Murder At The Podium

by Alec Peche

  She purposely shoved that view out of her head and returned to thinking how she could identify where Stacy had gotten the blueberry muffin. She wanted to study the bags that Stacy brought with her into the hotel room. A muffin was easily smashed; and so if it had come from home, Stacy would’ve probably transported it in a plastic container for protection. She would check Stacy’s hotel room inventory from the crime scene report. She should also check to see if someone entered Stacy’s room after she left for her speaking engagement and before the police arrived on the scene. She also wanted to check any room service footage. With that thought, she suddenly decided she better not order room service at the hotel in case that was the source of the poisoned muffin. A good sense of paranoia had kept Jill alive on more than one occasion.

  There was a restaurant in the lobby and so she would make the trip down to it to fetch food. Until she determined where the muffin had come from, she would avoid room service deliveries. Jill finished off her work-out returning to her room to look at some of the footage she thought about while running on the treadmill. Fortunately she had taken pen and paper with her to the gym to record any brilliant thoughts she had while running. Following her notes, she started with watching Stacy’s room and hallway in the twenty-four hours prior to her check-in.

  There was a lot of activity in a hallway over a full day when there were fifty rooms serviced by a set of elevators. It was so mind-numbing to watch that Jill almost missed it. Housekeeping entered the room presumably to clean it after the last occupant. Later a supervisor entered the room, clipboard in hand and exited less than five minutes later. Maintenance walked around with a cart. They went in one room with a plunger and changed a lightbulb in another. A few occupants had room service trays brought up to them. Each time the tray arrived on a cart. On one occasion a tray was walked into the room that Stacy would occupy. There was a silver lid on the food so Jill had no idea what was under the lid.

  Jill had two concerns; the first being that no other room service order was delivered without a cart and the second problem being that she was working under the premise that the room was unoccupied. She would have to check with hotel security to see if the room was occupied. She picked up the phone and called Rob Gallagher, the hotel’s head of security. The man had given her his cell phone, thankfully, as the administrative offices were closed at this time.

  “Rob, this is Jill Quint. Can you tell me if the room that Stacy Johnson occupied was vacant the night before her arrival?”

  “Give me a few minutes and I’ll call you back with that answer.”

  Jill went back and watched the food delivery a few more times. Then her cell phone rang and it was Rob calling back.

  “The room was reserved for a Paul Smith, but he never showed up.”

  “Did you charge him for the no-show?”

  “Yes, and the credit card was rejected, the account closed.”

  “When was the reservation made?”

  “About two weeks before the occupancy date. It took a legitimate credit card to secure the reservation, so that tells you the account was closed sometime after that reservation.”

  “How was that room selected for him? The story is suspicious but how did he arrange to stay in the exact room slated for Stacy?”

  “That’s a good question and I don’t know the answer to it. I’ll have to research it and get back to you. Is this urgent or can it wait until tomorrow morning?”

  Jill thought a moment then said, “It can wait until tomorrow morning. Enjoy your evening, Rob.”

  “Thanks, I’m coaching a group of six year olds in the fine sport of T-Ball and I can leave if need be, but I’d rather stay.”

  “Sounds like you have your hands full, good luck with the kids and I’ll talk with you tomorrow.”

  Jill leaned back and thought with some excitement that she might have discovered the origin of the poisoned muffin. The room service attendant could leave it in the room with a note that it was compliments of the hotel for Stacy’s breakfast the next day. She would have checked into her room probably viewed the muffin and decided that if she had it for breakfast the next morning she wouldn’t have to leave her room until her presentation. That would give her time for another lecture practice.

  Then Jill thought about the marinated blueberries. She really needed to try making the recipe herself. Did the arsenic change at all after spending thirty minutes in a 400 degree oven? The melting point of the metallic substance was far higher than 400 degrees, but Jill questions were as much about how the marinated blueberries would fare as about the properties of arsenic. Did the blueberries change color or otherwise decompose due to the arsenic? She would drop Castillo an email with her potential discoveries and request access to an oven. They might have one in the crime scene lab or perhaps she could use the police cafeteria oven to conduct her experiment. She would buy new kitchenware for the experiment then toss it once she had her answers. After composing her email to Castillo, she went back to studying the video.

  She tried to formulate specifics about this delivery man. Based on where his head passed under the door frame, she estimated his height at about six foot tall, weight of 190 pounds, thirty five to forty five years old, and no guess on the man’s ethnicity. He kept his head turned away from the camera on the way into the room and then he exited a stairwell at the hallway’s end, which had no camera inside the actual stairwell. She tried finding the elevator footage of the man and once she did, she found the food tray resting on his shoulder blocking a view of his face. He must have known camera placement before he entered the hotel.

