2017-12-01 - The Arkham Whites Mystery

"Elementary, dear Watson. Elementary."

The audiobook grinds to a stop. Cass, currently holding a handstand splits in the center of the room, waits for it to be complete. She's spent the night doing stability exercises, and listening to Sherlock Holmes audiobooks, and as she opens her eyes she slowly lifts legs up, then performs a controlled cartwheel to the ground. Her shoulders ache pleasantly and her mind is full.

Batman enters the cave, moving like a ghost. He does that when he wants to surprise you with something. For his friends that can be very nice, a new toy or training technique or if you are very studious some cookies from Alfred. If you are say Penguin then, not a good surprise at all. He's holding what looks like one of his cowls, with the exterior armor removed, showing the electronic sensors and guts exposed. He waits for Cassandra to notice him, which shouldn't take long. His body control is not being practiced for once. He's eager. Very eager.

The Cassandra in the room turns to look at Batman. She gives no indication of how long she's known him to be there as it simply isn't important; she is not competing with him tonight. But he can see her eyes strafing across him, looking for things, lingering on what's changed and what is new. And what is missing? Perhaps; it was a Holmsian maxim.

As she assesses him, she can be assessed in return. She's quite awake and aware, and slightly physically exhausted. Perfect for a lesson and apparently still eager to learn. But once she's glanced at the cowl she looks instead at Batman's eyes, waiting.

Batman shows the cowl. He says, "My masks have a lot of sensors, almost enough to hide reality from you if you layer too many inputs on each other. I call it detective mode. I found out quite by accident they can also make very good virtual reality sets. Like audio books with pictures. Only you can also pause to look up things the characters refer to." He holds the device out ready to slip it over her head and wire it up to the computer. "This was a very old mystery here in Gotham. It was very famous. Alfred introduced me to it. It was the first real case I solved though of course Alfred had the accounts and final results to test me against. It was called the Arkham Whites in the papers."

Cassandra Cain is without a doubt the easiest person to suit up ever. She is already assenting even before Batman finishes speaking, giving a nod, and uses his body language to hint her in how she should be positioned in order to best put this thing on. No curiosity is evident, merely a student prepared to be taught and absolutely trusting the teacher to move her to the next step. She does, however, ask a verbal question. "Is there...anything I need to know before we...start?" As she's helping him put it on her, limiting her vision. That might be a good tool for another time; limit her vision, she's forced to find other ways to gather information.

Batman ponders a second then says, "The time was known as the Depression. A great many people lost a lot of money. My family was nearly ruined by it but recovered. The people are computer animations so no body language to read. You will not always have access to a suspect to read their mannerisms." He adjusts the cowl and seems satisfied.

Batman says, "It was a chilly evening in March, 1930. Gotham's legendary businessman, Joel Arkham was hosting a dinner party at his Bristol mansion. As midnight struck, only the overnight guests remained in the drawing room, sipping their port and admiring the Arkham Whites, a collection of unset diamonds that had been passed down in Mrs. Arkham's family for generations."

There is a click and the cave blurs and changes to an ornate sitting room in a mansion with three women and two men in formal clothing nearly a century out of date.

"It will be a pity to sell them," Moira Arkham sighed. "But we do so need the money, at least until this stock market thing turns around." %rJoel Arkham protested that conditions were not that desperate.

"How many times must I tell you, dear. I don't want you to do it."

"Well, they're mine and I'm going to. I don't know why you're being so stubborn," Moira Arkham rejoined. "Just last November, you were begging me to sell."

Marie Arkham was a sensible. good-natured girl and she seconded her mother's feelings. "Don't keep them for my sake, Daddy. Enough of Gene's money survived the crash. If ever I need diamonds, I'm sure my future husband will provide."

Captain Eugene Batts held a family pedigree even more distinguished than the Dudley's. "Within reason," the young aristocrat chortled. "Lucky for me, our little Marie is not that fond of jewelry.

Hm. Cassandra holds her hands up for a moment to get a grasp on how she looks in this scenario, then walks forward a step or two. All planning to figure out how she can interact here, since she's very little experience with video games...but literally months of time on the VR generated combat simulator.

Once she knows what she's got to work with she'll do more, but for now it's a matter of watching. She tries to use names instead of her usual mental image of a person to identify them, since this isn't her version of reality. "Gems, obvious target." Words when they aren't necessary; this must be a bit jarring for her.

The fifth and final member of the group raised her voice in disbelief. "What? How can any woman not be fond of jewelry?" Katrina Burghar was Marie Arkham's best friend from school, as daring and full of life as Marie was drab and proper.

