Murders of the Past

Out of Steam

At the World Exhibition flight field...

"Argo, wasn't it just thrilling to watch Bontemps play chess against the automaton in that riveting match at the opening of the World Exhibition!" Maddie reminisced, "and now we're about to witness the first-ever steampack flight by the famous inventor Orville West!"

"This is certainly an exciting time for Concordia!" Argo agrees, watching the birds flying overhead and a hot air balloon float among the clouds.

"As you know, the World Exhibition is also a contest. Inventions get judged, and a prize is awarded to the most groundbreaking one at the end," she lectured, lifting her binoculars to her eyes, "if Orville's flight goes well, he might actually win! This is a historic moment! Oh, Argo, there's the steampack inventor now. He's taking off and rapidly gaining speed-"

BOOM!

The crowd gasped in horror as Orville crashed into the hot air balloon hovering in the sky above the field. Both the steampack and balloon plummeted to the ground at rapid descent, but unlike the balloon pilot, Orville didn't have a basket to protect his body when it hit the ground. The sickening cracking sound of his bones rang out as he crashed, and his steampack sputtered steam from its boosters.

"Sweet mother of pearl! Orville West just crashed into a hot air balloon!" Maddie cried, dropping her binoculars in shock, "they've plummeted to the ground! Argo, let us go help them!"

While the CPD ushered the crowd away from the scene, Argo and Maddie approached the crash site. The hot air balloon was deflated and fanned out on the ground with its basket on its side and a small fire burning the wicker material. Thankfully, the pilot had rolled out of the basket and out of reach of the flames. His breathing was laboured but still present as he weakly held his side in obvious pain but still alive. Paramedics were already on the scene and rushed to the pilot to stabilize him for transport.

Sadly, the same could not be said about Orville. The inventor had crashed to the ground several feet from the hot air balloon, and a pool of fresh blood soaked the grass under his body. His steampack was also heavily damaged, and the straps had snapped, causing it to land away from Orville's body. Looking around for other clues, they find a clipboard closer to the hot air balloon with a faded document clipped to it.

"Argo, it's a relief the balloon pilot is alive!" Maddie reports, joining her partner by Orville's body after talking to the paramedics, "fortunately, the ambulance arrived just in time to transport him to the hospital for emergency care!"

"But unfortunately, there's nothing we can do for the steampack pilot, Signor West. He's dead!" Argo announced, finding no pulse at the victim's neck.

"Dash my wig, Argo!" she gasps, kneeling beside her partner for a closer look at the wound she'd spotted on Orvile's chest, "it looks like there's a large bullet wound in the pilot's chest! Mr. West was shot! So this wasn't a steampack accident! This was murder! Why someone would want to murder Orville West just as he was about to make history is beyond me!"

"But it's not beyond our skills!" he argued, moving to the destroyed steampack, "the remains of the steampack should tell us something! Let us search through them!"

She nods in agreement, picking up the clipboard, "the document on this clipboard has the World Exhibition logo on the top. It would appear this is the scoresheet for the steampack's flight. Something is written next to the main score... but it looks like something was spilled on it. A good dusting of this sheet could help us! Argo, this exhibition promises to showcase not only innovation but murder, as well. And it's up to us to stop this before any other participant finds themselves on the opposite end of progress!"