“Hey officers, I’m detective Morningstar.” I said. Both police officers winced when I said my last name. “You can just call me Tom. I have the suspect and primary witness here.” I said waving for them to follow me.
“Hey, thank you all for gathering I just had a quick question and then you can give the officers your statements.” In front of me was Antonio, Ruppert Alfred, Abigail, Dylan, Haluk and Vi. I pulled out my phone and showed them the app. “As I was going through the scene of the accident and trying to understand how this happened, I came across a few things that seemed odd and I don’t have the explanation, so I’m hoping that you guys can help me out.”
I walked over to the stage light, “At first, I thought this was a simple accident because stage lights fall all the time and Ray could have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. But then something didn’t quite add up, so just to satisfy my curiosity I went and started asking questions. I first assumed that Alfred would have been the one to do it. According to everyone he hated Ray, and I overheard him threatening his life during the intermission over his subpar performance. “
“You think it was me!?” Alfred gasped. “I have trouble killing spiders let alone killing a man.”
“I did until I saw the logs, only Vi and Abigail were up there this entire day. Abigail was also a possible suspect because she supposedly has a past of violent behavior towards her partners. She may have caught wind that Ray was going to break up with her and lashed out because of it, and that’s why I wasn’t surprised to see Abigail’s name was the last person to enter the stage light area 5 minutes before Ray’s big speech.”
“No, it couldn’t have been me I was in the dressing room reapplying my make up before I took the stage! Plus, I would have never hurt Ray we were going to have a discussion and then go back to being steady.” Abigail said in a panic. “There were other girls in there they are my witnesses. We share key cards all the time, I know were not supposed to, but someone probably couldn’t find theirs, so they borrowed mine.” Everyone shook their heads agreeing with her.
“That’s also right, so that just leaves Vi.” Everyone looked at me horrified. Tears started to well up once again in Vi’s eyes.
“You think Ray’s own sister murdered him?” Ruppert said “It’s like Abigail said, somebody probably just used her key card to fix the light, and the stupid technicians didn’t properly install it. It was an accident, case closed, let’s move on.”
“I didn’t want to believe it either, but all the evidence stacks against her but if the person with the key card and show it and it’s not Vi then we can rule this as an accident, and you will be getting juicy bankrupt worthy check form the stage light installation company.” I said looking directly at Vi. The tears started to stream down her face. I really hope I’m right otherwise I am going to feel like a total asshole for being too direct.
Vi reached into her pocket and showed a key card. The picture was of Abigail on it with her name underneath. Everyone turned towards her, their eyes were wide, and their mouths were open. Alfred fainted and started to fall but Antonio caught him just before he hit the ground.
Thank God I was right. Huh I guess the saying blood does not always guarantee love was actually true.
After a silence that felt like an eternity Dylan was the first to break it “Bu…bu…but why?”
“I never meant for him to die, I just wanted for him to get hurt.” Vi said falling to the floor crying. No one walked over to comfort her this time. After a moment passed, she continued
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“I was so angry with him when he said all those things about my grandfather. He was truly the closest person to me and my best friend. He loved the live performances and movies, and he’d always wanted to be in one live performance. But the opportunity never came to him even though he tried when he was younger, so that is why he was so ecstatic when we shared the same passion for film and live performances. My dream was for him to see me on the big screen from some high paying Hollywood movie.”
Vi started to stand up and wiped some of the tears from her eyes, “As your probably aware Ray was not my biological brother since he was Dio-Star, and my last name was just Dio.”
“Oh wow, Vi Dio killed the Ray Dio star.” The officer with the mustache said.
Ah that’s the song I was thinking of earlier.
Vi ignored this comment and continued. “I didn’t know my mother for too long before she passed since I was only 8, but my mother’s grandfather made an active effort with raising and taking care of me because I looked just like his daughter and is wife that passed away when I was born. Then a few years later when I was in high school dad married another woman, my current stepmom, and she brought Ray from a previous marriage.”
Tears started to pour out of Vi’s eyes again, “So when he died in that tragic accident, I was heartbroken, I’d lost the only connection to my mother’s side, my best friend, and my dream of him saying I’m proud of you when he saw me on the Hollywood screen.” Vi’s voice had been shaky as she talked.
“You murdered your brother because he’s the reason that your grandfather died?” Haluk said.
“No, I didn’t want to kill him, I wanted to just hurt him and embarrass him. He only got into acting after our grandfather passed, he’d only showed a little interest before the accident, so it was confusing when he started coming to me for tips. Then he was able to get into a broad way performance before me, but it made sense I would see him practicing every night after we had a full day of practicing, he was usually the last to leave. So, he earned it. But what sent me over the edge was when he was making all those disrespectful jokes in front of me when during that party. I wanted to drop the light on him so that it would ruin his dreams of being on Broadway just like my dreams were taken away when our grandfather passed away.” Vi said held one of her elbows and stared at the ground. “When the light did fall, I thought he was alright at first so I pretended to cry the best I could, but when it really set in that I killed him that’s when I regretted ever coming up with the plan.”
“You idiot!” With wide eyes we all looked over to Dylan, “Ray may have been a dickhead about everything, but after the death his grandfather it deeply affected him. We had to make a rule in our DND nights not to go to the beach or water themed events because Ray would get emotional and cry.”
“Dylan’s right I said we should have a beach date. But he was absolutely against it because of what happened with his grandfather.”
“I didn’t know that I thought he was still going to the beach, surfing was one of his favorite things to do.” Vi said solemnly.
“Also just to note, Ray was looking to buy the theatre.” Ruppert said.
Alfred who fainted from Vi’s confession suddenly jolted to life. “He was going to do what!”
“Yes, he was going to buy this theatre in honor of your grandfather. He wanted to make it up to him and you somehow that’s why he pushed himself to exhaustion by working 2 other jobs on third shift and saving all his money.:”
“What that’s not true Ray said that he was going out partying every time I asked him where he was going at night.”
“He would practice here after everyone left and then go whatever job he was scheduled to work that night. He told me not to tell you because he wanted it to be a surprised. We completed the paperwork on Monday and the name change would have been official next Friday. It was supposed to be a surprise.”
Vi burst into tears “What have I done!” She said through her tears. She ran to the body of her brother falling to his side. Here loud sobs were muffled as he faces buried in her now deceased brother.
We all stood there for a moment letting her cry over the colossal mistake she made. Something was strange. It was very subtle, But Vi’s eyes flickered a grassy green just for a brief moment.
I’ve seen that flicker before with Raj at the hotel. I wonder what’s causing that?
