The instrumental "Firedream" from the "Faraway, So Close"
soundtrack begins, inexplicably, to play from the ballroom.
You sift through the files on the desk. A couple seem to relate to charity work, but one catches your eye. It is labelled, "Trust Fund" and contains details on a trust fund administered by Veronica Ashcroft on behalf of Richard Ashcroft and Betty Ashcroft. The fund seems to have been started in January of the previous year, with Richard and Betty each receiving four thousand dollars a month until May of that year, when Betty stopped receiving payments and Richard's monthly payments doubled.
Next, you come across the xeroxed last will and testament of Reginald and Prunella Ashcroft, dated August 1, 1992, which leaves a half a million dollars to Jack Marston, half a million dollars to Smythe the butler, and the rest of the Ashcroft millions to Veronica Ashcroft.
Paper-clipped to the xerox is a letter from Prunella Ashcroft to Veronica, dated August 15, 1992, which reads, in part, "Your father and I agree that you are the most level-headed of our children, and so you shall receive the lion's share of the family fortune. It grieves me to admit that Richard is a worthless drunk and Betty a godless communist, but it is true. However, they are still my children, and so, when your father and I pass away, I will trust you to establish a trust fund for them, drawing from your inheritance, that will pay them each $4,000 per month. That should be enough."
The file also contains three newspaper clippings. One, dated December 1994, details the deaths of Reginald and Prunella Ashcroft when their plane went down in the Bermuda Triangle. The other, dated May 1995, describes how Betty Ashcroft was presumed dead after drunkenly driving her car into a river; the body was never recovered. The third clipping, dated March 1996, tells of the marriage between Richard Ashcroft and Amanda Schmidt. You recognize the people in the wedding photo as the Big Bad Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood you saw earlier.
The photo on the desk shows a family posed in front of Ashcroft Manor: an older couple who you assume must be Reginald and Prunella Ashcroft, their son Richard and their daughters Betty and Veronica. You notice the two sisters are nearly identical.
You walk towards the bathroom door and pick up the empty hypodermic needle. As you bend down to get it, you notice the edge of the tub, with a female arm hanging limply over the side.
If you continue on into the bathroom, click here.