Worlds Apart

Chapter 5

A • R A V E N • A P P R O A C H E S

Sep. 09 2020 02:30 CET

Room #05 / Foyer, The Port Inn

The metal numbers on the door to #03 glinted an innocent gold as Daisha stood in the middle of the hallway. Too innocent to be leading to a gruesome crime scene.

There was still a chance the victim was alive, making it crucial that they moved quickly. Regine Ihle's life could potentially be on the line. And here was her own cousin, already treating her as a corpse. She suppressed an irritable sigh. Elin's tendency to only reveal information whenever she desired was testing her patience and sha had known her for less than two hours.

Owen stowed his phone back into his coat pocket, pictures of all the evidence they had found so far stored safely in it. Elin, being the last to leave, closed the door behind her. Daisha remembered the door when they first came to investigate - it had been open, which seemed to make the effort of cordoning it off with tape futile.

Perhaps she could ask Ulberg about it later.

As she moved towards #05, however, she realised she would have to move her schedule up.

"We're gonna need a key to get in there," Owen said, voicing the conclusion Daisha herself had just reached. "We could go talk to the guy we met earlier. Maybe even ask for a master key?"

She agreed. "That would definitely be much more efficient." And quicker. They needed to be quicker.

‡   ‡   ‡

The moment she opened the door to the reception area, Daisha was surprised to find a different man sitting behind the desk. For a moment, she faltered, mists of confusion enveloping her mind. Just as she pieced it together, Elin piped up from behind her.

"Vidar is the manager. He took over last night so that he could talk to you. And there were not many customers, too," she said quietly. "That man there"— she subtly tilted her head towards the desk— "is one of the usual receptionists."

"You two are friends?" Owen asked, his hazel eyes unusually tender.

"Vidar and I? Yes," Elin said, more at ease than Dasiha had seen her be all night. Tendrils of anxiety and sorrow broke through the calm almost immediately. "That's... that's actually how I found Regine, or rather the room where she should've been. He was the one who told me that she'd checked in here, and he was with me when..." She paused, then finished faintly, "when I went in there."

Owen opened his mouth to reply, most likely to comfort her, when the artificially cheerful voice of the receptionist interrupted him, "How can I help you today?"

Daisha briskly closed the remaining distance between them and the man. She introduced herself as the detective investigating the recent Ihle murder, and upon seeing an ID proof, the receptionist agreed to lend them a master key to aid their investigation.

Just as she turned to head back into the corridor leading to the rooms, Owen spoke up, "Hey, you have records of who stayed here and when, right?" Without waiting for confirmation, he continued, "Was there anyone staying in #05 on fourth?"

Catching on to his train of thought, Daisha added, "Or the third or the fifth of this month." The perpetrator did not necessarily have to be here on the day of the crime; he could have been here a day before or after, which may provide a credible alibi.

The man wordlessly turned to the computer sitting on his desk and made a few searches. "No, ma'am. No one checked into #05 for the past week." As if sensing her next question, he added, "The room is also currently unoccupied."