This is the eighth part in a series, so if you have not already done so, you might want to read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, and Part VII before continuing.
Detective Knott made her way back to the crime scene. From the pool of blood where Harper’s body had been found, she made her way down towards the aisle.
Harper had been waiting behind some bushes to make her way down the aisle, but the path leading from the crime scene to the aisle was long and winding, surrounded by trees and bushes on both sides. The idea was to make people believe they were in the wilderness, instead of the inner city, and it worked. As soon as you turned a corner, you became invisible to anyone else on the path who was not right in front of or behind you.
Knott walked up and down the path a few different times. First, she got the lay of the land to see if what she was thinking was feasible.
Then she walked slowly, as though walking towards the aisle to music, once again looking around her to get an idea of what was and was not visible from each point along the path.
After her third walk through, Officer Bates said, “What are you thinking?”
Knott wasn’t ready to voice her theory yet. She had found that once you articulated your theory out loud to another person, it tended to take on a life of its own, so she kept her thoughts to herself. Instead, she said, “Who walked Liz down the aisle?”
Officer Bates flipped through the pages of his notebook before finding the answer. “That would be Chad. The best man.”
“Right,” Knott said, realizing she should have known that. Still, it didn’t hurt to check these things, especially with more people having nontraditional weddings these days. “I need to talk to him anyway.”
“What do you mean, ‘anyway’?”
Bates could tell Knott had a theory, but she wasn’t about to let on. Without answering him, she marched back to the huddle of groomsmen who had made their way back to the would-be groom after she had finished interviewing him.
Chad was easy to spot, but not so easy to get to stealthily. He had resumed his place by his brother’s side, which meant Knott had to work her way past all the other groomsmen to get to him. And she couldn’t pull him away without letting everyone see what she was doing.
Reminding herself she needed to talk to everyone, had already spoken to the groom and two of the other groomsmen, she reminded herself to act casual as she asked Chad if she could ask him a few questions.
He didn’t hesitate to get up and follow her to a secluded spot. Of course he didn’t suspect anything.
To be continued…