Call It Murder: A Group Novel

Night 2

Jinni spent most of the day in her room. As long as everyone knew that's where she was, she had an alibi. It was when she left . . .

After dark, she put her ear to the door. The lights were out, and everything was quiet. Dead quiet.

She slipped out her door and closed it behind her. She made her way carefully through the long hallways, lobby, and towards the emergency stairs. A sign said "Employees Only," but there was no one to enforce that rule. So she continued past several doors, labeled with their different functions. She stopped in front of the one marked "Security."
There might be a security tape with a video of the murder. I hope no one else has seen it . . .

There was a crash further on, like a box of tools falling down. Jinni looked desperately around for a place to hide.

Finn woke up to silence. The room's lights were still on, but the window revealed it to be late at night. He was an excellent sleeper, but even he could not sleep for a whole day straight. After using the restroom, he headed downstairs and into the kitchen.

He got a bag of cereal from the pantry and entered the dining room. After flipping the lights on, he went over to the table and pulled off the sheet, revealing Red's face. While eating, he examined all of the marks from the stick. He sniffed the air and then the cereal. Despite the scent of decay, they somehow smelled similar. They both smelled of almonds.

Sighing, Finn covered her and headed into the lounge. Sitting down on the cozy couch, he continued to eat while thinking over the few things he saw. The boy sighed. Tomorrow he would have to be awake longer if he wanted to figure out this hotel's mystery.

David peeked out the door of his room. Nobody. He slipped out and went down the stairs. He stopped at the door marked "security" and took a deep breath. If the killer was in there, he was going to be in for a big surprise. He eased the door open and looked inside--nobody. He closed the door behind him and went to the security cameras. David hadn't brought the matter of the cameras up during the day for fear that the killer would destroy the evidence. He typed through the computer systems, only to find that the cameras had been shut off the night of the murder. Crud. Someone knew what they were doing. He groaned and left the room.

There was a shadow on the wall from further down the hall, and he panicked. He ran in the opposite direction and crashed into a box of tools, knocking them to the floor with an astounding ruckus. Ah, man! he thought, terrified. He kept running--right into Jinni Taylor. He stumbled back, staring at her. " Jinni ?"

Alan was walking down the hall, but when he saw someone down next to the security room he knew he was too late. Sighing when he heard the crashing sound-- Someone's not a trained thief --he went down to the dining room. He lifted the tablecloth covering Red's face and bowed his head slightly. What a terrible waste of life. He frowned a little when he smelled something--off. Almonds. Perhaps she had been wearing almond perfume? Shrugging, he went into the kitchen and grabbed a cookie.

Munching on the cookie Alan went into the lounge and saw Finn. He smiled. "Hello," he said, sitting beside the boy. He figured something had robbed him of his power of speech; it couldn't hurt to be nice to him. "I see we both had the same idea."

After everyone had drifted off to their rooms, Denzil and Mrs Jackson went for their nightly conference. The previous night, they had sat in Denzil's room but on this occasion, Mrs Jackson led him through the door marked "Employees Only" and from there, into her apartment.

Despite the fact that the hotel boasted luxury accommodations, the staff quarters fell way short of that description. Mrs Jackson's apartment was tiny. The kitchen and bathroom were little more than walk-in cupboards and the combination bedroom/sitting room was also rather cramped.

She made tea and sandwiches for them both before they began up-dating each other on what they had discovered during the day.

Denzil sank into one of the armchairs, feeling wearier than he ought to. He sipped his tea and munched on his sandwich before asking the burning question that was on his mind.

"That business with the phones is just bluff, right? An excuse to get a look at their phones. You can't really get them working, can you?"

Mrs Jackson gave a sly wink. "Bit of both really. There is a way to switch networks and I'd hoped that I could patch into one of Andy's private networks, but no go. Whoever's in charge of this sick social experiment knows what they're doing. I can't even connect to the internet on my laptop".

"So, did you find out anything useful from looking at their phones?" Denzil asked, taking another sip of tea and reaching for another sandwich.

She shook her head. "Nothing related to the murder, if that's what you mean. Young David seems to be having girlfriend problems and Alan communicates with his gang members from time to time. Dick's phone is full of all sorts of junk. He should have a clear-out if you ask me. He did get a message from some relative of Jinni's, saying she'd lost her number. Looks like he tried to reply, but by that time communications must have been cut off. Greg seems to make notes of almost everything. Red only had one message, to her uncle, apparently, says she found the person she was looking for and has them cornered. Not sure what to make of that, whether it has anything to do with her getting bumped off. Missy ain't got a phone and I've yet to get a look at Finn's, Jinni's and the mystery person's."

Denzil sighed and leaned forward, elbows on knees. "I'm not convinced that a beating with a stick was the cause of death. A contributory factor, but I smelled almonds on Miz Red as well, and you know what that means".

"Cyanide?" Mrs Jackson asked, her eyebrows raising.

Denzil nodded. "Uh-huh" he said. "As for the prints, it seems like almost everyone's touched that stick at some point. It's been passed around like a baton in a relay race. Yours and mine are the only ones not on it, and there are some more prints which don't match any that I got from the plates and cutlery. Did you have a chance to check out the security video yet?"

"No go there either" she replied, fetching her laptop from the side table and starting it up. "Cameras weren't working. No big surprise. The puppet-masters have got us all at a disadvantage".

She grabbed the napkins containing Denzil's notes and began typing, adding them to the notes which she had previously made.

"While you do that, I'm gonna take a walk around" Denzil mentioned, putting down his empty mug and plate. He heaved himself up and nodded politely at her before leaving the little apartment.