[soop]

Paris, December 1847

It had been some time since I had last seen my friend Monseiur Dupin, for whom I have deep regard, as he is one of the most fascinating people I have the fortune to have made my aquantance. Upon opening the letter, I was greeted with a brief missive:

My Dear F_____

Please do me the honour of accompanying me upon a most intriguing enterprise. Arrangements have been made, we are to spend the evening of the 12th and 13th at la hotel du vin de la montparnasse in Bievres. Am looking forward to seeing you.

Fondest regards

M. Dupin

I received the letter on the 7th, and so made my arrangements for the next week.

Upon my arrival, I was greeted by my friend in the drawing room of the hotel.

"My dearest F_____!" began Dupin, standing to greet me "sit please. Have you eaten? Your journey was pleasant I trust?"

As soon as the formalities were out of the way, and we had caught up on the last two years of each others lives, I set to business.

"look here my friend, you have dragged me here into the middle of no-where on nothing but a premise. I must press you to enlighten me as to the substance of the task at hand." Dupin nodded his head, and reclined into his chair, thoughtfully drawing on his pipe. He said; "A curse Monseiur."

I absolutely lept out of my skin. "Monsieur you don't mean to say -"

"Calm yourself mon amis" said Dupin, leaning forward in a conspiritorial way. "Non, you misunderstand. Last week, Madamme Tolliver, a local widow was the third member of her family within a year to pass away under similar circumstances. It has been reported as a curse, the locals being but simple peasants - but the metropolitan police have been involved and they are at their wits end. The official verdict is that the three deceased members of the family were frightened to death."

"Good lord" I muttered "This sounds like an absolutely ghastly way to spend the weekend."

"No matter Monseiur. There is no such thing as a curse, as I will prove to you. Without a doubt the hand of man is involved in some way."

The night finished (on no less a pleasant note) and we retired to bed with me up half the night quaking with night phantoms. However in the light of the morning sun, everything seemed to be right again, and after breakfast we journeyed to the nearby farmhouse to call upon the last surviving family member, the widows daughter, Antoinette. Here we heard the following facts:

O Nearly a year ago, Antionettes brother Joseph had fallen violently ill with a fever and become bedridden. His mother and sister cared for him, but his health declined, and finally he passed away.

O Without Joseph, the household had almost no income, and the widows sister had been called to stay. She had gradually fallen ill and passed away almost 6 months ago, with the same symptoms developed by Joseph towards the end of his illness.

O The widow, already worn out by emotion and the care of her sister and son, succumbed to the illness, and passed away.

O The estate had been left to Antionette and Joseph and Antionette now planned to sell up and move away to a place of happier memories.

O The victims all died with symptoms of violent spasms and a ghostly pallor.

As we sat around the kitchen table, Antionette poured us some tea, when Dupin suddenly inquired "Madame, the medicine you gave to Joseph - may I examine it?"

"But of course" said Antionette looking puzzled "- but it can have no link, as Maman and Aunt Jeannette never took this medicine."

"Ah." exclaimed Dupin, uncorking and sniffing the bottle. He then put it to his mouth, and tilted it.

"Madame" said Dupin, just as I was sipping my tea "we must thank you for your hospitality, you have been most gracious. And now, we must attend. Monseiur." he said turning to me. He handed me my hat and coat and we were off.

"Monseiur! I do protest" said I, once we were out of earshot. "All this coming and going - I do declare!"

"We have no reason to stay. I have solved everything. There is no curse mon amis, it is murder, pure and simple, and I know who the murderer is."

I have left out the last part of the story for you to guess the answer, which I'll post either tomorrow or later today. TBH, I think it's kind of subjective, so I'd be surprised if anyone gets it.

Edited August 27, 2008 by soop

[Guest]

I think they were all killed due to some kind of infection. Both Antointte and her mother took care of Joseph when he was sick, but ony her mother cared for her sister, and hence somehow got infected then.

Dupin however says in the begining that he suspects a "man" even though he knew the story and only a girl was alive. So, I am thinking if the murdered could be the doctor who gave the medicine for Joseph. So, I think that the doctor was in love with Antoinette, but since Joseph did not approve of him, he decided to infect him in some way and at the same time give Antoinette some kind of vaccine against the disease. As a result, everyone but Antoinette succumbed and the medicine he gave for Joseph was worthless so that he would not be cured, and this is what Dupin found out when he tasted it.

How is that?? Hmmm...

[soop]

last thing before tomorrow - the medicine tasted how he would expect it to taste. what would you expect the medicine taste like?

