Everyone in the room gasped as the lights flickered back on.
Everyone, but our dynamic crime solving duo. Alfendi tipped his navy blue top hat up slightly. Lucy picked at a loose string on her light green dress, not all that interested in the situation.
A few people began screaming. One man yelled out, "The bride! The bride is dead!" This ignited fear in the rest of crowd and brought Alfendi to his feet. He knew this wedding would have a murder tonight. His alter ego had sensed it.
Lucy hopped to his side as they made their way through the wedding crowd.
"Now, now, people. There's no need to panic. No cause for alarm." Alfendi reassured the guests as he circled the body.
"The murderer's still in t'room, after all. Screaming will probably scare 'im out." Lucy added, assessing the looks everyone had around them. She kept a few suspicious ones in mind and a mental note of a missing figure in the masses. Not just a coincidence, I'm sure.
"Stabbed through the uterus and heart. Odd. Oh, would you just look at all this blood!" He dipped a finger into the puddle and inspected the drop as it slipped down his hand. "Seems like that shattered glass isn't just for show."
"Blood wine int' blood. 'Ow ironic. Some of t'glass is under 'er, too, sir." Lucy caught a few shards under the bride's head.
"Excuse me!" A male walked up to them, a glare centered on the finely dressed man crouched down by the bride.
"Ah! I recognize you! You're our first suspect." The mad eyed Layton declared.
"Huh?"
The wide-eyed lass eyed him up and down with a small frown then grinned when she turned to her partner. "T' groom. Patrick Sterling. Ex-soon-to-be 'usband of Harralot Erselut. Age forty-five. Billions of dollars to 'is name. Yet not t' richest man in the room."
"Yes, Mr. Sterling. I couldn't help hearing a thing or two about you. Climbing up the ranks of one of the finest businesses in London. I'm honored." Alfendi bowed to him, a sly smile dripping with unusual intent.
Lucy pushed through the crowd and fished out an arm. "Mr. Erocktus! Our other suspect! Don't run off, please! The fact that you're 'ere means that more than one murder were going to occur today. Isn't that right, sir?" She tipped her head slightly to the right and curtseyed.
"I think so. Unless anyone wants to volunteer, which I'd find a bit interesting from this crowd."
Lucy pulled the two men side-by-side and tied their shoe laces together. "That'll keep you standing. 'Ow about we review the moments before t'murder then?"
"Ah, my favorite part." He said, his hair turning a bright shade of red. "Let us just imagine… The catering area, a bridesmaid and a waiter talking idly of the wedding. Take one second and listen in, make the conversation clear in your head, and notice one thing."
"T' bride's a whore. Statement made by that waiter, and when asking a few others about it, it turns out most of the guests 'ere only know the bride. Because of that very fact."
One man grimaced, while the other cringed.
"Hush, dear. I'm telling a story." Alfendi put a hand over her mouth and another atop her pretty little head, silencing his precious assistant. "Now, of course, some of us are more attentive than others. And while the amusing talk of sex does have me going, why don't we get to the more interesting scene? The murder itself."
Lucy curled her fingers around the hand on her mouth.
"It's quite ironic really, that this woman be stabbed once in the sex gland. What purpose would that even have had in killing her, if it wasn't a necessary organ for her own life? The killer might know. Of course, it's actually the most useful clue here. The murderer did not know about Harralot's many affairs until today. No, the man was ignorant until his final bitter-"
"Enough with the stories, you fool! You talk of murder like it's poetry while the murderer lurks about! Just arrest him already!" Sterling interjected.
Layton cocked an eyebrow. "Is there anything else you'd like to say? Anything else to test my patience? Because I'll kill you if you interrupt me again. If you'd allow me to anyway."
"Why on earth would we allow you to kill us? That's the most absurd thing to even escape your lips." Erocktus commented.
"As I was saying then. Mr. Sterling, you are under arrest for the murder of the bride."
"What?" Both men yelled out simultaneously.
"Now, now. We can handle this with a sense of poise and rationality. Allow me to explain. You see, Mr. Sterling, I figured you'd put Mr. Erocktus on the spot. A man like you would quite literally kill for his spot, right above you in the business. And when you heard the truth about your wife, not knowing about them until today, that one drop of a phrase brought the idea of killing her. It was your way of getting to the top, getting all the money you'd ever need, and getting rid of the woman who had more affairs than the amount of men in this room."
Lucy slipped out of Alfendi's hold.
"You heard about the amount of money the wedding cost, you knew that would put a hole in your fortune. The horrid chain of events only worsened when you figured out the truth about your wife. Mr. Sterling, you knew that you would kill your wife, blame Erocktus and get a huge lump of cash in return that could pay off the ruined wedding and then some. You'd even become head of the business. You figured the pros would outweigh the cons."
Layton tipped his cap, a smirk growing on his face. "It's as if you expected me as well. Almost. Someone to follow in your little game. I played along with suspecting Erocktus, but that'll be as far as I go. For now, anything you say and do will be used against you."
Click! Handcuffs wrapped around Patrick Sterling's wrists and Lucy giggled.
"Erocktus had almost nothing to do with this whole thing. He has no motive, unlike you. Only the one time affair he had with Harralot to even connect him to here, and she was just a passing face to him. He wouldn't stand to gain anything from this whole game. Just to watch you suffer in a poor, lonely hell. He can still do that, but with the mindset that he truly is innocent. You, on the other hand," Two guards picked up the criminal and took him out of the room kicking and screaming for mercy and a lawyer and such. "Can rot in a cell for twenty to thirty years."
Lucy bounded towards him, her innocent smile turning into a pout. "Sir, I wanted to help with the interrogation!"
Alfendi clicked his tongue. "Well, maybe next time, you could try closing the door completely when we're in the closet." He suggested, petting his adorable assistant's head.