The Case of the Secret Gems (P.Du Sang Mystery) Finale

Twelve O’clock
 
The library at Valhalla Road was filled with not only books but the suspects.
 
“I know you all do not see why you have been gathered here instead of the police department.” Vine said as she paced looking at all of them.
 
“This is ridiculous.” Mr. Barker said as he approached the detective.
 
“Sit down Mr. Barker.” Vine said, “Give me a moment and all will be revealed.”
 
“Mr. Anastos. You knew Ms. Arkwright more than you let on?”
 
“Excuse me?” He said as sat strain in his chair.
 
“Yes, you are openly gay, but you were not in the past, correct?” Vine stated.
 
“Well, I was just figuring things---”
 
“You loved Ms. Arkwright and her spurning you pushed you to come to grips with reality of your sexuality.” Vine said as she kept her eyes on him.
 
“What does that have to do with this?” Filo said looking at everyone.
 
“You found out that Ms. Arkwright had slept with your current lover.”
 
Everyone looked at Filo with shock.
 
“Yes, I did find out and we are separated.”
 
“But you stormed to her home that night and threatened to kill her and you said you would never be caught.” Correct.
 
“That was out of anger. I never would have done it. Where did you get this information?” He began to cry into a handkerchief.
 
“Good arrest him let me go back to work.” Mr. Barkers said looking at his watch.
 
“Mr. Bradley Barker. You had a similar incident. Just that you did not come out of the closet until Ms. Arkwright caught you in a compromising position. Is that not, correct?”
 
“I am not gay---”
 
“No, you are not but you like the risker side of life, and she has it on film. We’ve acquired that video.” Vile said looking at him.
 
“I hate that old witch of a woman. So, what? That proves nothing.”
 
“No but the threatening texts you sent to her about killing her she did not erase.”
 
“She pushed me over the edge. I could lose my job if those photos are out in the open.”
 
Vine looked at him and raised an eyebrow.
 
“Emily Arkwright. There is nothing here but dependency. You need her money because you have none of your own. She told you to go get an education and you left and got married to a drug user. That is currently incarcerated for life.”
 
Emily's face turned beat red.
 
“How do you know this? No one knew of it.” She whispered in disbelief.
 
“Finally Rose Ocampo. Better Yet Hailey Rose Ocampo. The half-sister of Hayley Arkwright.”
 
“That is ridiculous. She is not a relative.” Emily said as she looked at the woman.
 
“Yes, Emily. I am Hayley’s half-sister. She found out when we were seventeen. Her mother and mine were due at around the same time. My mother passed away and our father took me in as Hayley’s assistant. No one questioned him as to why she would need an assistant at seventeen.
 
She hated me because our father kept comparing us. She made go by the name Rose. To keep the peace between us I agreed to it. I stayed until I was twenty and I had gotten married. But my husband was killed on duty. He was in the army, so I came back. Our father passed away a little bit after that, but he left money for me that Hayley used to blackmail me to stay with her. Somehow, she had control of the money, and I had no way of fighting her for it.
 
She paid for my daughter’s education and then she decided one day to tell me to leave. She cut me off, but she set up a nail salon for me to have saying that is all I was worth anyway.” Rose looked at her hands as if looking at the shocked faces of the people in the room was too much to bear.
 
“That does not prove she killed her,” Filo said.
 
“No, it doesn’t. She’s the only one who would not have done it, but—”
 
The door opened and Rose’s daughter walked in.
 
“Mum, are you alright?” Ava asked as she ran to her mother.
 
“She is.” Vine said as Ava barged into the room. “Once Ava found out about the family history and what her aunt put her mother through. That was not what pushed her over the edge. It was her being cut off from her education abroad.”
 
Ava looked at everyone in the room. She did not understand how she had gotten involved in this.
 
“Hayley found out that you were following in your mother's footsteps and was seeing a military man. Is that correct, Ava?”
 
She did not answer. She stood there looking at the detective as she continued.
 
“She sent you a letter stating that was your last term and you were going to return home to take care of your mother. In anger, you told your lover, and he gave you something very illegal but extremely hard to trace.”
 
“What could that be? The military are extremely strict with their people.” Bradley said.
 
