Truth Lies Beneath

Sometimes the biggest things are at places unseen for most people.

**Truth Lies Beneath** is the 5th case in Island Investigations, the 388th case overall, as well as the 5th and final case to occur at the docks.

## ***Summary***

### **Victim**

* **Aubrey Nottingham** **(Found disassembled into pieces in the underground lab)**

## ***Plot***

After getting a call from Aubrey Nottingham, a lab assistant at the docks, Cody Horn and the player rush to the secret entrance she told the team about. We enter it and find a scary-looking laboratory. We then find a disassembled body. We instantly realize that the body is Aubrey and we rush it to Julia Sanchez, the team's coroner. She tells the team that her head, legs, and arms were all cut off from her torso. She said to be on the lookout for a chainsaw, as only something with that type of strength could tear up a body like that. We then find Wan Guanting, who we met during her husband's murder, jogging around the location of the lab. We bring her in for interrogation and she says that she was going for a jog to stay in shape when she saw an open tunnel going underground. She said she was planning on doing a little exploring but she saw the duo coming out with Aubrey's body and she ran away. We then find a picture of two young girls at the scene of the crime. We easily figure out that one of the girls is Aubrey, and that the other girl in the picture looks familiar, but we can't place her. We then send the picture to Noel Valentine, the team's profiler, who says that he analyzed the other girl in the picture and that her name is Fiona Wells. We instantly realized that we met Fiona during Kirsten Maybridge's murder and that she was a dancer whose dance studio was near the secret laboratory. We tell Fiona about Aubrey's murder and she says she isn't surprised, and that she was involved in a lot of illegal dealings recently. We then realize that the lab is on the docks and that three different people were murdered on the docks. We then decide that this is enough evidence to arrest the owner of the docks, Forest Gurray. We proceed to arrest Forest, who claims to have nothing to do with an underground laboratory. Immediately after, we swarm the experiment room, where we find multiple boxes that had fingerprints on them. We send the fingerprints to Karen Wilson, the team's lab chief, who is still extremely happy that we arrested Justin Timbersea, a manager, during our last case. She then tells the team that the fingerprints on the boxes belong to one Tycen Joyner, a worker at the docks who we met during Wan Jin's murder. We ask Tycen what he was doing in the underground lab and he said that he was told by Bernard Newton, a scientist in the underground laboratories, ordered him to bring down the boxes. Bernard refused to tell Tycen what was inside the boxes and Tycen didn't want to lose his job, so he just brought down the boxes. We tell Tycen to not return to the lab at all costs and we look for Bernard. When we finally find him, we immediately incarcerate him. He tells the team that there were experiments going on for years in the laboratory and that when the boss figures out that we incarcerated him, they're going to be furious. We immediately think that "the boss" that he's referring to is Forest, as he's the owner of the docks. We go to the cell where we're keeping Forest, and he said that he isn't this "boss" that Bernard was speaking of, and that he hired a head scientist years ago to conduct some groundbreaking experiments. He said that he often had to cut corners in order to do this and that we should've just stayed out of his way. He said that if we want to know more about Aubrey, we should talk to Fiona again, as they've basically known each other their whole life. He also mentioned that Fiona doesn't work in the lab but that she knew about it and did nothing. When we ask Fiona about this, she said that Aubrey told her about how dangerous it was to work in the lab and that she feels that someone is after her. Fiona tried to comfort her about it, but now that Aubrey's dead she worries that they're going to target her next. We tell Fiona not to worry and she asks us to put her in custody to keep her safe. We do as she asks and said that she only wants to be released after the lab is shut down and everyone involved is arrested. She said that she mentioned seeing someone that looks like Tycen bringing down several boxes, not just one, multiple times a day. She was scared of reporting it because she thought someone would murder her over it. We talk to Tycen again after putting Fiona in custody for the time being. Tycen then said that he didn't want to say anything else about it because he, like Fiona, feared his life. He said that Bernard and Forest were brutal with him and they both threatened to kill him if he talked, mainly Bernard. We ask Bernard about his death threats to Tycen and he said that he and Aubrey both wanted out. Bernard said that he couldn't have that or else the lab would surely perish. We then find the victim's phone. The last person Aubrey texted was Wan Jin, whose murder was solved in our first case. Wan said many suggestive things to Aubrey in these messages, and Aubrey kept telling him to stop texting her. We realize that Wan Jin is dead, but that his wife, Wan Guanting, is still alive and well. Wan tells Cody and the player that she knew about her husband's perverted texts to Aubrey and that she saw her as a slut. We tell Wan that Aubrey blocked Wan after she had enough of the texts and she called us liars. After interrogating Wan and getting absolutely nowhere with them, we take one last look around the scene of the crime and find enough evidence to arrest the killer.

## ***Killer And Motives***

The killer turned out to be Wan.

Upon admitting to the murder, Wan revealed herself to be the head scientist of the Santa Matnette Lab Industries, and that she oversaw everything going on in the lab. She said that Aubrey wanted to leave the laboratories and report the whole lab scheme to the police. Aubrey was packing up her things when Wan entered with a chainsaw, telling Aubrey she could make one final call. Aubrey called the team because she knew that if anyone could stop the lab scheme and the crooked scientists behind it, it would be us. Wan then disassembled her and used her body parts for experiments. After she heard the team coming down, she realized that she didn't have enough time to hide the body parts and she left them in the room where she died, before escaping through the backdoor just in time.

Judge Sakura sentenced Wan to life in prison in solitary confinement.

## ***Welcome To Santa Matnette! (5/5)***

After arresting Wan, Takahashi Sakura, the team's judge, said that she sentenced Forest to 45 years in prison without parole and sentenced Bernard to 30 years without parole. We interrogate Forest again and he tells the team that he had many illegal dealings in Matnette Industries with many corrupt individuals. Immediately after, we head to Matnette Industries.

## ***Suspects***

***Wan GuantingFiona WellsForest GurrayTycen JoynerBernard Newton***
## ***Killer's Profile***

* **The killer knows mechanics.**
* **The killer eats steak.**
* **The killer smokes cigarettes.**
* **The killer has gray hair.**
* **The killer is female.**