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Hello, I'm Mariam.
I hope you don't scare easily because today I've got a story that will make your blood run cold.
It's a story about murder and intrigue and a detective who has to work out who has committed a very serious crime.
The story is set in Paris in the 19th century.
On a dark and foggy night a terrifying scream echoes around the streets.
People nearby hear two voices coming from the apartment above.
One of them clearly sounds French, but the other one is high-pitched and isn't easy to understand.
Then it goes quiet.
Quickly, the people run into the house where the noise came from and run up the stairs.
With a great force, they burst into the apartment.
What a horrific sight they see.
There is mess everywhere.
There's a woman's body hanging from the chimney and another is on the courtyard below with blood running from a cut in her neck, and there are two bags of money left behind.
No one has taken them.
But strangely the windows are closed and the doors are locked and no one saw anyone run down the stairs as they came up.
What a mystery.
The police have never run up against something like this before, so it requires the brains of a super sleuth to solve it.
Enter the smart private detective Dupin.
He runs through the evidence, with all the possible scenarios running through his head.
The strange voice, someone very cruel, no means of escape.
Then he examines the handprints on the woman's body.
They are large and possibly not human.
Could it be some kind of animal?
An ape, perhaps?
That would explain the strange voice.
But what about the other human voice that was heard?
Detective Dupin thinks this voice might belong to the owner of the ape, who feels he might be blamed for the ape's behaviour.
Dupin doesn't want to run the risk of losing him, so he advertises for the owner of a lost ape and manages to track him down and gets him to confess what happened on that tragic night.
The ape's owner, a sailor, explains how one night the ape is playing with his razor.
He then ran away, taking the razor with him.
The sailor desperately ran after him but couldn't catch him.
Attracted by a light in the victim's window...
The ape climbed up the building and entered through the window.
The woman screamed, which made the ape panic.
He cut her throat and threw her out of the window.
He then turned on the victim's daughter by strangling her.
Then he escaped through the window, which then shut behind him.
The sailor saw all this, but was traumatised and ran away.
So clever Detective Dupin has got to the bottom of this murder mystery.
And what a gruesome one it is.
And I've come to the end of my story.
Oh, by the way, the ape was found and sold to a zoo, so we can all sleep safely tonight.
Well, that's the end of my story.
I hope you enjoyed it and I hope it didn't scare you too much and I hope you join me again soon.
We bring you closer to the world's news as it happens.
And it starts with a subscription to bbc.com.
Giving you unlimited articles and videos, ad-free podcasts and the BBC News Channel streaming live 24-7.
Subscribe to trusted independent journalism from the BBC.
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