This is only one of the five letters sent out to Alice Lenchet, Gerald Watson, Sampson Walker, Mrs. Chicken and Peter Smith.

October 23rd

5:55 pm

It was a dark and stormy night near the end of October. Four of the five guests had arrived and were witting in a large elaborately decorated room at the end of a long table. All over the table there were pictures of men with straight faces. Strangely, the only light in the room came from a dim candle. Suddenly everyone heard the door open. Alice jumped when she heard this. They waited, wondering what would happen next. A dark figure walked in holding what looked like a metal pipe. Mrs. Chicken gasped, but was too stunned to scream. The figure moved into the light and everyone saw it was Peter Smith and he was holding an umbrella.

Everyone stared at him without a word as he walked to his seat. They waited. In a little while the door opened once again and the butler brought a man into the room where everyone was waiting. “Hello”, the man said. “My name is Chris and I am the one who has called you here for the reading of the will.” At this Chris pulled a piece of paper out of a suitcase that no one had noticed he was carrying. He read, “The one who finds who murdered me will receive my fortune.” After reading this he put the paper back in the suitcase and asked, “Any questions?” No one spoke. Chris continued, “All right then. Before we start the hunt, let’s eat.”

A large feast was brought out to the table and the guests feasted without a word. Each person was thinking over the short and mysterious will. There were three questions each person asked themselves. First, “What fortune?” Second, “Who in the world is Mr. Squirrel?” The third question was, “How did he write his will after he was murdered?”

When they were done eating they went into what looked like a library but was a furnished closet. When inside everyone took a seat. Chris said, “Each of you will be given a box which is not to be opened until I say to.” The butler opened a closet with a key and pulled out a long box and handed it to Chris. Chris read the tag on the box. It said, “To: Alice Lenchet, the gourmet restaurant owner.” Alice blushed and accepted the package from Chris. The butler handed another package to Chris. It was a small rectangular box. Chris read the tag, “To: Gerald Watson, accountant.” Gerald took the package then sat back down. Next Chris was handed a square box and read the tag, “To: Sampson Walker, the teacher.” Sampson accepted the package. After that Chris was handed a short rectangular box and read the tag, “To: Mrs. Chicken, the geographer.” Mrs. Chicken took the package and smiled. Lastly Chris was handed a small but tall box and read the tag, “To: Peter Smith, the lawyer.” Peter got up and took the package then sat down. Then Chris said, “Open them.”

Each person opened their package. Alice Lenchet had a pipe. Gerald Watson had a revolver. Sampson Walker had a noose. Mrs. Chicken had a dagger and Peter Smith had an empty milk glass. Chris said, “Each of you is holding a weapon and one of the items is the same type that was used to kill Mr. Squirrel. You are to find out which item was used to kill him.” Peter looked at his item puzzled.

Suddenly the lights went out. They heard a short deep yell and then the lights came on. The butler was gone. Is he dead? No one except the one who did it knew, yet. Chris said, “I see someone else has died. My guess is the murder is the same person who killed Mr. Squirrel. Now find that murderer. You may pair up for the hunt.” Alice went with Gerald. Sampson went with Mrs. Chicken. Peter went alone. Peter stayed on the first floor. Sampson and Mrs. Chicken went upstairs. Alice and Gerald went in the basement.

Peter was in the kitchen and he was the first to find something. He found an empty milk glass and a plate with Oreos on it. He yelled for everyone to come. While they were coming, he checked the cabinet for more clues. When he opened the cabinet, the chef’s body came out. At that moment everyone hurried in and they all gasped when they saw the body. They suspected Peter, but Peter pulled out his empty milk glass and said, “I didn’t do it! This is the milk glass I got in the box and that’s a different one.” As Peter said this, he put his glass down next to the first one. Everyone moved out quietly, still thinking Peter did it.

Everyone looked around for more clues, but Peter stayed in the kitchen to think it over. Alice and Gerald were downstairs. The lights didn’t work so they found a flashlight and stuck together. For a second Alice wandered away from Gerald and bumped into something. Alice said, “Turn the light over here!” Gerald turned the light to where Alice was. She had bumped into a coffin with the lid off. Inside was a body. Before Alice could scream, they were both stuffed into the closet by a strange man. When inside the closet, Alice screamed a very loud scream. When everyone heard this, they came downstairs and let Alice and Gerald out of the closet.

The group asked, “What happened?” This time Chris had come along. “Where’s the coffin?”, Alice asked. “What coffin?”, asked the group. Gerald said, “There was a coffin here. We were looking at it when we were shoved in that closet.” “There was a body in it!”, yelled Alice. “Strange.”, said Sampson. “I don’t want to be down here anymore!”, said Alice. Peter said, “Let’s switch areas. I’ll look down here. Alice and Gerald can go upstairs on the second floor. Sampson and Mrs. Chicken can go on the first floor.” Then the groups went to the areas assigned to them by Peter.

Sampson and Mrs. Chicken were hurrying around the first floor looking for clues. They wanted to be the next to find one. Although the kitchen had already been checked they went in any way. Inside they found a trail of bread crumbs leading to the butler. He was eating half a bologna sandwich and next to him the phone was off the hook. The butler said hello. Mrs. Chicken and Sampson said hi back. “I must be off.”, said the butler as he finished the sandwich and walked away. Sampson walked over to the phone and hung it up. Then he noticed the cabinet the chef’s body had been in was right next to the phone. Sampson decided to open it. When he did, another body fell out. Mrs. Chicken fainted and Sampson yelled, “I think we found something!” When everyone heard this, they came to the kitchen and Sampson explained what happened. Once he was done explaining, they heard a bell ring and went towards it. The bell was coming from the closet that had the boxes Chris had given each of them.

When everyone got inside the closet they saw Chris sitting on a chair reading the newspaper and wearing slippers. Next to him was a little bell. “So,” Chris asked, “Does anyone know who did it?” Peter stepped forward and said, “I do! It was you, Chris, in the closet with the empty milk glass. I also know how it was done. When the lights went off earlier after we had opened our boxes, the butler brought Mr. Squirrel in here. You had the empty milk glass that was in the kitchen. You had put poison on the edge of the milk glass and you touched it to his lips, thus killing him. You made a screaming noise to throw us off of what weapon was used. Then the butler dragged the body downstairs and in the coffin. He also put the empty milk glass in the kitchen. The chef was dead because he saw the butler put the glass in the kitchen. As not to let any clues out, the butler killed the chef and stuffed him in the cabinet.” Alice asked, “But who grabbed Gerald and I?” “Now that’s easy”, Peter said. “The butler went back downstairs to make sure no one found the body. When you did, the butler grabbed you and stuffed you in a closet. Then he brought the body into the kitchen. Thinking no one would look in the same place twice, he put the body in the cabinet. When Sampson and Mrs. Chicken walked in, he casually walked out thinking everything was fine. Then Sampson opened the cabinet.”

“Do you know why he did it?”, Sampson asked. Peter said, “Chris was one of my clients. He sued Mr. Squirrel and didn’t win. He ended up losing a lot of money. This made him angry, so he set up this murder mystery. I don’t know why he would do it this way though, because he risked being found out.