Note to the Reader

At the end of each chapter, the reader is provided one or more options in how the story is to progress going forward. These are presented in the form of links that are underlined, that you can click to go to the next chapter. These are in the last paragraph of each chapter and are usually presented as a question or choice for the reader to make. So you can choose what you want to do next at each stage. There’s no wrong path as such and all lead to a logical ending.

Happy Reading 🙂

Case ID – 62442

Incident Report

At 7:45 am on 6th June (Thursday), Dispatch received a distress call regarding a dead body that was found at the Mulligan Research Center at 5972 Baker St. The caller identified himself as one Arthur Finch, janitor of the premises.

Officer Plod was assigned to the case and arrived on the scene by 7:58 am. After confirming the presence of the body and securing the location, he requested backup and medical assistance.

The victim was one Steven Black, tenured Professor at the University and Principal Investigator at the laboratory. He was found in his office slumped on the floor beside his chair with a mug of coffee strewn all over the floor. His right arm near the handle of the mug indicating that he might have been holding it at the time of his death. The mug appears to have been obtained from coffee maker within the lab itself. The victim had taken off his glasses and was holding them in his other hand. There were no apparent signs of violence on the body. There were no signs of forced entry through either the door or the window. The door to the office was unlocked but kept closed and the window behind his chair was firmly secured. Aside from the mug, the desk contained two folders with evaluated exam papers, a Macbook Pro and a notebook with a pen. None appear to have been disturbed. The computer was not switched on. The chair appears to have been pushed towards a wall, indicating that the victim might have tried to sit down but could not orient himself.

The janitor reported that it was unusual for the door to have been closed once Black was in and that he did not respond to a knock on the door. It was his daily routine to sweep all the rooms in the mornings so he opened the door and that was when he discovered the body. He proceeded to raise the alarm and backed out the room. The room heating was set to 70 degrees Fahrenheit and blinds drawn open, both of which Finch verified that he used to do on a daily basis. While he did drink coffee on most mornings, Finch indicated that it was in fact significantly earlier than usual.

Black was a habitual early bird so it was not uncommon for him to be the first one in the office. The receptionist had not yet arrived when Officer Plod did. In fact, there was no one besides the janitor on the premises. Most staff work a 9 to 5 schedule.

The victim lived a largely isolated life. He lived alone having separated from his wife, Ms. Lacy White a year ago and the couple did not have any children.

His main contact was with his colleagues. The lab staff in total is 3 tenured professors – Dr. Rajesh Verma and Dr. Susan Collins being the other two, one postdoctoral scholar – Dr. Monica Miller, 4 PhD Students and one undergrad student. Out of these, Dr. Collins and her two PhD students George Powell and Mike Dickenson have been at a conference in Austria for the past 4 days and are scheduled to return after three more. Dr. Verma was informed and arrived at the scene at 8:18 am and agreed to be questioned. He had scheduled a meeting with Dr. Black for later in the day. His PhD student, Howard Wolowitz has been taking a leave of absence for the past two weeks to visit his mother.

Black’s PhD student, Dr. Harry Pallister was informed of the news by Dr. Verma and arrived on the scene in a disheveled state by 9 am. He preferred to arrive late and work into the night, when he had left the previous night around 3 am there was no sign of disturbance anywhere. He appears to be in shock and is receiving medical treatment presently.

The body was removed from the crime scene at 10:10 am and transported to the coroner’s office for an autopsy. The fallen mug appears to indicate that it was a case of poisoning, autopsy should confirm the same

As the assigned detective on the case it is your job to pursue this case to completion. There’s a few points to note here. The unlocked closed door indicates that someone else was in the room and the fact that there was no signs of forced entry or a struggle indicates that it is someone who Black willingly allowed into the room. A cold killer who struck when Black least expected it. Maybe you can get some more information by questioning the characters we saw. While Mr. Pallister recovers perhaps you can have a chat with either Verma or you could alternately get in touch with the ex-wife if you feel as though that’s more helpful. What do you think?

Questioning Dr. Verma

Dr. Verma walks into the room with the air of a man trying to keep his emotions in check.

Detective: Dr. Verma, how long have you known Dr. Black?

