The Wedding Project 💍

'The Sound of Silence' (Part Two)

Gordon stopped his recording. With one gloved hand on his chin, his eyes halfway shut as his mind obviously tried to wrap itself around this case he stared at the victim. "This reminds me of something..." he slowly exclaimed after a few moments. "I don't know what exactly, but I have the feeling that I once worked on a case with a similar killing method."

"But you can't really tell what kind of poison was used back then?" Harris still sounded a bit hopeful, but his younger colleague just shrugged and sighed.

"I'm not even sure if we ever found out who did it, and with what," he confessed.

Harris took a closer look at the rest of the body, especially the wrists. There were no marks on them that showed the victim to have been restrained in some way during the actual murder. Wouldn't have made much sense either to leave the gag, but otherwise remove the restraints. He stood up, took in the image of the dead bride in its entirety. The way the body was lying on the floor...

"The killer grabbed her from behind," he concluded after pondering for a minute. "Stuffed the cloth in her mouth and held it in there with one hand, which at the same time ensured that she couldn't escape. And with the other hand they injected her in the neck. Can't have taken more than a few seconds to do so."

Gordon frowned, looking at the punctured neck. "Injection happened to the left side of the neck. So we shall assume that the killer is left-handed?"

Not necessarily, Harris thought by himself. Though chances were bigger. If someone were to inject a struggling person with a poisonous substance, jamming the needle as closely to a vein as possible, that someone would probably use their dominant hand.

He turned around, his gaze went to the hotel room door. The body was about fifteen feet away from it. A very long way for a stranger to intrude and grab his victim. He looked around some more, trying to imagine if the killer could have gotten in some other way, or maybe had been hiding in the room before the bride got in. The bathroom seemed like a likely place to hide in, but he discarded that idea quickly. The position of the body didn't look like it.

"She knew the killer," he speculated. "They got in through the door, she noticed them, but wasn't alarmed at first. She didn't scream or run for help before it was too late."

Gordon looked skeptically at the door. "They could have just snuck in."

"I doubt that." Harris walked over to the door and opened it. The sound of the handle clicking and the door creaking while swinging open filled the otherwise silent room. The hinges on that door could use a drop of oil - something a hotel of this reputation should have taken care of. "Nobody can open this door without everybody in here noticing."

"Speaking of which..." Gordon got up and went straight for the door. Charles was still on guard outside, with his back towards the room. He turned around as Gordon tabbed him on the shoulder and pointed towards the ceiling a few yards down the corridor. "This camera there... you keep the recordings of those, don't you?"

"We do," Charles confirmed. "I already checked it, but this camera is malfunctioning. Hasn't recorded anything but static since last night."

"Damn!" Gordon uttered. "Is this normal that the cameras in here don't work? Or is this the only camera malfunctioning?"

Charles looked a bit embarrassed. "It is not normal, sir. Usually we notice a malfunction from the central security room, but for some strange reason this passed by us." As if he was desperate to justify himself, he added: "Wedding parties are always a lot of work and chaos, so sometimes we can't take care of all the details."

"Which is really not good for security when something like this happens," Gordon remarked sarcastically.

"Nothing like this ever happened in this hotel," Charles declared defiantly, trying to save what was left of his professional integrity.

"So is this the only camera that is not working properly?" Gordon repeated.

The chief of security hesitated, his embarrassment increased visibly. "No, sir."

"No?" Gordon raised an eyebrow.

"There is another camera that hasn't recorded since last night. It is down this corridor in the east wing." Charles pointed in that direction.

Harris had witnessed this conversation from a few steps back, but now he could clearly see that Gordon was about to lose his patience. "And you didn't find it in any way suspicious?" the younger detective asked in a voice that could cut through solid steel. "Same floor, I suppose?" The Nigerian nodded.

"Maybe we should deal with the guests now," Harris suggested before things could get out of control here. He addressed Charles: "We need a list of the guests and their hotel rooms, especially the ones with accommodations on this floor. And we need a room where we conduct our interviews with each of them. Small conference room would do fine."

Charles grabbed his radio and gave some orders while Gordon finally grabbed the big suitcase and opened it. Harris closed the door of the hotel room and locked it, putting the key in his own pocket before he finally gave Gordon a nod. As Charles finished his radio conversation, Gordon had pulled out a roll of yellow tape which he applied across the door. The tape read: CRIME SCENE. DO NOT CROSS!

"Ladies and gentlemen!"

Reginald St. Claire tried to get the crowd's attention in the large restaurant, but his voice hardly made it through the nervous and impatient chatter of his guests. It had been over an hour since they were gathered here, and though they were served food and drinks throughout the waiting period, the feeling of being trapped in here wasn't comfortable for any of them. Especially the little children, who had all gathered around the young woman serving as the entertainer of the wedding party and were listening to her stories with open eyes and mouths. Though they seemed entertained for the moment, they were all too eager to run around, explore and play. The adults seemed the same, though for different reasons. When Reginald stood in front of them, accompanied by the two detectives who attentively and grimly scanned the crowd with their eyes, some of the guests already stared back curiously. They wanted to know what the hell was going on here.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Reginald started again, a bit louder than before. "May I have your attention, please?"

Finally the noise in this room died down. All eyes were now focused on the concierge.

"Thank you!" Reginald said, straightening his uniform once more. "I am sorry to tell you that there has been... an incident in this hotel. That is why our security asked you to wait here, and we thank you all for your patience in that matter. To resolve this, these two gentlemen here..." He made gestures towards Harris and Gordon. "... will speak to each one of you individually in Conference Room B. I must ask you to follow all of their instructions. If you do, then this matter will be resolved in no time, and we can finally get to the bottom of this."

"Just tell us what happened already!" An older man from the back of the crowd demanded angrily. "You cooped us up in here for hours and expect us to cooperate without even letting us know what is going on here. We have a right to know!"

Harris stepped forward before Reginald could react. Not that Reginald didn't appreciate him doing so. "I am Harris McNeill," the older man introduced himself. "My partner Gordon Travis and I were summoned to investigate the murder of Anna Gilmour who had been killed a few hours ago."

The reactions of the crowd were mixed. Some gasped in terror, others just stared blankly. Certain suspicious looks were exchanged. Most of them were not surprised, of course - the body was found by one of the guests, and of course they told others about it. But apparently there were still some among them who were kept out of the loop. The kids showed all a similar reaction: a mix between fear and excitement, like something had happened that they only knew from TV.

Harris continued: "As long as we conduct our interviews, the rest of you are free to leave this room again and go about your business in this hotel and on this island. We have no reason to detain you here any longer. All we ask of you is to stay clear off the top floor of the main building, if possible. It is a crime scene and still under investigation. Also, be aware that any of you might be called upon any minute for the next interview, so don't go too far away!"

At least this eased the tension in the room a bit. Harris looked around and finally pointed at the first person: "You, sir! Would you please come with us?"

His finger pointed towards Callum Wallace, the groom.