Trouble In Paradise

38. Aria The Goddess

"So?"

He stared back at me, folding his arms across his chest. "So."

"You know what I'm here for," I smiled sweetly and leaned back in my seat as if this were my cabin and not his.

Inspector Bryant huffed, "I'm not telling you where the Queen case is heading, kid."

I raised my eyebrows, my smile not wavering even for a second. "That's a pity. I would've been devastated if I didn't already know where that particular case was heading."

"Right," he arched an unbelieving eyebrow.

I locked my fingers together on the table and smiled confidently at him. "Your main suspect is someone from Elektra's family."  He rolled his eyes as if this was an obvious answer, so I continued, "Selene Jacobs to be precise. Anthony Jacobs, her husband, was in love with Elektra; that was the root cause of Selene's jealousy." My fingers played with a dolphin-shaped paperweight as his posture tensed.

"You guys found a text chain between Elektra and Selene, in which Selene spewed some not-so-nice words at her cousin. But that's where the evidence against Selene stops," I tilted my head as I gazed at Inspector Bryant's tense form. "Selene and Anthony have pretty airtight alibis for the time when Elektra was murdered. That night they were both attending some huge Redwood function as chief guests. I've heard her lawyer is pretty good. So now, you guys are kind of at a dead-end," I finished, making the dolphin spin.

Inspector Bryant glanced at the door to see if anyone was listening in and glared at me. "How on earth do you know that?"

I smiled. Of course, everything I had said were only loosely based assumptions but I liked to think of them more as educated guesses.

The first assumption about Anthony being in love with Elektra was based on a few photographs I had noticed at Elektra's house the night we had met her for the first and the last time.

Then there was the matter of the text chain that I had briefly glimpsed the last time I was here. A few words like 'stay away from him' and 'bitch' had jumped out to me. The initials E.Q. and one lonely J that was visible, allowed me to put two and two together, or, rather assume as some non-believers would say.

The part about Anthony and Selene being chief guests to a Redwood function the night Elektra died was true though. A friendly chat with a few locals during my camp was enough to obtain that little piece of information.

Ah, yes, the camp. We came back three days ago. I thought back to Rhea and Mason (since they were the teachers' pets in our group), going to the teachers to ask about the bus drivers. As suspected, the drivers who had driven us to Redwood weren't the same as the ones who were driving us back to Paradise.

The dead-end thing was actually the biggest assumption but I'd only said that because it was fun to see Inspector Bryant tense up so much.

"Why do you even care about Elektra Queen so much?"

Inspector Bryant's question broke me out of my thoughts. He was looking at me suspiciously as if he didn't trust my intentions and I wouldn't blame him if he did.

"She was strangled to death. I would love to see her get some justice," I leaned forward with a serious expression on my face.

He returned my look with ten times more intensity. "And what if she wasn't a good person?"

"Does that necessarily mean she deserved to be strangled to death in her own house?" I answered him with a question of my own. Then I leaned back in my seat more comfortably and pouted, my demeanour changing from serious to playful as if a switch had been flipped. "Also, my mom is now convinced that if I ever get a mansion and live there alone, I will definitely be murdered. How is that woman the best lawyer in Paradise?" I muttered the last part under my breath.