46. Lowri
LOWRI
W e’re all in a foul mood as we traipse to the theater. I’m pissed that Fielder is being secretive about his suspect, not to mention he’s dissing the Athena’s security. Sean’s worried about the hotel’s reputation, and Fielder is grumbling about the lack of respect for authority.
Sean’s perfected the art of walking and texting. I assume he’s alerting Daniel to the situation, but I doubt that’s required. A bunch of police officers lurking about wouldn’t go undetected by the massive camera system in the Athena. Daniel should already be on his way to the theater.
I know I’m right when Sean shows me his phone’s display.
Sean: Police are going to arrest performer for murder. Get to the theater NOW!
Daniel: Already on my way. Who is being arrested?
Sean: It’s apparently a secret. Don’t let anyone leave the theater. Make sure all exits are covered.
Daniel: Will do.
I nod. As we continue walking, Fielder makes a call. I strain to overhear the conversation he’s having with his team. His short one-word responses aren’t helpful.
“Mr. Cartwright, everyone’s in place. Call off your security. We don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
“I will not. My security is here to make sure none of my employees or guests are hurt when you attempt to arrest someone you refuse to identify. We could easily arrange to detain the person if only you would work with us. Given your stubbornness, I have no choice but to have my team protect our people,” Sean says.
“Fine. We’ll coordinate with Daniel. You and Lowri stay a safe distance back. This person has already killed once. We don’t know what they will do in response to our attempt to arrest them.”
Fielder places another call to his team and arranges for them to explain the plan to Daniel.
We enter the theater through a side entrance near the stage.
Our presence is obscured by the booming music and the darkness of the seating areas.
The only light focuses on the two performers on stage.
Reese and Amelia are rehearsing an acrobatic scene where they dance together high above the stage, each supported by their limbs entwined in silks. They’re mesmerizing to watch.
Suddenly, the music stops, the house lights turn on, and at least ten police officers and Athena security guards storm the stage while Reese and Amelia dangle from their silks.
“What the hell is going on?” Reese yells.
“I’m Detective Fielder and these are members of the Las Vegas police department. We need you both to slowly lower yourself to the stage.”
“Why? What’s wrong?” Amelia asks.
“It will be easier to talk when we don’t have to yell. Please come down,” Fielder says in a calm, but firm, voice.
The acrobats comply and both are immediately restrained by the officers. That’s confusing.
I watch as panic crosses both their faces, and they writhe, trying to free themselves from their captors. Which one is being arrested? Are they both involved?
Hearing the click of metal, my gaze goes to the steel handcuffs clinching around Amelia’s delicate wrists. As she screams in horror, an officer begins reciting her rights. “You are being arrested for the murder of Mr. Brentwood. You have the right to remain silent …”
“I didn’t kill anyone. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Let me go,” she pleads as her anger turns to tears.
In a separate conversation, the officer holding Reese releases him. “Sorry to hold you, sir. We couldn’t risk you getting in the way of us arresting her.”
Reese looks shell-shocked as he shakes his head and mutters, “No problem. I’m not feeling well. This is too much.”
“You’re free to go. Grab your stuff and exit via the main entrance to the theater, if you don’t mind,” the officer says.
“Yeah. Okay,” Reese says and hurries away.
Detective Fielder joins Sean and me as Amelia is hauled away.
“Where are they taking her?” I ask.
“We want to question her while she is still shaken by the arrest. Can Daniel arrange for us to do an initial interview in one of your security offices? Then we can transport her to the station.”
“Of course, provided that you don’t object to Lowri, Daniel, and me listening.”
“As Ms. Upton reminded me, it is your hotel,” he says with a slight smile before continuing, “And Mr. Cartwright, please forgive me for not sharing that it was Amelia we were here to arrest. We had tried to corner Amelia at her apartment this morning, but she slipped out a back way. We were surprised she made a stop here on her way out of town. We couldn’t risk her avoiding us again,” Fielder says.
“Why would she come here if she was making a run for it?” I ask.
“We don’t know. My officers saw her fill her trunk with bags. That led us to believe she planned to leave Vegas today.”
“I get it, but we’ve worked well together in the past. You could have trusted us,” Sean says.
“Yes, but we couldn’t afford to lose time while I explained everything to you.”
“Are you going to tell us why you think she did it?” I ask.
“I don’t think she did it. I know she’s responsible. It turns out she had been dating Mr. Brentwood, and they had a major breakup when she found out he was also dating someone else.”
“That must have been Mr. Galanis.”
“We don’t have a name, but we know he was dating a man.”
“Amelia turned up in some photos with Galanis on social media. They must have met through Brentwood. Why was Brentwood at the show if he and Amelia had broken up?”
“We believe she had already given him the ticket and decided to use the opportunity to put an end to him.”
“Do you think she was the one in the baseball cap, causing all the accidents?”
“We do. She has the right build, and the blonde strands of hair that show from under the cap look like hers. When she was backstage between scenes, she would’ve had plenty of time to loosen the screws in the tree’s platform.
We believe she’s the one on video with the screwdriver.
She knew Mr. Brentwood would end up on stage. It made it easy to exact revenge.”
“What about the earlier accidents? Why would she have hurt all the other performers?”
“Overall, those incidents resulted in minor injuries. We believe she staged those, hoping that when Brentwood was killed, it would look like another of many accidents that were occurring in an unsafe environment.”
“She couldn’t be sure he would die. If his necktie hadn’t caught, he would have fallen about ten feet and likely only ended up hurt, not dead,” Sean says.
“It’s quite possible that she only wanted to injure him as punishment for what he had done to her. Instead, it went sideways, and he died from the intended accident . Regardless, the result was murder.”
“It’s hard to believe she would do this. When I interviewed her, she appeared open and honest in her answers,” I say.
“Criminals are often believable.”
“You’re not saying she’s an experienced criminal. You’re saying this was revenge gone wrong,” I point out.
“We’re still investigating her past. Who knows what will turn up? The good news is that we have the murderer in custody and your theater can reopen.”
“That is the best news I’ve heard in a long time,” Sean says.
“Now let’s see if Amelia will fill in a few gaps in this mystery,” Fielder remarks.
If we’re lucky, she’ll also shed light on what is going on with Mr. Galanis and his fake attorney.