Plunging himself onto his bed, Marlowe groaned, his face buried in his pillow. "What's wrong with you Marlowe? You've seen the fingerprints- it must be a suicide!" He said, trying to sound convincing.
Silence.
"Okay that's enough. It isn't a suicide. I don't know why, but I'm going to find out." he said to himself, determined. He plopped onto the chair beside his computer and logged on. Gritting his teeth together, he opened the file reading 'fingerprints' and looked again, much closer this time. Marlowe scratched his head, slightly frowning. After some time, he leaned back on the chair, spinning left and right.
Then it struck.
Marlowe jumped up, aggressively opening the tab again. He darted his eyes across the screen, checking twice to make sure he hadn't been mistaken.
It was the fact that he wasn't, that made Marlowe shiver.
"Indeed, the fingerprints all matched Nico's, but there was one other way to tell if it was really a suicide- the positioning of the fingerprints. They were on the inner edge of the knife, not the outer. If you're going to commit suicide you wouldn't stab yourself with the knife facing away from you. You must have somebody behind you facing that way, positioning the knife in your hands." Marlowe said to himself, gasping loudly. He grabbed the pictures of the scene behind his desk. 'One of his face, one of the knife, one of his- hands!' Marlowe examined the images, suddenly coming across something quite peculiar- bruises.
Bruises on the side of his hands...and they looked recent.
It all suddenly made sense- The bruises, the fingerprints, the knife. Whoever the killer was- they held the knife using Nico's hands, from behind him and stabbed him, making it appear as a suicide. The killer was extremely intelligent. But not intelligent enough. This was not a suicide, but a murder. But Marlowe knew he couldn't be certain. He typed up 'Ryder Wyatt, current year's information: 2011.' The following information came up:
Name: Ryder Wyatt.
Age: 29
Current profession: Pianist
Work place: Boston Symphony Hall
Family members: Relatives: none, Mother: deceased, Father: deceased. No siblings. No wife/girlfriend or husband/boyfriend.
Date of birth: 1982, December 31st.
Previous Address: 361 Orchard road.
Current Address: 215 Broadway Avenue.
Primary school: Saint Orals Primary.
Middle school/High school: Horace King Middle-High school.
University: None.
Marlow read the information aloud, focusing on a specific location- Ryder's address. He let out a breath he didn't realise he was holding and noticed the time: '2:37am'
Grabbing a sticky-note, he scribbled down the information: '215 Broadway Avenue, tomorrow-6pm.'
"Right!" he exclaimed to himself, rubbing his hands together, "Tomorrow we're going to Ryder's house and finding out just exactly what isn't right."