They give us the key to the only suite there, even though we only intend to use the bathroom. Lucy sits down on the toilet to pee before she joins me in the shower.

“We should stay here a few days,” she says as she changes place with me under the running water. I tell her I don't think it's a good idea. I just want to go home.

After the shower, before I put my clothes back on, I crouch down and open the mini bar. There's snack, a champagne bottle, two beers, red wine and Voss. Except for the Voss they're all size pathetic. I take the two beer bottles out.
“Everyone does it anyway,” I say as I hand one to Lucy. She giggles.

When we go back downstairs, Rowe meets up with us outside the conference room.

“You were right about the fingerprints,” he says and gives me a small plastic bag with a black cylindrical object in it.

“Of course,” Lucy says, and Rowe gives her a hurt look.

“We didn't check those things,” he says. “I mean, why would we?”

The three of us walk in to the room. Mona, Bethany and Aron are seated around the table. A police man is standing by them with his arms crossed. Bethany gets up from her chair when she sees us. “Hey, Jim,” she says, and Lucy snickers.

I ignore the young girl, and she sits down, embarrassed, but now I'm thinking maybe spending a few days here isn't such a bad idea after all. We sit down in the sofa, and Lucy pulls her feet up under herself and leans on me. Almost ostentatiously, I think. That's interesting.

“You know,” I say, looking at the three suspects, “there's a lesson to learn here. Anyone know what it is? Aron?”

“Huh?” he says startled.

“It's; Don't believe everything you read in the papers,” I say. There's no reactions. Mona has been chewing on her bottom lip the whole time, and I can't really tell if she's abashed or angry.

“Fine,” I say. “Last night, Bethany went up to Diana's room with her supper. Diana opened the door and invited her in. They sat down and talked as Diana ate her toast and drank her orange juice. Suddenly they were overcome with lust for one another. They had sex, the way they both liked it; rough, while choking each other. Bethany used her silk scarf on Diana, and before it was over, Diana was dead.”

“Or at least,” I say after a brief pause, standing up. I look at Bethany and for just a split second I wish I had chosen a different approach. Her face is as white as the wall behind her, and her breath is wheezing through her nose. She looks as if she's about to pass out.

“At least,” I continue, “that's how you wanted us to see it, isn't it Aron?”

He flinches as if I've thrown a knife at him.

“Because the truth is,” I say.

Tiny drops of sweat show up on every single pore on his forehead as I carry on, talking directly to him this time. “Then you just went back to work,” I say. “As if nothing had happened. But you weren't done yet, because you couldn't be the last one the camera saw going upstairs. So you called the kitchen and told them Diana had called you and that she wanted something to eat. You knew it would be Bethany bringing it to her. You knew she would think Diana was asleep and just leave the food there. And you knew Bethany would stay up there for a while. Everyone does, right?”

He's staring down at the table and both his hands are closed in tight fists, his knuckles turning white.

“You wanted Diana Doll dead,” I say. “And you wanted Bethany to go down for it. Diana Doll, who liked girls and got off on being choked. And Bethany, who likes to play rough, sometimes choking for longer than she should.

Then this morning, you went back to Diana's room. To make sure no one would believe Bethany when she said Diana was asleep when she got there, because that could mean she was actually dead. And so you ate her toast and drank her juice. But of course,” I say and throw the plastic bag Rowe had given me on the table. They all jump at the knock the lipstick inside makes as it hits the table top. “Not before you had put her lipstick on you. Because Diana Doll always has her makeup on, right? Even in bed.

Well, you should have checked, you would have seen how her lips were blue this morning. Not red. Diana couldn't put her makeup on with a broken right wrist.

And then finally, when the police arrived, you walked up to Bethany and gave her a nice, long, comforting hug, as you slipped her scarf off without her even noticing it.”

-

Five minutes later we're in the lobby. Aron is being taken away in handcuffs and Rowe is shaking my hand for the third time.

“Let's hope I don't have to call you again for a long time,” he says. “You know, you two should stay here a few days. It's usually a nice, quiet place.”

When he leaves, Lucy pulls at my arm and nods towards the reception desk. Bethany is standing there, looking at us.
We go to her.