Case File #4 

(1st Crime)

Jeff closed the doors, Mr Humphrey called the police and everyone from the table was scared; some were crying, some were screaming, but all were shocked.

Sharna Knew that she had to solve this if she ever wants her private detective career to blossom.

"Come on Sharna, you have 15 minutes till the police arrives, so you better think and think fast!" she thought, but for a moment her mind went blank till Jeff came back asking what to do next.

She walked over to the table to get a closer look at the body and to get to know the suspects. She pulled a tissue package from her pocket and pulled out one to take a sample from the drink the man was just drinking "Jeff, a new clean plastic bag please"

"Is it cyanide?"

"No, cyanide doesn't work that way

She carefully examined each person and started talking trying to look them all in the eyes "There's no denying he's been poisoned, and there's no denying either that the murderer simply must be one of you"

There was a moment of silence then Sharna continued her speech looking at the woman who was seated next to the dead man "looks like you're his wife" The woman nodded with tears in her eyes "So can you please tell me all about that meeting?"

"It's not a meeting, it was a celebration" said one of the twin girls

"Yes, like Rita said, we were celebrating the 10th anniversary of our company. Steve, my husband, arranged for the whole thing and reserved the place"

"And would you kindly introduce me to everyone else Mrs...?

"It's Jessica" she wiped her tears "and those are my daughters Rita and Rose. These are my husband's partners Joe, William, Derek and Robert. Here's Robert's wife Eva and Derek's son 5 year old Leo. Melissa is William's girlfriend and Jack is Joe's son"

Jessica stopped talking, so Sharna turned to the 2 younger women seated next to each other "what about them?" she asked

"Tina and Clair, our 2 best secretaries" Derek said

"A while ago I noticed a woman leaving, who was she?"

"That must have been my wife, Eleanor" Derek said "she was a little tired"

"No mama was sad" said Leo

"And why was she upset little guy?"

"Daddy made her"

"This is outrageous young man!" he scolded Leo then turned to Sharna "You know kids and their imagination. I can assure you my wife was just tired"

"Why was Steve the one giving the speech?"

"Well, he was our boss" said Robert

"sort of" added William in a low tone as if correcting what his partner said

"I don't think you'd mind ladies if I search your bags"

Jessica, Melissa, Eva, Rose, Rita, Tina and Clair all handed her their bags.

Sharna kept looking through the bags for any evidence "what am I doing? Maybe Detective Howard was right, maybe I'm not ready for this" she thought.

As she looked through Eva's bag, she said "You have to excuse me ladies, if I find something that seems suspicious, I'll have to take it" then she grabbed a tablet of pills from the bag.

"It's medicinal" Eva said

"Well, sadly even medicine can be used in the wrong way"

She kept looking through the bags till she found 2 exactly matching cutters in Rose and Rita's exactly matching bags.

"Why do you girls carry these around?"questioned Sharna

"Daddy gave them to us" one of them said "for protection" the other added.

"And what was your father so afraid of? Did he ever mention someone threatening him?"

"My husband was a successful businessman, of course he had enemies" Jessica said

"Anyone specifically I should be aware of?"

"Other companies' owners, I guess"

"Jealousy is a bad bitch"

"Rosa! Watch you language"

"Daddy always said that" Rita defended her sister "He also said they pretend to love you, but they truly loathe you"

"Nice bag" said Sharna to Tina as she started searching her bag.

"It was a gift" Tina replied

"A very expensive one" from the look on Tina's eyes, Sharna knew that the gift was from someone at the table.

The last bag was Clair's, Sharna opened it and found a bottle of a dark red liquid, she opened it and realized it smelled like the wine glass of Steve, but in a concentrated way.

"Care to explain?" she turned to Clair

"I have no idea what the hell this is, you need to believe me"

"Well, I can't depend on my nose no matter how good it is, this needs to be tested first, but for now, it doesn't look any good for you"

Clair burst into tears saying "If I was a murderer, I wouldn't have been so stupid to leave the poison in my bag then give it willingly to you"

"Possibly" Sharna said "but not all murderers are professional ones"

Sharna started looking at each one of them to see their reactions then she continued saying "I know that none of you will want to speak in front of one another, but at least one of you might have known, seen or heard something that could be of great help," she stood up and started walking around "and I'm sure you wouldn't mind, so that you can clear your names"

They were all silent for a moment then Sharna asked Jeff to prepare a table on the other side of the room so that she can privately interrogate the the suspects.

"Jack, you've been quiet all night, haven't you" Sharna said and his face was red angry "but it seems though as if you want to say something"

He stood up from his seat "Clair didn't do it, I'm sure of it!" he shouted

"and what make you so sure?" Sharna moved closer to him

"Because,... because I know her well"

"Son!" Joe, his father, said aggressively

"Well, I think your son is old enough to speak for himself" Sharna said to Joe then turned to Jack again "Shall we go over there and talk for a bit?" 

He walked with her to the table Jeff set for her and as soon as they sat down Sharna said "So, how well do you know Clair?"

"Your suspicions are correct, I love her"

"I like your honesty, so tell me did anything particularly strange happen tonight?"

