Part 109: See No Evil

This deduction is, understandably, the final one in the game, and as always there's no room for error here; if you get any part of it wrong, Mouse's entire breakdown of events falls apart and the group stops listening to her, ultimately leaving her alone and, in turn, giving the mastermind enough time to activate the explosive strapped to her chest – game over. (You also won't be told which part of the deduction you got wrong, either – it has you go through the whole sequence before you fail.)

But Mouse already has figured everything out, right? There's no reason to waste time now, even if the truth is hard to accept.

[BGM: Silence]


Right now, I'm going to make all the mysteries surrounding the past few weeks clear, one by one. Starting with the identity of the person who killed both Pig and Rooster.

That person isn't some mysterious third party, nor is it a resurrected Dog. It's somebody in this very room. It's...



Monkey.

That's–

Let me finish.

The room stayed silent. I still had control.

Do you want to know the reason why she killed those two? It's simple.



It's because she's the mastermind. That's right, she's the person behind this very game, the Zodiac Bid. She's 'The Cat'.

And you know what else?



She was also the true culprit behind the Zodiac Race! ...I realize that's a weighty claim. But to understand everything, you also need to understand where this all started.

You need to understand the truth of Amadeus Bowen's murder. There's something we've been missing about it. Somebody we've been missing.



Aaron Morris didn't kill Amadeus Bowen. No, the culprit is a... Mr. X. I suppose the question then is 'Who is Mr. X?' Well, I'll tell you.



It was somebody not with us at the moment, but someone we all know quite well. Now... I'll explain how that all fits together.

[BGM: Hear No Evil]


H-hold on, Mouse. Are you thinking clearly? You just leveled a lot of accusations, and most of them don't make a lot of sense. Are you feeling okay?

I'm feeling just fine, Monkey. The question is, are you feeling okay? It must be unnerving, the truth being so close to exposed at this point.

Mouse, please, I beg you to calm down. Do your breathing exercises.

Enough with the god damn breathing exercises! How can you talk so calmly to me, you murderer?!

Murderer?

Monkey began nervously tapping her fingers.

Mouse, please, I'm begging you, listen to me. What would your father say? Do you really think he'd think you were correct? I'm just trying to save you from the shame of being wrong.

That's... I'm right! I am, I have evidence!



Do you really? Or do you have theories? Your father had evidence. He was correct. But emulating him and being wrong? That'll just bring you shame.

I'm not going to... I'm right, damn it. I am!

I said this, but for some reason, my energy was being sapped. Monkey said this all with such conviction that I started to waver. Were my theories really any good?

Mouse. You're not your father. You're not correct. You're going to feel shame if you continue.

I...

My faith had begun to dwindle. With everyone's eyes on me, was I about to be a fool? Was I wrong?

[BGM: That Pesky Rodent]


Monkey, would you please at least allow Mouse to make her accusations first?

Ox?

Mouse, I can't say I know you too well. However, in the short time I've known you, you've shown yourself to be quite bright. If you're convinced that Monkey is the culprit, then make your reasoning known.

Frankly, nothing Monkey has said should have swayed that conviction. It was barely a coherent point.

...Yeah. Yeah, you're right, Ox. So can it, Monkey. If you're innocent, you should let me speak!

…



So this is how it shall be. Interesting. Very well then, I'll listen to what you have to say.

But Mouse, you're accusing me of something quite heinous. To be so cruel, to a friend...

Surely your logic is airtight, right? If it isn't, I'll be sure to point it out.

M-Monkey?

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm still interrupting you. Please, be heard.

...Okay. I will.

Good, it's good to be heard. So then, I'll listen to what you have to say.



Like you already suggested, let's start at the top. You claim that somebody other than Aaron Morris murdered Amadeus Bowen. Somebody not in this room.

So tell us, who is this mysterious murderer?

Okay then, let's begin. Amadeus Bowen's murderer, and your co-conspirator... is none other than Rooster.

Rooster?

Mouse, are you sure about this?

Hold on, let's not be absurd about all this.



Rooster? Mouse, I'm serious, are you okay?

Quit it with the gaslighting shtick, I'm not falling for it!

I'm not gaslighting you at all, just concerned that you're making such questionable theories. You sound like how Brian did. But I said I'd hear you out, so I will.

Though I have to wonder how you'll go about proving that an absolute buffoon like Rooster somehow managed to commit the crime of the decade while avoiding detection.

So go on.

It's actually not too complicated when you think about it.



First off, let's give Rooster credit. He's a lot smarter than he comes across. He's a hell of an actor.

