Play 'As Time Goes By

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“Play 'As Time Goes By”

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Play 'As Time Goes By
General information
Season	1
District	Cavendish Markets
Case #	11
Initial release date	May 2, 2021
Partner(s)	Casey Zappman (All Chapters)
Case chronology
← Preceded by	Succeeded by →
Last Flight to Murder	Burn Both Ends

“	After learning of Plan C's existence, the department was placed on high-security patrol to decide who would be targeted. Apart from the disaster, a gala hosted by the Pate family, who had demanded our protection, has been marred by tragedy, as one of them has met their end! Who could have perpetrated such a catastrophe right in front of our eyes? We'll have to wait and see.	„
	—Case Teaser

Play 'As Time Goes By is the eleventh case of Criminal Case as the eleventh case of Staghaven Secrets. It is the fifth and penultimate case to take place in Cavendish Markets district.

Plot

As the Pate family extended their invitation to the department for their estate gala for extra protection, Casey who is back on track finally returned to work alongside the player to work inside the gala. As fancy businessmen and businesswomen gather around drinking their wine and celebrating the Pate's success, suddenly there was a scream let out by one of the guests, terrified as she saw a body fell from the roof and dangling on the walls, who were identified as the heiress of the Pate family, Trisha Pate who was hanged by a flag garland.

The pair sent the body to Colum, who asked if Casey's feeling okay, where the latter nodded before the two hugged. Colum determined the victim was indeed murdered as there are several scratches on the victim's neck, suggesting there may be a struggle as she was strangled. Continuing the investigation further, the pair queried the Pate family head and the victim's father, Vincent Pate and his wife, and the victim's mother, Mildred Pate. Both individuals seemed to be distraught and shed a tear at their daughter's death and mandated justice. Lastly, they spoke with the victim's best friend who's a familiar face from the murder investigation of the vendor back then, socialite Beverly Simmons who expressed her sympathy as she recalled her childhood with the victim. Soon after, a drunken Vincent Pate shouted distraught words in anger, saying he would find and kill whoever messes with the Pates by killing his daughter.

Seeing how irate Vincent is, Casey assures the businessman to cool down as they are working hard to find the culprit, prompting him to take a break by dousing himself with a shot of pastis. Continuing the investigation, the team questioned social science professor Evie Esmery about the crime, astonishing her as she remembered Trisha during her college years studying social science when she was still a teaching assistant, and explained she arrived at the party unprepared due to a sudden invitation. Lastly, the pair meet up with a familiar face and suspected conspiracy theorist and manmade human Zinj Sombrerotozoa to commit the crime, where he asserted he arrived at the party because he was friends with both Trisha and Beverly. The team found out Vincent was disappointed with Trisha not wanting to continue the family's legacy and wanted to pursue her career as a political scientist. As for Mildred, although she supported Trisha, she didn't like the fact her daughter would steal half of her money to run her business. Soon after, the pair heard gunshots from the gardens until someone screamed that somebody had been shot.

Hearing the news, the pair didn't hesitate to approach the scene before encountering the injured Zinj who got shot in the shoulder, before Casey called the paramedics to take care of Zinj for wellbeing. Based on the incident and testimonies from witnesses, the gun was deduced to be fired from the victim's bedroom. Reaching the bedroom to examine the gun, they determined the culprit who shot Zinj must be the same as Trisha's killer. Onwards, the team discovered Beverly and the victim often slept with each other in secret, even attempting to entice their friend Zinj to join for leisure, but he invariably declined. Soon after, the pair learned Evie had been angry at Trisha for inviting her on purpose on humiliating her by faking the invitation into a study session, clarifying the reason why she came unprepared and amassed humiliating looks from the guests. Lastly, we spoke to Zinj in his hospital bed about the victim's attempt to drug him, before he explained that Trisha is so desperate to invite Zinj on the threesome, despite his refusal and explanation that he is asexual. After compiling enough evidence, the team incriminated Beverly for the murder.

