Place called Home

Murder at Midnight

"Ah where are you going?" I murmur sleepily.

"Let me throw this rubber out and take a leak. Stay here and wait for me sweetheart. I will be back."

"Ok don't take too long."

My bed is cold. It stays like that for quite some time. I am waiting for my husband to come back to bed. 'Husband'! I feel strange even calling him my husband. Suddenly from a temporary fling he has become my lifelong partner. I doze off briefly during this time.

"Um where were we." Sam is back at last and is whispering sweet nothings in my ear.

"What took you so long? Who were you talking to?"

"I just got a phone call. It's not important. Let's continue where we left off shall we." The room is filled with different noises now.

It's almost dawn and my lusty husband hasn't let me sleep a wink except for small time when he was absent from my bed. I wasn't exactly complaining but my body is well beyond exhaustion.

"You are not sleeping are you? You can't sleep on our wedding night."

"Sam please I need to rest. Besides we have our whole life ahead of us now."

"I just can't seem to get enough of you."

Suddenly there is knock on the door. I miss a heartbeat. Sam just blithely continues on caressing me.

"Are you not going to get that?"

"Joe should know not to disturb us."

"Yes exactly. If he is knocking then it means something is urgent isn't it?"

"I suppose I should get up. Where are my clothes?" Sam is rummaging around in bed. "It doesn't matter Joe has seen me in buff many times."

Sam is getting out. I am trying to stop him. "Sam you can't. Alice is also outside or did you forget?"

"Alright alright I will get dressed."

The knocks are getting insistent. I am getting worried. Is something wrong with Luke? My heart is in my throat. I have developed trouble breathing.

"I am coming. I am coming." Sam is yelling to the person outside our bedroom door. I get up on wobbly legs and start getting dressed hurriedly. I am fumbling with nervousness.

Sam makes sure I am dressed decently enough before flinging the bedroom door open. My heart drops down at the sight that greets me. I can see an uniformed police officer standing in front of me. He is accompanied by the hotel manager himself.

"Luke! Luke!" I call hysterically. Alice is peaking out of the door of the second bedroom. She is holding Luke's hand. Oh he is safe thank god but what is the police doing here then?

The police produces his identification. He is Detective Todd Wilkins working in Las Vegas Homicide division. If he works in homicide then someone must have died violently during the night.

Where is Joe? Is he all right? I am looking around with fearful eyes. I can see ruffled looking Joe walking past Alice to come in the Lounge area. What is he doing in the bedroom with Luke and Alice?

The room is smaller than us with two single beds. The hotel has put partition between the two beds at our request to give Alice some privacy but there is no space for Joe to sleep there as well. This detail is not important however. At least he is safe.

"Who died?" Sam broaches the most uncomfortable question.

"Mr. Kalashnikov why do you think someone died?" Detective Wilkinson starts his interrogation.