The Jagged Key

Randall Morrison

A wealthy man, and a stout man who had nearly infinite business power was in the prime of his life, coming into retirement with hoards of money, stashed away in a vault. Plenty of room for a vault, even two vaults, in his large home. He was the master of a large corporation in the city of Tykeria and everyone was sad to see him go, replaced by his son in the business. But he wasn't replaced only for retirement reasons. If he wanted to, the man could've worked until he was 95, it didn't matter to him. Having such power over such a large corporation brought little work effort, most of which he just handed to one of his many secretaries, who would rarely ask him for imput. He had hired the very best, only those who thought the same way as he. However, he retired for more than just a break from doing nothing. After all, no one can run a company when they are dead.

        Thomas J. Rewitoire was found dead after the sound of much commotion in his personal living room alerted the attention of two butlers, who were supposedly just passing by the door. The detective hired for the mysterious case was Horace Greene, only referred to as Mr. Greene by even his closest colleagues, and he believed nothing until something evident had constituted proof. The stories he was given were ones that had nothing to back them up.

        The first of the butlers who claimed to be the first witness was a tall man with black hair, streaks of grey appearing with age. The tray of silverware that lay jumbled in a messy pile outside the room where the man's body lay was supposedly something he dropped at the shock of it all. Before even entering the room, Mr. Greene wished to stay in the front porch of the mansion, and interview the witnesses.
"Why not go in now?" protested one of the residents of a guesthouse. "Why not survey the crime scene?"

"Because I would like to know that it isn't a crime scene for as long as possible, Miss," he would reply casually.

Given the circumstances, after speaking to the guest, the very first thing he did was gather the witnesses, not once even stepping into the hallway which held the room where Rewitoire lay dead. The butler was immediately on the job of telling his side of the story.

"I was busy washing piece of silverware, that you now see--"

"Handwashing?" interrupted Greene.

"No, it was a dishwasher machine."

"Continue then."

"I was washing the dishes, and when they were done, I collected the necessary silverware, and placed them all neatly on the silver platter, that is also in the pile in the hallway."

"Why?" Greene inquired.

"Because it is part of my job to wash the silverware," the butler replied.

"No, why did you put it on the platter?"

The butler hesitated, but said, "because I was instructed to deliver the silverware to Sir Rewitoire."

"Why?" Greene repeated.

"I don't know!" he shouted. "Ask him."

"He is dead now, don't you forget that."

The butler let out a sigh and then continued. "I began walking down the hallway from the kitchen when I heard a crashing noise. I immediately dropped the platter and ran to the door where Sir Rewitoire had just come in."
"How much running did you do?"
"Does it matter?" the butler replied. Greene raised his eyebrows. The butler sighed once more and continued. "About four or five steps, I guess."

"Running steps or walking steps?"

"I already said I ran."

