Chapter 3 - ELA collaboration with Nina and Amanda

Detective Michael Smith pulled up to the front of the Red Rose Motel and glanced around at his colleague that had gotten there before him.

"So what's going on here? What happened to the female?" He said to his partner, Detective Nathaniel Davis. He stuck his hands in his pockets and looked up at Michael with a look that said I really don't want to be here right now and I don't give a crap what happened to this broad.

"Well," he started with a sigh, "She was shot in the mouth. There was barely anyone in the motel at the time, but one man called us from the front desk after he heard the gunshot from his room." He stuck a cigarette in his mouth. "You got a light?" Smith took out a match and scraped it across the wooden railing they were both leaning on. He held it up to Nathaniel’s mouth, and he nodded his head for a thanks.

          Michael continued the conversation, "So then we better have a look inside?"

"Already looked," Davis said to him as he looked off down the street for nothing in particular. It was starting to annoy Detective Michael. That is, the fact that Davis always treated him like the sidekick. "But you can go and have a look for yourself you know, see if you find any other clues..." he trailed off realizing he had said something wrong.

Michael pushed through the door and looked at the cold, empty office room.

          There were only a few things he had noticed right away, and only one thing he noticed that would help him solve the complicated murder mystery that was yet to come. There was a cold coffee cup on the desk that had been deserted. A small vase of orchids with a note that read; EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH! GREAT JOB TRUDY! There was a little calendar with pictures of ------- for every month. The last thing that caught Smith’s eye was a crumpled business card that was lying in the tip of the front desk. It was for “the offices of the Alexander Railroad Company”. At the bottom of the card it said Mack -----, and a telephone number.

Michael picked up the phone on the desk and called the number. After a few minutes of ringing, the phone line hung up.

“Well no one picked up the phone, but maybe I can go to this address,” he said to himself. He stuffed the card into his coat pocket and walked past the desk down the hallway. After walking around a few corners through the motel, he reached an area with a few cops surrounding it.

“Excuse me,” Smith said to the cops while flashing his golden badge. He looked down at the ground in disgust, analyzing the blonde girl with bright red blood dripping out of her mouth, past her neck and onto the floor. Realizing that this wasn’t really his job, he walked away from the corpse and out back the way he had come.

Michael passed his partner on his way to the cruiser that was parked at the edge of the sidewalk.

“Where do you think you’re going, rookie?” Michael looked back at Davis and answered.

“Keep your pants on Nate; I’m just going to get lunch. I’ll be back in a while.” Nathaniel knew that they had both just gotten lunches together, which meant that Michael was lying and meant that something was up.

“Alright then, I guess,” Davis said unsurely. Michael got into his car and drove away, off to “the offices of Alexander Railroad Company”.