Ok time for another case file, this one has been rolling around in my head for a while now and I finally started to put fingers to keyboard and get it down.
Let me warn you this is no light hearted romantic romp like my last two stories I am returning to my roots of action drama. I hope you enjoy this foray in to the macabre.
ROOM AT THE TOP
Jack walked in to the UCOS office with all his usual in exuberance. It wasn't that he didn't like his work on the contrary he loved it, but just recently things had been slow. That ever increasing pile of unsolved cases that sat on his desk seemed to be increasing at an alarming rate. He suspected that when they left the office at night the files were actually breeding all by themselves. Spotting Gerry already perched at his computer but not looking at it. Instead he was examining something very closely on his phone Jack walked over to him and bent down low. Gerry had obviously not heard his entrance into the office and was totally absorbed in whatever it was he was doing.
Jack was unable to resist the childish thoughts that were running though his mind as he barked his greeting to his younger colleague.
"Morning."
Gerry jumped almost clean off his chair, the phone leaping out of his hand to collide with the desk and drop off into the bin that sat next to it.
"Bloody hell Jack you trying to give me a heart attack?" Gerry snapped back digging around in the 't bin to retrieve his precious phone and Jack couldn't help the smile of success appear on his face as Brian entered the scene.
"What's Gerry lost this time." The northerner said scanning the people already present in the office and taking note of the scene as he removed his bicycle helmet.
"His dignity I think." Jack replied still smirking as Brian nodded back storing his bike against the wall as Gerry sat back upright avoiding the edge of the desk with his head as he waved his phone in the air.
"Got it!" he exclaimed as Sandra breezed in with her usual self carriage and air of importance which without her even trying demanded the attention of the others around her.
"Well Whatever it is I don't want it." She said as Gerry folded his arms and scowled at his boss as she moved to hang up her coat and placed her bag on her desk.
"What is this national pick on Gerry day." He asked as Sandra moved back into the centre of the room and eyed him with her usual unimpressed gaze.
"No I believe pick on a pensioner was last week." Jack said moving over to the kettle and switching it on.
"Pensioner, speak for yourself mate." Gerry replied indignantly while Sandra watched this display of one up man ship and tried to keep the small smile that wanted to appear on her face from fully emerging.
"I don't know Gerry you are eligible for a bus pass now." Brian said as though he were merely stating a fact not putting the final nail in Gerry's coffin. The next thing he knew a stapler had connected with his shoulder as he was starting up his laptop and he had been distracted.
"Ouch what the bloody hell was that for." He shouted picking up the offending object with the intention of throwing it right back where it had come from. The intrusion of Sandra stopped him as she stepped between them and held up her hands.
"Enough you lot, you can argue about who has the deepest wrinkles later right now we have a new case." She said moving over to her desk once more and picking up the file and moving back to the white board.
"Another case what about all of those?" Jack said referring to his breeding pile of cases as Sandra waved her hand at them and motioned for them to gather round.
"They can wait this one is top of our list for now." She said pinning up several photos of obviously dead men as the boys sat in their usual chairs.
"Can I ask why?" Jack said placing his steaming cup of tea to his mouth and taking a tenuous sip.
"Because the building where these deaths occurred is being condemned, it will be our last chance to look at the scene before it is turned into some new condos." Sandra replied as she stuck a picture of the building up on the board and it was Gerry who was the first to speak.
"The old Grand Hotel, their finally pulling it down." He said as Brian lent forward obviously having cottoned on to what was going on and Sandra could feel the impending explanation coming.
"The Grand Hotel, five deaths spanning nearly a decade, from 1987 to 1996, all men in their thirties, all staying overnight on business and all in the penthouse suite at the top. From what I remember they couldn't even pin point cause of death for these guys, so do we even have a case?" Brian said as Gerry and Jack skimmed though the notes Sandra handed them and she returned to the white board.
"Five deaths in one room, you have to admit that is pretty fishy." She replied as the boys nodded engrossed in what the files had to say, the only one looking at her was Brian and he had a faraway look in his eyes that told Sandra the man was pondering this one, and probably really enjoying it.
"Fishy is the right word, from the looks of it all the hotel staff were questioned, each time, no correlation, including the owner and nothing came up, there was just no motive, not for all of them anyway." Gerry said finally closing his file and regarding Sandra hoping she had at least some answers for them.
"I know and that is why each of the investigations ran dry. The families all had rock solid alibies and no one at the hotel even knew these men, the reason for their deaths remains a mystery, as well as the cause although I have got someone looking into that for us." She said moving to the first photo and pointing at it.
"Steven Bradshaw. 33 years old, wife no children, worked for the royal bank of Scotland and was on a business trip where he was booked into the penthouse suite at The Grand on September 3rd 1987. The first of our victims, he wasn't discovered until the following morning at eleven o'clock when the maid came in thinking he had left for the day and discovered the body. Time of death however was placed around six am. No one was seen leaving or entering the elevator that went to that floor all morning and there is only one way in or out of that hotel room." She continued pointing to a layout design of the hotel.
"Later on in 1996 when the final murder occurred the hotel had CCTV on that floor and it recorded nothing. No one in our out all night including Roger Brown our final victim. Also found by the hotel maid at ten in the morning. Time of death was placed at six thirty."
"So our killer is not only clever but is also the invisible man great." Gerry said sitting back in his chair as Jack spoke up for the first time.
"Time of death also seems like a current theme running though this investigation, how long was it until they put all these murders together?" he asked noting that all the men were killed within an hour of one another. From six am to seven am, no one realising until the maid came round later on that day.
"They never did, the murders were so far apart that each investigation was done by a new team. Two of the cases were not even considered murders until recently when they got the case file together for us to re-examine." Sandra said as Jack shook his head and rubbed his hands down his face.
"Five deaths in the same room and no one thinks they could be connected, no wonder we have so many files to look though." His obvious irritation showing in his voice as Brian stood up clasping his hands together.
"So when do we get to take a look at this room?" he asked and Sandra could see the light in his eyes. This case was right up Brian's ally. Intrigue and seemingly impossible were his speciality and Sandra smiled back at him.
"How about right now. We only have a week before it comes down whatever so I suggest we get a dam good look at the place. I have a feeling whatever happened to these guys is in that room." She said taking a quick look back over her shoulder at the overhead shot of the hotel as the boys moved around gathering up their coats.
"Probably, but if five investigation teams couldn't find anything, what makes you think we will?" Gerry said as they made their way down the hall and Sandra pushed open the door to the car park and she wrapped her coat more tightly around her to fend of the cold.
"Because we have him." Sandra said pointing to Brian who had his nose buried in the case file and was totally obvious to their looks.
"That and we now know these deaths are related somehow, might give us a new perspective on motive." Jack said opening the passenger door to Sandra's car as they all climbed in. closing the doors quickly as Sandra turned on the engine switching on the heating immediately and praying that the car would warm up soon she turned to look over her shoulder at the two men in the back seat.
"You two buckled in, wouldn't want you losing your dentures if I have to break suddenly." She smiled turning back around before they could come up with some not so witty retort as she pulled out of the car park and onto the busy London roads.
Brain sat in the back muttering to himself as he re-read the case file and finally put it down as they neared their destination.
"Investigating the room at the top murders how exciting." He said to no one in particular as Sandra pulled the car into the car park and switched off the engine.
Well there you have it an new case four our intrepid quartet, I just hope I can do them justice once again. As ever please let me know what you thought, if I should continue or bin it?
Ps I will be delivering some Sandra/Gerry but later on so if you don't like that please don't read it then send me flames for it.
Thank you for reading XxX