The Immortal Queen

Missing piece of the puzzle

****** Adam's POV ******

This is a fitting end to such a miserable day. I thought the day was over and it couldn’t get any worse, but I should know better.

I was alone working in our office at headquarters when our boss called and sent me here ASAP. You can always tell how serious things are when it’s your boss sending you to a location instead of an officer or dispatch. As soon as I heard the address, I called Anderson right away while rushing to the car.

Now here we are, looking around and in shock at what we see… It’s simply unbelievable how much things have changed in just a few hours. We were here having lunch today and there were so many people talking, bustling about, laughing, living…

- This is… It’s… - Anderson gestures around helplessly.

- It’s c**nage. – There. C**nage. I told him the word he was looking for to describe the scene in the restaurant.

- Yes. – He nods his head. – You know what Reeves? I’m too old for this s**t.

- Well, old man, you are what I have for a partner, so you will have to do! Besides, these victims deserve our best effort in catching who did this to them. – In a little corner of my mind I wonder what his reaction would be if he knew I was 3x his age. I shake the thought away and I take a deep breath. Bad idea when there are these smells that usually accompany such a m******e. I watched from the corner of my eye Anderson making the same rookie mistake. I guess we are both that shaken.

Anderson doesn’t answer my remark, he just nods. It is all I need to know that he is with me.

- Officer Jones, can you come here for a minute? – I recognize one of the officers I tolerate best. You might say I have become a bit grumpy and difficult in my old age.

- Agent Reeves. – Officer Jones always looks you in the eyes and focuses on what you have to say when talking with him. A quality I admire and I rarely see nowadays, especially with people his age.

- What do we have here? – I pulled my notebook out of my pocket. I’m not obliged to use the notebook but old habits die hard and it reminds me of home… PNB (police notebook) we call them in the UK. Not that people know anything about my origins, since I keep pretending to be American. Hell, I don't even know anything about my origins and what I am.

- The bodies were found by a waiter that was coming in for the dinner shift. As far as we can tell, the people that were killed were late lunch customers, kitchen staff and waiters.

- And nobody heard the screams and noise? This isn’t a very busy street but there are still the neighbors. – Anderson questions incredulously. I was wondering the same.

- We are interviewing all the neighbors we can find and searching for people that were supposed to be working in the surrounding businesses at the time, but so far…

- So far… Nothing?? – I ask.

- No sir, nobody heard a thing. I don’t understand how… - Jones seems as bothered as we are by the whole situation. It seems strange, but there’s still a lot more information to collect.

I look down at my notes for inspiration.

- You said “late lunch customers”. How did you get to that conclusion? – I asked Jones.

- The kitchen staff and some of the waiters were already eating at that table over there and they only do that when the service is almost over. We were able to identify all of the restaurant employees with the help of the waiter that found the bodies.

- This restaurant is quite busy all the time. Remember when we were here at lunch, Reeves? It was almost full. Right now, I only count six customers. – Anderson says. I look around and started counting. He is right.

- Alright. How about the security cameras? Since you haven’t remarked on them yet, I can only guess that there is an issue with them. – I asked Officer Jones.

- The good news is they seem to be working but… - He rubs his face in frustration. – The waiter doesn’t know anything about them, where the control system is and we can’t find it anywhere. He said only the boss has access to the cameras and when I asked where the boss was? Guess what? He is missing! – Jones ends his speech almost yelling. I have never seen him like this. Something about this case is getting him worked up.

- What do you mean ‘missing’? – Anderson asks.