The Hunt

One

Washington D.C 2012

"Thanks for such a lovely night, Jack. And I'm sorry for not being around as much as I used to...this job of mine is really absorbing." 

"I knew it when I married you, babe. And I'm more than proud of you, Detective Mitchell."

"Detective Mitchell-Wallace to you." I winked at Jack.

"Won't say I disagree with that." He listened for a while "Is that your phone?"

"Hope it's not, I should have left it at home. Sorry." I opened my purse to answer the incoming call, cursing myself for not leaving the phone at home "It's Mark, it must be something important." 

"No need." As I walked out of the restaurant to answer the call, Jack gently took my hand and kissed it. 

"Love you." I whispered to him "Mitchell." I listened Mark Davidson, my partner, telling me of a dead man found in his house "Okay, will be there in twenty minutes." I went back to the restaurant "Sorry Jack, I have to go. It was Mark, something happened not far from here."

"Who talked of a demanding job? Take the car, I will take a taxi. Do you want me to wait for you?"

"Would love it. And with two glasses of red." I leant in to kiss Jack.

"Your wishes are my command. And now, go fight the bad guys, Detective." 

****

"Okay, what do we have?" I put my gloves on before examining the scene.

"Martin Bennett. Divorced, thirty six years old. He works at the National Gallery as public relations. He lived with his new girl, a coworker named Jessica Thomas. She found him when she came home from work, one hour ago. She had an anxiety attack and had to be attended by paramedics . The man was in his bedroom, completely naked and apparently poisoned. There were no glasses or drinks around though, we'll have to wait until coroner examines him."

"A crime of passion?"

"Could be. There are some surveillance cameras here, we will try to get the images."  Mark led me to the bedroom where the body was. Everything was tidy and in its place, with no signs of fight. "It looks like he knew his killer."

"It looks like he was seeing someone else. Will have to talk to the girlfriend." I took a careful look at the room. Some art books on a table, the dead man's clothes tidily set on a chair...nothing out of place. There was no personal computer, or IPad, or any other electronic device. "He seems to be an outdated man."

"Or maybe whoever killed him took the devices, there's a WIFI connector over there." Mark pointed at a corner of the room.

"We will have to ask Jessica if she misses something. What about the ex wife?"

Mark read his notes "Mireille Blanc, went back to France after the divorce. It ended on good terms , so there's nothing to dig in there."

"Too bad. And the neighbors, did someone listen something?"

"Was waiting for you to do the honors." Mark smiled at me.

"Fine. But let me call Jack first, he said he would wait but I bet this will take longer than expected."

"Sorry to cut your dinner short, by the way." 

"If I'm not too late, we'll go on later. " I called Jack, he had just arrived home and was about to go to bed. "Let's talk to the girl first, neighbors can wait until tomorrow." We walked out of the luxury apartment the victim had. Out in the street, there was an ambulance where two paramedics were taking care of Bennett's girlfriend. 

"Jessica? I'm Inspector Davidson and this is my partner, Detective Mitchell."

A girl with short blond hair and piercing grey eyes looked at us. She was physically exhausted, and even if she would be in her late twenties she seemed much older "Will you find the guy who did this?" Her voice was really low, almost inaudible.

"We'll do our best, but we will need your help. We know this is a hard time but we need to make you some questions." I sat by her in the gurney, trying somehow to confort her.

"I know...go ahead." Jessica took a deep breath and wiped her tears.

"You found Martin about an hour ago, is that right?" 

"Yes. He told me he had a dinner with someone from Quai  d'Orsay Musee, about a temporal exhibition we are organizing here, and left sooner than usual. I thought he would be late, so I went to have a drink with some friends. About nine, when I arrived, I..." Jessica's voice broke again and she started to cry. 

"I'm sorry for your loss, Jessica. " Mark lend her a handkerchief , " Did Martin have any enemy, or had he been threatened by someone? And we will need the names and phone numbers of those friends." He tried to sound sympathetic when saying that.

The girl took some time to answer "No. He just worked at the National Gallery, he loved his job and had no problem with anyone. You can ask anyone you want, everyone will tell you the same thing. Can I...can I have something to write? I will give you the numbers."

"And his ex wife?"

"Mireille? She lives in Paris now, with Martin's daughters. They come once every two months. I will have to tell her too." 

"So, you were in good terms with her." I took a quick look at Mark, who was writing everything down.

"Why shouldn't we? It was a friendly divorce."

"Good. Now, Jessica, we would need you to take a look at your house, to tell us if you miss something." I walked the girl back into the apartment.  She wandered around each room, probably not feeling able to go back to the bedroom. 

"Martin's laptop isn't here, he took it everywhere he went."