“How certain are you?” Harrison asked.

Lu Han cleared his throat “Please do not ask such unnecessary questions”

“Then why are we at Lord Guttenberg’s chamber—“

Before Harrison could ask anymore, they heard a knock on the door.

“Come in” Kris called.

“Father— oh” Mary Eliza entered with a tray of tea in her hands. Kris signalled for Lu Han.

“Milady” Lu Han went towards Mary Eliza and held the tray “I shall carry this for you. I bet your injury still hurt”

Mary Eliza nodded as she handed Lu Han the tray. She looked puzzled “Where is my father? And why are you gentleman all present in his room?”

“Lord Guttenberg could not stand sleeping on the same floor as the murdered lady so he asked to transfer on the third floor” Kris replied “do you have any business with him at this hour, milady?”

“Ah, no. I was just delivering his usual midnight tea” her smile suddenly faded “Please do not call her the murdered lady, she was still my friend” her tears were starting to appear.

“Ah, forgive me” Kris faked a smile “It was inconsiderate of me”

“I suppose I shall take this to Lord Guttenberg for the tea might get cold” Lu Han stated before leaving the room.

“Then I shall retire for the night, my lord” Mary Eliza performed a curtsy and before she could open the door, Kris spoke.

“Lady Guttenberg” Kris grabbed a photograph from the fireplace “I didn’t know you were into acrobatics”

Mary Eliza smiled at the fond memories “I quit a long time ago, father told me it was unladylike”

“I think not” Kris commented “your father looked very proud”

She smiled “But I was thankful that I quit for I got into acting and met a lot of amazing people… including Anise”

“It was very regretful”

She nodded her head “I still cannot believe she’s already gone. We were just sitting side by side last night” her voice close to a whisper “my heart cannot be settled until the murderer is found”

“Be that as it may” Kris paused “May you show us to your late friend’s chamber?”

“Lord Wellesley!” Duncan exclaimed “I don’t think the lady can handle—“

Kris turned to Mary Eliza “Do you not wish to settle your heart and find justice for her?”

Mary Eliza took a deep breath “It’s alright officer, if it brings justice for her death then I wish to be a part of it”

“Nothing was touched as per instruction” Mary Eliza started as she led the men inside. She turned to Kris “My lord, I wish to be enlightened”

“And so are we” Theo spoke.

Kris turned towards his servant “Kevin if you would be so kind, would you please lock the door as soon as you go out? Guard it so no one can enter”

“Aye, sir”

As soon as they heard the lock tick, Harrison turned towards Kris “What is the meaning of this?”

“We are currently re-enacting how the murder happened. Kevin will act as the two of you on guard behind the door” Kris pointed at Harrison and Duncan “Right now there are seven of us here but we only need one”

“One what?”

Kris turned to Mary Eliza “Lady Guttenberg, you are the actress here. Would you do the honours to play as Lady Le Rou?”

Mary Eliza contemplated to agree.

“You are so macabre, my lord” Dr Angus grinned “Amuse us”

“The five of you will be the audience and I Shall dictate”

“Go on” Duncan challenged.

“Lady Le Rou was present at the party as what all of you had proved. She had retreated to her room at ten thirty in the evening accompanied by two officers. Both were on guard as she decided to change her clothes. No one entered” Kris paused “By eleven o’clock Lady Guttenberg fell ill and excused herself. As per procedure, she was also escorted by two officers who never left the entire night, am I right?”

The four officers nodded

“Now, at eleven fifteen Lady Le Rou returned to the party until midnight. There was a forty-five minute interval before she came back— upon changing and accidentally hurting her ankle hypothetically from tripping. As usual, the officers were with her until morning. At around breakfast, Lady Le Rou never showed up and the officers mysteriously received a telegram from the famed Jack the Ripper”

“Hold up” Theo intervened “how did you know she tripped?”

Kris exhaled “I said it was hypothetical. Why else would you hurt your ankle from standing?”

“Upon the rising suspicion, the servants tried unlocking the door and found Lady Le Rou’s corpse lay in bed covered in blood.” He continued “By the inspection of the doctor, she was already dead by eleven to twelve o’clock. But at that time, she was back with the whole crew. How did that happen?”

“A lingering ghost” Rhys jokingly commented.

“There are no such things as ghosts” Kris cleared his throat “Lady Guttenberg, can you act as if you just entered your room and wanting to change? You don’t have to do it exactly. I just wish to know the references”

Mary Eliza held her breath “If I just entered as Anise, depending on the costume last night, I would go to the vanity” she paced and went to the vanity area and sat in front of the mirror “take off my hat and my wig. Then I would remove my makeup. If I wish to return to the party, I would not retouch first” she stood up and went to the sofa “Anise would most likely undo her dress and lay it on the sofa, remove her shoes, and walk around the carpet barefoot” she paced around the room and halted in the closet “Find some dress and wear it” she went back to the vanity “And finally put on the makeup”

“Excellent” Kris beamed. “The terrace door is closed” he looked around as he observed he caught all of their attention. “You can do it now” he said aloud, louder than his normal speaking voice”

All of them gasped as the presence of Lu Han suddenly appeared on the terrace.

“Bloody hell” Harrison breathed out.

“Lady Guttenberg, normally, if you haven’t met him, would you open the door?” Kris questioned.

Mary Eliza shook her head.

“And if I was behind there instead of him, would you open it for me?”

She nodded her head.

“Where are we going with this?” asked Duncan.

“It means it was murder but there’s no forced entry that happened. There are two entrances in this room. The door” Kris pointed at the door that Kevin was guarding “and the terrace door” in which he walked towards it and unlocked it for Lu Han to enter “The trick is that normally, you don’t open this if you see someone unknown and possibly ask for help from the guards outside your door. But nothing was heard except for a falling sound and it turns out Lady Le Rou opened the door herself”

“So we deducted the killer is someone who is acquainted with the dead lady. Next is oil residue” Kris stood in the terrace “How did the murderer get in the terrace? By jumping”

“What?”

