Dedicated to the person that made this cover and inspired this story!

"I'm glad you're all here. Now, let me cut to the chase, all of you had a reason to kill Bianca."

"That's preposterous!", a well-dressed businessman answered in response as he typed angrily away on his Blackberry.

It was a sight to behold when the father of the aforementioned victim paid more attention to what his screen held than the fact that he was being accused of killing his daughter.

Looking out at the crowd, Detective Erik Howell scratched his head, wondering what on earth he had done to earn this  captive audience.

Before him lay a Welsh businessman, a black chemist, an Australian warehouse worker, an Indian college girl, and a British taxidermist, all seated at a table in front of him in this dimly lit room. They all stared at him as if he had grown horns in the last minute.

All from different backgrounds and races, the only thing these people had in common was a motive for the most heinous crime of all.

Murder.

 Thunder rumbled above them as a massive storm system surged on through the dismal night. The true reason they were stranded in this mansion became apparent as, one by one, the bulbs faded into nothingness and a man's voice cried out in terror.

Once the lights came back on, the group eyed each other warily, checked their possessions and breathed a sigh of relief until the Indian college girl waved her hand around, sporting a bracelet with the name Angela, screeched out, "He touched me!"

"No, I did not!" the taxidermist dressed in flannels hissed.

"Woah! Break it up, you two," Erik begged.

Taking a deep breath, the detective continued with, "However, the reason I brought you all here isn't to interrogate you all..."

He was interrupted when one of the suspects in question voiced her opinion out loud, and said, "Which you've already done."

"I want to know why you think I did it! Like I was just her roommate, we barely interacted at all," the college girl oddly dressed for the weather in a tank top and sweatpants declared.

"Wouldn't it be just peachy if she did it and gets away with it cuz of her rich parents?", the middle-aged British man complained to the person beside him.

"A girl died, man," the Australian ginger replied back.

The detective rummaged through his hair yet again and then shocked them to the core with his next statement.

"Bianca's murderer is indeed among us tonight."

"Why would you let us be here with him then?!", the college girl screamed as she inched away from the people surrounding her and ran for the door.

As a chorus of voices rang out, Det. Erik yelled, "QUIET ALL OF YOU!"

The strangers turned to face him as he whispered, "I will bring down the killer down to the station as..."

His night had turned from bad to terrible in a manner of seconds.

If he had known gathering the suspects and revealing the perpetrator was this hard, he would have done at the police station, but no, they all wanted to avoid the police station unless they were charged...

Rubbing his eyes, he grimaced. So far this case had wrought havoc on his personal life and destroyed his sleep schedule.

However, that was to be expected when your dad was one of the main suspects.

Did he forget to mention that one tidbit of knowledge? These people were close associates or family of the late Bianca, his high school sweetheart and former ex-girlfriend.

Were there still exes in death or did it not matter anymore once you had kicked the bucket?, Det Howell pondered.

Now that he was finally at his wits-end, he figured it was time to reveal who it was and get it over with, but something out of the corner of his eye stopped him.

Dressed in a bohemian-style dress with high-platform shoes, the chemist rose and headed towards the exit, making a beeline for the front door as if she had no qualm about her stepdaughter's death.

"Where are you going, Mrs. Griffiths? Is your daughter's death not a riveting topic of conversation?", Erik asked, already knowing what the answer might be.

She paused and said, "She wasn't my daughter. As my husband might have said before in interrogation, I am only her stepmother. Nothing more, nothing less."

At that, the businessman stood up, and purred, "Honey...we talked about this..."

Turning around, she looked right into his eyes and countered, "Yes, we did talk about this. We argued and you said a lot of things that made you feel better and made me feel worse, but once I walk out of here, we're through."

"I did not want this meeting to end up being a therapy session, but if you don't answer my questions, we'll have to do this the old-fashioned way," Erik said.

Before Gloria walked through the door, he asked her one last question that caused her to go back to her seat.

"Then how come you wanted her dead?"