Chapter Four
Charles Joyce, stood up from his desk with a pen playfully placed in between his lips. This habit didn't, the least, downplay the extent of his high intellect. He moved to a half closed door of a room situated at a corner of the big hall filled with desks. He knocked on the door and waited. There was a voice from inside the room beckoning him to enter.
"You called for me, Captain" Charles spoke, submissively.
"Yes, I did" the captain responded
"I suppose you have heard the latest. We have a case. It might or might not be a homicide. I want the brightest of my men on it…" the Captain stated
"Is it someone we know..?" Charles asked.
"Yes, the Hersholds." The captain stated briefly
"My God! Which of them? Is the former model, his wife, involved?!" Charles appeared to be worried.
"Luckily, she is alive. Thank God. But Her Husband is believed to have been killed in a Car explosion. Mrs. Hershold was at the scene. Poor woman…There is a body at the Coroner's." the Captain explained further.
"Poor Man. I will get on it right away, Sir. The usual?" Charles stated and inquired at the same time.
"Not quite. This time I want you to go to the hospital Mrs. Hershold is currently in. I have a feeling she knows something. People with money have Skeletons, you know what I mean…" the Man with the glass of bourbon in hand, the Captain, instructed.
"You are right. Track down the closest beneficiary or witness to the crime, and get a step closer to solving a case. Policing 101. Got it, Sir!" Charles reaffirmed the suspicions of the captain.
"And Detective Joyce, you will have to kiss your wife and kid goodnight through the phone, because you will be going to the hospital this night. It is urgent business. It is an order." the Police Precinct Captain said, smiling sternly.
"No Problem Sir. It's part of the job. They will understand" Charles spoke back.
"Now off you go. I have a bottle of bourbon to finish." The captain quipped playfully at Charles.
Charles stood up from the Chair in front of the captain, and walked to the door of the captain's office. He walked out leaving the door half opened, the state he met it before entering the office.
He made a quick phone call to his house. Janice, his wife, understood what he said and wished him good luck.
Charles searched through the News channels on the TV in the hall to find any information on the biggest story of that night. Almost all the News stations were giving their own account of what had happened to the Hersholds. He selected one station, and stood for a while seeping in the information being disseminated. Some workers from the Hershold Manor gave interviews to the anchormen of these stations and were being replayed on that particular News channel.
He listened to what they said and after a while, took a notepad from his desk and started scribbling down notes. He chuckled at what some of the interviewees said, knowing they were either lying or exaggerated their stories.
He took off his coat from the coat hanger by his desk and made for the exit of the Police Building. He went to his car and started it, driving it into the night. He was heading to the Hospital. The place where many fates were meant to collide.