I am back with chapter two. Thank you for the reviews they are much appreciated and I hope I can peak more interest as this story continues.
Please enjoy.
Gerry looked at the out dated building, with its crumbling brick work and wooden weather beaten window frames. It amazed him this piece of history had survived this long without being turned into some kind of health spar. Now it seemed as he watched as everyone else climbed out of the car alongside him that time and money had finally caught up with the hotel. It was coming down to make room for condos and Gerry couldn't help but feel nostalgic even though he had never been to this particular hotel before.
"Come on I think the developer is waiting for us inside." Sandra said pulling Gerry out of his reprieve and back in to the present. This was no ordinary hotel, it had been the location for the death of five men, and Gerry couldn't help the slight shiver than ran down his spine as they crossed the threshold.
"Wow they haven't done much yet have they?" Brian observed as they stepped into the foyer and a man with sandy blonde hair and a quick smile approached them. Sandra cast a quick glance in Brian's directions telling him with a single look to shut up for a moment while she dealt with the man approaching them. Her ID was out and on display before he had even gotten out his first words and Gerry quickly realised why.
"Finally I have been waiting all morning for you lot, do you have any idea how much this delay is costing us Miss whatever your name is." He said seemingly unaware of who he was talking to and Gerry got the impression that he didn't give a shit either.
"Super intendant Pullman." Sandra filled him in using her clipped no nonsense voice and Gerry was just pleased that he was not on the receiving end of it for once.
"I suppose the lives of five men don't fit in to your profit margins however I don't really care about that. We are here to see if we can solve these murders once and for all, and as far as I can tell you have no choice but to let us." Sandra continued as the man backed down from his position almost looking over Sandra's head and moved to the side. Holding out his arm and pointing towards a lift in the corner of the lobby.
"I guess I don't super intendant." He said as Sandra walked passed him with a small nod of acknowledgment. The boys followed along behind her all feeling for the now red faced developer, all knowing that feeling when it came to their Guvnor.
Brian looked around at the lobby area with interest, he wondered if this had been how it had looked when the hotel was open.
"Have they changed much since the times of the murders?" he asked the developer as they waited for the lift to reach the lobby and the man shook his head quickly.
"No, this place hasn't changed in twenty years, that's probably why they are tearing it down. The guests were sick of not getting Pay Per View." He said as the lift door opened and Gerry let out a small chuckle.
"Now that I can understand." He said knowing it would earn him a distasteful look from Sandra but what else was new, he had learnt to live with it. Moving on to the lift Gerry had to squeeze in next to Jack and the man was looking far from happy about the experience, but his annoyance paled in compassion with Sandra's as Brian shuffled around managing to connect with her toe as he made room for the five of them as the lift started to ascend.
"Christ Brian." She exclaimed but unable to bend down and rub her smarting foot she settled for glaring at the back of the northerners head as he spoke with the developer.
"So am I right in saying that they closed off the penthouse suit after the final death in 96 and it has remained untouched since?" He questioned as the lift stopped and let them out in to a hallway and all of them breathed a sigh of relief.
"Pretty much the penthouse suite got a bit of a reputation after that, it even made a couple of those tour guide books you know Britain's most haunted, and such like. I don't think anyone would have stayed in that room, even if they had kept it open." The man replied as he led them down the hall and towards another lift.
"You're telling me the hotel let people think a Ghost had killed those men, wouldn't that have harmed their business?" Gerry said as they stopped in front of the lift and the developer backed away slightly.
"Not at all in fact some people came here to see that room. It was said that the men died of fright. That they saw something so horrible upon waking in the morning that their hears just gave out in fear." Brian was almost salivating at the prospect of seeing the room now but Gerry was although irrationally far less exuberant about the idea of going up there.
"Aren't you coming?" Gerry asked as the man backed away as the lift to the penthouse suit arrived and dinged its arrival.
"I think you can find your way from here. Plus that room just gives me the creeps, I for one will be glad when it is nothing more than a pile of ashes." With that he turned and left the UCOS team alone all stood outside the lift all but one.
"Come on, let's get up there and check it out." Brain said practically dancing from foot to foot inside the lift as Sandra stepped aboard first.
"Fine, but this isn't an episode of most haunted Brian, don't expect Yvette Fielding to be waiting for us at the top of the stairs. Or anything to be lurking in the wardrobe." Sandra said as they all entered the lift and she pushed the button for the top floor.
"All the same has anyone got the number for Ghostbusters?" Gerry inquired only half joking as the lift gave a quick lurch before continuing on its journey upwards. Gerry suspected his was not the only heart to have fallen into his boots at that one.
The lift made it to the top floor without further incident and they all climbed off, there was only one door on this floor although the hallway continued for almost twenty meters in each direction. It gave a small indication of just how big the suite was.
"This is kind of large for a business man on an overnight stay." Jack piped up for the first time, noticing the first oddity in their location. His eyes swept the hallway and noticed the bracket where the CCTV camera had once sat and he noticed that there would have been no way for anyone exiting the lift to avoid it.