Joel Arkham stood by the window smoking his pipe. "What's that?" Suddenly he was pulling back the curtain. "I saw something move. In the garden." Captain Batts joined him, and both men stared out into the darkness. "Someone was there, I tell you." The butler was sent out to check but reported back an empty garden. Whatever had been out there was no longer around.

As the party broke up, Joel Arkham swept the diamonds into their velvet pouch. "I think I'll keep these in my bedroom tonight. Better than the safe. Something was definitely prowling around."

It was shortly after one a.m. when the first gunshot was heard. Mrs. Arkham emerged from her second floor boudoir. Captain Batts came down from the third floor guest bedroom and his fiancee ran up the stairs from the library. The three of them approached Joel's Arkham's suite only to find the door locked.

A second gunshot thundered through the hall and was quickly followed by a dull thud. Mere seconds later, when Captain Batts shouldered open the door, they found Joel Arkham on the floor behind his desk. Dead, a bullet hole in his head. Clutched in his right hand was a fireplace poker. Marie noticed the open window and the brisk breeze. Captain Batts noticed the open desk drawer and the revolver lying in the bottom of it. But it was Mrs. Arkham who noticed the empty velvet pouch.

"Gone," she said, distracted momentarily from the bloody, lifeless form of her husband. "The diamonds are gone."

There was the sudden sound of raised voices on the floor below but no one moved. They stood transfixed by the horror of the scene until Pembroke the butler appeared in the bedroom doorway followed by the last guest, Katrina Burghar.

Captain Batts recovered enough of his senses to explain the situation. "Obviously a burglar," he concluded. "The figure Joel Arkham saw in the garden. The open window. The poker he picked up to defend himself. Pembroke, what's wrong?"

The stately butler was staring accusingly at young Katrina. "Sir, I believe Miss Burghar has something to say ..."

Batman pulses the simulation and asks, "So far so good?"

"It was all just a lark," Katrina cried. "Just to see if I could do it. You have to believe me." It seemed that the petite guest had been fascinated by the dumb-waiter. It was a pulley-operated mechanism, built into the mansion walls, a small box elevator connecting the basement kitchens to the dining room and used to lift food and plates between floors. It also opened onto the second floor master suite and the guest bedroom above that.

"I couldn't sleep," she explained. "As I was walking through the rooms, I heard a sound, like stones falling down a chute. I wandered into the dining room and saw the dumb-waiter. I had played with one as a child and was curious to see if I could still lift myself up in it. I looked up the shaft. The box was on the third floor. I pulled it down, barely squeezed myself inside and began to pull myself up. I've put on weight since childhood. I managed to move it only a few feet and then...The first gunshot was terribly frightening. Right afterwards I heard some mumbling, like a man talking to himself. Then came the second shot and I lowered myself down. The butler was in the dining room when I squeezed myself ..." Her face stiffened as she realized what everyone was thinking. "I didn't kill Lord Dudley. It had to be one of you. Or Pembroke. What's Pembroke's alibi?"

Pembroke simply rolled his eyes. "Please. These things are never done by the butler."

The simulation freezes here.

"Am okay," says Cassandra, who seems to be anything but. She's both hyper-focused as she tries to translate all this into terms her mind is familiar with, and confused at the same time. Brow furrowed, she looks at the paused simulation quietly. Then tries to walk through it to get different angles on things. "What is...goal of this? Find murderer, or find...white rock diamonds?"

Batman hehs. "Both would be nice. Find the killer and find the stones if you can."

Cassandra Cain makes a moue with her lips for a moment. "No assumptions. Guesses are that only. Assume I was there, saw all? Or am taking all from hearsay of after event? Impossible that I see all as happening."

Cassandra Cain has to get her english grammar in line, sometimes she's difficult to understand still.

Batman says, "Assume you are the police detective investigating. You may ask questions, look wherever you want. VR is not just for combat training. You can now interact with the scene and talk to the people here. Except Mr. Arkham who is still dead. That would be more Constantine or Jason Blood's thing."

Again, that soft 'hm' sound from Cassandra. She looks in Batman's direction for a moment, then gives a little shrug that suggests she's going with it even though it's apparently a bit odd. "Hard. No training in...detect lies. Like this." She's not good with words, and this is all about using words to learn things. But she turns immediately to do it anyway, no pause to doubt. It will happen. She immediately walks to the revolver and picks it up, checking it to see if it's been fired. Then says, "Check for fingerprints immediately."

