“We need to ask you both some questions,” Grace said as she and Mac sat down across from the newlyweds. “Have you noticed anything different about the Boyds in the past few weeks? Months?”
“It’s my fault,” Doreen said, and Kurt took her hand in his, shaking his head. “Yes, it is. I’ve been so preoccupied with wedding planning and making everything run smoothly, I can’t even answer that question properly. We weren’t as close…”
“Did you feel her pull away, or was it you?” Grace asked.
“I guess a bit of both,” Doreen said.
“Okay,” Grace said. “Let’s go back a bit. When did you both notice Cory and Marie having problems?”
“Since before the wedding,” Kurt said.
Sometimes other people can see things more clearly because they’re at a distance. They have a different perspective. Or maybe Marie lied, and things had always been tumultuous.
“Could you elaborate?” Mac asked. “Yours or theirs?”
“Theirs. I don’t know if they’ve ever been the right fit,” Doreen said. “Marie is... practical. A Type A personality. Cory was a Type B. Very laid-back. The first time Marie brought up anything serious was after the wedding, regarding their issues conceiving,” Doreen said.
“Things seemed rocky there until Cory’s big win,” Kurt said.
“Blackjack, right?” Mac asked. “Then roulette.”
Kurt nodded. “He bought them a house, got himself a business, and like Doreen said, he’s always been generous, but for a while there, all the drinks were on him. All the dinners. They actually paid for our whole engagement party.”
“Really?” Grace asked.
“You know, I didn’t even have to ask him about being my Best Man. It was just this unspoken thing. He just took charge. Always doing for others and trying to make things happen for himself.” His face turned sullen and he sat back in his seat.
“Had either of you noticed anything unusual about them lately?” Mac asked. “I know you don’t think you know much, but really, anything out of the ordinary can help.”
“Well, he planned my bachelor party, and when we went, he was really going overboard. It’s like him when he’s drinking, so I didn’t think much of it. He was trying to show me a good time. Then, one night when we got back to our room from the casino, he and I sat on the balcony and watched the sun come up. We drank. We talked. He told me he and Marie had never been worse. He was so scared she was going to leave him. The issues with having a baby put a real strain on him. I’ve never seen him like that.”
“What else did he tell you?” Mac asked.
Kurt sighed. “I guess after that, it was mostly me talking. I told him he’s gotta straighten up after the bachelor party. That it was my new beginning, but that he should look at it the same way. He was smiling by the end of it. He thanked me for—“
He choked on the last words, and tears slid down his dry cheeks.
“Why did he need to straighten up?” Mac asked.
“He drank at least every weekend,” Doreen said, rubbing Kurt’s back. “Came home late. Fought with Marie. He didn’t want to try IVF with her, and she felt like she was alone in their marriage a lot of the time.”
“Tonight, when you went out and saw the fight between Cory and Todd, what did you make of it?” Mac asked.
“I didn’t even understand what was going on at first,” Kurt said. “It was so out of the blue. Cory and Todd have always gotten along fine.”
“Do you know why Cory punched him?” Grace asked.
“I think he thought Todd was hitting on Marie,” he said. “That doesn’t make sense, though.”
“You’ve never seen anything between them?” Grace asked.
“No,” Kurt said.
“They’re friendly,” Doreen said, “but they only saw each other in regards to wedding plans and events. I think I would have known.”
But you’re not sure. Something in your eyes tells me you’re second-guessing.
The front doors opened, and Malone strode toward them with an envelope.
“Okay, we appreciate your time tonight,” Grace said. “We’ll wrap this up, but we’ll have follow-up questions for you at a later date. Will you be here?”
Doreen and Kurt looked at each other.
“What?” Mac asked.
“We were supposed to go to Europe for our honeymoon,” Doreen said.
“Tomorrow morning,” Kurt added.
“You should go.” Grace stood. “We can call you or communicate via emails while you’re gone.”
Mac turned to her, but she ignored him.
“I don’t know,” Kurt said.
“Think about it, okay?” Grace asked. “Just make sure you let me know either way.”
Kurt nodded and took Doreen’s hand in his once more as Mac stood.
Tarek, the resident tech analyst, walked in with a large case and set it up on one of the tables.
“I want to check the pictures,” Grace said.
Mac walked with her toward Tarek. “We should have discussed it before letting them go on their honeymoon,” he said.
“You want to treat them like suspects when they were with people at all times?” Grace asked. “It was their wedding. They have had it tough enough as it is.”
“You should have talked to me first, that’s all I’m saying. I appreciate being consulted before a decision like that is made.”
I don’t need to consult you.
She pursed her lips as they reached Tarek.
Same could be said for you and telling Marie how her husband was killed.
“I’ll be all set up in a sec,” Tarek said. “May I have the chip please?”
Grace gave him the chip, and Malone handed Mac a white envelope in a plastic bag. Mac and Grace put their gloves on, and Mac unfolded the envelope.
“Your sister gave it to me,” Malone said. “From the limo driver. He said the vic asked him to put it in there for the bride and groom.”
Mac read the letter out loud.