Dr. V: We’ve been friends for close to 3 years. That was when I joined the University. It was a year after I had finished my PhD and I was just finding my footing in academia. I wanted to set up a research laboratory that continuously brought out quality research and Steven was interested. Since then we have collaborated on multiple projects, he’s a fine researcher and a good man.

Detective: How has your working relationship been like?

Dr. V: Like I said, we’ve worked fairly closely and I think he has made me a better researcher overall. He was always very particular about the way he conducted his studies, rigorous and thorough, he’s famous for it. Plenty of students reach out to him to work on projects and, early on, that was helpful for me too because he would refer them to me. This was my first position so I had to build up my reputation and working with him and this lab has been very helpful for that.

Detective: Yes it’s quite a remarkable achievement for someone as young as yourself to hold such an esteemed university.

Dr. V: Well I had worked hard and timing and luck were in my favour. I just try to do my work and get more research out, the position is wonderful but I’ve been too busy for it to sink in I guess.

Detective: When was the last time you saw Dr. Black?

Dr. V: We had a meeting before I left the office yesterday evening around 4.

Detective: Did he seem to be tensed? Did you get the impression that something was wrong?

Dr. V: I really didn’t think so, we had a fairly ordinary conversation and decided our next course of action. He was slightly irritated but that was purely about our work, there was nothing else.

Detective: Can you tell me if he was currently working on something with dangerous implications, or something perhaps with amazing potential?

Dr. V: I wouldn’t really say so, it’s novel in the field but really nothing that could make someone go to these lengths….

Detective: You mentioned that he was irritated by something?

Dr. V: That was something else entirely. Recently our lab was up for a grant but it didn’t go well. We were ideally supposed to push for another publication before the deadline and include that in the grant proposal as well but we could not complete the required experiments in time so it had to be shelved, that weakened the proposal a lot.

Detective: And when was the proposal?

Dr. V: Last week.

Detective: Do you know why he was irritated about it a week after, what brought it to mind yesterday?

Dr. V: Well Detective there’s really not a lot of money in our line of work so a grant can be huge for this lab, it would keep us funded for the next 5 years so there was a lot at stake. So you can understand why it is cause for concern.

Detective: And in what context did it come up yesterday?

Shifts uncomfortably

Dr. V: Like I said before, the paper could have pushed the grant over the line so I was naturally trying my level best to get it accepted before the deadline but Steven well… Steven has a pedantic side to him, and he wanted to ensure that we run every possible experiment before going forward to a journal. This is something that has come up before so I wanted to iron it out with him so that we could work smoothly in the future.

Detective: Dr. Verma, did Dr. Black have any similar or more serious disagreements with either you or anyone else here in the lab? This whole situation is very unusual and I need to explore all aspects of it.

The colour in Dr. Verma’s face begins to fade as he comprehends the nature of the question

Dr. V: Surely you don’t think it’s someone from our lab… Really we are simply academics, I don’t think anyone could possibly…

Detective: I’m sorry but I need to know everything I can Doctor. It’s a bad situation but I need to get to the bottom of it.

Dr. V: I understand sir, it’s just so surreal to me… I almost can’t believe that it has even happened…. But no, no one in our lab I think had any such reason. Steven was respected by all, he was an authority in the field and even our disagreement was more because we are in different parts of our career, nothing else.

Detective: Naturally. Thank you for your time Dr. Verma, I’ll call on you if I need to know anything else.

Dr. V: Thank you sir

Verma is still unnerved and leaves the room

A few things at play here. Verma seems an unusual character, perhaps not so unusual in the field of academia though. These academics seem to live in their own sweet bubble. He almost couldn’t believe that a man has died here. There is still more information to be gathered. It might be worth finding out more about this grant money? There might be more high level information with the third professor at the lab. And there’s still the lead of the ex-wife too.

Ex-Wife Lacy

The phone rings.

Lacy: Hello?

Detective: Hi am I speaking to Ms. White. I’m a detective calling from Baker St.

Lacy: Yes officer, how can I help you?

Detective: Ms. White has anyone from law enforcement spoken to you this morning?

Lacy: No officer… What seems to be the problem?

Detective: And Ms. White have you spoken to your ex-husband recently? Steven Black

Lacy: I can’t say I have officer, it’s been a while since we separated and he’s been completely immersed in his work since then. It was all he was ever interested in in the first place

It seems obvious that she doesn’t yet know what has happened.

