At the Precinct
Ella read the report of the lab tech who had analyzed the blood in the car trunk for the third time. She had not planned on staying late that night. In fact she had prepared to stream a few movies – Strangers on a Train and Diabolique - in order to get her mind off her strange case. "Though if I'm honest" she thought to herself, mentally listing off the amount of popcorn and drinks she would need to not fall asleep through the old movies "I keep feeling like there are elements of both screenplays in this nightmare we're working on." She peered down at the report with a frown. "Okay – strange much."
"What's strange?" Dan asked, wearily dropping into a chair in the pretty CSI's office.
She waved the absently in his face. "This – a report of the analysis of the blood found in the trunk of McIntyre's car. Blood samples were pretty degraded by the heat in the trunk so not pristine for testing but our lab could definitely tell that it was all the same blood type as Annalise. It will take a week at least to get DNA tests completed to make sure it's all actually hers. Maybe longer if there is a backlog. Maybe with all the publicity Chloe can get someone to push our tests to the head of the line."
Dan frowned at what she had just said. "Wait - Why wouldn't it all be her blood?"
Ella started to pace her work area, waving the report as she did so. "Because of what else was found in those samples. Yeah there was Blood and lots of it – and there was also something else."
"Hotel bed sheets would be covered in a lot of "other" things, Ella" Dan replied with a grimace. "Unless we get a DNA match on the other "items" on the sheets that matches someone on our suspect list not sure how that's going to be relevant to anything."
"Yeah II know that there are usually a ton of biological samples in your standard hotel bed sheets. Which is why I take my own when I travel to conferences." She shuddered dramatically. "So much not cool about other peoples sheets. But that's not what's interesting here. There are also anticoagulant/buffers mixed into the blood smears. Those buffers are meant to keep the blood preserved after donation. I'm betting when the DNA test results come back it will be a mix of donors – all with the same blood type but NOT the same profile. I think these samples might be from assorted bags taken after a blood drive. And if that's true - then this case just got so much stranger."
"Wait – you're saying that maybe Annalise didn't bleed to death in the trunk of that car?" He grabbed his cell out of his jacket quickly. "We need to talk to Chloe about this."
Outside of the Cecil
Chloe stared blankly at her cell phone for a moment before sliding it back into her pocket. "Well that was unexpected."
"What was?" Lucifer asked, leaning on the hood of the detective's car. His dark eyes slid across the hotel's façade and down the sidewalk, taking in the shadowing figures of the numerous homeless who had come out and started to wander about, looking for whatever they needed to keep themselves alive for another night.
"Ella says she thinks that all that blood in McIntyre's car trunk might NOT have belonged to Annalise." Chloe leaned on her car as well, eyes fixed on the entrance to the Cecil. "She thinks maybe someone take blood from a donation drive or a blood bank to make that trunk look like a crime scene. That does make things interesting."
"So our erstwhile little runaway might not be dead – how does that make this dreary little soap opera any more or less interesting that it already is?"
Chloe waved a hand towards the structure in front of them. "Think about it – we know McIntyre's wife Candice and his boss's wife Bertha had pretty solid alibis for the night McIntyre died." She pulled out her notepad and flipped through it quickly. "They were at some sorority event with hundreds of other people. Not sure we ever got a definitive alibi from Bradley or the Hotel's manager Regina Simonton but she didn't seem to have much of a motive. Milton's alibi fell apart so we all immediately started to look at him as a suspect but what if we've forgotten someone?" Chloe glanced down at her hands for a moment. "That's the big problem with this case – motive. Some people have obvious ones but solid alibis. Some people have no motive and no alibis. We just need to find the right combination – and the right physical evidence to bring them to justice. One of this group was responsible for McIntyre's death. We just have to keep chipping away at this until we know who."
"And what about Mr. Milton – your prime suspect until his unfortunate demise? Who would have had a motive to shoot him? Besides his uncle that is. I get the feeling Mr. Bradley was not a fan of his minion. Or his religious fanatic of a nephew Gabriel – who we still don't have in our sights" Lucifer quipped, pulling a cigarette case from his jacket pocket.
"Gabriel might have no alibi for either of these murders that we can verify but he also doesn't have an obvious motive. But here's one out of left field that we haven't even considered. What about Annalise?"
Lucifer frowned, tapping the case in his hand with a finger. "But I thought she was considered a victim in all of this?"
