The following morning Linneus asked everyone to gather in the ballroom. He had been up all night to puzzle together every single part of the crime. The count was very eager to hear what Linneus had figured out and could barely sit still in his chair. His butler was standing next to him. The butler, Earl Grey, walked up to Linneus while they waited for everybody else to arrive.
    "I am very grateful that you've helped us take down the murderer," the butler said. "We'll be sure to send great sums of money to you, don't forget it."
    "Quite a daring promise when I haven't even begun, don't you think?" Linneus said to Earl Grey. He just shook his head with a smile.
    "Not at all," he replied. "I trust that you'll put an end to whoever has done this. Just make sure you have the right person."
    Earl Grey shook hands with Linneus before returning to stand by the count's side. Everybody seemed to be in their places, so Linneus cleared his throat before starting.
    "I will begin by answering six simple questions about each murder; what, where, who, when, how, and why. You know the answers to a couple already. What? A murder of Countess Charlesworth that later led to the murder of Katerina von Auttenburg.
    Where? The first murder occurred in the fields outside the castle, while the other did so right here in the ballroom. Who? Countess Charlesworth, wife to the count, and Katerina von Auttenburg, a secret detective. The identity of the murderer remains unknown. When? In the middle of the night when the moon was out. Katerina's murderer happened three days later in the evening. How? With a kitchen knife through the countess' heart, supposedly stolen from the castle's kitchen. Katerina seems to have been strangled to death with the countess' rare necklace she wore the night she died. The last question, why, will need a more in-depth explanation."
    Linneus fished out the crystal necklace from the pocket in his jacket. He held it up to the light and the other watched it with shock. Collin just glared at Linneus, and his expression clearly said that he desperately wanted to leave the room.
    "In my hands, I hold the necklace that Katerina was strangled with. It's a beautiful foreign necklace and the crystals look real - except they're not. This wasn't the necklace that belonged to the countess."
    Collin gawked at it. He must've thought that there was only one necklace and that it had been fake the whole time.
    "The truth is that the real necklace is missing," Linneus continued. "And it has been since the countess died. It is very likely that the culprit switched the real necklace to this forgery right after the countess died. Considering its worth, it's no wonder someone would take it. I think the murderer was out to get the count as well but didn't want the count to notice the necklace was missing. The murderer knew that the necklace meant more to the count than his wife, and if the count found out that the necklace was missing he would take drastic measures to reveal their identity. And of course, the murderer didn't want to be found out. So the necklace on the showcase stand at the ball wasn't the real deal, and only one person knew that then. One person in this room."
    The count watched the other detectives and shook his head.
    "But you're not saying that-" he began.
    "Let me explain," Linneus said and walked up to the glass case that was still in the middle of the hall. "The person had of course seen the showcase before and knew how to act to get it out of there without anyone noticing. This showcase is rather small and the necklace was lying on a silk pillow. As you can see, somebody sawed a ring on the top of the glass."
    The others got up to have a look and you could clearly see marks on the glass. Linneus lifted the lid off.
    "It's sawed so that you can put the lid on without the glass falling apart. It was very easy for the suspect to lift the lid, pull up the necklace, and then put the lid back on. Especially when everybody was standing with their backs against the showcase. The count's rich acquaintances had already seen the necklace and gotten tired of it, so about an hour after when absolutely nobody was paying attention to it the murderer took their chance. The next part is a little trickier. How do you strangle someone with a necklace without anyone noticing? You see, Katerina was one of the people who stood closest to the showcase. And even if the murderer could've discreetly knocked her out from behind, they decided to do things a little differently. To not look suspicious the murderer asked to dance with Katerina. Sir Brigham..."
    Linneus walked up to Alfred Brigham and asked:
    "You saw Katerina dance with someone, am I correct?"
    "Yes, I did..." he replied. "But I didn't see his face, only a black suit."
    "It's not a big clue because most male guests wore black suits that night, but we at least know that the person Katerina danced with is the murderer we seek. When Katerina was murdered a slow piano song was playing, and as the two slow danced the murderer put his arms on Katerina's shoulders, leaned her head against his chest, and bring up the necklace to her throat. Then she was strangled to death. It was, of course, a very risky plan, but it was executed to scare the count. Because if you haven't already figured it out, the murderer absolutely despised the count. He wanted to make the count suffer before it was time to kill him. But there was a reason as to why Katerina was the one who died. A few hours before the ball, I was by the well which is very close to the crime scene. The murderer was down in the well and caught a glimpse of my green coat before I left. Coincidentally, Katerina's coat almost had the exact same color as mine. The murderer must've made a mistake and thought that Katerina was the one by the well and not me. He didn't want anybody to find out who he was, so he got rid of her.
    "But who is the murderer?" the count asked. "I can't take this anymore, please just tell me!"
    "Who fits my description of the murderer perfectly? Who, out of all of us, has the..."
    Linneus walked up to Alfred and fished out a shimmering necklace out of his pocket. Alfred looked at it with fear in his eyes as his face became white as a ghost.
    "The crystal necklace," Linneus said.
    "I don't know how that got there! Please, I haven't done any of these things, don't accuse me!" Alfred begged. "I saw the murderer dance with Lady Katerina, so it couldn't have been me!"
    "Of course not," Linneus agreed. "Somebody has tried to frame you."
    Linneus held both the necklaces in his hands, eyeing their near identical gemstones.
    "You already know that I know who you are," Linneus said. "Earl Grey."
    The count turned around to face his butler. He was filled with fear and the butler grinned.
    "Impressive," he said and awarded Linneus with a slow clap. "What gave me away?"
    "I noticed your gloves had faint traces of mud when we shook hands. The same for your pants. It rained yesterday so the ground was wet and muddy. There was also a rope ladder leading down to the well that night, and that is where you hid the real necklace. You did the same with the kitchen knife. It's not only the cooks who have keys into the kitchen - you do too."
    "I would've gotten away with it if you hadn't been so incredibly stubborn," Earl Grey said as two guards showed up behind him. "I wasn't wrong about how the count deserves to suffer. Do you know how hard it is to be his servant, day in and day out?! He only cares for himself!"
    The guards started to drag Earl Grey away from the count and the rest of the detectives. He tried to wrestle out of the guards' ferocious grip of his arms, but to no avail.
    "This isn't the last you'll hear from me!" he screamed.
    Linneus crossed his arms and Hamilton pat him proudly on the head. They had solved yet another case and Linneus couldn't be more pleased.