I recently made an offer on a real estate property, was rejected but now suspect fowl play. Any relief possible?

Any seller has a right to contract with whom they wish. You have no right to purchase even if you offer list price. The seller has the right to evaluate your offer with the criteria he chooses. You have no knowledge if the contract you offered was line-by-line identical except for price and it is highly likely that you and another buyer would have different requirements for responsibility for repairs, ability to back out of a contract, willingness to assume risk or buy as-is and too many other items to mention. So there is no foul play likely unless you have information of some specific law that would be violated by the transaction or non-existence of one. In fact, the seller can decide to keep the house and the only issue he would have is whether he owes the realtor for turning down an offer at least at asking price with no restrictions. And even if YOU made such an offer, his liability would be to the realtor for turning it down, not to you.

There was no "fowl" play. As my my distinguished colleague pointed out, the seller is free to contract with whom ever he wishes to. You have no way of knowing whether or not the broker communicated the offer to the seller or not. Good luck.

If you were represented by a realtor, your realtor could call the other broker- the owner of that real estate office- to see if it is actually under contract or not. I have seen where a realtor tries to control both sides to increase his commission- though I can't say that is happening here. I have also seen many buyers prefer a lower cash deal as the closing would be faster with less potential additional delays due to buyer's banks. There is really no way any of us can tell you if there has been foul play, but you can reach out to the broker to see if the property is under contract, and maybe resubmit your offer if it is still available. Good luck to you!