Here is another murder mystery for crime lovers. Can you find out WHO is the murderer and HOW he/she did it?

The case and the suspects

There is a party going on in the Cantina of a little village in Mexico. At a certain point during the evening there was darkness and a lot of fireworks were fired. This was the time when, Señora Rita Smith was fatally stabbed with a small nife. She widowed recently and was exciting and charismatic. Rita had returned to the village of her birth with a wish to invest her huge inheritance and develop the small village into a famous travel resort. Not everybody in the village was excited about Rita’s return, though, because one of the guests at the Cantina had murdered her that night!

The suspects are:

Don Pablo Negro
A wealthy landowner, whose approval is always sought before decisions are made in the village. He usually presents himself as an honest businessman, but it has long been romoured that Don Negro is the leader of Los Banditos, who terrorize the village.

Señorita Carmen
Carmen Gonzalez is Rita’s little sister who was left when Rita ran away from the village three years earlier. Now, she is twenty-one, she has learned how to get what she wants, but her beautiful sister has returned and Rita is stealing the limelight… Carmen is engaged to be married to Warren Love, their wedding day is set for next summer.

Warren Love
An American writer, who came to the village two years ago looking for an inspiration to finish his latest novel. Even though he is engaged to be married to Carmen, he will never get over his romantic feelings for Rita… the woman who disappeared without even saying goodbye. Three years ago, while he was living in the United States, they met and fell madly in love with each other. They lived together for a while, but then Rita left him.

Julie Kramer
Julie is a free-lance photographer from Los Angeles, California. She says she came to the village to capture the essence of the little village. Don Negro was kind enough to let her to stay at his house and had directed her to several famous sites.

Forest Ruster
Forest is a tough man more at home in the hills, than mingling with other folks. Forest has spent years looking for gold and silver. He thought he would be rich, until Rita double-crossed him.

White Flower
An Indian maiden. She is a spiritual healer and lives in a cabin near the ancient Aztec pyramid next to the village. The site is a sacred ground, where people can cure their illnesses.

Police investigation records

The file they stored investigation materials in was broken, therefore the information was mixed. Here is what they could recover:

Rita was murdered with a small dagger that has the initials “W.L.” engraved on the handle.

The dagger that killed Rita once belonged to Warren Love, but he gave it to Rita three years ago, when she was living with him in the States.

White Flower has never been in the Cantina before. However earlier today she had a vision that told her something terrible was going to happen. She wanted to warn Rita, but she would not listen.

Police found a page torn from Rita’s diary, telling how she ran away from the village to escape a prearranged marriage to Don Negro. This must have been a humiliating insult to the Don’s precious honour.

Just before Rita fled from the village three years ago, she forged Forest’s signature (an ‘X’) on a mineral claim he owned. She transferred this claim to a mining company for cash payment. The claim was later developed into a valuable silver mine and Forest has sworn revenge against Rita ever since.

Julie and Rita treated each other like bitter enemies even though they had never met before Julie arrived in the village. Julie described this as a personality clash. Sometimes two people develop an instant dislike for one another when they meet.

Warren had showered Rita with love and expensive gifts while living together in the States, but two years ago she left without so much as a goodbye. He was devastated. Since her return to the village, his old anger has come back.

Julie had complained that all her photographs of the village and the surrounding countryside had been stolen. She suspected Rita, because she had a crazy idea that Julie was taking photos to cause trouble for her.

White Flower feared Rita’s plans to turn the village into a resort would destroy a sacred burial ground and disturb the spirit of her ancestors. She vowed to stop Rita.

Forest is a wild mountain man who lives by his own code of rules. In the past two weeks, he has talked of nothing but his adventures, including knife fights he’s been in and violent deaths he’s seen. On the other hand he has a reputation for telling tall tales and stretching the truth.

Police found a letter Carmen wrote yesterday to her fiancé, Warren Love. In it, Carmen made terrible threats towards her sister. However she said later that she had written the letter in a fit of frustration and said many things she did not mean.

