"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.
"Please don't call me by my surname. Just Sam would do."
"Ok Mr. Sam it is then. But you didn't answer my question."
"A homicide detective from Las Vegas Metropolitan Police department is here at my door first thing in the morning. Clearly someone must be dead."
"The matter is under investigation and I am not library to say. Mr. Sam can I talk to you? I just want to ask you some questions. You too Mrs. Kalashnikov."
Who is Mrs. Kalashnikov. I am baffled. I am looking around for this mysterious person to materialise. Detective Wilkins is looking at me. Why is he looking at me?
"Oh I am not Mrs. Kalashnikov." I exclaim to the Detective.
"But didn't you get married to Mr. Sam here just yesterday?" The detective looks baffled now.
"Yes I did but I chose not to change my surname and changed my title from Miss to Ms instead. Please call me Ms Campbell or just Alice."
"Officer." Sam interrupts our conversation. "We would both like to help you but if you cannot tell us what it is about it will be very hard to do so. As you can see we are rightly worried about what might have happened. My wife is clearly distressed. Can you tell us about your visit and put us out of our misery."
"We better sit down." The detective motions us to the sofa. This looks serious indeed.
"Mr Sam" he starts "can you please tell me where you were around midnight last night?"
Sam scratches his head. "Officer as you have found out I am newly married man. I was off course celebrating my wedding night. But you have me worried by this question. Am I under some suspicion?"
The detective turns to me now. "Ms Alice can you please confirm that Mr Sam was with you the entire night?"
Well he did get up around midnight and wasn't back for what felt like hours but I am not telling this to the detective until I find out what this is all about.
"Yes he was with me the whole night." I answer gravely. My mused hair, kiss swollen lips, numerous beard burns on my face and neck are enough evidence to this statement.
The detective turns to Joe next who is standing in the corner. "Mr Joe Demchi.... "He stumbles here. "How do you pronounce your surname?"
"Please officer just Joe would do. Lets not stand on formality here." Sam interjects in between.
Joe takes a step in the detective's direction and extends his hand. The Detective ignores the extended hand and continues on.
"Can you tell me about your whereabouts at that time?"
"Joe was.." Sam starts speaking but the detective interrupts him.
"Mr Sam I would appreciate if Mr Joe answered this question.
Joe looks at Sam and Sam just shrugs. "Officer, Me English no good. I was here. Yes right here. Sleeping in the second bedroom." he has to think before speaking the sentence
What is he saying? Joe and Alice sleeping in the same room possibly on the same bed unless one of them was sharing Luke's bed. How is that possible?
"So you were with the babysitter?"
Joe looks as if he is unable to understand the question. He just shakes his head.
"What's the babysitter's name by the way?" this question is thrown to the general direction of the audience.
Well hallo the babysitter is an adult woman who can understand and talk English fluently. The fact that she is scarred on the face does not make her deaf, dumb or stupid.
"Her name is Alice Brown." I am annoyed at the chauvinist officer "and she can talk and understand English."
Sam sitting near me is squeezing my hand and silently asking me to keep quite. I have done nothing wrong and I don't have to put up with the likes of him. But I can understand Sam's point the quicker we get rid of him the better it would be for all of us.
"Officer can I answer this question instead of Joe please as he has problem speaking English?" Sam attracts attention towards himself again.
The detective gives acceptance to this request and Sam starts his narrative.
"Yesterday after I got married I gave both Alice and Joe cash bonuses and half a day off. I mean Alice Brown the babysitter not my lovely wife.
I asked them to come around 9 pm to look after my son Luke. I think Joe celebrated my wedding bit too much. When Joe came back he was quite drunk. Alice had to drag him here. Luke was fast asleep when they got back. Alice was worried about Joe. She asked my permission to look after Joe through the night and make sure he is alright. Joe was total ass to her if you ask me but if she wants to spend time with him then that's her choice."
What is he saying. Alice and Joe were never together. Alice came back at the appointed time but I don't even know when Joe came back or if he came back. It's impossible for Alice to talk to Sam without me acting as a buffer. She would never agree to look after a man even Joe especially if he is drunk.
Why is he lying? Making the police officer believe that Alice and Joe are couple. Which is impossible as Joe is gay and Alice is scared of men.
Sam is turning in my direction now. He is looking at me and talking to me in apologetic tone.
"You don't know about this sweetheart. Alice managed to get Joe out of the lift. Joe just stood in the corridor and wouldn't move. Alice came here and you handed her sleeping Luke and went to change. That's when she told me about Joe's excess. I got him inside and settled him in the bedroom before I joined you."
Sam is squeezing my hand again. He wants me to keep quite. He wants to give Joe an alibi. Same as the alibi I gave for Sam's whereabouts.
Sam is not really saying that Alice and Joe are together as a couple. If the officer assumes that to be the case then that's not Sam's fault. Sam probably knows where Joe was but until we know what the detective wants he is keeping it under wraps.