He had been stalking Bowen for a while, vaguely aware of what he had been doing. And on the day he got an appointment with the man, he figured it was the perfect opportunity.



The night before, he swiped Bowen's master card in the bar's restroom.

What's this? How do you intend to make such a claim? Surely Rooster couldn't pull off something like that.

Monkey's right, Mouse. How could he take the wallet, pull out the master card, and put it back in Bowen's pocket in the restroom?

He never had to do all of that. He simply swapped Bowen's wallet with one of his own.

A wallet of his own?!

Like I said, a lot of preparation went into this. This wallet of Rooster's will become relevant later, but for now, let's just leave it as this being how Rooster got his hands on the master card.

The following day, he used the master card to enter the security room and mess things up. Then he went upstairs, and was directed to the right waiting room. There, another appointment for Bowen was waiting. However, he needed to get away.



So, he feigned illness to get to the restroom right before Sheep would go down to the first floor to get breakfast as usual.

In the bathroom, Rooster finally put the first of his many devious tricks into play. The wallet he swapped with Bowen had a speaker installed in it. Through that speaker, he intimidated Bowen, talking about how he had proof of Bowen's blackmailing scheme.

This was... likely a bluff. Rooster probably only had generic suspicions about Bowen's actions, brought on by how Bowen was blackmailing his parents. However, Rooster was a good enough actor to convince Amadeus Bowen that he was in trouble.

Rooster ordered Bowen to do something in his office first, then open his office window and make his way to the storage room by climbing on the windows.

Now hold on just a moment, Mouse. Surely you're aware of how absurd this all sounds. How could you possibly know this much?

I don't. A lot of this is guesswork. The details of various places could be completely wrong. I'm just weaving a narrative, I'm not vouching for it to be 100% authentic.

Even still, you're not making sense. Amadeus Bowen wasn't a man who would climb across windowsills just because a random voice told him to. There's creativity, and then there's absurdity.

That's...



Now now, Monkey, what do you have against creativity? How boring would theories be if they weren't creative?

Snake?

Ah, apologies for stealing your spotlight, Mouse. Just thought I'd chime in.

To Monkey's point, I imagine Bowen wasn't in the habit of such things, hopping across windowsills. However, if he felt like his entire livelihood was being threatened, some minor physical exercise is fairly meaningless.

More importantly, it wasn't like it was a 300 foot drop, it was a two story building. Bowen was a man still in shape, something like this would've been nothing.

Right. Snake's exactly right. So then, Rooster went to meet Bowen in the storage closet.

Snake, you're still signing off on this? You were on watch, right? Surely you would have seen Rooster through the window.

Not at all. The thing is – door windows have a fatal flaw.



If you straddle the wall the door is attached to, then duck under the window, you can evade their line of sight rather easily.

Oh? Thinking about it... yes, yes Mouse is correct. If Rooster moved like that, he quite easily could've gotten around my sight.

Seriously? Fine, fine, fine.

So then, what next?

Rooster confronted Bowen in that dark closet. There, he intimidated Bowen into doing two key things. Afterwards, Rooster had no use for him. It was time for Rooster to move on with the 'murder' part of his murder plot.

He took out a metal wire he had brought, wrapped it around Bowen's throat, and began to strangle him. However, this is when something happened that Rooster couldn't expect.



Bowen took out the golden knife he always kept on him, and tried to fight back. I...can't imagine this was particularly effective, but Bowen was probably able to nick Rooster, getting blood on the knife.

But then Bowen finally passed out, having been choked out well enough. And it was time for Rooster to begin the coverup.

He locked the storage room window. He confiscated the knife with the damning bit of DNA evidence on it. He swapped his own phony wallet back with Bowen's original wallet.

And, most importantly, he dragged Bowen's body and stuffed it under Snake's large, hollow statue.

You're not suggesting–

Indeed I am. After putting the body there. Rooster put cardboard under the body and placed it on the dolly. He had done a lot of research before coming to this appointment. This statue being here was entirely within his calculations.

Finally, Rooster slipped out of the storage room and 'exited' the restroom, returning to the guest room.



In the guest room, Rooster used Bowen's phone right in front of Tiger's eyes to bring Morris to Bowen's office.

Ah, I know what's coming up. How will you attempt to rationalize this, I wonder?

I'll be honest, I also don't quite know how Rooster managed to pull it off. However, when Morris walked in, he heard a pre-recorded message that Rooster had made Bowen give in the storage room into his phone's microphone.

A pre-recorded message, huh?

Good theory Mouse, still unique as always. But how was this message played to Mr. Morris? Remember, no calls were made, the speakers were only connected to the computer, no files were deleted.

