A Dallas Suite

Chapter Five

I went back into the office to update Sergeant Moore on what I knew so far, which wasn't much. Normally I would have stayed on the scene longer and processed more, because I'm usually the only detective from my unit there. I know Hope well and I know she's even more thorough than I am. I had no doubt she gathered every detail and piece of evidence from the scene possible. With cases this big, or with any murder scene really, we were able to share the workload so that not one detective worked it alone.

"Good morning, Sunshine. Get a good night's sleep?" It had just turned 7:30 AM and Moore was already using his empty gas station coffee cup to spit his chewing tobacco into. This man was the picture perfect example of southern veteran. But thankfully he had a far more open mind than many others with his background that I had met. Whenever any type of heated topic comes up, he's the first to exit the conversation, which is about the best thing you can do in a professional environment.

"I did, thank you for that, Sergeant. If I could wake up to your caring voice every morning, I think my life would be fulfilled," I quickly replied. I was not one to shy away from joking with him.

"Alright Seeks, thanks for making it weird. So what do we have on Diggs?"

"Well Sarge, I don't have a lot yet. I left the scene pretty early because Detective Madison had already started the initial investigation and I went to notify his wife. I'm going to meet up with her now and start going over the scene with her."

"Did the wife give you anything?"

"Says she had no idea about the hotel room or anything about his work."

"Well, doesn't seem too far out there. Our wives wouldn't be much help if asked about our jobs either. Go meet with Madison and let me know what you find."

Hope was already at her desk typing away furiously on her computer. I think she had as many monitors on her desk as the rest of the detectives in our office had combined. Two of the monitors had pictures of the hotel suite and Diggs' naked, dead body all over them. What a great group of images to stare at all day.

"Hey Hope, so did you find anything else at the scene?"

"Oh, I found a lot, John, but nothing that you're going to like," she calmly said as she was still typing away.

"Well believe it or not, but I don't think I've ever liked anything I've found at a crime scene, you freak."

"Well get this. I talked to Reggie, he's the head of the hotel security. Apparently Diggs paid a lot of money to keep his private life in that room a total secret. All of the security cameras to that floor were disabled. There's also a loading elevator that leads to the floor, and the cameras have been disabled in there too. Including the cameras that show the outside of the building around the elevator entry. There's no way to know who went in or out last night. Everything there was shut down so that no one could ever trace Diggs' activities there."

"Great. So we have a dead millionaire and now we can't find out who did it because he spent tons of money making sure no one could ever see who was going in and out of his private room full of drugs and sex toys?"

"Exactly. And I'm guessing whoever killed him knew that. His privacy made him a perfect target."

"Awesome. This case just got a lot easier for us," I said sarcastically. "Start with Diggs' private life first. His wife claims to know nothing about the room or what he does when he's supposedly at work. Judging from the drugs and sex toys, I imagine this guy had a pretty crazy life in that room. We need to get in finances and see if we can find any kind of lead from that route."

"Already on it, Detective."

"Great. How long until they get an autopsy done?"

"The ME said they would expedite it for us. Should have the results within 24 hours. She did confirm that the injury to his throat is definitely what killed him, though. She also didn't see any signs of sexual assault from the initial exam."

"So we have a naked man murdered in a bed surrounded by sex toys, and there are no acts of sexual assault involved between the two?"

"Yep. Pretty typical if you ask me," she laughed. "The way they were all stacked up, it could be that whoever did it just wanted to make sure we found everything."

"Yeah, it could just be a message for us. Maybe Diggs isn't the great husband that we all thought he was? Can you do me a favor and get me copies of all the pictures?"

"There's already a folder on your desk with everything. Come on, John. This isn't my first rodeo."