So Miss Scarlett did not appreciate Patti's involvement in her former flame's love life?"

|You| "Yes. I confirmed this when I interviewed Mr. Gilderoy Green, the Editor-in-Chief of The Academy Times, on the catwalk of the stage. He had provided me two key details. The first that the headmaster of our school, Mr. Peter Pepper Mustard, was a regular attendee of the town's only indie film screening and up until two years ago, heavily involved in the filmmaking process of our horribly designed PSA-themed indie films. Hence why our indie film this year was a decent horror film."

|Detective| "What made your headmaster stop being so heavily involved in the school's endeavors?"

|You| "Mr. Green's second film photo showed me a photo of the headmaster, dressed in an almost completely unrecognizable costume, meeting a mystery woman on a date. The whole thing to distinguish her identity is the lining of a gold band with a silver and blue lining, with a shaped resemblance to that of a peacock on her right hand, ring finger."

|Detective| "You're basing your findings on a photo taken by a student who was tracking your headmaster across town? Nevermind the fact that it's a film photo of all types?"

|You| "First, he's also the intern at the Towne Chronicles, so he does have an official press pass. Second, no matter how much of a journalist he is, his photos did help me confirm my findings when I overheard a conversation with one of the professors, Pious Plum, and Mr. Mustard. The headmaster was indeed seeing a mystery woman, under the guise of his reboot identity, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band, and his new eponymous album titled, The Mustard Show, must go on. I assumed the mystery woman to be Mrs. Peacock."

|Detective| "How would this tie back into Miss Scarlett?"

|You| "When I was overhearing the conversation, Professor Plum and Mr. Mustard had mentioned an election gone awry, and that a poor girl was demoted a whole class level. Given this information, I went to the only source of information I knew, back to Mr. Green. I approached Mr. Green back in the theater audience, inside the theater's control booth, where he was conversing with Miss Scarlett. Miss Scarlett had mentioned that she was technically not supposed to be a senior this year and that she was in fact a senior from last year. I believe she was also a candidate in the election because she mentioned that she and Patti never mentioned anything to each other about academics. Although, the candidate portion I am not so sure about because Mr. Green was forced to burn most of what he had of the main election -- candidate names, photos of the main election -- everything except for his photos from the pre-election and general club events in the year."

|Detective| "How did a high school election make Patti a target?"

|You| "Let's not jump to conclusions here. Allow me to explain further. Miss Scarlett and Patti did everything together. They had the same flame, the same teachers until now, and with the help of Mr. Green's film photo evidence, the same extracurriculars. Miss Scarlett and Patti were in the same physics club, theatre audience, and associated student body elections. The only difference is, Patti always came on top. Miss Scarlett was held back a year, under the guise that her transcripts were not valid from her "online" tech middle school. Patti was one of the leads in the Physics experiment and a lead in our theatre's stage production and theatre cast. However, the tip of the iceberg was when Mr. Mustard demoted Miss Scarlett a whole class level partially because of her tech school mishap and because of the election's voting ethics debacle, where there were 340 votes, 100 more than how many students are even in this campus." 

|Detective| "How was it Patti become the murder victim then?"

|You| "Because Patti was not the target. Mr. Mustard was. I immediately knew when I asked Miss Scarlett as to why she was seen glaring at Mrs. Peacock. Miss Scarlett was not glaring at the reflection from Mrs. Peacock's shiny gold ring. She was glaring at the fact that Mr. Mustard was not sitting at the seat from which she heard, from Professor Plum, he would be sitting this year. 

|Detective| "You say Professor Plum knew where Mr. Mustard was meant to be sitting?"

|You| "That's not the point. The point is, after looking through Mr. Green's past photos, I noticed that Miss Scarlett and Patti Brewer were in the same photos, each and every time. I found that Miss Scarlett was in the Physics club where she learned the perfect trajectory to throw the knife attached to the rope over the bar that connected the overhead lights. Miss Scarlett was also in a stage production with her late best friend but was pulled into being a catwalk lighting technician because she was not cast as an actress. Miss Scarlett was also involved in the ASB election mishap, hence why she was demoted to a whole class level."

|Detective| "And it couldn't have been Mr. Green with his yearning to join the big leagues of journalism? Or Mrs. Peacock after she discovered his true identity? Or perhaps Miss Patience White?"

|You| "Mr. Green is a journalist and has a press pass, but he doesn't know a thing about politics or physics. Mrs. Peacock was the reason Mr. Mustard was not even in the audience at the time, she had no idea that Sgt. Pepper, a singer in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band, is actually Mr. Mustard, the strict headmaster of The Academy. Miss Patience White is too quiet and is not involved much in the school's extracurriculars."

|Detective| "Thank you for this information. We will need to do some more work, but we will take this into consideration."

You exhale a breath of relief. It's over. You revealed who you thought the killer was.
The detective finished up the last of his on-scene reports and we parted ways. Patti's body was transported out of the theater, along with her parents mourning for their loss. 

You sit down in the control booth once more, observing Miss Scarlet being escorted by the police outside the theater. When you begin to look around the control booth, you spot a paper with small handwriting on it. You inch further below the panels that control the lights and pick up the letter. The front of the foldings labeled as I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST YEAR, Love Miss Patience White. 

You open the folder, and the words on the first page jump out to you, red ink striking.

"Hello, Headmaster. This isn't over yet."

As you read further, your heart sinks. 

Aphrodite wasn't the murderer. She's innocent.

Patti wasn't the target.

You know who did it, and she's walked away free. 

***

A Note from the InteractiveStory and YAMystery teams

Firstly, thank you to all of you for sticking around this activity and participating. Without you, there wouldn't have been an activity.

We'd also like to give a huge shoutout to those involved in the collab from each of the teams (especially with graphics/ writing).

This isn't quite the end yet. We have another couple of fun chapters planned, separate from the storyline (including Q&A, bloopers, and more). If this catches your interest, add this book to your library to be the first to get the update notification.

If you'd like to join us in different activities in the future, you can check out each of our profiles: InteractiveStory and YAMystery

Lastly, we hope you enjoyed this activity and we hope to see you again in the future!

- The Teams of InteractiveStory and YAMystery