Bruce Hathaway

**Bruce Hathaway** was the victim in Blood In The Water (Case #2 of Crimson County).

## Info

Bruce was a mildly portly man with brown eyes and brown hair. He was quite pale, and sported glasses on the crook of his nose at the time of his death. He also wore a brown tweek jacket and matching brown trousers, as well as brown suede shoes and a watch on his right hand, indicating he is left-handed.

## Murder Details

Bruce was initially discovered (by a boatswain) face down in the water near the stern of the *Mary Kate*, a boat he had chartered for a business meeting. Upon being shipped to Dee, however, it was ascertained that he didn't die from accidental drowning, but was rather strangled by a thick rope. Given the indentations onto his neck where the rope had strangled him, the rope had been quite cleverly knotted, meaning the killer had a knowledge of ropes.

Later in the investigation, Skie and the player discovered a piece of paper with a threat to stop investing in Project Mercury on it. Upon analysis from Alyssa, she sadly claimed that whoever had written it was in a rush and so left no notable identifiers on the page, but the page did have a date in the corner of the present date, and was lined evenly, which therefore meant that the killer wrote in a diary.

## Relationship With Suspects

Bruce invited a slew of people to the yacht to discuss the deal, including his former flame Francine Ferdinand, whom he appeared to think he could sway into sleeping with him, despite her being asexual. He also had some mild disagreements with Bastian Ustinovas, who he constantly compared to his more successful brother, something which deeply angered Bastian. Bruce had also been planning on divorcing Rita Hathaway so he could be with a prostitute he had fallen in love with, an action that Rita and her extensive legal team had stepped in to halt before anything could come of it. Bruce also had a profound respect for the ship's captain, Didier Rousseau, but annoyed him too by constantly trying to steer the yacht and almost crashing it on one occasion. Hathaway had also transferred a hefty amount of money to Emmeline Van Der Faux, to which she ascribed to the money he owed her for not publishing the article about his affair with the prostitute.

## Killer And Motives

The killer turned out to be Rita.

Upon apprehension, Rita confessed to the murder immediately, admitting that she had grown fearful of Bruce's investments in Project Mercury and feared that it would damage her reputation as a budding socialite. She then callously stated that the death of her husband would gain her sympathy points in the books of many and catapult her up the hierarchy, as she had joined Bruce aboard the ship and strangled him in their bedroom, before feigning illness and disembarking before the storm came. Upon being questioned by Judge Evelyn Peake regarding her disposal of the body in the ocean, Rita confusedly denies doing that before clamming up, as Peake sentences her to 15 years in prison, as she recommends Skie and the player find the accomplice and apprehend them too.

Later on, Didier was found to have put Bruce's body into the water to avoid having the *Mary Kate*'s reputation tarnished, as he was sentenced to six years in prison and stripped of his yacht licence.