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“And just as Mr. Lay was saying, I moved here three months later to be with Amelia. We’ve been living together ever since,” David said.

“Great, thank you so much for sharing that with me,” Anna said as she set her pen down, finishing her notes.

“So Mark Evans didn’t defend himself at all? And was he the only suspect?” Amelia asked.

Mr. Lay shook his head slowly. “I don’t recall him saying a word — except for one thing. He simply said, ‘Please arrest me’ He gave up his right to hire a lawyer in court and was sentenced to life in prison.”

He then leaned back, his brow furrowed in thought. “As for other suspects… I vaguely recall one of the maids - Emily, mentioning something odd. She said that while she was cleaning the third floor that day around 11:30 in the morning, she saw a shadow flash in front of her — moving quickly from the staircase up to the fourth floor, where Thomas’s room was. She described it as big, tall, and fast. She even called out, ‘Hello?’ but got no response.”

He paused, then added, “And the maid said about 5 minutes later, at 11:35, Mr. Wayne McCowan, one of our guests that day, also went to the 4th floor. Naturally, he became the other suspect. But he had… well, a somewhat perfect alibi if I recall correctly.”

Anna leaned forward, her eyes gleaming with curiosity. “A perfect alibi?” she echoed, tapping her pen thoughtfully against her notebook. “What exactly was it?”

“He claimed he went back to his room for a quick nap, since his room was at the end of the fourth floor,” Mr. Lay explained. “And we had a dog at Evermoon back then—a big hound who’d bark at anyone he didn’t recognize. His little house was at the end of the hallway, not far from McCowan’s room. So if he’d left his room during that time, the dog would have barked. But the only barks the maids heard were at 11:35, when he arrived on the fourth floor, and at 13:20, when the maid found that Thomas was dead.”

Anna smiled, clearly impressed. “You’ve got quite the memory, Mr. Lay. You still remember all those details even after twenty years."