[Guest]

Did the wife kill the husband in the hope of getting the house left to her, when that didnt happen, she decided to kill the children, starting with the brother. The aunt was called to stay as she was in on the plan. They decided that they couldn't kill the sister straight away, as that would look suspicious. Meanwhile the sister had discovered what had happened, and decided that she would kill the aunt and monther, however she gave them smaller doses of the poison (arsenic?), over a longer period of time, hense why they never realised what was happening. This would account for the similar symptoms at the end of each illness, but the difference in the period of illness.

I would imagine that there may have been considerable traces of arsenic left in the teapot and an the cups for someone skilled to detect it, and the medicine may have been a stronger dosage of arsenic, used on the brother, after originally poisoning him, in order to quicken his death (the sister and mother never took the medicine).

So, i think the mother killed the father and brother, and the sister killed the aunt and mother.

[Yoruichi-san]

Joseph was the murderer. He begrudged that he had to earn all the money and do all the work, then when he realized he had a fatal disease, he poisoned the family well or something...

[Guest]

Its obviously lead posining!!!!!!! ;P

[Guest]

Good one Soop! Fab narrative again. Well here goes

The ghost of Joseph's father haunted the victims who all suffered from epilepsy.

[soop]

Thankyou all for taking part. And now, for the solution:

"Monseiur! I do protest" said I, once we were out of earshot. "All this coming and going - I do declare!"

"We have no reason to stay. I have solved everything. There is no curse mon amis, it is murder, pure and simple, and I know who the murderer is."

"Mon deiu! You mean she murdered tham all?!"

"Non. The Murderer - is the brother."

My amazement must have shown, for he looked very pleased with himself. "How can a man murder two people up to a year after his own death?"

"Ah. I suspected arsenic poisoning for its classic symptoms. But how cannot the girl be dead when she eats and drinks what the others do? When the tea was poured, did you notice something strange? The sugar bowl was very large, and almost empty - and yet the girl, she did not take her tea with sugar. I suspected from the times of the deaths, that perhaps the arsenic was added to the sugar, and I would be willing to wager that from the times of the deaths, the aunt would be in the habit of using twice as much sugar as the widow. But one thing was puzzling. Why kill the aunt? Before the death of the brother, the aunt was not present. I suspect this is an unhappy accident. One that would have been prevented if the girl were the murderer.

And then the medicine. I found what I expected; the medicine, it was bitter. In his covelecence and mental fatigue, the brother was unable to prevent being fed the very poison that he wished to commit murder with, and in his weak state, succumbed quickly to the poison. The others however, succumbed gradually as the poison built up in their bodies.

I will arrange the discreet purchase of the sugarbowl and its exhausted contents, which I will test. But I am satisfied, and the girl, she is desolate. She need not know of this incredible tragedy. As to you, my friend, I am always telling you, that you should not take so many sugars in your tea." He smiled.

[soop]

oh, also, any comments, solutions, suggestions, please post them here. I already have a rough outline for the next one.

[Guest]

I'm having trouble understanding why the brother got poisoned in the first place. I assume that he put the poison in the sugar bowl with the intent to kill only his mother since he would have known that his sister did not use sugar. And I'm assuming that he was given sugar with his medicine because it was bitter. But why would he have just told them that he didn't want the sugar? Actually, why did they give him the sugar in the first place. I hate cough syrup, but I never heard of anyone taking it with sugar.

Also, isn't it possible that you can build up an immunity to arsenic if you take it on a daily basis? I've heard about this but maybe it's a myth. However, if you can build an immunity, then wouldn't it be likely that the aunt and mother would not have died?

[soop]

I'm having trouble understanding why the brother got poisoned in the first place. I assume that he put the poison in the sugar bowl with the intent to kill only his mother since he would have known that his sister did not use sugar. And I'm assuming that he was given sugar with his medicine because it was bitter. But why would he have just told them that he didn't want the sugar? Actually, why did they give him the sugar in the first place. I hate cough syrup, but I never heard of anyone taking it with sugar.

Also, isn't it possible that you can build up an immunity to arsenic if you take it on a daily basis? I've heard about this but maybe it's a myth. However, if you can build an immunity, then wouldn't it be likely that the aunt and mother would not have died?

It's because he was so feverish, he didn't know what's going on. And cough syrup these days has sugar in it (or sweetners and flavourings). I really wanted to call the puzzle "a spoonful of sugar" (as in "helps the medicine go down") - but that would have given it away.

And arsenic never leaves your body. Although you can withstand a bit, it's an element, and it's deadly in small doses. I'd hypothesize that a spoonful mixed into the whole sugarbowl would have been enough for all concerned, and in one of its forms, it comes as a white crystaline powder - making sugar an excellent concealer.

