Lethal Laundry
Mystery teasers are little stories where you need to figure out what happened based on the given clues.
Inspector Dante Missertrick arrived on the scene. His keen eye surveyed the area, his assistant madly clicking photographs. Not that the Inspector ever needed any, he had his memory after all. He noticed the small smashed window apparently leading into what was the laundry area. The small, well kept gardens out front looked splendid in the midday sun.
He made his way to the door where he was greeted by a plump lady claiming to be the owner's sister.
"Hello," he said, with his smooth Italian accent. "I have come to inspect the scene." Seeing his badge, the plump sister let him in. The first thing he noticed was to his left, the dejected figure of a man sobbing on the couch. He went to the man and politely requested that he ask a few questions.
"Ok... sniff... I'll do my best."
"Can you tell me what happened?"
"I was in the laundry with my brother as we were planning what gear to wash for a fishing trip, I heard something outside then a gunshot. I ducked, my brother fell, he was dead. I ran from the room, slamming the door, which must have startled the killer. I tried to get a look of who was out the front but heard running. The gate slammed and whoever it was was gone."
"I see, and you did not see anything of the killer? Clothing maybe, hair colour, shoes?"
"No, that's all I saw... sniff."
"Ok, thank you, I may need to ask you more but for now that is good."
He left him and turned to look at the laundry where the murder took place. He turned the handle to the door and pushed it inward having to exert some energy as the body was lying up against it. After pushing the door far enough open he ran his keen eye around, again checked the smashed window this time from the inside and quickly checked the gun shot wound and the body. At that point he decided he'd seen enough.
He returned to the man on the couch and said, quite nonchalant, "I'm afraid your crocodile tears do not bite with me. Sir, please accompany me to the station."
What is it that Dante discovered that pointed to the brother's lies?
HintRead again closely the part about the Inspector and what he had to do to get into the laundry.
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Answer
The brother claimed to have heard the shots, checked the brother was dead, then 'ran from the room, slamming the door'. The problem being that when the Inspector entered the room, the body was up against it, meaning no one had exited the room since he fell as you wouldn't be able to get out of the room with the body up against the door.
No, the brother was shot by his own brother who stupidly remained at the scene as part of his plan to appear innocent. He didn't count on Inspector Dante Missertrick, though.
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Comments
irishthistle   
Jun 22, 2005
| Wonderful, very well written. I got so caught up thinking about the characters that I was completely stumped. |
flipflopchica  
Jun 22, 2005
| Easy, but very fun  |
dsquared   
Jun 22, 2005
| Great, thanks very much. As my first submission this is good feedback to hear, especially with taking time over building the characters a little. Maybe I have found another category I can work in.  |
irock3001   
Jun 22, 2005
| This is a very good teaser. I had to use the hint, though, to get it. Very cleverly hidden inside the text.  |
dsquared   
Jun 22, 2005
| Thanks Irock I'm pleased the hint actually helped too - hopefully without giving it away too easily. Heh, also, I just noticed one thing I thought I should clarify about my above comment is that this is my first submission in the mystery category. Not my first submission overall ;) . |
PCDguitar 
Jun 22, 2005
| i really liked it but da hint gave it away a little more than i think u wanted to...a good hint doesnt help at all which is completely true yet very funny  |
dsquared   
Jun 22, 2005
| . Oh and thanks . |
DesertJules1974  
Jun 23, 2005
| Good teaser!
Since the window was mentioned at the end, I did expect something about no broken glass on the floor.
