Off with Their Heads

Off With their Heads is a case featured in Criminal Case as the one-hundred-seventeenth case of the game. It is the second case of the game's World Edition (Season 3) and also the second case to take place in Europe.

Plot
Chief Ripley was bothered about Armand Dupont's finding about a manuscript used as a vehicle for a murder previously. The lead led to France, given that an auction used for a death threat for Enid Grimshaw to commit the involuntary murder previously. Ripley wanted the player to protect Annette Sommeur (Pretty Fair's editor-in-chief) from any violence resulting from the bid of such manuscript at the Hall of Mirrors inside Versailles with Carmen Martinez. Ripley warned the player that Carmen will be mentally tough, so they should be prepared at all times.

Tough luck hits the player and Carmen as Annette was found beheaded by a guillotine (which was confirmed to be the murder weapon by Angela Douglas) in the Hall of Mirrors. There were many uncooperative suspects in the investigation, but what mattered the most was a quasi-architect named Constatin Perrier was found guilty of manslaughter after evidence pointed him out as the killer.

Constatin hated Carmen's sudden accusation of homicide, but the journalist-turned-detective took time to snap at him with the player's findings during the murder investigation. Constatin tried to pin the murder at Grace Goude (in which she hated Ms. Sommeur's guts) but Carmen continued her brow-beating at Constatin for the homicide. Money was the key reason as to why Constatin beheaded Annette as he wanted to live his life like a royal instead of looking after historic properties for a living. The same organization that threatened Enid to kill Prince Albert previously or else offered Constatin a high sum of money if he was able to execute Annette and steal the manuscript for that organization's retrieval. Carmen wanted to know who the party offered Constatin money for blood, but Constatin refrained from saying a word relaying a suspicion Carmen has about an organization having manuscripts for benefit. Constatin only did it for money, and recalled nothing about the theft of the manuscript, but knowing an audit was necessary, Carmen opted to ship Constatin to Judge Adaku for the meantime.

The last time Judge Adaku heard of guillotine use was 38 years ago before events of this game, but Constatin needed the guillotine to execute Annette for money. Judge Adaku threw some Camus beliefs that "no cause justifies the deaths of innocent people", so with the Camus belief, Judge Adaku sentenced Perrier to 25 years in jail.

Carmen had to interrogate Constatin as she promised to the player for clues as to where he hid the manuscript at. All Carmen knew was that the same group of people who threatened Enid to kill Prince Albert or else used a torn page from the manuscript Constatin seized. Money was the reason why Constatin opted to return the manuscript to the wrong hands, so she had to initiate the audit and as long as this group was on the loose, more lives would be a risk. All Constatin remembered was that he left the manuscript at the Louvre of France, but can't remember the exact spot. The moment Carmen and the player found what Constatin stole, they required Armand's intervention to decipher as to why the manuscript happened to be important to Perrier.

All Armand knew was the manuscript was the source in which a threat to Enid was from. A cult called the Promethians (which was extinct long ago) engaged in human sacrifice for benefit, to which Carmen assumed that the murder orders came from. Armand was not good at decrypting, so it took intervention from Jacqueline Proust to decode the whole thing. All Proust knew that tomorrow something bad would happen to Germany, but she needed the manuscript to continue her work. Carmen refused to have Proust keep the manuscript since it's evidence against the fraternity that ordered the two murders (including this one), but with the Bureau's permission, Proust made copies of the manuscript she can keep so that she can share her findings with the agency. Meanwhile Sofia of Girona was caught in between the fiasco as Carmen and the player caught a couple of findings implicating her and Grace of the wrongdoings behind the scenes due to her wanting to run a right-wing faction in Spain.

All Chief Ripley wanted out of the player is the neutralization of the Promethian Cult which was thought to be extinct, but still going strong. Bierberg was an easy target, so the player had to head to Germany for the next call with whoever Chief Ripley wanted as the player's partner in the next case.

Victim

 * Annette Sommeur (found decapitated by a guillotine)

Murder Weapon

 * Guillotine

Killer

 * Constatin Perrier

Killer's Profile

 * The killer eats camembert.
 * The killer smokes.
 * The killer reads French philosophy.
 * The killer wears a black beret.
 * The killer wears a Fleur de Lys brooch.

Trivia

 * When Constatin Perrier gets arrested by the player for homicide, his profile changes from his normal clothes to prison clothing to denote that per the game's canon, he was interrogated moments after his arrest to find leads as to why Europe has been embezzled in a series of violence per Chief Ripley.