Chapter 1
The sound of a shot resonated throughout the castle. Shortly followed by a scream, it was the type of scream that made your blood run cold.
Detective inspector Alma Hayes was standing in front of a morbid crime scene. Linda Duchess of Edinburgh was sitting in a chair by her dinner table, with her head slumped over. She had been shot, right between her eyes. A trail of blood made its way from the bullet wound, down her nose between her wide-open eyes, down her cheek, to the side of her head and then it dripped to the floor where a pool of blood was beginning to form. You could hear drops of blood hitting the puddle. Drip. Drip. Drip.
One of the forensic investigators met up with her “She was shot in the head, died immediately. The murder weapon was a gun from the Queen, Mariette´s gun collection, it has her fingerprints on it, but they are a bit smudged. Nobody was in the room when it happened and there were only three people in the building.”
“Who was the first to arrive after the murder?”
“The queen, she’s in the living room with the other witnesses.”
“We were having dinner, I was just going to the bathroom when I heard a bang and when I got back I saw that my gun was laying on the table and when I looked up I just screamed” The Queen who had been eating dinner with Linda was telling detective Hayes about what had happened. “Did you happen to touch the gun, my majesty?” asked Alma. “No, I didn’t” The Queen looked down at her feet. “Do you know anyone who would want to hurt Linda, my majesty?” She shook her head no, “She was loved by everyone, I don’t see how anyone would ever want to hurt her”.
“Have you been working here for long?” The elderly man who usually carried himself with a lot of grace looked beaten down and tired. “I’ve been working with this family since Henry was a little boy, I met Linda a few years ago, and she immediately struck me as an incredibly kind woman who put everyone else first. Who could have done such a thing?”. Alma sighed. “That’s what we’re trying to find out”. Do you know anybody who could have had anything to do with this? or anybody with a reason to hurt her or hurt Henry by hurting her? “The Queen never really liked her, but I don’t think she’s capable of doing such a thing. And now that you’re asking I do know one other person, I wouldn’t have thought of him unless I saw him earlier this week. When Henry was a high schooler he had a relationship with a boy named Miles. They liked each other. The Queen found out and stopped it. I know they saw each other in secret until Henry met Linda, that’s when it stopped.”
The day after at work Alma has had a box at her desk, it contained a video. She didn’t have time to watch it because the police commissioner, Mr. Hendersen, asked her to come to his office. “Sit down.” he was gesturing to a chair on the opposite side of an expensive-looking mahogany table. She sat down. He explained to her that he was going to give her some time off from work. He told her that he had found out that she, on more than one occasion, had been going to work affected by drugs. This was true Alma had been taking Adderall for quite some time now so that she could focus better and stay up for longer periods, which was needed in her profession, so a couple of weeks off could do her good.
After a month, Detective Alma returned to work, sober this time. During her time off, the police commissioner had taken over her investigation, and he had placed the Queen in prison for Linda’s murder. Alma thought this was strange because she had got the feeling that the Queen was innocent so she decided to make a little investigation on her own.
During her time off, Linda had watched the tape from her desk. It was the surveillance footage from the night of the murder. It showed the dining room. However, you could only see half the room, the half where Linda was sitting. First, you could see the Queen walk past Linda and out through a door behind her. A few moments later you could see a bullet hit her in the forehead. The queen couldn’t possibly have murdered Linda. Alma had cracked the case!
Alma walked into Mr. Hendersen’s office. “You almost got away with it, didn’t you, Miles Henderson? It was the perfect murder. There were no witnesses, a suspect, the perfect murder weapon with her fingerprints on it, and the perfect location but you forgot one thing; the camera in the dining room.”. “No, I didn’t I moved it so you wouldn’t be able to see me” He covered his mouth realizing that he had just confessed to the murder. He looked defeated “I and Henry were a couple, he left me four years ago for Linda,” He said in a disgusted voice. “I met him 20 years ago in school, I was the new kid and he immediately made me feel welcome. I was here, in this house all the time. At first, we were just friends. We kissed. It was the best kiss of my life. I can still remember the feeling of his lips pressed against mine. It was the most pleasurable experience of my life, but I was never quite the same afterward. Mariette saw us. She threw me out and then she told him that he couldn’t see me anymore. We had to sneak around after that, but I always got the feeling that he was ashamed to be with me, a man. I loved Henry, I couldn’t stand the thought of not being with him. I had to kill her. She took Henry away from me, and the queen didn’t approve of the relationships so blaming her for the murder was the best possible solution. The only reason he ever left me was because of his grandma, she didn’t accept him for who he was.” He said angrily. “I still can’t wrap my head around how you escaped.” Said, Alma. “As I said, we sneaked around. I had to hide from Mariette on multiple occasions during our relationship. After I killed Linda I just hid behind the big painting of the lion, there’s a space behind it, perfect for hiding”.
Shortly after this conversation, Miles Hendersen was arrested. Henry watched from a distance with a sad expression as they escorted him to the police car. When Miles was released from prison, Henry was the first one to greet him. They have been inseparable ever since and rumour has it that somebody is buying a wedding ring.
