Kade Chapter 6
#6 of Kade (Rewrite)
If there was one benefit to having the crime occur in a hotel, it was security cameras. Kade's first instinct upon reentering the building was to see exactly what the cameras on the floor had captured. Tyler had gone to interrogate witnesses, including the housekeeper who had found the body, keeping clear of the crime scene while the CSI team and forensics did their work.
Kade retreated into the security office with one of the security guards, whom he noticed was frightened and meek. The guard had quickly sat down at the desk and logged into the computer, sifting through the recovered files.
"So, do you know of anyone that was of interest or out-of-place?" Kade questioned the security guard, a rather frail-looking weasel. "Did you personally notice anything suspicious?"
"Well, I wasn't here last night. I come into work at eight o'clock every morning," the weasel answered.
"Did you personally notice anything suspicious?" Kade repeated.
"No, sir, not at all. Typical day. A lot of check-outs in the morning, but no fights or screams or nothing until they found that poor guy," the weasel explained. He loaded the footage into the computer monitors.
"How much time do each of the cameras save?"
"They save up to thirty-six hours of footage, but we don't typically hold onto it unless there's an incident where we need it," the guard explained as he played the video.
Kade watched the time stamp tick as the video played. "I'll need a copy of this video for our investigation."
"Of course. I understand, sir. Er, what're we looking for?"
"Something that shouldn't be here."
"Okay?"
Kade leaned in closer. "Hold it there!"
The guard paused the video. The time stamp was clear enough: ten-sixteen. Kade studied the scene carefully. There, entering the frame was a figure in black, head down.
"Play it slowly."
The black figure began to move, frame by frame, as it approached one of the doors. It turned to look at the door and--Kade had to look very carefully to be sure--seemed to be knocking on the door. The door opened and the figure entered the room.
"That's our suspect, I guess," the weasel remarked.
"Yeah, but who the hell is he?" Kade wondered. "Is there another camera that'll get this from a different angle?"
"Yeah, but they're all at the extreme ends of the hallway. Not sure if you'll get much more detail."
"I see. Fast forward until they leave the room."
The weasel did so. Kade glanced down at the time stamp. Eight-thirty in the morning.
"He was in there all night," Kade said. "He'd have had plenty of time to work over the body. Who knows what kind of hell he put that guy through? And the housekeeper found the body at around nine, right?"
"I don't know. I would think so. They normally do their rounds about nine, ten in the morning."
"What'd you do when you heard what had happened?"
"I went to see what was going on," the weasel answered. "I called the Peacekeepers."
"And where were you when you heard about it?"
"I was in the bathroom," the weasel said. "They actually got me when I was on my way back here to the office." The weasel scowled. "You think I did it?"
Kade looked back at the paused image of the dark figure, emerging from the room. "I don't know. There's not enough detail in this video to say for sure. For now, you're low on the suspect list."
"But I didn't do it! I was home sleeping when it happened! You can even check my apartment's cameras! I was home all night last night!"
"Relax," Kade answered. "If you're innocent, you don't have to worry."
"Bullshit!" the weasel snapped. Kade rounded on him with a severe look and what little defiance the weasel had seemed to ebb away. "I mean, I just need to be sure that I'm not going to have someone pull me away from my family. I've heard the Peacekeepers arresting the wrong people."
"And the wrong people always get released because we'll get the right people," Kade remarked. "If you're innocent, you shouldn't be so scared. You have nothing to be scared of."
"This is hardly usable," Tyler huffed as he re-watched the video for the sixth time. They sat in Tyler's apartment, the case file opened on his coffee table. "Is this really the only video we got of this?"
"I don't think so," Kade remarked. "Our suspect didn't enter the hotel dressed like that. If he did, he might've come in a back way that isn't watched as closely as it should be. But there's hardly any footage of him walking through the hotel. We've got him here, coming and going from the room and then he disappears."
"Maybe he's changing in a blind spot," Tyler offered.
"Probably, but that just means we didn't get a good look at his face," Kade sighed. "But how would he know where the blind spot is? The only people who would know that would be whomever monitors the cameras."
"Maybe we should interrogate the security guards."
"We should, but solving this one murder might not solve the first," Kade grumbled. "For all we know, this could be a copycat. Or a number of assailants. If they're stealing prosthetics, then they're probably working for a black market."
"So we need to get into the black market."
"Maybe. Or maybe we need bait," Kade offered, kneeing Tyler's prosthetic knee with a sly grin.
Defensively, Tyler pulled away. "That's not funny."
"I was joking. Mostly," Kade said. He reached down and took a swig of the warm tea that Tyler had made. "What is this stuff anyway?"
"Just black tea," Tyler replied.
"Tastes funny," Kade muttered, replacing the mug on the table. He looked up at the video--Tyler was rewinding it again. Irritably, Kade snatched the remote. "We already have a timeline. This video isn't going to show us anything new."
