Name Tallula Quinn as your culprit

From everyone else's perspective, the ones who were going to be the most suspicious were the last people to see Wanda Croft before she entered that sex-crazed trance state. There were two people who fit that bill: either you or Tallula Quinn, the maid. She was the only other one who'd be a magnet for everyone's suspicions.

You hated to use such a timid girl as your scapegoat here, but it was of vital importance that you didn't get named as the culprit. You pointed the finger across the room at Tallula, who was still seated in the chair of the lady of the house, pulled respectfully away from the table where it had been and set up in the corner.

Tallula's eyes went wide as everyone's gaze fell upon her. She gripped her violin hard in not quite the right spot, producing a loud, disarming noise of the string being mishandled. "M-M-M-Me?!" She huddled further into her chair, as if to make herself small and hide. It wasn't working; she was a pretty big girl. "Why suspect me? I'm loyal to Ms. Croft! I always have been, since I came here one year ago!"

"Why would she make a move tonight, of all nights? When guests were gathered to suspect her?" Yara added, pressing one finger to her lip and tilting her head in confusion.

You explained that everyone's testimony painted the same picture: Tallula Quinn had been a faithful servant, just like she said. She'd been faithful, even when her mistress didn't make it easy. From what you'd learned, Wanda Croft could be thought of as the real criminal in this case. She had made Tallula into her ****, using her for... illicit purposes. The woman got off on seeing other people squirm, and who squirmed more than Tallula? The woman was like a poor, mistreated puppy that Wanda used however she liked.

"N-No! You're wrong! I mean... um... Ms. Croft and I are... a-affectionate with each other, at times... b-but it's entirely consensual! We're both adults. We can make choices like that," the maid whimpered, growing red-faced as everyone pictured what she and the lady of the house had gotten up to.

You shook your head. The problem? It wasn't a choice. Even if Tallula may feel she'd grown to like it, the simple fact of the matter is that an eighteen-year-old girl, brought in from the mainland to live on an island as the only girl besides the insane mistress, wasn't going to ride it out and hope she grew into it. She'd have abandoned it, left to go somewhere else, somewhere more normal. Especially a girl as timid as Tallula.

The only answer was that Wanda had hypnotized her into it. She'd been steadily hypnotizing Tallula every day and night, until the woman thought that the choice was her own.

"No... No, that can't be right! I was nervous around her at first, but now, I'm very fond of Ms. Croft! Honest! I love her! Even if you're right and she deceived me... S-So what?! If I love her, why would I make her suck the dick of a detective I don't even know?! It doesn't make any bloody sense!" she shouted, squinting her eyes shut with tears welling in the corners and her face red with both embarrassment and frustration.

You posited a theory: over time, Tallula had come to realize what was happening to her. Little things... breaking hard rules of her own that she would never break unless someone made her. Then there was Wanda's obsession with mesmerism. Her manifold artifacts, locked away, with secrets that only the Crofts knew. Eventually, she'd begin to suspect something. She'd realize that her choices weren't her own and she'd want ****.

She'd want to humiliate Wanda Croft in the worst way possible: making her the **** of a stranger, one just like Tallula became the moment she accepted the job at this mansion.

As Tallula's face froze in a mask of disbelief at the accusation, Yara shook her head and shrugged, raising her hands to either side. "My, my, my. I can certainly believe it. That Wanda Croft was an unscrupulous tart, to be sure. And a pretty young girl like Tallula is a treat for a noblewoman with certain proclivities, ho ho. I would never do something so heinous, of course, but I can certainly imagine her doing it! Thinking of it that way, the poor maid would be almost blameless in wanting her ****," she hypothesized.

Brunhilde nodded. "I certainly would. I'm still not certain how she pulled off this trick, but it's just a shame she got caught in the act."

"The poor thing," Linda concurred, nodding her head, while also patting your hand to let you know she didn't blame you for laying it all out.

The last holdout would certainly be Dee. However, even she seemed convinced. "It is... a sound theory. I've seen first-hand the evil purposes that Wanda Croft will use her magic for. It's not far-fetched to think she hypnotized Tallula. Nor that Tallua took her ****."

"I didn't! There was no ****! I-I wasn't even vengeful!" Tallula wept, shaking her head wildly with a flurry of her red hair. "Even if she used her powers, I loved it! I loved her! I loved being controlled, so there was no crime, and I had no reason to want payback!"

You sighed and shook your head. She was right on one account: it didn't matter if there was hypnosis or not. A woman like Wanda Croft, lording her power and money over a new maid girl, would always hold all the cards in a relationship. It was an imbalance of power that anyone was bound to notice. Upsetting that balance would be the perfect motive for the crime.

"No..." the maid sobbed, slumping in her chair.