The gun is found in the lower drawer of Mr. Arkham's desk, which is pulled open 1/4 of the way. A computer display winks into view next to the gun. "No fingerprints Inspector Caine," a disembodied voice announces. "The gun has been fired twice and is registered to Mr. Arkham's collection."

Cassandra nods, placing the weapon down again. Virtual or not, she has good gun habits and checks it over thoroughly. Safety on or off, size of weapon. She glances at the size of the hands of each person, finding out if any of them were out simply by the inability to have fired it.

Then, she goes to Katrina and asks, "Where were you when you heard the thumping noises." Rather like a statement, but it's a question nonetheless.

Katrina says, "I was walking past the dining room on the first floor.

Batman rubs his chin then says, "Gather more evidence before questioning witnesses. It lets you spot holes in a story. Examine the scene."

Cassandra Cain quickly walks to the body. She inspects the wound, as closely as she can, and then looks around. "Everyone. Two gunshots. Which was loudest? Same sound, or different?" She is looking for the second bullet hole, trying to identify where it was fired from and by whom. "Doing two things at once," she says to Batman idly. "Gun was in drawer. Makes no sense. Also, dumbwaiter accesses which rooms?"

Arrows indicate a dumbwaiter door in Mr. Arkham's room and Captain Batts' room a floor above. Katrina says, "However the dumbwaiter doors may only be opened from outside. Note it is highly unlikely I have the strength to force a door, unlike yourself." Batman says, "The shots sounded the same in volume and nature. The other bullet is lodged in the ceiling across the room from Mr. Arkham's desk. You're doing fine by the way. I was sure it was the butler. Alfred was incensed at me."

Cassandra looks at Katrina. Unable to tell if the woman is lying, she simply frowns. Then says, "Was not assuming guilt. Be calm." Then, to Batman without looking, she adds, "Not off list. Joel likely suspect still." She turns, to look in Batman's direction, then says calmly, "Keep diamonds in room instead of safe for safety ridiculous. Stupid idea, not stupid man. No proof anyone ever was in garden outside but his word." Then she turns to the window, opening it to look out at the garden. Just in case there's footprints. "Moving fast to leave, marks on feet would be easy to spot. Fast runner leave deep prints. Send someone to search garden, eliminate possibility of another person."

Batman says, "There was a paved section under the bedroom window. Nice call though."

Cassandra Cain turns to Batman. She clearly wants to hit something, but is forcing herself to work this through. "No fingerprints on gun. All still suspects." She inspects the drawer she found the gun inside, still confused by this. It stands out, and makes zero sense. "Why is in here? No time to put it here, no reason to put it here. Not suicide, impossible." She's jumping to a conclusion there based on body language again; that the person laying there couldn't have shot himself at the angle she's seen, and still get the gun to where it was laying. It's true, but wouldn't hold up in court.

Batman looks a little disappointed. "You didn't see the gloves by the window. Covered in gun oil."

The inside of the drawer is freshly scratched on the drawer's inside edge. These match what she's seen on the sides of the revolver handle, having had a VERY close inspection of the weapon earlier. She glances at the window again when Batman mentions it, then at the dumbwaiter.

Mentally positioning the gun into the drawer in order to have it scratch the wood in the locations that it must have in order to cause the wood bits to be where they were, she tries to figure out what it was doing in there as she goes to look at the gloves. Then she sighs, pausing to bang her head on an imaginary wall and going through it with her skull.

Batman says in his best take no shit tone, "Relax. Work through this. It's no different from a new kata to develop muscles unused. When the spots of blood begin to appear on your forehead, you're doing it right. These are likely all decent people who will be in various states of mourning. You can't grab them and interrogate them. It would be cruel to just intrude. Think. Did anyone mention anything anomalous before the murder?"

Cassandra Cain runs through it in her head, closing her eyes. Or that seems to be what she's doing. Her lips move a little, giving away her weakness with words; she's actually having to form them with her mouth to remember them clearly, but they're apparently clear as a bell.

need the money. don't want you to do it. mine and I'm going to. begging me to sell. future husband will provide. Within reason. not fond of jewelry. how can any woman. something move. someone there, I tell you. keep these in my bedroom tonight.

She is frowning darkly when she opens her eyes again. "Just idiot statement about safe not being safe, keep diamonds with himself. Said that earlier, still dumb move unless was planning something."

Batman walks over to the dumbwaiter and opens the door. He materializes a flashlight from mid air and shines it down the shaft. Then beckons her over. "Come here and look down."

Cassandra Cain holds her right hand up. Counts numbers on fingers. "No struggle. Angle of bullet too high for attack, not killed from distance. But no powder, so was not from close either, so body was already laying down. Stop, already know diamonds in there. Figuring out body."

