❝ A DANGEROUS GAME ❞ ── Marta Cabrera ¹ ✓

❝ CHAPTER 4 ❞

"And there is no other staircase up to Harlan's room?" Benoit questioned the two men.

Elliott shook his head, "none. Just the creaky one." He responded.

"So, uh, we know that Ransom didn't do it because he wasn't there. From what the rest of the family said Fred couldn't have done it because he and Iris had a fight. Marta couldn't have. Harlan was still alive when she left. Meg... Meg came home during the window of the time of death, right?" Wagner questioned looking between the two.

"Now look, look, it was a... Except it was a suicide, all right? Harlan slit right through his carotid. We saw from the blood splat patterns that they were uninterrupted, meaning, it's almost impossible for anyone to have been around him at the time. He's the one who cut his own throat, all right? I don't know why we keep goin' over this." Elliott said.

"Physical evidence can tell a clear story with a forked tongue." Benoit replied, clearly confusing Elliott and Wagner.

"What?" Elliott questioned him.

"And as we can see from this mornin', everyone can lie." The thunder rumbled in the background causing Benoit to pause. "Well, almost everyone." Benoit said.

After their conversation the three entered back into the house and they looked at Iris, who sat next to Marta. "We'd like to talk to Miss Drysdale first." Benoit said walking back into the room where they had spent a good amount of time questioning Iris's other family.

Iris gave a look to Marta, she picked herself up following behind them into the room. They closed the door behind her and Iris walked over to the chair sitting in front of the knives.

"Miss Drysdale, we kept you and Miss Cabrera waiting, because your piece and her piece are at the very center. What exactly happened between you and your fiancé, Fred?" Benoit questioned.

Iris gulped, suddenly she was filled with anxiety and in return she closed her palms and started to press down into her skin. Benoit seemed to notice this, and he assumed that the argument that the two had, wasn't a good argument.

"Ugh, a few months ago I went to my grandfather because I suspected that everyone in the family was doing something they weren't supposed to be doing. I even suspected Fred, I had for a while." Iris began to explain.

She knew that she would tell them everything they wanted to hear but she would find a way to protect herself and Marta.

"What was Fred doing that you weren't sure of?" Elliott proceeded to question her.

"A few weeks after we got engaged my lawyers called me and told me that someone was taking money from the company. And I had to find the person doing so and fire them. From that moment on I thought it was Fred, and soon after other things with the family started to happen. So, I made the only logical move that would work in my interest. I went to my grandfather and told him I had a game for him to play. You see, our game was along the lines of cops and robbers." Iris said.

She seemed to calm down a little but she was still pressing her nails into her palms. Even though she was with Fred her heart pulled towards someone else. The brunette wanted a good reason to get out of that relationship.

"Cops and robbers?" Wagner questioned, confused by the name.

"It was a way to help him with his ideas, but it also helped me with my make-up ideas. We'd give each other evidence for a case and we'd find the clues or prepare the necessary clues to answer the main question. I went to him because I wanted to know the truth about my family and my fiance. I wanted to know whether he was using me or whether he actually loved me." Iris continued to explain, looking down at her palms.

"And what evidence did your grandfather find?" Benoit asked her. She sighed knowing that things would get worse if she said too much.

"Fred was stealing from me and my company, every month he would take a certain amount out. I worked so hard to build my company up from the ground. When my grandfather offered to help me pay for college, and start my company I told him no because all my life I had known what it was like to have money and for once in my life I finally had a chance to see what it was like to barely have money and start a company. And because of that with my money I paid off my own debts. And then a few years after my make-up company became something, I met a man named Fred and we started dating and the next thing I know I'm engaged." Iris told them, looking at the three as she told them almost everything.

"After finding out that Fred was taking money from me I confronted him, and it just happened to be in front of my grandfather as he pulled us into his room at his party. He wanted me to put my foot down, he just wanted me to be happy because he knew I loved someone else. And the only way I could be with them is if I confronted Fred. But of course he denied everything." Iris said, pressing a little harder into her palm. "After he left I thought I wanted him to come back to me but the truth is I don't. I hate him, it makes me feel a certain way and I don't like it."

"If it was possible do you think he could have committed a much larger crime?" Benoit asked her.

"No, I don't think he could but I wouldn't be surprised." Iris replied.