Returner Fantasy-Chapter 175: Murder - Part 8

"What’s the meaning of this, detective?"

Not only the PoruMerc Women’s Division producer, Gary, who asked the question to Luke, but everyone else—Cindy’s new photographer Keny, her assistant Rose, the PoruMerc security guard Jaxon, and the two male models Sam and Theo—had the same question in mind as to why they had all been gathered at the hotel lobby.

There were other people around them—hotel staff, models, and crew—yet only they were isolated, guarded by police officers while seated on the sofa.

"Just what the fuc’ is going on, Luke?"

Even Luke’s senior detective, Rowan, had no idea about the current situation. In fact, he had no idea about the progress of the investigation into Cindy’s murder, nor that Jess and Jeff were the main suspects.

After all, he had been busy getting intimate with the female model he managed to hook up with. He even came to the gathering not in his uniform but in a bathrobe, making it obvious to the other dozen police officers that he had been in the middle of intimacy when he was called.

"I’ll explain everything once Ms. Lena arrives. For now, the six of you are not allowed to leave this place."

It was the only response Luke gave as he sat in front of the six suspects.

"Are you suspecting that one of us is the killer?" Gary said as he stood up in anger.

"What the heck?"

"We don’t even know that girl!"

Sam and Theo complained and then tried to leave, only to be stopped by the police officers, who threatened to arrest them if they did not cooperate with the investigation.

"I’m her boyfriend, so why would I kill Cindy?" Keny said, earning doubtful looks due to his claim.

Rose, meanwhile, stayed in her seat, holding back her cries and tears.

"If you don’t have any evidence, then you can’t do this to us!" Jaxon said, pointing out that Luke was not following proper police procedure—and he was right.

Luke didn’t have any evidence at all. What he had were nothing but assumptions and speculation given by Jeff and supported by Lena.

He was playing a game of lies and bluffs—but it was a gamble he was willing to take. After all, he wasn’t the only one playing, and he wouldn’t back down knowing Jeff was betting Jess’s future on the line.

"Are you trying to get me in trouble, Luke?!"

Rowan approached Luke to confront him, grabbing his uniform to intimidate him.

Luke, however, simply pulled out another taser and shot Rowan in the exposed gut, causing him to collapse on the floor and wet his bathrobe.

"Take him out of here and ask the hotel staff to clean the floor."

"Yes, sir!"

The other police officers followed Luke’s instructions without showing any concern for Rowan.

While waiting for Lena to arrive, the chatter from the crowd about who the real killer was only made the six suspects more anxious—and that was all part of the game they were playing, a strategy meant to force the opponent to panic and make a mistake.

After an hour, Lena finally arrived via the elevator together with several PoruMerc staff.

That was when Lena put down her card and called the first lie and bluff.

"Please arrest Mr. Keny, detective," Lena said, causing loud chatter from the crowd.

"What?! I told you! I’m not the one who killed Cindy!"

Keny abruptly stood up from his seat and stepped back from the two police officers approaching him.

"This isn’t about Cindy’s murder, but something else," Lena said, continuing her lie.

"We searched your room and found a data storage device containing this."

In Lena’s hands was a tablet, and on its screen was a photo of a female model and her boyfriend getting intimate in a dimly lit park.

It was a bluff, of course. She hadn’t found any data storage in Keny’s room—she hadn’t even searched it. She deliberately used the term data storage to avoid specifying whether it was an SD card or a USB.

The scandalous photo had been taken by her staff, and the female model and her boyfriend had volunteered to fabricate the lie. All of it was meant to force Keny to confess what he was really doing on the night of Cindy’s death.

What else would a photographer exploring the island at night do if not take secret shots of people sneaking around for the thrill of intimacy in the dark outdoors? That was the only reason no one had seen him outside—or so Jeff had told Lena and Luke.

Keny, of course, wasn’t foolish enough to leave his camera’s data storage lying around in his room or camera. But in his panic, he instinctively touched his I.D., letting Luke know where he had hidden it.

—"GET THAT FREAKING BASTARD!"—

Everyone—the models, the crew, and even the PoruMerc staff who had gone to the park the night before to feel the thrill of intimacy in the dark—became enraged at the thought that they had been among Keny’s victims.

Keny shoved aside the two police officers who were about to restrain him with handcuffs, then rushed out of the hotel in a desperate and futile attempt to escape.

That was when Jess sent him stumbling to the ground with a plastic water bottle that struck the back of his head.

---

"Your group was late, Jeff. The interrogation already started."

"We’re just spectators. We don’t exactly need to be there, right?"

"You and Jess are still the main suspects, idiot."

The police dragged Keny back inside the hotel despite him acting severely injured.

Mira and Mina thought the police would complain about what Jess had done, yet somehow they said nothing.

What was even more surprising was the reaction of the crowd that had chased Keny outside.

Even Jess and Jeff expected them to be frightened by Jess’s violent tendencies, but instead, they thanked her for stopping him.

"Why am I getting praised?"

"We’ll know once we get inside. Let’s go, Jess."

---

Just as Jeff had assumed, Keny confessed that he planned to use the scandalous photos to blackmail his victims for money, which was why he never used them to prove his alibi and clear his name as a suspect.

While Luke searched Keny for the data storage, Jeff sat at a corner table in the hotel lobby, enjoying the show with Jess seated on his lap as Mira and Mina sat on either side of him.

Jeff’s next speculation was nothing more than a gut feeling that struck him the first time he heard the suspects’ alibis from Luke.

Jess, however, shared the same thought through her intuition.

"Those two were definitely sword-fighting last night," she whispered in response to Jeff asking her opinion.

—"Huh?"—

As Mira and Mina nagged Jess and Jeff for an explanation, Luke handed the SD card to Lena.

Inside the SD card was another piece of alibi evidence that reduced the number of suspects. As Lena scanned the photos on her tablet, she suddenly shifted her gaze toward Sam and Theo. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

The two male models simply nodded in response, admitting what she had seen and silently begging her to keep quiet.

With Sam and Theo crossed off the list of suspects, only Gary, Jaxon, and Rose remained.

The game continued, and this time it was Luke’s turn to put down his card and call the second lie and bluff.

At Luke’s signal through his smartphone, two more police officers entered the hotel lobby through the front door. They were both carrying flashlights, and their pants were soaked—not with piss like Rowan’s, but because they had supposedly come from a night search at the beach.

Of course, it was another lie. The officers had been hiding outside, waiting for Luke’s signal, before soaking their pants with water from a faucet hose and making their entrance.

"We found the thief, sir."

"Or rather, we found Mr. Rico’s corpse at the beach."

The report sparked even louder chatter from the crowd, but what mattered most were the reactions of the remaining three suspects upon hearing about another death—especially Cindy’s ex-boyfriend.

One was confused.

Another was scared.

And the last was anxious.

Their reactions proved Jeff’s third speculation: the underwear thief had been working with the killer and was murdered to silence him. That was why the police couldn’t find him—they had been searching for someone alive rather than a corpse.

With only a few hours between Cindy’s death and the discovery of her body, the killer wouldn’t have had enough time to bury a second body.

Therefore, the only place to hide it would be to throw—or rather, sink—the corpse in the ocean, only for it to eventually resurface.

Or so the bluff went.

That was all Jeff could give Luke.

From here on, Jeff was betting Jess’s future on Luke’s cards, believing he would win the game of lies and bluffs against the fool, the killer, and the guilty who would provide the single evidence left needed to solve Cindy’s murder.