Ambrosia Investigations - Case #10 - Your Package Has Arrived(Solved)

[Andrew`]

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Case #10 - Your Package Has Arrived
Different case
Plot: An amount of explosive parcels gets sent over to certain people, getting them killed. The police have a suspect, however, he's been in a coma for months. Find the person responsible and their method before it all ends.

New York City, 2014, 10am.
Two police officers were leaving the fast food stop and returning to the car, when another car hit it from behind. The man driving it looked at the officers as he was about to drive away.
-Hey, officers, kiss my ass! Woohoo!
He then drove away.
-What the hell?
The officers quickly got in the police car to go after him, but before even starting their car, the suspect crashed with an ongoing truck.
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25 Ridge Street, NY, 3 months later:
Louisa was at the backyard, sunbathing near the pool, when she heard the doorbell. She stood up and headed to the door, the mailman had left her mail in front of the door. There was an envelope with her bills and a parcel.
-What is this? Hmm..
There was no sender's name, it only wrote "Louisa Johnson, 13 North Avenue, forwarded", it was covered with a simple brown paper and tied to a very nice and complicated knot. She got back in the house with the parcel, was about to unfold it, when her phone rang.
-Hello? Mike? What do you want? No, I'm done lending you any more money, leave that pathetic supermarket and get a decent job. Mom and dad would be furious you wasted your part, I'm not sharing mine! What?? Yeah keep suing, that will work. I can't believe after all these years you are still the black sheep of the family, I mean you're all disgusting, greedy, but you.. I wonder how you even live with yourself.. you're the worst.
She got back to the parcel and unfolded it. It was a small white box, not very heavy. She opened it, when it suddenly made a small click.. and exploded. Shortly after the police and the fire department came, the whole house was in flames, she was dead.
At the police station:
-Louisa Johnson, 32 years old, looks like she had enemies. She was getting involved into political stuff the last months, received some threats, moved out about a week ago but it obviously didn't help.
-Any suspects? Prints? Any family we can call for her death?
-Not any specific suspect currently, not prints since.. we have no parcel, only the note on top, aaand.. she had a sister and two brothers but they hate each other because each one wanted their deceased parents' money for themselves.
-Great.. full of good news. Well, how about we start on the siblings, since they may even be happy from the news. Maybe it's about the heritage, get rid of the others, keep everything for myself...
-Alright, here they are, Richard  31, served the navy, Michael 28, works at a supermarket and Vanessa 35, customer support at a telephone company. Let's go pay Rick a visit, first.
-Well, the problem with that is... he's in a coma.
-What?
-He had a car accident few months ago, he's been in a coma since then. I was there when it happened.
-Oh, well, we can still pay a visit, we might find an accomplice, or maybe even another parcel....
At Richard's house:
-Hello, officers, can I help you?
-Yes, ma'am. We just wanted to take a look around, I suppose you heard what happened, it's for your safety.
-Oh, yes, I saw it on the news few minutes ago, poor Louisa.. I'm the housekeeper, making sure everything is fine when mr.Richard finally comes back. Here, let me show you around.
Richard's taste in decoration was.. strange. There were lamps with dragon covers around them, a large glass bottle full of spiders and water bottles glued on the ceiling, some of them having falled down.
-He likes to.. decorate things differently and experiments a lot. But if you'll excuse me for a moment, I need to pick up mr.Richard's mail.
The maid left them to get the mail and returned shortly.
-So if you'd like we can also go and see..
-DON'T OPEN THAT PACKAGE! The officers interruped her.
They quickly grabbed it from her hands. It was the same kind of package, covered in a brown paper and tied with a knot.
They took it back to the police station and confirmed it, it was an explosive.
-This string is attached to the explosive mechanism, you can remove the wrap but as soon as you try and open the box.. boom. There were no other fingerprints but the mailman's.
-Let's go pay a visit to the post office, then. In the meantime, send someone to contact the 2 other siblings in case more parcels are sent.
It was too late, though. The other sister, Vanessa, has already opened hers. She was found dead shortly after.
In the meantime, the police were talking to the post office's manager:
-My mailmen are dedicated, all working for me for decades. You can take them in, but you're wasting your time. All they do is deliver.
-So how exactly does it work? If I wanna send a package to someone, do I bring it here?
-Nope, hundreds of boxes out there, you throw the letter or package in through a gap, a mailman puts a bag underneath, unlocks the small hatch under the box and they all fall down to the bag. Locks it back, sorts the addresses and goes to deliver.
-I see.. was any of the postal boxes violated this year?
-Ehm, let me see. Yes there was one actually, few months ago, but nothing had been reported missing, everything arrived as expected. They probably didn't find whatever they were looking for.
-Alright, thank you for your time mr.Fox.
They left the post office empty handed. They had no leads.
-So the only living ones from the family are the 2 brothers, the one in a coma and the one.. not in a coma. No other suspects, no other clues.
They paid a visit to the last brother, Michael.
-Hey, officers, come in.
-Thank you mr.Michael, we're sorry for your sisters.
-It's.. okay, and thank you for your work, I'm sure you're doing your best. How can I help you?
-We wanna ask you a couple of questions. Did you get along with your brother and sisters? Any problems, any fights?
-Well, I don't wanna make them look bad, but I believe I've always been the peaceful one in the family. Didn't care much about the money, Richard really hated the girls, he really wanted that heritage.. but I don't think any of us would do such a thing to each other..
-No, we don't think so, sir.
-Ah, sorry, that's why I assumed you came here. Well, at least I get to keep my brother, the doctors say he's getting better, he might wake up within the month.
-That's great news. And by the way.. your wallpaper is sticking out, it's about to fall..
-Ah, no worries, the glue wears off every 2 or 3 months, I'll do it later, thanks.
-Thank you for your time, mr. Johnson.
Back in the police station, the rest of the team had a man inside the interrogation room.
-John Brame, 46 years old, running for the City Liberals, the opposing party of the deceased, Louisa Johnson.
-So? Is that a crime?
-No it's not a crime, blowing her up though, that's a crime.
-What? What are you talking about?
-You did make a public statement last year saying "the world would be a better place without Louisa Johnson", and just as elections are about to start, she is dead.
-We all say such things, it's about our reputation, we have to make clear to our supporters who we're against, I didn't do anything!
-You were also in the neighbourhood when she was killed, weren't you?
-Visiting a friend, so?
-What happened, John? Did you feel nervous? It seemed kinda obvious that the attack was political, so you thought about killing the siblings too, got greedy there didn't ya, John?
-You are insane, I had NOTHING to do with it!
The police had no clear evidence to go against anyone. They paid a visit to the hospital, Richard Johnson was indeed in a coma for the last months, the doctors confirmed it.
-How is he, doctor?
-Stable, recovering. There might be some permanent brain damage, but very minor. He should be back with us within next month, if not this one.

