"W-what-? How-?" you stuttered, unable to believe your eyes. The tape around the area was undisturbed, but the floor where Mark's body had been was empty.

"Who did this?" shouted the detective. He glared accusingly at you.

"How am I supposed to know?" you shot back. "It could be anyone here."

"Well, it certainly wasn't me!" He scoffed and crossed his arms. "Someone must have moved it when I left the room. God, I was only gone five minutes at the most..."

You took a deep breath. "I was with Damien, you saw us. It had to be someone else." Just as you said that, Benjamin walked in. He must have heard the yelling.

"What the hell happened here?" he asked.

"The body's been moved," you answered.

"On it's own?" The poor butler was really struggling to keep up with everything going on. Mark's death had taken a toll on him. Though, you supposed believing that Mark had gotten up and moved on his own was better than believing one of your friends was a murderer.

"Of course not!" Abe rubbed his face, obviously stressed. He was about to say more, but before he could the chef walked in.

"What the hell?" He pointed to the empty spot on the floor. "Where's Mark?"

"The body's been moved," you repeated.

"On it's own?" This was getting frustrating.

"No! There's a murderer loose in this house, and he's obviously trying to cover his tracks!" Lightening struck again when the detective said "murder." You had just been outside and the sky was perfectly clear. Something was off, and it wasn't just the missing body. "Dead people don't just get up and walk away!" he continued.

"Oh, bully!" exclaimed a voice from behind you. You whipped around to face the Colonel. "Dead people getting up and walking away? Sounds like a case of Homo Necrosis Zombifis." He winked at you and chuckled. "If someone needs to put the old lad down again, I'm well up for the challenge."

"What the hell do you mean by that? Again? Is there something you're not telling us?" Abe interrogated.

"W-well I'm just saying, I've got plenty of... experience on the matter?" the Colonel stuttered out. You knew he had just been joking, but you couldn't help but be suspicious.

"So do I," added the chef.

"Neither of you are helping," you interjected. "You're just raising more questions."

"Thank you!" said the detective, exasperated. He turned back to Will. "Now, would you like to explain yourself?"

"I-I think I'd rather head off to the grounds to see if I can catch a whiff of that old bag of bones!" He tried for a laugh, but it just sounded nervous and strained. He turned and fled the room. You made a mental note to talk to him later.

Abe leaned close and whispered, "I don't trust him."

"Of course you don't," you whispered back. "You probably don't trust anyone."

He shrugged. "Fair enough." The then spoke to the group. "Alright, this place needs to be locked down. Nobody in or out until we get to the bottom of this."

"I don't think locks will keep people from getting out, sir," said Benjamin nervously.

"Look, you're a smart man, but we don't have time for this. We forgot to ask ourselves the most important question." He paused for effect. "Why?"

You nodded and added, "Who stands to gain the most from Mark's death?"

The detective grabbed your arm. "Come, walk with me." He lead you out of the room and away from the chef and the butler. "Why did he invite us all here? Why tonight?"

"He said we were celebrating something," you said, pushing his hand off of you but keeping in step.

"Yes, but he never specified what. It's like this whole thing was just a ruse. Now, Mark was my friend. Had been for years. Recently, he went quiet, which was really unlike him. I never had the chance to figure out why. And now... I guess I never will." He stopped walking and looked down at his feet. You put a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him.

Surprisingly, you were okay. All this mystery was enough of a distraction for you. You weren't going to let emotions control you right now.

"Look, I'm going to be straight with you," the detective continued. He started walking again. "You're my new partner. Now, I've been doing this for a long time, and I can tell when something is wrong. There is a murderer-" Lightening flashed. "-loose among us, and we need to find out who. You seem trustworthy enough, and from what I can tell, you don't really have a reason to kill him."

"Thanks?"

He nodded. "I wish the solution to all of this was as easy as a candlestick in the library, but of course, no such luck. In my investigation I found that Mark had been stabbed 37 times, poisoned, beaten, strangled, drowned, and shot. In that order, but not all at once. Hell, I don't even know if it was in the same day."

"Jesus, what the hell? I didn't see any blood."

"I'm not a medical examiner, I'm a detective. There's a lot of things going on that I couldn't explain even if I tried."

Just then, you remembered the video you had seen on Little Buddy. "Hey, what were you talking to Mark about a few nights ago? Something about the chef and the butler being clean?" Real smooth.

"What? How did you-"

"Not important. I'm sorry for the invasion of privacy, but we're investigating a murder. I did what I had to do. I'm sure you did a background check on me or something."

"...Fair enough. Mark told me he had been receiving threats from an unknown source and he wanted me to check into his staff. Make sure he was safe in his own home, y'know? Well, not like it helped in the end. But he was hiding something from me, and I know it. I'm hoping figuring out what it was will give us a lead. So," he said, leading you up a set of stairs. "To find what he was hiding, we have to do the detectively thing and go through his possessions." He stopped at what you assumed was Mark's bedroom door. He pushed it open. "After you."

You stepped through, immediately noticing how messy everything was. The sheets had been torn off the bed and the pillows thrown around the room. Piles of clothes lay everywhere and it looked like everything on the nightstands and dresser tops had been shoved off onto the floor. You had always known Mark to be a very neat and organized person. This wasn't like him at all.

"It looks rough, but I don't think he was killed here," you observed.

Abe nodded in agreement. "Take a look around. And, uh, be careful." He pointed to shattered picture frames strewn around the room. "You wouldn't want to step on those."

Keeping that in mind, you carefully made your way around the room. The first thing that caught your eye was a set of framed pictures on the desk. There was one with Damien, Will, Mark, and a woman all posing together and laughing. Another one showed just Damien and Mark. Another showed Mark with the woman, both smiling. There was a picture of you, Damien, and Mark all sitting on a blanket in a park. The last picture was just Will, but the glass frame was shattered.  According to the man himself, him and Mark hadn't gotten along all too well. Why would Mark have a picture of just him framed in his room?

"My, you're quite on the case, aren't you?"

You dropped the frame, yelping as one of the sharp edges of broken glass cut your hand. Will stood in front of you, and he didn't look too happy that you had found that picture. However, you saw a flash of guilt cross his face when he saw your bloody hand, but it was gone almost as soon as  it appeared. He still offered you a handkerchief from one of his pockets. You thanked him and wrapped it around the injury.

"My apologies, I didn't mean to startle you. Hey, detective," he called over his shoulder. "May I borrow your friend here?"

"Of course. Don't worry, partner. I can handle it from here." Abe didn't seem all that worried about the Colonel. Somehow, that made you nervous.

"Bully. Take a walk with me." He exited the room and you really had no choice but to follow. "I figured it was time to get to know each other better. Somewhere away from the prying eyes of... anyone else. Now, come with me." You didn't necessarily trust him, and you were somewhat afraid. He didn't sound happy with you right now. He held open a door that led to the back patio and tilted his head, inviting you through.

You took a deep breath and stepped out the door.

[Updates might be slowing down soon]