Season 1: Case 2
The Two Clocks
22 questions
Your job
Question the 2 suspects below. What they let slip lands in your findings. When you know the story, write your report: who did it, how, and why, in your own words. You have 22 questions. Use them well.
Aurel Kessler owned the Hotel Meridian and had collected antique clocks all his life. He was shot dead in his private suite, surrounded by them. A wall clock is smashed and stopped at exactly 9:15. It looks like a sign left by the killer, or so it seems. Two men were close to Aurel that night. One is his brother Viktor, who looks down on everyone, even the police. The other is Jonas Reed, his assistant and clock restorer, polite as they come. Somebody is lying about the time. In this suite, time is the whole case.
Kessler's suite, a wall clock stopped at 9:15.
Aurel Kessler among his clocks. A lifetime collecting them.
The suspects
Viktor Kessler
the victim's older brother, a proud man who does not work
Jonas Reed
the victim's assistant and clock restorer, careful and rehearsed
What the police already hold
The wall clock stopped at 9:15. Knocked off its hook, glass by the door, hands frozen at a quarter past nine. Everyone reads it as the minute Aurel died.
The pocket watch says 9:15 too. Aurel's own watch, face cracked, stopped at the same minute as the wall clock. A falling clock stops where it likes. Two timepieces frozen at the same minute reads like a message, not a mishap.
A will named Jonas, then crossed him out. An unsigned draft in Aurel's own hand, pulled from the suite's desk. It names his assistant the heir. A single line strikes him back out of it.