The door on the far end turned out to be a small storage closet filled with an unwanted dressing table with a cracked mirror, and a trunk that turned out to hold faded curtains and matching bed linen, along with a dollhouse and its contents and box of discarded children’s toys.
The next door was locked. Kelly gave a soft knock, but no one inside answered. Undeterred, I took the clip I wore to hold my hair back before plaiting it. That was the appearance I wanted to give of its use, anyway. Truthfully, it was there in case I needed it while in a sticky situation and was without my kit bag.
Kelly tossed me a puzzled look, understanding lighting up his features and I popped out the tines on the back of the clip and began picking the mechanical lock. If they had been using electronic tech from their ship to secure the room, we would have had to try to break down the door. Remembering the cameras, I decided to send a message to my brother, asking for a jammer. He’d be able to get me one on the very next train, no problem. I just had to get him the message as soon as I could do so with a measure of privacy.
It was a simple lock and yielded to my ministrations quickly. With a soft click, the lock gave and I was able to lift the handle and push the door open. It was readily apparent whose room it was, thanks to the letters spelling out Jeddah’s name carved out of wood, and painted a vibrant purple on the wall between the two windows. It was a room with a sense of expectancy, as if waiting for its owner to return. The chair before the dressing table held a discarded shirt across its back, the wardrobe not fully closed. Two more shirts had been taken off hangars and left on the still-rumpled bed. The pillow still held his head indent. No one had come in to clean since the morning he’d dressed and left his room, which I found rather odd.
“You said he was found early in the morning?” I asked Kelly.
“Yes.”
I mulled that over, eyeing the tray at the foot of the bed holding a small teapot, a used empty cup, and a small plate filled with crumbs.
“Someone brought him a breakfast tray.”
“He must have called down to the kitchen.”
“Bit odd they didn’t mention it.”
“I guess, though they might not know we needed to be given that sort of information we could use to help set up the timeline.”
I sighed softly. “We probably should have asked them some questions while we had breakfast.” It had been a tense meal, though, and we’d had no way of knowing we’d be getting kicked out quite so fast.
Kelly cocked his head, studying the tray. “I don’t know how he could drink tea without any milk or sugar. I have to have both.”
I hummed a noncommittal reply, turning around to look through the drawers of the nightstand. The drawers were empty, which I found a bit strange. The dresser held more clothes, and his bookshelf only held a few books. The room might not have been tidied up by cleaning staff, but I’d bet a month’s salary that it had been cleared of pictures and other mementos as there was literally nothing of that sort of thing, not at all. I’d yet to find a well lived-in bedroom without some sort of personal items of that sort. Someone had removed them, probably to stop us from seeing something. But what?
The room next door belonged to Carlos, his name engraved into a piece of wood that hung over a short bookshelf. I had to pick that lock open to get in as well, so was unsurprised to find nothing of a truly personal nature there either. Unlike his brother’s room, nothing looked out of place until we searched and found empty drawers in his writing desk and bedside table. Not so much as a pad of paper had been left behind for us to check the impressions left behind, though they had left a jar of pens.
The master bedroom was not locked, but it looked ransacked. Roe had packed in a hurry, making a mess as he did so. One wardrobe was open, the clothes removed, the hangars tossed onto the floor and the bed. The second wardrobe Kelly opened to peer inside. It was still full of clothes, the shoe rack nearly full. There was a space left that a single pair of shoes might fit in, and given that the space was in the center of the top shelf of the rack, I was certain the missing pair had probably been worn on the missing omega Lord’s feet. Again, drawers were devoid of anything that might provide a clue, the drawers hanging open, telling us that Lord Roe had emptied them in haste.
“I don’t think he is planning on coming back,” Kelly said wryly.
“But where would he go? Your human settlement area isn’t that large and surely he knows that there is nowhere he can go that a Hunter won’t find him anyway.”
Kelly shrugged. “Desperation makes people do stupid things. Maybe the person who snatched his husband and sons got in touch as he panicked. Maybe he is hiding from them and not us.”
“He should have confided in us. We could have helped him.” I grimaced. “Well, this was a bust. Let’s go. I need to get to your office and make a call.”
He nodded and turned to leave, not asking who I was going to contact. My heart warmed, knowing this was a sign that he truly did trust me as much as he said he did. It was a bright spot in an otherwise grim task which I had a feeling was going to get even more bleak.