The Locked Room
Detective Sarah Pearson arrived at the crime scene, a luxurious penthouse apartment. The victim, a wealthy businessman named Robert Hartley, lay dead on the floor, a single gunshot wound to his head. The room was locked from the inside, and there were no signs of forced entry.
Sarah surveyed the scene, noting the open safe, the scattered papers, and the gun lying next to Hartley's body. She interviewed the two people who had discovered the body: Hartley's wife, Evelyn, and his business partner, James Wilson.
Evelyn claimed she had been out shopping and returned to find the door locked. Wilson said he had come to discuss a business matter and found Evelyn frantically trying to open the door. They called the police, who broke down the door to discover Hartley's body.
Sarah examined the gun, a rare antique that belonged to Hartley. She noticed that the safe contained documents detailing a bitter dispute between Hartley and Wilson over their company's future. Evelyn mentioned that her husband had been receiving threatening messages.
As Sarah pieced together the evidence, she realized that the killer had to be someone with access to the apartment and knowledge of Hartley's gun. She confronted Wilson, who broke down and confessed. He had snuck into the apartment using a spare key, argued with Hartley, and shot him in a fit of rage. Wilson then staged the scene to look like a suicide and locked the door behind him.
Sarah had solved the mystery of the locked room murder, proving once again that no crime was too complex for her brilliant mind.
