"By the time Darius McGallowgat's body was found, the killer would have been long gone." Senior Detective Carter Burnes looked down at the lifeless shape on the couch. His skin was the colour of the bottle of wine on the table next to him. Burnes had been on the scene for a good hour, and was now caught up with the known details of what had occurred.

The Detective gestured towards Darius. "By the colour of his skin alone, our best guess is cyanide poisoning. We believe his death may have been the result of pulmonary edema, and possible cardiac arrest, but lab results have yet to be obtained. As of right now, nothing is certain."

Darius had been a very influential businessman, a direct competitor of up and coming company Astwell's. He was well known in the media worldwide for his recent investment in a brand-new type of Virtual Reality.

It was, notably, technology of great interest to Astwell's. But would they go far enough to bring about a man's death? Burnes turned back to his partner; a petite, inquisitive young Detective. He had worked alongside Burnes for a number of years.

"Where could he have gotten the poison?" Detective Gareth Masters had arrived only a few minutes prior. He found this whole case rather exciting. He wasn't sure how sensible it was to rule this as a suicide, but with so little currently known for sure he doubted that was something off the table altogether.

Carter folded his arms. "He may not have been the one to have been in possession of the cyanide at all. This could be a murder."

He watched as a forensic scientist picked up the uncorked bottle on the table and placed it in a bag. Of course, as of just now, its contents were the primary murder weapon.

There were no traces of forced entry, or even of a struggle. These both hinted towards a killer who was already in the apartment.

It was a modest apartment, with three rooms altogether. The rooms had been rented for five nights, and Darius had been there for three.

He was no stranger to partying, and had been criticised for bringing women back to his lodgings and having them leave at some point the next day.

If it weren't for the redness of the man's skin, Burnes would already have labelled this as a death by cardiac arrest.

But, this early on, with things so very uncertain, he wasn't at liberty to rule anything out yet.

"Come with me, Masters." There was a witness to question across the hall; Ms Sandra Coles, fellow businesswoman of rival company Astwell's.

She had made herself known to the first police on the scene a few hours ago, and had expressed her willingness to help as much as she could.

That alone didn't sit very well with Burnes, but for now, she was just a witness: not a suspect.

Upon leaving the room, Burnes removed his protective suit and Masters did the same.

Burnes had been in this job for nearly thirty years. In that time, he'd seen his share of cases similar to this one. Granted, the situation was never exactly the same, but he was going through the motions by this point. Witness interviews were standard procedure.

Masters had only been in the Detective field for two, three years maybe. He had nowhere near the amount of experience that Burnes did.

"I'll ask the questions, you can take notes, alright?" Burnes asked. Gareth nodded, pulling a small notepad and pen from the vest pocket of his shirt. The Senior Detective chapped thrice on the door.

Less than a minute later, a woman wearing a light blue blouse with the top button undone swung the door open. Her hair was shoulder length and dyed a deep red. "Ah yes, Detectives! I was told to expect your visit." The woman regarded them grimly. Her eyes seemed to be focused behind Burnes, rather than on him.

"You are Ms Sandra Coles?" She nodded. "I am Detective Carter Burnes..." he nodded sideways at Gareth, "...and this is Detective Gareth Masters. I was wondering if we could ask you a few questions regarding the incident across the hall. To which you are a witness?" Carter explained slowly.

"Of course. Come in, come in. I am more than happy to tell you anything that may help. Oh, what a tragedy this all is. That poor, poor man." She stepped away from the door with a hand on her heart. Her nails were painted a pristine white.

Burnes closed the door behind him. He gestured to the couch, almost identical to the one across the hall. In fact, the entire room was pretty much the same, aside from the three rectangular paintings on the left wall. "Thank you for agreeing to help." He replied, seating himself on the opposite end of the couch from her.

Gareth stayed standing a few feet away. He had his notepad open now, and was scribbling already.

Burnes took a breath. "Who is staying here with you, Ms Coles?"

"No one at all; it's just me. I've been staying here for two days now. If I end up staying for a couple of days longer, my sister might come up to see the room. She's always said she'd like to stay in a hotel in Cardiff! I've never been to Wales before, you see, and neither has she. It's a marvellous, truly marvellous, country." The woman replied slowly, overly eager to give as much detail as she could.

Burnes resisted the urge to grimace. He had sat through a few interviews like this before. They tended to last a while. He shared a glance with Gareth. "I see. Did you know Mr McGallogat at all?"

"Yes. We are both International Trading Consultants, and we have been at a few of the same meetings. I've spoken with him a few times; he was always polite, charming even."

"At the last meeting..." Ms Coles brought the tips of her fingers to her lips, looking off to the side as she recalled the event. "...he sat across the room from me. We didn't talk that time, but we did exchange a smile or two. He and I are – were – competitors, but there was never any bad blood between us. We would never act anything less than polite around the other, either." She spoke with the same slowness this time too, and the same rush of information.

