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Gotcha! I'll see what I can come up with

I'm definitely in for this one Does bad punctuation count as well as bad writing?

[Mokho]

I vote for Mokho

[Best Character:]

I really wanted to enter, but my PC was in the shop for repairs and I only got it back today. I plan to enter the next one though!

Votes:

Best Character: kconan for Jade Jones. It was refreshing to see a female person in this role
Best Atmosphere: Sinitrena
Best Background World: Sinitrena; the background was woven in without being too much of an infodump
Best Writing Style: Sinitrena. The only thing which made me waver on this was the sudden profanity. While I appreciate the use of it for shock value, the words chosen were too different from the setting to work. Apart from that, though, her writing brought me into the world and I'm a sucker for stories-within-stories
Most Substantive: Sinitrena. I liked the cultural references to how fairies behave and act.

[Baron]

That's it! Voting is over, the results are in and boy was it close, with only one vote between each entrant

First place, with five votes: Baron
I really loved the combination of Gulliver's Travels style writing with the humorous inserts; your piece made me laugh out loud at times and that's never a bad thing

Second place, with four votes: Sinitrena
This was a well-crafted and well thought out piece. I especially liked the picture of Flajabai writing and the poem.

Third place, with three votes: Mandle
I loved the idea of making it into an interactive exploration. Plus, I got a pet rock out of it It's such a shame you weren't able to finish it. I really hope you continue this at some point.

With that, the Travel Guide contest is officially CLOSED. The next contest will be run by Baron, and I'm looking forward to entering

Last chance to vote, for those of you who haven't already

I really hope you do continue it in some form. I want to keep exploring the Ultrarealms with my faithful Pet Rock

No more entries and a huge thank you to our three entrants!

Voting is open from now until Sunday 5th July. Categories are:

-Most Believable World
-Most Interesting World
-Best Writing Technique
-Most Informative Entry

By the way, I'd really appreciate it if someone would let me know if there's a standard time zone here. I'm in Japan which means my midnight on Sunday is a lot of other people's 2-3pm, which is why I haven't been 100% rigid on the time.

Let the voting commence!

I like it It's certainly an original take on the prompt

I don't know about 3000 words, but I've got 30 written so far.  And I'm pretty happy with those 30.  I'm thinking, if all else fails, I can just copy and paste them 100x to round my entry out.

Oh...bug's eyes

Reading your post, I just realized that I used completely the wrong word when talking about that part. I meant, of course, to say limit, not target (I meant target in the sense of 'this is the maximum amount you have to work with').

I am so, so sorry, everyone! I've edited the post; hopefully it's a bit clearer now.

I did a quick search and I don't think this one's been done, at least not recently. So let's get started!

Whether you're writing a game, a story, a screenplay or a full-blown novel, one of the most important things is the world setting. The richly imagined five worlds envisaged in Weis and Hickman's fantasy Death Gate cycle are as vital as the characters. And what would Sierra games have been without all those extra forest/desert/mountain screens where one could meet an untimely demise by wolf, falling off a cliff, drowning or lack of custard pie? Well...probably a lot less frustrating. But I digress.

I want to know all about your world. However, I only want to know about your world, such as a mocked up Wikitravel or Lonely Planet entry, or a write-up in a newspaper, or a monologue by someone doing a travel show, or an interview with someone who just came back from that world. Or anything else along those lines you can think of.

So to summarize, your goal is to write about your fictional world in a semi-official style.

-Maximum word count: 3000. If you go over by a little bit, it's fine, but this isn't NaNo
-Only your own fictional places or take on those places. It's okay to write about a city on Mars. It's also okay to write about New York under the rule of aliens or magicians or anything which would make it drastically different from what it is now, but not New York as it is at the moment. You can write about a world, or a country, or a city, or a district of a city; it's entirely up to you.
-Non-human civilizations are also welcome

Judging criteria:

-Most Believable World. That's not to say you can't have a civilization living in the heart of the Sun, but if that civilization is human, you're going to need to explain how they avoid being burned to a crisp
-Most Interesting World. Not necessarily the world we'd most like to visit, but the one which captures our imagination the most
-Best Writing Technique. Word choice, turn of phrase...you know the kind of thing
-Most Informative Entry. If I were going to travel to your world, would your entry tell me what I needed to know in advance (things to bring, currency, things to watch out for etc)

Deadline is midnight Sunday 28 June. Voting will start on Monday 29 June.

