"Good day, my name is Detective Jason Den am I speaking to Rita Kane?" Jason asked as Sera made a left turn into the drive leading the Admiral road.
"Yes detective how may I help you?" Rita answered with confidence as she tried to portray ignorance. Jason new Daniel would have given her heads up and the distraction that came up, finding Dora's phone delayed their move to confirm Daniels alibi. When they left Daniel they were supposed to contact Rita and find out if Daniel's clam checks out but Inspector Fin had called to say there was a development at the dockyard and they needed to see it. They had traced the caller and found AB and also Dora's name and apartment. Everything had just rolled out from there except it has been difficult to tie her death to Daniel. They need to find the connection or else they would be met with a dead end again, Jason though as he listened to the female voice on the other side of the call.
"One of the suspects to a murder I and my partner are investigating listed you as one of the persons who can confirm his whereabouts at the time of the murder, can we come in and ask you a few questions" Jason asked.
"Who is this person Detective?" Rita kept playing ignorant.
"His name is Daniel Grey." Jason responded.
"I am on the 14th floor of the Royal Grande Hotel." Rita answered with a tone that meant 'am done talking'.
"I know the place, we will be there shortly." Jason said but as he was about to drop the call, he heard her say.
"You should, it is owned by my husband." And the call dropped.
Jason looked at the Nokia phone in his hands like the phone just did something extra ordinary.
"Why are you looking that way, did she hang up on you?" Sera asked s she brought the car to a holt in front of a tall building that housed the Eagles Eye Security Agency.
"She ended the call but that's not it, it's the way she said 'you should know it my husband owns it' before dropping." Jason stared at Sera who still didn't get what he was trying to say.
"When she gave me the name of the hotel she was staying, I said I know the place and she said that right before she dropped." Jason elaborated.
"Oh I see she just pulled a card on you." Sera said and began laughing.
"What card?" Jason asked confused.
"Behave, my husband funds the police department card." Sera said with a straight face.
"I feel threatened, she was trying to tell me whose wife I am about to mess with." Jason said with a little smile on his face. He was a cop who knows how to do his job, he wasn't under any obligation or commitment to do a partial job. He knew a few cops where under the payroll of people like Don Kane but he, Jason Den was not one of them. He like to be threatened, it brings the best out of him, when you threaten Jason then it means you are scared of something, he goes all out to did that thing up.
"Hey Sera, I need to talk to you about something." Jason told his partner who had already opened her car door to step out. She closed back the door when she saw the face of her partner, he was very serious. She remembered the lost man she met at the dockyard this morning, he was bitter and still pained about his dead partner. But a few things had changed since this morning. He had immersed himself in the job and had been a different person. But she is looking at that man again, the man she saw this morning at the dockyard, she suddenly felt pity for Jason. He had switched back to the man whose partner was shot dead. Sera wondered how someone could switch mood so easily.
"This investigation might get messy at some point, I need to know you have got my back because I got yours." Jason said looking into her eyes.
She began to notice his well chiseled face, his hair was the usual low cut but his carvings brought out the handsomeness in him, she noticed his thick neck and how she hadn't taught of pulling his dark beards which laced his jaw and his cheeks. His broad shoulders reveal a man who has strength behind his hands and she looked at his palm resting on his knee. This man is an epitome of masculinity, she thought. Was he flirting with her, what did he mean by, 'I got yours?'
"Sera, I am not partial in my job, I don't favor the guilty, I don't take money from anyone and most of all nobody threatens me. I need to know you are with me on this." Jason said distracting Sera's thoughts.
"Yeah, sure let's do this." Sera said as she stepped out of the car. 'What just happened? She thought.'
They walked into the lobby of the Eagles Eye Security Agency, the whole place was busy with men and women in the black uniforms. The thin red line that laced the side of pants to the sleeves of their shirts gave the black a distinct look. There was a receptionist corner and three ladies attended to people from behind the five feet stand that separated them from the rest of the reception. Sera led them to the less busy receptionist among the three.
"My name is detective Sera and this is my colleague Detective Jason we want to see the MD." Sera said flashing her badge and Jason flashed his too.
The receptionist looked at the clock it was 4:55pm.
"You will be lucky if he is still in the building, let me call his extension and see." The receptionist said between smiles as she raised the receiver to her ears. "Some detectives are here to see the MD" after some seconds of silence she dropped the receiver.
"He is on his way down already, that's him in the white shirt." She said pointing at a man in his late fifties gently making his way towards the exit as all those who are guards stood at attention.
Sera was amazed at the compliments these guards give to their leader, they are almost military, she thought.
Jason and Sera hastened towards the well shaved MD of the Eagles Eye Security Agency and met him just before he stepped out of the lobby.
