Cold Seconds : A Riverdale Fanfiction

At long last, a classic case of murder inside a locked room. I could see the excitement on Jughead's face as he now finally had a chance to put his idle brain to use. He had been without a case for over a month now & was getting increasingly bored. And now here was a mystery that would challenge everyone's brains & push them to its limits.  Now you may wonder the only thing difficult to determine in any murder case would be the identity of the murderer. Not this one, however. Forget bout the murderer, we weren't even close to determining how the victim had been killed. It was Hiram lodge. His detached head lay near his body leaning against a shut window, blood completely covered the window pane & the wall & the floor around it. The stench was overwhelming and it was all I could do to keep myself from vomiting. The policemen who were busy examining the room had masks on their faces. I should have been thoughtful as them, Jug already examined the body and his face had turned a sickly green too.  I knelt down to examine the body, holding my breath in the process. The head had been chopped off from the body in a clean cut. It seemed it had been done in a sweeping motion, the bone showing itself in the mirror had smooth edges. If the neck had been attacked even twice, the bones would have been jagged. I stood up & risked a breath.  "So what do you think Archie?" Jughead asked. "Hey I'm a singer don't forget that" 'Whatever, you have been solving cases with me. You do have a cognitive mind. Now what's your opinion?' I moved away from the body. To anyone else, the whole room & the corridor outside would hav carried acrid smell of equal intensity. But to me who'd examine the body soo close, the air seemed clear even there meters away.  "Well his neck was sliced in a single motion that is much certain" I said. "But what kind of weapon do you think could have to do that with so neat cut?" "A sword maybe? No kitchen knives could do that. And that's certainly not an axe. Not in this case anyway. You'd have to place the body somewhere & then swing it down with an axe.Then you could get a clean cut like that. But there's no place you could use to support the neck. Using simply the floor would have left a mark. And then you'd have to drag the body here & leave it in its current position as it is" "Well the body wasn't definitely dragged or the fact would have stood out because of the blood. And with the amount of blood that sprays out of the neck the instant you cut it it'd be almost impossible to hide or trail it'd left if the body had been dragged.  "You didn't need to deduce all that to prove that the body wasn't dragged" "Sir may I?" a voice cut Jughead off.  Jug & I both turned around to find the source of the voice. It was a policeman, a young one. Perhaps he was a recruit.  "Yes officer?" Jughead asked.  "What if the murderer used a container to contain all the blood so as to avoid the trail of the blood" as he turned back to me.  I smiled. There was respect, he wasnt mocking my deductions just clearing his doubts.  "It's simple" Jughead replied. "As I was just telling Archie, he didn't have to deduce all that to prove the body wasn't dragged. The proof is right there. Look at the body, and look at the pattern of the blood on the window & the wall above it. Looks like fountain to me. It's the body was already in the position when it was cut ; the blood erupted vertically from his neck & sprayed the window & the wall in that pattern" Jug was right, it was right there. And I'd gone through all the useless deductions. Well, he wasn't a detective for a reason. I moved to the body. Putting on the surgical gloves that Jug had lent me, I moved the body aside a little & examined the wall behind it. Smooth. No markings of any sort.  "Well if what you say about the part - the body already being in that position when the head was severed - is true then it certainly wasn't done by any knives or an axe", I said. "It'd left a mark on the wall. If somehow, it was a knife of some sort  then the killer would've be god like to stop the knife before it hit the wall. Which I don't think is the case here". Jug sat down on a couch behind him & sighed. I looked at his face & was a little surprised to find somewhat of a defeated face.  "A locked room, A victim with head severed leaning against a shut window. No sign of any struggle. No sign of any kind of weapon. The site of murder, twenty stories with no means of leaving but a door which was locked from inside. Damn I take my word about being excited about this". "There's this window through which you can leave, theoretically speaking" I said.  "And what? Fall to your death 20 stories below? There's no fire escape or veranda the killer could have used, assuming he was brave & crazy enough to do so, to get down. There's only windowswindows, vertically lined up all the way down. And they don't provide good footing. And besides" "There's one more reason to disprove my theoretical claims?" I asked wearily.  "An obvious one, there's no trace of blood on the window sill or the ledge. When they found the body, body was still flowing down the wall. Which means blood was readily flowing down when the killer left. If he'd used the window, which is covered with so much blood the outside would have been b****y too" "So, no means of escaping but the door?" "Yes which was locked from inside. With the key still in keyhole" "They had to break down his door in order to get in", the officer added.  " We'll admit. This is one heck of a case. But if the killer didn't leave from the door then that only leaves the window. And you yourself, "Once you have ruled out the impossible, whatever remains, however imporable, must be true" "I didn't say that, that's a Sherlock Holmes quote. I just like to say it at times. And this case escaping through window is impossible archie. It's the door. Now it must have taken the people a while to get here, considering how high up this apartment is & the neighbouring ones are empty. In that time the killer, got out but managed to lock from inside. We just have to figure out how he did that" "Don't forget leaving the key in the keyhole" "I know. God, this'll take some time".