The Heart of the Sphinx

Chapter 15

“Have you spoken to the victim?” asked Hugh as he looked at the murdered person. He was wearing a pair of silk pyjamas and it meant that he was here to do some kind of reading before he would retire to bed. The blood on his throat had ruined the entire shirt that he was wearing. The blood had coagulated along the cut which was made on his throat. That could mean that the murder had taken place only a few hours earlier.

“Where is the doctor?” asked Gabriella as she was on call and she was seething.

“What are you saying that she is asleep? What the f**k is wrong with you?” asked Gabriella as he voice increased in pitch and she screamed at the top of her lings. This was naturally very frustrating and Hugh could understand that, after all, he himself had to deal with such employee and people all throughout his day and not to mention his career.

“Put me on line with that blasted woman,” said Gabriella as she found Hugh looking at her and lowered her voice.

“Yes, Doctor Rostenkowiski..so you say that you are not supposed to be disturbed at this time of night. Is that so? Would you be willing to write that particular reason in your resignation letter as well?” asked Gabriella in a sugary sweet voice which was so filled up with venom that anyone would die hearing that.

“Oh yes yes yes…I am not threatening you at all….I am just saying that the media would have a field day with something like this in case they get a news like this from insider that the doctor of the morgue and the department has had a field day…oh yeah…I am just recording this conversation,” said Gabriella as Hugh sniggered but as she glared at him he put a finger on his lips showing that he was not going to say anything again.

“Ahhh that would be really great…I am hoping that you would reach here within the next fifteen minutes so that we can collect the samples in peace and under your supervision,” said Gabriella and Hugh could not help but think that if anyone could kill someone with her words it would be no one other than Gabriella. She was a woman like no other. Hugh who was not easily impressed by women nowadays could not help but think if he was absolutely professional in his dealings or there was something else that was happening inside him which he could not help but feel.

“The doctor is on her way here. I think she will be here in a few minutes. So before she arrives I think I will show you what I was telling you outside,” said Gabriella as she slowly tip-toed on the side of the blood and went towards the rack which was again empty of any books at all.

“This really looks very weird, you know?” asked Hugh as he looked at the empty rack and then suppressed a shudder. Even though he was a one who loved his digs and adventures he definitely was a book worm and a library which remained empty of books made him feel absolutely sick to the core. Gabriella found out the place in which that particular lever was kept.

Then she turned slightly in his direction and said,” All these bookcases have the absolute same mechanism. The one in the house of the last victim was similar to this as well. I mean, I have a feeling that all of them had gotten these things made together at the same time when probably they would have come back with these things,” said Gabriella.

“Yes true that. But where would they have come back from? That is my question. They must have been gone to some kind of archaeological thing together but when and that too where? And what have they or who have they angered so much that even after taking the loot they are not sparing their lives. Bur Gabby, have you seen that they have not taken anything of value? I mean…look at this room, this entire room is filled with antique and treasures but clearly they did not do anything  or even try to take anything in the entire room,” said Hugh as he looked around when he suddenly hit his leg in something which was taken out from the desk. Rather slightly beneath the desk. It was a hidden chamber of sorts and there was a gun dropped inside.

“Gabriella, come here. You would want to see this one,” said Hugh as he carefully lifted the gun and then showed it to her and Gabriella’s eyes widened in shock.

“A gun? Come on, drop it in the bag, we have to run it for prints,” said the woman as she passed on a zip-lock bag to her partner. And just as she thought the word partner she felt a bit different. She had never really taken on another partner after she had been duped in such a manner. She had taken a long time to come back from that fiasco but she could feel it in her bones that he was not going to be like that at all. After all, she had read his file and he knew what it felt like to be betrayed by someone that you love.

“I am thinking that you are probably not going to get anything at all. The gun felt surprisingly light which meant that it is not loaded and if it was not loaded then it meant that someone had already taken out the clip and this means that someone was waiting here. Waiting for the victim to come in this room. That can only mean that they had kept him under surveillance and had come through only one single way which was not checked out by any kind of alarms or motion sensors,” said Hugh as he looked at the window which was open.

“You are surely not telling me that it was Batman who did all these crimes? I mean, really Hugh? Open window? Not being checked by motion sensors works out but the part after that, I mean, what you are telling me to that is something I am not going to be able to accept that theory,” said Gabby as she still walked towards the window and then looked out. What she saw was something which was not possible for any human to do.

“What?” asked Hugh from the back of the room as he opened the trap door of the hidden room behind the bookcase and found that the treasure was still there.

“Well I stand by that. Either Batman or someone with wings, or even better option, you know? Dracula…he is the one who could climb walls without any kind of difficulty at all. I mean if we are talking about theories of not getting caught then we should be also thinking about which is the most logical and most probable because what you are saying does not make any sense at all,” said Gabriella as she came back inside the room. None of them knew correct they were and how they could not be any more farther than the truth because they were thinking about the wrong things and looking at the wrong places.

“But this does not feel right Gabriella. Nothing about this feels right at all. I mean, who takes books and leaves this cache of goods behind? And that too the things which were collector’s items???” asked Hugh as he still looked at the room filled with antiques of old Egyptian origin.

“That is something that I have been thinking too. And here it is like they probably knew about the trap door, because as far as I can understand from the marks and you said that there is only one urn missing. So what could be of so much value that someone is going to leave everything else behind?” asked Gabriella as both of them looked at the things and kept muttering unintelligible things.

“I think that we need to get this leaked to the media,” said Hugh and Gabriella looked at him as if he had lost his mind.

“What the f**k is wrong with your line of thinking Linglithgow? I mean seriously what is wrong with you?” asked Gabriella as she glared at him.

“You don’t get my point. I mean, I am telling that without leaking this news to the media we are not going to be able to get a hard hit on the criminals ever. I mean, we have to tell that these people were dealing with stolen antiques and that is the reason of this murders as a preliminary investigation report in hand. Otherwise this is very soon going to come to a dead end,” said Hugh as he looked at Gabriella and shrugged. And she sighed out loud.

“You know I have a real feeling of hatred for you when you are right,” said Gabriella as they started combing the room for more clues.