A two sided mystery

Chapter 6 - Suspects

AUTHORS NOTE

To everyone reading this. I apologize for having this uploaded two days late. I completely forgot about it. I wrote the chapter, thought it was good, had second thoughts so changed it, went to bed with it unfinished, then forgot about it. I finished it before uploading it.

Also, IMPORTANT(ish) WARNING. Like I said at the start of the story, chapters marked with [B] are chapters that may be a little, graphically violent. This chapter is not one of those chapters, but the last section of the chapter is, so I marked it as chapter 6.5 with a [B] tag, halfway through. Normally, you can skip the [B] chapters, and you can skip the [B] bit here as well, but I recommend reading it. It will make the next chapter easier to understand.

After finishing, Daniel walked out front, finding Andrew waiting for him, just like promised.

"Okay, you said that he would be murdered, but what did you mean?" The car set off, rumbling beneath their feet as they sped through the city.

"I meant exactly what I said. If I am correct, then he will already be dead, and we won't be able to get any information out of him."

"But why do you think he is dead? What gives you that idea?"

"He hasn't left his apartment for a long period of time. His last recorded sighting was extracting money from the bank three months ago. He lives in an apartment downtown. The amount he extracted didn't seem enough for him to live on for three months, I checked the footage before I left the building. Unless he got a new job in a place that doesn't have a single camera, or in a place that is illegally working, he would have shown up on our records. My thoughts are that he has either killed himself, or someone has found him and killed him. From his extended stay at Las Vegas, I assume that he has a considerable amount of debt. If this is the case, then the debt collectors may have killed him because he couldn't pay."

"I want to know how you work all this out."

"I've had a long time to practice. My parents used to lock me in a white room with nothing to look at but puzzles. Whenever I finished one, they would give me another. I spent about a year in that room, if you add all the hours up."

Andrew stared over at Daniel, raising his eyebrow in disbelief "I'm not sure that is a true story. And even if it is, I'm not sure that's a legal thing to do."

Daniel shrugged, pulling out his notepad and starting to write in it. "It's a true story. Come to my house sometime. I'll show you the room, and you can even ask my parents if they did. And even if it wasn't legal, they didn't care. They raised a new Sherlock Holmes, so they were satisfied."

"Maybe that's what I should call you now. Not Daniel, Holmes."

"I do say, would that not make you my Watson?" Daniel brought his pen up to his mouth, imitating a pipe, his speech automatically changing to a posh British accent.

"That's Doctor Watson, thank you very much."

Daniel chuckled, putting his pen and notepad back in his pocket, looking ahead again. "But in all seriousness, that's what my parents wanted. The worlds' greatest detective, in real life. It wasn't fun, I'll tell you that."

Andrew looked over at Daniel, worry evident on his face. "You feeling alri-"

"But anyway, back to the case. Enough about my childhood."

"If you say so. But anyway, if he is already dead, then why did you want to get a first aid kit and medic?"

"The first aid kit is something we really ought to bring with us during this case, so you will be seeing it a lot. We are dealing with a killer, we never know when he might appear in front of us. The medic is for Jackson. We cannot be sure he is dead. He may simply be dying, or injured in some way. If so, having someone capable of first aid is a very useful thing."

"If he is dying, or injured, then wouldn't he have checked into a hospital by now? And wouldn't someone have noticed, or been worried about him after such a long time?"

"It is possible he has some sort of spinal damage, or damage that makes him unable to move. And I doubt that the people around him care about their neighbors, and he would have paid for the year in advance, so the owner has no reason to chase him up. It's that sort of place you know."

"That's a good point. Let's hurry."

Andrew stepped on the pedal, the car speeding up beneath them. Within five minutes, they arrived at the building, getting out and looking up.

"Big building. Do we know his room number?"

Andrew pulled out his phone, tapping it a few times before nodding. "Yeah. Room 426, on the fourth floor."

Daniel nodded and walked in, calling over his shoulder. "You stay here, wait for the medic to arrive, then come up and check out the room. I'm going ahead." Andrew nodded, moving back to the car and resting against it, Daniel walking to the staircase and beginning to climb.

[B] Chapter 6.5 - Suspect: Failure

Five minutes later, the medic arrived, and Andrew set off with him to the room, hoping to find Daniel already there. By the time they arrived at the room, the door was already wide open, and there was a smell much like rotting flesh escaping from the doorway.

"Daniel. You in there?"

"Yeah. I'm right here." Daniels voice echoed from the room, his head soon popping around the corner, a grim look on his face. "It's not a very nice sight, and there is a bit of a hint here already." His head disappeared again, and Andrew walked forward, the medic following close behind. When he turned the corner to enter the room, he saw Jackson, or at least, what was left of him.

The body itself was suspended in midair, held up by cables hammered into the walls and ceiling. The body itself was a mess. Cuts from a knife covering the body, both legs sawn off entirely and hanging around the neck. The jaw sliced open and hanging loose. The back sliced open and spread to either side, as if the skin was acting as a set of wings. The walls were covered in blood and rotting flesh, one area completely clean, except for three words, written in bright red.

"Joey was here."