Elliot deaton pitt series the christmas eve murder

Chapter 1 The Christmas Present

>The snow fell carefully. Lights flickered everywhere and cars made slushy noises on the road. Today is Christmas Eve. I, Elliot Deaton Pitt or Elli for short am going to stay at a hotel for the night. After what happened at the orphanage, I never want to go back. The cruel things they did to all the children. But let's save that story for another time. As I was checking in, I had heard a noise, a scratching noise. Like nails on chalkboard. It sounded horrible. I asked the lady at the front if she heard a noise, but she just looked at me confused and said she heard nothing. I decided to just leave and go to my room. The room had a clear view of the snow falling outside and cars on the road. I relaxed a little, letting my guard down because as soon as I'd had relaxed into a comfy chair, I heard the scratching noise again. This time louder. I decided to investigate where the noise was coming from. I had a few ideas of what it could be like a rat with long nails or a cat. Then I heard the noise get louder as soon as I got close to a room. The number said room 400. I inspected the door before I entered the room. Unfortunately I found nothing unusual. I slowly creaked the door. The whole room was pitch dark. I tried the lights. *click click* Not working. 'Well at least nothing lashed out at me' I thought. I closed the door softly not alerting anyone. I took out my "oh so lucky" notepad and kept a note of room 400 in the hotel. Next time I check the room I should bring a flashlight. An hour after I closed the door, I heard a loud scream from the floor below. I immediately reacted and sprinted down. A large crowd also reacted to the scream. I finally got a glimpse of what the lady was screaming at. A lifeless body hung from the ceiling covered in a mass of blood, on the shirt was taped a note. I was tempted to know what had happened so I shouted "calm down everyone! I'm a detective! what exactly happened here?!" "madam?" "Can you tell me anything?!" I couldn't get a single word uttered out of her. She was trembling and her eyes darted around so fast I couldn't pinpoint who or what she was watching for. I asked again. "Madam, Can you tell me please what happened?" She finally said what had happened. Apparently she was coming back to her room after finishing dinner and noticed her door was unlocked and she remembered clearly she had locked the door. She said she looked around so rapidly because she thought she saw a trail of blood on the floor but when she checked again, it all disappeared. I had noticed something unusual about this room so I decided to go ask the manager to see the map of the hotel. "Alright you can have a look if your saying your a detective and can solve this case." "I don't want my hotel to be known as a killing area" the manager said. I looked at him suspiciously and made a note of him in my notepad. 'Now let's take a look at this map.' As soon as I found the room where the murder took place, I noticed that room 400 is right on top on the next floor. I ran to check the room out again. This time many people had left and the cops were here. I noticed Arlen, the cop that worked on several cases I had solved before. "Oh look it's Elliot! I had a feeling you would be here!" Not to mention he has a crush on me, he's the last person I wanted to see here. *Peh* "Arlen back off! This is my case." "I know Elliot but you know it's the polices jobs to check these out." I ignored him and decided to read the note on the murdered man. It was as plain as day that I could even see it from the back of the crowd. 'Sinner of night.' in big bloody letters. I looked up and sure enough there was a tiny crack where the rope came from. Room 400. "Hey Arlen, Can you do me a favor?" Arlen's ears perked up at the sound of what I just asked him. I was prepared for this. *Sigh* "Elliot of course! of course! What is it!?" I saw his beady eyes staring at me for what seemed like forever! "Can you go check out room 40 0 for me?" He looked at me confused. "What's in room 400?" "I don't know! That's why I want you to check it out!" He looked at me for a while and then ushered half of his team out to room 400. I followed behind. His team proceeded to open the door to 400. Like before, nothing lashed out at anyone. One of Arlen's team members turned on the flashlight. To my horrified surprise, the whole room was trashed. Blood splattered everywhere, used needles, medicine bottles and pills, clothing teared, smashed electronics, turned over book self, knifes and guns noticeable to the naked eye and a ungodly smell that smelled of a decaying body. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the curtains move. A wild gust of wind knocked my bangs backward. My eyes widened. 'Oh no! don't tell me the criminal ran out the window!' My blood rushed to my eyes making them go red. Let me tell you all something. I HATE to lose a case and a criminal on the run. They become more difficult each time. "Miss, what do you plan on doing?" "Keep a watch out and keep flashing your lights. I might find a clue somewhere." I cautiously walked around the room, careful not to move anything out of place. At first I still noticed nothing unusual again until I saw nail marks on the bathroom door. Was this the scratching noise I heard? But why on the bathroom door? I signaled to one of the cops to shine a light on the bathroom door. I proceeded to slowly open the door. Nothing. I walked in a little further. I pulled the shower curtains back. Just what I suspected. A pool of blood. "Alright we can go back to the room downstairs." I had an idea of who would be the suspects. "Did you find what you needed to know?" Arlen stood outside of the room with the lady who witnessed the murdered man hanging from the ceiling. "Yeah and I have a feeling that the criminal didn't run off at all." "Really?! Elliot who did it then?" "Not sure yet but I'll need to check out the crowd that ran to the scene of crime. I'm sure the criminal hid itself in the crowd so that no suspicions would arise."