Rita was planning to invest her late husband’s multi-million dollar estate in developing the village into a world-class resort area. If this happened, Don Negro might lose his ruling status over the little Mexican village.

It is rumoured that Don Negro is the head of the notorious Los Banditos gang. They say that he is the mysterious, powerful leader known only as ‘X’. These rumours continue, no matter what Don Negro says, though nobody has any evidence.

Julie broke into Rita’s villa two nights ago to get back her stolen photographs.

White Flower keeps a brand new four-wheel drive jeep hidden in a cave near her cabin. Sometimes, late at night, she takes long drives up to the hills. No one knows whom she meets. How can a ‘holy healer’ afford such a luxury?

Police found a warrant from the FBI. It was found in Rita’s villa. She knew Warren’s western novels contained more than just cowboy stories… Warren is wanted by the FBI for industrial espionage.

White Flower’s Indian name is ‘Xóchitl’ (pronunced So-chee-til).

Since Carmen is Rita’s only surviving relative, she has a legal claim to the millions of dollars Rita inherited from her late husband.

Carmen was deeply jealous of her sister and actually hated Rita. Warren could not stop thinking about Rita. Even after her death, all he thinks about is Rita, Rita, Rita! So Carmen says the wedding is off!

Forest was in the general store today buying supplies. The storekeeper commented on how he was buying twice his normal amount. He told everybody that he was planning his last trip back into the hills so he was making it a good one. He plans to stay longer than ever before. Did he want to hide?

Rita had recently hired mercenaries to get rid of the banditos and clean up the image of the village. Three banditos have already been killed. Everybody says that the bandito leader, must have done something to stop Rita.

During the past two weeks White Flower visited Don Negro at his hacienda several times late at night. Both of them were asked about this, but their stories did not match. Don Negro said that White Flower was his passionate lover. White Flower said she was helping Don Negro with a ‘little medical problem’ he had.

White Flower was standing directly behind Rita moments before she was murdered.

Shortly before Rita’s murder, she shouted to everyone in the cantina that the great Don Pablo had a problem with his ‘manhood’. The Don was mortified.

Police found a copy of White Flower’s past criminal record. This was found in Rita’s handbag. She had threatened to expose White Flower and ruin her image as a gifted spirit woman if White Flower did not stop protesting against the resort development.

Warren spent the last night with Rita in her villa. Early this morning they had a fight, they argued about getting back together and she finally threw him out.

Police has checked Julie Kramer’s passport. She is really Julie Smith, the daughter of Rita’s late husband from his first marriage. She is using a false name, because she wants to prove Rita forged Julie’s father’s signature on a phony will. She wants her rightful inheritance back.

Rita realized yesterday that Julie was the daughter of her late husband. She demanded Julie leave the village immediately. Julie refused and demanded Rita give back the money from her father’s estate. White Flower, Warren and Don Negro saw them fighting in the street. During the fight Rita’s little dagger was dropped to the ground.

Shortly after Rita’s body was discovered, people in the group noticed that Forest’s hand was bleeding. His wound appeared to be some kind of bite.

Rita was telling everybody the day before she was murdered that she knew who the leader of Los Banditos was.

In the cantina before the fiesta fireworks, Don Negro was buying drinks for everyone round after round. This was unusual. Don Pablo is usually so tight-fisted. It seems he was trying to get everyone… including Rita… intoxicated. When asked, he said he was just being generous.

When White Flower was in the cantina this evening, Rita whispered something in her ear. The Indian maiden backed away with a frightened look on her face.

Forest signs his name with an ‘X’ as he cannot write and read.

During the police interviews White Flower kept talking about a recurring vision she had had. In this vision, two sisters get into a fight and one sister kills the other with a knife.

Don Negro wants everybody to understand that he is NOT the leader of Los Banditos. It is time to stop these rumours for ever. He confessed he did not mind when people had thought he was the leader, and looked at him with fear in their eyes. It was a good feeling after Rita caused that unforgivable insult to his honour.

One of the banditos was caught by the police. When questioned, he mentioned that they had had a difficult time remembering their leader’s name, that’s why they had abbreviated it to ‘X’.