"Nothing more than the usual shit"

"And what's the usual shit"

"We're rich, but that doesn't mean we're living happily in sunny candy land"

"No one is" Sharna said sarcastically

"When I was in high school my friends and I fought a lot over this Science group work thing and in college we made the stupid mistake of choosing to work together again," he was silent for a couple if seconds "we never spoke again, so how do you imagine a partnership that big?"

"Any partners specifically?"

"From what I heard from my father, Derek is planning sort of an uprising in the company and William joined or should I say his wife ordered him to"

"What about your father? What does he think about that?"

"My father and Steve were strong as hell, so believe me or not he had nothing to do with this"

Jack left and next came Tina

"What's immunity?" she said as soon as she sat down

"Excuse me?"

"Let me rephrase, I may have some important info which may or may not show me as a guilty party in some other crime. Let's assume I tell all now and this might lead you to the real murderer, do I or do I not get immunity for what I say?"

"If you get a good lawyer you can"

"Expect then some paper work from me very soon"

"Why don't you talk now?" Sharna raised an eyebrow

"I need to be sure of what you said earlier and I needn't get myself killed either"

"Good points. So, how will you contact me?"

"You'll give me your number and I'll give you my word, but you have to understand that I need to protect myself first"

"Understandable"

She left and then came Clair still red eyed from crying. It was undeniable her beauty. She has a round face with simple featured, pink cheeks, wide brown eyes and short thick wavy dark brown hair.

Clair wasn't rich as from her clothes; she had a small hole in her blazer near the right shoulder, but she had remarkable collar bones.

As she approached the table, she sat down shaking.

"Jack has a good taste" Sharna thought

"I know right now I seem guilty" said Clair "but please don't be biased because of that"

"I'm not. All I want is the truth"

"I truly have no idea who might have done it, but I believe Jessica's words might have been right"

"Which words exactly"

"The part about competitors. Steve was very successful and enemies always come along with success. One of our biggest competitors is J.J. French LTD"

Sharna noted that down, all through, she's been taking notes, she really needed to solve this.

"But you see, the murderer has to be someone who's been here"

"Money can buy everything, maybe someone paid the bartender who poured us our drinks"

"Jeff you mean?"

"Maybe, or the other one who left just before you arrived"

"Speaking of people leaving, why do you think Derek's wife, Eleanor, really left?"

"All I know is, Derek is not a really good man"

"What do you mean by that?"

"William and Derek haven't been so pleased with Steve's decision-making lately, they mostly disagreed over any issue, but 3 always won over 2"

"That's what I heard from Jack too" Clair broke her eye contact and started looking down "did you ever talk to Jack about that?"

"Maybe, but I don't remember any specifics"

"Jack admitted his love for you a few minutes back"

"He's a foolish boy"

"But what do you think of him?"

"he's kind, but stupid"

"How long have you been working with Steve?"

"5 and a half years next month"

"That's a lot, you must know so much as well"

Sharna noticed Jeff standing from a small distance listening to them

"Yes, of course I do. He trusted me and I never let him down"

"But did he? Let you down I mean. What did you think of him?"

She though for a moment before speaking "smart and he knew how to run a successful company"

"Do you think Tina might have had a secret relationship with him?"

"What?" she looked weary "I never thought about that before, but I won't be surprised. He was after all a man and they always want more" she looked a bit angry

"Did he ever flirt with you or anything of that sort?"

"Nothing more than some flirting"

"and did Jack know about that?"

"Jack wouldn't kill, so don't try to pin it on him"

Clair left and Sharna asked Jeff to bring Jessica next, but before she could start interrogating her, the door opened and two men in coats and holding umbrellas came in dripping from the rain, their coats had on the police badges and when they closed their umbrellas it was no one other than Detective Howard Young and Officer Caleb.

"Shannon, what the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm doing my job detective"

"I remember specifically firing you a while back"

"You didn't fire me, I quit and I'm a private detective now if you don't already know"

"A bad one in deed"

Sharna was angry and sadly Jessica was there during this conversation "So you've been interrogating us for no reason. Do you really take my husband's life that carelessly" she said

"I was trying my best here to know who killed your husband and I will"

"I can't choose whether this is more ambitious or stupid, you have zero experience"

"Why do you hate me so much detective?"

"You know why. Now leave, give me you badge that you should've already submitted and anything you have seized earlier"

She walked to the counter where she left the wine glass, the poison, the pills and the cutters, but she carefully took a sample of the poison the same way as she took a sample earlier from the wine glass, and also she took one of the pills then grabbed her badge out and left it there. She put the samples in her bag then walked closer to the detectives.

"Over there detective, the badge and everything" Sharna walked then to the door but before she got out, she turned to him "but you're gonna need me, because I was there during the murder time"

"I know you didn't do it" he laughed

"but I know some stuff and I'll prove you wrong this time"

Sharna didn't beat the clock, but she had enough information to help her figure out and puzzle all the clues together.

"I wonder what Tina knows, I just hope she doesn't take back her word after what happened with Young"

Sharna walked back to Emily's forgetting all about what happened earlier, pumped to solve this and finally get back on her track.

"I need to, more that I just want to anymore" She thought.

Thanks for everyone who's been reading, voting and commenting, it means a lot :) and thanks for helping me reach 100 in just 4 days!

I added a diagram above to simplify the relations between people, hope it helps :-)