Murders of the Past

Checkmate

"Argo, the World Exhibition will be opening soon! I hope we can put the unpleasantness of the last murder behind us and enjoy the day," Isaac says as he and Argo stand at the ship's helm, looking out the window at the fairgrounds below Alto, "the theme of the exhibition's first day is hobbies and entertainment! One of the inventors has created an anthropomorphic self-operating machine that plays chess!"

"Sorprendente!" Argo marvels, "Jason's spent so much time recently working on his invention, I've barely seen him and Ember! I can't wait to see his and the other inventions on display!"

"I'm sure every creation will be uniquely spectacular!" he declares, "and I am proud to say that my friend, Casper Rove, who happens to be the youngest chess master in the world, was invited to play against the automaton! It's hard to believe that Rove will be going up against the first-ever machine to play chess, the Chessmaton... And he and I have been playing chess games through letters for years!"

"How does one play chess through letters?" he inquired.

"I will show you the letters later; it is easier to explain with visual aids," he responds, "surely, a machine could never beat a human in chess, but either way, it will be a historic day, and no mistake!"

"Argo, Isaac! There's been another murder at the World Exhibition!" Evie announced frantically, "they need you right now!"

"Another murder?!" Isaac exclaimed.

"Yes," she confirmed, "a body has been found on the movie set there! You must hurry!"

"We're on our way, Evie!" Argo replies.

Thankfully, Alto was docked close to the entrance of the fairgrounds, so after dropping the gangway, Argo and Isaac exited to investigate the movie set. Evie had provided them with directions to the building, and the detectives entered to find the scene of the murder. The movie set was designed with a dreamy night appearance featuring a large moon on the stage with sparkly stars hanging around it. Recording equipment was set up before the stage, and while they had no idea what the movie was about, they did know that the dead body lying on the stage was not a prop.

A young man was sprawled out on the stage, and a large bloodstain soaked his pink sweater vest over his heart. There was no obvious weapon lying around, but there was a bloodstained page on one of the tables set up behind the camera equipment. They also found a pile of broken metal in front of the stage, but until it was repaired, they couldn't tell what it was.

"Oh no! Is this Casper? He's been shot straight through the heart!" Isaac cried, identifying the victim as his friend, "Casper Rove, my friend, the world's youngest chess master... I cannot believe that anyone would want to hurt him... Have you found anything that could explain why or how this happened?"

Argo picks up the bloody page, "this bloody paper must be a clue! But we'll need to retrieve the faded text on it! And anything we find at this stage could be helpful. Like that broken metal!"

He nods, picking up a piece, "could you piece this broken copper plate back together?"

"Sì!" he says confidently.

"Thank you," he says, gazing at Casper's body, "I'll do anything to find out who did this to my young friend..."

Argo sits at the table where he'd found the bloody paper and dusts the faded, unbloody section while Isaac gathers the broken metal pieces. The Italian recovers what appears to be an equation, and while he understands some of the math, the solution does not make sense.

"The faded paper you dusted was an equation!" Isaac remarks, leaning over his partner's shoulder, "is the solution to that scribbled equation "Death", Argo? No wonder it was covered in blood! I suggest that we take this mathematical dilemma to Charlie. Perhaps he'll understand it..."