Well I can go with that for the moment. Especially now that Sam has given me an out so that I don't have to lie. He can't lie outright about this as there are CCTV cameras installed on lifts and corridors of the hotel.
Sam seems to be thinking along the same line as evident from his next question to the officer. "Why don't you check the CCTV camera feeds to confirm this officer?"
The hotel manager who is silent till now jumps in this conversation. "Unfortunately we cannot do that. There is glitch in the security system. We don't have any surveillance after yesterday evening."
Sam looks agitated now. He is pushing his hair back musing them in the process. "So why wasn't something done about the security system?"
"We don't have live monitoring for the residential floors. We just noticed the glitch in the morning. We have notified the security company to fix it."
"Which doesn't help me in the least."
The manager looks shamefaced now. "We are sorry for that."
Sam is addressing the detective now. "Officer unfortunately it looks as if I don't have a proof for my statement."
"Or you are the one who disabled the security camera." the detective is accusing Sam openly now.
Sam gets angry at this. "Before you accused me of any wrongdoing I need to know the crime you think I might have committed."
The detective gives a big sigh of defeat. "It seems I don't have any choice but to tell you what happened. Mr. Sam Mr. Ivan Petronvesky is no longer with us."
Sam jumps from the sofa he is sitting on. "What? Did he have a heart attack in the hospital?"
"No Mr. Sam if it was a heart attack I wouldn't be here questioning you in the morning. I won't tell you the manner of his death as it is still confidential due to sensitive nature of the investigation but suffice to say he died violently at around midnight last night."
Sam flops back on the sofa. He is rubbing his face agitatedly with both his hands. He looks clearly distressed. I am glad to be sitting down. My legs wouldn't have supported me otherwise.
Everyone of us is speechless. The Detective is observing us with keen eyes. Noting down everything and storing it in his memory. I am getting uncomfortable with his scrutiny.
"Ivan?" Sam is looking up now. I can hear the anguish in his voice and see his pain filled eyes. "But I just talked to him last night at about the same time."
I want to give him a hug I settle for squeezing back his hand. He seems to take reassurance from my touch.
"Remember the phone call I got. That was from him." He explains to me "He asked me whether I needed any guidance for my wedding night. I assured him that my wedding night was well under way and I had finished the entree and main meal and was going for the deserts."
How could this have happened? I am feeling sad as well. Yesterday he made me feel like the most precious daughter. I don't have any luck in regards to having a father.
Correction I am unlucky in regards to any of my male relations. As my new husband is under suspicion for murder. The detective is noting our conversation. He is intruding on our personal life.
Sam is voicing what I am feeling. "Officer are you not accusing me of Ivan's murder are you?"
"The matter is still under investigation at this movement but you are one of our suspects. You can stay free as long as you cooperate with the police."
"He was killed in the hospital. How could I have gone from my hotel room to his hospital room without anyone noticing anything. Surely you can check the CCTV camera in the hospital."
The detective does not respond to this question for a long time. Something clicks in Sam's ever fertile brain.
"You must be kidding me. Don't tell me the hospital CCTV camera also malfunctioned on the exact same day and at the exact same time?"
"Clearly it was an elaborate plan and not the spur of the movement thing." the detective grudgingly answers.
"Where is Dimitri? He should be able to help you out with the investigation."
"Unfortunately we cannot locate Dimitri Skornyakov. In fact he is our prime suspect in this matter. There are unconfirmed reports that he might have already left the country. He checked out of this hotel late last night and hasn't been seen anywhere since."
"Dimitri?" I can hear shock in Sam's voice his face shows the bewilderment he is feeling. "That's impossible! Dimitri would rather cut off his hand than hurt a single hair on Ivan's body."
"Be careful Mr. Sam. You don't want to create a shadow of doubt for his guilt because you are our next suspect after Mr. Dimitri."
"So you think I killed Ivan?"
"Or ordered Joe to kill him." The detective presents his outlandish theory.
"What for?"
The detective just looks at me. The look conveys everything.
"What?" Sam is incredulous. "You think I killed him because he offended Alice almost two days ago."
"Your fight with him was witnessed by all the casino staff and patrons."
"It was just minor misunderstanding. We cleared that up and we made up."
"It wasn't minor according to everybody I talked to. It was the reason for Mr. Petronvesky being admitted to the hospital. You almost killed him with your bare hands as per the eyewitness accounts."
"I lost my head at that time but if I didn't kill him at the time then I wouldn't certainly kill him two days later. He was the one who married us yesterday. He acted in the place of my wife's father in the ceremony."
"That's for us to decide isn't it?"
"Look I am one of the last person who would kill him. He had many enemies."
"Were you among his enemies?"
"He was my business associate. We had our differences but" he shrugs here "nothing to kill him about."
"What sort of business are you involved with him Mr. Sam?"
"He inherited large amount of family money. He didn't like getting his hand dirty by doing trade himself. Instead he used people like me to invest his money. You could say that I was his man of business."
"So you were employed by him."
"I work for no man. It was more of a partnership. He invested his money and I used my time and my brain."
