Anna was dead, there was a murderer among them and they were all locked up in the restaurant by the hotel staff as they thoroughly searched the premises for anything suspicious.
And, surprisingly, Alex didn't feel a thing.
He and Mia were still in the restaurant and so were all the other guests. Callum's family, minus Mia, and some well-wishers were huddled around him. Alex couldn't see Callum and while a part of him wanted to go and comfort his friend another part was afraid to do that.
He had never seen Callum ever be anything other than confident, it was one of the only thing constant about Alex's life and, as much as he knew he was being selfish, he didn't want that to change.
Other guests were seated around tables, shaken. The air in the room was tensed and hushed. Except for the sobs of the Gilmour family, everyone else was talking quietly.
Alex and Mia had been sitting quietly by a table in the corner of the room. So far, except for the occasional "hmm"s and "yeah"s as reply to Alex's monologue, Mia hadn't said anything. She chose to twirl a pen in her hand instead.
"I hated Anna," Alex said, "but I don't think I ever wanted her dead. Divorced? Yes. Dead? God, no!" He didn't look up to see if Mia was paying attention. "And we are in a freaking island so the murderer is definitely among us, free to do whatever."
Mia tapped the table with her pen and finally broke her silence, "But then that could mean that one of the guests did it."
That thought had occurred to Alex too, but it seemed a tad bit wrong to accuse the guests that had been invited to her brother's wedding.
"Well," Alex said, glancing around the room again, eyes stopping and observing each table, "if that's true, then whoever did it is doing a damn good job of mixing in, even after killing the bride."
"Or maybe they aren't in this room right now," Mia said as she looked around too. "Everyone isn't here."
Alex couldn't tell, he hadn't bothered to count how many people were there to attend the wedding, hadn't even bothered to look properly at half of the people.
"Do you have a list or something? So we can know for sure who isn't here?"
"I don't but I think one of the bridesmaids has it. I think her name is Susan? She--" Mia never got to finish her sentence because right at that moment, a small commotion erupted in a table across the room where Mia's grandma Gwendolyn was seated.
"Oh no." Mia was up and across the room in a moment. Alex wished he had that much energy and got up to see what it was all about.
By the time he reached the table, things seemed to have quietened down again. Gwen had a sever allergic reaction to some food item, a guest whose name Alex didn't know told him. Anaphylaxis; very worrying considering her age. Luckily, the vicar knew how to handle it, and she seemed fine now.
Mia was sitting beside her grandma, supporting her shoulders and trying to make her drink some water.
And right behind her was Susan, the Maid of Honor.
And she had the list.
Confirming that grandma Gwen was fine again, Susan nodded her head to the vicar in what Alex assumed was a shocked thank-you-nod and turned away to return to her table she shared with the other bridesmaids.
Alex quietly slipped away from the small crowd that had gathered around Gwen and went after her.
"Susan, a minute please."
Susan jumped and whirled around. "What? Oh, it's you." Her eyes were narrowed at him. "Alex isn't it?"
"Yes," he tipped his head slightly as a hello. And now that he was closer, he noticed that she looked fine which stood out from the rest of the people in the room who looked shocked, scared, or had been crying for a while. Compared to all of them, her face still looked quite fresh, just maybe a little paler than usual.
"I was wondering if I could have a look over the list of names of the guests invited."
"And why do you want to?"
He had a feeling she would ask that and while he didn't like sharing the details of his plans with just about anyone, it wasn't like he had anything solid right now. And everyone knew it was one of the guests anyway so he decided to tell her.
She looked relieved and quite happy as she handed him the folded paper, "At least someone is doing something about this. I don't think any help will arrive for a few hours at least. Well, good luck."
"Thank you," he said as he pocketed the paper.
She went back to join the other bridesmaids and Alex returned to his table. Mia was already seated, twirling the pen again with a frown.
"So I got the list," Alex said, placing the list in front of Mia, "look through it and tell me who isn't in this room." He plucked the pen out of her grip and pulled a tissue towards him, ready to write down the names.
Mia quickly read through the list, glancing around the room.
"Laura isn't here."
Alex jotted down and waited, with the pen hovering above the tissue to quickly note down the other names.
When Mia said nothing, he looked up.
"And?"
"And what? Laura isn't here."
"Yes, I got that. Who else?"
Mia folded the list of names and pressed it on the table. "Laura," she said very slowly, as if he had trouble understanding her when she talked normally, "is not here."
"And everyone else is?"
"Yes."
