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...