Throughout Ms Coles' speech, Burnes had noted that Gareth was writing on the pad. He was glad the other Detective had been able to pick details out of all of that.

Carter nodded in understanding. He kept his expression tactfully curious. "Why are you in Cardiff, Ms Coles?"

"Business. As I said, I'm an International Trade Consultant. This week, there is a conference that concerns both Darius and I. It was critical that we both came here in order to be kept up to date on the most recent affairs of both of our companies."

"You see, Astwell's is very teamwork orientated, and this conference would make sure we maintained our connection with Darius' company. It is an opportunity to...compare recent trade deals. It's difficult to explain if you aren't in the business." She rubbed her thumb and forefinger together thoughtfully. Her styled nails scratched against each other. Sandra didn't appear to notice.

Burnes looked at Masters, to see if he'd got all of that down. Gareth responded with a slight nod to tell Burnes he was good to go.

The Detective turned back to his witness. "Did you and Mr McGallogat arrive together?"

"No; our companies provided individual transport to this wonderful hotel. We met at the conference hall on the first day. Everyone who is here for the conference is in this hotel however, most are even on this floor. I think Jane is just three doors down; I'm supposed to be meeting her for lunch in a few hours." Sandra turned her wrist to look at a small, square-faced Rolex watch. It was silver, with a slim strap encrusted with white gemstones.

"Alright. Where were you yesterday between the hours of 9pm and 2am?" This was a more crucial question, now that Carter had the basic details down.

"Well, I had gone out for dinner with my colleagues, including Jane, at half past six o'clock. We had reservations at this wonderful Italian place my cousin Ally is always yapping on about: Gusto D'Italia. Gorgeous building, with the most delightful carbonara you will ever taste. Truly, I can't imagine why they don't have one back in Edinburgh."

She took a breath and swallowed. Carter imagined she was remembering what the carbonara had tasted like. He had half a mind to ask her to move on, but before he could speak a word, she continued her story once again.

"The desserts were equally as marvellous, and the wine! Oh, I can't recall the brand exactly, but it was utterly spectacular. We discussed all sorts, from Jane's recent surgery – her hip has been bad for a while, and she's only just got a new one – to Pauline's pregnancy. At her age, I'm surprised she can even get pregnant, but each to their own, I suppose. And then there was her man Roger, and his back issues. He's a poor soul, her Roger. It's a pity- "

Carter chose then to interject. "Sorry to interrupt you, Ms Coles, but could you move on to when you got back to the hotel? What time was that?"

"Oh yes, sorry, I have a bit of a habit of going off track. I'll try and keep only to the important details." Carter smiled at her in a way he hoped was encouraging. Hopefully, this interview would be more on track now.

"When did I get back? Oh! Around ten to eleven yesterday evening, yes. We left the restaurant and took a taxi to just outside the hotel foyer. There was a fight when we pulled up, between three men. They were making an awful ruckus. Pauline split them up; she is very good with that kind of thing. We all stayed in the taxi cab until they were gone. Just in case, you know? Pauline was the least intoxicated of us all."

"After that was all dealt with, we left the taxi. We walked past a woman on our way into the hotel. It was dark, so I couldn't see much of what she looked like, but she was a bit taller than me, and she had a gorgeous handbag. It was one of those fancy brand ones. You know the kind? With the..." she waved her hand dismissively, "...extravagant gold text along the side. Michael Kor, mayhaps? That sort of expensive style."

"I came straight up to my room after leaving the taxi cab. Only Jane got off at this floor with me. We said goodbye to Pauline and Jackie on the...tenth floor? Maybe the eleventh? And then we arrived up here."

"I came straight to my door. I remember noticing something strange..." Carter saw Gareth perk up out of the corner of his eye. This could be some especially crucial information.

"Darius always plays classical music late at night. It's not usually very loud, but I've heard it every day so far, and I remember him mentioning the last time we talked that he likes how it sounds and often listens to it before he goes to sleep. I think it's Beethoven he tends to play. I'm partial to it sometimes too."

"Anyway, I thought that was strange at the time, but it's hardly something I'd consider checking. For all I knew, he'd simply retired to bed early." She finished her story and took a deep breath.

Burnes couldn't say he wasn't disappointed that she hadn't witnessed more than that, but it did give him a more concrete idea of when the incident had occurred.

"That's great, Mrs Coles. I have just a few more questions, and then we'll be on our way." Carter had a suspicion this would go on for a while.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Around two hours later, Detectives Carter Burnes and Gareth Masters emerged from the hotel room of Sandra Coles. Ms Coles left with them, walking down the hallway towards the elevators. She turned around once she was a few feet away and glanced over at the now closed door of Darius' room.

"Good luck, Detective. I hope I was of some help." And then she was gone down the corridor.