
         NINE LIVES: MURDERS. COPYRIGHT (C) 1988 LEVEL 9
         -----------------------------------------------

The game includes nine murders for the player to pick from. They 
will be graded in difficulty order and - while the final order can 
only be assessed with hindsight - an initial order is as follows..  

1: Vera stabs Sue to "protect" Sir Robert; 
2: Sir Robert fights Clifford who falls from window; 
3: Fiona bashes William and frames Kathy, to climb inher'ce queue; 
4: Sue apparantly uses an egg to poison Fiona, after her insults; 
5: Kathy commits suicide with a gun, in a highly intelligent way; 
6: Clifford uses Sir Robert's heart attack to frame William; 
7: Jarvis drowns Vera because they hate each other; 
8: William frames Anthony and escapes to a new life; 
9: Anthony strangles and frames Jarvis who has been sneering at him. 


EVIDENCE 

Some details are only obvious by examining evidence closely. As we 
also need a straightforward "examine", I propose that this be 
followed by "do you take a closer look?". Agreeing would reveal 
any additional information, but would take quite a bit of time 
(and people might object to themselves or their possessions being 
stared at in this way). 


1: Vera stabs Sue to "protect" Sir Robert 

Vera Armstrong had been brooding over Sue Lombard's increasing 
influence in the household. She basically ran the place, and looked 
forward to a generous inheritance when Sir Robert. But now she 
feared the way in which Sue was "weasling" her way into the master's 
confidence, and was furious about what she saw as gold-digging. 

Temporarily unhinged by cooking sherry, Vera made her way to Sue's 
room (next to Sir Robert's) and stabbed her with a breadknife. 

EVIDENCE 

Everyone else had an alibi; Vera hid her bloodstained pinnafore in 
her room; and the breadknife was hidden about her person. 



2: Sir Robert fights Clifford who falls from window 

Sir Robert felt an instinctive hatred for Clifford, who he correctly 
assumed was looking to take over his business with Fiona's unwitting 
help. 

When Clifford visited his office to try to win the older man over, 
they argued and fought. Clifford fell from the window to his death, 
and Sir Robert dragged his body to the potting shed. 

EVIDENCE 

On the ground below Robert's window were marks of a fall, and 
Clifford's wallet. A scrap of cloth from Sir Robert's suit was 
snagged on a nail in the shed; and a gash on the body's face 
matched with traces of blood on Sir Robert's ring. 



3: Fiona bashes William and frames Kathy, to climb inher'ce queue 

Fiona Farleigh viewed herself much as the non-prodigal daughter; 
she did all the work but it looked as if William Farleigh (a 
"complete waste of space", a "vacuum in human form) would inherit. 

She had previously borrowed the head a cherub from the statue in the 
statue beside the main drive, for a cruel joke on Jarvis, who cared 
greatly about first impressions and was now looking for it whenever 
duties permitted. (Jarvis would not admit this was what he was doing, 
though, so as not to draw attention to the imperfection). 

Then she heard Kathy Farleigh anguing loudly with her husband, waited 
until she left briefly in tears, and slipped into the room. Fiona hit 
William from behind with the cherub's head and killed him, then she 
used the fire tongs to pick up Kathy's cut glass perfume bottle and 
rub it against the bloody wound. Fiona dropped the tongs and returned 
to her own bedroom, where she waited until Kathy's cries raised the 
alarm before going to the bathroom, washing the head and throwing it 
from the window. 

Soon afterwards, Jarvis found the head and screwed it back in place. 


EVIDENCE 

Cherub's Head  - minute traces of blood 
Perfume Bottle - apparant murder weapon. Kathy's fingerprints 
Tongs - Fiona and Vera's fingerprints
Sound of Kathy\William quarrel  



4: Sue apparantly uses an egg to poison Fiona, after her insults 

Fiona repeatedly insults Sue, to the point where she walks from the 
room with murder on her mind. 

Knowing of Fiona's preference for brown eggs, Sue visits the kitchen 
and secretly makes a tiny pin-prick in the shell of each of these. 
(Her idea is a piece of subtle misdirection). 

Sue arrives first for breakfast, conceals a pin in the back of 
Sue's chair and waits. When the next family member arrives, she 
takes her leave - complaining of a headache and a feeling that 
something awful will happen. 

Sue leaves, everyone arrives and they have breakfast, Fiona being 
the only one to have a brown egg (the others are happy with white). 
At the end, Fiona leans back and stretches, then dies. 

Sue returns a few minutes later, claiming that she has just realised 
what her premonition means, only to find Fiona dead. Crying, she 
goes over to examine the body and secretly removed the pin. 


EVIDENCE 

Eggs - the brown ones have pin-pricks but are not poisoned. 
Fiona's Chair - close examination reveals a pin 
Pin - poisoned 



5: Kathy commits suicide with a gun, in a highly intelligent way 

Sir Robert is a collector of antique guns and gives a demonstration 
of his duelling pistols. Jarvis arrives to announce dinner and the 
family go up to their rooms to change. Kathy pleads illness and asks 
him to bring up a tray, and this he does. 

Shortly afterwards, a bang is heard from Kathy's room. She's sitting 
facing the door and has been shot in the forehead, and it's not a 
pretty sight.n he dies. 

William hates being called "Bill" and is suspicious of his wife Kathy 
who is surprisingly sexy (a triumph of mind over matter) and a flirt. 


* Kathy Farleigh (nee Pym): wife (31). Mousy hair. Short, fat, glasses 

Kathy is not pretty, but she acts pretty and knows how to attract men 
with wit and subtle flattery. She thinks herself a very intelligent 
woman who has married a very stupid man. She is bored stiff with the 
Country and is much attracted by Anthony Farleigh's cultivates of any of 
these - it actually fell into the coffee pot. (You can't see it 
by examination and would need to take it to the kitchen or bathroom 
to empty it). 


