A Display of Faded Ribbons
A town's Independence Day celebration concludes with a firework misfire resulting in a fatality. An independent investigator arrives to examine the circumstances, encountering a community of citizens each managing personal records, schedules, and household accounts. The investigation focuses on reconciling these individual timelines and documents with the physical event.
Initial Crime Scene
The polished wood of the threshold reflects the grey, overcast sky. A single, sharp tick-tock from a distant room marks the silence. The air carries a faint, sweet smell of spilled brandy, mixing with the damp scent of trampled grass and the dry, papery odor of old ledger books. On a municipal crate nearby, a single, out-of-season dried flower petal is caught in the weave of its burlap covering. A damp handkerchief lies discarded on a chair.
Crime Scene Environment
The environment is defined by a stifling propriety under overcast, diffused lighting that flattens shadows. The humidity profile is high, leaving a damp coolness on polished surfaces and a chill in the air. Acoustic density is low and oppressive, dominated by the isolated, rhythmic sounds of mechanical clocks, sharp nasal intakes of breath, and the fretful whisper of moving fabric against wood.
Investigation Constraints
Handwritten ledgers and municipal council minutes, rotary telephones, manual switchboards, mechanical clocks with wind-up keys, physical mail delivery, hand-operated firework mortars and fuse systems, padlocked storage sheds, paper receipts and carbon copies.
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