‘Dead?’ asked Mandy.
‘Yes, a horrible death it was. He died along with his wife when their house burnt down,’ said Susan.
‘When did this incident happen?’
‘One year ago.’
Mandy and David looked at each other, and he said, ‘Thank you, ma’am, for your time. We’ll depart now.’
While heading back to the department, Mandy asked, ‘How productive was that trip?’
‘We did learn that Susan didn’t have a motive to kill him. She seemed pretty content. And also, we learned about George Hustle, Adam’s dead business partner,’ said David.
‘But George is a dead link. We don’t really require him in this investigation.’
‘Wrong, Mandy. Old links and motives survive the test of time. Investigating George’s death could lead us to another clue. Both were business partners who hated each other, and now both are dead. Who profits from this?’
‘The remaining partners. They have a strong motive to cause it. One of them may be behind all this.’
‘See? We have our suspects now.’
Mandy nodded in approval.
David called up James.
‘James, I need you to look and study the files of George Hustle. He died one year ago in a fire accident and was Adam’s business partner.’
‘Okay, sir, will do just that,’ replied James, and then he hung up. He drove back to the department to fetch the details and the file.
After driving for another five minutes, David dropped Mandy outside WPD and left. Mandy got back inside her sedan and left for home.
Meanwhile, David collected the information about the casino and its business owners.
Casney was waiting around in the corner out of sight. He typed a message on his phone, which read, ‘The captain has left. The lady official just drove back to her home, most probably. What do you want me to do?’
He received a call after that, listened for approximately fifteen seconds, and then he hung up and drove away.
James arrived moments later in the department. He went to the second floor to the directory room and asked the incharge to give him access to the files. Moments later, he was looking for files in the G section and took out George Hustle’s file. He then instructed one of the workers to fetch him news clippings of the same incident from old newspapers. He went back to his desk on the fourth floor and began reading the files. Sometime later, the news clippings were delivered to him. He gathered from the two that George Hustle and his wife, Amelia Hustle, had been burned alive in their house, which had caught fire. The cause of the fire was natural, probably triggered from inside. The fire trucks arrived by the time the whole house had burnt down. The neighbourhood was empty, apart from a little girl in the next house who was sleeping till the end of the fire. Only the remains of the two inhabitants remained.
Anne was getting ready to head out. She went to the ground floor and could see up from there. The whole upper floor had been sealed, and access to it was barred. The other servants had gone home. She was heading out to buy groceries and was putting some bills inside her purse. As she neared the door, she saw from the huge windows a white car parked across the road. She quickly hurried back and brought a paper and pen and scrawled something on it. As she exited the gate, she glanced left and right. When she felt sure that the road was empty, she walked right towards the man seated inside the car and handed him the paper. Then she quickly turned towards north and headed to the grocery store.
Casney stared at the paper in his hand. It had very short and crystal-clear instructions. It read, ‘Kill her’.