The Wedding Project 💍

'And So It Goes' - The Conclusion (@MikeMacColin)

The two investigators returned to the conference room. On their way they passed by Reginald, who had a concerned look on his face that intensified when he saw the grim expressions from Gordon and Harris. None of them spoke a word.

As the door shut behind them, Gordon let himself drop into the chair that they had reserved for their interview partners and let out a deep sigh. It had been just a few hours since their arrival. The sun was already setting, and with the darker light outside their mood darkened as well.

"So... back to Square One, I suppose?"

Harris looked onto the big table that took up most of the space in this room. They had collected everything here that would help them with this case: the photos from the wedding photographer, the statements of everyone they had interviewed, the background information they could get from the internet and... other sources they had. "I wouldn't say that," he answered, trying to at least sound optimistic. "I think we have all the parts of this puzzle. We just need to put them together."

Gordon looked up, seemingly anything but hopeful right now. He looked awfully tired. Harris didn't blame him - his younger partner just witnessed someone commit suicide. But he eventually leaned forward, put his hands on the table and nodded. "Alright then! What do we have?"

Before Harris could react to that, someone knocked at the door. "Come in!" he uttered after a brief moment of surprise. They came in: Charles and another member of the hotel security, dragging a pretty unwilling third person in with them. Gordon raised an eyebrow as he recognized the woman in the bridesmaid dress.

"Susan Franklin, I presume?" Harris made a polite hand gesture to greet her, even though he knew that he was facing a criminal. "We have a few things to discuss." With a nod towards the security officers, he added: "Thank you, gentlemen, we will take it from here."

Susan was still pretty unwilling, but she realized that she had no choice. "We will wait outside, just in case," Charles announced and left the room with his colleague. Gordon got up from the chair and offered it to Susan. At first she refused, so he made a more demanding gesture to make her sit down.

"Why am I here?" she finally asked.

Harris gave her a look that he had used on many criminals throughout his career. "I think you know that." He nodded towards Gordon who reacted promptly. Among many items on the big table, he took one, carefully placed in a see-through plastic bag. He dangled it right in front of Susan's face. "Care to tell us what that is?"

His gut feeling had been right. As Susan saw the syringe inside the bag, her eyes widened in fear and terror. Sweat ran over her dark skin. "I... I don't know."

"Yes, you do," Harris answered coldly. "It has your fingerprints all over it. How do we know that? It matches the fingerprints on the duct tape that you used to tie up your friend Miss Vanders in the basement."

"But... I..." She still tried to defend herself desperately. Tears filled her eyes. Yet she wouldn't confess.

"You were seen heading up to the bride's hotel room right before she was found dead. Mr. Creed, the best man, identified you. And we saw you on the security cameras in the stairwell. There is no point denying it."

Sweat and tears were mixing on Susan's cheeks as she stared at the syringe, unable to turn her gaze away. Her mouth opened and closed again as her lower jaw trembled.

"You told Mr. Creed that you would go to the bride's room to look for her. Yet, when the body was found, it wasn't you who told the family and security about it. It was your friend Miss Walker... Sera, I think you call her."

"What's in this?" Gordon barked at her, a lot less calm and patient than Harris, giving the bag with the syringe another dangle.

That did it. Her defense crumbled, and she finally broke down. She cried and sobbed, covered her face with her hands, unable to utter one word. Harris let her cry for an entire minute before he asked in a very gentle tone: "Shall we take this as a confession?"