Cassandra comes over, not even looking. She's apparently so confident that the diamonds will be in there that she's staking her reputation on this one.

Batman snaps, "Why would he throw the diamonds down the shaft?!"

Cassandra Cain grins. She stops, sighing, then stops grinning. "Am wrong? Thumping at beginning of Katrina's story, clearly dipsosing diamonds for later. Maybe other things, worth investigating. Should have looked. Then put gun in drawer to fake attacker, missed self, hit roof. Then second shot too good. Gloves put by window to show was not him setting up gun to fire in drawer."

Batman says, "You are very close. Yes. The gun was in the drawer. Joel fired it with the poker. Why would Joel Arkham throw them down the shaft? Like that? Not even in the bag? You could lose one. The bag was right here. If it was just a ruse no one would be looking down there for the diamonds or anywhere else. Joel would've said the burglar stole them. Consider the diamonds.""

Cassandra Cain stops. She blinks, then slowly makes a fist. Anger. At herself, most likely. This is HARD for her. She takes a breath and slows her biorhythms, then nods. And tries again. "Do not know. Um...Katrina said interest in diamonds...was very lucky to be nearby, but would not tell of noises if she was involved. Would have kept quiet. Stupid to ...." she stops assuming and actually LOOKS, to see if there's anything in the dumbwaiter she should see. Wait, why was dumbwaiter on third floor when Katrina heard stones fall?" She rubs her temples, trying to figure it out. "No, that silly. Butler was in dining room, send food...Butler, why was dumbwaiter on third floor?"

Cassandra Cain is grasping at straws a bit.

Batman says, "The stones fell on top of the dumbwaiter. I brought it up here for you to look at. You are so like Dick when he started this. You got all the particulars but missed the elephant in the room. Don't feel bad. You are assuming Joel staged this to steal the jewels. Why? His wife was going to sell them and help him out. Did he want to keep her from selling them? By hiding them and claiming they were stolen? How would he ever return them to her? Why did Joel change his mind about her selling them? Previously he wanted her to."

Batman finally relents. "Analyze the diamonds."

Cassandra Cain grinds. Her. Teeth. The fact that this is all verbal may be her excuse, but she refuses to play that card. That would be giving up, and that isn't part of her vocabulary. So she goes and looks at the diamonds as directed, forcing herself to relax. This is important, lives depend on her solving this. And she hasn't checked the entire scene yet, he's right.

Batman puts his hands on Cassandra's shoulders. "You find the anomalies. All the anomalies were involving the diamonds." A police report pops up over the diamonds and the voice over reports: "Inspector Cain, these are high quality forgeries. Not the Arkham Whites."

Cassandra sits down suddenly. She closes her eyes, picturing the scene. He had been begging her to sell them only last November, then suddenly stopped. Was still in debt. "If I check, would find real diamonds sold long ago?" she asks. Focused, she's trying to picture what HAD to have happened. Why kill himself?

"Had to hide forgeries before wife sold...so did not matter if lost in chute." She slowly opens her eyes, pulling off the cowl. And looks at the Batman. "Wife forced his hand, had to dump them, but that still no reason to kill self. So why? How bad was debt?" She has an inkling now, a maybe.

"Did have insurance policy in case of being murdered?"

Batman ends the simulation. "Yes. People kill themselves rather than face poverty. And you are right, still no reasons to kill yourself. But he did. As for insurance, yes murder would pay out but not suicide. That was probably another factor. The family was ruined for what it's worth. Eugene Batts dumped Marie to avoid a scandal. They lost everything." Batman removes his mask and to anyone but Cassandra his body and face are very hard to read indeed. "When you become ... a very good detective you see things in a new way and that way is not often pretty. It's a matter of aligning the events with the lowest motivations: pride, greed, envy, lust ... and sometime what you discover ... doesn't help anyone at all. Sometimes you can't even offer closure for the survivors or comfort. And sometimes I yearned to just keep my mouth shut." He looks sad then at some old memories. Many old memories.

In fact his expression and body language looks very much like Ted in his darker moments, remembering.

Cassandra Cain rolls her eyes a little, then says, "Katrina sleeping with Batts anyway," kind of offhandedly, giving away the fact that she's hardly a virgin when it comes to humanity's ability to mistreat each other. She has a very serious demeanor otherwise, judging her performance very harshly. Then she turns to look at the cowl and nods quietly. But the word that comes out of her mouth next is hopeful.

"Another."

She is a Bat, after all. And there is more to learn. Batman nods and loads another.