This is the fifth part in a series, so if you have not already done so, you might want to read Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV before continuing.
“Next up is the groom,” said Detective Knott. “Where did he go?”
Officer Bates pointed to a man with dark hair who was sitting on one of the chairs in front of the raised dais where the ceremony was supposed to have taken place. Some of the groomsmen were standing helplessly around him. One of them was sitting next to the groom with an arm around his shoulders.
The groom wasn’t actively sobbing, but tears were running down his face in a continuous stream. He made an effort to clean himself up when he saw Knott approaching.
Knott sat down next to him and offered the usual, useless condolences. Then she looked around at the groomsmen and said, “I’m sorry, guys, but I need to speak to Mr. Jones alone.”
They all nodded and ambled off, the man sitting next to him giving him one last pat on the shoulder before leaving.
“I need to know what Harper’s mood was like leading up to the wedding. Any cold feet?”
“No. None. She was the one pressuring me to get married.”
“You didn’t want to get married?”
He rolled his head back and to the side in the manner of someone who has just had his words twisted into something he didn’t mean to say. “It’s not that I didn’t want to get married. But I didn’t even have a real job until a few years ago. I wanted to be more financially secure before getting married.”
“That makes sense.”
“I thought about proposing when we moved in together, but then COVID happened, and I wasn’t even sure I was going to have a job for much longer, so I decided to wait and see. A couple more years, and she said she couldn’t wait and see anymore.”
“But you did want to get married.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“So she was excited leading up to the wedding?”
“Yeah. Stressed, but also really excited.”
“Stressed?”
“Yeah, just with all the planning. We were sure something was going to go wrong, we just didn’t know what.” He huffed a mirthless laugh. “This certainly wasn’t on our list of things that could go wrong.” Then he tilted his head. “Although…”
Knott waited for him to finish his thought, but then he appeared to shake it off. “Although what?”
“Something my sister said last night at the rehearsal dinner. She said it didn’t matter if anything went wrong as long as we both showed up. At the time I thought she was trying to be comforting, but after all this it seems kind of ominous.”
“Did she think you or Harper wouldn’t show up today?”
“I didn’t think so. She asked if we thought either of us wouldn’t show up, and we both said no. No hesitation. Of course we’ll both be there.”
“How would you classify Anita’s relationship with Harper?”
He huffed another mirthless laugh. “It was rough at first, but eventually Anita came around. She even threw Harper’s bridal shower. Worked her ass off.”
“So you would qualify their relationship as good?”
“Good enough, yeah.”
“I thought it was weird Anita wasn’t included in the wedding party.”
He ran a hand through his hair as he said, “Yeah, they’ve gotten better, but … they’re just very different people.”
“Do you think your sister had any reason to harm Harper?”
“No. Of course not.”
“Can you think of anyone who would have had any reason to harm her?”
“No. Everyone loved her. She’s always been the nicest person. I always thought I was so lucky because…” He broke down into sobs, covering his face with his hands and Knott decided that put an end to this particular interview.
To be continued…