This is the second part in a series, so if you have not already done so, you might want to read Part I before continuing.
“What happened?” Tristan asked coming up behind her.
Nancy was speechless. All she could do was look at Tristan as though he might have an explanation.
His jaw dropped when he looked over her shoulder at the grisly scene. “Oh my God.”
“How could this happen?” said Nancy.
It was Tristan’s turn to be speechless. All he could do was shake his head.
Seeing him go blank brought Nancy back to her senses. She looked around to see if anyone was on their phone, and when she didn’t see any phones to ears she called out, “Has anyone called 911?”
No one answered. A few people looked at her as if they didn’t understand the question.
Nancy took that to mean, “No,” so she pulled out her phone and dialed.
As she talked to the 911 operator she turned her back on the awful scene. The father of the groom had pulled his daughter away from the bride — Nancy couldn’t quite bring herself to think of it as the corpse, even though that’s clearly what it was. She sobbed into his arms, making way for her brother and the bride’s parents to surround the body and try to assure themselves there was some life left.
Nancy couldn’t bear to watch their grief. Out of a combination of not wanting to see their grief and wanting to assure herself of the safety of her own children, she pulled them both close.
Her daughter was visibly shaken and starting to cry. It occurred to Nancy that her daughter might have been the last one to see the bride alive, and that thought was too horrible to face.
Instead, she focused on her conversation with the 911 operator. Once she had conveyed all the information, she looked to Tristan for help. She just wasn’t sure what she needed help with.
He was still staring in horror, trying to make sense of the awful scene. Nancy realized she needed to figure out what she needed help with before she could call on him.
Looking around, she realized what was supposed to be a celebration of love and two beautiful people starting their life together had turned into a crime scene. That meant they needed to preserve the evidence until the cops arrived and took over.
She couldn’t bear to tear the bride’s parents away, and so far everyone else was hanging back. One thing she could do was create a perimeter around the bride so no one else interfered with the evidence.
“Tristan,” she said, laying a hand on his shoulder. “Tristan, we need to keep everyone away from her. Can you help me with that?”
“What?”
Nancy had to swallow hard before she could repeat herself. “This is a crime scene now. That means we need to keep people away from the … from her. Can you help me with that?”
His eyes darted around, as though trying to make sense of what he was seeing.
But there was no making sense of this.
Eventually, he nodded his agreement and they got to work.
To be continued…