As it happened, it was a few days before Harry and
Sapphire were called into action. Lt. Hawke put down the phone after a brief
call and stood up, clapping his hands together. "Alright," he said,
"we've got our first homicide investigation. Get yourselves ready, and
we'll be heading out as soon as possible."
The trio swiftly moved into action, getting ready to head
out on what would be their first investigation together.
***
"So, what are the details?" asked Harry, as
Hawke drove them to the scene in his police car.
"Victim's name is Carlo Bernardi," said Lt.
Hawke. "Thirty-two years old, works as a chef at a restaurant downtown.
Earlier today he was found shot dead in the kitchen. The manager insists that
nobody's been in or out of the kitchen all day."
"So it was one of the other chefs," said Harry.
" There's only two other chefs working there, and
the manager says they're both innocent," said Hawke. "Of course, it's
our job to determine that, but…"
"So we could be looking at a locked-room mystery,
then," said Harry thoughtfully. "Now that'd be an interesting first investigation."
""Interesting" isn't the word I would've
used," said Lt. Hawke.
***
A short time later, the car pulled up outside the
restaurant, which was already cordoned off with yellow police tape. Ducking their
way under the tape, the three detectives entered the building. The manager, an
old man who had to have been at least seventy, was stood solemnly nearby, while
the other two chefs, one male and one female, were sat at a table in a state of
shock, being consoled by another officer.
"I'll talk to the manager, get some more
details," said Lt. Hawke. "Harry, you go talk to the chefs. Sapphire,
go ahead and check out the kitchen. Change your gloves first, though."
Sapphire glanced nervously at her hands, covered as ever
by her black fingerless gloves. Instead of removing them as instructed,
however, she proceeded to put on the forensic latex gloves over the top of
them.
"She has to wear those," Harry quickly explained.
"It's for a, uhh, medical condition."
Lt. Hawke got the suspicion that they were being less
than truthful, but it really wasn't worth causing a scene about it, so he let
it slide. "Alright, fair enough," he said. Sapphire, looking a little
uncomfortable with the attention being paid to her, quickly headed off towards
the kitchens at the back of the restaurant, sweeping her magenta-tinged fringe
to one side as she did so.
As Harry headed over to interview the chefs, Lt. Hawke
made his way over to the manager. "Lieutenant Matthew Hawke, Jacksonville
PD," he said automatically, flashing his badge. "I'd like to ask you
a few questions about Mr. Bernardi, and the circumstances of his murder."
"Of course, of course," said the man, nodding.
"Ask away."
Lt. Hawke pulled out a pencil and notepad. "When you
called, you said that nobody had been in or out of the kitchen since the chefs
arrived for work that day. Do you know that for a fact?"
"I asked the chefs and they verified it," said
the manager. "Nobody but them has been in there all day. I imagine the
CCTV footage will show the same thing."
Lt. Hawke nodded, scribbling a note down. "So there's
CCTV cameras in the kitchen?"
The manager looked a little troubled suddenly. "Yes,
there are."
"Something wrong?" asked Lt. Hawke, picking up
on the man's unease.
"Well… it's unfortunate, but Carlo was actually the
reason we had those installed," said the manager. "I might as well be
completely honest with you… Carlo wasn't exactly a model employee. As a matter
of fact, I'd already given him his two weeks' notice. He was supposed to be
leaving in a few days."
"Why?" asked Lt. Hawke. "What'd he
do?"
"A few months after he arrived, I noticed that
things were starting to go missing or broken a lot more frequently than they
used to," explained the manager. "Almost every week or so, he'd come
to me saying that a stack of cutlery had gone missing, or the blender had
broken. Bear in mind that the equipment we use in our kitchen isn't stuff out
of Home Depot: it's premium-grade culinary equipment that can cost hundreds. At
first I thought maybe he was just clumsy, but the other chefs were growing
suspicious of him, and after a while, so did I. A few weeks ago, I installed
the CCTV system without telling them, and I soon realized that Carlo wasn't
losing or breaking the missing items. He was stealing them. I confronted him
about it, and gave him his notice."
"So he'd been stealing from you all that time?"
asked Lt. Hawke.
"Yes," said the manager, "and I wish I'd
realized it sooner. It would have saved me thousands of dollars, and… it might
have saved Carlo his life."
***
"I don't know what happened," said the female
chef, as her male colleague gently patted her shoulder. "I was cooking a
lamb shank for a customer's order, and then suddenly there was this huge bang.
At first I thought something in the kitchen had exploded, then I saw Carlo
lying there… and all the blood everywhere… oh God-!" Unable to continue,
the woman covered her face with her hands and started to sob quietly.
Her colleague seemed slightly more composed. "We
know Carlo had his… problems… but he was a great chef, and a great colleague. I
can't believe anyone would want to do this to him."
"You didn't see anyone else in the kitchen?" asked
Harry. "Or anything suspicious at all?"
"No," said the woman, wiping her eyes. "We
have no idea where that shot came from."
"Now that's strange," remarked Harry.
"Were there any open windows? Any openings at all through which the
shooter could have fired?"
"I don't… I don't think so…" said the woman.
Harry thought this over for a moment. It was a most
perplexing conundrum. Solving it would be most enjoyable. Sadly, he wouldn't
get the chance, as at that moment, he and Lt. Hawke noticed Sapphire standing
at the kitchen doorway, having apparently found something. The pair swiftly
wrapped up their questionings and hurried over to her. "Something wrong,
Sapphire?" asked Lt. Hawke.
"No," said Sapphire, "it's just… I found
where the shot was fired from."
"Atta girl!" exclaimed Harry, patting her on
the shoulder. "Alright, let me see."
The trio made their way through the kitchen, past Carlo's
body, which lay where it had fallen, crimson blood pooled beneath it. At the
rear of the kitchen was a service door, comprised of numerous metal shutters joined
together, similar to a garage door. Whenever supplies were delivered to the
restaurant, the door would be raised and the supplies sent in through this back
entrance. Sapphire made her way over to the door, and pointed to a gap where
two of the shutters had been forced apart.
"Here," she said. "The killer must have
prised the shutters apart, poked the barrel of the gun through, and then…"
She let the sentence drift away into nothingness, nodding vaguely.
"I see," said Lt. Hawke, crouching down a little
to examine the hole. "Check for prints. If the killer never actually
entered the crime scene, it might be the only forensic evidence we're able to
recover. In the meantime, I'm gonna go get hold of those security tapes."
Sapphire nodded, and began checking the shutters for
fingerprints, while Hawke left the kitchen in search of the CCTV footage. With
not much physical evidence to go on, they were going to need all the help they
could get.
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