A Dallas Suite

Chapter Eighteen

After not enough sleep, I was sitting back at my desk going over more pictures of both crime scenes. I was almost through my second cup of coffee when Hope approached me.

"Good morning Detective Grumpy. Have any new leads yet?"

"Hope how would you know I was grumpy before I've even said anything yet?" I replied, in the grumpiest of tones. I realized then that she and I have spent far too much time together at work, she knew too well. I looked up at her, and damn was she a ray of sunshine on such an exhaustion fueled morning. "Alright that was good, I'll give you that. But that was an easy call, of course I'd be in a bad mood after the day we just had."

"Yeah, we all are. I think between you, me and Sarge, we've had almost a full nights sleep between us in the past 48 hours."

"Well you know we work best when we're sleep deprived and stressed out. As far as new leads, no I don't have any. Like you know, Caping was looking really good. Almost too good. But now that he's been killed too, I have no one. All I do know is that it looks like it was the same person."

"From what we saw I'd definitely bet it was the same person. We should have the autopsy report soon to verify that. And it was obviously someone who knew about the room. So are we thinking another member of this group of exclusive, rich guys?"

"It has to be someone else who used the room. What about you? Any progress on the names from that list of transactions yet?"

"No, not yet. I hate to admit that I'm human, but after working that second crime scene last night I went home and passed out immediately. So I'll get on those now and see what I can do."

"Okay, thank you. Also can I ask a favor?"

"Anything Mr. Grumpy wants, he gets," she answered in a fake enthusiastic voice. I thought to myself how much Hope had grown like a sister to me. Sure she was attractive and we weren't related at all, but it was nice having such an easy-going friendship with her. Her and Sergeant Moore really were like family to me at this point.

"There's a guy who works at the hotel. He was apparently the one who Diggs was using as his inside guy. Jeff Marshall. I don't have a date of birth or any other info other than he was in the Army for a while before this job. Can you try to look into him a little more?" I gave her a big smile. "You know, when you're not busy or anything?"

She laughed and started to walk away "whatever you want, Sir."

I walked across the office to get another cup of coffee. Police station coffee is never good, no matter what department you work in. But it was better than no coffee. I saw someone had left the morning paper next to the coffee pot. There it was in big letters right on the front page:

Two Millionaires Murdered In One Day

There were pictures of Diggs and Caping underneath the headline. I grabbed the paper and carried it to my desk. Maybe I'd find a lead from the article. I wasn't too good to admit I had nothing.