  Her cell phone rang and she answered it expecting Nathan. Instead it was Castillo.

  “Good work, Jill. This does appear to be a well-planned poisoning. Do you have an answer from the hotel as to whether the room was occupied?”

  “Not until the morning. The man with the answers is coaching his child’s T-ball team and I thought that was more important at this moment in time.”

  “I have to agree with you there, it’s a question that needs answering but it can wait. You asked about ovens in police headquarters and I honestly don’t know what the crime lab or kitchen have at this point. Come prepared to bake.”

  “Will do. I’m working more on the videos tonight so I’ll let you know if I find anything more in the morning.”

  “One question. Could the man that delivered the room service possibly be Adam Johnson?”

  “I don’t know. This guy seems of average height and weight as does Adam. I can’t identify the race of the man, so as to whether his facial features match his, I don’t know yet. I’m going to search other camera angles in the hotel to see if I catch a better picture.”

  “How about the food cover does that match the hotel’s?”

  “Good question, let me look again,” Jill said and there was a pause in her conversation as she pulled up other footage of other room service deliveries. “Yes it is a match.”

  “Ok, well I’ll see you in the morning.”

  Jill decided to modify her video viewing plan now that she had found some things to look for. It was much easier to stay attentive when she had something specific to search for. She'd grab a shower now and then head downstairs to order food from the hotel restaurant.

  Half an hour later, she found herself back on the sofa with a Chicken Caesar salad sandwich and fries on a plate on her lap. While it would have been great to wash it down with a beer, she was afraid the alcohol content would diminish some of her observation powers so she settled for a fruit flavored ice tea.

  She went back and looked at the tape again of the room service delivery and another thing struck her as inconsistent with a normal delivery. The man used a passkey to enter the room. In the past, any room service delivery had begun with an attendant knocking on the door; hotel staff didn’t enter an occupied room without an invitation from the client.

  She studied all of the cameras for an hour after the delivery and never again saw the man. She grabbed her
room key, exited her room, and took the elevator to Stacy’s floor. She walked down the corridor looking for cameras as she went. She got to the stairway and entered it. While she didn’t think it was a legitimate exit, she took the steps up another twelve floors. She was breathing heavy and her legs were burning by the time she reached the top. She was curious to see if she could get out on the roof; she supposed it was some kind of fire code requirement to have two exits to the stairwell, but maybe not. She pushed the door and it did indeed open and allow her access to the roof. It was rather creepy and dark. Jill had a new fear of heights and it just gave her the willies to be close to the edge of a thirty floor building. First she wanted to be certain she could get back in, so she placed her cellphone between the door and frame to make sure it couldn’t lock behind her, then she explored the roof. There were multiple stairways that exited to the roof. She tried the doors and they were all locked.

  Jill had her hand on the door and was bending over to retrieve her cellphone, when the door flew open to the roof. She let out a little scream, jumped back, dropping her cellphone in the darkness. She was terrified for a few seconds until she saw the uniform of the hotel security backlit by the stair lights.

  She put her hand to her chest and said, “You scared the wits out of me!”

  “Ma’am you are only allowed on the roof in an emergency, you’ll need to leave now and return indoors.”

  “No problem, sir. I was just checking the exits up here,” Jill replied and then a question occurred to her. “How did you know I was up here?”

  “We watched you on the camera enter the roof area.”

  “I’m doing an investigation that Rob Gallagher is involved with if you need to check me out. Is there a camera on the roof? I couldn’t see it in the dark up here.”

  “Yes, there’s a camera and it’s positioned to see all four stairwells.”

  “Do all the doors lock behind you if you come up on the roof?”

  “No ma’am we keep one door unlocked at all times per fire code.”

  “Is it always the same door or do you rotate that?”

  “Ma’am I think before I answer any additional questions, I would like to escort you back to your guestroom and contact Mr. Gallagher.”

  “Ok, I understand. By the way when I spoke with him earlier he was coaching a bunch of six year olds in the sport of T-ball so he may be hard to reach.”

  “If you know he’s coaching T-ball tonight, you really must be a friend of his so I’ll answer your questions on our way back to your room. Yes, we rotate the door that is unlocked each day. Ma’am, do you want to ride the elevator down to your floor?”

  “No, lets walk down to the twentieth floor, it’s only ten flights. What kind of keys opens those doors and who has those keys? Do you keep footage from the roof?”

  “Security has those keys and maintenance and it’s just a regular key. As to video footage of the roof, I don’t know if we keep it - you’ll have to ask Mr. Gallagher.”

