Diamonds Pt.2

       In disgust for what I'd just seen I ran down the stairs to leave the building; I needed fresh air to gather my thoughts. Out the corner of my eye, I saw Pierre's coat on the coat hanger, I looked around to see no one so I crept towards the coat. When I reached the coat I scanned the room again then dug my hand into the pocket taking out the piece of paper containing interrogations. After examining the paper briefly I stuffed it into my pocket and stormed out the building to see Pierre's white Mercedes. A lone bench stood at the gate of The Patel's palace, I sat reading the interrogations until the sun started to set so I headed home.
       I parked my car in the drive and just sat thinking about what I read and discovered today trying to put the pieces together. According to Pierre Lady Patel was in her room smoking, hence the cigarette on the floor, when someone from the party murdered her then stole the diamond jewellery, but I had a hard time believing this as Lady Patel publicly detested smoking but Lord Patel said she would occasionally smoke when angry or stressed. Another reason I found Pierre's statement hard to believe was the fact all attendees of the party hadn't left the country recently and the evidence suggests the murderer flew into the country a couple weeks ago. Stumped I got out the car and entered my house to meet my wife.

*       *       *

       I was sitting in bed pondering my thoughts until my wife interrupted me and said,

       "A news article was released about your case a few minutes ago." I replied,

       "Oh really? What did it say?" my wife responded,

       "Not much you probably didn't know, the death of that police officer," I lowered my head as I pictured his murder in my head "that detective Pierre's prediction on what happened and that the only thing found at the crime scene was a knife with no prints." surprised I questioned,
       "Wait what? Didn't they mention the cigarette or the plane ticket?" in confusion, she said,
       "No, why?" in response I tapped the side of my nose and went to bed.

*       *       *

       I awoke to yet another beautiful day, I heard the birds chirping and the smell of freshly scrambled eggs ignited a flood of hunger within me. After I had breakfast and got ready I left for The Patel's Palace. Beforehand I sent out a message to Pierre, Lord Patel and the police force that I solved the case of both murders and the whereabouts of the diamond jewellery set.

       I sat Lord Patel, Pierre and the chief of police down as the room was surrounded by the police force working on this case. I cleared my throat and proudly said, "Pierre's prediction is false." Pierre shouted back both shocked and angry,

       "EXCUSEZ-MOI! Je suis top detective..." calmly yet firmly I replied

       "Let me finish! As I was saying, I don't believe the cigarette is Lady Patel's as Lady Patel is disgusted by smoking and I know Lord Patel said Lady Patel would smoke when angry or stressed but I'd find that hard to believe." Lord Patel looked taken aback by that comment knowing he was indirectly called a liar "As well as this there may have been prints on the cigarette for Lady Patel but there was only one print; therefore, I think the murderer put her prints on the cigarette obviously not very well. Which means the cigarette belonged to the murderer, which also explains the ashes in the wound." frustrated Pierre said,
       "If the cigarette belonged to the murderer why would they purposely leave it at the scene of the crime?" I calmly responded,
       "I'll get to that later. The plane ticket showed someone entered the country a couple weeks ago but no guest at the party or the Patel's had left the country; therefore, the murderer had to not have been at the party, and on the topic of party guests all the guests remember seeing a white Mercedes down the road when they left and I can prove this with their interrogations." shocked the chief of police said,
       "But my men said no one said anything of importance." passionately I responded,
       "Ah! The officer that was unfortunately murdered yesterday had all the interrogations on this piece of paper." I pulled out the piece of paper from my pocket and waved it in the air, Pierre shifted in his seat breaking out in a sweat, "He was bribed for that paper and instead of received the money owed he was killed and I have photographic evidence for this," I passed letting this fact sink in, "he was killed by the same person who killed Lady Patel. But who is this person you ask or people?" everyone in the room stared at me shocked. I carried on "The murderer is Pierre," as everyone turned to Pierre wide-eyed I quickly carried on, "Pierre supposedly came to England as soon as he heard of the murder but even if he left Paris at the time of the murder it would take two hours including flight and the journey here to arrive but Pierre arrived one and a half hours after the murder. The white Mercedes all the people saw when they left the party matches the description of your car but as I said earlier you didn't work alone, your accomplice was Lord Patel. Your deal was you'd split the money you got for everything you stole and hire Pierre as your detective to cover up anything the leads to you two such as the interrogation notes hiding the cigarette and plane ticket which both belonged to you Pierre and I have photos of. As well as this Lord Patel tampered with the crime scene putting Lady Patel's prints on Pierre's cigarette." full of anger Lord Patel shouted,
       "VOUS N'AVEZ PAS EVIDENCE!" raising my voice passionately I said,
       "Oh, but don't I? As I was leaving this building yesterday I saw Pierre's car which had an open letter on the passenger seat giving the location of the person you sold the jewellery to and how much you'd both make I also have this photographed."
       The police force immediately arrested Lord Patel who was furious yelling, "Je veux que mon avocat!" and Pierre who was in tears screaming,
       "S'il vous plaît, ayez pitié de moi!" I turned and left to tell my wife what I did all in a day's work.

