Crime Scene

Detective Walker

I pick up the card Mr. Ponre left me and dialed the number. A small voice which sounded feminine came on and asked me to hold while she linked him to me, a few minutes later Mr. Ponre spoke up

"Detective Walker, I knew you'd have a change of heart" he says confidently like he was expecting my call

"Mr. Ponre I agree to take on this job but I'll need all the resources I can get including a private room with pictures of everyone on this ship including all your crew members. I would also like minimal people to be aware of this investigation and a board will be required" I ask

"consider it done, you'll be given a security card that will grant you access to everything that you'll need. I'll send someone to deliver it" he says hanging up.

An hour later, one of the security crew members knocks on my cabin door and when I open, he hands me an all access security card for I, Jude and Laura. He also asks me to dress up so he can show me the private room. After everything, I head to Laura's room to tell her that I've agreed and also to give her access card. I find her door and open it without knocking

"Miss Xavier, guess who just changed his min…."

I say halting in my speech as I lift my head to see Laura with only panties. She rushes to cover herself with a towel while I shut my eyes, turn around and quickly head for the door. I stand outside her cabin for more than thirty minutes before she comes outside fully dressed.

"I'm really sorry for entering without knocking, I guess I'm still keeping the headspace for the office" I say innocently.

"it's okay, sir. So, what were you saying about changing your mind" she replies quickly switching the subject

"okay, so I thought about what you said and I agree maybe solving this case will give me the confidence boost I need" I say to her

"great, I'm glad you considered it" she replies looking genuinely happy

"I spoke to Mr. Ponre and told him about my change of heart and he gave us all access security cards and a private room for the investigation" I told her leading her to the room and handing her one of the access cards. We reach the rooms door and I use my access card to open it.

"so, what do you think" I ask her smiling knowing she'd be impressed

"this is so cool" she says observing the room

"where do we start, boss" she says excitedly

"place a call to Jude and direct him here" I say to her

She does so and seven minutes later jude finds the private room

"so we're seriously doing this?" jude says observing the room "just when I was about to grab some chicks" he complains

"you can grab those chicks later, now we have to work" I say in between chuckles and hand him his security all-access card

"we know little or nothing about this case, only that the person dead is United States finest ambassador and he is rich as fuck, so they're probably a lot of people that want him dead" I continue

"that means everyone on this ship is a suspect. That's like thousands of people then." Laura says

"so we have to narrow down our suspects" I say

"how are we going to do that" Jude asks

"we'll have to split up. Laura you'll come with me to check out the scene where the incident happened and Jude you'll find out if the ship has any security cameras and it does check out the footages ranging from 2am till 5am"

"alright boss" Jude replies

We head out from the private room and move to the last floor of the ship and then to the balcony where the incident happened. Some security crew members try to stop us at the door but we show them our access cards and they let us in. We bend over the caution tapes into the balcony. The guardrail at the extreme was still broken. I go over to inspect the broken guardrails while Laura checks out the surroundings. A few minutes later, Laura finds something

"Sir, check this out. I found a piece of clothing and it's not what the Ambassador was wearing when he was found"

"that means the Ambassador wasn't the only one here, we could be working on a murder" I say

"where did you find this" I ask

"Near the guardrails" she replies

"I thought as much, check this out" I tell her

I push one of the guardrails with full force but it doesn't give in.

"Aaron!!!" Laura screams

"are you nuts? Why would you do that?" she says hitting me with her little hands

It's so cute how she switches from professional mode to an unofficial one when she cares about me

"I'm fine, I knew it wouldn't give in. Come here, only three of the rails gave out when the Ambassador fell through. Look at the other two that didn't give out. The fourth rail has an untied screw sticking out"

"the screws were loosened" she replies softly in shock after looking closely

"not only that, don't freak out again" I tell her then I push on the fourth rail that had a loose screw with force but it didn't give out, it just bent slightly

"Even if the Ambassador kept his full body weight on these rails with loose screws they wouldn't have given out. My theory is that the Ambassador came up here to have a private time with his thoughts but then he was interrupted by someone who tried to push him off these already loosened rails and while he was struggling, he tore a piece of the person's clothing" I say looking at Laura

"but were not certain that's what happened right?" Laura asked

"not yet, its just a theory. Let's go back to the private room. I have to make a call"

We exit the room and head to the private room and I place a call to Mr. Ponre

"Detective Walker, any news?" he asks eagerly

"Mr. Ponre, we might be working on a murder case here. It looks like your guard rails were loosened and the Ambassador was pushed off. We found a piece of clothing which might indicate the Ambassador may have tried to struggle and tore a piece of clothing from his murderer. Who else has access to the balcony apart from the Ambassador?"

"only the Ambassador, his family members and three crew members are allowed there" Mr. Ponre replies

"can I question them?"

"of course, you have full power to do so, get back to me with the person responsible for this" he says hanging up

There, we have our suspects" I say to Laura

"who are the ambassadors family members" Laura asks

"he has a wife and two children. A son and a daughter, twenty-seven and twenty years old respectively" I tell her, showing her their pictures before nipping them to the board. The wife's name is Audrey Tate; his son, Gregory Tate and his daughter, Anthonia Tate"

"what about the three crew men"

"Richard Olvera, Michael Weddet and Kay Deruta" I call out their names, take out their pictures and nip them to the board"

"where do we start?"

"from the wife" I reply

We step out of the private room and head once again to the last floor where the Ambassador's family were staying. I knock on Mrs. Tate's door first. She takes time before she opens up. She was the same lady I bumped into earlier today. She was dressed in a transparent short lace dress showing her cleavages, she had slight make up on which only enhanced her beauty. I snapped out of whatever was happening and spoke up

"I'm Detective Walker working with the Queen's Coast ship. We would like to ask you some questions. Can we come in?" I say showing her my badge

"uhm sure, sorry my room's a bit messy" she says opening the door wide enough for us to pass

Her voice is just as mild and beautiful as she looks. Her room smells like lavender and is not nearly as messy as she described it to be. She must be a clean freak. She offers us a seat on the couch

"thank you very much Mrs. Tate" Laura starts

"oh please call me Audrey" she replies

"Alright, Audrea. We'll like to know your whereabouts as at the period of 2am to 5am today?" Laura asks as she opens her book to write down what she says while I start the recorder.

I'll have to admit she seemed a bit nervous