"He invested large amount of money which you lost by making speculative investments. He wanted his money back which you were unable to give so you got him killed instead."
"You haven't got your facts right officer. I have almost doubled the money he has invested with me so far. The man wanted to give me more money to invest but I refused. I want to slow down." He wraps his hand around my shoulder. "I have a family. I want to spend time with my wife and my son not work more than 20 hours in a day to make money for someone else."
"Did any of this business transaction involved illegal trade?"
"Illegal trade officer? I don't know what you mean? All my business dealings are completely overboard." Sam is pulling the innocent act quite convincingly.
"Nothing was proven off course but Mr. Petronvesky was under Interpol radar. He was being suspected of being involved in drugs, weapons, slavery and flesh trade. You are ideally situated with your strip club to help him out in that regards isn't it?"
Sam gets angry at this accusation. "Officer I run a strip club which is completely legal under the law of the country I live in. You better get a proper warrant before questioning me any further. You are accusing me of being involved in the illegal slave and flesh trade in front of my wife, child and employees. I will file a complain against you for defamation and slander if you continue in this way."
I fling myself at Sam and stop him from exploding and complicating the already critical situation. He takes a deep breath to calm himself up. Rubs his forehead a few times.
"If Ivan was involved in the illegal trade then I wasn't aware of it. I was never associated with it. Then again I may not be the only intermediary he used in his business dealings. I can't help you any further without a proper warrant."
"Mr. Sam I am just questioning you at the moment. I can file the necessary paperwork and arrest you. I can definitely get a court order that will stop you from leaving Vegas."
"We came here for holiday. We can't stay here for longer than a week. My son has to go to school, my wife has to go back to work and I have a business to run."
"Yes I understand this. That is why I would appreciate if you voluntarily assist us in this matter."
"As I said to you just now Ivan called me yesterday. May be just before he was killed. He mentioned that he called his only legitimate son and threatened to disinherit him. He issues these threats at least once a month. May be he was going to act on it this time. You should contact his lawyers and find out about it."
"Did he call you on the mobile?"
"No he called to the room extension. I didn't bring my mobile with me. He definitely didn't have his mobile as they are not allowed in the hospital."
"Ok I will check the call logs in the hospital and the hotel."
"It still doesn't make sense. Dimitri checking out of the hotel and disappearing like that. As I said he was very loyal to Ivan. If someone came to kill Ivan then he should have fought with him. Unless.."
"Unless what Mr Sam?"
"But Ivan was catholic. He wouldn't do something like that."
"Like what?"
"Yesterday he was talking of dying. He expressed a wish to die in action and not die on the stupid hospital bed."
"So are you suggesting that he might have taken his own life but all the evidence suggest otherwise."
"No he was catholic so he wouldn't kill himself. However he might have used his own twisted logic and asked Dimitri to kill him instead. In his book that's not suicide you see. He might have ordered Dimitri to disappear afterwards."
Sam's voice is full of regret. "Now that I think about it he might have called me to say last good bye just before he died. I just brushed him off. He expressed a wish to talk to Alice my wife but I denied him his last wish."
His voice is choked at the end of this sentence. Oh poor Sam. Loosing someone you know suddenly like that. Leaving behind lot of grief.
I looked for answers in so many places after my mother's death. She didn't leave any note you see. Is it better to think that your loved one was murdered or died in an accident or to know that they killed themselves? I would have preferred death by accident in my mother's case.
I am not sure about Sam's feeling in this regard but I have to console him the best I can. Besides if Ivan was murdered then I don't want the murderer to go scot free. The CCTV malfunction at both places is suspicious indeed.
"Is it possible that someone killed Ivan and framed Sam at the same time?"
The detective looks thoughtful. "We have already considered that. Tell me Mr Sam who would benefit the most if something happens to you tomorrow?"
"Well that would be me." I blur out. The detective's keen gaze turns in my direction now.
"Please explain Ms Campbell."
"She misunderstood what you meant officer." Sam is trying to save me from my blunder.
"No let her talk for herself Mr. Sam. I would like to hear her explanation. After all she was the one who had the most grievance against Mr. Ivan."
I have dug myself a hole here. "Sam made his will yesterday. I get half of his property and become trusty of the rest if something happens to him."
"Officer that will only applies if I die not if I am in jail." Sam is still trying to save me but the officer ignores him and continued on with his questioning.
"When and how did you find out about his will Ms. Campbell?"
I am completely flustered by all this questioning. "You see Dimitri was ..ouch!" Sam has pinched me on the shoulder reminding to be careful of what I say next.
This doesn't escape the detective's notice. He intently looks at Sam's hand wrapped around my shoulder. Sam reluctantly takes his hand off.
Now I will have to lie. Lie convincingly enough to fool a police detective. Not just to save myself but Sam as well. Sam will go to any length even admit to the crime he didn't commit and go to jail to save me.
I can't tell the police detective the circumstances under which Sam told me about his will. I can't tell him anything about how Sam proposed to me under gunpoint.