[Guest]

It's because he was so feverish, he didn't know what's going on. And cough syrup these days has sugar in it (or sweetners and flavourings). I really wanted to call the puzzle "a spoonful of sugar" (as in "helps the medicine go down") - but that would have given it away.

And arsenic never leaves your body. Although you can withstand a bit, it's an element, and it's deadly in small doses. I'd hypothesize that a spoonful mixed into the whole sugarbowl would have been enough for all concerned, and in one of its forms, it comes as a white crystaline powder - making sugar an excellent concealer.

My only objection is that the concentration of arsenic in the sugar would have had to be very low (maybe prohibitively so) for the effects not to be felt accutely, and immediately associated with the tea. Death from chronic exposure (as the solution implies) would only result from very small doses.

I should also point out that my liquor-poisoning idea faces the same problem.

[soop]

What did you think generally? I was worried to begin with that it was a bit too obscure,but I was stunned when all the observations were picked up. I actually thought you might get it last night Chuck (and to be honest, I kind of wanted the chance to post the story first).

*edit* yeah, if you look back at some of the answers you can see how close everyone was. I forgot to add at the end of the story, that obviously if Antionette were the murderer, she would have disposed of the arsenic-laced sugar.

Edited August 28, 2008 by soop

[Guest]

Maybe if you allowed X hours for guesses, revealed who was on the right track by revealing a little more, wait more time, etc...Adding structure allows more people to guess at the same level, and makes your responses easier (one large response rather than many individual ones)

I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I also felt that there was too much room for speculation. There were some great ideas (such as those posted by Chuck) that made sense and fit within the boundaries of the story, so you should try and think about standard guesses people might have and use specific details to disqualify (on a broad sense) certain possibilities. Like had we known that the medicine had a bitter taste. For example, "Lupin, after sipping the medicine, grimaced. Taking away my tea, he apologized for leaving in such a rush, thanked Antoinette for her hospitality, and escorted us out of the house"

Just some thoughts...

[Guest]

What did you think generally? I was worried to begin with that it was a bit too obscure,but I was stunned when all the observations were picked up. I actually thought you might get it last night Chuck (and to be honest, I kind of wanted the chance to post the story first).

*edit* yeah, if you look back at some of the answers you can see how close everyone was. I forgot to add at the end of the story, that obviously if Antionette were the murderer, she would have disposed of the arsenic-laced sugar.

Maybe take some confusion out by having Dupin declare, "I know who's responsible for these murders, and it was someone in the house!"

[soop]

Maybe if you allowed X hours for guesses, revealed who was on the right track by revealing a little more, wait more time, etc...Adding structure allows more people to guess at the same level, and makes your responses easier (one large response rather than many individual ones)

I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I also felt that there was too much room for speculation. There were some great ideas (such as those posted by Chuck) that made sense and fit within the boundaries of the story, so you should try and think about standard guesses people might have and use specific details to disqualify (on a broad sense) certain possibilities. Like had we known that the medicine had a bitter taste. For example, "Lupin, after sipping the medicine, grimaced. Taking away my tea, he apologized for leaving in such a rush, thanked Antoinette for her hospitality, and escorted us out of the house"

Just some thoughts...

Yeah, I gave the hint about tasting as he expected it to taste, but perhaps that was too vague. The basic premise I started out with was to start with an impossible crime, and then thinkup circumstances in which it could happen. In this case it was 'someone commits murder over a year after they themself die'.

Poison was an obvious candidate, the sugar I believe I got from an episode of columbo, and from there the main difficulty lay in the how the murderer would ingest his own poison, knowing that he would be unlikely to do so knowingly. Firstly I considered that he may have handled it improperly and been poisoned through skin contact, and then I considered the bitter medicine.

The next difficulty lay in convincing the reader (you) that Antionette was not likely to be the murderer. The Aunt doubled up here, by a) not being present at the time of Josephs death, and also providing the time factor. From there on, everything else was pretty much garnish.

To be honest, I was woried that it was too vague entirely, as apart from mentioning they take tea, sugar is not mentioned at all, let alone the mention of what the medicine actually tasted of.

However, if I do another one, I'll be sure to factor these in (to be honest it could also use some proof reading and a bit more than just a couple of hours work).

[Guest]

*edit* yeah, if you look back at some of the answers you can see how close everyone was. I forgot to add at the end of the story, that obviously if Antionette were the murderer, she would have disposed of the arsenic-laced sugar.

I don't think there's anything wrong with leaving out Antoinette not having gotten rid of the poisoned sugar. If she had been the murderer, maybe she was running an experiment to see how many people she could poison with one sugar bowl before she was caught. Or maybe she didn't have enough sense to get rid of it because she didn't think anyone would ever look there for the poison