The police detective said the dead body on the bed was Mort, Mort E'trange. He is the home owner and guy who gives me my orders. The detective said there was no sign of violence. The medical examiner said he will determine the cause of death when he gets the body back to his lab. All the doors and windows to the house are locked from the inside except for the door between the kitchen and garage. All the doors from the garage to the outside are also closed and locked. I can tell you more about the layout if you like?
No? You want the background information on Mort, and Mort's various associates who qualify as suspects. Here is what I have.
Mort first brought me into his home a year ago to help out with his business and household chores. He runs a tax consulting business out of his home. In his words, he specializes in clients that are wealthy and who obtained said wealth by legally questionable means.
My job is to do online research for the tax service. I am also expected to do all the small mundane tasks around the house that again in Mort's words, he is too busy or too lazy to be bothered with. These tasks include everything from warming up his car for him on cold winter mornings to closing up the house at night.
Yes, these tasks might seem more suited to someone with vision, but I am quite capable of performing them. For my internet searches I have a special interface that interprets the printed text into results I can use. Most of my research involves tax laws so there are few pictures. Anything my interface can't handle like charts and graphs, I just print out for Mort to look at. Generally speaking, my text to voice translator serves me well.
And, of course, I can't drive, but I can start the engine and turn on the heater since both are controlled remotely by Mort's key fob.
Everything Mort owns that can be controlled remotely is. This includes locks on all the windows and doors. They can only be opened and closed from the central controller located in Mort's office; the signals are encrypted and unhackable. The house is a veritable fortress that can be quickly locked up from Mort's desk in less than a second.
Yes, paranoid technophile is an accurate description of Mort. From his desk, it is a simple matter for Mort to push a button, throw a switch or adjust a control to do whatever he needs done, still he usually asks me to do it.
The reason Mort chose me for his assistant, is again in his words, despite his considerable wealth, he is a "lazy, cheap bastard." Mort called me his assistant. More accurately, I was his flunky.
We weren't really that close. Nor could you say we even got along all that well. Mort found my literal interpretations and responses irritating calling me stupid or saying, "You're killing me." Obviously, I wasn't. I had neither the motive or means to kill him. This was not the case for most of the people Mort interacted with.
