The Ashworth Catalogue
A discrepancy is found in the university museum's artifact labels. An independent investigator is brought in to examine the physical records, departmental correspondence, and the personal habits of the faculty. The official provenance of a key artifact is called into question.
Initial Crime Scene
The smell of old paper and furniture polish hangs thick in the air. Sunlight filters through tall, mullioned windows, illuminating dust motes that drift over the worn wool runners. A brass microscope sits precisely aligned on a felt mat in the conservation alcove. The pneumatic tube log rests open on a central table, its carbon-paper entries smudged. A leather-bound accession ledger lies closed on a mahogany desk, its spine cracked.
Crime Scene Environment
The lighting is diffuse and hushed, cast from high windows and green-shaded desk lamps. The air is cool and still, with a consistent humidity level preserved for the documents. Acoustic density is low; sounds are muffled by wool runners and leather upholstery, broken only by the distant tick of a grandfather clock and the occasional pneumatic tube 'whoosh'.
Investigation Constraints
Early 20th-century academic setting. Tools include fountain pens, carbon paper, leather-bound ledgers, wax seals, telegrams, rotary dial telephones, pneumatic tube systems for intra-departmental messages, manual typewriters, brass microscopes, and physical key cabinets. No computers, digital logs, or electronic surveillance.
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