[Hers]

It feels wrong though if the Administrator, having previously won, wins again, and potentially again...The FWC championship belt needs to change hands.  I agree that there should be more entries these days, but not admins unless its an exhibition entry.

I agree. I really don't see any problems with an exhibition entry if the admin just wants the fun or experience of writing it - I'd quite like to do one myself for the next round, if nobody objects - but I don't think it should be eligible to win.

Awesome round guys!  Congrats to JudasFm.  His Hers was certainly the hardest of the entries in my opinion.

Thanks. And thanks so much to everyone who voted for me; I never thought I'd win Next round will be up later today.

[Sinitrena]

To be honest, I would consider morse code to be a rather old fashioned thing in a sci-fi setting, but what do I know? If they still use it in your world, they do.

I do see your point, but old-fashioned isn't the same thing as obsolete. The wheel was invented in the Bronze Age (earliest sample from around 3500BC) and yet we're still using it almost five thousand years later Same goes for the alphabet, even if the words have changed. (Okay, I admit I don't know when that was invented, but the letters have remained mostly the same, if you ignore the old-style S that looks like an F).

In comparison, the idea of an audible code surviving six or seven hundred years doesn't seem so strange. The use of Morse code in a sci-fi setting (especially one featuring ship travel) is actually quite valid. It's easier to transmit beeps than entire words, and can be used in a variety of situations with a variety of tools. It also eliminates any kind of misunderstanding due to a person's accent or static on the line, or if you needed to transmit a distress call such as SOS in a hurry. Rather than invent a whole new system of dealing with this, I think people would stick with the familiar one; after all, if it ain't broke, don't fix it

But even if I had known that I should look for it, I'd have looked for lenght of words or numbers of upper case and lower case letters, but certainly not dots or no dots of i/I

It's a little hard to get across in type, I agree; if the handwritten version had prominent lines on the capital Is, it would have been easier. Next time I might write a note and scan it in (Visual clues! Why didn't I think of using visual clues? Definitely something to bear in mind if there's another whodunnit contest!)

You're making me very, very curious here.

Heh. Well, like I say, maybe I'll write some more stories in this world if there's the opportunity

But before that, let's vote!

Best character Sinitrena, for Ben. He made me smile in places, and that's never a bad thing
Best setting Sinitrena. I got a really good sense of the place from the writing
Best word craft Mandle. The thing about the red light looking like blood in the paw marks was very compelling
Best crime Sinitrena, for linking two crimes together
Best mystery Sinitrena. I had to really work to solve this one, and even then I still had a couple of 'how did I miss THAT' moment (namely the keys thing )

Splitting hairs is fine; I don't mind that at all XD Feel free to split away!

First of all, yes; there are two novels, or rather as it stands now, one and nine tenths (should finish it in the next few weeks; before seeking an agent for the first one, my editor advised me to write another novel that set the scene and explained how they all wound up alone on that ship to begin with). I might use this world again in future writing contests, if it fits

The Morse code was made extremely difficult on purpose; I never expected anyone would solve it. It was meant to be more along the lines of an Easter egg than a real clue; the reader could have worked out it was Race from the other clues. It would only really be key evidence in proving that Race kidnapped Samara or that Samara was the one who wrote the note. Since the only mystery the readers had to solve was who killed Paige, it was very much something of a side quest (Okay, it proves that too, but it's not necessary).

But as you say, the clues were there: the note was signed with the initials of someone whose father worked radio communications, and radio communications use Morse code, which in turn uses dots and dashes. Fiendishly difficult, but no one said the clues had to be easy

Yes, the hire/take thing was a typo on my part; sorry about that

You're right; Cy's surname was never revealed (and there are people on the Nemesis who aren't even prepared to swear that Cy is his real first name But I digress) It is a bit of a mystery, but not a sinister one.

