Royalty in Death - an In Death series fanfic (J.D. Robb)

Chapter 3

Eve left the room to call the officer but paused when she saw a tall woman in sixties chatting audibly on him. Both of them stopped their conversation as she approached them.

"Lieutenant, this is Mrs. Dwight, the hotel manager.", the officer said.

"I want to know the timeframe of your investigations here, Lieutenant, to know as to when we are going to close this floor to the public."

"We'll get into that, Mrs. Dwight. Officer, did you contain the witness who discovered the bodies?"

"Bo - bodies?! Oh, my God, I didn't know – ", Mrs. Dwight trailed off and almost collapsed on the floor if not for the officer who immediately caught her.

"I only see one – "

"Mrs. Dwight, calm down. How did you discover the incident?", Eve interrogated as they sat on the floor.

"Di - discovered?! Ah, no, I just received a call from Afef about an emergency on this hall. My sleeping quarter was only five floors above this one so I was able to rush in here. I noticed the knobs were damaged and when I opened the door I saw – "

Mrs. Dwight shuddered as she wiped her tears with a handkerchief.

"Where is this Afef?"

"Afef? He's in the Royal Highness' suite. 88th floor. He's her butler."

"And how come this butler was here and has an access to you?", Eve asked. The word butler rang violently in her ears, good thing she was able to control her screams and managed it in her thoughts. What did the butler do in this area?

"Ah, the owner Mr. Ahmed instructed me to have a personal interaction with Afef, that if the Harminian royalty will have some concerns, they must contact me immediately."

Eve felt tightness in her chest. She was cynical enough to believe in coincidences.

"What did you do after discovering the incident?", she asked.

"I – I did not enter the room, I swear! I just saw the destruction of the chairs inside and a man sprawling on the table. So I ran away when my insides churned then called our security to contact the police."

"You did not call 911 immediately?"

"No, Lieutenant. If I did, there might be a commotion as to why there's a police visibility here. It's not because of public discretion but because I want professionalism to avoid panics. A similar incident happened in my previous employment before, so I learned it from experience."

"That was a good call, Mrs. Dwight.", the officer assured her.

"Thank you, lad. Anyways, we isolated this floor and since this one was for a smaller conference and function activities, no mass evacuatation was needed. But you said there are two persons inside..."

"How did you know Mathilde Kenwood?", Eve asked her again.

"Matty? She's...oh my God, oh my God! Not our Matty! No!"

Mrs. Dwight bawled upon her realization. Eve does not have enough patience to wait for an incoherent witness.

"Are there any kins of Mathilde here?"

"Oh, no, no Lieutenant. Matty is alone in this world now. Her husband died decades ago, and she's still on the healing process when her son died in a car crash five years ago. Her only family is us. She's ours."

And now she's mine too, Eve thought.

When she was contentedly done with Mrs. Dwight, she stood up to receive a message from the hotel intercom that Afef was waiting on her downstairs. Feeney just left the crime scene and went to Eve.

"Dallas – "

"Don't talk to me, Fenney. Don't you fucking talk to me or I'll slug you."

"You fucking listen to me, kid.", he snapped and gripped Eve's shoulder. It forced her to look at his bleary eyes.

"Nobody is accusing Roarke of murder here. His name appeared as the one who reserved that hall, that's all."

"That's not all, Feeney. I haven't dug yet into this mess, and God knows who's name might pop if I ask that goddamn butler. He's tightly alibied, you heard that? For the whole night, he was in the house and neither of us walked outside."

To be specific, none of them was incoherent and able to walk or even stood up for the whole night. Both of them were busy sprawling and banging each other mercilessly.

"Do what you EDD supposed to do and I'll do what a Homicide supposed to do.", she said then walked out. While entering the elevator, she opened her PPC to read some salients about Afef.