One of the truly difficult parts of being a detective is to inform the kit and kin of the victims. Lacy is clearly pained to hear this, though they were separated, it’s bound to affect you when someone whom you spent your life with is no longer there. They were married for a little under two years and separated relatively amicably, mainly because she was always second fiddle to his work. This lead seems to have led to a dead end. How about we backtrack and go again.

Dr. Susan Collins

Dr. Susan Collins is the third professor at the Lab and is away at a conference along with her research group. She knows of the incident already, Dr. Verma had informed her and told that we would be getting in touch.

Phone rings a couple of times before it connects.

Detective: Hi, am I speaking with Dr. Susan Collins? I’m calling from Law Enforcement.

Dr. C: Hello Officer, Dr. Verma had informed me that you would call. Terrible business this, I trust you’ll do all you can. How can I help you?

Detective: Of course Dr. Collins. Can you tell me when you last met Dr. Black? And when you left for your conference?

Dr. C: That would have been last week, on Fridays we always get together in the evening. That would be Dr. Verma, Dr. Black and myself. It was the day after the grant proposal and I was leaving on Saturday to come to Vienna. I’ve been here since and haven’t really been in touch.

Detective: Can you tell me about this conference Doctor? Do you attend every year?

Dr. C: Yes, I’ve been a Senior Area chair here for the few years so I always attend. It’s one of the most important in my field so I also make it a point that all my students attend.

Detective: And what about the other PIs?

Dr. C: Ah well, we each have slightly different lines of work that prioritise different aspects of what we work on at the lab. So we each attend a slightly different set of conferences that again bring out better insights for our common work.

Detective: How long have you collaborated with Dr. Black? What has been your experience like?

Dr. C: I’ve worked with many academics in my career and this has been one of the most comfortable relationships. It’s been maybe 3 years now since we started the lab. Our first set of students is nearing graduation. Of course, I knew Steven before as well. He’s one of the most brilliant, dedicated researchers and so easy to work with as well. With his rigour, he makes sure that anything which goes out from the lab is up to scratch.

Detective: And Dr. Verma?

Dr. C: At first I was surprised they offered a position to one so young as him, but he’s risen up to the challenge superbly. He’s so determined to bring out quality research, I’m sure he goes on to have a really bright future.

Detective: Dr. Verma had told us a bit about the grant proposal that went awry. Can you give us your take on that?

Dr. C: Right. These things come and go. He took it a bit hard because he felt that getting his last paper accepted before the grant proposal deadline might have pushed it over the line. And he makes a good point, but I’ve seen proposals get accepted and rejected on account of far less.

Detective: Was there any tension within that project? Dr. Verma told us about a difference of opinion as to whether they were to publish or not?

Dr. C: I really wasn’t involved in that project as much. Steven and Rajesh were making the decisions but as far as I know there wasn’t any serious misunderstanding. Even on Friday when we spoke before I left it was all about how we move forward. And to my mind, there was no mistake in the decision to not publish. The mistake was further behind, at the planning stage itself. Maybe we shouldn’t have put that much pressure on Ned to run the experiments, he’s still an undergrad.

Detective: Can you tell me something more about what was discussed last Friday? Any indications as to what Dr. Black might have been working on?

Dr. C: Oh yeah sure, actually we had just decided a new course to work on. It’s quite exciting. Building upon some work Dr. Verma had done during his PhD thesis. I think we can really do some great work so the future looked pretty bright. Steven had begun to formulate experiments that we could use to further explore different hypotheses in that sub domain. I can’t really imagine anything from the work front being the issue. Maybe it was something I’m unaware off… It’s quite scary. In all my years in academia I’ve never had to deal with anything like this before. I can’t even begin to process all this.

Detective: I understand Dr. Collins. And I can assure you that we’re doing everything we can on our end to resolve this. But is there anything at all you can tell us more? Something unusual, anyone or anything?

Dr. C: I’m really sorry Detective, but I can’t be really sure of anything of the sort…. I don’t know how… My work and academia has always kept me busy and recently it’s been all conference work as well… I guess I haven’t been really noticing the smaller things… I wish I could help you out more. I really do. Steven was a good man and he really didn’t deserve this…. I only now wish I had been paying more attention to things. I guess Harry would be able to help you out more. Steven was always close to him, he has been advising him for almost 4 years now. Although I can’t imagine what that poor boy is going through.