Diamonds Pt.1

       I awoke to the sounds of birds chirping and the smell of freshly made pancakes downstairs. I leaped out of bed as the smell of pancakes released a beast inside of me, called hunger. Downstairs my wife sat with the newspaper, she smiled revealing a row of shining white teeth as I entered the room, but all I could see was the story on the back of the newspaper. Lady Patel, one of the richest women in London, had been stabbed to death last night in the comfort of her own home. Her walk in wardrobe, almost unrecognizable, had been ravaged and a number of items had disappeared including a set of diamond jewelry once owned by Princess Adena of Arabia. Within minutes of reading the article, I'd left the house and headed to the scene of the crime, The Patel's palace.
       At the door of The Patel's palace was Lord Patel, Lady Patel's recent husband, who was frantically yelling at the chief of police to find out who murdered his beloved wife. Lord Patel was a short French man losing his last black hairs, he was the kind of person to throw you under the bus to make money yet he was still a client and I was going to use all my effort to solve this case. Interrupting Lord Patel's tangent of insults in half French and English to the chief of police, I stepped in revealing my detective badge and stated in one swift sentence,
       "Hello, I'm Detective Kennedy, I'm here to solve the case of your wife's murder." After a brief pause letting Lord Patel and the chief of police acknowledge me, I said to the chief of police, "You can round up your men I'll take it from here." and I proceeded into The Patel's palace. The chief of police showed a slight offense whilst Lord Patel with unease ran in front of me blocking my way and rudely shouted,
       "I don't need your fancy overpriced detective services, Monsieur Kennedy. I have mon compain flying in from Paris, il est le best detective dans Europe." As if on cue a white Mercedes pulled up and out stepped Pierre Dubois, Lord Patel's friend supposed top detective in Europe. As he approached the smell of cigarettes filled my nostrils. He snobbishly snorted,
       "Bonjour, je m'appelle Pierre Dubois, Detective Pierre Dubois." as I was introducing myself he but in an said "Chief de la police has anyone contaminated the scene de crime?" as the chief of police opened his mouth to reply Pierre interrupted and questioned "I will need to have all the evidence and information found by your men pour aprés-midi." Just as the chief of police was about to respond Lord Patel shouted,
       "I've hired Pierre the police shall do as he says and Kennedy you must go." As I turned and left accepting defeat an idea popped into my head. I would head over to the police station and collect a warrant so I could investigate this crime despite Lord Patel surprisingly being against the idea.

*       *       *

       At noon I returned to The Patel's palace under the blazing sun with my newly acquired warrant, I burst into the building, holding up my warrant with a smug look on my face, causing Lord Patel to choke on his tea in shock. I walked up to Lord Patel and Pierre and smugly said,

       "Lead me to the crime scene." in shock and anger Pierre uttered,

       "B.....B.......But..." as Lord Patel reluctantly led me to his shared bedroom with Lady Patel. As we approached he said,

       "The room has been untouched apart from the removal of the body and a few pieces of evidence in bags beside those papers." he indicated by nodding his head to a brown cardboard box with an open top. As I stood beside the bed I noticed the box was filled with zip-lock bags and a pile of papers sat on the bed scattered beside the box. The room was in pristine condition compared to the state of Lady Patel's walk in wardrobe. White tape marked out where the body was found. I examined the papers and they stated 'approximate time of death - 0730-0800hours' and 'wound - repeated stabbing with a knife, wound dirtied with ashes'. I then took a photo and examined the evidence a knife which had no prints, a torn plane ticket to England from a couple weeks ago with an unidentifiable departing location, due to the ticket being torn, and a cigarette buck with a single fingerprint of Lady Patel.

       As I was leaving the room I saw a police officer talking to Pierre, I smoothly and silently jumped back and hid round the corner of the room door so they wouldn't know I was there. I was as silent as the night trying to make out what they were saying, the police officer gave the interrogations written on a paper which Pierre folded and slid into his side jacket pocket, he then reached for his pocket on the inside of the jacket and pulled out four £50 notes. I quickly pulled out my phone and photographed this transaction. As the police officer was about to take the money Pierre pulled a white cloth out of nowhere and held the police officer in a headlock covering his nose and mouth with the cloth. As the police officer struggled Pierre dragged him towards the bedroom. Frightful of getting caught I ran to the wardrobe and hid making as little sound as possible trying not to get seen. By the time Pierre entered the room the police officer was unconscious, Pierre lay his body on the floor and pulled out a knife. I stared in horror. Instantly acknowledging I had no time to react, I pulled out my phone and started taking photos of Pierre committing this awful act.

To be continued...