  They continued their walk down the ten flights of stairs, but Jill couldn’t think of any other questions to ask this security guard. She’d have more for Rob in the morning. She thanked the guard once she reached her room. Her heart was still racing after her scare up on the roof. She’d give Nathan a call as it was always soothing to talk to him.

  “Hey babe, how’s Dallas?”

  “Just scared myself to death, so I thought I’d call you to calm down.”

  “What happened? Are you hurt?” Nathan asked going from casual to concern in two sentences.

  “I found some suspicious behavior on one of the hotel videos, so I followed a stairway to the roof of the hotel to see if that was a possible exit for my suspect. The roof is high in the sky and dark and I was quite creeped out while up there. Just as I was reaching for my cellphone which I had used to block open the door back inside the hotel, a security guy opened the door from the inside. I’m embarrassed to admit, but I let a little scream out before I saw who it was. My heart is still racing over the surprise.”

  She could hear Nathan sigh on the other end, and then he said “Serves you right for being a lone investigator.”

  “Aren’t you the sympathetic friend?”

  “Just calling it like I see it.”

  “Hmmm. How was your day?”

  “Not bad, two new clients that I met last week signed contracts for my services.”

  “I’m amazed you have capacity for additional clients let alone the creativity to do something different for them.”

  “If I didn’t have Ned’s assistance, I wouldn’t have the capacity. He is handling a lot of the computer layout work that I used to do. Now I just approve the work once he’s given it to me in draft. I might someday hire additional help for him on the printing side, but I still have capacity to grow.”

  Jill settled into her sofa and relaxed over her conversation with Nathan, her nerves calmed.

  “So I’m baking muffins at police headquarters tomorrow.”

  “Honey no offense, but you’re not too talented in the kitchen. Are you sure you want to antagonize those cops who will come to your aid the next time you get scared up on the roof?”

  “First, you’re not supportive of my scary moment, and now you’re calling me a really bad cook. That is just plain mean,” Jill replied a grin in her voice.

  “Okay why are you baking muffins for the police?”

  “The medical examiner determined that the blueberries were marinated in arsenic so I’m going to recreate the poison muffins. With my cooking skills I should be really good at this.”

  She heard Nathan laughing on the other end of the phone and then he said, “You should indeed.”

  “On my way to police headquarters tomorrow I’m going grocery shopping for a box of Bisquick and some blueberries.”

  “So where will you get the arsenic? I haven’t seen that in the spice section ever?”

  “Ha ha. I’m hoping the police lab will have it. If not, my baking experiment will have to wait a day as I wait for a delivery.”

  “Why bother trying to recreate the muffins if you already know it’s the murder weapon?” Nathan asked.

  “I’m trying to understand how easy or hard it is to make this recipe. It will be a part of the picture of the murderer. If it is easy, then my poison muffins add nothing to the case. If it requires any special measurement and handling of the arsenic, then the pool of suspects narrows considerably.”

  “I hope you’ll be picking up bakeware for use in your experiment. I wouldn’t want to use a muffin pan after you have been baking with arsenic no matter how many times you wash it.”

  “Yeah I had those items on my list as well and then I’ll see if they can incinerate the bakeware after I’m done using it.”

  “I’ll be able to brag to people now that you poison people with your cooking and be entirely truthful when I say it.”

  “You know I’d be insulted by our conversation, but I really hate cooking and as long as I keep lowering people’s expectations of my culinary skills then I’ll escape folks expecting me to cook for them. Do you have any advice on marinating the blueberries?”

  “Cooks marinate blueberries all the time for a variety of recipes. Usually they’re marinated in an alcoholic drink like a liqueur or rum. There’s even blueberry beer. Most recipes have you marinate for a short time - like fifteen minutes. So your experiment should go pretty fast. Where did the woman get the poisoned muffin?”

  “That is sort of what my roof top scare was about. I think I may have a suspect placing the muffin in her room prior to check-in and so I was following his potential path through the hotel.”

  “So has talking to me calmed you down?”

  “Yeah, sometimes you need a mundane conversation about baking to put a roof surprise back in perspective. Thanks and I better end this call and get back to staring at my video footage. Love you.”

  “Glad I could help and love you back babe.”

  They ended their conversa
tion and Jill returned to the video footage. She had a bunch of security questions for Rob in the morning. She studied the footage of each camera angle for an hour after the unknown man entered the stairwell and saw him nowhere. Where’d he go? Was it possible that he was able to evade roof cameras? The room service guy did enough suspicious things for Jill to believe that it was the blueberry muffin under the silver lid. She looked up at the clock and decided to pack it in.