That was not entirely unusual. Academics without pause. She wouldn’t have noticed something even if she was here. There’s still something missing. Maybe that undergrad student can help, if it’s something to do with the grant. Ned I think his name was. Or else perhaps Black’s PhD student might be able to tell me something more. He worked more closely with Black than anyone else.

Harry Pallister

Harry is absolutely distraught, the poor kid was probably closest to Black. They had worked very closely for a few years now. He walks in looking utterly disheveled. A man in age alone, a lost boy who can’t seem to comprehend what is happening around him.

Detective: Harry can I get you anything? Anything at all..

Harry: No thank you.

Detective: You do know that we’ll get to the bottom of this right? But I’m going to need you to help me as much as you can alright?

Harry: …

Detective: When did you last meet Dr. Black, Harry?

Harry: It was last night, just before he left from the lab. He usually goes home before I do.

Detective: What did you talk about?

Harry: Nothing much, I was just carrying on with my work. It was very informal. We spoke about coffee and books.

Detective: And what of your work? Dr. Collins said that it was something new.

Harry: Yeah actually we just started that this week. Maybe Dr. Verma could explain that better. We’re building upon his work. It’s a collaboration between all three PIs.

Harry chokes a bit on that. He’s clearly not yet digested the magnitude of what has happened here fully and when every sliver of understanding slips through the boy gets more and more distraught

Detective: Was Dr. Black particularly anxious or anything else out of the ordinary? Maybe because the grant proposal went south?

Harry: No… I really don’t think so. It all seemed fine. The grant thing didn’t affect him that much, he wanted to get on with work more than anything. He was dead set that we finish up the previous project anyway and simultaneously start this. It was Ned’s work anyway on the previous one so he’s continuing that while I start the new project. Dr. Black would give his time to both. That’s all he ever wanted, to give his all to his work. People always say he’s a stickler for rules and that he’s annoying and everything but they don’t know him… It’s always been about his work, nothing else…. We got along because of that…. And now……

Harry tails off…

I don’t think we’re going to get much more information here. Harry is clearly, understandably emotional. But he said a couple of interesting things. The lack of contact with anyone outside, a clean background and no changes in his personality means Black didn’t expect something coming. I’m inclined to believe that someone did something far more drastic that Black couldn’t have fathomed. Which means I need to know more about all the work stuff. There’s the older project that went awry with all the grant money, I still haven’t spoken to that undergrad Ned. He might know something more. He’s here now. And it’s a bit odd that Verma didn’t mention the new work as much. That might just be him not wanting to talk about himself though. Maybe one of the postdocs could tell me. Other students would not be inclined to say anything about their professors. What do you think is worth pursuing?

Ned Sharp

Detective: Hi Ned! It’s quite unusual for an undergrad such as yourself to be working in such a research position, can you tell me how that happened?

Ned: It was at the start of the year. I’m to graduate soon so I wanted to make the most of my time. In parallel with my courses I also work here part time.

Detective: That could be quite taxing right?

Ned: In case I wanted to apply to grad school I wanted to get a recommendation letter. And in general I’m quite motivated in what I do so I knew I could handle it. That’s why I took it up.

Detective: I asked mainly because it came up that you were working on the paper that got delayed. Do you think it affected that?

Ned: No, see, the problem was that Prof. Black always had more experiments he wanted to run, but Prof. Verma prioritised getting our results published. I was just doing what I was told so I tried to match up to both of them…. See that was probably my mistake. I wanted to impress them both so I took up too much, all at once. I tried to push the experiments ahead of time and…. I cut some corners in some of them. It was not the right thing to do I know and when Dr. Black found out, there was no way he would allow the paper to go out.

Detective: And was he angry about that?

Ned: I guess… Maybe annoyed is a better word. Like I said he was not the one who really wanted to publish and Prof. Verma had wanted to earlier itself so I think I got away with that one.

Detective: But I’m sure Dr. Verma can’t have been pleased by that?

