The stairs

Chapter 5

Cassie took a deep breath and leaned backwards on the bench. There were a lot of things to remember now, so the best thing to do would be to write everything down. She had a notebook with her at all times, so she pulled it out, and turned to an empty page. She noted down everything she could remember.

Lorna found dead on landing between first floor and ground floor. To right side of landing from top.

Camera blocked with image.

Poisoned. Poison in coffee, cup not found. Cyanide.

Time of death: 12:15 to 12:45. Camera blocked approx. 30 min before.

Lex: Shopping, electronics and headset. Actually has some components.

Robin: Was in bus ~12, arrived 12:15-12:45, changed, went to meeting place

Rosa: Was walking to mall ~12, headset shopping until meeting time.

Phil: Sleeping ~12, in bus 12:15-12:45, reached mall @12:55. Robin ran past him.

Me: At work @12, on bus 12:15-12:45. Arrived 12:45.

Mark: With Beryl & Lorna, shopping ~12. Bookshop, had argument with Lorna, she left before 12:15.

Beryl: same as Mark @12. Looking for watercolours 12:15-12:45

Robin claims to not know Lorna, was in relationship with her.

That was the basic information she had. Someone was clearly lying. She scrolled down further. There was nothing more of interest.

Scrolling through it aimlessly would not do. Cassie could do two things now - study the photos in detail, or check the profiles of all suspects. Right now, the most suspicious was Robin. so she moved on to his profile.

There was nothing much there. He had shared an awful lot of videos, noticed Cassie. There were a few memes as well. A good clue would be a meme about breakups or relationships, if that was his motive. Of course, Robin may have used a different platform, or even a different account with his close friends - a possibility she could not ignore. A brief search would find them if he was using his real name. If not, things would get a little complicated, but Cassie decided to worry about it if and when it became important.

She found a couple of memes about breakups in a cluster from about a month ago. That was within Cassie's expectations. Going further back, she found nothing particularly important. Cassie decided to move onto the other suspects. The next most suspicious so far, according to Cassie's gut feeling, was Rosa.

This was a completely different type of account yet again. There were pictures of her in the lab, photos of the swim club, a photo of the detective club's first meeting, a photo with a bunch of her friends, and many others. Rosa had said Mark was in the swimming club. Recognising him was a little difficult given he was wearing a swim cap, but once she located him, she recognised him in other photos as well. Lorna was not in any of the photos.

She kept scrolling. There was a photo of Rosa with Mark. Cassie noticed it immediately, because of the relatively strange setting - a restaurant. The day before, Rosa had posted a photo of the two of them holding medals. There was another photo of about five or six, all wearing medals. Some were in swimsuits, others were wearing university t-shirts. It was probably the swimming tournament about two months ago.

Scrolling back, there were more photos of the two of them together, in beaches or on boats, at the university canteen, at malls, and so on. Cassie didn't know any of the others in the photos.

About six months earlier, she found a photo of Rosa and Phillip in a computer lab. That was probably work-related, thought Cassie. Still, it looked like everyone was connected to everyone else. Cassie wondered what that particular project was. It was probably related to some research. If so, the two would likely have continued to work together for a while.

Still, Phillip had no direct connection to Lorna as far as Cassie could see. She knew quite a bit about Lex and they had been friends for over a year now. The priority was Mark and Beryl. She found Mark's profile easily enough through Lorna's. It was completely public. There were many photos of him with Lorna recently. Older photos confirmed what Cassie suspected from studying Rosa's photos. There were also some photos of him with Phillip, mostly at various restaurants around the campus. So the two of them were friends. Maybe Phillip didn't know he was Lorna's boyfriend.

All that remained was Beryl. Cassie found her profile through Mark, but as it turned out, nothing on it was public.

"Are you done stalking people on social media?"asked Lex.

Cassie almost dropped her phone - it certainly slipped out of her hand, but she managed to catch it before it reached the ground. She had not noticed Lex standing behind her.

"What are your findings so far?" he asked.

"Robin and Lorna used to date, Mark and Rosa were almost certainly in a relationship at one point, Phillip and Rosa are acquainted, I don't know about Beryl."

"So, someone either got rid of the competition which implies Rosa, or it was a lover's quarrel, which suggests Mark, Or it was jealousy or anger about being dumped - Robin. Those three have motives. Anyway, Clark isn't back from her alibi search, and the guy she called John - who, by the way, hasn't introduced himself to us - is standing there like a gargoyle, without actually helping anyone. What should we do?"

"We need a map of the mall," said Cassie, "We have to track all entrances and exits. The main entrance is pretty much foolproof. There are three entrances in the car park..."

"Are you sure? There's the basement car park, then there's parking on the ground floor adjacent to the mall, and there's parking on the second floor as well, and then there's parking in front," said Lex, "There should be a minimum of three dedicated car park entrances, but the lifts go to the basement car park as well, making the minimum four..."

"Let's just find a map somewhere," said Cassie.

"There's a map near the escalators," said Lex, "come on, let's take a look at it."

"Good idea," said Cassie, "then we can go to each of these entrances and see..."

"Exactly. Come on."

Cassie unplugged her phone and followed Lex. They barely managed to take two steps in the direction of the stairs when someone called out to them.

"No, you can't leave until the investigation is done."

It was the other detective in charge of the case.

"We weren't leaving, we were just going to look at the map near the escalators," said Lex.

"No, you are directly related to the case, so you will stay here," he said, "why would you want to look at a map of the mall? Are you planning your escape?"

Cassie had an overwhelming desire to punch the guy, but he was not in punching range. Lex stepped forward.

"No, we will be staying here until night by the looks of it, so we'd have to run to catch a bus, and..."

"That is a very good excuse, given amount of time you had to think of it. Now, go back to where you were."

"Alright, but you have to give us a lift if it gets late," said Lex, "come on, Cassie."

Cassie followed him back to where they had been sitting earlier. Her mind was racing. There had to be a hole in someone's alibi. Chances were, there were holes in everyone's alibis. She had to find some concrete evidence that could tie the person in question to the crime. The problem was, she still had no idea who it was.