A Diamond Beneath the Glass

A millionaire’s son was dead. Every sign pointed to an accident. But his father insisted it was murder. Then I stumbled across a hypothetical scenario in the comments online. “With single-pane glass like that, all you need is a tiny diamond chip. Put it under a chair leg. Once someone sits down, the glass shatters. The diamond falls into the ocean, and the murder weapon disappears.” “I told you, my son’s death was not an accident!” “This was murder.” “I pay all those taxes every year just to support a bunch of useless idiots like you?” Angry shouts kept coming from the room. Every colleague who walked past shook their head helplessly. We had a difficult case on our hands. A millionaire’s son had attended a party aboard a luxury cruise ship. An aging glass viewing panel in the floor had shattered, sending him plunging into the ocean. By the time they recovered his body, he was long dead. Everything suggested it was an accident, but his father was convinced someone had murdered him. “Captain Harris, is this how your people do their jobs?” Now that someone with authority had arrived, Graham Whitmore finally stopped verbally abusing me. “This is obviously murder, and your people want to close the case as an accident?” I rolled my eyes inwardly. Obviously murder? Then why couldn’t he tell us what was so obvious about it? Besides, I was a rookie who had only been on the job for three months. I was following procedure. Why take it out on me? Captain Harris offered a diplomatic smile. “Mr. Whitmore, my officers are following standard procedure. “We take your concerns seriously. But our investigation has established that the glass had deteriorated. “If you’re certain this was murder, do you have evidence? Or is there something you know?” Graham blinked. For a moment, he seemed to be holding something back. “Hmph. I’m not a cop. How should I know? That’s your job.” Leave it to Harris. A few words, and the millionaire’s arrogance lost its edge. “We’ll investigate thoroughly and consider every possibility. “If you have any information, we hope you’ll share it with us.” Harris was clearly showing him the door. This time, Graham didn’t throw another tantrum. He got up awkwardly. “I hope you catch the killer soon and find out what really happened to my son!” “Of course. Finding the truth and bringing killers to justice is our job.” “Captain, that guy is completely unreasonable.” Once Graham was gone, I followed Harris out, unable to hold back my complaints. “He acts like the whole world wants to murder his family. “Rich people can die in accidents too, you know. This case clearly—” Harris shot me a look. I had enough sense to shut up. After a while, he said, “That man has powerful connections. Don’t get on his bad side.” Right. Rich businessmen and their friends in high places. “It’s too much of a coincidence.” “Sometimes, when enough coincidences pile up, they stop being coincidences.” Harris was muttering to himself. I had no idea what he meant. “There you go being cryptic again.” “Get back to work, smart-ass!” He smacked the back of my head, and I made a quick escape. Easy for him to say. Where were we supposed to find clues—or a killer—with nothing to go on? The whole department worked overtime, combing through every possible lead. There was too much ground to cover, from the victim’s social circle to everyone who had attended the party aboard the ship. It was like staring at a tangled web with no idea where the first thread began. Well, nature called. Time to hide out in the bathroom and give my fried brain a break. I sat on the toilet, scrolling through my phone. Ethan Whitmore’s accidental death had caused quite a stir online. Not surprising. He was a notorious millionaire playboy. There were all kinds of theories. A lover’s quarrel turned deadly. His girlfriends realizing he was trash and teaming up to kill him. The most ridiculous was the top comment. Someone claimed the killer had been reborn with memories of a past life and knew the cruise would end in disaster. Absolutely absurd. People were already writing a novel in the replies. “You know, it really could have been murder.” “With single-pane glass like that, all you’d need is a tiny diamond chip under a chair leg…” “Someone sits down without knowing, and the glass shatters.” “Then… the victim dies, and the murder weapon vanishes into the ocean.” “Doesn’t that rich guy love giving his girlfriends diamond rings?” “Maybe…”That comment wasn’t getting nearly as much attention as the people writing their reincarnation stories. But it sounded disturbingly plausible. Harris always said that even the smallest, wildest theory could turn out to be the truth. I pulled up my pants and hurried back. “Captain Harris! I have a theory!” I told them what I’d just read. Harris’s frown slowly gave way to excitement. “Not bad, rookie. Even slacking off, you managed to dig up a lead.” Come on. Did he have to put it like that? I scratched my head. A second later, Harris ordered us to review the security footage again. “But the camera facing Ethan Whitmore’s seat broke three days before the ship sailed.” “And none of the other angles showed anyone suspicious.” “We watched that footage assuming this was an accident. That means we could have missed things. If there really was a killer, they must have known the ship’s layout well enough to avoid the cameras.” “But whatever they did, they’ll have left a trace.” Whatever they did, they’d have left a trace. On our third viewing, I finally spotted a figure in footage from a distant corner, reflected in the glass. It was a woman, her back to the camera, bending over to tuck something underneath an object. “Start with Ethan Whitmore’s romantic relationships.” “The bastard had twenty or thirty rumored girlfriends alone. This won’t be a small job.” After an entire night of nonstop work, we narrowed those twenty or thirty women down to seven who had been in frequent contact with Ethan lately. Three of those seven had been aboard the ship that day. Ethan had arranged for all three to attend. Classy. Now we had something to work with. Next came questioning our three suspects. Chloe Price, twenty-five. A full-time kept woman. “He asked me to come, so I went.” “The other two women? Sure, I knew about them. Look, this is what I do. Of course I didn’t care.” Megan Foster, twenty-two. A film student. “What