“This... this is an outrage! How d-dare you accuse me of m-murder!” Derek spluttered. “You’re a liar!”
“Funny, I was going to say the same thing to you.” Adrian tossed his mobile to Cuth. “Mr. Derek here, who claims to have never before seen Carrie expect for yesterday when she checked out of the hotel according to him, is friends with her on Facebook. Explain that Mr. Derek.”
Derek’s face went white with fear. Cuthbert looked at Adrian’s mobile and then back at Derek with a stern gaze. He raised his eyebrows questioningly.
“Derek had a glass of wine with Carrie last night.” Adrian explained what he’d discovered about the table to Cuth. “He drugged her, undressed her, dragged her in here and placed her there in the shower cubicle. After that, he smashed her head and turned the shower on. He then locked the door knob and broke off the key inside the keyhole before closing the door. Now, the knob is locked from the inside and you can’t open the door from the outside because the key is jammed in.
‘Since he’s the one who works night shift as the receptionist, it was easy for him to strike Carrie McGuire’s name off the register as checked out of the hotel. When questioned by you police and us, he could easily make up a story stating how Carrie had checked out of the hotel last night and he’d have proof to show it too.”
“But you have no proof to prove I did kill her!” Derek exclaimed. “The fact that I knew her doesn’t prove that I am the one who killed her. I could have – no – I had my reasons for not stating the fact earlier.”
“Mr. Derek, when was the last time you set foot in the room and this bathroom excluding this morning?” Adrian asked.
“What?”
“When’s the last time you came to this room?”
Derek paused. “I d-don’t remember. I don’t go around into all the rooms of this hotel,” he said in a meek voice.
“What you’re basically saying is you haven’t been to this room in a while, am I correct? And it most certainly doesn’t involve last night?” Adrian asked.
“I know what you’re trying to do!” Derek exclaimed his voice now rising. “You’re trying to force a confession out of me aren’t you? Well, I did not come to this room last night!”
Adrian turned to Cuth. “Make note of that. He did not come to this room last night.” Adrian then turned to Joshua. “Now Joshua, this morning when you two were here with Rachel, did any of you touch any furniture beside the door?”
Joshua shook his head. “We were too focused on getting the door open. I’m sure none of us handled any furniture. Although, Rachel might have before we came here.”
“Is that correct Mr. Derek?”
“Yes,” Derek said indignantly. Some colour had returned to his previously pale face now. I smiled inwardly as I knew what Adrian was about to say next would promptly cause his complexion to fade again.
“Inspector Cuthbert, you have heard Mr. Derek state clearly that he wasn’t here in this room last night and that he didn’t touch any furniture in here this morning. I want you to order your forensics team to take fingerprint samples from the table in the room. More specifically, the underside of the edge of the surface of the table where one might grab it with his hands to lift it up.” Adrian smirked at Derek whose face had now gone completely white as I had predicted. “And I want you to run the prints you find against those of Derek’s and see if they match which I’m sure they will. Then you can arrest this man.”967Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgqZpQWNyGe
