by Cindy Bell
Wendy rolled her eyes and glanced over at Brian. “Why would he call a press conference to ask for privacy?”
“I don't know, but I can tell you that Detective Dunn is not going to be happy about it,” Brian replied. “There's no way she would approve of Rowan going to the media so soon.”
As the reporters dispersed Rowan began to walk across the lobby. Brian and Wendy walked over to him.
“Rowan,” Wendy said gently. “How are you doing?”
“As well as I can be, I suppose,” Rowan replied with a frown. “I've heard from my brother, Chris, that now the police are investigating his wife,” he shook his head slightly. “They're wasting all of this time investigating two obviously innocent women, while the actual killer is free to escape.”
“So, you don't suspect Suzette?” Brian asked. Rowan eyed him for a long moment and then shook his head.
“Suzette wouldn't do that. She may be a drunk, but she's never done anything worse than break a glass. What they should be doing is investigating the staff around here. Obviously, this was an inside job. Why else would my mother have ever gone near a room like that?” he shook his head. “She wouldn't have been able to stand such a messy environment.”
“So, you think it was a staff member?” Wendy asked. “But why would anyone employed at the hotel do such a thing?”
“I don't know,” Rowan shrugged. “Does it matter? All that really matters is that she's gone. Nothing can change that. Especially not a wild goose chase.”
“And where were you, Rowan?” Brian asked as he studied the man intently.
“Me?” Rowan replied with wide, innocent eyes. “Are you asking me where I was when my mother was killed?” he demanded as he glared at Brian.
“We're just trying to figure out the best way to help Anne,” Wendy interjected. “I believe, as you do, that she had nothing to do with this murder. The more we know about the location of everyone at the time of Celeste's death, the better the chance that we can find something to clear her name.”
“So, you think treating me like a suspect will help with that?” Rowan asked, his lip curled into a sneer.
“I am just trying to get an idea of what was happening during the murder,” Wendy replied with confidence. “If you really love Anne, as you claim you do, you will answer any question necessary to help her out of this situation.” Rowan stared at her for a long moment, and then finally nodded.
“I was looking for Anne,” Rowan replied with a sigh. “After my mother took off with the knife, I tried to comfort Anne, but she was inconsolable. Chris and I went to see if we could find our mother, but we got separated while we were looking through the hotel. I decided to go back to Anne to try to assure her that we could still have the wedding, but when I got back she was gone. So was Suzette. I thought maybe they were together. So, I went searching through the hotel for the two of them. I ran into the manager at the front desk. He said he hadn't seen Anne. By the time I headed back towards the banquet room, the police were already arriving. I didn't know what was going on,” he admitted. “If something I said or did can help Anne, then please, use it.”
Wendy shook her head slightly. “I'm not sure if it can but we will do our best, Rowan.”
“Thank you,” he said quietly. As Rowan walked across the lobby Brian scratched at his cheek slowly.
“It seems to me that we have a problem,” he sighed.
“What's that?” Wendy asked as she looked over at him.
“Well, we've been doing our best to prove Anne's innocence, but all we've managed to do is prove that just about everyone who knew or was related to Celeste is potentially guilty, which is a good thing,” he met Wendy's eyes. “But, I'm not so sure we're quickly going to be able to figure out who the actual killer is.”
“Don't say that,” Wendy said sternly. “You're an amazing investigator, Brian, and I'm, well, I'm just too stubborn to let this go. We're going to get to the bottom of it. I think the first thing we need to do is talk to Marcus. I want to get his opinion on whether the recording could have been tampered with.”
“Okay,” Brian agreed. They headed back to the security office. Marcus was sitting in his chair, studying the cameras in front of him.
“Hi again, Marcus,” Wendy said as she stepped inside the room.
“Oh hi,” Marcus said as he glanced up at her. Wendy noticed that the camera on the main monitor in front of Marcus was the camera that was recording the activities in the lobby. Wendy felt a little uneasy knowing that Marcus might have just been watching them.
