This is the sixth 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, and Part V before continuing.
Detective Knott reviewed her notes as she made her way back to Officer Bates. “It says here the father of the groom was the first on the scene after Anita discovered the body. Where did he go?”
Officer Bates looked around. “He’s a hard one to pin down. I think he’s trying to comfort his daughter and the groom, so he’s been bouncing back and forth between the two. Where did he go?”
“I just got back from speaking with the groom, and he wasn’t there. Is he with Anita?”
They both looked over and found Anita sitting in the same place Knott had left her just a few minutes ago. The women in her family had once again surrounded her, but there was no sign of her father. Where had he gone?
Knott and Bates both kept scanning the crowd, looking for a tall man in his sixties with a Hemingway beard. At first he seemed to have vanished, but then Knott spotted him emerging from the bushes where the body of the bride had been found. He was making his way toward Anita, but Knott cut him off, saying, “Excuse me, Mr. Jones?”
He stopped in his tracks and looked at her, but didn’t say anything. He seemed to be unsure what to say to her. Or maybe he was just waiting for her to state her business? So she did. “Mind if I ask you a few questions?”
“Of course.” He gestured to a secluded spot in the bushes and waited for her to lead the way, but Knott had been a cop too long to turn her back on a potential suspect.
“After you,” she said. She could tell he wasn’t comfortable with the idea, but he inclined his head in a sort of bow and walked over to the area he had indicated.
Once they were out of earshot of the assembled friends and family members, she said. “I understand you were first on the scene after your daughter, is that correct?”
“It is.”
“Can you tell me what you found?”
He exhaled deeply, hanging his head and closing his eyes in obvious pain.
“I’m sorry. I know this is painful, but I need to know what happened.”
“I understand,” he said, visibly pulling himself together. “We were all waiting for her to walk down the aisle when we heard a scream. I went to see what was wrong and found Anita holding Harper’s body. She was sobbing and covered in blood. Someone had plunged a knife into Harper’s head and left it there. Her eyes were still open when I got there, but it was clear she was gone.”
“What did you do when you saw the scene?”
He stared off into space for a moment before saying, “Honestly, I’m not sure. It’s like my body was frozen, but my mind was racing trying to figure out what had happened. How this could happen? Once I realized there was no hope for Harper, my first thought was to try to calm Anita down, so that’s what I did. I pulled her away from Harper, but by that time everyone else had started showing up, and Dick was there, and I wanted to go to him, but I still had to deal with Anita.” He sighed heavily. “I don’t know how we’re going to get through this.”
Knott gave him a minute to collect himself, and resisted the urge to try to say something comforting. It wasn’t her place, and more often than not, well-meaning words did more harm than good, especially if you didn’t know the person well enough to know what they wanted to hear in that moment.
Instead, she said, “Anita said she went to help the bride make sure she didn’t get tangled in any bushes before walking down the aisle. Did you see her before you walked down the aisle?”
Mr. Jones shook his head.
“Did you see her leave her seat as you walked down the aisle?”
He shook his head again, then said. “Wait. Now that you mention it, I did see her walking back toward that area when I was on the dais. We were watching the wedding party walk down the aisle and I did see her walk back there. I remember wondering what she was doing.”
“She said she and Harper talked at the rehearsal dinner about making sure she didn’t get stuck in the bushes after all her bridesmaids had made their way down the aisle. You didn’t hear that conversation?”
He shrugged. “It was a big party. There were probably 20 people there, at least. I didn’t hear anything about that, but that doesn’t mean the conversation didn’t take place. There were a lot of conversations going on.”
Knott nodded. “I thought it was strange that Anita wasn’t included in the wedding party. Do you know if Harper asked her to be a bridesmaid and she declined? Or was it never offered at all?”
Mr. Jones cocked his head. “I don’t know. I never thought about it. And if she did ask Anita to be a bridesmaid, I never heard anything about it.”
“Did Anita ever talk to you about feeling left out?”
“No. Anita’s never been the big-wedding type. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was glad not to be asked to be a bridesmaid. But if she was ever expecting to be asked, she never said anything about it to me.”
“What would you say Anita’s relationship with Harper was like?”
“They got along pretty well. We couldn’t get them to shut up when we were watching baseball the other day. The two of them kept yacking about Cinderella movies. And I know Anita was very excited to finally have a sister. She always wanted one when she was growing up.”
“There was no tension between them?”
“At first there was. Keep in mind, this was years ago, when Dick and Harper first started dating. Anita could have been more welcoming. We all could have. But once it was clear she wasn’t going anywhere, Anita turned things around. They’ve gone to movies together, plays, the opera. They’ve talked books and TV shows. I wouldn’t say they were close, but they were at least friendly towards one another.”
Knott nodded as she made a note of all this. “Can you think of anyone who would have wanted to hurt Harper?”
He shook his head. “No. She was always such a nice girl. I can’t imagine who would have wanted to do this to her.”
Knott thanked him, gave him her card, and said to call her if he thought of anything else. He promised to do so, and Knott went off to talk to the wedding party.
To be continued…