We left the foyer while the funeral director and his workers began the funeral process for Ania. We all moved to the one of the nearest sitting rooms. Rue sat in a love seat with her elbows on her knees, hands across her mouth and leg shaking. August stood in the corner of the room staring at the ground with his arms crossed with one hand over his mouth, tapping his foot, probably question where he went wrong in his parenting. The detective sat on the couch across from Rue, staring at her, ready to interrogate, even with the sorrow painted across her face. Zofia was next to her on the couch, looking no better than her father. Her hair was wild, and eyes were bloodshot from crying all day. Officer broody stood behind the couch with a pen and notepad in hand, ready to take notes of the events. I stood near the door next to Bennet and Officer Clark. Everyone in the room waited and wondered what reason Rue could have for doing such a thing.

I leaned over to Bennet, “Random question,” I whispered.

“Sure, what’s up?” Bennet replied.

“What is the purpose of a sitting room? I mean, you can sit anywhere in a room. Why have designated space for it?”

“To be fairly honest, Master Tom, when homeowners have an extra room, they don’t really know what to do with. They just make up things to fill the space and seem cool.”

“Oh, that makes sense.”

Sitting back in her chair, Rue took a deep breath. “Okay, so um… I guess I should start from the beginning.” Rue didn’t make eye contact with the detective as she kept her eyes on the ground. “So, during our mother’s funeral, I didn’t really know how to handle the service, so I went outside for a smoke. It was raining, so I stood close to the building underneath a piece of roof that was overhanging. I forgot my lighter, but it was so much to stand there instead of going back inside.”

“’Want some company?’ someone said, walking up to me. Walking towards me was a man in a suit with an umbrella. He smiled with a cigarette hanging from his mouth. He was incredibly handsome, so of course I let him stand with me.”

“’You wouldn’t have a light, would you?’ I asked, pulling out my pack of cigarettes.”

“” Of course,’ he said, taking a lighter out of his pocket and lighter and lighting it. I leaned in close. He smelled of fresh bread that had just come out of the oven. I don’t know why, but it was so hot.”

I looked at Bennet and raised an eyebrow. Even though he didn’t look at me, I could see this wasn’t the strangest thing he heard from the come out of that girl’s mouth.

“I honestly loved talking to him. He mostly just listened to me, so I didn’t really find out much about him but, honestly, that trait to just be supportive and listening is so rare to find these days that I knew he was my absolute soul mate. He had like the cutest muffin cufflinks, and you know that shows that he pays attention to the little things, you know. But it also means that if I were to cut my hair by a cm, he would like totally to notice because the guy who wears cufflinks kind of just gets it. Not to mention that he wears cute cufflinks, that shows he’s in touch with his feminine side and that’s like so valuable because…” Rue continued to fangirl about the guy for at least another five minutes.

“Rue, let’s get to the point,” Detective Rose said, “were all trying to understand why you poisoned your sister.

Rue cleared her throat. “You’re right, sorry.” Rue lifted her feet into the chair so that she sat with her legs crossed in the chair. “So we’re hitting it off and then we heard the doors open. They were carrying out the casket. Before he walked away, he said his condolences and that duty calls. Before I could ask him for his number, Ania grabbed my arm crying saying were heading to the burial and if she could ride with me. Of course, I agreed, but to give me a minute to ask for the guy’s number. However, when I turned around, he was nowhere in sight.”

Rue took a deep breath and continued. I searched for days to figure out who the man was and how he knew mom. Countless hours of looking through the guest attendance, to no avail. I spent countless hours looking through the craters, but I didn’t see any that had actual staff present. They all simply dropped off the food. I also asked the funeral director, but he didn’t have any clue who he was, and he didn’t work for him. So, I came up with the reasonable solution. If there was another death in the family, he would definitely show up. So, since Ania ruined my chances with him, she needed to be the necessary sacrifice.”

My eyes grew wide as I heard her master plan. I could see this was the common response amongst the people in the room. Except for when I looked over to Bennet and he wore a stoic face. Catching my glance, Bennet looked over to me and mouthed the words “I told you these bitches are crazy” with a smirk, then went back to his stoic face.

“Ania, why didn’t you come to me and Bennet about this?” August was the first to break the silence as he walked over to his daughter.

“Well because, dad that’s embarrassing. I don’t want to come to you or Bennet about my love life.”

August was now kneeling in front of his daughter. “Baby Me and Bennet knew everyone at the funeral, including the caters and the staff.” August said with tears in his eyes.

“That’s right lady Rue. The man with the muffin cufflinks is Giovanni Man. We order from his father’s bakery often because it’s very well known in the nearest city.” Bennet said to me. “His father, Marcello Man, although he preferred to be called the Muffin Man, recently just passed from a shoot-out near their bakery. We had plans to go to his funeral at the end of the week to pay our respects for all the years of catering for the family. If you check your calendar, you will see it.” Bennet said.

Hold on, these bastards knew the Muffin man, and they still laughed at me when I told them my story?

Rue pulled out her phone and check her calendar. With her mouth wide open and eyes wide, told us pretty much everything we need to know. “Oh… I guess I should have thought of that.”

“You could have thought about anything that would have been better than murdering your sister, you fucking idiot!” Zofia said, storming out of the room crying.

Pinching the bridge of her nose, detective Rose said, “Clark, please cuff her and take her to the station.”

Officer Clark walked the dumbfounded Rue out of the room in handcuffs, Officer Broody followed behind reading Rue her rights. August sat on the couch and put a hand over his face. “Bennet, please tell the company another family emergency came up and I will be taking a month's leave. Can you take care of any pressing matters that arise?”

“Of course, Master August.” Bennet said, “I will also call the family lawyer to represent your daughter but with her confession I doubt there is much he can do.”

“That is fine Bennet, even if they throw the book at her, I will love her the same.” August said, sliding his hand past his forehead and running his hands through his hair. Standing up, August continued. “I will be in my study. Please tell everyone except for Zofia I do not wish to be disturbed.”

“Of course,” Bennet said, following him out of the room.

Detective Rose stood up. “Well, as you can see, I have quite the interesting family.”

“Yes, it was interesting, to say the least. I should get back to finishing the security system…” I said, trying to leave.

“Hold on Tom, I see some great potential in you. Even though we all thought it was a suicide, you looked deeper. You could have said nothing and simply done your job. But you went above and beyond to do the right thing. That is why I want you on my team.”

“Come again? I’m just a developer. I didn’t study the law or anything.”

“That stuff is all teachable. I will take you under my wing to be a brilliant detective. You already showed your excellent skills at crime solving back at the hotel, so I am sure you are more than capable of the task.” Rue said.

It appears Detective Rose would not take no for an answer. “Okay, I will try it. I just have to put my two weeks at my job first.”