“Can I pick your brain about something?” Wendy asked.
“Sure,” he nodded as he turned his brawny frame to look at her. “What is it?”
“I was wondering, is there any way to tamper with the footage once it's recorded?” she asked.
“I'm sorry, I wouldn't know anything about that,” Marcus replied quickly.
“So, you have no idea how to change the timestamp on a recording?” Brian asked as he stepped up behind Marcus' chair. “Not even if someone paid you quite a bit to do it?”
“Excuse me?” Marcus said sharply. “That would be illegal and immoral,” he turned and glared over his shoulder at Brian.
“I'm sorry, Marcus, we're not accusing you,” Wendy said quickly. “It's just that we noticed the time on the clock in the recording was different to the timestamp.”
“So?” Marcus shrugged. “The clock is probably broken.”
“It isn't,” Brian said sternly. “We checked.”
“Well,” Marcus frowned. “Why don't you check with Darren, he's in charge of maintenance for that wing of the hotel? Maybe he replaced the clock.”
“I'll go check with him now,” Wendy nodded.
“I'll stay here,” Brian said calmly. “I'd like to see that video one more time.”
“I don't know,” Marcus hesitated. “I really shouldn't be letting you see any of this.”
“Maybe not, but you already did,” Brian pointed out. “We're not trying to make any trouble for you, Marcus. We just want to help Anne.”
“Right,” Marcus nodded. “But just one more time.”
As Wendy walked out of the security office to find Darren, Marcus began playing the video again for Brian. Wendy headed for the lobby where the same clerk was still behind the desk.
“Can I speak with the manager?” Wendy asked.
“I'm sorry he's still dealing with the police,” the clerk replied. “Is there something I can help you with?”
“I hope so,” Wendy replied. “I'd like to speak to Darren, he's a maintenance worker.”
“Darren,” the woman repeated slowly. “There's no Darren that works in maintenance.”
“Are you sure?” Wendy asked with confusion. “Marcus from security just told me that I should speak with Darren from maintenance.”
“I'm sure,” the clerk replied with narrowed eyes. “I know everyone that works in maintenance and there is no Darren. Marcus is fairly new anyway, I'd doubt he even knows who works in maintenance.”
“Oh, I didn't realize he was new,” Wendy frowned. “Maybe he just got the name confused then. I'm just trying to find out if a clock in one of the hallways had been repaired or replaced.”
“Oh, I can check on that,” the clerk said. “We keep a record of all items that are in need of repair or replacement. It's a pretty big database, but I can search it by item.”
“Can you narrow it down by date, too?” Wendy asked. “This clock would have been replaced today between about one and this evening.”
“I doubt it,” the clerk said quietly. “Maintenance only works part time so they usually only work until midday, after that they only do emergency calls. Oh, here we go,” she shook her head slowly as she looked at the screen. “No repairs or replacements on clocks, not just today but not even in the whole week.”
“Thank you,” Wendy said with a slight frown.
Was it possible someone had replaced the clock without documenting it? Wendy coul
dn't think of a single reason why. As she walked back to the security office, her mind was working slowly through everything that Marcus had said. He seemed to be certain about the name Darren. He also hadn't mentioned anything about being new. She recalled his comment to her, about watching over her. Her stomach churned slightly. If the clock hadn't been replaced, the only explanation possible was that the video had definitely been tampered with. It looked like the only person who seemed to have had the opportunity to do that was Marcus. If no one had paid him to do it, why would he do it? What would he get out of making it look as if Suzette had killed Celeste? It didn’t make much sense to her.
Then all of a sudden the pieces slowly began to fit into place. Marcus tampered with the tapes for his own benefit. And the reason he would do that was if he was covering for someone else. Or if he was the murderer himself. He had access to the cameras. Which meant he could have altered them if he wanted to. The only reason she could think why he would want to, was to protect himself, or somebody else. He had delayed giving the tapes to the police, claiming there was a problem with retrieving them. He had plenty of time to tamper with the recording.
