13 WINDOWS

Chapter 17 Part 2: BOILING

Detective Langdon rubbed his eyes. They were reviewing footage regarding the Clayborne murder. There was a period of roughly fifteen minutes where Rupert would have had to enter the building in order for it to make sense that he was the killer.

They had reviewed the footage twice now. Just as they suspected, Rupert had entered the building. He had walked into the coffee shop. A barista from behind the counter said she had seen someone matching his description and that he had seemed distraught. However, there was also footage of Rupert leaving the building ten minutes later, fifteen minutes before the murder took place.

They also reviewed footage of the doctor entering the front entrance of the building ten minutes after Rupert had left. There did not appear to be anyone following her.

Detective Moore came in with some coffees. "So where's our murderer?"

Langdon stretched his arms up. "Well unless this Hilden character can fly I don't think we'll be able to explain how he arrived on the twelfth floor."

There had only been two cameras that had caught Nina's movements on the twelfth floor. One angle had shown her walking very hesitantly out of the elevator. Then there was footage of her walking very slowly down a hallway and into the office that they had now determined was a real estate office for the condos on the higher floors. The office was supposed to have been closed for the weekend at this time.

Langdon sipped his coffee and made a face. "What is this sugar? I told you to use a sweetener."

Detective Moore sat down and looked at his partner, Langdon. "That stuff'll kill you. You know what that stuff is? Rat poison."

"They're not going to put rat poison in the food supply. Where'd you hear this?" Langdon said getting frustrated.

Moore replied, "The internet. I'll send you a link." Langdon ignored his friend. It was an ongoing argument but they had more important things to figure out.

Langdon looked curiously at the hallway in the security footage. "And so now we know that the janitor was the person who had opened this door. He was cleaning. So that guy Hilden might have been right."

Langdon scratched his head, and asked. "What would the janitor's motive be though?" He was disappointed that his instincts had been wrong on this one. There was a history of mental illness and arrests with the Hilden family. And the notes from Rupert's session seemed to point in only one direction.

"Oh well. So much for male intuition," said Detective Langdon.

Moore froze the screen on an earlier image of the janitor opening the real estate office. Rupert had insisted to the police that the janitor was thin, bald, clean-shaven and was wearing round circular glasses. But the janitor that had opened this room had long brown hair, a beard, a moustache and no glasses.

"I'll call the maintenance company of the building tomorrow. Maybe it's time we met up with Grizzly Adams in this picture here," said Detective Moore pointing at the bearded janitor. It had been a late night for the two detectives.

Detective Moore sipped his coffee. "Ahhhh..." he said. "Three sugars and cream. My favourite. I'll have to call this Hilden kid tomorrow and tell him the good news. See if he recognizes this guy."

* * *

It would be precisely an hour later, across town, when Rupert found himself looking out his window at Hans who was staring back at him from across the street. He was frozen with fear. He thought that maybe if he kept staring back Hans would go away.

But Hans did not go away. He just continued to stare. The movement of switching on the light convinced Rupert that there was no way it was a hallucination. The move was deliberate. It was a dare. Rupert felt a rage building up within him. He thought of his brother Terry. He thought of his mother and Nina. He started to see red.