Chapter 5

The next to be interrogated was Nina, the maid, who looked too young to be a maid. As soon as she entered the room, the detectives noticed she looked conspicuously nervous, her knees were shaking as she walked towards the seat, then she kept rubbing her hands together anxiously.

"Don't be nervous, you shouldn't be if you haven't done anything wrong." said detective Ethan sympathetically.

"I didn't kill her sir, I barely even knew her!"

"So how long have you been working as a maid for Mr Andrew?" asked Detective James

"Excuse me sir, but I prefer to say helper or caterer, I'm not a maid. I'm not there to clean up, I just help out at the house." She said hesitantly "And I've been working there for only a few months, specifically since I graduated high school cause my family couldn't afford for me to go to college." She exhaled deeply "Speaking of my family, they don't know about my job, they think I work as a sitter for an old lady suffering from Alzheimer." She started blushing "They'd have never agreed to let me work at the house of a single man in his 30s, especially for late nights and parties."

"Understandable... So what happened at the party?" said James

"I haven't seen much of it since I was working in the kitchen, getting the food ready and preparing the dining room for dinner. Suddenly it was dark and I heard Andrew calling me to the living room, he asked me to get some candles till he fixes the light. I went back to the kitchen to look for them, but it was hard to find any in such an enormous and dark place. To be honest, I was kind of afraid because it was too dark." She hide her face "By the time I found the candles, the lights were already back on and I heard the guests screaming from the living room, so I rushed back in there and I saw her on the floor bleeding and everyone was surrounding her."

"Do you usually call your boss with his first name?"

"Andrew is kind enough to treat me as a friend, he allows me to use his first name."

"Did you see or hear anything strange or unusual during the party" detective Ethan asked

Nina was silent for a minute thinking whether or not she should say what she really wanted. She was afraid it would just put her as a person of interest in Sierra's murder?

"I absolutely need to tell somebody" she thought, but finally decided to keep her secret to herself for now or maybe tell Andrew, but definitely not the police. She started thinking about what else happened during the party when James interrupted her.

"You seem lost in thoughts. Any interesting memories from the party?"

"As I mentioned before, I didn't spend much time at the party itself, I was only there at the beginning serving drinks. I remember some of the guests, Miss Miranda, Mr Ricky, Mr Wesly and the officer, I think, were gathered around one of Andrew's decorative daggers, the same one which was later used as the murder weapon. I overheard them discussing the historical artifact." She was silent for a moment "I also remember seeing Mrs. Buckley grab Sierra's arm pulling her to a corner then she said in an angry tone 'you SERIOUSLY need to think this through'." She shoved her hair back away from her face "There was also the incident with Miss Lily... I went to give her a drink, like I did with all the other guests, but she was too distracted on the phone, I heard her fighting with someone then she accidentally dropped her drink on the floor, it splashed a little on her dress so she came back with me to the kitchen to get cleaned up." She sighed "She told me that she's just been dumped by her boyfriend, apparently they have been dating for a long time but he suddenly changed his mind and left... Anyway, soon enough she went back to the party and I stayed working at the kitchen."

"Thank you for your cooperation, that was very helpful, but who do you think did it then?" Ethan asked

"I thought about that a lot on my way here and I think it might have been Miss Eve cause she kind of disliked Sierra, so she seems like the obvious suspect to me. Also I suspect Mr Jackson... based on all the crime shows I've watched, it's always the boyfriend/husband."

In a couple of minutes, Nina left the room and the next guest was Miranda.

Miranda walked in the room confidently with a very cool attitude which seemed kind of inappropriate considering the current situation . She took a seat and started telling her story calmly even before any of the detectives asked her to.

"I can't believe this is happening, I feel like soon I'll just wake up and realize it was all just a bad dream and Sierra is still with us." She blew out her cheeks "I'm a psychologist by the way, I've been studying human traits for years, long enough to notice how awful human can be. I find it absurd when we call people animals as an insult, but the truth is animals are far more respectful and loyal than humans could ever be." For the detectives, Miranda seemed sort of a show off "Just a few hours ago, a man killed his friend, I still have no idea why, believe me I've been searching for a reason for hours, but I can't find one." She shook her head "I'm not even sure he did it, but I can only trust my eyes and....."

"Cut the chase please miss. Who are you talking about? What did you see?" Detective James said impatiently, interrupting her speech.

"The party started as any of our usual parties, we had a few drink, there was music and we were talking. Wes, Ricky, Officer Liam and I were discussing the ancient dagger. Ricky has always been an admirer of historical artifacts. So as a history teacher, he was lecturing us about the carvings on its handle."

She gave a bitter laigh "Anyways, Sierra saved us from another long lecture when she called for everyone's attention, but all of a sudden I turned around and Ricky was no longer there. After a couple of minutes I saw him, through the window, wandering in the garden outside just moments before the lights went off." Her voice broke a little "you see detectives, I'm not stupid, I just had to add one plus one. Ricky was outside and so was the fuse box, I don't think it was a coincidence especially since the murder weapon was the same dagger that fascinated him earlier."

