The stairs

Chapter 11

"Don't you want to, I don't know, study the scene?" asked Cassie, as they followed Clark down the stairs.

"Forensics can manage that," she replied, "Also, I want to know where Robin, Rosa, Phillip, and Beryl are. Where do they live?"

Cassie and Lex looked at each other. Lex replied. "Phillip lives in the dorm behind this one - there, that one over there. I don't know about the other three, though. Though, in Phillip's case, he could have decided to sleep in the lab after all."

"I doubt it," said Cassie, "I'm calling him now. You're going to have to call the other two, Detective Clark."

"Call me Leslie," she said, "You did quite well, drawing out everyone's relationships with everyone else. Let's wait until someone from the university gets here. We'll get an empty room, and then we can discuss things there. I have a few things to ask the two of you."

Either way, the detective was going to give her information by the looks of it. Cassie, personally, had no problems with this.

The security arrived soon enough. The second floor, where the murder had taken place, was corded off completely, since bloody footsteps were discovered near the landing of the stairs where the murder had taken place, going towards the top of the other flight of stairs. The security opened up a pair of empty rooms on the ground floor, to be used as the headquarters by the police. Cassie and Lex were told to wait in one, while the police questioned the girl who had discovered the body.

Cassie and Lex sat in silence. About fifteen minutes later, Phillip was shown into the room by a policeman. Apparently, he had not slept yet. Cassie smelt the coffee off him as he sat down on the bed next to her. 

"Will the others come here as well?" he asked.

"That's likely," said Lex, "You two, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Robin?" asked Cassie.

"You mean, the obvious animosity between them?" asked Phillip, "wasn't it a little too obvious? He'd be the most obvious suspect if..."

"The phone, Mark was on the phone," said Cassie, "Lorna probably told him something. Or she left something with him, that he hadn't seen until he made the call. That's why asked Clark for her number, as opposed to staying behind and talking to her. He found whatever it was, and was about to inform Clark about it, when he left his room for some reason."

"Or Robin lured him out," said Lex.

"Your mind is apparently made up," said Cassie, "but I wouldn't eliminate Rosa just yet. The timing of Mark's request for Clark's contact details is suspect."

"In that case, he would have stayed behind, as you said," said Phillip, "I mean..."

He stopped suddenly. The reason was, Rosa was led into the room as well. She had dressed in a hurry. Her hair was a complete mess, and being curly, and it being a bedhead, meant that it was like a halo around her head. Then, Cassie realised that her own hair probably looked like that as well. She hurriedly reached for her hair to tie it into a bun. 

Then, Beryl entered the room. She had also put on some clothes in an obvious hurry. She had no makeup on, making the dark circles around her eyes and her not-so-flawless skin obvious. At least she had straight hair. Robin followed almost immediately. He had also dressed in a hurry. He wore a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. Lex looked at Cassie - he obviously thought this suspect. After all, he was wearing exactly what he wore when he slept - a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. Cassie wasn't so sure - there was nothing stopping him wearing pajamas when he slept. 

Cassie had more points for concern about his appearance, though. He didn't look like he had just woken up, somehow. Of course, he could have stayed up overnight like Phillip, but Phillip was not a normal person. 

"Cassie, come in," said Clark, standing at the door.

She looked at Lex. She was worried about leaving him in the same room as a potential murderer, but, well, Lex knew that too. Besides, there were a few policemen in the room. He was probably safer here than he would be when buying his meals.

"Okay," said Cassie. 

She followed the detective into the next room. She had a lot of questions that she needed answered, but she hadn't arranged the questions in her head yet. 

"Well, Cassie, did you discover anything?" asked Clark, as soon as she sat down.

"Did you search Mark's room?" Cassie asked, "You've probably realised that already..."

"I did. The room was locked - but it's a knob lock where you press the knob and close it to lock it. The room key was on Mark alright. We got no fingerprints from the knob, at least, none other than Mark's, and nothing appeared missing from the room. Still..."

"There are signs of the room being searched, but Mark probably did it himself?" 

"Exactly," said Clark, "and?"

"What's missing is an SD card, a pen drive, a note from Lorna, or the latter with one of the former. Rosa, Robin, and Beryl had changed, so it could be them, but I don't think any of them showered. In fact, Rosa and Beryl couldn't have showered, or their hair would be wet. Blood spatter could have been avoided using a raincoat, which was either disposed in one of the bins around campus, or burnt somewhere, so there would be no need to shower."

"What about a hair drier?" asked Clark. She appeared amused.

"Maybe Robin or Beryl could have used it, but I doubt Rosa could have. You probably didn't realise it because your hair is straight, but it takes a very long time to dry curly hair. Surely, running a hair drier for such a long time at night would be noticed."

"Anything else?"

"I think I know how to find the killer," said Cassie.