Whispers in the Night: A Hotel of Unraveled Secrets

5 - Missing and Murdered

        "What ! How?"  Veronica asked, bolting up from her seat. "I know it sounds bizarre, but you all need to come quick"  Mj said entirely out of breath, Jared got up from his seat and tried to calm her down. The four of them went into the elevator, which took them to the third floor. Mj led them to where the others were. Veronica could see Georgina's mom sobbing while her daughter tried to console her.
       "What happened ?" Veronica asked, "When Zuri led Miss Georgina's relatives to her room, she was no where to be found and her room was a mess"   Mj replied. "But how did she go missing ? No one broke into the building and she didn't leave either"  Veronica thought. Daisuke told Diana to take Georgina's relatives to the guest room. When they left, Daisuke turned to face the others and explained everything. "Her mother brought the case to me and we've decided to accept it, so we're gonna start with interrogations. Your testimonies can serve as clues"  Daisuke said, " let's start from you two, Mj and Veronica, what time did miss Georgina check in ?"
       "Miss Georgina checked in by 12:00 p.m"  Veronica said. "Okay, Zuri, what about you ? After all you are the guest relation manager, I also need to hear what you have to say including you Jared since you are in charge of hospitality"  Daisuke said, turning in their direction. "Well, when she came, she made mention that if there's any package for her, we should dispose of it immediately"  Jared stated. "Was there any package for her from the past 3 days ?"  Daisuke asked, "No sir"  Mj said. "In that case; Raymond, Veronica and Yomi, go into the room and search for any more leads. Jared and Mj, I need you two to question the mother and sister,maybe we can get more information on Miss Georgina"  Daisuke said.
      They all carried out his instructions. The room was very messy, it was as if a fight took place some minutes ago. "So where do we start ?"   Abayomi asked  "why don't we start by checking her suitcase"  Veronica said pointing to a black suitcase on the bed. "Cool let's start with that, oh before I forget, My name is Raymond Zera but I go by the name Ray" Raymond said "oh I kinda guessed that already, by the way what kind of ability do you have ?" Veronica asked. "My ability is Art to reality, whatever I draw becomes real. I am actually a hybrid, half human half werewolf"  Raymond stated.
        "Hey guys look what I found"  Abayomi said. Raymond and Veronica turned to face her and saw her holding a peacock feather. "A peacock feather ? I remember now, she wore a hat which had peacock feathers" Veronica said. "Looks like she used the feather to write something, there's some ink at the calamus"   Abayomi said showing them an ink dot on her finger, "good  job, keep that Yomi, it will be  useful let's continue looking around"  Raymond said. As they to search for more leads, Veronica spotted a scrap of paper on a table. She picked it up and saw it had something written on it.
         " Taste E  Flog  02N"
        "What is this supposed to mean ?"  She thought, she alerted Raymond and Abayomi of what she found, Raymond did the same by showing them a painting of flower vase. "Looks like She brought this one in herself, she must be well off  to be able to buy an expensive painting"  Raymond stated. "How did you know it's an expensive painting ?''  Veronica asked, "this kind of painting was created by Carol Grace, a famous painter, from the art you can tell that a lot of money has been paid for it"  Raymond said. They continue to look around but when they didn't find anything else; they left the room. They went to the guest room where Daisuke and the rest were, they saw Georgina's sister sitting down trying to console her mother. Jared and Mj sat on a Chesterfield chair  which was on the opposite side, Daisuke and Diana stood behind them.
     