"Sorry to border you at this hour," Jason said flashing his badge and Sera did same, "My name is Jason and this is Sera we are the detectives investigating the murder at T. W dockyard, we will like to have a word with you." Jason said as he stretched his hand for a hand shake and the man who appeared like ex-military took his hand.
"Yes, I saw it on the news a while ago." The man said and gestured the detective's back into the lobby. "I was about leaving for the day, but let me show you to my office, shall we?"
They worked silently to the elevator and the MD clicked 7 and the elevator took them up after closing. Soon they stepped out into another lobby and the secretary stood up as she saw her boss back in the office.
"Don't worry Judith, I have guests I would take it from here, you can leave when you are done."
They walked to an office on the right and the man pushed it in and allowed the detectives in.
"Please do have your seats." He said as he went behind the desk and lowered himself into his seat.
Sera took a one sweep of the office and on the table both detectives read the name tag, Richard Combs.
"Thank you Mr. Combs." Sera said as she gave Jason a wink.
"Please call me Richard, so how can I help your investigation?" Richard asked.
"We gather that your officers were not on ground at the time of the murder, we want to know why you withdrew your men." Sera asked as she pulled out her note pad from her jacket.
"I just learnt that after I saw the news, in fact I think need to get the operations director in here as it is he who would have answers to most of your question." Richard said and reached for his intercom. He punched two numbers and waited. "Tell John to meet me in my office ASAP." Richard dropped the receiver and said, "He will her in a second." He paused for a while, "I try not to get involved in the mechanics of our operation here, I leave those to the operations team who in turn report to me, but up until a few minutes ago I never knew there was a discord between our client T. W and our agency." He took a deep breath and continued, "I will allow John to do the explanation." He concluded.
Just before Sera responded to the comments a tap was heard at the door and a young man in his early thirties stepped into the office. He wore glasses and look rather organized.
"These are detectives Sera and Jason they are here to ask a few questions about our bit at T. W, I want you to answer their questions to the later." Richard said as he pointed to the couch beside his desk backing the window.
"Yeah sure Chief" John said and had his seat.
"We understand that your agency are responsible for general security in T. W. dockyard." Jason asked and waited for the response. He liked to guide his victims into hanging themselves, from all Richard had said this young man ran the show here.
"Yes we are responsible only when their obligations are met." John said.
"When you say obligation what do you mean?" Jason asked. He didn't expect that smart response, he got his note pad out from his inner jacket pocket and scribbled a few things as he listened to John.
"We have been guarding T. W for over 3 years now and our contract includes payment of our full services pre the period under review. For instance, this is the last week in June, we should have received the full payment for July yesterday." John said and adjusted his glasses before continuing. "In January, we got a mail from T. W Dockyard saying we need to restructure our budget to appear as a weekly payment and not monthly anymore as the company was trying to make certain financial decision." Richard said and adjusted his glasses.
"Can we have access to these emails" Jason asked Richard.
"Sure we can have them printed for you before you leave." Richard said pointing at John who nodded to confirm that it will be done.
"So who sent you this email from T.W Dockyard?" Sera asked already knowing who it was.
"Daniel Grey the new Manager." John answered and Sera exchanged looks with Jason.
"So tell us what happened from there." Sera asked
"They are our client, they pay our bills we had to comply. We readjusted the budget to cover just a week. In the last Friday of January we got their cheque and an email explaining that the company will be paying for only 3 weeks of our services and would review it in March if business gets better. We responded saying we could cover the last week and carry over the payment into the following month. They replied that it won't be necessary." John pause as he saw Jason trying to ask a question.
"How many times have this happened since then?" Jason asked
"It has happened three times, in February, April and this month June." John answered.
"Why didn't you report this to your MD?" Sera asked John
He adjusted his eye glasses again, and stared at Richard then back to Sera, "I didn't see it as a problem, if the client was pulling off I would have alerted the MD but they were structuring and cutting cost. I brought it up on the management meeting of that week it came up, but MD was still at Ireland for a family function. A copy of the meeting minutes was sent to him but I didn't present it personally to him because I didn't see it as beyond my capacity to handle." John responded.
"Thank you Mr. John if we have further question we will be in touch." Jason said and turned to Richards who was already standing up too. "Thank you for your time, this have been very helpful." Richard took Jason's hand in a handshake and Sera's too.
"John will run along to print the mail trail for you so you can have the copies." Richard said as John excused himself.
"Who is the dead girl can I ask?" Richard asked
"Dora, Dora Beverly we are still trying to find any family she may have and hopefully the murderer." Jason answered. He knew that in a few hours Ben will give the press the dead girl's name and it won't be a secret.
"I am glad to have been of help." Richard said as he walked them towards the elevator.
******Please make sure to read this story on Webnovel.com, if you are reading Murder at Dark from anywhere else then you are on a pirating website, do not accept to offer any kind of payment to such people as they are non-respectful of author's rights and i, as a writer am not benefiting from their schemes in any way possible.******