[REPORT ON PAIGE KERR'S DEATH]

In other words, I'm really impressed with your deductive skills and I was bored, so I drew some diamonds for you.

Wow, thanks I never expected that! I shall keep them, and polish them, and wear them everywhere for the rest of my life. Or until I'm hunted down and arrested by the police for receiving stolen goods, whichever comes first.

Now it's my turn!

First of all, the speculations on this one were actually pretty interesting to read. Everyone spotted some of the clues, no one spotted all of them and no one seemed to spot the same ones, and everyone put their clues together to come up with...the wrong answer, most of the time.

The layout got a little bit muddled, so I broke up the Story Reveal, the Speculations and the Timeline (which tells you who did what and when, but doesn't offer any comments on the clues) into three separate hidden areas, just to keep my post tidy

STORY REVEAL!

Spoiler

REPORT ON PAIGE KERR'S DEATH

To: Cy

From: Vern Rahim

Well, I guess this is why you keep me around, isn't it?  For my deductive abilities?  So let's get down to it. 

First of all, the killer is Race Palmer.  Take my advice and send Big Mike to arrest him.  Don't wait to read the rest of my report; do it right now before it's too late, if it isn't already.

THE NOTE

Well, that's really what you asked me to investigate, isn't it?  So I'll break it down for you.

The first thing you need to know, and the key to solving this whole thing, really, is that the note was not written by the murderer.

There are plenty of ways to spot this, but most telling is that the opening question is not, Why did I kill her but Why did I want her dead.  A subtle distinction, admittedly, but an important one; there's nothing there that could serve as any kind of confession, if you really think about it.  It also says I know you wouldn't hire a murderer, but it doesn't go on to say like me.  It's implied in the previous sentence, but not explicitly connected.

Let me give you a more concrete example:

Person A had some toast and peanut butter for breakfast.

Person B: Have you had lunch?

Person A: I had some toast and peanut butter.

B assumes that A is talking about lunch in answer to the question, when in fact, A is referring to a completely different meal.  You assumed the writer was referring to themselves when they were talking about the murderer, when they were simply making a statement of fact designed to confuse and mislead.

Secondly, the note suggests that Ken'ichi Sawada is innocent, as the writer says that they could have done a better job as navigator even without any expertise.  However, according to James, the reason Ken'ichi was next in line for the job was because he's the son of a navigator, and would presumably have picked up some knowledge on the subject.  I know there's been some speculation about the initials SK â€" Sawada Ken'ichi â€" but the note was written in English.  Although Neptunians do put the family name first in their own language, in English they write it the same way as you or I.

I know there's some theory flying around that Ken'ichi gained the most from Paige's death, which is arguably true, but come on, Cy!  If he went to the trouble of murdering Paige, why would he write a note telling you about it?  If the note was written by someone wanting to frame him, why isn't it a lot more explicit?  Why doesn't it point the finger at him directly?  It's actually pretty vague; all we can deduce for certain is that the writer disliked Paige and that they're never going to tell you who they are.

Thirdly, the fact that the note is handwritten is rather suspicious since anonymous notes â€" even ones only signed with initials â€" are usually printed or made of cut-and-pasted newspaper letters.  It suggests that the person behind it wanted the writer to be traced, which in turn points to someone else writing the note on Race's behalf in an effort â€" coerced or not â€" to cover up for him.

Fourthly, it doesn't say much.  It rambles on and goes off on various tangents, but it's sort of targeted at you, sort of targeted at Paige and sort of targeted at nothing and no one in particular.

Fifthly, there are a lot of crossings out, which is what helped me spot the hidden message.

Sixthly, the crossed out words are completed.  Most people who cross out words do so because they make a mistake, or because they change their mind about what they're going to say.  However, since all the crossed out words are completed, they weren't crossed out as the result of any mistake.  I suppose a person might change their mind more than once in a letter, but more than twenty seems rather odd.