Ned: Here’s the thing, I actually don’t know if Prof. Black actually told him. As far as I knew, all I had to do was to run a fresh set of experiments. And they told me that we weren’t going to publish so the pressure was off. That was last week.

Detective: And have you spoken to him since?

Ned: Yeah actually just yesterday. I’m also taking his course as part of my degree so I wanted to ask him something… about the grades I got for the final.

Detective: You said you don’t know what happened in that meeting, do you know anyone who might?

Ned: Well I guess maybe on of the postdocs sat in on the meeting. I’m really not sure…

Like most in his situation he’s looking to get what he wants and get out easily. The fact that he is dying to impress isn’t out of the ordinary but the fact that he tried to pull the wool over the eyes of the PIs is very surprising, and frankly a bit alarming. He doesn’t want to rock the boat, and I think if he got what he wanted he would be out without a second thought. I guess that passion for the subject comes a bit later. Talk to the post doc, Monica Miller?

Monica Miller 1

Detective: Dr. Miller, how long have you been at the lab? Did you know Dr. Black prior to arriving?

Dr. M: I joined the lab earlier this year and I did actually know him earlier. My PhD guide was working with him a few years ago and recommended that I take up this position.

Detective: And what has been your experience working here?

Dr. M: I have nothing but good things to say Detective. I worked on two projects, one with Dr. Collins earlier and the one we’re going to start soon.

Detective: Do you know if something was bothering Dr. Black? Perhaps the grant?

Dr. M: Umm honestly, Dr. Black was already fully behind working onto the new project. He might have been disappointed I guess but what I saw was that he totally wanted to immerse himself in something new.

Detective: So there was no tension about how the research paper didn’t go out in time?

Dr. M: Well it’s not like they decided to stop that project entirely, it’s still underway, just that it will take longer. And I think Dr. Black was more concerned about substandard research getting published than anything else.

Detective: Dr. Collins mentioned that the next project was something building on Dr. Verma’s work?

Dr. M: That’s actually something we haven’t finalised on…. or rather that’s something we have to reevaluate now. I was actually supposed to meet both the PIs today to discuss how to go ahead.

This is new.

Detective: Oh and why is that Dr. Miller?

Monica Miller starts to become a bit uneasy

Dr. M: Have you spoken to Dr. Verma yet? Maybe he could give you the whole picture. They both had a meeting yesterday about what to do about the problem….

Maybe there is an answer here after all.

Detective: I did in fact question Dr. Verma and he said that it was a routine conversation they had…

Dr. M: … Yeah? Wellll…

Detective: Was there more to it?

Dr. M: It’s just that it’s a bad thing to bring up…

Detective: Think carefully about what you say next Dr. Miller. Any information you have can be crucial here.

Dr. M: Over the past two days, Dr. Black and I spent a lot of time poring over Dr. Verma’s thesis and umm… some things didn’t exactly add up…. And it looked like a part of it had been faked…. I’m sure it was nothing. Just that the experiments weren’t really explained. It may have been just a small thing, with an explanation. But Dr. Black was going to talk to Dr. Verma yesterday, I don’t exactly know how that meeting went.

Detective: Are you certain that is what they were going to talk about Dr. Miller?

Dr. M: Well it’s something we need to be sure about before we start working…..

A motive at last. Proceed to question?

Monica Miller 2

Detective: Dr. Miller, how long have you been at the lab? Did you know Dr. Black prior to arriving?

Dr. M: I joined the lab earlier this year and I did actually know him earlier. My PhD guide was working with him a few years ago and recommended that I take up this position.

Detective: And what has been your experience working here?

Dr. M: I have nothing but good things to say Detective. I worked on two projects, one with Dr. Collins earlier and the one we’re going to start soon.

Detective: Do you know if something was bothering Dr. Black? Perhaps the grant?

Dr. M: Umm honestly, Dr. Black was already fully behind working onto the new project. He might have been disappointed I guess but what I saw was that he totally wanted to immerse himself in something new.

Detective: So there was no tension about how the research paper didn’t go out in time?

Dr. M: Well it’s not like they decided to stop that project entirely, it’s still underway, just that it will take longer. And I think Dr. Black was more concerned about substandard research getting published than anything else.

Detective: Dr. Collins mentioned that the next project was something building on Dr. Verma’s work?