does any of this have to do with me? Killing him would mean cutting off my own income.” “He could have as many women as he wanted. I wanted his money, not him.” No murderer was going to volunteer a confession. At least, that was why I thought those two were especially suspicious. We had one woman left: Lily Bennett, twenty-four, an ordinary office worker. Unlike the first two, Lily seemed almost painfully wholesome. She sat down and gave me a polite nod. “Ms. Bennett, could you—” “I killed him.” “All right… You what?”I wasn’t the only one stunned. Even Harris, who had seen just about everything, looked surprised. Had you ever seen a crime show where the suspect walked in and immediately confessed? “Ms. Bennett, this isn’t something to joke about.” Lily shook her head. “I’m not joking. I killed him.” “I used a diamond to break the glass.” She took a small bag out of her purse and poured out several broken pieces of diamond. “He gave it to me. It was also the murder weapon.” “I was going to turn myself in if you still hadn’t figured it out after a while.” “You were faster than I expected.” “If you planned to turn yourself in, why didn’t you come sooner?” I asked. Lily gave me a faint, apologetic smile. “I wanted more people to pay attention to this case. Public interest is the best way to spread a story.” “Officer, I confess. But I have one request. I want a livestream so I can explain what I did in front of everyone.” She turned to Harris. “And I’d like Graham Whitmore to be there.” After some thought, Harris agreed. “Captain, that’s not exactly procedure.” “Quiet.” Three days later, the department invited a prominent local news outlet. Graham arrived as promised. Lily sat in front of the camera in handcuffs. She didn’t look like a criminal at all. “I’m sorry we have to meet under these circumstances.” She was speaking to Graham. He stared at her, his brow deeply furrowed. “Why did you kill my son? Didn’t he give you enough?” Lily smiled. “Enough? Of course he did.” “Be patient. I was just about to tell the officers how it happened.” “I met Ethan Whitmore a year ago.” “I was a waitress then. I accidentally spilled some food on him.” “He didn’t blame me. He even defended me to my manager.” That accident had brought Lily into the wealthy young man’s life. His gentlemanly behavior had swept her off her feet. “I thought he was my Prince Charming. The man who would save me.” “He introduced me to his friends, bought me an expensive diamond ring, and seemed to think of everything I needed. “I thought we were a couple who didn’t care about the difference in our backgrounds.” While Lily reminisced, Graham gave a contemptuous snort. “A delusional little gold digger. You actually thought you were good enough for him?” “No,” Lily agreed calmly. “I wasn’t. I was just an utterly ordinary girl.” “Only after a year with Ethan did I find out I was one of his many mistresses.” When Lily arrived to meet him at an upscale downtown bar, she could hardly believe what she saw. Two women were sitting in Ethan’s lap, competing to feed him drinks. “Ethan, what are you doing?” She couldn’t believe the boyfriend she spent every day with could do something like that. Ethan didn’t care. He gave her an amused smile. “Can’t you see? I’m flirting with my girlfriends.” He told her he’d grown tired of glamorous, sophisticated women. Meeting someone as plain and innocent as Lily had been a refreshing change. All those sweet, loving moments had just been a little game of playing house. “But too much plain food gets boring. Time for something with a little flavor.” Then he started making out with the woman on his left. Lily left in tears. “I hated him. But I couldn’t let him go.”One of the women operating the cameras couldn’t help muttering, “Talk about blinded by love.” Graham sneered. “Don’t act like this was some grand romance. You were only after my son’s money.” “You ungrateful little snake. He treated you well.” Lily blinked. “Mr. Whitmore, do you remember me?” “My son had women swarming around him. How could I possibly remember you?” Lily let out a long sigh. “Did you know your son had HIV?” “Impossible!” Graham slammed his palm onto the table. “My son couldn’t possibly have HIV!” “Please calm down.” Lily took a report from her bag. “These are my test results. Positive.” “Ethan was the only man I’d ever slept with. He’s the only person I could have caught it from.” “So I decided to kill him. To get revenge.” After receiving her results, Lily went to Ethan and asked to get back together. She hid her diagnosis and changed her behavior completely, doing everything she could to please him. Sure enough, she became his “favorite” again. Men like him loved nothing more than turning a respectable woman into a plaything. Three months later, Ethan invited Lily to a party aboard a luxury cruise ship. She knew her chance had come. “I broke the diamond Ethan gave me into pieces. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure it would work.” The most important security camera happened to be broken. Even fate seemed to be on her side. Wearing sunglasses and a mask, she carefully avoided the other cameras and slipped a tiny diamond fragment under a leg of Ethan’s chair. He was certain to sit there. The seats had all been reserved in advance. “It was my first time doing anything like that. I was pretty nervous.” Lily bit her lower lip. “Unfortunately, a waiter named Jack Turner spotted me.” “He asked what I was doing. I nearly died of fright.” Everyone was watching Lily, but I noticed a strange look in Graham’s eyes. “Luckily, he was just a waiter trying to make a living. I gave him some money and told him I was planning a surprise for my boyfriend. I asked him to keep it quiet, and he believed me.” “Wait.” Graham interrupted her. “This waiter helped cause my son’s death too.” “What was his real name?” Lily tilted her head. “Jack Turner. He had a cataract in one eye.” Graham sneered. “So you’re refusing to tell the truth?” “Oh, sorry.” Lily tapped her forehead. “I got mixed up.” “Maybe I was thinking of the Jack Turner from twenty years ago.” “But how did you know I was lying?” “You knew that Jack Turner, didn’t you?” “You gave him money. Just like I described.” “I asked whether you remembered me. I didn’t mean as Ethan’s girlfriend.” “I meant as the only witness to that murder disguised as an accident twenty years ago. Lucy Bennett.”