Seventhly, the use of colloquial English ("you're out of luck", "live and learn" and the word "lackeys") points to someone fluent in English.  Granted there haven't been any native speakers of that language for the past three hundred years â€" everyone learns it as a second language, as you know â€" but it does narrow down the potential candidates rather quickly.

Conclusion: "SK" is Samara King.  Race forced her to write that note, then took it to you and said he'd found it in his box.  Since he couldn't very well have Samara running around, he has her locked up somewhere, which would account for her disappearance.  I doubt she's dead or someone would have found the body by now, but I wouldn't hang around if I were you. 

Samara King

I don't know why Race picked her; she's not especially important or prominent within the crew.  I imagine she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.  In hindsight, his taking her was a huge mistake on his part; she proved to be far smarter and more resourceful than I think any of us would have expected.  You might want to keep an eye on her, Cy.

The Hidden Message

I did debate whether or not to include this, but then I figured, why not.  Samara deserves credit for being able to think so coolly, and the code she came up with is one we can use as well.

The hidden message in that note was a stroke of genius.  It was so clever it almost backfired on her, in fact; it was a little too well-hidden.  It does, however, explain a great deal.

As James said, Samara's father worked on the bridge crew of one of the big liners.  He was head of radio communications, which would mean...well, plenty of things, but above all, he'd have been extremely familiar with Morse code.

It seems Samara is as well.  Familiar enough, at least, to use it to write you a little message in that note.  The only way to do that would be to substitute a certain letter of the alphabet, one that was close enough to the code.

Morse is comprised of dots and dashes.  There are only two letters in the alphabet that also fit this description; j/J and i/I.  J is too seldom used, but the letter I is the fifth most common letter in the English language.

So, if we take the lower case is as dots, and the upper case Is as dashes and transpose the message, we end up with this: .-.-...-...-.........-..--.-..--...-...-..--.--......-...--.--.

Rather hard to decipher, since there's no way of telling where one letter ends and the next begins.  Which, of course, is where the crossed out words come in.

I imagine Race, to divert suspicion away from himself, insisted on a handwritten note precisely because it would be easier to trace to someone else.  Since Samara was under a lot of pressure at the time, he wouldn't find it suspicious that she was flustered and crossing out so many words.

If we take the crossed out words to represent a break between letters, we get: .- / .-.. / .-.. / .-.. / .. / . / ... / .-. / .- / -.-. / . / --. / ..- / .. / .-.. / - / -.-- / .... / . / .-.. / .--. / -- / .

Translation: ALL LIES RACE GUILTY HELP ME

I'd say that was some pretty damning evidence right there, Cy. But if you want more, keep reading. I watched the recording of your discussions with the bridge crew.  I appreciate your thoroughness but there was no need to send me all of them; the first ten minutes plus the note told me everything I needed to know.  I'm not sure if I should do this next bit as a Q&A or a prose report, so I'll probably mix and match.  I transcribed your remarks to enable you to follow my train of thought more clearly.

CY
Only we all know what he (Race) is like when he loses his temper

Yes. Yes, we do.

JAMES
Race's T-card was clocked on at six am, two kilometers away from where Paige was murdered. [...] Paige was killed at ten past six.  The only way Race could have got to her was if he hitched a ride on a cleaning machine, and he didn't.

So we've established that Race could have got to her in time to commit the murder if he rode the cleaning machine. Now we just need to work out if he did.

JAMES
I asked CGT â€" you know they have a monopoly on those machines â€"

In other words, you would have to work for CGT or be friendly with those that did to be able to get one, if you didn't want to pay the passenger rates.

JAMES
No one bought passage on any machines until the beginning of the shift at eight am.  Besides, that corridor is pretty out of the way.  There were a couple of machines there, but it's not a good place to go if you want to guarantee finding them.

So he's a long way from anywhere with no witnesses and more than one cleaning machine that can get him where he has to be in a hurry.

JAMES
He (Race) used to work for CGT until Chelsea fired him for losing his temper with a customer.