“Sounds hopeful,” Grace said. “Optimistic.”
“Well, that’s how Kurt seemed to leave things off with him,” Mac said.
“Doesn’t seem like he saw this coming,” Malone said.
“We want to take a closer inspection of the crime scene.” Mac turned away from her. “Actually, Malone, let’s head out while Grace and Tarek check out the photos.”
Grace opened her mouth to tell him she wanted to be out there too, but they left as Tarek pulled out a chair for her.
“Thanks,” she muttered.
I’m still picking my battles with him.
“All set,” Tarek said. “Eight hundred and ninety-one images to go through.”
“Can we start with the time stamp at about nine PM? We can look more indepth back at the department later.”
“Sure thing.” Tarek typed something and hit enter, bringing them to a picture of the bride and groom slow dancing with several guests around them dancing too. Grace studied each photo as Tarek hit the next button methodically.
“What are we looking for?” he asked.
“Hard to say. Anything unusual. Any fighting. I want to see who’s not outside around the time of the murder.” Grace leaned in closer. “Stop.”
In the corner of a wide shot of the hall, Marie and Todd stood close together by the coffee and dessert table, their backs turned to the camera.
“The one before,” she said. “Nope, okay, one after.”
He flipped to the one after, but they had both been taken minutes before and after the wide angle shot.
“Okay, that one again,” she said.
Todd seemed to look down at the dessert table straight ahead of him, but Marie looked up at him from a side profile.
Nothing inappropriate here. Just two friends talking. Maybe.
“Okay, without any other photos, it’s not giving me enough,” she said. “Keep going.”
Grace checked her cell phone and matched up the time of her call with Madigan at nine thirteen to the timestamp on the photos.
“There,” she said.
She pointed to the screen where Marie walked around a table in the background of a shot toward the bathroom. “That’s where she said she was until they were getting ready to leave,” she said. “Next shot.”
The next one showed her opening the door to the bathroom in the background, and the next she was gone. “Okay, keep going slow. There,” she said.
Marie and the other bridesmaid stood just outside the bathroom doors, and Katie had her arm on Marie’s.
“Her alibi seems to hold up, but we’ll double check with the bridesmaid,” Grace said. “Okay, interesting.”
If she saw her in there and spent time with her until they came out, her alibi would be solid for the time of Cory’s death.
“Okay, could you bring that back to the department and make copies of the chip for us please? I’d also like the photos printed out.”
Tarek nodded. “No problem. Anything else I can do?”
“Could you look through those photos nice and slow, making note of anything of interest?”
“Sure thing.”
“Thanks. I’m going out to the crime scene. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
As she left through the double doors, one of the last cars pulled out of the lot, and Mac and Malone spoke with another officer by the police tape around the crime scene.
“Okay,” Mac said. “Let’s get started.”
“You waited?” she asked as he approached and held the tape up for her.
“Yeah,” he said. “We work it together.”
She ducked under.
Maybe I’ve still got some clout from catching the thieves earlier.
“Lockwood’s been by to collect the body,” he said. “She’s always happy when it’s been preserved in a cold environment.”
He led her toward the car.
“Okay, first thing I noticed earlier was the footprints,” he said. “There’s two sets coming in from the back there.”
He pointed fifty feet away, to the back of the hall, where several trees and bushes separated it from a residential area.
“They lead right to the car here,” she said, staring at the long sight line. “One set coming, one set going back into the trees. It’s bright out here with that light. They’d risk being seen in this lot, so maybe they retreated if someone came or they heard something.”
She pointed to the lanterns in the lot, and the bright light off the side of the hall.
“Looks like a great spot to hide out,” Mac said. “If it wasn’t a wedding guest, that’s a prime spot to watch in wait.”
“Then there’s all these,” Grace sighed, staring at the bloody prints around the left side of the parking spot and leading toward the back of the car in a light pink hue. “I’m assuming these are from Jack and the others who found him.”
“Yeah, they really messed it up.”
“If the killer came from the hall, his prints are covered.” Grace looked around. “Okay, so far everything corroborates their stories. I think I’ve got an alibi for Marie, photographic evidence she was where she says she was. Maybe even a witness.”
“Nice,” Mac said, nodding. “Okay, so the car’s going in to be looked at. Killer could have gotten in from the passenger’s side. No prints there but Lockwood’s, so they might have covered something up. I think we have to go with the theory they came to the driver’s side, though. It’s a natural place to sneak up on someone. Most of the blood is contained in the car, but there’s none on the other side, and all this here.”
“You think the windows were all fogged up, and someone knocked on his door?” Grace asked. “He opens it thinking it’s Marie, or even Kurt?”
“Then they stab him in the chest,” Mac said. “To get in there and do that, at least some blood had to have gotten on the perp.”
“Did Lockwood say how many times he was stabbed?”
Mac shook his head. “Too soon to tell. We’ll find out the specifics when we meet with her, but it’s safe to say multiple. Looked like at least three.”
“All the possible evidence was right here,” Grace said. “In the car. On the vic. In the snow.”