EVIDENCE 

Gun 
Coffee Pot 
Wardrobe 
Secret Door 
Chip in Window Sill 



6: Clifford uses Sir Robert's heart attack to frame William 

Sir Robert feel unwell and asks Doctor William for an opinion. 
William advises him to rest and tells everyone else to leave him 
alone for a while. 

Robert has a drink of whisky and coincidentally dies. Clifford 
arrives late, not having heard the doctor's advice, visits Sir 
Robert and finds him dead. This means William will inherit almost 
everything, but Clifford realises if he acts quickly he can dispose 
of this rival. 

He conceals a glass and visits William, complaining of a headache, 
waits until he's unlocked his bag and then distracts the doctor 
with a claim of hearing him called from outside. William leaves for 
long enough to let Clifford steal Kathy's whisky bottle and take
some arsenic in the glass. 

Clifford returns to the body, poisons Robert's whisky in the bottle 
and drips some poisoned whisky into the dead man's mouth and into a 
pair of glasses. Then he pours all the poisoned whisky out of the 
window and refills Robert's malt whisky bottle with the grain spirit 
stolen from Kathy. Finally, he wipes the glasses with a cloth and 
replaces them on the shelf, wipes Kathy's bottle and drops the cloth 
out of the window. On the way past, he opens the door of William's 
room a crack and pushes the empty bottle inside. 

The idea is that everything should look as though William poisoned 
his father and then tried to hide the evidence. 


EVIDENCE 

Glasses - two of them smell slightly of bitter almonds 
Kathy's Bottle - empty and smells slightly of bitter almonds
Robert's Bottle - contains wrong type of whisky 
Whisky below window 
Cloth below window 



7: Jarvis drowns Vera because they hate each other 

Jarvis and Vera have been married for many years and grown to hate 
each other immensely. So, when Jarvis accidentally disturbs Vera 
taking a bath in their cottage, and she speaks to him for the first 
time in five years to say how much he disgusts her, he drowns her. 

Jarvis needs an alibi, so he puts a blown 5amp fuse in the plug of 
their electric fire, plugs it in and places it the fire in the bath. 
Then he takes a metal fork and bends all but the outer prongs aside, 
joins a group of people and secretly pushes it into anorrectly 
assumed was looking to take over his business with Fiona's unwitting 
help. 

When Clifford visited his office to try to win the older man over, 
they argued and fought. Clifford fell from the window to his death, 
and Sir Robert dragged his body to the potting shed. 

EVIDENCE 

On the ground below Robert's window were marks of a fall, and 
Clifford's wallet. A scrap of cloth from Sir Robert's suit was 
snagged on a nail in the shed; and a gash on the body's face 
matched with tracesexamination of the body suggests she drowned. 


EVIDENCE 

Jarvis' cuff is slightly wet. 
Fork is surplus and is bent and tarnished. 
Body is drowned, not electrocuted. 
"Jarvis thrown to ground". 
5 amp fuse is too small for electric fire. 



8: William frames Anthony and escapes to a new life 

William is fed up with life and thinks that Anthony is having an 
affair with his wife. He decides to frame his rival and vanish to 
a new life abroad. 

William explains that he cut himself badly on a cold chisel, when he 
arrives wearing an impressive bandage on his left hand. There are a 
few jokes about fighting off murder by his wife. This allows him to 
uncover the wound at will. 

He borrows Anthony's penknife to uncork a bottle and (unseen) smears 
a drop of blood on the hinge before returning it. 

Later, he passes on a false message to Anthony (unseen), telling him 
of an urgent message. They are seen going together to William's room, 
where he claims to have made a note of the message - but needless to 
say it's not there. William says all he knows it was from someone who 
will soon be arriving, so Anthony walks angrily to his car and leaves. 

William is not seen again. He splashes some blood around his room, 
climbs from the window and flattens the bushes as if he fell. 
Wearing a jacket like Anthony's, he drags a coat to his car, puts the 
coat in the back and drives off. (Someone will see this and think 
subsequently that it was Anthony dragging William). 

He drives to the local pig farm, wraps the coat around a previously- 
bought joing of meat and throws it to the pigs; making sure to splash 
some of his own blood around. By the time the farmer returns, the 
pigs will have eaten just about everything. 

William now walks away, and will not be seen again unless you accuse 
him successfully, when he's caught using a false passport to flee the 
country to a new life. 

Meanwhile, Anthony returns and is accused of murder. 


EVIDENCE 

Penknife 
coat fragments 
"Sight of Anthony dragging body" 



9: Anthony strangles and frames Jarvis who has been sneering at him 

Jarvis thinks Anthony a wastrel who has made nothing of his life 
(unlike the other Farleighs) and treats him with a studied lack of 
respect - much to the amusement of William and Fiona. 

Anthony waits until Jarvis is alone downstairs in his cottage, enters 
and strangles him and hangs him by a noose from the light fitting. 
Then he borrows Jarvis' rabbitting shotgun and coat (holding the gun 
unnaturally by a cloth, and triggering it by string, so as not to 
disturb Jarvis fingerprints) and walks through the garden and fires 
at Sir Robert through the window. 

He drops the gun, runs back to Jarvis, locks the door, puts the coat 
on the body, locks the door and climbs out of the window. He then 
lurks in the bushes and joins the family when they arrive cautiously 
to bang on the door and eventually burst in. He then goes to the 
window and opens it saying, "Just checking this was closed and nobody 
could have escaped this way. He must have killed himself when he came 
to his senses". 


EVIDENCE 

Shotgun 
"Behaviour while checking window" 
