Framed For Murder

Framed for Murder is the third Murder Mystery Game featuring Kate Gray released by Haiku Games and their seventh game overall.

## Summary

Detective Kate Gray’s mentor, former Police Chief Sylvia, finds the dead body of a college student in her office. Kate’s investigation uncovers suspicious activity on campus. Could the gang problems, drug deals, and vandalism be related? Broaden the pool of suspects and uncover hidden connections between them. Match blood samples with evidence gathered at the scene. Has a false arrest been made? Is a deeper conspiracy afloat?

## Characters

* Detective Kate Gray
* Penny Mehan-Smith
* Jacob
* Sylvia
* Carla
* Lansky
* Bill Mehan
* Romeo Hayes
* Caesar Hayes (✝)

## Plot

In a flashback, a young Kate is seen struggling as a rookie in the police force. Sylvia reassures Kate, telling her that she believes in her. They agree to keep in touch.

10 years later in the present, Sylvia, now working as a professor, has called Kate for help. Sylvia has found a dead body in her office at the campus. The young man was evidently murdered. Kate finds a necklace that identifies the victim as an art student named Caesar. He was suspected to be involved in drug related activities on campus, but Sylvia explains that the police were never able to catch the drug gangs as someone kept tipping them off about raids. The victim was stabbed with Sylvia's letter opener, which would make Sylvia prime suspect. Kate and Sylvia decide to lock the office, and in order to prevent anyone else from finding the body while they try to find the real murderer, Kate has to retrieve the spare key from the Security Office.

At the Security Office, professor Lansky discusses recent vandalism issues with police officer Carla and campus security guard Bill. Carla reluctantly agrees to take a look around. Bill notices Kate, who recognizes him from when she was a rookie on traffic duty. He explains that he left his job with the police because of the stress and mentions his daughter Penny, who has recently joined the force. Then suddenly, Sylvia creates a distraction and Kate enters the building. Inside, there's Lansky's vandalized painting: It is a big canvas covered in stains of red. Kate manages to take the key from Bill's office and leaves.

Kate and Sylvia now decide to pay Caesar's tutor, professor Lansky, a visit. He is not in his office, but Kate discovers a secret basement where they find him doing drugs. In the room, Kate finds red stains on the floor and another broken pendant like the one that Caesar was wearing. She decides to call the police, and Sylvia reluctantly agrees although she explains that she does not trust the police except for of Kate.

Kate's boss Jacob arrives and praises her for the good work as Sylvia and Lansky will be the easiest convictions that month, implying that he doesn't intend to investigate the case any further. Kate asks him if she can at least examine the victim's dorm room and Jacob allows it, indifferently.

In Caesar's room, Kate finds a letter from Lansky in which he asks Caesar to meet him at 8 in the evening to discuss his 'business'. By comparing the letter to another one that she found earlier, Kate discovers that the handwriting is not consistent, meaning that this letter was forged. Suddenly, Caesar's brother Romeo starts knocking at the door. Unaware that Caesar is dead, he calls for him because he needs to hide his 'stash'. Kate invites the young man in when Jacob appears and arrests him.

Back at the police station, Kate is annoyed that Jacob only seems interested in making arrests instead of actually investigating the case. Carla appears and they talk about Lansky's vandalism case. Carla somewhat brushes off the topic and states that Lansky is overreacting. Carla leaves and Penny runs into Kate. She is in a rush because she needs to get her things sorted for an inspection, but then she mentions to Kate that she recognized Caesar from an old case file. Kate is intrigued and helps Penny with her equipment in order to take a look at the file that Penny referred to. It turns out that Caesar had agreed to help the police in finding the person that kept tipping off the drug gangs.

Kate sneaks to the holding cells to question Romeo and Lansky. The two state that they were together at the time of the murder, which happened at 9 pm the night before. Romeo had been watching out for Lansky while the latter was doing drugs. It also turns out that Lansky's damaged painting, the one with the red stains on it, had actually been but a blank canvas before, and the 'vandalizing' must have happened about at the same time as the murder. Kate decides to secretly investigate the campus grounds in the night.

At night, Kate returns to the Security office to further examine Lansky's painting. She now suspects that the stains are actually Caesar's blood from the murder, and takes a sample of the canvas. She then takes samples from the blood stains on Sylvia's office's floor, as well as from the stains in Lansky's secret basement. The samples match, meaning that Caesar was killed in Lansky's den and then moved to Sylvia's office.

In the dorms, Kate searches Caesar's locker for a secret stash that Romeo had mentioned. In the locker, however, there's only a map of the area with directions that lead to a fountain in the local park. There, Kate finds a hidden box under a statue which contains a USB-stick. Suddenly, Bill yells out for Kate to watch out. Then, a hitting sound is heard and the screen fades to black.

Kate wakes up in a maintenance room with her hands tied, lying between burning paint buckets and cardboard boxes. Kate manages to untie her hands and extinguish the fire. In the next room, she finds an unconscious Bill, who is also injured. Kate applies first-aid, then she checks out the contents on the USB-stick. She decrypts a picture that shows Carla with Caesar, she hands him a piece of paper in exchange for money.

Kate calls for backup and together, they can catch Carla and arrest her for murder. Sylvia is freed and Romeo is considering to end his drug dealing career and go to college instead.