I should have come out here first, but I really thought I’d be able to confront the killer inside. It’s important to keep the suspects close after the fact whenever possible. Observe their behaviour.
But no one person stood out based purely on that.
“We’ve got the pictures.” Mac started for the trees behind the building. “Come on.”
She ducked back under the police tape and followed him, walking to the right of the prints in the snow. They got to the trees and kept their flashlights on the tracks, searching for anything else. The tracks stopped just after the treeline. Grace veered to the left, trying to pick them up again.
“What time was it snowing here?” she called to him.
“Roughly nine to nine forty-five,” he said. “I mean, there’s not even any cigarette butts over here.”
Grace shone the flashlight over by the road, finding only a crisp sheet of untouched white snow.
“Alright,” Mac said on his way back, “where would you sit in wait if you were the killer?”
“Behind that bush,” she said, pointing to an evergreen beside the end of the tracks. “Thick, lots of cover. Best view of the lot.”
They walked over, shining their lights along the ground and into the bush.
“Thing is, no one could have known Cory would be alone,” Mac said.
“They said he was outside taking calls. Someone could have called him, knowing he’d have to come out. Maybe it was pure luck or a crime of opportunity because he was already out there alone for a while anyway after the fight.” Grace took a long step to the side and shone her light on the prints and then up into the trees, considering all angles.
Mac laughed. “You think someone’s up there still? Watching us?”
Now he’s razzing me again.
“Okay.” She shone the light in his face, and he closed his eyes tightly. “What’s your explanation for the footprints?”
He shielded his face with his hands, and she turned off her flashlight.
“Now that you’ve almost blinded me, I can’t think straight.”
“Well, I’ll do the thinking for the both of us.” She smirked and turned to the prints. “We need to come back here in the daylight. We might see something we haven’t. Until then, I think we need to be ready for Cory’s parents to come in from Alberta. They’re going to have even more questions, and we should work out what to tell them.”
“Oh?” He laughed as they started back to the lot. “So now you want to collaborate.”
“I’m sorry about before,” she said. “I’ll consult you next time, but I didn’t see the harm in telling the newlyweds to go on their honeymoon after all they’ve been through tonight. Their day will be remembered for murder and death. I thought it was the least I could do.”
“Hey,” he stopped her before she grabbed the yellow tape. “I get it. You were just trying to do what you could. You know them?”
“I’ve only met Doreen a few times, and I’ve never met Kurt before today. When I used to visit Madigan at the Knoxes, the Holdens were always over, or we were over there. Doreen’s older, though, so she wasn’t around as much. She was in University a year or two after Madigan moved in.”
“So you’re familiar with them. Is that why you gave them a break?”
“Are you questioning my integrity on this case?”
Mac grinned and shook his head. “Just pressing your buttons.”
“Uh, huh. Hey, now that the air’s clear, maybe you can apologize for what you told Marie about her husband being stabbed to death?”
Mac cocked his head to the side. “I thought you understood why I did it now.”
She sighed and shook her head. “Never mind. Just like you said, we’ll consult each other in the future.”
He nodded. “Listen, what I can’t shake is whether this was planned to happen tonight at this wedding, of all places, or if it was a crime of passion.”
“I thought you didn’t like to go over theories,” Grace smirked.
“I don’t.” He raised his brow and smiled down at her. “But it affects how I look at this. He was stabbed to death, yes, but there’s a big difference between someone waiting in the bushes for the perfect moment they planned for this specific occasion, and someone who came from inside the hall—“
“That’s it,” she said.
“What?”
“He started from the lot, not the trees,” she said. “The footprints go both ways, so they came from the lot, not the trees.”
“It explains the prints, but going with the potential for this person to be the killer, did they leave the reception, wait in the bushes and then come back to kill him when they saw he was alone? I mean, otherwise, they murdered him, ran behind the trees and bushes, and then came back?”
“Maybe they wanted to watch,” Grace said.
“The fight? Or when the body was found?” Mac asked.
Grace shrugged as she shook away the thoughts of watching a man die for fun and the shivers they gave her. “Maybe all of it. If the person with those prints is the killer, he started out here. At the lot or in the hall. We need their shoes.”
“All the prints.” He nodded. “We need to talk to those older men out here with the cigars who must have seen Todd.”
“Okay, that’s first on the list tomorrow. Then we come back here and see if there’s anything we’ve missed while we have Malone collect and bag the shoes.”
“And then meet with Cory’s parents whenever they get here.” Mac started toward their parked cars. “You coming?”
“I’m just hanging back for a bit,” she said. “You go on. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Mac nodded, and she lifted the tape, stepping back into the crime scene. She ran the events of the night over in her head, turning from the side door of the hall back to the lot.
Kurt excused himself before leaving for the night with Doreen when he saw your car, Cory.
To apologize for sending you away? To stop you from driving drunk?
If he hadn’t, it would have been Marie who found you.
If someone hid in wait in the bushes, they could have been waiting for her reaction, then joined the group again among the commotion.
Why were you sitting in your car, Cory? To sober up and clear your head? To apologize to Marie when she came out? Or to end the fight you started with Todd?