The Eustice Murders (Complete)

*Chapter 9*

The guys spent a couple of more days in the office researching and building information on Anthony Drummond before attempting once more to follow him. This attempt, however, had been even less successful than the previous one. They had turned up outside his home at a similar time as before but on this occasion, Drummond was nowhere to be seen. The two company's vans, one for Apex and one for ATD, were parked in the driveway just as before but after four hours of waiting, there had been no movement from the property. Sam got out of the car and approached the house, walking past the vans and feeling no heat. He shook his head; seemed Drummond hadn't left in a while, at least in the vans. He glanced back at Hank, who had left in the driver's seat, trying to spot anything unusual.

Trying to remain inconspicuous, Sam wandered around the house but saw nothing. He even peered through one of the windows on the side of the house but again there was no sign of anybody, either inside or outside, and that was odd given that the vans were still there. He decided to return to the car and phone the telephone number registered to the address but there was no answer to that either. Feeling defeated and cursing their luck once more they decided enough was enough and returned to the station.

They had only been in the office for about thirty minutes when captain Beesley knocked on the door. "Afternoon guys" he greeted them "How's it going?"

"Ah not great," Sam responded, screwing his face up. "Two full days digging into a suspect's background then a complete no show when we try to follow him was a waste of precious time."

"Hm," the captain appeared thoughtful, covering his mouth with one hand with one finger extended onto the tip of his nose. "Leave that one with me," he finally said, lifting the same finger into the air. "I feel like I owe you that one after last Friday." Sam looked up and smiled at that, thinking they would take any help they could get in any form they could.

"Nice one," Hank said. "Any help at all would be gratefully received right now," Hank added, voicing the very thoughts of Sam.

"I'll get straight on it," the captain told them, smiling and nodding simultaneously before disappearing back down the corridor. It was a subtle dig but he got the message loud and clear.

Hank poured himself a fresh coffee before sitting back in his chair. "Do you think.....," he trailed off without finishing his question having spotted a quizzical look on his partner's face. "Ok what have you found?" he finally asked.

"I'm not sure," Sam responded. "That hotel....," he continued but paused still clearly processing something. "The one on Friday with the stabbing."

"Yeah?" Hank asked, wondering where this was leading.

"What was it called? Do you remember?"

"Erm, The Blue Coast Inn I think. Hold on, I still have the text here," Hank told him, picking up his cell phone from his desk. "Yeah The Blue Coast," he confirmed.

"That's what I thought," Sam said, sitting back still looking quizzical. "It appears our Mr. Drummond is a shareholder in the very same hotel. Only a smallholding but even still, it's rather strange."

"Wow," exclaimed Hank. "Seems we can't get away from this guy huh?"

"Exactly," Sam added, stroking his chin. "The coincidences are... well... incredible really. And with serial killings, you pick up on those coincidences a lot more."

Hank nodded in agreement. "Well at least that will give us some associates to look into," he added. "I mean, he must be in contact with the other shareholders right?"

Sam nodded his head before responding. "I would imagine so yes, while it is only a small percentage it is enough to have a say in things. I would think he would be present at A.G.M's and board meetings at least."

"And that's, of course, assuming he isn't connected to the murder itself," Hank added. "I mean it's a completely different m.o. and clearly not part of the pool ball case but as you said, the coincidences are incredible."

"Yeah," Sam replied, "we might need to try and keep an eye on this case if we can."

"Ha, yeah that won't be tricky at all," Hank chuckled sarcastically. Sam chuckled in return and eventually, both guys had a good laugh at that one just as captain Beesley returned.

"Oh plenty of laughter," he said with a smile, popping his head around the door. "I like the sound of that!" He paused for a moment, smiling all the more before he went on. "Well I have some good news," he continued, "I've managed to get two uniform officers on surveillance duty. Unfortunately, they can't start just yet but if you give me some details of who you want to be watched, as of Monday wherever they go whatever they do, you'll know about it."

"That's great," Sam said, writing some details down on a piece of paper before handing it to the captain.

"Thanks, I'll pass this on," Captain Beesley said with a smile, holding the note in the air. "Nice to be delivering some good news for a change."

"Yeah, thanks, that could be a great help actually," Hank told him.

"So, that body on Friday down by the seafront, how did that turn out in the end?" Sam asked, seeing an opportunity to pry some information out of the captain.

"Oh, detective Brookes is looking into that one. Not having much luck so far though. I guess word is that the victim seems to be a bit of a ghost. Still no ID on him yet and no matches on fingerprints or D.N.A. either. It's like he doesn't exist."

"Ok thanks, just curious," Sam told him. "I'm sure something will turn up." Both Sam and Hank frowned at each other as the captain left.

"Interesting," claimed Hank.

"Hm," Sam's eyes widened but the frown was still there as a thought process was still developing in his mind.