Little Walder and His Bag of Silver

[OtherFromAnotherMother]

11 minutes ago, John Suburbs said:

I don't know if I agree with this. "... armored in pink frost" does not necessarily mean he was frozen solid. Theon can't see into the core of the body -- all he knows is that the blood he can see from across the room is frozen. We also don't know for sure that LW has been out all night. He might have been missing only a few hours, so that when BW found him there was still wet blood in the body that got on his gloves if he had to dig him out. Admittedly, the "spattering" is suspicious, but then, my question is: why does no one suspect BW? He must have given Hosteen, at least, some plausible explanation, no? Even Wyman doesn't point it out when H accuses him directly.

Not necessarily, if all Hosteen did was carry the body, there might not be any transfer at all. That's a lot different from digging a body from the snow.

Also, I am assuming that the spatters are on the outside of LW's cloak, not the inside, or else his other clothes would be spattered too. And if that is the case, doesn't it stands to reason that LW had his back turned to BW when he was killed?

But I agree that it certainly implies that BW was close at the time of death, but I don't think it confirms it.

I think there is some wiggle room here -- if only for the fact that his guilt appears to be too obvious.

The exact quote: 

Quote

The body in Ser Hosteen’s arms sparkled in the torchlight, armored in pink frost. The cold outside had frozen his blood.

What more do you need? The body is frozen. If the blood is frozen, the body would be as well. 

Hosteen would not have suspected anyone except Manderly. He is wanting something like this so he can have a reason to attack Manderly.

Quote

One was a boy Theon knew—Big Walder, the little one, fox-faced and skinny as a stick. His chest and arms and cloak were spattered with blood.

The chest, arms, and cloak are spattered. Pretty consistent if he were the one doing the murder. Chest obviously means he is facing LW.

And there is no mention of blood on Hosteen. 

A cigar is just a cigar in this case.

 

[John Suburbs]

1 hour ago, sweetsunray said:

because he's a kid, because people have been murdered before without him having done it, there is bad blood between Manderlys and Freys, and they don't have CSI on cable.

Sorry, that's weak. A dead body here and his brother covered in blood over there. Doesn't take a genius or detailed forensics to think that there may be a connection.

[Fire and Fury]

17 hours ago, John Suburbs said:

Sorry, that's weak. A dead body here and his brother covered in blood over there. Doesn't take a genius or detailed forensics to think that there may be a connection.

Maybe not, but unfortunately Hosteen Frey is considerably more stupid than a genius or any reasonably talented forensic investigator. Bursting into the hall carrying a dead child and immediately laying accusations at the feet of another party, while punctuating those accusations with a sword to Lord Manderly's throat eliminated the possibility for any rational investigation into the murder. Big Walder's apparent guilt goes largely unnoticed because two groups of people are (literally) at each other's throats, and Hosteen was looking for any reason to blame Manderly ever since the disappearance of the Frey knights. I think we have already been provided with the simplest and correct explanation even if some motivations remain unknown to the reader: the kid that was covered in blood killed the other kid. Any other explanation relies on too many unconfirmed assumptions.