Chapter Text
"Alright so? What happened, that we have to be here so early?"
The young detective looked like they had just fallen out of bed. Dark, dusty brown hair still slightly messed up and the dress-shirt wrinkled. Their partner, a woman a couple years older than them with long copper-kissed hair and an perfect outfit, stood next to an police car.
The blue and red flashing lights reflecting in the puddles on the street. It had rained last night.
"Well- if you had been here on time, you could have heard it from the officers, who arrived here first. Or you could look it up online...there are more than enough videos on there, that we can not remove..."
The younger detective formed a silent oh with their mouth, as they followed past the brightly yellow crime-scene tape. The two walked through the door, flanked by two police men, their expressions stoic. If it was because of the slight drizzle or what was behind them...it was hard to tell.
Behind the door was a world of riches. Even in the entrance hall hung a giant chandelier. The floor was made from big marble plates, covered with a thick red carpet, that swallowed the sound of their footsteps. After that came a big open hall, that someone with an absurd amount of money might call a living room. There were multiple sofas and little tables, still filled with half empty champagne and wine glasses. There were even some fur-coats thrown over chairs, that apparently had been forgotten.
"Oh. Looks like they left pretty sudden...is there a buy two get three at the nearest Louis Vuitton?"
The young detective looked up at the older one for some sort of reaction, but they only looked straight ahead, their face scrunched together.
"Hmh. Hard Crowd today."
They stopped when they heard a cracking sound and felt something break under their feet. When they looked down they saw glass shards on the floor.
"What the-"
The, probably very expensive, carpet was darkened from spilled liquid.
"Honestly if my host all of a sudden dies while playing piano, I too would throw my champagne around. To be fair I would probably throw my champagne around anyway if I had to be in this capitalist paradise."
Kneeling on the floor, next to a middle aged man in an expensive suit was a woman. She wore a blue onesie, as to not contaminate the crime-scene. Around her neck hung a camera and next to her stood a box filled with equipment.
The older detective took a deep breath, steeling herself for the conversation that was about to happen.
"The victim. What can you tell us?"
The blonde leaned back to let the two detectives look at the man lying there.
"Someone hasn´t got their morning coffee yet. But yes. Lia, Celine let me introduce both of you to Eric van Deron.
As you can probably guess by the name, his money was earned by generations and he is living the life.
He is known for being the chairman in some big pharma, for his lavishing parties and for being a pretty good pianist.
Well he was known. Until today at 2.34 am, when he died of poison."
The woman fixed her glasses and looked up at the two. Lia, the older one, shook her head.
"Thanks for the verysubliminal preaching about generational wealth. Do you already know how and with what he was poisoned?"
The doctor shook her head.
"With the strong swelling of mouth an throat region I assume it has been consumed orally. So with food or a drink.
The whatis a lot more difficult. I can tell you a couple things it is not. But you will have to wait for the autopsy to get anything real."
The younger one nodded, avoiding eye contact with the victim, his eyes wide open, making him look eerie.
"Wait. How did you know the exact time? I mean the minute? Sounds a bit insane."
Before the ME could respond Lia had grabbed her phone and pulled up a video, showing it to the other.
The video showed the party.
It showed a young girl, maybe 20 and clearly more than tipsy stumbling around the room. Multiple other guest were seen, each of them in outfits worth more than most peoples monthly income. With the chat running along on the bottom of the screen it looked like a live stream. Then the camera turned around to show the stage, where the victim sat in front of a piano, playing some classical piece.
Around him stood guests with champagne flutes in their hands, some filming him, others talking quietly.
Then all of a sudden the man stopped moving, looking around with panic. He opened his mouth and stood up, only to fall backwards, foaming at the mouth and shaking for maybe a minute, before he fully stopped moving. In the background screams and the shattering of glass got louder. Someone was calling an ambulance.
The video stopped and for a second Celine could see their reflection in the phone.
They looked tired. Lia put the phone back into her pocket, turning to the woman next to the victim.
"Are you alright here on your own? Some of the party guests have agreed to not hide behind lawyers and answer some questions for us."
"Yeah. I´ll be fine. I will load him up and then take him to the lab to find your poison. The officers will have to basically bag everything here. They are going to love it."
She smiled and waved at the two, turning back to the victim. Lia turned around, tugging at the sleeve of her partner.
"Come on. The others are probably waiting."
Celine groaned and followed her, careful looking at the ground this time.
"Why did we have to come here? When the police is looking after the crime scene anyways."
"Because you are still in training and it is important to get the vibe from the place of the murder and the first guesses from the medical team, since they can give you some ideas for the interviews."
Celine looked less impressed, as they dragged themself towards Lia´s car.
"Can we stop for coffee? Pleaseee?"