“SARIN. Created by the English military. It is odorless and tasteless. Absorbs into the skin between one to ten minutes causes asphyxiation.”
 
“This is just speculation.” Emily said,” You need proof, or else she is free. I may not like her, but I cannot see her doing anything like that. She was always sweet to us.”
 
“Detective I have it.” An officer came in with a small jar in a zip-lock bag.
 
“Here is your proof. This is what killed Hayley Arkwright.”
 
“That is just hand cream,” Emily said
 
“Not just hand cream. Expensive British hand cream was given to Ms. Arkwright as a gift from Ava Ocampo for her birthday. It’s been tested at the office, and you are under arrest.”
 
The police arrested her on the spot. The room fell silent.
 
“Where are the earrings? They are still missing maybe she stole them.”
 
“I know where they are. That nail salon has been creating all these new nail art with gems on them. I bet Ava hid it on one of those nails.” Emily said.
 
They all looked at her.
 
“What wouldn’t you hide it there?”
 
Ava looked at them all and said, “I may have killed her, but I am no thief.” The officers walked her out of the room. Rose stood and was about to walk out after her when the detective stopped her.
 
“Ms. Ocampo, would you have any idea where those earrings could be? You were close to her for so many years. Anything at all.” Vine asked.
 
“She had a routine before going to bed.” She wiped her tears from her face which was a shade of pink. She shook her head.
 
“Why don’t we go to her bedroom and maybe something will trigger your memory.”
 
“That’s the least you can do,” Emily said. At this point, the room was turning against her, and she did not care.
 
They went into Hayley’s extravagant bedroom. The room was the color of pearl and carpet wall to wall. She had a queen-sized bed with an expensive quilt on it, With five pillows at the head of it. Beside the bed was a nightstand with a silver dish and a Tiffany lamp on it. Across from the bed was a fireplace. She had a small round table at the window and sheer drapes at the window. Rose walked inside looking at it as if she were reliving something from the past.
 
“She would change her clothes by the bed.” She began playing out the scene.
 
“Then she would take her jewelry off and put it in a dish next to her bed. Usually, at that time she would ask me to play a game of hide and seek.”
 
“This is ridiculous grown women playing hide and seek,” Bradley said.
 
“Go on,” Vine said.
 
“Well, we were too old to play it physically so she would hide an item and I would have to find it before she was finished cleaning the makeup off her face.”
 
Rose went on to mimic what Hayley would do during her night routine and when she went to the bathroom, they all just watched.
 
“Did you remember anything?” Vine asked
 
“I know where the earrings are. They are in this room.”
 
“That is ridiculous. We went through this whole room, and no one found anything. You must be mistaken.”
 
Rose smiled as a tear streamed down her cheek.
 
“You see the best place to hide anything is in plain sight.”
 
They all looked around the room and still could not find anything.
 
“Enough old lady where are they,” Emily yelled.
 
Rose went back to the bed reached over to the Tiffany lamp pulled two jade earrings off and placed it in her hand.
 
Everyone in the room was stunned that the earrings were right in front of them the whole time and the only two people who could have known it had to be sisters.
 
Vine took the earring to the station and told everyone that it would be returned to the owner once the will was read. Then she left.
 
“She had help with this. It was too intricate for her to solve it alone.” Bradley said.
 
Filo and Emily agreed but they did not say another word.
 
One Week later
 
“Lance, are you ready to go to the game?”
 
“Polly you are so annoying. I have a date and I managed to get you one.”
 
“Let me guess, Nate.”
 
“Correct.”
 
Nate walked into the room as he usually did. Very collected and calm.
 
“How did you do it?” Nate asked
 
“What?” Pauline said
 
“Solve the case. I know you did it. I met Vine she’s too new at the game to figure it out.”
 
“Well, she surprised everyone then.”
 
“Not going to say a word, Polly.”
 
“Don’t call me that. You lost your right to call me by that name a long time ago.”
 
“Lance your right to call me by that name is almost gone as well. Goodbye.”
 
“No game?” Lance asked
 
Pauline walked out of the room again. Leaving the men watching.
 
“Lance there is always a game with her," Nate said.