Infinity Sky
By Kristen Lepionka, first published in Tough
After a wedding in Ohio, a famous musician accidentally gets mixed up in a murder at the hotel.
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Plot Summary
Famous indie punk musician Jeramey Jones and her boyfriend Chess are in Ohio for a wedding. Although the wedding planner promised them the penthouse suite of the hotel, the hotel clerk informs them that a high-profile guest is already staying in the suite. That guest, self-help book author and millionaire Bennett Langdon, is attending the wedding as a guest of the groom. The wedding performance goes well, though Jeramey realizes that she's getting a little too old for this. It had been years since her song "Infinity" became a viral hit and propelled her to fame. She leaves the wedding as soon as she can. Meanwhile, a guest on the bride's side, Doug Beavers, notices Bennett is there. The two men have prior history. After Doug signed his wife up for one of Langdon's classes, Langdon and Doug's wife had an affair, destroying Doug's marriage. That evening, Jeramey drinks in the hotel bar when Doug comes in and tries to hit on her. When Jeramey rejects him and gets up to leave, Doug makes a sexual advance on her. Peeved, Jeramey goes to her room to smoke weed with her boyfriend and a bellhop who brought the weed. Doug gets drunk at the bar then decides to go up to the penthouse. When he finds Bennett there, the millionaire doesn't recognize him. After Bennett brags about meeting a woman at the wedding, Doug gets pushed over the edge, attacking and killing the self-help author. Afterwards, he drinks a bit more from the minibar and passes out on the bed. Bored, Jeramey, Chess, and the bellhop, decide to sneak into the penthouse to see the view. Using the bellhop's key, they enter, but it's too dark to see anything out the window. They notice someone sleeping in the bed and quickly leave, but not before Jeramey, recognizing him from the bar, steals the sleeping man's wallet. The next morning, Doug wakes up in the penthouse, his pants covered in blood. He tries to fit in some of Bennett's clothes, but they are too small. He leaves in a bathrobe and tries to get into his room, but he discovers that his room key and wallet are missing. He guesses that he dropped it in the penthouse. As he heads towards to the top floor, however, he sees two policemen in the elevator, the housekeeping having found the body. Doug goes down to the lobby to get a new key. Without his wallet, he can't leave the hotel, so Doug decides to wait until the police leave and then go back to the penthouse to find the wallet. Jeramey, Chess, and the bellhop wake up after noon. After showering, the bellhop gets a text from a coworker, telling him about the murder in the penthouse. Jeramey assumes that the sleeping man is the victim. She worries that she's mixed up in the murder now, having used his credit card to buy drinks for the house at the bar. The three of them contemplate ways of destroying the wallet. They can't light it on fire or flush it down the toilet, and the police are searching and questioning anyone who tries to leave the hotel. The trio decides to return the wallet to the penthouse after the police have gone. That night, Doug calls the front desk to confirm that the police have left before heading up to the penthouse. As he searches for his wallet unsuccessfully, he hears a click of the door. Startled he turns to find Jeramey and the bellhop at the door. They all scream, and the bellhop leaves. Jeramey throws the wallet at Doug, first thinking he was dead and now not wanting to stay mixed up in the crime. A few seconds later, the bellhop enters with two policemen, saying that he's found a ghost. When the police ask for an explanation, Doug confesses immediately, unable to handle the stress of the situation. The policeman turn to Jeramey, wondering who she is and why she's there. The second officer recognizes her as the famous musician. As they sort everything out, Jeramey finally gets a glimpse of the view from the penthouse window.