"I thought you two were here to help." Beckett, a bit irritated by these guys, stood in front of the evidence board with a half-written time coordinate chart, unable to continue writing.
"Okay, I'll help." Hannah, not as thick-skinned as the older men, picked up a whiteboard marker and stood with her.
Jack stood behind them, reviewing the completed sections one by one.
At 5 pm on Saturday evening, the wedding rehearsal began, and the dinner began at 7 pm. At 9:40 pm, the guests, the bride and groom, and the groomsmen and bridesmaids arrived at the bar.
At 11:45 pm, the bride went back to her room to rest. At 1 am, the groom returned to his room. After 1 pm, the deceased bridesmaid, Sophie, snuck out of the bar with the already somewhat unconscious groomsman, Mike.
At 2 am, hotel records show that Mike last entered his room.
"Uh, something seems wrong?" Hannah asked puzzledly, holding Beckett's notebook. "I remember you said that the best man Mike was drugged and locked in the storage room. Did he mention that he went back to his room in the middle of the process?"
Beckett was immediately reminded, "No, he said that he was bewitched by Sophie's sudden initiative, and then he was tricked into the storage room with an exciting excuse."
"Then who used Mike's room card to open his room?" Hannah wondered.
Jack replied with a smile, "Of course it was Sophie, the bridesmaid. Looks like we've figured out why she knocked Mike out."
Just then, a ding sound came from the elevator in the detective's office. The elevator doors opened, and Castle hurried into the office. He was stunned by the crowd, then shouted, "Mike's key card!"
Beckett didn't even look at him and turned away, instructing the two clowns as he walked, "You two contact best man Mike and ask him about his key card after he woke up. Let's go to the hotel."
"Huh? You thought of that, too?" Castle asked cheekily, turning around and following Beckett.
Beckett ignored him, and Hannah kindly answered, "Just a minute before you came in." Back at the Beaumont Hotel, Beckett called in hotel security. Like the room where the murder took place, the best man's room had been left as is for the time being, so they planned to search it again.
Castle followed Beckett into the room. "Did Kevin and Esposito mention they'd searched this room?"
He'd been making small talk on the way in, and Beckett hadn't paid him much attention, leaving Jack and Hannah feeling awkward and secretly amused.
But they were all men, so they had to help whenever possible. Besides, Beckett's disregard was probably because he and Hannah were such a distraction, especially since the clown duo's supposed background check was the main reason.
So, Jack joined Castle in making small talk, to avoid being the only one to do the talking.
"Yes, they just reconfirmed that Mike's room card was missing after he woke up. He only lost the card; his belongings and the contents of the room were intact. So we need to look for clues from another angle."
Cassel walked around the small room, muttering to himself, "So, what could be so important in this room that Sophie drugged Mike?"
It was just a standard suite. Although the Beaumont Hotel is a five-star luxury hotel, the furnishings of standard suites are quite common, and the layout is similar to the room where the murder occurred.
The only difference is that this is a connecting room with the next room, connected by two doors.
"I don't think Sophie wants to go into Mike's room." Beckett walked over, easily turned the doorknob, and pushed open the door to the next room.
This connecting room, also known as a double suite, is very common in European and American hotels. By opening the two middle doors, each leading to the other room, two small suites become one large suite.
This type of room is perfect for larger families, such as couples with several children. Of course, Jack, like himself, used to enjoy connecting rooms with Jiejie when he was traveling across the country with the BAU. This made it easy to discuss cases all night long.
"So Sophie went to all that trouble to knock Mike unconscious and get his key card because she wanted access to this room? Then who does this room belong to?"
Castle said, playing the role of a comedian, earning an impatient roll of his eyes from Beckett. "You don't have to be like that. I'm not in a bad mood because of you."
"Huh? Wasn't it because I refused to answer your last question in the elevator last night? That's all in the past. I just don't want to be misunderstood as still having feelings for Kayla," Castle argued.
"Sorry, I have no interest in your past affairs," Beckett glared at him.
"Hey, guys, be professional! Are you really planning on getting into this fight at a potential murder scene?"
Jack's words caused both of them to tilt their heads and ask in unison, "What murder scene?"
Jack, already donning rubber gloves, picked up an earring from the carpet at the corner of the bedroom bed and gestured to them, "Remember the missing earring from the deceased's left ear?"
A dramatic scene unfolded. At that moment, a door opened, and everyone turned to see the groom, Gret Murphy, staring in shock.
"Hey, what are you doing in my room?"
"Does this count as turning yourself in?" Cassell, standing at the front, glanced around. The presence of two FBI agents and a detective gave him a sense of security.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Gret Murphy stopped mid-sentence when he saw the blood-stained earring in Jack's hand.
The NYPD had previously distributed photos of the earring throughout the hotel; there was no way he didn't know who it belonged to.
As
friends and family, including the bride, Kayla, watched in astonishment, Gret Murphy was escorted to a police car.
Though he wasn't handcuffed, Beckett merely escorted him back to the station to assist with the investigation, even a fool could see that this incident was undoubtedly connected to the death of bridesmaid Sophie.
Apparently, word of Sophie's earrings found in Gret Murphy's room had spread like wildfire, given that hotel security was waiting outside.
Presumably, countless versions of the story were circulating by now. Seeing Kayla's heartbroken expression at the hotel entrance, Jack nudged Castle, "Aren't you going to comfort her?"
Before Castle could respond, Hannah, standing behind them, gently kicked the intruder.
"Of course not," Castle, having recovered, glanced back at Gret Murphy in the backseat. "I want to hear what this guy has to say first."
At the 12th Precinct, Jack and Hannah were watching through the one-way glass at the three people sitting solemnly in the adjacent interrogation room. The Jokers weren't there at the moment; they were conducting a background check on Gret Murphy on Beckett's orders.
It was another day of relying solely on fast food. The two of them ate burgers and fries they'd picked up on the way while listening to the conversation next door.
"Your accusations are crazy. I didn't kill Sophie Ronson," Gret Murphy said, taking a deep breath and trying to calm herself.
"Then why were her earrings found in your room?" Castle's voice was as solemn as a judge convicting someone.
Beckett glared at him, her feeling already that allowing this guy to sit in on the interrogation might have been a mistake.
"Grete, while you still have a chance to clear things up, tell us the truth. What's going on?" The female detective's attitude was much more objective, her instinct telling her that things might not be that simple.
They still lacked direct evidence. She had just contacted the medical examiner's office before entering the interrogation room, and there had been no progress with Lanny.
If it was truly Grete Murphy who did it, he could simply keep his mouth shut. With a single, torn earring and no clear motive, he wouldn't be convicted even in court. However,
he didn't immediately request a lawyer, instead cooperating at the police station. This gave Beckett a hunch that there might be something else going on.
"As I told you, I returned to my room around one o'clock. My Uncle Teddy loves to get me to drink tequila at family gatherings, and he certainly wouldn't let me go that day, so I was pretty drunk."
Grete Murphy slid to the right of her stool, facing Beckett instead of the pesky ex-boyfriend of her fiancée.
"I regained some consciousness around two o'clock, and I felt someone touching me in bed. I thought it was Kayla, that she had changed her mind, about not meeting before marriage, but..."
"But you realized it was actually Sophie, right?" Beckett saw that he seemed to be hesitant to speak, so she helped him finish the sentence.
I'm asking for the first monthly ticket of the month, thank you.
(End of chapter)