by Emily Selby
Katie sat up. She put the crane to her ear and shook it again, this time more strongly.
Clearly - a rustling.
Did Amanda put anything inside? Was there supposed to be anything inside?
Intrigued, Katie inspected the bird.
It looked unremarkable - plain, white piece of paper.
Maybe except one of the folds, just under the wing. A printed word: "all."
With trembling hands, Katie fingered the figurine. There was definitely something inside. There were also two more printed words, hidden in one of the folds - "your" and "safe".
That was strange... Why would Amanda use a sheet of paper with something written on it?
On top of that, the word "safe" was even stranger...
Katie unfolded the tip of the wing, her heart hammering. This was her only memento of Amanda, was ruining it worth the risk?
Given that her friend had been found dead completely unexpectedly and Katie suspected murder, it was.
She opened the other tip of the wing.
A few moments later, with a headache blazing its trail between her temples, Katie was staring at a piece of paper that was ripped into an almost square shape. Two lines of printed words glinted on the uneven surface between the folds. Two tiny stars slipped onto the tabletop.
Katie straightened the sheet several times and lifted it to the light.
"...are all over it. But I can help you. Only I can keep you safe. You have to trust me, and everything will be alright. Meet me tomorrow and let's talk. Hamish."
She read the lines three times, flipped the paper to check the other side. Nothing.
Katie stared back at the printed side. It looked like about a half of an A4 sheet of printer paper, ripped into a square. The beginning of the first sentence must have been left on the top of the page.
Had it been ripped to serve as a piece of origami paper since origami was usually made from squares? Or was there something at the top, besides the beginning of the sentence that had to be separated?
What was this message about? What was "all over"? Was this letter addressed to Amanda? Who was Hamish? Did Amanda meet with him?
Why on earth, had she made it into a paper crane and gifted to Katie?
Katie ran her tongue around her paper-dry mouth. She pressed the sheet against the tabletop as if this could help to glean any more information from the creased paper.
The two little paper stars caught her eye. She picked them up with her fingertips.
Five-pointed origami stars! Just as the ones Amanda had taught her to make during one of the lunch breaks. Only much, much smaller.
Katie rubbed her numb fingers on her jeans and tried to open one of the pointy ends.
So fiddly!
She jumped to her feet and moved to the cutlery drawer. She took a fork, carefully opened the star's arms, one by one and pressed the paper surface with both hands, smoothing the creases. Both pieces of paper appeared to be photocopies of what looked like text messages. As if someone pressed a screen of a mobile phone to the photocopier and cut out a square with the message out. Both messages looked as if they had been cut from the same screen print. Both had the date and time of sending above the text, but only one of them had the sender's name also printed.
Hamish. Again.
The first message was dated "Monday."
"I know where you are," it read.
The second message, dated 11 February, read, "I need to talk to you. It's urgent."
Katie reached for her own mobile and picked the top message thread, which happened to be from Jack. Pushing aside the warm and fuzzy feeling in her chest (this isn’t the time for romantic musings, Katie!), she compared the format of the messages.
The message labelled "Monday" must have been seen within a week of being sent, and since this was the one with the sender's name on top, it must have been a Monday sometime between February and the Wednesday gone, because otherwise, it would have been labelled as "Yesterday."
Actually, since Amanda had given her the origami crane last Saturday, and her strange behaviour started probably last Friday, it might have been to do with Amanda discovering the second message. With that thought in mind, Amanda's surprising gift and her insistence on seeing Katie took on a different meaning. Did Amanda do it on purpose? By passing the secret messages hidden in origami creations to Katie was she trying to communicate? Was she trying to let the world know that she had been ... what? Stalked? Threatened? Blackmailed?
Had she suspected that the mysterious Hamish would take it further and kill her?
But why didn't Jack mention any messages? After all, the police had seized Amanda's phone.
She needed to get hold of Jack and tell him all about her discovery.
Katie tapped on the green button on her phone, but her call went straight to the voicemail. Jack was probably driving through one of the no-coverage spots in the region. She straightened what used to be the crane once again and took a photo of the piece of paper and repeated the same operation with the text messages. Then, setting her jaw, she chose Jack's number and pressed the "Send" button again. She added a short message, telling him where she'd found the notes.
Her suspiciousness was now fully awakened, and if after seeing the secret messages Jack still insisted that Amanda had shot herself, Katie would push back.
She didn't know yet what or how she would "push back," but she was certain - no more pulling wool over anyone's eyes. Amanda's death was not a suicide. And Hamish's name was all over the riddle.
8
Katie’s sleep was restless, full of bizarre unfinished dreams - no doubt the result of her mind’s attempts to make sense of what had happened to Amanda.
She was relieved to wake up even if it was half an hour before the alarm. A message from Jack was waiting for her on her phone:
"Thanks. That's interesting. Let's talk about it tomorrow."
She couldn't wait to talk to him. She went through the usual steps of her morning routine, grateful for Julia's autopilot mode being in the perfect working order.
When she arrived at the station, Chris and Jack were already there.
