‘Did you know the bride?’
‘Barely. Whatever beef Aarav had with his family took on darker proportions once he got tangled up with Smyrna. That’s the late bride’s name’, she added helpfully.
The way she said Smyrna sounded like Smirnov. Regalia thought again of refilling his cocktail. But still, this woman might have some pertinent morsels of information to share.
‘Hmm. Miss…,’ Regalia began, in a slightly more interested tone.
The young lady turned and saw Suraj, the major-domo of the household, stride briskly into the hall, catch Regalia’s eye with a perfunctory wave and march forward. She seemed to lose interest in lingering all at once. She brushed by Regalia, dropping a parting shot,
‘I’d take a good hard look at the family and in fact, the entire household. A lot of things were going to change with Aarav’s wedding.’
Suraj arrived with one watchful eye on the departing news-monger. Regalia remembered being impressed on meeting the chief butler at the main entrance earlier. Here was an old school professional, an extremely rare species these days. The old man stayed on topic, as expected.
‘Inspector, all exits are closed as instructed and I’ve got our most trusted servants watching the guests. You can be assured that no one will be able to leave or enter the grounds without our knowing about it.’
‘Any idea who that girl was Mr. Suraj? The one that just sashayed out of here.’
To his credit, the major-domo didn’t pretend to not have noticed her.
‘Ah yes. An old college flame of our late Master Aarav. I forget her name. Sounds something like pastry. Things had been going on nicely for her until he broke off their engagement in the last year as soon as he realised she was only after his money.’
‘Is there a lot of money?’
Here Suraj looked surprised.
‘Beg your pardon Inspector?’
‘What impact would there have been on the family wealth had young Aarav married his girl and lived?’
They both looked to the floor where, with the crowd mostly having moved away, the dead couple lay perfectly still.
‘I’m sorry Sir but I am not at liberty to discuss the affairs of the family. Even if I could, I am not privy to such information.’
Old school. A real proper and loyal employee this one, thought Regalia. How easy when you run across employees willing to spill the beans on their employers for a little money. Or a good meal. Or a coveted football match ticket.
Perhaps he should start somewhere less sensitive. He gestured towards the only two guests currently enjoying police company. Mrs. Pall, looking less dangerous now that she’d been dispossessed of her fork and the spiky haired fellow, who looked significantly less pale since the blood had managed to climb back to his upper body.
‘Any idea who those two are?’
Suraj shook his head, ‘They’re not family.’
It was said with the tone of someone who considered anyone non-family to be not worth spending any more time on than was considered polite. Regalia figured he needed to pick one of the two to begin his interviews since Suraj, the major-domo, was a blank, if courteous wall. He had his strengths, which would be handy at times. This was not one of those times.
Regalia took a deep breath and walked away from the hall, signaling to the police personnel to bring the lady and her spiky haired quarry individually to a side room.
Mrs. Pall shall be interviewed first, thought Regalia. Then the young man. He took a last look at the faces in the hall, moving about, talking, drinking cocktails, looking upset that the wedding had been abruptly ended. There was a long list of people that may need to be interviewed before he could let anyone go. He needed to call the Goddess and tell her that it was going to be one of those evenings for him.
To be continued…
photo from unsplash.com by Jonathan Borba