         When Daisuke spotted Veronica and the rest, he walks towards them; so did Diana. "What did you find ?"   He asked. Three of them brought out what they had found. "A peacock feather, a painting ad a scrap of paper ?"  Diana said as she raised an eyebrow; Raymond explained everything which cleared Diana's confusion. "So do you guys have an idea of what is written on the paper ?"  Daisuke asked. " I thought about it and I believe it's a cipher, seems like she was trying to encode something and didn't want her abductor to find out"  Veronica said. Upon hearing what she said, Daisuke handed her the scrap of paper. "Let's see, taste E, if I rearrange that it will become Estate, ok what about Flog...."   Veronica thought. It didn't take her a minute before she deciphered the code.
        "NO 2 Golf Estate, I believe that where she's presently at"  Veronica said. "Well done Veronica, Golf estate huh, Jared, Mj, please come over here"    Daisuke called out. Jared and Mj immediately got up from their seats and went to meet him, Daisuke explained everything to them. "There's a high chance that Miss Georgina can be found at that location, so I want you two to go there, Veronica will be accompanying you"  Daisuke said.
         "Come, Diana, let's go and meet the mother and her daughter"  Daisuke said, "Yes sir"  Diana said and with that they left leaving Mj, Jared, Raymond, Abayomi and Veronica. "Let's hit the road"  Mj said, As they were about to enter the elevator; Veronica overhead Georgina's sister telling her mother of how she'll need to go out for a bit to clear her mind.
       "So what's the name of Georgina's Mom and sis ?"  Veronica asked  "Her mom's name is Amarachi while her sister's name is Layla"  Jared replied. Veronica had more questions in mind but decided to ask later. They got out of a building and headed towards a nearby garage. She pressed a button which opened the garage door, inside was a midnight blue SUV. "WOAH an SUV ? sweet"  Veronica thought as the three of them entered the car. Mj brought out the car keys, started the engine and drove off.
         "What's the location again Veronica ?"  Mj asked, "No 2 Golf Estate"  Veronica said. "WOAH a 7 seater SUV,  these kind of cars cost an arm and a leg"  Veronica thought. "Of course they do''  Jared said aloud which took Veronica by suprise. "Wait you can read minds Jared ?"  Veronica asked, "of course I can, its part of my abilities"  Jared stated. "Oh yeah, you're a vampire, I kinda forgot. Well in that case I better be careful with my thoughts when I'm around you"    Veronica said. "Don't worry, no matter what your thoughts are, I won't tell a single soul"  Jared said with a smirk on his face. "Yeah that doesn't sound very reassuring"  Veronica said with a monotonous tone, Mj giggled at their conversation. They drove for a while and finally reached to Golf Estate, "you guys should look around to see if you see any house with the number two"  Mj said. Veronica and Jared looked at each house through their windows, it didn't take time before they found the house they were looking for.
         "Stop Mj, we are here look"   Veronica said. Mj parked the car and the three of them got down. "Well this is very unexpected"  Jared said. They stood in front of a rundown building, "let's go in"  Mj said  "Yeah and for the record Veronica, we're on a real mission not a haunted house adventure you see in movies"  Jared said in a teasing manner, "Yeah i know that, now zip it or i'll zip it for you"  Veronica said. They went into the building, the floorboards kept creaking as they stepped on it. "This place truly is round down"  Jared said, "shh, we have to be quiet so that the abductor does not hear us"  Veronica said in a low voice; "Veronica is right"   Mj said. Suddenly, they heard a deafening scream. "What was that ?"  Veronica asked in a startled voice, "that was definitely a woman's scream"   Jared said; "and it came from upstairs, let's go !"  Mj said.
         They went up the stairs in a hurry not minding the creaking floor boards. They were wondering where the scream came from when the heard a moaning sound coming from a room. "This way !"  Mj shouted. They got to the room in time but nothing prepared them for what came next.

          They stood at the entrance, their eyes widened in shock. A lifeless body was on the ground, blood surrounded the corpse; a knife was stabbed into the corpse's chest. "Wait... Isn't that ..."   Mj said, "indeed it is, miss Georgina has been killed, no doubt about that"   Veronica said finally. "The windows is open"  Jared said as he ran towards the window and looked down, but no sign of the killer. He pulled out a pair of gloves from his pocket and wore it, he walked towards the corpse and gently pulled out the knife from the chest. "It doesn't look like any ordinary knife, I will keep it in this Ziploc bag and take it to miss Eniola to examine it"  Jared said.
  
         Veronica walked towards the corpse to see if there is any thing more to it. "Guys come take a look"  Veronica said, Jared and Mj went over to her side. "Look at her body, looks like she was shot three times"  Veronica said pointing to some holes on the lifeless body which looked like gunshot. "I see, so the killer must have shot her three times, since guns don't work on dragons, they decided to stab her which eventually led to her death"  Jared said in a serious tone. "Looks what the killer was here not so long ago, possibly at the time we just entered the building, but he or she managed to unalive Georgina meaning he or she must have known this is where she would be"  Mj said.
        "But for the person to arrive around the same time we did, looks like the killer knew about our coming and decided to be two steps ahead of us, its a reasonable explanation considering the timing of the killing"  Veronica said. Mj and Jared agreed with her and decided to leave, Veronica was about to follow them when something dragged the hem of her trouser.

      "Wait....Please don't....go....not...yet". A faint voice said.

       She looked down to see Georgina pulling the hem of her trouser, "she still has some strength left"  Veronica thought as she bent down. "There's... something... You need... Cough to ... Know"  Georgina said gradually losing consciousness. "What is it ?"  Veronica asked. "The...painting...is......for..ged, it...was...a trap"  Georgina said. "The painting is forged ? By who ? Who killed you ?"  Veronica asked but it was too late. Georgina had given up the ghost.