In The Witness, you are a police detective working near Los Angeles. The year is 1938, and on this stormy February night a wealthy but frightened man has asked your for protection. In spite of your best efforts, a death will occur, and you will have twelve hours to solve the mystery and try to arrest the killer.

If you think you have enough evidence one or more suspects to convince a jury of their guilt, you can arrest them and conclude the case. Your ever-helpful assistant, Sergeant Duffy, will assist you in taking the accused into custody. (He will also offer help before the arrest if you ask him for it.) You can can except to receive a letter from your superiors about the outcome of the grand jury investigation - and, if the District Attorney gets an indictment, of the trial itself. If the jury does not convict, your higher-ups will probably tell you where you may have erred, so that you can profit from your mistakes.

Because the state cannot win the case unless it can prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, you are expected to establish the traditional ingredients of an ironclad case for the prosecution: the accused must have had a motive, a method, an an ample opportunity to commit the crime. There are many possible endings to this case, and the one you reach is determined by your actions and by the deductions you draw from the evidence you gather. But one ending fits the facts better than any, and you will know it when you reach it.

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