Death by Design

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This article is about a case that was recently released. More information will be added as more facts are known. Speculative material or uncertain facts should be avoided.

Death by Design
Information
Season	8 (City of Romance)
City	Paris, France
District	Fantasy
Case #	5
Initial release date	6th August 2020
Partner(s)	Hugo Mercier (All Chapters) Carrie James (1 task in Chapter 1 & An American Cop in Paris 5)
Progression
← Preceded by	Party Like It's 1699
Succeeded by →	TBD (in Attraction)

Death by Design is a case featured in Criminal Case as the fifth case of City of Romance (Season 8) and the three-hundred fifty-seventh case overall. It is the final one to take place in the Fantasy district of Paris.

Plot

After attending the Chior fashion show in the Grand Palais, Carrie, Hugo, and the player went to the La Vie en Rose péniche to attend the afterparty. Upon arriving however, Chior CEO Simone Lemaitre informed them that designer Charles Pilsnerfeld had been killed. Hugo and the player then collected his drowned body to commence the investigation.

Mid-investigation, the team saved a tipsy High Commissioner Delacroix from drowning in the Seine. Later, stylist Jérémy Belhomme told the team that Charles' cat, Chouquette, had gone missing, but the team were not able to find her at the Grand Palais. The team then found enough evidence to incriminate Simone in the murder.

Simone admitted that after collaborating with her on the company for so long, Charles promised to give her total control over Chior in the event of his death. However, when Charles saw Simone change the logo to include her initials, he changed his mind, saying he would revise his will to leave the company to Chouquette. She then drowned him before he could do so. During the trial, Judge Lebrun informed her that the will had already been revised before the murder before sentencing Simone to 35 years in prison.

Post-trial, Carrie told the player that although she did not see her brother Cody during the fashion show, she received a message from an unknown sender reading "la vie en rose." The two then went to the péniche and found a message from Cody, a Statue of Liberty snow globe which High Commissioner Delacroix interpreted to mean that their meetup point would be the Statue of Liberty model at Pont de Grenelle. Upon going there, the James siblings reunited, with Cody saying that he deliberately sent her the postcard because he needed her help in getting him and Eleonora Macaron (with whom he was romantically engaged) out of Antoine Macaron's gang.

Meanwhile, Hugo and the player found Chouquette, who was in her cage in the péniche all along but had gone unnoticed by Jérémy. After all the events, the team resolved to first ensure that Cody making contact was not part of Antoine's schemes. They then prepared to go to the Popotin Rouge, where an animal smuggling ring was based according to an anonymous tip they had received.

Summary

Victim

• Charles Pilsnerfeld (found drowned in a nightclub swimming pool)

Murder Weapon

• Drowned

Killer

• Simone Lemaitre

Suspects

Calm down, partner... This section is soon to be added.

Quasi-suspect(s)

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Killer's Profile

Wait up, partner! This section is under construction.

• The killer eats escargots.
• The killer listens to Voyou Fou.
• The killer lives on the left bank.
• The killer has a Chior brooch.
• The killer wears cardinal red.

Crime Scenes

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Steps

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An American Cop in Paris (5/5)

Trivia

• This is one of the cases in which the killer has to be interrogated once again during the Additional Investigation.
• In the "Chior Fashion Show" crime scene, some clues include:
  • a melting clock, a reference to Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dalí's painting The Persistence of Memory.
  • the three wise monkeys, a Japanese pictorial maxim, embodying the proverbial principle "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil".
  • a poster referencing the Spanish drama series Money Heist. This referece also can be seen in the cover of the third chapter.
• In the "Catwalk" crime scene, there is a snowglobe embossed with the letters "PS", a nod to Pretty Simple.
• This case is thus far the only case in City of Romance in which the murder weapon is an action.
  • This case, The Lake's Bride, What Dies Beneath, Kicking the Bucket, The Witching Hour, Downward-Facing Dead and Scry for Help have the same murder weapon (drowning).
• A handful of fictional brands, products, and people mentioned in the case are parodies of real-life brands, products or people:
  • Voyou Fou is a parody of Daft Punk.
  • Drowing in Beats is a parody of the song Aerodynamic Beats.
  • L'Oreol is a parody of L'Oreal.
• In An American Cop in Paris, a famous quote from American drama film Casablanca and the American Civil War are mentioned.