"Oh." He stared at the tissue lying innocently on the table with only one name on it.
"Who's Laura?" Alex asked, eyes glued to the name. Laura. He didn't know anyone called Laura.
"I don't know. Not from our side. Anna's friend or family or something, probably."
Alex grunted. Neither he nor Mia knew who Laura was and they both didn't have the slightest idea what Laura looked like--not like that mattered much right now, when everyone was locked inside the restaurant while the hotel staff checked out the scene of crime.
Wait.
"The staff!" Alex said, sitting up straighter, "we've only been thinking about the guests, what if it was someone from the resort? Wait no, that can't be--"
"--because they don't have any solid reason to murder their customer. That would only ruin their reputation," Mia finished, shaking her head.
Alex slumped back. "So what? This person, Laura, killed Anna? And then didn't show up at the restaurant? We figured it out so easily that it doesn't seem right."
"Or she could have been murdered by the actual murderer and her corpse is rotting in the basement, who knows."
"Please don't say shit like that so casually," Alex said, pinching the bridge of his nose. He had done absolutely nothing today and was still exhausted. "Wait. Basement?"
Mia shrugged. "That's the only place the security of the hotel doesn't cover."
Alex was about to bite her head off for not telling him that sooner, but right then, he heard some commotion again. They both turned around to see that everyone was getting up and going outside. The doors had been unlocked.
The security of the hotel had finished doing whatever they were doing outside and thought it was fine to let all the people loose
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Are you sure you heard something down there?" Alex asked Mia for the hundredth time, and she ignored him again, as they hurried down the stairs to the basement quietly. Since, you know, no one was supposed to be there.
The moment the doors had been unlocked, Alex and Mia had got out with the crowd. They were supposed to return to their rooms and wait there until they received further instructions but they had quietly snuck around till they found a door to the basement.
Actually, Alex was trying to be quiet. It had been a while since he had had to do anything physical. Not since his grand uncle died. And he was a teeny weeny bit jealous of Mia who was hopping down the stairs like her legs were made of springs.
Sheesh, teenagers, he thought as he tried to keep up with her. Although he was 24, he felt like he was forty around Mia. He tried not to look as out of breath as he felt.
After climbing down what seems like a million steps, they finally reached the basement. It was a wide hallway with a store room (Alex guessed) on either side. And now Alex was starting to think it was a bad idea.
He was with a young girl in a dingy basement. If the killer was actually here...that wouldn't be a good thing at all. What was worse, if something happened to them no one would even hear their screams from here.
"Mia," he whispered, turning around, "I think I'll check this place on my own, can you keep guard around the door? If someone heads this way, make them go away somehow. Please?"
Mia looked like she was about to protest, but he didn't give her a chance to. There was no time.
"Please. If someone comes down and sees us here, who knows what they'll think. I might get in trouble. Both of us would. Your disapproval of this wedding isn't exactly a secret, you do know that right?"
Luckily for Alex, Mia understood the gravity of the situation and went back up the stairs to keep a watch out.
Alex turned around to finally get a good look of the basement.
He could hear a faint noise from a room on the left, so he chose to check the one on the right first. As he had expected, it was a storeroom. He picked a mop that was leaning against the wall. That was the only thing in there that would come close to a weapon. Armed with the mop, he headed towards the other room.
He was just about to push it open, with the mop gripped tightly in his other hand when a janitor popped out of nowhere.
"Aye, what do you think you are doing here?" the janitor barked. Alex jumped away from the door.
"Um, my, uh, niece threw up in the garden," Alex lied, "so I thought that I'd...clean up?"
If the janitor noticed his hesitancy, he didn't show it. "You think you can clean a garden with a mop?"
"I am not used to doing this. Just felt responsible," he shrugged, trying to mimic what posh kids who never had to do a chore in their lives would say in this situation. "I shouldn't have twirled her around so much"
The janitor snorted in annoyance. "I'll do something. You can go now," he growled, snatching the mop from Alex.
"Oh, okay. thanks."
He bounded upstairs as fast as he could. Just as he was about to wrench the door open, Mia opened it from the other side.
"Why didn't you tell me the janitor--"
"The police are here."
"They took long enough," Alex growled. "but the janitor--"
But Mia wasn't listening. "I don't know what you're talking about but I am sure the police won't care about any janitors if they find you out of your room, where you are supposed to be."
And she was off before he could say anything. Alex hurried off to his room too, hoping that whatever he heard in the basement was just a figment of his imagination.