"Have there ever been any conflicts between the two of them before?" asked Ethan

"Nothing serious I guessed; we're all really good friends. Sometimes they would poked fun at each other and they used to have small arguments every once in a while because of their debates" she gave a sad smile "Sierra doesn't like to lose."

"Did you notice anything else unusual during the party?" asked detective James

"I don't really know, I just was not in the mood to party. After a long week at work, I was just looking forward to spend a boring weekend at home, then I got invited to this last minute party. So I was really surprised to see Eve, like how did she even know about it?"

She blushed a little "None of us even like her and it was definitely mutual. Plus Andrew's breakup with her was really messy, so I never expected her to be there." She looked away shyly "In addition to the elephant in the room... Officer Liam. I don't trust him or maybe I just wanna believe that the murderer is not one of my friends whom I've known for years."

"You did the right thing by telling us about Ricky. If he was innocent, don't worry about him." Detective Ethan assured her and soon she left the room.

The next to come in for interrogation were the Buckleys, they were allowed together only because Kiera wasn't mentally stable enough at the moment to go through this alone. She was Sierra's closest friend and the moment she saw her lying on the floor drowning in her blood, she suffered from a breakdown and hasn't been okay since.

"Mr. and Mrs. Buckley, my condolences, I'm really sorry for your loss, please have a seat." He gestured towards the empty chairs "I know it's a sensitive topic especially that you didn't have enough time to heal, but you need to tell us everything you know, so we could catch who ever did this." Detective Ethan said

"My wife is unable to talk right now, but I'm gonna do my best to cooperate. What exactly do you wanna know sir?"

"I have a question that has been burning inside of me for a while now." Wes nodded for him to go on "Why did Sierra stay with you and your wife after selling her house? Why not at her boyfriend's?" detective James asked curiously.

"Well, for starters, Kiera was her best friend, but I've also heared that recently Sierra and Jackson have been having some trouble in the relationship. To be honest, I don't know much of the details because usually Kiera and Sierra talked about these things when I was at work."

"We also heard she was quite distant, in her last weeks in general" said Ethan

"Yes, she'd disappear a lot and a couple of time, Kiera and I caught her crying, but she always refused to tell us any details."

"As a doctor, what do you think of the murdet method, it looks professional, don't you think doctor?" asked detective James

"I haven't examined the body, and I don't work in forensic, so I don't know much."

"Do you remember anything suspicious happening at the party? detective Ethan asked

Kierra looked nervous, she was sweating and shaking from the moment she went into the room. However, after detevtive Ethan's question, everything went south. Her blinking sped up really fast and she started rubbing her hands together excessively while rocking back and forth.

"Honey, are you okay?" Wesly asked her; she shook her head, no, as tears filled up her eyes. He held her hands to reassure her, but they felt freezing cold.

"I'm trying to think sir of everything that happened... I remember Lily had an angry phone call. I think Jackson was acting weird, I guess his problems with Sierra really got to him." He scratched his head "Ah, I thought Eve was crazy to show up after everything that happened between her and Andrew."

"And what exactly happened between her and Andrew?" detective Ethan asked.

"I'm not sure, but I heard she hooked up with a director to cast her as a model in his next ad, she's been trying so hard to break into the business."

"So who do you think killed Sierra?" James asked.

"Wait there is something else that I've just remembered" He straightened up "When I was parking outside the station, I saw Nina getting out the taxi. She grabbed her bag to pay the driver, but something strange happened, she kept staring nervously inside her bag then she dropped it on the ground," he looked at Keira to check in on her "Nina instantly bent to collect her bag and left shook without even paying the driver, so I paid him instead."

Wes was silent for moments thinking, then he continued saying "It's really hard to answer your question, but if I have to choose someone, it's be Miranda, maybe I'm kind of surprised by her reaction to the whole situation especially that she used to be good friends with Sierra. However, there's no proof that she did it and, in her defence, people react to stress and sadness in different ways."

"There is a piece of information concerning you Mrs. Buckley that we received earlier, so we need to know your side of the story." Detective James paused then he resumed saying "someone mentioned seeing you argue with Sierra at the party just a while before she was killed."

Kiera was getting more nervous rubbing her hands faster and faster together and suddenly she stood up and started screaming. She then held her head and started moving across the room as she closed her eyes trying to forget. "Nooooo" "Nooooo" she screamed and finally was on her knees. Still screaming and shouting, she started hitting the ground with her fists. Her husband pulled out a syringe filled with a sedative drug from his pocket and injected it into her.

Evetually, Kiera calmed down and soon she slept in her husband's arms "I'm sorry detectives, we should continue this later, I need to take my wife to the hospital."

As soon as they left, James turned to Ethan saying "I'm aware he's a doctor and all, but how many doctors you know who just walk around with sedatives."

"I agree, it's unusual. Maybe that's even why no one heard Sierra scream... Someone drugged her before stabbing her!"