Another mention of Race having trouble controlling his anger.  More importantly, Race used to work for CGT.  He wouldn't be allowed to drive one of the machines now, since he was fired, but he'd know how to do it.  Since the corridor is 'pretty out of the way', to use James's phrasing, so if he did take it into his head to jump onto a machine, no one would have seen him.  Also, his being so far away would set up a fair alibi without raising suspicion; gofers go all over the ship and plenty of them keep odd hours.

So let's look at what we have so far:

1. Race clocked on in a random corridor at six am.

2. Paige was killed at ten past six. 

3. CGT's shift doesn't start until eight.

4. There were a couple of machines in the corridor where Race was.

5. Only CGT employees are allowed use of the cleaning machines.  None of them were on shift at the time.  Therefore, those machines would have been unguarded. Since it was so early and the sector so out of the way, it's very likely the corridor would have been empty while Race was there.

6. Race used to work for CGT; therefore, he would know how to drive a cleaning machine.

7. Do you really need me to fill in any more blanks here?

Anyway, going back to the shift thing, the only people who would know for certain that Race no longer worked for CGT â€" ie, other employees â€" would have most likely been asleep.  No one would have seen him steal the machine, no one would have seen him drive it the two kilometers to his and Paige's room.  A couple of very early risers probably would have seen him get off at the other end and go into the room, but unless he said, "Hey, I'm going to murder Paige!" they would just assume he was still working for CGT and had pulled an all-nighter or something.  I imagine he thought it was a risk worth taking.

Motive

Obviously we have to do a certain amount of guessing here, but this was clearly premeditated.  Best guess: Paige broke up with Race and he didn't like it.  People have committed murder for dumber reasons, after all.  Besides, it must have been hard for him dating the fourth most powerful crew member when he was just a gofer.

Case closed.  You owe me thirty and thirty.

-Vern

[close]

Phew! Okay, on to the speculations...

Spoiler

@KCONAN

Who: James Lawson?
Evidence and Motive: I couldn't figure anything out...

Out by a mile

@BARON

I think the culprit is Tania Delarose from Team Gamma.

Sorry. But your deductive reasoning was pretty impressive. You picked up on most of the clues; you just pointed the finger at the wrong person.

Race used to work for CGT, like she does now, so they would have known each other.  And it seems like CGT is in charge of transportation, so an insider could probably game the system and move around without being detected (if a cleaning machine was used for transit, as is posited and then ruled implausible, then Team Gamma had four cleaners to help things along).

Fair deduction. Wrong, but fair Team Gamma's having four cleaners really wasn't meant as either a clue or a red herring.

And there was the detail of Race & Paige's room being in a pretty public space -what was he doing clocking-in in an out of the way sector if not meeting someone he didn't want seen going in and out of his room?

This was a clue, but not in the way you've interpreted it. James says that Race wouldn't be the first crew member who went to an empty sector to get some peace and quiet. This implies that taking oneself off to out-of-the-way places is actually regarded as fairly normal.

a love-triangle suits the motive.

That...is a really interesting interpretation Again, logical but out.

(who signs their real name on a murder note?).

Again, well spotted. Though this one was something of a clue within a clue.

@SINITRENA

The letter is signed SK. Of all the names mentioned, only Samara King and Ken'ichi Sawada match these initials. The letter claimes that the motive for the murder was basically jealousy, so it's logical to assume that someone who wanted her job was responsible.

Actually, it never says that, not in so many words. The only thing the letter claims for sure is that everyone hated Paige because she was such a lousy navigator. Anything beyond that is pure speculation.

In addition, Samara hasn't clocked in since before the murder.

Well spotted

I have a feeling that I miss something important in the letter, especially in the few words that are crossed-out, and I'd really like to know what the deal is with Cy NO LAST NAME, the incedent that found them without a navigator in the first place, and the incident when the crew killed people to keep other safe (as mentioned in the letter); Are those two incidents the same?