"That doesn't matter what you said. People can run, but only take up walking distance steps."
The butler was going to roll his eyes, but he didn't want to sound that ignorant. "In that case, they were probably closer to walking steps," he hesitantly replied.
"Then it does make a difference, you see? If I didn't ask, I would've been misleadingly thinking that your running steps took up more room than they actually did."
"Why does that matter?" the butler asked.
"It might not. But then again it might. I prefer to get all of the facts from the witnesses before heading on to the scene and discovering what may or may not be valid information."
"Intriguing method, Mr. Greene."
"Continue your story."
"I tried opening the door, but it seemed to be jammed by something. The second try it worked, though," the butler said. "Then when I got into the room, the first thing I saw was Sir Rewitoire lying on his bed clutching his stomach, but not moving at all."
"Was he alive?" Greene said firmly.
"No."
"What was jamming the door?"
"I don't know. I might've just turned it the wrong way. I haven't even looked at him since," the butler lowered his head. Greene stood up, adjusting his hat and moved on to the next witness. Yet another butler, one who was much taller than the last, and noticeably older.
Whereas the last butler he talked to seemed frightened out of his mind, the next of the witnesses was very calm, likely to be that picture-perfect image of a pristine rich man's servant. In full dress of an exceptionally old, but clean tuxedo, he was still cleaning up one of the bathrooms when Greene called for him; this suggested that he was fairly loyal and probably wouldn't tell a lie. However, Greene had run into this kind of situation before where that made all the difference.
"When I heard the crash of the platter of silverware, I immediately rushed up the stairs from the basement--"
"What were you doing in the basement?" Greene interrupted.
"Sweeping the floor. It is fully developed but the floor is made of linoleum," said the butler. "I came up the stairs and through the kitchen, jogging lightly, for my old legs can't run any longer." Greene smiled as the man continued on. "When I got at the beginning of the hallway, I saw him up against the wall, his hand covering his mouth as if he were about to scream," he continued, pointing to the other butler.
There was a moment of silence, and Greene finally spoke up, "That's all for your story?"
"That is all. I didn't go into the room, I stayed back, waiting for someone else to take care of it. I try not to get involved too deep into any situation," the butler said. Greene motioned for him to step aside and looked around the room, cluttered with eight or nine people.
"Is there anymore second to direct witnesses?" It didn't appear so. And if there were, they weren't saying anything.
Nobody in the room was saying anything at all when Greene stood up to make his first survey of the scene. He exited the front porch area, stepping onto the persian rug and into the hallway. It wasn't a long hall, made up like a fancy corridor with elequant paintings tacked against it's baby blue wall. Near the entrance to the living room, the silverware and platter lay in a mess on the rug.
Gently, he drew the object out of the wound with incredible precision and examined it. It was a key of some sort. But a strange key. About six inches long, it looked bent, but was made of an alloy that was hardly bendable under even the circumstances of today. It's pure obscurity puzzled Greene. The butt end of the key seeed normal, a clean semi-circle with a hole engraved near the top. However, the remaining 5½ inches worth proved different.
Each tooth of the key was different, appearing sloppy and out of shape, but it's ferocity alone appeared frightening to an untrained eye. The teeth that lined the surface appeared as the fangs of some savage beast and it truly looked more like a weapon than it did a key.
The jagged edge was a bloodstained mess, and he preferred to let the evidence sit for some time before looking for fingerprints or anything of the sort. He continued investigating the room, mostly looking for an object, or a lock, that might be opened with this key. When he began to clear books from a nearby bookshelf, he did indeed find a safe, which was wide open and empty.
Rewitoire would not keep an empty safe, meaning that someone undoubtedly stole something. He closed the door of the safe and examined it's outside. Nothing but a combination lock. The key did not open the safe.
As a matter of fact, the key did not open anything in the room. A small piano which had a lock on it needed a smaller key. The closet doors and the chest below the bed all needed different keys. This jagged key had to open something. It only made sense. Rewitoire had owned a collection of knives and had them all conveniently placed in a montage along the north wall, just above the bed. By the sounds of the witness's the action had happened very quickly, and unless the suspect got the key from elsewhere, then opened a lock elsewhere in the house before the murder was committed, the action itself was impossible. The suspect would've had to accomplish the theft in complete secrecy and silence. The house had many people in it, just not on this particular floor.
Greene examined the key once more, and then matched it's form with his situation. The key was very large, and most definitely opened a large lock. Probably that of a safe, considering it's intricate design. Because of the size of the lock, which must've been six inches in depth, the safe itself must've been very large. In fact, probably half the size of this entire living room. This indicating to him that it was more than likely to be something large in the safe, and most definitely something of great value. It is a known fact that Rewitoire was normally perfectly capable of defending himself, for he had been in that type of situation before. Meaning that the murderer must've been in good physical condition or at least free of any restrictions he may have been carrying.