“The probable suspect is on the third floor. Climbing is impossible for what lay down there is a mud puddle from the storm which clearly was not touched. There should be possible footprints visible if the killer came from the ground floor”

“The killer had been barefooted when they jumped for the storm had ceased by nine thirty and the terrace had been dry by that time. Oil residue from skin is slightly visible from the impact of touching the surface. This is finished concrete without paint so any marks are faintly visible”

Dr Angus hummed “You have very good eyes, my lord.”

“Going on” Kris continued “how did the murder occur and how did Lady Le Rou return to the party?”

“My lord, it turns out I am not actually ready for this” Mary Eliza voiced out “may I return to my chambers?”

Lu Han locked the glass door “Apologies milady, but no one can leave the play yet, especially you as the main actress”

“She who is kissed by fire” Kris rephrased “you played the role of the Princess, didn’t you?”

Mary Eliza nodded

“As well as your friend, Anise? She was your double, isn’t she?”

“Y-yes”

“A twin is a mask”

“Pardon?”

“Jealousy there is, what a liar”

Mary Eliza gasped “My lord”

“Lord Wellesley isn’t it—“Theo was about to stand up but Lu Han stood in front of him.

“Careful for she stings she is blind” Kris chuckled. “It was in her missing belt”

“What are you talking about?”

“The princess was wearing a belt and the missing murder weapon was there. Her dress for the play is still there but the belt was missing”

“My lord!” Mary Eliza exclaimed “are you accusing me of the murder of my friend?”

Kris exhaled “A skewer. It holds the meat together for a certain time and once removed, the meat would scatter. A very thin knife that you would only feel a pinch once pierced. Lady Le Rou was already stabbed as soon as she put on the belt but the pressure prevented the blood from spreading. Once she took it off, it was the end of her.”

“Then that does not prove I killed her”

“I never said you did. But you were the one who helped her wear the costume as you two have the same outfit. I bet you talked her out of noticing you had actually pierced her.”

Mary Eliza was taken aback.

“But” Rhys started “doesn’t that mean she had died before she returned?”

Kris nodded “The sound you heard was not because she tripped, she had collapsed. How was she able to come back to life?”

“I recall Lady Guttenberg had acrobatic practice when she was a young girl. Travelling from one floor to another is only a piece of cake. But she did not literally jump ten feet below, she had a rope as an aid. She called for her friend and even to Anise’s surprise, the poor girl did not make any noise as her friend suddenly appeared. Makeup removal could take as long as thirty minutes and it was plenty of time for Lady Guttenberg to change into a lighter dress to be able to perform her stunt. But it wasn’t an easy stunt for she had twisted her ankle from the impact.”

“How did you know about the rope?”

“Simple. The balustrade on Lady Guttenberg’s terrace had a little protrusion not very visible but once you look closely, you will notice it has been moved” Kris pointed towards the floor above “The mass weight of Lady Guttenberg including the aged concrete allowed it to move a few millimetres. Also,” Kris looked at Mary Eliza “I recall she had an injury on both of her palms”

“Those were not burn marks” Lu Han intervened “the swelling came from friction”

“Which means” Kris continued “she obtained the injury during using the rope”

Mary Eliza shifted “That is one convincing hypothesis my lord”

“Oh, then shall I convince you too how you became Lady Le Rou?”

The five observers furrowed their eyebrows, confusion painted in all of their faces.

“As I said, Lady Le Rou had already collapsed before she came back to the party. It was a simple trick once you’ve done it countless of times. It’s funny I had trouble distinguishing you two the first time I saw your faces; you were the same in every way. Your bodies, your heights, your face structures, no wonder you two had been exchanging the same roles. Once you’ve put on your costumes, it was almost impossible to distinguish you two. And you did it just like that. You dressed up as her and put on make-up to reduce your dissimilarities, you cleaned up the mess, you went out and approached the officers without trouble for your imitation of her was superb, and you went back to the party like nothing happened. The only difference was that you were limping as you’ve hurt your ankle.”

“But she had no other injuries, her hands were fine” Harrison reasoned

“The injury was not caused by her going down, it was her coming back up. The friction is much harder because of the gravitational pull so she’s forced to put on extra pressure from pulling herself up. And the four of you never noticed a thing going on behind the rooms you were guarding.”

“But that’s a very big accusation my lord” Mary Eliza defended “I had acquired my injury from a careless mistake and nothing more. I could never hurt a fly”

“Really?” Lu Han mocked

Mary Eliza clenched her fists “How dare you question a lady” She inhaled deeply and cleared “Did you at least bring my father his tea?”

“Of course” Lu Han smiled.

She then turned to the officers “Do you believe what they are accusing me?”

Before they could utter a word, Lu Han intervened.

“But” he hummed “It wasn’t your tea I delivered, I made him a new one”

Mary Eliza bit her lip. She walked towards the terrace but Lu Han blocked her way as he locked the glass door trapping the seven of them inside.

“Because” he started “you’ve been bad for putting something in your father’s tea”

“The courtship was postponed for the princess’ father died” Kris remarked “Lord Guttenberg is meant to die as he is the ‘supposed’ father of the princess”

“I beg your pardon?” Mary Eliza exclaimed “Officers, they are now accusing me of my father’s death without any proof!”

“Tut” Lu Han clicked his tongue “Your father’s not dead yet but he would have been if I had delivered your tea”

Duncan took a step forward “What is the meaning of this?”

Lu Han hummed “It turns out your father’s tea you ought to deliver contains botulin toxin”