Ella looked around the bland hotel room with a jaundiced eye. It was a stark contrast from the elegant entrance to the hotel, with nothing more than a serviceable bed and dresser . "No attached bathroom. Not even a desk and chair" she muttered, looking under the mattes one more time. "No place to hide anything. Kind of a weird dormroom feel to it. Wonder why...?"
A uniformed officer standing just in the doorway peeked inside. "Almost done?"
Ella shrugged. "I guess - not much here. Looks like the guy was traveling don't get why he picked this place of all the hotels in the city to check into."
The officer shrugged. "Maybe Detective Decker can get his office or his wife to give them a clue. Be glad to get out of here though. Place give me the creeps."
"Yeah - me too. Not sure why though." Ella gave the room a final once-over then packed up her case and headed out the door. "It's a run-down hotel like a lot of the ones I used to drive by in Detroit. Somehow it just doesn't live up to it's "scary" reputation."
"Try walking about the corner" the officer snorted. "You'll see a whole lot of scary out there. Skid row is just down the street and there are some seriously strange people living there. Drug users, prostitutes, homless peole who haven't been on their meds in forever - you name it you'll find it there."
Ella shrugged and stepped out side the door. She cast an inquisitive eye up and down the corridor then looked back at the officer at her side. "Same as any other Skid Row in any other big city. Cities don't do enough for their homeless populations so they have to go somewhere. In L.A. - it's Skid Row. I guess I was expecting..."
"Lady Gaga to stroll down the corridor with a bunch of little vampire kids in tow?" he teased, tacking the crime scene tape across the door to prevent entry. "My kids made me watch that show and frankly it gave me nightmares for weeks."
"Not me - I love a good horror story" she admitted sheepishly. "But you got to admit that this place has a hell of a reputation - no pun intended. And the fact our vic was staying on the same floor as that Canadian woman who died here almost 4 years ago..." She glanced around at the doors, mentally ticking off what she knew about the old case. "I don't think this is the same room but still..."
"I remember that story" the officer replied, walking just a step behind the forensic tech towards the elevators. "I had just joined the force and we were all mobilized to look for her. Then when that elevator video was released everything just got worse."
"I was in Detroit at the time and even we saw it." Ella strained to remember her first sight of the infamous video then shuddered. "My brothers loved playing it for me over and over again just to get a rise out me. It was very spooky."
"Until you know the real facts behind it" the officer replied somberly. The elevator doors opened in front of them. The officer selected the lobby button as they stepped in and then motioned to the controls. "It's hard to see in that video clip but if you look at the buttons she had pushed now you can see she had also pushed the hold door button. That's why the doors never closed." The officer smiled down at his companion. "And for what it's worth - your brothers were dicks for trying to scare you with that vid."
Ella laughed. "That's probably true - though I think I called them a few other names in Spanish that were much more descriptive." She sighed. "Still - it was pretty odd when you first watched it. I heard a podcast later that explained the inconsistencies of the facts being reported on the Web."
"Too bad that didn't come around in time to take the heat off that death metal musician the internet sleuths were sure had killed her" the officer snarled. "Mob mentality at its finest. Guy wasn't even in the country but that didn't stop some amateur sleuths from hounding him into a mental asylum."
Elle shuddered. "I hadn't heard about that. Guess I was more interested in the case evidence than in what people were speculating had happened. Still - you can't blame some people for being interested. I wasn't as though she was the first death in this place. There had even been a couple of pretty notorious serial killers who had hung out here."
The officer shrugged. "The place has been here since the 1920's. Only seems reasonable that there would be a few deaths in the place. And being right up against skid row didn't help. It's just an old building with a the bad luck to attract people with issues. Makes it a good target for story tellers and journalists with nothing much to say. Places can't be evil - but people can be. The building didn't kill our latest vic - someone with a gun did."
"Place can't be evil" Ella repeated softly as the doors opened into the ornate lobby. "But people can be. And maybe someplace like the Cecil just makes the darkness in them ... acceptable."