From this, Greene comprehended that it was apparent that the key opened a large safe and that safe held a large, valuable object. Because the key was still here, evidently in the body of Thomas J. Rewitoire, it means that the theft took place before the murder. Meaning that, if the thief took a large object froma large safe, totally unnoticed, he would've had to speedily make it to this floor of the mansion, and still manage to kill Rewitoire while holding this large object. This was deemed impossible. But it was his best assumption for the time being.
The next issue was how the thief acquired the key. After talking to some of the butlers and other guests of the house, Greene did, in fact, ascertain that there was a large safe in the house, and that the jagged key did open the lock. However, the safe was closed at the moment, presumably because the thief closed and locked it after the theft was made. The butlers would not reveal to Greene what was in the safe, simply because they did not know, but they did believe it to be something of some importance to Rewitoire. Probably the most important material object in the home. The best hypothesis Greene could come up with was that the key was kept in this living room, which was also confirmed to be Rewitoire's favorite room. He made another quick analysis of the scene, the man's body gave no real evidence, but there was still the safe from behind the bookcase. Immediately, Greene knew that the jagged key had come from the safe in the bookshelf, which lay wide open.
But what did happen? Greene suspected one of two things. Either the safe was already open, the thief broke in earlier, before Rewitoire arrived home and took the jagged key, or; the thief acquired the combination to the safe in the bookshelf and opened it himself, before Rewitoire arrived home. He assumed that either of these events could've taken place even days before the actual murder. In order to acquire more information, he went back to the butlers and other permanent residents of this home. Apparently, the last time Rewitoire had visited the larger safe, was only this morning, before leaving for an undetermined location. Greene laid out his situation. According to the evidence he was presented with: Thomas Rewitoire left the home in the morning, after making a routine visit to whatever was in the large safe. Shortly after his absence, a thief entered the living room, somehow breaking the combination on the bookshelf safe, and stealing the jagged key. Then the thief found his way to the larger safe, broke into it with the jagged key, stole the item and left the mansion with it, placing it in a location well away from the compound where Rewitoire resided. Then he returned to the home, perhaps just before or just after Rewitoire got home, killed him and then left the jagged key behind.
The motive seemed fairly obvious. Greene assumed that the murderer was acquainted with Rewitoire beforehand. Probably in the light of an event that would get him caught if Rewitoire survived. Meaning that, if Rewitoire wasn't killed, but the object from the safe was stolen; Rewitoire would know immediately who it was who stole it, and the crime would've been pointless, and the thief would've been arrested. But since Rewitoire no longer lived, there was nobody in the house who knew who stole the object. It was a clever motive.
It all fell together nicely, except for the small safe in the bookcase, which held the jagged key. It was the problem of how the thief must've acquired the combination to that safe, to then acquire the key. Greene studied the room again, and came up with the conclusion that no evidence was present indicating that the thief had "broke" in to the room. The window was neatly closed and the door was obviously shut the whole time. Therefore, the thief must've been in the room before Rewitoire arrived, as if he were waiting for him the whole time.
The first hypothetical solution was that the thief must've threatened Rewitoire to open the safe and then he killed him with the key. Greene quickly dismissed the idea, because it didn't fit in anywhere. The theft had obviously occurred before the murder and even then, the thief would've had some sort of weapon to threaten him with. Thereby not using the jagged key as a tool for homicide.
The living room was in good order except for a broken picture frame that had fallen from the wall and the body of Thomas Rewitoire. Finally, Greene decided on what to do. He took the key into his gloved hands once more, and left for a sink to wash it off and to open the large safe.
The jagged key ran smoothly into the giant lock as butlers and houseguest gathered around the detective, looking over his shoulder as if something might happen to the lock. He was surprised that a safe such as this only had a single lock with a single manual key. The door was heavy, however, and with the help of the first butler, he swung it open ¼ of the the way, enough for him to step inside. A few others followed him.
In the centre of the safe, which seemed more like a room, was a small table. A table with a sheet of paper on it. Not something of monetary value for sure, but when Greene picked it up and read it, it made perfect sense how the murderer found out the combination of the safe in the bookshelf. The sheet of paper, laying on that small table was, in fact, a suicide note, written by Thomas J. Rewitoire.