Matthew Kane

Matthew Kane was the victim in The Death's Mark (Case #2 of Tristan City).

Profile
Matthew was a 34-year-old investor who had balck hair, blue eyes and a stubble. At the time of his death, he was wearing a green shirt, black sport pants and tap shoes.

Murder Details
Matthew's body was found in Nicole Fouquet's dance studio. He was resting near a mirror wall, with her face red and a tattoo on the right side of his face, which created a full oni mask once it was reflected on the mirror. In the lab, Nigel revealed to the team that Matthew lost conciousness due to asphyxiation and what killed him was the tattoo, thanks to Miles suggestion. The tattoo ink was mixed with lead, which is highly toxic to the human's body and the mask was created while the victim was unconcious. By using that method, the coroners could retrieve two important pieces of evidence: the killer had to be someone who worked out and his tattoo skills resembled an amateurs work.

Later, Adrian and the player found the murder weapon thrown in a trash can: a tattoo machine. Miles examinated it throughfully, and extrated a sample of the paint residue from the machine. With that clue, the weapon expert discovered that lead was not the only substance that was mixed on the paint, but it was composed by three different acids and toxins. Thanks to the results, Miles was sure the killer knew chemistry, since that mixture was perfectly created.

Relationship with suspects
Even though his income was acceptable, Matthew decided no to pay both her dance teacher, Nicole Fouquet and his janitor, Wyatt Bedford. The first one recieved a check that turned out to be fake and made the woman furious; the latter performed voodoo magic to convince the victim to pay him, but resulted to be ineffective. The investor also had love issues: he was having an affair with runner for district leader Adam Woods, who was angry with him for not deciding to commit to their relationship; while he had a relationship with Sally Stone, who almost commited suicide after discovering his affair. Matthew also had problems with his secretary Clair Briggs, who tried to sedate the victim so she could have more time for a break.

Killer and motives
In the end, the killer turned out to be Clair.

In a unexpected turn of events, it was revealed that Clair was in love with the victim's girlfriend Sally. She tried to reason with the victim about being honest with Sally about his affair with Adam, but Matthew theartened her with firing her and making her lose her reputation. Furious and madly in love, she couldn't resist the opportunity to kill him while he was practicing tap. She deliberately prepared her old tattoo machine with poisoned paint and choked him until he fell unconcious. Then, she lied his boss's body next to the mirror and tattooed his face with an oni desing, in order to show everyone the demon he was both inside and outside. Judge Crown sentenced Clair to 35 years in prison with a possible parole in 20 years.

Case appearances

 * The Death's Mark (Case #2 of Tristan City)