"Yes – because she had the perfect back story. Poor little, bright college girl saddled with a former gang-banger father and not much of a future even if she did get a degree. But Elle's report on the blood in that car turns things upside down in relation to our mysterious runaway. What if we were only seeing what we were meant to see? Her father suspected she was involved with an older man and those pictures we were sent left the impression that Bradley was very interested in being around Annalise."
"So, for that matter, was your victim" Lucifer pointed out. "Weren't there photos of him putting up mission person flyers here at the hotel just days before his unfortunate demise?"
"McIntyre is dead – Bradley isn't" Chloe replied. "And there is one other possible suspect we haven't touched on – Mad Dog Gibson."
"The girl's father?" Lucifer questioned. "Amenadiel seemed to think the man was truly found of his daughter."
"Yes – of her. But maybe not of the two married men he suspected of messing around with her" Chloe pointed out. "I wonder if Dan ever got anything from the old man as to where he was when our first victim was shot. Though I have to admit – a clean shot through the heart seems a bit tame for someone of Mad Dog's reputation."
"Reputations can be deceiving, Detective. After all, look at mine."
Chloe shrugged. "Whatever. Let's go in and talk to the staff again. Maybe we can find out if our mysterious Gabe has been seen around here."
Lucifer smiled. "One thing, Detective. As far as I know you don't have a current photo of the lad. And frankly, one homeless wretch looks very much like another around here. How will you know if they have seen the RIGHT young wanker?"
"We won't - but at least we can find out if anyone new has shown up in the last few days. After all – how many people would willing stay at a place with the reputation of the Cecil?"
"You would be surprised" Lucifer replied darkly.
In the alley a rumpled figure watched to duo converse then stroll calmly into the hotel. "Good – now you're getting the hang of the story Detective Decker" the man murmured. "Just a little longer – and everything will finally come to a head and the Devil will have the wretched souls that belong to him in his grasp- and return to Hell along with them."
At the Bradley estate
Bertha flashed a brittle smile as she and her husband prepared to go out for dinner. "Don" she asked quietly "Are you sure it's safe to leave Gabriel alone in the house?"
"I haven't seen the little bastard since that Detective and her Consultant came by" Bradley snarled. "With any luck he's done what his mother did and run off back to Mexico."
Bertha shrugged, her mind working furiously as she thought through the next phase of her plan. "I know he was your sister's boy but do you think he might have had a hand in anything that's happened. I was speaking to John's wife just this afternoon and she mentioned that Gabriel had taken an interest in John's podcast hobby – specifically the one he was preparing about the Cecil. She was very concerned because John had said Gabe seemed furious about what he and that little sorority girl who was working with him – Annalise – had been preparing to say about the place. Something to do with the hotel's reputation destroying a friend from his childhood. I wonder who that might have been?"
Bradley stiffened for a moment at the sound of the missing woman's name. "Gabe's mentally challenged just like his mother. But crazy enough to kill someone? I'm not sure…"
"Well – it's just a thought. Perhaps Candice is just over reacting to all this death. First her husband and then her brother. It can be quite overwhelming."
"Since when have you cared about anyone but yourself?" Bradley snarled. "You've always treated Candice McIntyre as something of a bonded servant, always there at your beck and call."
"That's a bit harsh" she replied, dabbing on a bit of the expensive perfume she enjoyed. "She was, after all, my sorority little sister."
"Your sorority little slave you mean. She and Regina both. You bullied them unmercifully, keeping them jumping at your every command. And it only got worse once we were married and you had my money to hold over their heads."
Bertha smoothed hand lotion on her now aging hands then begin to replace her rings. "I can't imagine why you are in this mood tonight, Don. It's not as if you ever cared about Regina and Candice before this. Especially Candice. I never did quite understand why you hired that useless twit of a brother of hers to work in the home office. Of wait – yes I do understand. You liked having someone to grovel at your feet."
"Better groveling at my feet then climbing out of my wife's bed" he snarled. "You two thought you were so clever. But I knew all along. And when all this publicity about the murders has died down you and I – and my lawyers – will sit down and renegotiate the terms of your continued existence under my roof." He stormed angrily out of the bedroom, not seeing the look on his wife's face as the door slammed behind him.
Bertha took a deep, ragged breath and pulled out the cell phone she used for "emergencies", dialing the one number she had preprogrammed into it. "It's time" she hissed in the phone. "His life needs to end now – TONIGHT!"