"I thought that to. It was expensive as well, and none of these men were executives, or company directors. What this kind of room is reserved for, it suggests planning to me." Sandra said placing her hand over the door knob and twisting it slightly so the door squeaked open allowing a small cloud of dust to filter though the ever increasing gap.
"Bloody hell it's like a hermetically sealed tomb in here." She said waving her hand around to stop the dust from covering her face as she coughed slightly before the room came into full view.
"Finger print dust I guess." Jack said following the blonde into the room and running his finger along the vanity unit and collecting some of the settling dust upon it.
"You men to tell me no one has been in here for over ten years. No way not when bob the builder was telling us about what a money spinner this room was for the hotel." Gerry said moving cautiously to the window that over looked the buildings on the opposite side of the street and out towards the London skyline.
"Looks that way, but I think we should operate under the guise that people have been in here and this room would still have been accessible to staff and other guests long after the last investigation." Sandra voiced as she moved towards the bed and looked at the rumpled sheets and saw nothing that was not in the crime scene photos.
"This is amazing to think all these years and no one has dared come up here to see what was really going on. To worried about superstition and goblins to spend the night, what I wouldn't give." Brian said as he walked into the bathroom coming back out almost immediately finding nothing of interest inside and re-joining the others.
"Don't you even think about it. Now look around for any evidence, something the previous team might have missed." Sandra said giving Brian another warning look as he placed his hands in his pockets and shuffled about.
"Sorry Gov, but what exactly is it that we are looking for? A note on how and why from the killer, some kind of secret trap door to tell us how they got in here?" Gerry said looking under the table lamp and unsurprisingly finding nothing.
"Don't be facetious Gerry it doesn't suit you. No we need to look at this room with a fresh set of eyes. Forgetting all about dying of fear and things that go bump in the night." Sandra looked at Brian again as if to make her point but he was ignoring her as he looked at a picture on the wall.
"Fair enough Sandra, but what if we don't find anything?" Jack said as he moved across the room to stop in front of the wardrobe and paused before opening it.
"Then I guess we hope that the pathologist has come up with a cause of death so we will have something to go on." She replied as Jack pulled open the wardrobe to be greeted with exactly what he expected to find. Nothing.
The developer had been right about one thing the room was creepy. Gerry put it down to the fact that five men had died in the room, but it was more than that, he had been in rooms where the dead body in question was still there and he had never felt this unsettled before. No the room had a feel about it, one that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up and kept his senses on over drive. As Jack pulled open the wardrobe door he watched as Sandra flinched slightly. Something no one else noticed and Gerry was certain that if he had not been watching her so closely, he would not have seen it either. The blonde Super intendant ice water in her veins, not scared of anyone or anything had just had a wobble and Gerry was glad. It meant she was human after all and he held off the smile threatening to break out on his face. Moving himself over to the bedside table he looked at the things on it. A lamp, the room phone, a glass that now only held a cobweb, but at one point Gerry thought it may have been Scotch and the alarm clock. Reaching out he opened the draw and found a Glidden's bible inside. Smiling to himself he reached in and pulled it out.
"Wow now there's a shocker, I wonder if one of e'm snuck back in here to see if it had been read and took exception to it still sitting in the drawer." Gerry said as Sandra looked at him from the opposite bedside table and scowled.
"Unlikely Gerry, but if you wanted to interview all the members make sure you do it on your own time." She replied a small smile now gracing her features and Gerry placed the bible back in the drawer and shook his head.
"I think I will pass on that one if it's all the same to you." Now moving over to where Jack was checking out the vanity unit having found nothing much like the rest of the room. Brain was still checking out the wall art and had come up empty handed. For now it seemed like whatever secrets the room on the top floor of the Grand Hotel held it was keeping them to its self.
Half an hour later they were all stood in the lobby none the wiser on what had happened to all those men. Gerry was just glad to be out of that room for now, although he could see its appeal to a certain type of person. Including Brian who was his own unique kind if crazy and was already going on about more research.
"When we get back I am going to get on the net and find out what people have said about that room, I know most of it will be hearsay but you can never count out the fanatics. They have a way of finding out the truth, even if no one believes them." He said as they all made their way back to Sandra's car.
"We know we have worked with you long enough." Jack said as he opened the passenger door and climbed in next to a smiling Sandra as they pulled away from The Grand.
"Ok Jack and Brian go back and find out about that hotel and whatever you can about the five men who died. Why they stayed there, who booked the room ect. Gerry and I will go and see what Dr Jackson has for us on the pathology reports. Hopefully she can give us something so we can move this forward." Gerry thought about that room once more and he couldn't shale the feeling that they were missing something. If no one had found a connection between the men previously and their only connection had been the place where they died it stood to reason that that was also the reason for their deaths. But how could a hotel room be responsible for the demise of five seemingly normal businessmen? Gerry sat back in his seat and watched the world fly passed his window, he hoped Sandra was right and the pathologist did have something for them or they would be right back at square one. Five dead men and one very spooky room.
There is chapter two. Reviews make me happy and encourage me to update so if you would like to see what happened next let me know and I will do my best to update asap. Also if you have any suggestions I am happy to listen I am always looking for ways to improve. Thank you for reading XxX