With enough evidence to crack Beverly, she immediately chuckled...before confessing for their hard work. Confused about the ordeal, we asked her for more explanation on the chuckle before she admitted being an assassin paid by the mysterious organization to eliminate both Vincent and Mildred Pate, so they could regain control over the economy since the Pates are like the secondary influential family in the region. When asked why she killed Trisha, she confessed Trisha was never her target, but she had no choice as Trisha got caught in the wind during one of their illicit activities and tried to confront her at the party. Refused to lose just yet, she strangled her friend with a flag garland before strangling her for the show so she could scare the guests and the Pates and kill the two of them during the panic. But due to the police's arrival, no one panicked and the Pates are hard to be eliminated, so she relied on a sniper rifle to kill Vincent who was taking a shot of pastis with Zinj, but she missed and hit Zinj instead. The pair brought her to face Judge de Paradis who recognized Beverly from her social media account, before sighing about her true identity, calling her malicious before sentencing her to 50 years imprisonment for the murder of Trisha Pate and the attempted murder of Vincent and Mildred Pate, as well as the shooting of Zinj Sombrerotozoa.

A day after solving the case last night, the player once again returned to work where Chief Murloch called us and Casey to her office where she spoke to us regarding an internet analyst from Britain, Jamie Lockhart had contacted the department regarding her sister's disappearance from the organization and she wanted to extend her expertise to help the police track her sister. They then met the analyst nearby the Pate estate where she asserted her suspicion on the gala last night that some of the members may attend the gala to watch the Pates and they may have dropped leads. With that, we searched the area again and found solid evidence about a letter addressed to Zacharias DeMonet, who's currently in prison after being responsible for leading a gang of thugs that caused a casualty back then. Confused, they sent the letter to Darwin who assessed the writer must be tough and had a poor lifestyle, which is sort of a match to Zacharias' henchmen, proving that his men may have cooperated alongside the organization. Knowing talking to the men won't lead to any path to victory, the pair spoke with Zacharias himself in prison who confessed that he was associated with the organization since day one, even admitting he had bribed an officer for information regarding the situation outside prison. Soon after the confession, we arrested the officer where he immediately admitted to accepting the bribe and revealed information that Zacharias men had taken Jennifer Lockhart to a local abandoned church in the northeastern streets of the district before the pair handcuffed the officer and led him to custody.

Later on, Jamie had contacted us again...saying that she can't contact her stepbrother, conspiracy theorist Kempe Smith, fearing the worst may happen to him. Hearing that, the chief ordered Casey and the player to investigate the estate once again for more leads before finding Kempe's SUV keys at the estate, deducing that it may have been dropped at the time he was visiting the Pates either from an accident or sheer force. Giving the keys to Alexis for further examination, and when Casey and the player met up with the lab chief herself, Casey and Alexis shared a glance at each other before blushing until she continued to assert that she had found some substances of smoke from Cuban cigars. Jamie who accompanied us then confirmed Kempe never smoked, and she had spoken with Zacharias herself and he confirmed all of his henchmen owned Cuban cigarettes as a sign of friendship, meaning that Kempe may have been abducted alongside Jennifer, leaving Jamie in extreme fear to her siblings.

Lastly, after finding out the true location of the kidnappings, Rodrigo prepared himself to strike the abandoned church to free the hostages by donning a bulletproof vest and carrying a rifle and a dagger for protection. There, we discovered the church was heavily guarded by Zacharias' henchmen until Rodrigo planned to strike through stealth until a drug dealer named Blake Sauveterre approached them by yelling, nearly alerting the thugs and leaving Rodrigo and the player a shocker before we scolded him to be quiet. Blake then continued his jabbering and asked for an autograph, thinking they were superheroes before Rodrigo spotted Blake carrying a supply of marijuana in his pocket. With that, the pair fined the idiot for his use of drugs and moved on with their plan but the henchmen found out about our existence and armed themselves, giving Rodrigo no choice but to use his quirk of super-strength and beat all of the thugs with his fists and tackles. Clearing the area for good, Rodrigo and the player prepared themselves to enter the church, before slowly opening the church doors to save the hostages once for all!

Summary

Victim

• Trisha Pate (was strangled before being hung in public) 

Murder Weapon

• Flag Garland

Killer

• Beverly Simmons

Suspects

Vincent Pate

Mildred Pate

Beverly Simmons

Evie Esmery

Zinj Sombrerotozoa

Quasi-Suspects

Jamie Lockhart

Zacharias DeMonet

Blake Sauveterre

Killer's Profile

• The killer drinks pastis.
• The killer takes Sexy Beast pills.
• The killer uses Eau de Wild.
• The killer wears black glitter.
• The killer has blonde hair.

Crime Scenes

Estate Front	Gardens	Estate Front Bonus
Ballroom	Buffet Stand	Ballroom Bonus
Victim's Bedroom	Balcony	Victim's Bedroom Bonus

Steps

For Love or Money (5/6)