"Well, maybe we'll find something," Tyler insisted hopefully. "We could've missed something already."
Kade pointed at his temple beside his prosthetic eye. "Remember this? I've already scanned the video as best as I can. There's nothing left to see."
"Okay, fine," Tyler huffed in exasperation. He glanced down at the file open on the table. "So, our victim was Terry Phillip Moody. He got back to his hotel from his... thing..."
"Seminar."
"His seminar at nine. He got room service at nine-thirty. Our murderer knocks on his door at ten-sixteen and leaves at eight-thirty. The housekeeper finds him within half an hour. So, he spent the night in the room? Why would he do that?"
"He didn't have a reason not to," Kade remarked. "He's clearly okay with being with a corpse. And besides, he didn't break into the room--he was invited in. The fact that he was let in willingly is what worries me more than anything else." Kade considered the situation. "We need to know what was said when our victim opened the door."
"What?"
"Might help establish his habits," Kade explained. "If we have a modus operandi then we can start predicting his habits. So, right now, we've got killings in two places, but the only thing linking them is the missing prosthetics. And we won't get anywhere until we know where they disappeared to."
"Or we get a lucky tip-off."
"Make your own luck, rookie," Kade told him. "Otherwise you'll just be waiting for handouts for the rest of your life."
"This is getting way too much attention," Bianca Gray noted to Kade and Tyler. "I thought you two could handle this."
"We would if he had anything to work on. We didn't even find any murder weapons!" Kade said. "Can't lift prints that are drenched in blood. And even if we could, prints don't work if our killer doesn't have any priors."
Chief Gray took a deep breath. She took a moment to compose herself and swallow down her angry retort. "I just want this taken care of. Can you two handle this or not?"
"We can. I was thinking that maybe we should go see Diamond."
The tension in the room seemed to weigh down even more at this statement and Kade could see Tyler's confusion from the corner of his eye. But he was more focused on Chief Gray's look of unease, how she shifted nervously in her seat.
"Are you serious?" she asked. "Creed, I don't like that rabbit."
"Of course you don't," Kade stated. "But you know as well as I do that he knows things we don't. He might know something that could help us. With your permission, I'd like to see him."
"And what kind of payment are you thinking of handing over? A couple thousand dollars? Maybe a stash of Peacekeeper weaponry? You had better think carefully. Do you know what kind of damage you could do to us if anyone finds out we're dealing with criminals?"
"Is Diamond a criminal?" Tyler finally asked, but his voice was overridden by Kade's.
"Aren't I always careful when I do this. I know what I'm doing," Kade assured her. "Can you make a few funds available to me?"
"How much?"
"Five hundred."
She hesitated. "Just five hundred? Won't he ask for more?"
"Probably, but the five hundred will be our retainer," Kade explained. "He'll definitely ask for more, but we can give him this on good faith. If his info's good, he'll get the rest he asks for. Not all at once, but steadily."
"And if his info's wrong?"
"We won't pay him," Kade explained. "We need it in cash. We don't want a paper trail."
"I have to report all of our expenses to the city," Gray said. "How're we going to explain that away?"
"I'll leave that up to you," Kade said. "Just call me when you're ready for me to pick up the money."
He turned and left, Tyler pausing briefly before following. As the door slid closed behind the wolf, Kade smiled at him, confident he'd not only gotten under Chief Gray's skin (something he loved to do), but that he'd probably just made a lot of headway in this case.
He was about to walk off, but the door slid open against and the chief stood there, scowling.
"This is off-the-record," she hissed to them in a low voice. "I don't want anyone knowing who you are, why you're there and what you're doing except Diamond. I want discretion."
"Of course," Kade said. "I'll be discreet."
"And you better get me results, Creed," she added warningly, "or I'll have your tail thrown into the smallest, dankest, dirtiest cell I can find."
"Don't you worry your pretty little head," Kade teased. "I'll get the job done. Oh, sorry," he said, putting his arm around Tyler's head, pulling him into a tight headlock. "We'll get the job done."
"Get off!" Tyler snapped, pushing the Dalmatian off. "That was beyond unnecessary!"
"Kade, I'm serious, don't fuck this up."
"I won't. Just hand over the funds and I'll make it happen."
He walked off, grinning happily, Tyler close behind.
"So, are you going to tell me who this 'Diamond' is?"
"Diamond's a bit... weird," Kade answered. "He used to be a detective, but his methods typically were... questionable. But he's got a mind like a super computer and he's got a network that spans seven states. Anything that happens under the table he's probably got a lead on. And he's probably already started investigating this matter on his own."
"So... what does he do?"
"Right now, he's a bounty hunter," Kade explained.
"And why doesn't Chief Gray want us to talk to him?"
Kade shrugged. "Just wait, you'll figure it out."
Assuming Diamond doesn't shoot him dead, Kade thought worriedly.