CHAPTER TWO

After the rather unpleasant visit to The Vintage a few hours ago, I had Justin acquire a list of all the people close to the Hudson brothers as well as all the staff who worked at The Vintage and the guests, I turned to face the huge table in the middle of my study glancing at the stacks of files laying upon them after a mere two hours of the kidnapping, I rubbed my temples before diving in.

First name on the list had been Tristen Michael the Hudson twins, third musketeer. The three men were inseparable since high school that’s according to the file I have in front of me.

It was clear that whoever had taken the Hudson brothers and who had been so kind to leave behind the corpse, has access to the hotel without attracting attention which brings us back to Tristen Micheal, who happens to live on the same floor as Hudson brothers. I read over his file, it appears that Tristen was not only a good friend but also a business partner in fact, the three men had invested in a number of hotels, restaurants and night clubs around Seattle together including The Vintage.

I continued to go through the list and files on all the people who have day to day contact with the men throughout the early hours of the morning while nursing my glass of red wine until my alarm went off, 6:30am already. I decided to close up the last file in my hands and let it drop onto the wood finished table.

As I looked at my bathroom mirror puffy red eyes looked back at me, I splashed cold water onto my face to help with the puffiness then let my robe drop to the floor as I stepped into the warm abyss of water, I couldn’t help as the dreadful question resurfaced, “What if one or both of the men had been badly injured or worse?” a vision of the suite had flashed  before my eyes, I wouldn’t call myself a pessimist but even without the lab reports there were no doubts in my mind that the blood in the suite belonged to the Hudson men.

I looked at the pictures of the bread knife while getting ready for work, before doing a quick search on the internet, I realised my guess had been correct, the knife had been ancient, almost 90 years old and part of a cutlery set. I forwarded the pictures to Justin, telling him to get more information on the knife and where it could have been purchased from.

I packed the files into my work bag and held onto Tristen Micheal’s file, if anyone knew the twins better than well each other it would be him so Tristen just turned out be the main suspect. I called Justin before leaving my apartment briefing him on the list I had e-mailed to him the list of possible witnesses/suspects that we would be calling in today for questioning after we head to The Vintage, to meet with their “security team” to collect the hotels camera footage among other things. I would have preferred if we received it a couple hours ago like I had asked, I mentally scoffed some security team.

“Detective, I brought your usual” said Justin as he handed me my coffee, bless him for knowing my preferences. I gave him a grateful smile as I sipped on my heaven in a cup while we rode the elevator to the fifth floor also known as the management floor, the minute Justin and I had stepped out of the elevator we were greeted by Daniel, the Hudson’s head of security.

“Good morning, detective and Justin if I recall correctly” said Daniel as he extended his right hand, Justin gave him a brief handshake while I nodded.

“I presume that the footage is ready to be collected for reasons I hope is not lost on you, as I do remember both your employers being taken from this hotel in the middle of the night without alerting any of their so called bodyguards or security personnel.” Daniel lowered his head in what I would assume was shame then lead us into their security room, every inch of the room was covered with CCTV monitor screens and multiple tables with computers, there was a total of ten men at approximately 8:30am, which sparked my curiosity. “Humour me Daniel, is this room always filled with this level of testosterone or is it just this particular morning?” surely someone would have seen something last night, with this many CCTV camera’s, monitors and men.

“No Detective, there’s usually five men during the day and five at night” said Daniel glancing at me from his hunched position over one of the computers, he had been extracting the security footage from two weeks prior to last night as I requested, to pull of something like this it must have taken our kidnappers weeks, maybe months and if we’re lucky we might be able to identify someone or something out of the ordinary.

 “I need all ten of them to be brought in for questioning later today.” I said to Justin and Daniel before walking out of the security room, towards the door that lead to the stairs. On my way up in the elevator I had seen the security camera, now I need to check the staircases.

Sure enough, there was camera’s here as well. Which still leaves the million dollar question unanswered how did they bring in a corpse and drag out two 6’3 foot men out of this damn hotel without anyone realising?

“Justin, please stop by the hospital, check with Dr Adams if the autopsy report is ready.” I said to Justin in the elevator on the way down to the lobby, Justin’s face lit up at the mention of Dr Adams, talk about a crush.

Driving back to my apartment went by in a blur, I had been back in my study, going through more files when my phone started to ring “Talk to me Justin.” I said while putting my phone on speaker, “There’s an identical cutlery set being sold in an antique store here in Seattle, do you want to check it out or should I go before seeing Dr Adams.” The excitement had been practically dripping from his tone, I wasn’t that evil. “I’ll stop by, you go straight to the hospital.” I said before cutting the call.

I pulled on my leather jacket and grabbed my car keys, loading the location Justin had texted to me onto my GPS, I took off with the hope of this being a lead. I parked outside the small store and glanced through my car window, it had been a small cluttered store, the sign outside had been close to falling down. I jumped out off my car before pulling out my phone , sending Justin a quick text informing him that I was here and he should keep me updated on the autopsy report.

As I entered the store a little bell above my head chimed to alert the owner of a customer, few seconds later an elderly woman appeared, she hobbled towards me with the help of a walking stick. She gave me a semi toothless smile before welcoming me in “Come in beautiful girl, what can I help you find.” I gave the woman a small smile before searching for the picture of the cutlery set on my phone, definitely not the one of the bread knife that had been jammed into a corpse, one I had taken from the internet. “I’m looking for a set with a similar to this one.” I said to the elderly woman while showing the picture.

Upon seeing the picture her eyes had immediately lit up in recognition “I have a set exactly like that one but I must warn you, it is very expensive.” I immediately wanted to ask her who purchased the bread knife but knew she wouldn’t answer unless she made a sale.

She started to walk through the cluttered store towards the back to the kitchen section or what seemed to be like a kitchen section, she had the rest of the set in an old wooden box that had rusty hinges and sure enough there had been an empty space in the box where the bread knife lay.

“Wow, it is the exact same but there is something missing.” I said in an oblivious tone. “Ah, yes the bread knife. A very beautiful woman just like yourself came in a couple months ago and it caught her eye, she paid a lot of money for the single bread knife.” The lady said as she recalled the woman.

“Such a crime to break up a set.” I said in an offended tone. “I told her the same thing but she offered a large amount for just the knife, I insisted she take the whole set since she technically bought it but she refused.” The elderly woman smiled brightly before saying “Cash or Card?” I internally groaned as I pulled out my wallet while smiling back “Cash.”

The second I jumped back into my car, I called Justin “There’s a woman involved.”