The backstory at this point spans two full novels, so I won't clutter up the board with long synopses. For interest's sake, however, the two incidents are completely separate. In the books, it's about three months' difference; here it's more like three years, but I reckon I'm allowed to play with my own timeline a bit I'm not sure what you wanted to know about Cy...

Looking for a motive, I actually think Race would be a likely candidate: He is a gofer while Paige seemed to have a succesful career. There might have been tension between them.
As I said, this storie has me stumped. I still say it was Samara King, even though I think this is too easy.

Ooh...you were so close! So very close!

@MANDLE

I was thinking it was Kenichi Sawada as his name in Japanese customs would be Sawada Kenichi, thus: SK. Also the writer of the note does seem to be a little challenged with their English suggesting perhaps they are not a native speaker. This is all assuming of course that Japanese is even spoken in this future or even spoken by Mr. Sawada as his first language.

Sorry, nope. This was a red herring, for three reasons:

1. While it's true that in Japanese culture his name would be Sawada Ken'ichi, the letter was written in English. Japanese people who write in English write their names Western-style.

2. There are no native speakers of English in this future - everyone learns it as a second language - and yes, Japanese is spoken (although they call it Neptunian now ) and yes, it's Ken'ichi's first language. However, I'm not so unfair as to expect people to solve it based purely on assumptions of the world which are never confirmed, so the whole language thing had nothing to do with solving the case. If I'd meant it as a clue, I'd have explained the languages and Ken'ichi's fluency in them more clearly

3. As Vern says, the use of colloquialisms point to someone who is fluent in English. Someone who struggles with basic grammar would be very unlikely to know the word lackey for instance. Same goes for sayings like live and learn.

[close]

And a neat little summing-up timeline:

Spoiler

1. Race kidnaps Samara the day before the murder and forces her to write the letter by hand. He knew she'd been in the running for Paige's job and he intended for the murder to be traced back to her.  So SK does stand for Samara King, and Samara wrote the letter, but she didn't murder Paige.

2. Samara, who is extremely familiar with Morse code due to her father's occupation, hides a message in the note, using the letter i/I to represent dots and dashes and the crossed out words to separate each letter.

3. Race keeps Samara locked up to stop her blowing the whole thing. As a gofer, he did all sorts of odd jobs. It's a logical assumption that he'd be more familiar with the ship's layout, and so he'd know where he could imprison her.

4. The next morning, Race goes to a corridor some distance away from his room and clocks on there to try and provide himself with an alibi.

5. He then steals one of the empty cleaning machines, being able to drive them from his time at CGT, and drives to his room where he kills Paige.

6. After waiting a suitable length of time, he brings Samara's letter to Cy, saying he found it in his box.

7. Cy passes it on to Vern, who solves it in about two hours and sends the report back to him.

[close]

Okay...I think I covered everything. I wasn't sure about the hidden message violating the "No Big Reveal" rule, but even if you spotted it, it only claims who the killer is; you'd still have had to prove it

Thanks to everyone who speculated Like I said before, this kind of interactive fiction contest was a lot of fun!

I have no comment on any of the speculations But this is the most fun I've ever had in a writing competition

(I have actually been thinking on a game based on M*A*S*H for some time, like a lost episode of the series but in adventure game form...But waaaaaaaaaay too much work for a MAGS....Maybe in a few years...)

Okay, that's a game I'd definitely play! Even if I'm now going to spend the rest of the evening with that opening song stuck in my head...

Yes, south is at the bottom of the screen. Sorry; should have been clearer

Okay, I've got my concept down but I have a quick question: are MIDI files of pop songs allowed as background music?

[Conclusion]

Warning to everyone: these are both very long

Mandle's:

Mandle and I already speculated on each other's via PM, but I'll post my thoughts here too

Spoiler

I suspect Marvin Masters, for the following reasons:

"I tried looking into Steve's basement window after he did not answer the door."

1. What was he doing at Steve's house at 8.30 if he was supposed to be meeting Guy and Steve for drinks at 8pm? And Guy himself said that neither of them showed up, so Marvin couldn't have gone to look for Steve. And if Marvin was running late, why didn't he phone Guy?

