8 Moves and Mate

MOVE 1: e4 c6

DS Marquis Anderson or as known in the Yard, Mark, was a reserved and introverted officer. He was recently promoted from the position of Detective Constable due to his brilliant detective skills at the Barclays Robbery Case which led to the timely apprehension of the perpetrator. Anderson's days go like any other person in a daily job: wake up, eat, work, eat and sleep. He is also a family man, with a doctor wife, Clarissa, a football loving daughter, Tamara and a toddler son, Jake. As DS, he went on to solve a few more cases, but nothing really caught his eye. An analytical person with an affection for brain teasers and puzzles, Anderson is a seasoned chess player. He had been the county champion as a teenager and currently holds the Yard's Chess Title. Many have come to him in hopes of vanquishing the old dog and clinching the Yard Grandmaster title, but all have failed, except maybe DC Lizzie Allen, who was this close to winning the match but lost for a blunder, now his 'rightful' partner.

31. Qxh7+ Kf8 32. Qh8+

Black's Queen is skewered on b8 with no means to escape

32. ... Ke7 33. Qxb8 1-0, White Wins.

Anderson was grinning on the win. He had absolutely decimated his opponent; his smart manoeuvres and tactics were no match for his online competitor and the digital chessboard ended up looking like the 'Russian Scorched Earth'. He was about to start another match when he was called in by DCI Joanne Wilkins, head of the Homicide Unit. He entered the DCI's office and took a chair. The DCI sat down and began speaking.

"So, how are Tamara and Jake?"

"Jake is learning alphabets and Tammy is doing fine. Her football team is having tryouts and she wants to try."

"She will do great."

"I know. Plan to put her in Tottenham's Academy."

"HAHAHAHAHA TOTTENHAM! YES SURE! ELUDE HER TROPHIES!"

"Hey! We support Tottenham! Arsenal is a dilapidated club anyways!"

"We shall see in the North London Derby, Anderson. ...Anyways, New case. Mayfair."

"Concerning?"

"We are talking about Pamela Yeats here."

"Lord Bingham's fiancée? This must be high-profile."

"Yes, Forensic ruling is suicide by hanging. We both know that is not the case, or you wouldn't be sitting in this office."

"Contacts or Leads?"

"We did contact her ex-husband. Now in Finland. Nothing on him though"

"Alright. Um-I'll check stuff with Allen."

"Try to be quick. Things are bottlenecked."

Anderson goes out and calls Allen.

"Hey Allen, New case. Mayfair. Pack up!"

"Huh? Oh Yeats? You got the case?!"

Anderson nods.

"Dammit! There goes my hard-earned free time."

Allen, clearly irritated, packs up and meets Anderson by the car.

Allen shouts, "You just HAD to take a high-profile case amidst my bloody soup break!"

"Get in the car. I will buy you...soup."

"Gee. Thanks!"

Anderson looks awestruck at his partner, who clearly has swings faster than a 200 BPM metronome. As they go towards Mayfair, they stop at Infinite Scent, a cafe popularly known among officers as the 'Better Office Cafeteria'. Allen orders a Lentil Soup and Anderson, a Cold Brew. They return to their car and go towards Mayfair. Anderson decides to play a game of verbal chess on the way but is outright refused by Allen, who was clearly enjoying her soup.

When they reach the location in Mayfair — hardly a two-minute drive from Berkeley and newly white washed, even on a cold and snowy November — they enter the posh apartment, now a site and scene of abject terror, the to-be-Lady sprawled on the floor, her face blue and strangling marks visible. They meet Vineet Pathak, head of the forensics team. Pathak informs them that the time of death, after preliminary guesses, was around 8-10 pm last night. Found hanging from the fan. Neighbours rang the doorbell outside, when she hadn't come for the tenants meeting.

Anderson asked, "Tenant? I thought she owned the place."

Pathak replies, "Well she used to. Sold it last December for her wedding but the wedding was called off. Rented it from the buyer again for a year. Big News. Didn't you read it?"

"Hm-Huh? No. ...Did you consider these?" Anderson says, pointing at the ACs.

"Centrally controlled. Did not interfere too much with the time estimation."

"Then, the window was open." Anderson muttered under his breath, before declaring, "Murder!"

"What?"

Anderson leads Pathak and Allen towards the Sash windows and shows them slight depositions of water formed in almost all of them.

"This means that someone killed her. Then they proceeded to open the windows to mess with the time of death and closed it like normal again. That is snow melting from yesterday's snowfall. Person opening the windows couldn't have been the victim as the coolers were on."

Pathak replies, "We can confirm this after the post mortem comes in."

"Ok, meanwhile Allen and I will look over the room."

The DC-DS duo look around to find a well-decorated room, everything set straight. The victim was a perfectionist. They find many books of celebrated literature, arranged neatly into genres and authors with one exception being a dictionary placed between "Pandemonium" and "The Hunger Games". Allen takes up the dictionary and reads, while Anderson finds an old dresser, probably a heirloom. He asks two forensic experts to help him move the massive dresser. After much grunt work, the dresser reveals a different shade of white than the rest of the wall.

Anderson exclaims, "Weird! The shade is different."

Pathak says, "That is really minute."

"And an anomaly. The victim is a hard-core perfectionist. Should have known that by now. As for the wall, she wouldn't allow it."

Anderson inspects the wall to find out that it's hot.

"Geez. That's Fresh! Somebody made this using the whitewashing material outside. BREAK IT DOWN!"

The team breaks the wall and a loud and terrified shriek comes from Allen, who faints and falls down like the headless, mutilated body that fell from inside the broken wall.