Chapter 4

Meanwhile, detective James along with his new partner, detective Ethan who was the lead detective on the case started the investigation at the crime scene.

"Seems like you brought some of the city excitement with you James, we haven't had a murder in Suncity in eons, but it's an opportunity for you to prove yourself here, that's why I chose you to be my partner for this case."

Detective Ethan was a highly respectable man along the force; he was one of the oldest both in age and work experience. In addition, he was the town Sherrif.

"Thank you, sir. I won't let you down. We'll most certainly catch this murderer."

"That's the spirit. So officer Liam, one of our own, was a guest at the party in which Sierra was killed," he scratched his beard "actually he was her plus one. We're meeting him first then imterview the suspects individually."

"No offense sir, but isn't he considered one of the suspects?"

"Unlikely. He's a policeman if he wanted to kill, he would have been more clever."

"Maybe"

Officer Liam approached them, introducing himself to James then he started telling his side of the story. "I met Sierra not really long ago, she reached out to me saying she needed my help cause she knew about a murderer, but she didn't have enough proof at the time. Two days before the party, she called me and told me she finally had proof, but she couldn't tell me over the phone, so she invited me to the party and said she would reveal everything there."

"So she never mentioned a name to you?" asked detective Ethan

"No, she died before she had the chance to. The party started with nothing unusual. Andrew, the house owner, said a brief friendship speech to which we all drank, music was playing, people were talking, more drinking and dancing." He paused "Then out of nowhere Sierra asked for everyone's attention and started talking, I think she said a quote about changing your life when suddenly the lights went off" He scratched his head "A few seconds later, we heard the sound of something dropping, but I just assumed that someone accidentally hit something while walking in this complete darkness." As Liam told the story, detective James kept writing down points to help them latet. "Andrew and Jackson went outside to check the fuse box but when the lights were back on, we saw Sierra on the ground bleeding with a dagger in her neck. I believe it was one of the decorative dagger from the room, cause I noticed it there before."

"So no one heard a scream?"

"No sir."

"We need to head to the station to start the interrogations," said detective Ethan "Liam please inform the guests that they must meet us there." Liam nodded "How many are they exactly?"

"Well, Andrew is the house owner, there was Nina, the maid, Sierra's boyfriend Jackson, a married couple who were close friends with the victim, Wesly and Kiera Buckley. There were also three other women Eve, Miranda and Lily and a guy named Ricky and also me, so that's 10."

"Why did Sierra throw that part at Andrew's not her own house?" Detective James wondered

"I heard she recently sold her house and she's been staying at the Buckley's."

"We need to get going James." Said detective Ethan then turned towards Liam "Make sure everyone meets us at the station".

On their way, the two detectives started discussing the case. "There are things that we need to get straight here. There is no way the murderer had time to switch off the light from the outside then go back to the house to kill Sierra, so at least we have 2 murderers." said detective Ethan

"I agree," said James then he paused for a moment thinking and checking his notes "but there are things that just don't add up to me; like how nobody heard a scream. Plus the fact that she sold her house less than a month ago, I think that might have been related to her death."

"We'll check her bank accounts to see if the house cash is still there and if not we need to know where did that huge amount money go exactly. I also find it odd that nobody heard her scream, but I think that's something the autopsy report should explain."

A few moments later, they reached the station and went directly to detective Ethan's office "We have 10 suspects and we already talked to one of them, so 9 are left." He sighed "There is also something you need to know James, Liam is my son that's why I didn't want to consider him a suspect, but you're right every single person who was in that party must be considered a suspect," he assured him "for justice's sake."

Detective James was starting to feel guilty because of detective Ethan's honesty with him even though he still haven't told him about either the different name issue nor the notebook. "He won't believe me anyway, Maria's memory is not enough proof and even if she's right, I don't wanna put her in a dangerous situation." He still blamed himself for his wife and daughter's deaths. "Am I being selfish? I think part of me wants to keep the notebook as a secret if it does have some useful evidence I defimitely want to catch the murderer and to prove myself as a detective again... after what happened." Detective James thought.

"James, are you still here?" detective Ethan waved at him

"My apologies sir, I was just thinking about the case."

"I was just saying that out first suspect Andrew is waiting outside."

"Let's begin then" detective James added and took a sip from his coffee.

