Hook and Tinkerbell: A Wish Realm/Hyperion Heights Love Story

Chapter 37: A Death, Family, and More Trouble Ahead

The elevator dings as Rogers, Jade, and Weaver exit into a hallway outside the interrogation room to go interrogate Nick Branson.

Rogers asks, "So what do we do when we talk to this head case? Do we call him Nick or is it "Hansel"?"

Weaver answers him, "Ah, it doesn't matter. All he's gonna be responding to soon is a number on the back of an orange jumpsuit." Weaver swipes a key card to let them into the interrogation room, a buzzer sounds, and the door opens. They enter and see Nick face down on the table. From their angle, it looks like he's asleep. Weaver approaches him and noticing he's not breathing, checks for a pulse.

Jade asks, "Should we get help?"

"I don't think we have to bother. He's dead," Weaver told them.

"What the hell happened? You think some kind of medical condition?" Rogers asked.

Noticing the foaming around Nick's mouth, Weaver says, "No. Looks like cyanide poisoning."

"How? We searched him. He had nothing on him. The door was locked, and we're the only ones with a key card," Rogers asked in shock.

"I don't know. That's what the medical examiner and forensics experts are for," Weaver says.

"Speaking of those people, they are on their way. And so is the captain," Jade informs them, putting her phone back in her pocket.

The three detectives walk out of the room and close the door and wait for the captain and others to arrive. They are quietly reviewing what they know when the elevator dings and the captain exits with the medical examiner and the forensic techs.

The captain holds out his hand for a key card and Weaver hands him his. The captain swipes the key card and opens the door to the interrogation room. He enters, as does the medical examiner. The M.E. approaches the body and confirms that he's dead.

The captain turns to the three detectives and asks, "How the hell did this happen?"

Before any of them can answer him, the M.E. says, "Captain, it looks like cyanide poisoning based on the foaming around his mouth. I can't say for sure till I get him on the table, but that's my preliminary cause of death."

"Cyanide poisoning? Are you sure?" Captain Michaels asks her.

"Like I said it's preliminary, but it seems that way. Obviously, I need to do an autopsy and run toxicology before making my final determination," she tells him. "And if you don't mind, I'd like to let the techs get started, so I can remove the body and start my autopsy," effectively dismissing the captain and the detectives.

"We'll leave you to it then," the captain says. Captain Michaels, Weaver, Rogers, and Jade get into the elevator and the door closes.

Once on the main floor of the station, Captain Michaels returns to his office and the detectives go into theirs with the intention of pulling security tapes from the interrogation room to review what happened to their dead suspect.

Jade pulls her phone out and says, "I'll be with you in a minute. I gotta update Miss Cerulean. Lily is supposed to be released today but I convinced the social worker to stall on that until we had Nick in custody. And with him now deceased, Lily can be released."

As Jade is about to dial the social worker's number, her phone rings. She looks at the caller i.d. and says, "Well speak of the devil." She answers and says, "Hello?" She can hear yelling in the background on the other end of the call.

"Lily knock it off. I'm on the phone with Detective Wilde right now," Jade hears the social worker saying. Megan then addresses Jade, "Detective Wilde, I was wondering if you might be able to come back to the hospital. I'm having a bit of problem with Lily as I'm sure you heard."