Page 43 of The Wedding Party

“Everyone at the hotel needs a quick look. I know it’s a lot, but there could be someone here with a connection to the party that I don’t know has a connection.”

“Agreed.”

“And Carrie and Oliver. I need everything there is to know about them.”

“Agreed again.”

We end with a plan for the investigators and a promise that Aiden will expedite my security checks, warrants, and DNA tests the best he can. The labs are not known for speed. But if I let Carrie go, and she did kill Oliver with a motive of jealousy, she might not be done killing.

In my mind, I need to know who sent that box. I also need to know what was inside, but who sent it leads me to the answer as well.

There’s no easy way to do that.

It goes back to basic investigative work. While I believe there are details that must be discovered here on-site, I also believe the missing pieces of the puzzle are back in Denver.

Therefore, the entire goal for the next few hours is for me to use our resources, which include a mix of twenty detectives and officers, to do initial interviews, confirm alibis, log contact information, and clear the hotel. Once I have the team at work, I pull York aside and fill him in on the box.

“Huh,” he says. “What the hell was in that box, and what does it have to do with murder?”

“Exactly,” I say. “What was in the box? But play this coy,” I add. “Don’t tell anyone it exists, but let’s see if we can get someone to bring it up.”

“Agreed,” he says. “I’ll talk to the team.”

“Actually,” I say, “I’ll talk to the main wedding party myself. Lana has only known Carrie six months, and she told her about the box. Let’s see who else she told. I’ll start with people who I assume to be closest to Carrie: her bridesmaids.”

Chapter Thirty-Six

Turns out the bridesmaids include Bianca, Sally, and Tabitha, the three women I met at drinks. And as one might expect under these circumstances, they’ve all gathered together in one room—room 418, where the ghostly children play and Sally and Bianca are sharing. I head in that direction without offering them a heads-up and knock on the door. Sally is quick to answer. She’s smaller than I first assessed, barely five feet, her dark bob cut in a perfect match to her jawline. And today, her bright-blue eyes are bloodshot.

“Hi,” she says softly. “Agent . . . I’m sorry, I only remember your first name.”

“Agent Castle,” I say.

“Agent Castle,” she repeats. “Please come in.”

She backs farther into the room, allowing me space to enter. I pause and step into the bathroom and look around, finding nothing of consequence before joining the three women in the main room. They’re all sitting on the edge of the bed, side by side, Bianca in the center, almost as if they’ve created a police lineup. All of them are in leggings and big shirts, makeup streaked on their faces.

I pull up the desk chair and sit down. “Is he really dead?” Sally asks, shoving her hair behind her ears.

I give a slow incline of my chin. “I’m sorry to report that yes, he is.”

The three of them look at each other, and Bianca seems to speak for them all. “You don’t think she did it, right?”

“Do you?” I ask, and that’s all it takes to set them on fire.

The lot of them all launch into a jumbled chatter of voices, but one message cuts through it all: Carrie would never hurt Oliver. “I’m telling you,” Bianca finishes for them, rambling in Spanish about demons before she adds, “if Carrie hurt him, it’s this hotel. Someone, or something, touched me down in those tunnels. This place is haunted.”

“She wouldn’t do this,” Sally adds. “She’s the most kind and patient person I know, even under extreme pressure.”

“Agreed,” Tabitha chimes in. “In two years in the ER with her, I’ve never seen her lose her cool, and I’ve seen her have plenty of reasons to do so. I don’t believe she’d hurt him.” She shakes her head in rejection. “No. There’s more to this story.”

“We did find her naked and covered in blood,” I supply, confirming what they probably already know.

“Was it her blood or his?” Sally queries. “Because she probably freaked out and tried to save him. When I worked ER way back when, we saw that all the time.”

“Very true,” Tabitha agrees. “Very true. And she adored him endlessly. I can’t imagine how she’d react to finding him injured and dying or, Lord forbid, dead.” She presses her hand to her belly. “I can barely even say the words.”

“Tell me how you all know Carrie?”