Andrew entered the room with a confusing expression on his face, it was hard to determine whether he was angry or miserable, after all he used to be a close friend to Sierra.

"Please take a seat." said Ethan and he did "So, you're the house owner..." Andrew nodded "Tell us exactly what happened."

"Sierra and I are... were really good friends" he let out a long breath "that's why she asked me to throw that party since she currently doesn't have her own place, where we used to throw parties every now and then. The party started normally, there was nothing unusual until Sierra said she had something important to say. Seconds after she started talking, the lights went off, so I went to the fuse box to fix it and Jackson came along to help me out; he's really good with electric stuff, I remember he once fixed my TV. Anyways, the fuse box was broken by an axe since the only key to the box was in the basement closet, and no one knew that other than me. That's when wr realized that the circuit was switched off, so we flipped the switches and soon after we heard screams from inside." He buried his face in his palms "When we went back inside, she was already dead."

Andrew's eyes were tearing a little despite trying to hide it.

"We're really sorry for your loss, but if you really cared about her, you need to be honeat with us. Any detail could help us figure out who did it, so do you remember anything especially sceptical happening during, before or after the party?" asked James

"Liam as her plus one was certainly a surprise for me, she never mentioned him before. Plus she didn't really like the company of policemen, no offence, but other than that, I don't think anything suspicious happened."

"Since you and Sierra were CLOSE, have you ever noticed anything different about her in the last period? Maybe any conflicts with someone, especially any of the guests?" Detective Ethan said attempting to figure out Andrew who felt like he's still not telling the whole truth.

"I don't think Sierra was the kind of person to start a fight especially with someone from that group of people, she used to always say she considered us her real family, except for Eve of course, but she was never really a part of the group... not even when we used to date."

"So you and Eve are no longer together?" Asked Ethan and Andrew nodded "May I ask why? Was she jealous of Sierra? And how close the two of you used to be?"

"That's the second time detective you specifically focus on the word close and I'm not stupid, I understand what you're trying to imply. Sierra and I used to be really close friends, that's it and she had no role in why I broke up with Eve."

Detective James was focusing on taking notes then he raised his face from his notes looking towards Andrew "So you left out a question." He pointed with his pen "Did you notice any changes with Sierra recenty? Was she acting different in any way?"

"The thing is... I don't have an exact proper answer for that. All I know is the almost 2 months ago, she disappeared for 2 weeks without any prior warning which is very unlike her. She used to travel a lot in general, however she would always tell us about it, but not this time... and even when she came back, she said nothing about it and acted all normal, but I knew her enough to know that she wasn't telling the truth." He clenched his fists "I should have known something was wrong, Sierra used to be the life of the party, always hyper and energetic then all of a sudden she was all quiet, always lost in thoughts and she would disappear for days." He looked down "For a while, I couldn't see her anymore, she kept saying she was busy and one day unexpectedly I learned that she sold her house without telling anyone about it either... I guess the answer to your question, detective, is that she became extra secretive all of a sudden."

Andrew paused for a while, he sighed as he forced himself to remember things that he was trying to forget... "One day, last week, she called me at 2 am and said she wanted to meet up, she sounded really happy and I was proved right as soon as I saw her. I noticed she was smiling for the first time in a long time and she said" he laughed a little sarcastically "better days are coming, soon everything will be alright." he burst into laughter which confused both Ethan and James.

"Don't look at me like that, I'm not crazy." He wiped a tear "It's just that, she's dead and nothing is alright as she said."

"So who do you think did it?"

"I don't really know, it's hard to think that any of my friends is capable of killing someone. So is that it? can I leave now detectives?"

"No, wait, one more question. After the lights went off, did you hear her scream?"

Andrew turned to detective James answering "No, I heard nothing until the lights were back on. The killer must have been professional to kill her that fast or at least planned the whole crime carefully, she didn't even get to scream." He was silent for a moment thinking "Maybe you should ask the other about this because as I said before I immediately went outside to fix the light so maybe she did scream, but I couldn't hear her."

"Ok, we're done here for now, but you should know that we might need to call you in again later if we learned something new"

"Sure"

Andrew left the room and as soon as the door closed Ethan asked James what he thought "I believe he knows more than he's letting on."

"Yeah, me too"