Betrayal at the House in the Woods

A Surprise Key Witness

When I was a kid, I loved role plays. Half the time I was living in my own imagination, either as a secret spy or a private detective. Never had I ever thought that I would be both today. Well, sort of. With my undercover blown, I had nothing to lose now. I would snoop around and break the law if I had to.

After doing a quick call to ask for leave from work, I was standing in front of the receptionist desk. As I hoped, there was no one there. After scooping the place for security cameras - bless Ms. Walter's soul for not putting in any, even though it was most likely because she couldn't afford it nor would she ever need it - I walked around the desk. There were papers and books on the desk and keys hanging on the wall behind it.

The guest book was easy to find. I was also glad the police didn't take it with them as an evidence. I jumped straight to the latest sign ins and found mine as well as Jake's.

I frowned. The date for Andrew Giles' sign in wasn't changed. It was just like I remembered, a few days before mine. So what was the police talking about? Did they lie?

I decided to turn to the previous pages to see if there was any other sign in that would be around the time of Amy's disapperance about 2-3 weeks ago. There hadn't been that much of an entry, but I noticed one that looked a bit out of place. Each entry had an empty space between them, but this one entry was quite close to the ones before and after it. That meant someone could've added it in later on. That would be less suspicous than trying to change the date of an existing entry.

I almost laughed at the name used in that entry. William Green. It was almost cheeky. I did forget to ask Hannah about what the police thought about the link to the legends, but I guessed she would've said, or the police would've told her, that Jake was hiding behind the legends. Which would match this name - his supposedly alias name - the name of the boy who died according to the legends.

I closed the book. I couldn't really use this as evidence, not on its own anyway. But I felt a bit more hopeful. Even though this all might seem like it was all planned well, there would be plotholes. The plan changed constantly as we threw curveballs at them, so plotholes were bound to happen, and I was going to find it.

The room that this William Green stayed at was Room 3. I took the spare keys to Room 3 as well as Room 1. I might as well search both rooms.

I went into Room 3 first. It was so neat that the police should've known straight away that nobody had stayed here at all, let alone for a few weeks, especially a man... but I guessed they would just think Jake was so careful. The police was careful too, as it didn't look like they had been here to do a search. Unless they had taken all the stuff to the station.

I found a suitcase inside the wardrobe. I put it on the bed and opened it. It was filled with men's clothes and toiletries, nothing else. I searched the rest of the room and found nothing.

I knew they had definitely taken the letter with them, but what about the computer or anything that he would've used for hacking? Were they smart enough to make a coy for that too? Or did they break into Jake's actual room and take his actual equipment and plant it here? Only one way to find out.

Jake's actual room looked more like someone had been staying there. The bed wasn't made. The trash bin was full. I assumed he would deny any cleaning services from the motel. But there was nothing on his desk. So they did take his equipment. Darn it.

But knowing Jake, they wouldn't be able to easily get in... Surely the police would try and get Jake to give them access. It would be an evidence against him for hacking, but it would prove that he was innocent too, wouldn't it? He could even show the conversations he had and others had. I wondered whether Jake would coorporate...