Dr. M: Yes, it’s some interdisciplinary, involving all 3 PIs. The basis of it is from Dr. Verma’s old thesis. It looks very promising!

Detective: When was the last time you saw Dr. Black? And when were you to meet him next?

Dr. M: That would have been yesterday afternoon. I’m the TA for his undergrad course this semester, so he just handed me a bunch of finals papers to evaluate overnight. I hadn’t really planned anything but I wanted to finish them up later today so that the professor can hand in the students’ grades.

That’s interesting.

Detective: How many courses is Dr. Black taking this semester?

Dr. M: Just the one, it’s an undergrad course. It’s pretty popular though.

Detective: Dr. Miller would that be the one Ned Sharp is in?

Dr. M: Yes…. Why?

Detective: And are you the only one evaluating the answer scripts?

Dr. M: Yes detective, I’m the only TA.

Caught in a lie are we Mr. Sharp? I wonder what he actually wanted to talk about. Proceed to question?

Case ID 62442

Case Report

Closing the case regarding the murder of Steven Black. Autopsy lab report confirms that the cause of death was due to acute botulism poisoning. The culprit is identified as one Rajesh Verma, workplace colleague of the victim. The poison was slipped into the coffee of the victim shortly, which was fetched by the felon himself.

The felon returned to the scene of the crime immediately after and proceeded to misdirect the on duty detective, one count each of misdemeanor and abetting a crime. On questioning, the perp feigned innocence. Classic case of one trying to stay ahead of the police and act accordingly. The felon was greatly trusted by the victim and indeed by all else on the scene of the crime. Investigations turned up a workplace disagreement between the two on account of some unpublished research that led to the loss of money, but it was later established to have not been of consequence. The real motive for the act was one of desperation. In pursuit of a new project, the victim had landed upon some crucial information that could in fact ruin the perp’s career. The perp had been unfaithful during some prior research and had reported and published some results while faking the experiments to obtain the same, a death knell in the career of an aspiring research scholar. On field detective discovered the same from another witness, one Monica Miller, a postdoctoral scholar at the research center. The perp had been forthcoming with all other information but hid the fact that in a meeting the day before the incident, the victim had confronted him with this. He played down the implication of the meeting, claiming it was smoothing out the differences of opinion on the grant failure. No one but the witness, the victim and the perp were aware of this information and the perp was even unaware of the existence said witness.

Once the detective was aware of this motive, he called for backup and confronted the perp with the same, who then confessed to the crime. He claimed to have caved under the pressure he was putting himself under, and grew desperate to protect his reputation. Believing that none else were aware of this, he acted out, trying to stop the spread of this information at the source itself. The victim was known to be very pedantic and the perp assumed that he would make this information publicly known. Perp has no prior criminal history, but his actions show a severely unhealthy mental state. Perp was taken into custody immediately and this case has been declared closed.

Fin 🙂

Case ID 62442

Case Report

Closing the case regarding the murder of Steven Black. Autopsy lab report confirms that the cause of death was due to acute botulism poisoning. The culprit is identified as one Ned Sharp, workplace colleague and student of the victim. The poison was slipped into the coffee of the victim shortly, which was fetched by the felon himself.

The on duty detective questioned all those close to the victim and received information that the perp was actually involved in the failure of a particular experiment. Though this was not relevant to the case, it showed low moral fibre on part of the perp which helped the detective build the case. Further questioning revealed that the perp was also taking a course this semester under the victim at the University. Here the victim lied to the detective and claimed to have met the victim the previous day regarding his grades he received on the final for said course. Another witness, a postdoctoral scholar Monica Miller, later revealed the duplicity of this statement as it was she who was the TA for the course and the grades were not yet available. The perp, just an undergrad, was confronted with the same and grew increasingly scared and eventually confessed to the crime. He had plagiarised on an assignment on the course and only the instructor was aware but the victim was known to be very pedantic and was due to report the perp to the college board which would result in great financial stress and other difficulties that he would have to face. The pressures of student life had led to his developing a very negative mental attitude and he bit off more than he could chew this semester overloading himself with courses and extra work. He acted solely out of self preservation because he felt cornered and had to find a way out. Perp was taken into custody and the case was declared closed.

Fin 🙂