The judge's private chambers are a confusion of overturned chairs, ringing telephones, and frightened whispers. A sealed evidence box is forced into your hands by a young woman clerk, with a blunt dark bob, a round tired face, and a compact build, in a wrinkled navy suit, her ink-stained fingers shaking.
Beside an untouched pistol, an elderly man with a narrow frame and silver hair, his deep-set eyes beneath a worn gray jacket and charcoal waistcoat, sits calmly in the judge's chair. The retired safecracker watches the empty space where the apparent target, a slim young adult woman with cropped auburn hair and a scar through one eyebrow, stood moments ago.
The Young Clerk
They said you were the detective. Keep this sealed. I never opened it.
The box is heavy enough to hold metal, but no label identifies its contents. Wax seals remain unbroken. Across the carpet, the manuscript everyone claimed to want has left no obvious trace.
The Retired Safecracker
The gun is clean, the door was locked, and nobody fired. That should trouble you more than the shouting.
A hard bar drops into place beyond the chambers. Then another. The clerk turns toward the doors, while the old safecracker remains seated beside the pistol.
The Young Clerk
They locked us in from outside.
The Retired Safecracker
Now we find out who wanted the room sealed.
✓ Quest Accepted
Find physical evidence that supports or disproves the witness's account
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify who locked the chambers from outside
+ New Item Acquired
Sealed evidence box
“Lets search the room for any other evidence. (searches room)”
SUCCESS (Superb Investigation, rolled +2)
Lufy searches methodically, starting with the locked doors and working inward. Dust disturbed beneath the judge’s desk reveals a narrow brass key taped beneath its rear rail.
Lufy
The key was hidden before the room was sealed.
The key fits a shallow drawer built into the desk’s underside. Inside lies a folded court summons, a black silk thread, and a carbon copy of the judge’s appointment book.
One appointment has been cut from the book with a razor. Its neighboring entries remain intact, but faint pencil pressure on the page beneath preserves the missing name: the apparent target, a slim young adult woman in a pale raincoat.
The Retired Safecracker
That thread is theater. The key is business. Somebody wanted the drawer opened, then wanted us to blame the woman who vanished.
The black thread matches a snag on the inner door latch, not any garment in the chamber. Its waxy coating has transferred a clean rectangular mark, suggesting it pulled something thin through the gap.
The Young Clerk
I saw the judge write that appointment this morning. He looked frightened, but he would not tell me why.
The search yields a clear sequence: the hidden key, the cut appointment, and a concealed line used to manipulate the locked door. The room’s impossible disappearance now has physical evidence behind it.
Quest Complete
Find physical evidence that supports or disproves the witness's account