The Eustice Murders (Complete)

*Chapter 4 *

Hank was just about to knock on Sam's door when he opened it anyway. "Oh, good morning, perfect timing," Hank said, smiling at Sam.

"Morning," Sam replied, stretching his arms out. "I don't know about you but I slept like a log last night."

"Yeah me too actually. Not sure if it was all the traveling or the drink last night but that was the best sleep I've had for a while." They both smiled at each other and made their way down to the car.

"Your turn to drive," Hank gestured before getting into the passenger side of the vehicle and selecting the station option on the GPS, which quickly stated that it was getting directions.

"Now that's more like it," Sam said with a smile as the car entered the station's parking lot a little over twenty minutes after they had left the apartment block. "And a lovely morning too," he added optimistically while parking the car. "New day, a new dawn, and all that."

Hank never spoke but looked around at his surroundings and nodded in agreement as he got out of the car and turned towards the main entrance of the building with Sam right behind him. The guys must have been one of the first to arrive as they passed through an almost empty and silent room along their way to the office, something that wasn't entirely unwelcome after yesterday's entrance.

"YES!" Hank cried out excitedly as he opened the office door with a smile beaming from one ear to the other. Not only was there a shiny new coffee machine left on his desk but there was also a bag of freshly ground beans right next to it. "Well at least the captains on our side," he claimed as he unboxed and set up his new machine over by the printer.

A few moments later captain Beesley opened the door, a smile on his face as he glanced at the two guys. "Morning guys how are we getting on? Everything OK with the apartments?" he asked, making sure nothing had happened.

"Yeah lovely, rather comfortable thank you," Sam responded.

"And thanks for the coffee machine," Hank added lifting his cup as if he were raising a toast.

"Yeah, I thought you guys could use a lift. After you called me last night I popped my head in to make sure there was somewhere in here for a coffee maker to go, see if there was a spare socket you know?." He paused and glanced at the machine before going on. "I saw the files and the mess in here and I kind of guessed what had happened. I figured that this would help raise the spirits a little."

"Works for me," Hank smiled.

"Oh, and I've got another couple of keys for you. We don't normally lock things around here but given yesterday's antics and considering how sensitive some of those files are I thought it would be best to keep this door locked while you're not around," captain Beesley said as he placed the two keys on the desk. "Speaking of the files," he added, "how is the sorting going?"

"Can't lie, it's a very slow and rather frustrating process when there are a hundred and one other things that we could be doing," Sam told him. "Although that being said, it could turn out to be a blessing in disguise."

"How so?" The captain asked, raising an eyebrow prompting Sam to continue.

"In having to go through all of this in such detail and piecing pieces together, we're reading and getting to know the real nitty-gritty of the case. In fact, we've both spotted things we would like to look into a bit further when we get the chance. Not saying they haven't been followed up on before, of course, but there's no record of it in here or at least there doesn't seem to be. And besides, if we're doing our own investigation, then we need to go and do our own research. There are even a couple of persons of interest we've picked up on also.

"Speaking of which, there is one guy who appears to be somewhat implicated in here, a Mr. Anthony Drummond, he was brought in for questioning on two separate occasions although there are no details of them? At least, not that we've found yet anyway. Would the tapes for those interviews still be available? We'd love to know what was said and why no charges were ever brought forward."

"Of course" the captain responded. "We don't wipe any tapes until the case has been closed and even then there's probably a digital copy on record somewhere. As this case was never closed the tapes themselves will still be held, they're probably locked away downstairs in the evidence room. I'll get on the phone to them and have them sent up; along with anything else they may be holding relating to this case."

"Brilliant, thank you," Sam said and the captain nodded before he headed off back towards his own office while Sam and Hank switched their attentions back to the papers and files that were scattered all over both of their desks like a giant unfinished jigsaw puzzle.

Later that morning a uniformed officer appeared with a sealed plastic box. "Morning guys got some evidence for you."

"Oh excellent, yes, we've been waiting for that," Sam told him with a smile.

"Cool, I hope you find what you're after," the officer responded returning the smile. He then checked the case number before looking around the office for somewhere to drop it. "Erm, on the floor?" he finally asked tentatively, still seeing all the papers all over the desk and not wanting to mess those up.

Sam laughed and nodded, "Yes that will be fine thank you." The officer put the box down and then got both detectives to sign for it before bidding them farewell.

"Nice to see a friendly face for a change," Hank pondered once the officer had left. "I guess the bad feelings haven't got as far as the evidence room then."

"Hopefully. So let's see what we have here," Sam said while breaking the seal.

"Anything that gives us a break from sorting this mess will be welcome," Hank added referring to the bits of paper that were still strewn all over the office although was at least now beginning to look something like a case file. Sam nodded in agreement and opened the box; at least this was more organized than the files had been.