He probably lied about a Darren working in maintenance to get her and Brian out of the office. But Brian was still in the office. Her heartbeat quickened as she hastened her pace towards the security office. The only thing she couldn’t work out was who Marcus would protect and if he was protecting himself why would he want to murder Celeste.
By the time Wendy reached the door of the security room, her heart was pounding heavily. She took a deep breath before she opened the door, she wasn’t sure how she was going to get Marcus to admit the truth without putting herself and Brian in danger. Hopefully she wasn’t too late and Brian wasn’t already in danger.
Chapter Ten
When Wendy opened the door to the room she had horrible visions of finding Brian hurt and in trouble but she sighed with relief to find Brian and Marcus standing next to each other looking at the recordings. She immediately started doubting her theories. Maybe Marcus had nothing to do with the murder.
All of a sudden Marcus turned and pushed his full bodyweight towards Brian, Brian reached into his pocket to get his gun, but the full force from Marcus knocked the gun out of Brian’s hand and the wind out of Brian.
Before Wendy could react Marcus wrapped his beefy arm around Brian's neck and started squeezing. Brian's fingers started digging and swiping at Marcus' arm but to no avail. Wendy was in shock as she saw the flush in Brian's cheeks and realized that he was really struggling to breath. Marcus locked eyes with Wendy and growled.
“You shouldn't have come back here.”
His voice jolted Wendy out of the state of shock she had been lost in. She rummaged in her purse for a weapon. When her fingers struck the smooth surface of the cake-cutting knife she had tucked away there earlier, her heart skipped a beat. She whipped it out of her purse and lunged forward at Marcus and Brian. Never in her life had Wendy imagined that she would have cause to stab someone, but seeing Brian's body growing weaker in Marcus' grasp gave her the reason. She lodged the blade deep into the arm that was wrapped around Brian's neck. Marcus yelped and gasped at the same time resulting in a disturbing choking sound. He released Brian as he grimaced in pain. The blood flowing from the wound that Wendy had caused was beginning to drip on the floor.
“Brian, are you okay?” Wendy asked fearfully.
“My gun,” Brian managed to force his words out.
Wendy suddenly realized that she had made a grave mistake by leaving the knife wedged in Marcus' arm. He could easily pull it out and use it against them. Wendy looked around on the floor until she found the gun that Brian had lost in his struggle with Marcus. She snatched it up from the floor and handed it to Brian just as quickly. Brian pointed the weapon at Marcus.
“Don't move,” he warned the man.
Wendy could see a deep purple bruise already forming on Brian's neck. The sight of it was quite scary. She realized just how close she had come to losing him. She pulled out her phone to call for help. Marcus sat down hard on the floor. Tears were bubbling up and spilling over his thick, dark lashes, both from pain and from being caught.
“I wasn't going to kill you,” he stammered out. “I didn't mean to kill anybody.”
“Oh, you weren't going to kill me?” Brian shot back. “Because not being able to breathe usually leads to death.” Brian turned to Wendy. “When you walked in I had just asked him why there was a small skip in the video,” he explained. “And well, you saw what happened next,” he added with a hint of embarrassment.
“Sometimes, I just lose my temper,” Marcus admitted darkly.
“Is that what happened to Celeste?” Wendy asked. “It was you that changed the time on the security video. Did she say or do something to make you lose your temper?”
“I'm a nice guy, most of the time,” Marcus complained. He had his hand cupped around the knife that he was afraid to pull out of his arm. “But that woman was a terrible person. I saw the way she was treating everyone”
“So you killed her?” Brian asked with a hint of disbelief.
“The way she treated my sister pushed me over the edge.” Marcus admitted as he shook his head.
“Your sister?” Wendy questioned.
“She was just trying to run a business, and take care of her child, she didn't deserve to be treated like that!” he exclaimed. “I saw everything on the camera, and she was so upset when she told me about it. I just couldn't believe that a person could be so cruel.”
“Your sister?” Wendy repeated.
“Lisa,” Marcus explained.
Wendy’s eyes widened. “Lisa the florist?” she asked.
“Yes,” Marcus nodded. “She's the one that got me the job here. I felt like I owed her. So, I just went to talk to Celeste. I was just going to explain that my sister deserved the job and that she shouldn't treat people that way,” he said with sadness.
“What happened then?” Wendy coaxed him.
“She called me a loser, said I was worthless and so was my sister. I got angry,” he lowered his eyes. “I'm not proud of it, but I pushed that old woman, hard.”
“Don't you mean you stabbed her?” Brian interjected with a shake of his head.
“No, I didn't,” Marcus insisted. “At least, I didn't mean to. When I pushed her, she slipped on the plastic that the painters had left down. She lost her balance. She fell on her purse,” he murmured.
“The knife must have fallen out of her purse and wedged into her chest,” Wendy gasped as she realized that was why the murder weapon only had two sets of fingerprints.
“It did,” Marcus grimaced. “I turned her over, I thought maybe I could help her, but she was already gone. It wasn't really my fault though, was it?” he asked with fresh tears in his eyes. “I didn't mean to kill her. I didn't mean it.”
“But you did,” Wendy said with a frown.
“And you tried to kill me,” Brian reminded Marcus. “You have a lot to answer for.”
“Why did you try to frame Suzette?” Wendy asked. “Especially seeing as Anne had been arrested.”
“I didn’t have anything against the woman,” Marcus sighed. “After what happened I knew that I would be on camera. I couldn't just erase it, because that would leave the time of the murder wiped clean, and that would point right to me. So, I reviewed the tape from earlier, I saw Suzette going into the room. I just changed things around so that it looked as if she had gone into the room around the time Celeste was killed. I never even thought about the clock,” he grimaced.
“Marcus,” Wendy shook her head. “You killed a woman, and you nearly destroyed two lives after the fact.”
Marcus hung his head and gasped in pain. “I didn't mean any of it,” he mumbled. Brian stepped close to Wendy and grasped her hand gently. He met her eyes.
“It looks like Anne will be able to come home tonight after all.”
Wendy nodded. She felt some relief, but not en
tirely. Marcus, a man whose initial intention was to protect his sister, was going to be in jail for a long time. The wedding certainly couldn't go on after Celeste's death, at least not right away. There was a lot to be grateful for, with Anne's name cleared, but she just hoped that everything else would work out.
Wendy stepped aside as police officers arrived along with EMTs. Brian and Wendy were practically pushed out of the small room. Detective Dunn hurried down the hallway. She stopped short when she saw Wendy standing close to Brian.
“The reporter?” she asked with a furrowed brow. “You're the one who figured this out?”
“I'm not exactly a reporter,” Wendy replied softly.
“Then what are you?” Detective Dunn asked with confusion.
“I'm a wedding planner,” Wendy replied and rested her head lightly against Brian's shoulder.
“You must take your job very seriously,” Detective Dunn said with a small shake of her head. “I'll keep that in mind when I set a date.”
Wendy reached into her purse and handed Detective Dunn a business card. “Wendy the wedding planner at your service,” she said with an exhausted smile. “I have a feeling you're going to want to talk to me anyway.”
“I'll be in touch,” Detective Dunn nodded and continued on to the security office.
Once they were alone in the hallway again Brian pulled Wendy into his arms.
“Are you okay?” he asked her in a whisper.
“You're the one who was nearly choked to death, and you're asking me?” she sputtered out and avoided his eyes.
“You're the one who saved my life, and stabbed someone to do it,” Brian reminded her. He caught her chin lightly with his fingertips and turned her face back towards his. “I know that wasn't easy.”
“I didn't think it would bother me so much,” she whispered as she met his eyes.
“You did what you had to do, and I thank you for that,” he smiled slightly.
“I think you should get checked out,” Wendy said as she nodded towards the bruise across the front of his neck.