Enjoyed your first mystery - keep up the good work. |
BirdmanBen
Jun 23, 2005
| I liked this one even though it was easy--I appreciate the fact that this one was well written. Make your mysteries a little harder! I think that if you do that you'll become one of the best mystery writers on this site.  |
mgil93 
Jun 24, 2005
| I liked it. I figured part of it out, I knew it had to do with the door.  |
okieman51 
Jun 24, 2005
| I got it right without hint, but it was so simple I was afraid to check anwer, thought i had missed something, lol. But i enjoyed it. Was well written, Good job.  |
babygrl329  
Jun 24, 2005
| good one |
dolphingurl12   
Jun 25, 2005
| It was really good, maybe you should write a book! |
dsquared   
Jun 26, 2005
| Wow.. thanks everyone. Warm fuzzies on a Monday morning . Oh and Birdman, that's a big call, I'll see what I can do ;) . Thanks for your suggestion Dolphin, maybe one day I will. |
Gadget   
Jul 01, 2005
| How Fun...  |
1CrazyBrunette
Jul 02, 2005
| That was a little easy but very good. I like a mystery I can actually solve.  |
mamimi  
Jul 02, 2005
| i liked this teaser, i actually figured it out!  |
burfly01 
Jul 02, 2005
| It took me a minute to figure it out i thot it was great!
my friend got a little confused but likes to be a little stumped not to ridiculsy hard but not to easy!! PERFEcT good job!  |
dragon3-16  
Jul 03, 2005
|
I KNEW IT WHEN THE INSPECTOR WENT IN THE LAUNDRY ROOM
GREAT TEASER MAKE MORE LIKE THEM |
chidam11   
Jul 04, 2005
| It is a very good teaser even though it is easy.It is a well worded teaser too .I liked it very much.  |
dsquared   
Jul 04, 2005
| Thanks everyone. Wow, so many nice comments I might just have to write another one.  |
Iamthedude54321  
Jul 14, 2005
| I got this one right easily, but it was fun. Even thought it was very easy.  |
dsquared   
Jul 14, 2005
| Thanks  |
AZTTT  
Oct 12, 2005
| Agreed... nice one, but fairly easy. Well written, thanks!  |
dsquared   
Oct 17, 2005
| Thanks |
converse_chik  
Oct 21, 2005
| i got it easily bc of the door. really good. |
dsquared   
Oct 21, 2005
| Thanks  |
kibblesnbits   
Feb 17, 2006
| it was kind of confusing with the hint. but i probably read it wrong...but i liked it. |
dsquared   
Feb 19, 2006
| I'm pleased you enjoyed it  |
didida   
Jul 07, 2006
| Got It! |
dsquared   
Jul 09, 2006
| Well done :-) |
preppygirl 
Jul 17, 2007
| great teaser!I had to use the hint though cuz i tend to skip parts in reading that dont have someone talking!lol  |
dsquared   
Jul 17, 2007
| Thanks  |
preppygirl 
Jul 18, 2007
| your welcome  |
spinnercat   
Aug 30, 2008
| really good one, you needed to use logic to figure out the answer 
it was a bit easy because you focused on that one section a bit much, but good teaser. |
EdWaRdLuVeR_918   
Dec 26, 2008
| well, no offense at all to the creator of this teaser, but i thought the way u wrote it was very confusing. it was hard for me to undrstnd. i thnk the grammer & punctuation were, not tht bad, but not perfect. & im attuned to details. so, yeah, it seems like its just me tho, who saw the flaws....& it probly is. but othr thn that, it was a very nice teaser kudos |
srpwuzhere   
Dec 30, 2008
| Um...EdWaRdLuVeR_918, you can't understand how the person wrote it. Who can understand YOUR writing? |
srpwuzhere   
Dec 30, 2008
| Cause some of your words are shortened, that's kind of ironic 0.0 |
dsquared   
Jan 01, 2009
| Thanks for the comments and thank you for your thoughts/reply to Edware srpwuzhere. I did find his a rather ironic comment  |
paratwiloverr
Sep 06, 2009
| i got it, but only because i read a similar teaser. good one though. i liked it  |
moner_manush   
Nov 09, 2011
| wonderfully written teaser..a bit easy though |
dangerouspie101   
May 09, 2012
| This is one of the first teasers I solved, and one of my favorites as well. It was simple, yet fun!!! |
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