The latter half of the day was spent interviewing the witnesses. We had no suspect or no reason to suspect anybody. All the witnesses had perfect alibis. Well, we had one. His name was Erstone Mack. It seems that everyone called him Mack because his first name was too difficult to pronounce. Personally I found it weird; his name should have been the reverse.
Now this fellow was first on the scene. More precisely, he was the first one to reach the victim's – Drake Hallow – apartment door. And that was it. That was all we had as a reason to suspect him. He claimed to have been in his room with his wife and children when he heard a scream suddenly cut short, followed by a thud. He'd run up to Drake's apartment and found it locked. Moments later, others had arrived. At first they'd tried out calling Drake but received no answer. Peering through the keyhole, one of the witness (Holly Anderson – she lived in the apartment opposite to Mack) had been the first person to spy the dead body. They'd broken down the door after that and well, the police had been called, they'd summoned Adrian and he'd called me since I lived nearby.
Adrian had personally interrogated Mack last because he was the suspect and Adrian wanted to see how much Mack's account matched with the others.
"So, how'd it go?" I asked Adrian after he'd finished interrogating.
"His account matches perfectly with Holly's and that old man Bert's (the other neighbour of Mack). He says he rushed out of room in a hurry soon after he heard the scream and the thud. He called out to Holly and Bert before he scooted up the stairs, he says. And that's exactly what Bert and Holly say too. They say they heard him call out to them soon after the scream and the thud and heard his hurried footsteps climbing up the stairs. His wife and the kids also say that he was with them watching TV the entire time before whole thing."
"So, he's no longer a suspect."
"Not unless his whole family, Bert and Holly are in this together. Which I don't think is the case. So yeah, he's no longer a suspect." Adrian sighed.
"This doesn't make any sense!" It was inspector Cuthbert. We, more precisely Adrian, had come to know him after solving many cases together. He'd grown from a formal acquaintance to a good friend. Right now, he'd moved and was standing beside us, listening to our conversation. "Mack says no one passed him as he rushed upstairs. The old man Bert says the elevator was down at the fifth or the sixth floor andclimbing up when he left his room–"
"Wait, how could he have … you know," I interjected.
"He's an old man Peter," Adrian replied. "You saw how feeble he was. He must always use the elevator and, in habit, must have looked at it and thus seen at which floor it was when he leaved his room. That's how he noticed. Then, he must have realized that he needed to go up one floor only and used the stairs instead of the elevator."
"Since the elevator was moving up at the time, it means the killer did not use it. That leaves us with only two option. Either upstairs or in one of the neighbouring apartment. The residents of the twenty-first floor say they poured out immediately after hearing the scream. Though they did not hurry, they would surely have seen if someone had been rushing up the stairs. Which they didn't," Cuth finished.
"And that leaves us the empty apartments," I said.
"All of which were totally locked in themselves from the inside. Once inside, we saw no one nor noticed anything that might suggest a person had been there."
"But it's still a possibility," Adrian put in a tone that made it sound like a question.
"Maybe Bert's lying you know, about the elevator. Maybe he's protecting the murderer," I said.
"Maybe," Cuth nodded. "But if he was, then how the heck did the killer leave Drake's apartment anyway? It was locked from the inside! They had to ram the door to open it up! And there's no place inside that apartment that the killer could've concealed himself. The moment you enter that room, you can see every corner of it. No place to hide."
"Let's go through all the witnesses and their accounts once," I suggested.
"Good idea," Adrian said. "Ok, here's what I remember:
"Mack. A clerk. He was watching TV with his family when he heard the scream and a thud at around 9 pm. Went out of his room, called to Holly and Bert and rushed upstairs. Found the door to Drake's room locked.
"Holly. A waitress. She was in the shower when she heard the scream and soon after Mack's calls. Heard him rush upstairs as the stairs is right next to her room. Heard no one descend the stairs.
"Bert. A retired postman. Was alone that night, wife had gone to visit some relatives. He was also watching the same program Mack was so he too provides evidence that it was around nine when the scream was first heard. Then he heard Mack calling to him and his fading footsteps.
"Jenna (Harper). A travel agent. Drake's ex-girlfriend. Arrived at the apartment building at around nine. Account verified by the receptionist with whom she exchanged greetings as she always does. Immediately took the elevator up to the twentieth floor where she found some people conglomerated outside Drake's door. Purpose of visit, to meet Drake one last time before she left town but instead found him dead.
"Renner, a student at the local college and Mr. Greg, a businessman. Both of them neighbours. Rushed out to the corridor at the same time as soon as they heard the scream below them and then downstairs.
"Followed by Mr. and Mrs. Spencer who were preparing to sleep. It's their habit to go to sleep at around nine. So we can be further positive that the crime took place at nine. They got out of bed and out to the corridor, where they saw Renner and Greg moving downstairs. Greg urged them to come as well, stating something might have happened.
"These are the prime witnesses we need to be concerned with, I think, since they were at the scene when they broke the door down. The others arrived a few moments later after hearing all the commotion upstairs or downstairs – whichever it is. But then again, considering the circumstances, the killer could be someone else entirely which seems to be the case here," he finished grimly.
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