"so I wiped the condensation from the window"

2. This is the statement that rang a big old alarm bell in my head. Marvin is lying here, for one very simple reason. Condensation is caused by difference of air temperatures (ie, if the temperature on one side of the glass is higher than the temperature on the other side, you get condensation on the warmest side. This is why your car windows always fog up on cold days; it's because your body heat is sending the interior temperature through the roof). It's also why condensation tends to be on the inside of a house as opposed to the outside, thanks to central heating and such.

Of course, it is possible to have condensation on the outside as well, but this would require the outside temperature to be higher than the inside; you get this sometimes in the summer, especially if it's quite humid.

However, this wasn't the case here as three separate witnesses all mentioned there being snow on the ground. Generally speaking, and factoring in that places tend to be colder at night, the basement would probably have to be quite far into the negative temperatures for condensation to form on the outside on a snowy night.

Therefore, Marvin did not wipe any condensation off the window; if there was condensation at all, it would have to have been on the inside. If there was no condensation, why is he saying that there was? He's lying.

Plus, Mary Masters's testimony:

I was out looking for my husband around 8:00PM
Why? If Marvin had made plans to meet Guy and Steve at the pub at that time, surely he'd let his wife know? In that case, she'd know where he was and wouldn't need to go out looking for him.

Conclusion
Marvin is the only one whose testimony can be proved to be blatantly false. There are discrepancies in the others', but these can be chalked up to human error; people don't look at their watches often and it's easy to mistake time.

[close]

Sinitrena's: (Edited with new thoughts!)

Spoiler

Seriously, I have no idea at all, so I'll try working it through a bit here. I'm pretty sure that the thief and the murderer are two different people.

“You swear that you didn't steal the necklace and kill Lady Susanna?”
“I never killed anyone.”

I notice he doesn't say anything about not stealing the necklace

They think I stole the safe, didn't find the necklace there and broke into Lady Susanna's room to get it from there.
Didn't happen for several reasons:
1. Small or not, a man carrying a safe is going to be rather suspicious. And there was nobody else in the hotel so the guests all knew each other; there was no way he wouldn't be recognized and no way he could pass himself off as a safe-repairman
2. We also know that the safe was found locked. Having opened the safe, it seems a bit odd that someone would shut it again. If the necklace was there, they would have taken it and run. If it wasn't, why would they bother to lock an empty safe?
3. It is possible he broke into Lady Susanna's room, since we know he's adept at picking locks and that this hotel is a small one as opposed to a big chain. Therefore, it's likely it would use keys as opposed to keycards.

When she didn't turn up after a while, Lord William went to look for her.
Okay, so my money's now very firmly on Lord William being the murderer. If Agnes's scream was so loud, why didn't Lady Susanna hear it and come down herself? Their rooms were right next door to each other, so if he heard it, she must have.

[...]the necklace found in my room is a forgery, according to the police, and was covered in sticky blood.”
“I don't see the significance of it being a forgery. Unless it's a really bad one, you can't recognize a forgery on a glance.”
"No, I can't. But then, where's the original?"

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the local pawn shop, or rich people's equivalent. We know they're down on their luck from Ben's description in the opening paragraph. There's no indication anywhere that there were two necklaces. Ben himself admitted that he couldn't tell a forgery just by looking at it. I think Lady Susanna had already sold her necklace and replaced it with an imitation.

I think Lord William returned and lay in wait for his wife that night, then killed her as she came in (motive: probably money). He then planted the necklace in Ben's room (based on this, it's likely Ben never had the opportunity to steal the necklace at all; Lady Susanna was probably wearing it when she came upstairs).

Yep...that's about the best I can do

EDIT: Oh yeah, and I think Lord William took the safe and threw it out. The reason it was still closed was because he wasn't interested in its contents; he just wanted to use its disappearance to create a diversion and bring everyone out of their rooms, leaving him free to go 'discover' his dead wife. Possibly get rid of any troublesome evidence as well...

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