That's, um... well... there's gotta be some answer, right?

Some answer? I thought you were going to supply that answer, Mouse.

[BGM: Steadfast Gallop]


Um... I have an idea, actually.

Go for it, Sheep!

Well, I know this s-sounds kind of dumb, but... if Rooster was really prepared, he could have done something like...

Programming his own innocuous-looking website?

So then, before Bowen left through the window, Rooster told him to open that w-website but minimize the screen. At a glance, the website could look normal. It wouldn't raise any alarms if the police searched the web history.

However, since it was programmed by Rooster, it could secretly be used to play out live messages at a whim? Or, something like that...

A pre-programmed website?! You people are getting absurd!

You're right, it's absurd... b-but... isn't that the point?



The more ludicrous the plan, the harder it would be to i-imagine someone doing something so crazy.

Sheep's exactly right! Besides, this isn't the only solution. There are other outside-of-the-box ways of giving Morris the 'you're fired' message without a trace. She's just raising one possibility.

Ah, I see. Very helpful Sheep, thank you.

Now then, what's next?



I'm sure you're aware that after this, Morris drove away. And yet, a stack of cash with Bowen's fingerprints was found in his car.

When do you propose that got in there?

Rooster could have done that before he arrived at the building. If I recall, Morris's car was cheap. It was the kind I might have. It wouldn't be hard to break in and plant the cash then.

My oh my, even Horse is jumping in to correct me? How sad. Well, Horse, Rooster had not yet gained any opportunity to access Bowen's safe. How do you explain that?

…

He didn't need to. He probably just took a couple of the bills in Bowen's wallet and put it on the top and bottom of the stack, and voila, trick complete.



Anyways, the delayed text then prompts Snake to bring the statue into Bowen's office. Like Snake mentioned, it was heavier than expected... because there was a full corpse inside!!



Snake left, and after the right amount of time passed, Rooster barged into Bowen's office. Immediately, he locked the door behind him. He couldn't afford to let Sheep in until he was ready. He next unloaded Bowen's corpse from the statue and dragged him into the center of the office.

He put Morris' phone back where it belonged – in Morris' pocket. Then, Rooster bludgeoned Bowen with a statue on his desk, creating the crime scene. Rooster continued to drag the body over to Bowen's safe, which he unlocked using the code.

That was the second demand Rooster made in the storage room – the code to Bowen's safe. Who knows how he got that out of Bowen, but he clearly did. When Rooster opened the safe, he knew he couldn't hide the amount of money that would need to be missing on his person.

So he just took out a plastic bag and lighter he had been keeping in his pocket, piled a whole load of money into it, opened the window, then burned it. No money was ever actually stolen – that was never what this was about.

Rooster then picked up the statue murder weapon and placed it in the bag. Then, he chucked it out the window into a nearby bush or something, to later be picked up. He closed the window, locked it, then unlocked the door to the office and simply acted casual, waiting for Sheep to 'catch' him.

And just like that, the perfect crime is committed – perfectly pinned on Morris.



What a spectacular work of fiction, Mouse. In all of our sessions, I never realized you had such a talent in fiction writing. However, I'm sad to say... that little work of fiction you just spun is by no means definitive proof of anything.

For instance... Let us say that your explanation of how the crime went down was largely accurate, however, the true culprit was Sheep.

Wh-what?!?

Does she not possess every opportunity that Rooster had?

Well, uh, yes...

So then, why are you not accusing her of the devious murder? Is it a lack of motive?

But of course Sheep would have motive, after working under such a despicable man for so long. In my opinion, Sheep is more likely to be knowledgeable enough to pull off such a crime.



That's the issue, Monkey. If Sheep was the killer, there would have been many other chances for her to get away with murder. Fact of the matter is, she never would've needed such an elaborate plan.

Actually, the fact we were able to rule Sheep out like we did was a stroke of amazing luck.

Sure, Rooster intended on Morris being the prime suspect. But he couldn't have counted on Snake never taking his eyes off the hallway. He couldn't even be sure Snake would be looking down the hallway.

Had any one of a number of factors gone differently, we would've been torn between Sheep and Morris as the potential killers.

That's right. To go to such lengths to hide your involvement, only to be a slightly lesser suspect – it seems implausible, no?

Right, right. That was the expected result. All your arguments so far have been fairly standard. Good, good.

So then, what of it?

Hmm?

Congratulations, Mouse, you have solved an old cold case where dozens of cops could not. Very well done. Rooster actually killed Amadeus Bowen.



What does that have to do with me at all?