"Uh, I noticed someone's missing." Kevin frowned, looking uncertainly at his own list. He then pointed to the only name not crossed out on Esposito's list and said, "Mike Weitz. Have you spoken to him?"
"I think he's one of the groomsmen? No." Esposito leaned in to take a look and shook his head with certainty.
"Has anyone seen best man Mike Weitz?" Kevin asked loudly over his shoulder to the chattering guests.
"No." The groom's brother, Keith Murphy, looked around with a puzzled look, as if he had just noticed the groomsman was missing.
"Oh my God, I remember now," Laura Healy, one of the bridesmaids, exclaimed in surprise. "Last night at the rehearsal dinner, I saw him and Sophie being very affectionate together."
"Yeah, we saw them together when we got together at the bar afterwards," shrugged the groom's chubby uncle, Teddy Murphy.
"Could he have been in trouble too?" the groom's brother, Keith Murphy, asked, setting the guests ablaze with discussion.
Kevin and Esposito exchanged a glance, then hurried forward to question each guest one by one. Then, they hurried off to check with hotel security.
A short while later, they returned, their expressions more serious, as if they had made a discovery.
"We've confirmed that no one has seen Mike since last night," Kevin said.
"We checked his room. The bed was made, with no signs of sleep. His suit was still hanging in his closet. The room card records retrieved by hotel security indicate he last entered the room at 2:00 AM," Esposito continued.
Two AM was about an hour before bridesmaid Sophie's earliest known death. Jack and Castle exchanged a silent glance. It was Detective Beckett's turn to issue orders. "Anything unusual in his room?"
"No, his personal toiletries and backpack are still in the room," Kevin shook his head.
Beckett thought for a moment and ordered, "Have hotel security thoroughly search the vacant guest rooms and utility rooms."
"Do you think we might find a second body?" Castle interjected.
"I'm more inclined to believe Mike is the killer. He strangled Sophie and then fled," Beckett continued. "Issue a wanted notice and send Mike's photo to all airports, train stations, and all outlying island ferries."
Esposito lowered his head and began making phone calls, following his female boss's orders one by one. The clown duo, in their normal working order, were surprisingly reliable.
"I'll ask any guests if they have any photos or videos of Mike and Sophie together last night." Kevin started to leave, but Castle pulled him back.
"Or we can find it ourselves," he said, gesturing to the pile of digital cameras on the table. There were seven or eight of them, likely from the wedding rehearsal last night.
The typical American wedding process is quite involved, especially in the planning stages. As someone who had attended several weddings, Jack had some experience.
A rehearsal dinner is arguably the final step in the wedding planning process, typically attended by close family members, including the best man and bridesmaids.
The process is roughly divided into two parts, as the name suggests: the rehearsal dinner and the wedding dinner. Traditionally, the groom's family pays for the dinner the day before the wedding, while the bride's family usually pays for the wedding itself.
Relatively speaking, the rehearsal dinner, held a day earlier, is smaller and more intimate, creating a more lively atmosphere. The wedding itself, on the other hand, is more formal, with more relatives and friends in attendance. The detectives secured a hotel room and, in the living room, pored over the video footage of the rehearsal dinner. They couldn't find any footage of the guests gathering at the bar afterward, as most appeared to be intoxicated.
However, a video of the missing best man, Mike, giving a speech at the dinner revealed a clue: the murdered bridesmaid, Sophie, abruptly left the table after receiving a phone call.
As Beckett asked, "Does anyone find Sophie's departure strange?"
"She looked like she was going to meet the person who called her," Esposito mused.
Cassel wondered, "But who's the problem? She came all the way from Los Angeles, so everyone she knew should have been at the restaurant."
"Didn't you get her call log? Check the number at that time," Jack reminded him.
Kevin quickly searched through his files. "Uh, the call log shows it was from the hotel lobby."
Jack remembered noticing the hotel lobby had surveillance cameras when he arrived, so Kevin and Esposito rushed downstairs to check the footage. The result was surprisingly successful. The
caller who had called Sophie, the bridesmaid, was a street-level drug dealer named Boyd Gumball. Kevin recognized him instantly from the surveillance footage.
He primarily dealt cocaine and marijuana and had served several years in prison for assault and turf wars. Kevin was the detective who handled his case back then.
In less than an hour, Kevin and Esposito completed the entire process from arrest to interrogation, but the results were somewhat surprising.
Sophie wasn't looking for some recreational "gadgets" from this street-level drug dealer, but rather a special drug called "FM2."
This thing, commonly known as the "date drug" or "cross," scientifically known as "flunitrazepam," can quickly induce a deep sleep, but the question is, what use would a woman like Sophie have for it?
While the clown duo made progress, Jack, Beckett, and Castle, who remained in the hotel, prepared to talk to the bride and groom again. By now, they probably knew the most about the deceased.
They walked side by side down the hallway, discussing their current leads. Beckett remained baffled. "Why would a bridesmaid need 'FM2'?"
"If a woman wants to take advantage of a man, knocking him unconscious isn't a good idea. Generally, it's better to just say no," Castle said, his old-fashioned grin smirking as he nudged Jack with his arm.
"You could also change into one of those full-length showdown bras and stockings," Jack agreed, while Beckett chuckled.
Cassel suddenly stopped and greeted a middle-aged woman engaged in conversation. "Ah, Sheila?"
Jack had a vague impression of this woman, whose expressive mannerisms made her speech seem particularly vivid when he was observing the interview. Sheila
Bryan turned and saw Rick Cassel. Her smile instantly faded, transforming into a classic, snarky mother-in-law's expression.
"Richard (Rick was Richard's nickname)? I seem to see you in every catastrophic situation," the bride's mother said, her tone taunting.
Cassel raised his chin slightly, glanced at the two people beside him, and raised his voice slightly. "Detective Beckett, Agent Taverner, formally, this is Sheila Bryan, the bride's mother."
He then turned his gaze to Sheila Bryan. "You seem a little disappointed that I'm not homeless or teaching at some third-rate university in New Hampshire."
New Hampshire was the least prominent and poorest of the thirteen states in the early years of the United States, a place that could be understood as a desolate place.
It was clear that Sheila Bryan's role in Castle and Kayla's story wasn't particularly positive.
Jack and Beckett exchanged a glance, then, in tacit agreement, took a half-step back, beginning to witness the climax of the "Thirty Years in the East, Thirty Years in the West" moment.
However, Sheila Bryan seemed far superior to Castle, and she dismissed his challenge with a single, understated statement: "Time will tell."
(End of Chapter)