Can you be at two places at the same time? Let me tell you a crime story.
The murder suspect welcomed the two moonlighting sleuths to her house. She did not engage their services to help her in her defense for the trial. The duo are not really private detectives. The lady is a freelance writer while her young partner is a young man who designs illusions for the magician as his bread and butter. Solving the crime does not even go with the territory. But designing magic tricks and illusions which make people see what is not really there or what is there but is concealed enables him to solve crimes.
The murder suspect who was a celebrity herself wanted them to find out who was stalking her. She found a videocam in the fronthouse which contained a video cassette showing her walking around inside the house in her undies.
The lady suspect was accused of murdering her former cosmetic surgeon a day after they had an altercation in full view of the TV production staff while her interview with the anchorperson was being taped.
The detective wannabes asked the murder suspect to play the video for them. The video started when she was seated in her desk in her home/office, fully clothed, then moved to her bedroom to undress. She was in her undies when she run to the living room where the TV set was. She must have remembered that it was at that time when her pre-taped interview was going to be aired. The time /day stamp coincided with the (TOD )time of death of the cosmetic surgeon. All the time, she was shown in the video watching the full interview.
The lady writer gasped after realizing that the video is going to be an airtight alibi for the suspect. She could not be in two places at the same time. She was in her house watching herself in the TV. She remembered that she herself watched the telecast of the interview after watching a newscast.
But there is still the question as to who was taping her? Why did he leave the videocam? Was he almost caught that he dumped the recorder?
Before they left, the lady writer asked for a copy of the video so that she could study the angling and the points of interest taken by the camera
The murder suspect gave her a spare copy from her desk.
The lady writer went straight home because she was expecting the delivery of her two-door wardrobe (aparador) which she ordered some days back.
The deliverymen came but left the furniture in the sidewalk when they learned that the elevator is not big enough to bring the wardrobe to the fourth floor of the lady's apartnent.
A persistent suitor who she met in the internet came by. You know the usual line--he was just in the neighborhood so he decided to drop by. He was a blessing when he offered to help her in her dilemma whether to return or keep the item.
Both of them labored to move the wardrobe using the stairwell; one pushing, the other one pulling, resting for a few minutes in each landing.
After tons of sweats and groans, they finally reached the fourth floor. A few more push and pull and the wardrobe found its place in the corner of the bedroom. She thanked the newfound friend and walked him to the elevator.
When she came back, she excitedly opened the doors of the wardrobe. Out fell a body. The dead body of the murder suspect.
After calling the police, she brainstormed with her partner, how in the world did the murder suspect end up in her wardrobe? They retraced the steps taken in moving the wardrobe from the sidewalk to the fourth floor . At what point and stop was the body placed inside? If indeed, there was a body, wouldn't it create a noise as the wardrobe was dragged, pushed and lifted?
Who killed her? Why in the place of the lady writer? Was there a message or a warning?
The illusion maker /partner of the lady writer looked into all the crevices of the wardrobe. It was solid. No secret door at any side. The dead body had no blood. If she died of heart attack, what was she doing inside the dresser?
If some sleuths follow the money, the magician's illusion designer, followed the windows from where he saw a trash can with the day's garbage in the small alley beside the building. Rummaging the bin, he found a video cassette.
When he played the cassette, he found a still unedited version of the video they watched in the house of the murder suspect. The interview was not preceded by a newscast.
They realized that they were set up to watch the edited video that gave the suspect an airtight alibi. The unedited version which she inadvertently gave to the lady was an evidence that there was no stalker. The video was taken showing the lady watching her pre-taped interview resetting the time stamp to coincide the time she was out murdering her cosmetic surgeon.
Why did she die? How did she die? Who killed her?
Realizing her blunder on the cassette, she drove to the place of the lady sleuth to retrieve it. In her hurry to reach the place ahead of the lady, she ignored the heavy stuff that fell on her head while she was about to ride in her car. Using the windows to break and enter, she avoided the encounter with the lady writer who was busy with her aparador.
She did not know that there was already internal injury in her brain. Before she could escape again by the windows, the lady writer and her friend were already by the door of the apartment unit. She disposed of the cassette with the plan to recover it from the trash later then she got inside the aparador to hide thinking that the lady is not coming back so soon. At that time, she already felt nauseated, confused and was bleeding internally. This all happened when the lady sleuth walked her friend to the elevator. The finding of the ME gave brain injury as the COD.
What is the morale of story? Illusions are meant to deceive your senses, sixth sense included and so are edited videos.
(this is from a series which predated CD and DVD and where videocam was as heavy as a small TV set. If you are a tourist, you'll have frozen shoulder by the time you finished taking pictures of landcapes and people).
Pinaysaamerika
No comments:
Post a Comment