Chapter 4
It was 8 PM when the plane finally landed.
Daphne and Fred were both tired from the long flight, and they hadn't had any sleep on the flight at all.
It wasn't a busy flight. There were probably less than half on the flight, but neither of them could sleep on the flight.
But they had to get the train from the airport to Sandpoint which took an hour. Then they had to get a cab from the train station to the police station where they met the police commissioner.
'Hello, I'm glad you both made it safely.' The commissioner smiled, 'My name is Aurora Fischer, I'm the police commissioner.'
She extended her hand out to Daphne and shook her hand, then shook Fred's.
The commissioner was a tall woman and dark hair pulled out her face and styled neatly in a ponytail.
A man was standing behind the commissioner, and she stepped aside and introduced them to him, 'This is Detective Wheeler.'
'Call me Jason.' He smiled and shook their hands.
'I know it's late so I won't make this too long. I'll take you to your accommodation, but I'll need you back here tomorrow at 8 AM sharp to go over the case. But for now,' She grabbed a file that was sitting on the desk, 'This is as much of the case as I can give you. I can't copy the photographs at the moment, the copier's broken. But this is the case from the very beginning.'
She gave the file to Daphne and she quickly wrapped things up, 'There is a car waiting for you and tomorrow morning Detective Wheeler and I, along with some of the officers on the case, will be here. 8 AM. Don't be late.'
Commissioner Fischer turned back to the Detective, 'I'll see you in the morning.'
'G'night Commish, night guys.'
The Commissioner ushered Fred and Daphne to follow her outside and as she did this, she pulled a set of car keys out of her pocket.
Daphne noticed that it was not just an ordinary marked police car they would be driving. But a black unmarked Ford Explorer.
Commissioner Fischer gave Fred the keys before turning to her car, a black Chevy Tahoe.
The car had been cleared of snow and Fred pressed a button to unlock the car. Its blinkers flashed as the side mirrors swung open.
Daphne opened the trunk and they loaded their luggage into the car before they hopped into the front.
Fred turned the key and the engine roared to life.
The automatic headlights came on with the engine and the doors automatically locked as the car began moving.
As they followed Commissioner Fischer through the town, Daphne commented how small the town looked and she couldn't imagine a hotel in the town.
But after Captain Williams had spoken to Fred and Daphne about coming to Idaho, he had sent a message to Daphne explaining that he had spoken to the commissioner and they did not need to book a hotel in Sandpoint.
The roads had been cleared of snow. From what they could see in the night, it was covering most of the houses and fields and the sidewalk.
Daphne looked down at the file the Fischer had given her, 'Do you want to go over this tonight?'
Fred took his eyes off the road for a second and looked down at the file in Daphne's hands before looking back to the road, 'I suppose it would be a good idea. We'll know what we're getting into tomorrow morning.'
Daphne nodded then she yawned. All she wanted right now was to just crawl into a warm bed and go to sleep, rather than staying away and working.
But they had both pulled all-nighters before. Daphne recalled a time when she and Fred were working on a case, they started working at the station, they left the station at about 7 PM and returned to Daphne's apartment to continue working. Finally, they stopped at 1 a.m.
Daphne looked at the clock on the dashboard, it was nearly 10 PM. Hopefully, they would be there soon.
Fischer turned into a road, Fred followed, and Fischer pulled up outside a small house.
Fred pulled up behind her and Fischer climbed out of her car. Fred and Daphne climbed out of theirs.
Fischer pointed at the house, 'Here it is.' She smiled.
Fred and Daphne looked at the house; it was a small house, they could tell from the street lights lighting the street. But that was all really, they couldn't see much more of the house in the little light.
'The house key is attached to the car key. There are bread, butter and some milk and coffee in the kitchen, but the convenience store is down the road and on the left.' Fischer pointed into the street before looking back at the two. 'I'll leave you both to get some rest, and I'll see you in the morning. If you have any problems, please call me.'
'Thank you.' Fred and Daphne said in unison.
'Good night.' Fischer said and climbed back into her car and drove away.
Fred and Daphne removed their bags from the trunk, Fred locked the car and the two walked up to the house.
Fred selected the house key, pushed it into the lock and turned the key. Daphne looked at the house as Fred unlocked it, she noted that it didn't look big at all. She couldn't see the rest of the houses on the street for comparison. But she knew it was a small town, so maybe they were all small houses.
Fred pushed the door open and felt on the wall for a light switch which he found quickly and flicked the switch.
The bright light filled the hallway, it was bright and Fred and Daphne saw there was no shade around the naked light bulb.
They stepped into the house and Daphne closed the door behind her, Fred gave her the keys and she locked it, pulling on the door afterwards to make sure that it was indeed locked.
They looked around the house.
The kitchen was small, there was a small dining table in the middle of the kitchen with three chairs around it. There was a tall fridge-freezer which Daphne opened and found a bottle of milk.
There were not many cupboards, but sitting on the side was a tin of coffee and a loaf of bread. Daphne made a mental note to go to the convenience store at some point tomorrow.
Daphne put the police file onto the table, she and Fred can go through it once they have checked the house out and put their bags away.
They checked out the next room which was the living room. There was a TV and two-seater couch, a coffee table in the middle of the room and an open fireplace.
It wasn't a modern house, it was quite old fashioned. With vintage wallpaper and furniture and old wooden floors.
The floorboards were so creaky, nobody would be able to sneak around the house because someone would hear the creaking.
The next room was a bedroom and next to it was a small bathroom.
The bedroom wasn't big. It had a fairly big wardrobe and a bedside table in between two double beds, and a tall standing lamp on the bed nearest the window.
'I guess there's only one bedroom.' Daphne commented.
She and Fred both quickly looked at each other, before they stepped into the room. Trying to ignore the awkward tension in the room.
Daphne put her suitcase on the bed, opened it up and fished for her pyjamas and her toothbrush. Then she zipped her suitcase up and planned to unpack it tomorrow. Fred just wheeled his case to the end of the bed and left it there for the night.
Fred went back into the kitchen whilst Daphne changed into her pyjamas, then she went into the kitchen and sat at the table with Fred.
They briefly read through the file and by the end of they had an idea of what was happening.
A killer was loose in Sandpoint and was killing brothers.
'I feel like I wanna stay up all night and solve this.' Fred said.
Daphne nodded, but she was so tired and she knew Fred was too. It wouldn't be a good idea to stay up all night and work, not when they have to be up early in the morning anyway.
They decided to call it a night and left the file on the kitchen table for the morning.
They stood in front of the bathroom mirror together, brushing their teeth.
'There's a killer in this tiny town that nobody has been able to catch for a year.' Daphne said, her mouth full of toothpaste as she brushed her teeth.
'And he or she is only killing twin brothers.' Fred spoke after he spat out his toothpaste.
'I was thinking about that.' Daphne replied, spitting out hers, 'I don't know what to make of it. First I thought that one of the victims was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but then it seemed the killer went back to the house and took another brother after the first one vanished.'
'What does this have to do with twin brothers anyway?' Fred asked. Daphne shrugged, 'That's what I wanna find out.
As they walked back to the bedroom, they both suddenly remembered that they were sharing the room.
They both climbed into their separate beds and Fred turned off the tall standing lamp next to his bed.
Daphne wondered why this felt so awkward. They had known each other since college, and over the years they had stayed over at each other's apartments. Sometimes they'd sleep in the same bed together or they'd fall asleep on the couch together, and nothing would happen between them. Maybe it was because this time they didn't have a choice? No, that couldn't have been it?
Maybe there was another reason this felt so strange?