Author's Note: I'm not listing all of the co-workers, that would just be absurd. But, for those of you who want to know, it's the former members of Nexus/Corre.
I made the trip across the city to the house of Heath Miller. I knocked on the door and within minutes a red-haired man opened the door. "Can I help you?" he asked, a bit of a country drawl to his voice.
Flashing my ID, I said, "I'm Detective Phil Brooks, I'd like to ask you a few questions concerning the murder of Stuart Bennett."
He threw his hands up in defense, "Look man, I already talked to the cops, I already told them what I know."
"I'm a private investigator. I don't work with the cops."
He sighed, and ran a heavy hand down his face, "Come in." I stepped inside and he shut the door behind me before leading me down the hall to a small parlor. "What can I help you with?"
"You were supposed to meet with the deceased over the weekend, correct?"
"Yeah, we were going to get lunch together yesterday, but he never showed up."
I nodded, considering his answer. "You and the victim were friends?"
"Exactly. We were friends. He's an arrogant ass, or, at least, he was. We worked together really, and it turned into a friendship but we had a falling out."
"What was it about?"
Heath shrugged, "I can't remember anymore. It happened a while ago."
"Why were you meeting him?"
"We were stuck working together on a case. We were going to meet for lunch to discuss it before we went to court Friday."
I asked a few more questions before thanking him for his time and leaving. The rest of the evening was spent checking out the rest of Stu's co-workers. I got the thing from each: Stuart Bennett was an arrogant asshole who thought he was better than everyone else, and often times, did his work better than the others. None of his co-workers cared much for him. I still hadn't eliminated his wife from the suspects list, so I asked those who had met her, like Heath, what she was like. Each one said the same: she was an incredibly sweet woman who wouldn't even harm a fly.
It was getting late when I had finished meeting with the co-workers, so I retired to my small apartment for the night. After dinner I sat in my chair and thought about what I had been told. There was still a few more people to talk to. I'd meet with them the next day, and then I'd head over to the Bennett place to see what I could find in the dead man's office.
The next day's interviews didn't give much information. The people that were supposed to have meetings with Stuart Bennett all claimed he never came. So, the next thing to do was visit the Bennett house. I got in my car and drove half-way across the city to Lakeshore Drive.