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fandomweekly2023-06-23 07:07 pm
badly_knitted) wrote in fandomweekly2023-06-23 07:07 pm
Entry tags:
[#182] Murder Mystery (FAKE)
Theme Prompt: #182 – Investigation
Title: Murder Mystery
Fandom: FAKE
Rating/Warnings: PG
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1000
Summary: Dee and Ryo are investigating a particularly brutal murder.
Being detectives with the twenty-seventh precinct’s Serious Crimes Unit meant that Dee and Ryo were involved in investigating a wide range of criminal activity, from armed robbery and aggravated assault, through home invasions and abductions, all the way up to homicide. That was the case that had been dumped on them most recently, a brutal murder in one of the precinct’s more exclusive apartments.
The deceased, one Lionel Wetherby, had been discovered by his wife when she’d arrived home from a charity dinner. The sight had not done Matilda Wetherby much good, and she was currently undergoing treatment for shock. Nevertheless, there were questions that needed to be asked, because the coroner had set time of death at somewhere between forty-eight and seventy-two hours earlier. She’d be able to provide a more accurate estimate once she got the body back to her lab.
“Mrs Wetherby,” Ryo said, approaching the distraught woman in the apartment’s spacious lounge. “I’m sorry to have to ask you this, I know the whole situation has been extremely traumatic for you, but I’m curious as to how for the past two to three days you managed not to notice that your husband had been murdered.”
Matilda clutched a lacy handkerchief in one hand as she sat on the chintzy sofa and looked up at the young detective with dazed grey eyes. She was a handsome woman in late middle-age, dressed in a smart designer skirt suit that was now somewhat rumpled, her long, dark hair just starting to show flecks of grey at the temples. Her makeup was badly smudged and her face pasty beneath her foundation.
“Lionel… He prefers to spend most of his time in the library, doing research for the book he’s always saying he’ll write one day. He hates to be disturbed, and since he’s something of an insomniac…” Matilda paused. “WAS an insomniac, I suppose,” she corrected herself, choking back a sob. “We had separate bedrooms. I’ve been busy running the charity foundation we set up after our son passed away, so between that, Lionel’s work, and his book research, we tend not to see each other much during the week. Weekends are our time, so when I got home this evening, I popped my head around the door to check whether or not we’d be driving to the Hamptons in the morning, and that’s… that’s when I saw him…” Tears welled from her eyes. “It was awful!”
“I’m sure it was.”
The elderly family doctor sitting beside her patted her hand comfortingly. “Try not to upset yourself, Matty.”
She pulled her hand away from him. “My Lionel is dead! I think I have every reason to be upset!”
“That’s not what I meant, Matty dear. Getting hysterical isn’t going to help anyone.”
Matilda scowled at the old man, brushing his hand away. “I’m hardly the kind of woman who has histrionics, Doctor Lomax. You may have been Lionel’s physician for most of his life, but you clearly don’t know me very well. If Detective Maclean has questions, then I will answer them to the best of my ability. I want my husband’s murderer caught, and kindly stop calling me Matty. I’ve always hated that nickname.”
Ryo found himself impressed. Despite the horror of what she’d seen, her husband lying dead in a pool of congealed blood, half his head caved in by several blows from an as yet unknown weapon, she was doing her best to pull herself together and help with the investigation as much as she could.
After asking a few more questions, Ryo returned to the library, where the dead body still lay. It couldn’t be moved until the crime scene team arrived and did their job, but they’d been delayed by traffic and had yet to arrive.
“Find anything out?” Dee asked as his partner entered.
“Mrs Wetherby couldn’t tell me much; she doesn’t concern herself with her husband’s job, finds the financial world boring. How about you?”
“Still waitin’ on the crime scene guys, we might know more after they’ve done their thing. For now, all I can say is it looks like the killer took the murder weapon with him. No idea what it was; somethin’ heavy though.”
Ryo raked his gaze around the room, looking for anything suspicious or out of place. There were a lot of heavy books spread out on the desk and a solid oak table, a decanter with one used glass beside it, still with a quarter inch of whiskey in it. Blood spatter stained the front of one bookcase, cast-off from the murder weapon decorated the wall, floor, and ceiling. The murderer had struck the victim multiple times.
“Candlestick,” he said, noticing something.
“Huh?” Dee looked up.
“On the mantlepiece; there’s a candlestick at one end, carved stone by the looks of it, probably one of a pair, but at the other end, there’s just the candles. The killer must have decided to take the candlestick with him, possibly because it has his prints on it. The candles might have too.”
“Damn, I didn’t notice that! You’re right though.” Dee grinned suddenly. “Feels like we’re playin’ a real-life game of Clue. Mr Wetherby, in the library, with the candlestick; betcha the butler did it.”
“They don’t have a butler, Dee.” Ryo returned his partner’s grin; humor helped reduce stress when dealing with the kinds of things they saw on an almost daily basis.
“Housekeeper then. I’ve met her; she’s scary.”
“She’s less than five feet tall, Dee. Lionel was just over six feet; there’s no way she could’ve hit him over the head.”
“Maybe he was sittin’ down.”
“The evidence doesn’t support that.”
“Okay then, who’s your prime suspect?” Dee looked at his partner expectantly.
“The deceased has a business partner; he’s the next person we should talk to. The world of finance might be boring, but people who routinely handle large sums of other people’s money sometimes get greedy.”
“Yeah, money’s among the biggest motives for murder.”
The End
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Yes, money is often the cause so it's a good place to begin an investigation.