MuSR / Who is the most likely murderer?

question

Who is the most likely murderer?

narrative

When Joel's life was abruptly ended by a nunchaku at the local bowling alley, it is up to Detective Winston to interrogate the prime suspects: Rosemary and Mia, in this chilling game of strike or spare.

The bowling alley bore a sense of life even after closing time. The late-night echoes of thundering strikes and trash talks were now drowned by sirens and muffled conversations over secured radios. Winston paid no attention to the cacophony around him, his focus narrowed onto the sole thing out of place in a bowling alley—a pair of nunchaku.

He walked over to Mia, the waitress, a name and face familiar to many, a respected public figure among the regulars at the bowling alley.

"Late-night shifts, it looks like," Winston began conversationally, "You often see a lot of the regulars, I suppose?”

Mia let out a sigh, suppressing a weary smile, "Bowling is a religion for some, detective. Joel, for instance, he's nearly always here late-night, been observing him for quite some time."

"Like Joel?" Winston probed further.

"Like Joel,” She echoed.

As a public figure, Mia was often under scrutiny. Despite this, she had always been closely seen with Joel at unusual hours, both witnessed in hushed conversations when Mia was off duty—nothing scandalous, just unusual as per the grapevine.

"Mia, may I ask about your recreational activities?" Winston maneuvered the topic.

"I've been training in martial arts for quite some time, Detective," Mia responded without missing a beat. "Nunchaku as well, it's one of the various arts they teach at my gym and I just happened to fall in love with it."

"Nunchaku?" Winston asked, to which, Mia merely nodded. It was known among the locals that Mia often spent long, late nights practicing with her pair of Nunchaku at home, an acquired hobby, a passion honed in the confines of the martial arts gym she frequented.

Joel was often at the bowling alley during Mia's night shifts. It wasn't unusual, but there was something that always seemed a little off about it. Mia, the waitress at the bowling alley, knew about Joel's regular late-night bowling habits. Perhaps due to this, Joel often ended up bowling late on the nights Mia was working.

She then recalled one unnerving evening—Joel explicitly threatening to unveil a potent political scandal that would surely taint her reputation if ever it reached the public. Shivers ran down her spine with the cold memory.

As Winston walked away, he took one last glance back at Mia. Her eyes looked like they were both emancipating and imprisoning secrets she would rather stay hidden. Winston knew his work was far from over.

Winston scanned the crime scene photos of the late-night bowling alley murder for the umpteenth time, swiveling lazily in his office chair. Joel, the victim, had unfortunately found his end using a pair of nunchaku, a brutal, yet strangely eccentric way for a life to be taken - and that too after official business hours, an unusual occasion at the alley.

He downed the last of his coffee and grabbed his jacket, ready to conduct another careful suspect interview. He set out to find Rosemary, who had been working her overtime shift at the bowling alley when the murder occurred eerily during the late after hours.

Stepping into the buzzing local bar, candlelight bounced off the myriad of glass bottles lining the walls, all reachable only by ladders that the bartenders navigated with incredible balance. Rosemary, carting herself from the fridge to the counter, looked up at Winston as he approached. She looked perfectly graceful, a stark contrast to her claim of frequently bumping into things.

"Rosemary, I presume," Winston opened, his gaze lingering on her form, conspicuously clad in a long-sleeved shirt despite the warm ambient temperature.

"That's correct," she responded, her voice warm yet curt. As she reached for a bottle on a high shelf, she winced slightly. "Got a stiff shoulder. Those martial arts gym workouts can be taxing sometimes," she casually mentioned, subtly revealing her regular gym sessions.

"I'm aware of your regular participation in nunchaku workshops at the local martial arts gym," Winston commented, given her previous statement. Rosemary chuckled, responding with a flex of her arms, clearly hinting at her muscular strength. Her attention moved toward a set of keys she was fiddle around with.

"Bowling alley keys. Part of the job," she explained before he had to ask, and then another conversation to make small talk deftly guided by the detective.

"Some nice nunchaku you have up there," Winston finally stated, nodding toward a martial-arts weapons display above the bar.

"Inherited," she said with a slight nod. "Practiced a bit. It's art you know."

Before Winston could subtly inquire about her bowling alley shift on the night of the murder, another customer called her away. Yet, his observations continued as she navigated through the bar serving drinks - she moved flawlessly, despite her prior claim of clumsiness.

Leaving the bar, Winston mulled over the information he gathered - Rosemary had worked at the bowling alley on the fateful night, she had keys to the place as part of her job, had trained in using and collected nunchaku, was a regular at the martial arts gym, and had inherited a collection of martial-arts weapons. All these shaped another puzzle for him to solve.

Winston was no stranger to dealing with loose ends and carefully sifting fact from fiction. But even with the facts he gathered from Rosemary's interview, Joel's perpetrator was still elusive. The only certainty was the haunting image of the murder weapon, nunchaku, which were a significant part of Rosemary's life. The case was far from closed.

choices

• Rosemary
• Mia