infocom/articles/NZT-Suspect.txt

SUSPECT AUTHOR SUSPECTED
(New Zork Times; Winter 1985; page 8
	by Dave Lebling
Copyright 1985 (c) Infocom
Transcribed by Graeme Cree

     A few hours after the start of this year's Halloween party, my wife
Janet said, "Would you mind getting mymakeup kit out of the bedroom?  I need
to touch up my blood."  Since she was costumed as a vampire, and the blood
dripping from one corner of her mouth was getting a little tired-looking, I
thought nothing of it.  I noticed that the bedroom door was closed, so I
knocked first (parties being what they are).  No one answered, so I opened it,
and there, lying half-dead on the bed, was one of the party guests!  With her
last reserve of strength, she staggered from the room and collapsed onto the
living room floor, strangled!
     Naturally, I followed her, wondering what was going on, and no sooner
did she die than I was accused of killing her.  Almost immediately, "Sergeant
Duffy" and the "Detective" arrived on the scene and began making a case for
my guilt.  In a thick Irish accent, the detective interrogated a suspicious
group of my friends and fellow Infocommies.  the evidence was overwhelming,
and it was looking pretty grim.  There was an (obviously forged)
incriminating letter signed in my handwriting, and (obviously perjured)
testimony from people who had seen me with the victim in a local sub shop.
     Finally the detectives searched the body and found another letter that
pointed to still more evidence implicating someone else.  The murderer tried
to flee but he was captured and handcuffed on the second floor of the house
as he tried to make his escape.  Justice was done, just in the nick of time.
     In the end, a vast conspiracy headed by my wife, Janet and the co-host
of the party, Rick Moore, was revealed.  While I had been writing SUSPECT,
Janet had been writing this frame-up.  While the Infocom testers were finding
bugs in SUSPECT, they were also finding bugs in the frame-up.  And while she
was helping to set up the party, the conspirators were putting the final
touches on the play.
     For weeks afterward Janet would periodically say "You're sure you didn't
suspect anything?"  I never had.
     I never was a very good detective.