That is all you need. Figure out what happened, who sent those parcels and why.

[Cracky]

So my theory is that the killer has to be Michael ( not the arch angel ) because of many reasons, one of them is that he didn't get a parcel delivered to his house, he tries to frame Richard but Richard is in a choma and Louisa changed her address recently *a few weeks ago* only an awake person would know this michael for an instance is an awake person knows every part of the family and is aware that Louisa has changed her address recently, he has the motive obviously he wants the money but he lacks the skill and money to make a bomb then comes the liberal John Brame's turn he has a motive as well he could win the position if Louisa were to dissappear michael and John would both benefit from the situation so our dearest michael goes to John for help financially and skillwise because he lacks both, another thing that caught my attention was that michael works in a supermarket tying a lot of knots and and making a lot of packages,Michael then tries to throw a curveball to the cops making them think that it was Richard since he has a history with cops *crashing into a cop car* and he has the skill to make a bomb, he has served the navy which makes him more than qualified to be our killer but he is not since he has been in a choma for a while. So there's my conclusion please tell me i got something right

[Cracky]

Anyone else? Ideas?

[Alberto]

Anyone else? Ideas?

What  I think is basically the following, lets ee if im right in a few things at least:  Michael was the worst one in the family (as Vanessa said, even michael to defend himself he says that he was "the most peaceful". he was lying) so working ina supermarket he was the one who wanted the money but vanessa was a big obstacle for him so i think that he thought this: I kill vanessa, i betray my brother who will help me and i get all the money to myself. So what he did was: tell to richard to help him and share 50% 50% the heritage (because he wanted it a lot, as said in the text). Richard would do the bombs as he was working in the navy and the last guy, John would help them with money to make the bombs and send the packages so he would be succesful getting vanessa dead. basically richard sacrificied at the beginning to call the attentio of the copsto make them think it was him or even maybe he denied what michael told him. but anyways the thing is that richard had the accident and they didnt want to send the package because if he was in come and he received that, it could mke obvious that it was michael or somebody near to richard so they searched the package but couldnt find it because it was sent by then. anyways michael wanted to get his brother dead t get the full heritage anyways for sure

[Andrew`]

Your theories are very good guys, but not complete. Mostly it's about evidence, how do we prove that those guys are connected to the parcels. You have the motives, but more things can connect the murders to the suspect(s), you need more clues.

@Amine
@Ninja Assassin

The case will probably be closed within the week, not much time left.

[Amine]

-Richard is in a coma for 3 months
-Mike glue last for 2-3 months ?
- maid stated that  she is taking care of the place for richard until he comes back however we can tell that she is not doing here job right since the bottles on the roof keep falling (2-3months that might mean that mike is the one who put the bottles) also she said she heard about it on the news which might not be right since the incident happened recently she is saying that he likes to do experiments a lot which might be something he liked however it might actually be mike going to richard house just to do his experiments there.
- no fingerprints of the maid on the bomb wtf?
- mike saying he is the one who is nice which is false cuz of the phone call also the phone call might be a thing he did just to see if she is dead or not yet.
- mike being defensive.
- mike not receiving a bomb.
thats i think all i got for now

[Andrew`]

About a month later, Richard woke up from his coma. The police were there, waiting for him.
-Hello sir, nice to see you back and healthy. After the hospital we'll need you to pay a visit to our station as well.
-Excuse me? What for?
-For the murder of your 2 sisters.
-Huh? What are you talking about?
-You hated your siblings, and so did they. You all wanted the heritage for yourselves too, so you had to get rid of them. Few months ago you came up with a brilliant plan. You got some c4 and sent it to the victims by post. You knew you'd be a suspect, you have the motive and the resources to get your hands on the explosives, so you glued the parcels on the top of the postal box so they wouldn't fall down and be sent immediately. Then, you crashed on the police car and challenged the cops since you knew you'd be caught and probably spend a few months in jail, so when the parcels would be delivered you'd not be considered a suspect, but at the same time you brother would not get a bomb delivered while you sent yourself one too, so he'd be in trouble. 3 birds 1 stone. However, you crashed and fell in a coma, so you unwillingly gave yourself the best alibi every. You accudentaly messed up though. Firstly, it was the bottles you had glued on the ceiling while testing your theory to see how long the glue would last, then the difficult knot you used to tie the parcels, and most importantly, Louisa's address. See, she moved after you fell in a coma, and the parcel was first sent at her previous address. There's only one person who wouldn't have known that - you. Great plan, but with some small flaws.

Case #10 Solved by NYPD. Credits go to Cracky and Alberto for their help.