Need help with deduction mechanic

Hey everyone,

I'm currently developing a noir detective game with monsters. It is kind of a mash up of Return of the Obra Dinn and Case of the Golden Idol, but with forensics.

I'm struggling with a certain mechanic. There are seven individual cases and the goal of each case is to determine the name of the murderer, what type of monster they were (if any), and what their motive was. Currently, you get three guesses to get all three answers right. Here is where the problem lies.

I'm trying to figure out what the consequence is for "striking out". I want to respect player's time and not punish them severely for getting it wrong. The game has an overarching narrative that could be impacted, but I have to be very cautious about scope creep since I am a solo dev. If I put a lot of time into something, I want to make sure it was worth it and serves the game. For designers who like deduction games, do you have any ideas?

Thanks in advance