'Wow, Katie, what a find!' Chris greeted her before she could close the door behind her.
'Where did you get it from?' Jack joined in.
She gave them a brief summary of her origami unfolding evening.
'What do you think it is?' she asked, watching Jack carefully.
'I don't have enough data to make a judgment,' he said slowly and pressed his lips into a thin, pale line.
Katie's head snapped to face Chris.
'Don't you think it suggests that Amanda's death was not a suicide? This Hamish chap has been after her. I think he's the one she refers to in her note.'
Chris' bushy eyebrows shot up. 'But why would he leave that note in her hand?'
'To make it look like a suicide. He made her write it, and then shot her.'
Chris twisted his mouth and glanced at Jack.
'What do you think, Boss?'
'I would definitely like to talk to this Hamish person. Do you know of anyone with this name?' Jack said and looked at Katie.
'No. I’d certainly remember someone with such an unusual name. You could check the hotel's guest register.'
'I'll do it, sir,' Chris offered.
'I gather you didn't find those messages on her phone?' Katie asked.
'No. Not on the one we've had. She might have had another mobile,' Jack replied, 'but we haven't found one in her room.'
'Have you checked her work locker?' Katie asked.
'Yes. Nothing of interest,' Chris replied. 'A change of clothes, a packet of tissues, some pain killers.'
Katie shifted her gaze to Jack. 'Any news from her mother?' she asked.
'Still nothing. And no news from the Kiwi police.'
Katie chewed on her cheek, ordering her thoughts. 'You know what I think,' she said and paused.
'Yeah,' Jack replied with a sigh. 'That it was a murder, not
a suicide.'
'I've got more ideas, if you're willing to listen.'
'Of course, we are,' Jack replied before she finished her sentence. He flashed her a grin, and Chris did an eyebrow wiggle.
Katie ignored the pang of suspicion rippling in her guts. At least they were willing to listen to her hunches this time. It hadn’t always been the case. She'd better make sure she added as much "evidence and logic" as she could find to support her ideas.
'I think Amanda might have had a double life. She's only in her twenties, an attractive, smart woman, who seems to have had no friends, no social media, no past and a mother who lives far away. Her life revolved around work-'
'She feels lonely and desperate, and commits suicide,' Jack cut in.
'Ah, ' Katie snapped. 'I've asked you to listen to me!'
A blush crept onto Jack's clean-shaven cheeks. 'I have,' he rushed to say. 'And I can see your logic. But it's not convincing enough.'
'Then why would she bother to pass these strange messages to me?' Katie said, keeping her voice under as much control as she could muster. Her ears buzzed, her pulse was hammering in her neck. 'I'm sure she knew I was a bit of an amateur detective. Everyone in Sunnyvale knows it. She probably gave me the messages knowing I would do something about them.'
'But why did she make such important messages so difficult to discover?' Jack fired back.
'Remember, she wanted to meet me to show me how to make an origami crane. She clearly wanted me to focus on origami. Maybe all she wanted to do yesterday at lunchtime was to tell me that I should start by unfolding her crane and folding it back again. And obviously, she achieved her goal since I've discovered the messages. See!' Katie fired back, folding her arms. Honestly, Jack should have learnt by now that people in Sunnyvale were a little less logic-driven than he expected them to be.
'Okay,' Jack replied, waving his both hands in the air as if in a gesture of surrender. 'Now, to support your hypothesis, find me this Hamish chap.'
'I assume you've already checked her phone, laptop and anything else?' she asked.
'She only had a handful of contacts saved on her phone, all of them local, and most work-related,' Chris said, scrunching his broad, freckled face. She doesn't seem to have a personal email account, has used her work one, but for work-related purposes only. I've checked her incoming and outgoing mobile connections and found nothing beyond the calls to you and her flatmate over the past month. She obviously answered and made a lot of calls while at work, particularly the last week or so - some of them to people already in the system as repairmen, staff, and regular customers. The numbers we have checked seem to be all business-related. There were a few calls from public pay phones, even locally - but these were likely to be from customers staying at the hotel at the time. Nothing else.'
Katie's heart sank an inch lower.
'Financial problems?' she asked, and her voice came out weaker than she would have wished.
'We've asked the bank to provide her records,' Chris replied.
A lump grew in Katie's throat. 'No other trail?'
Chris shook his head. She shifted her gaze to Jack. He pushed his glasses up his nose.
'Nothing,' Jack said. 'Unless we can dig something up on Hamish. Because without any more evidence I can't move forward. I wish there was a phone number rather than the name on the screenshot.'
The lump expanded. Katie gulped.
'I’ll find out who this Hamish person is,' Katie said solemnly and turned on her heel.
She was going to show them. Oh, yes! She was going to show both of them that evidence and logic were not always the only ways to discovering the truth.
9
Katie booted up her computer, shuffling a pile of documents from one side of her desk to the other. This week, free from afternoon work in the hotel, was meant to be a time to catch-up with some of the paperwork at her police clerk's job. She had the best of intentions to do what she had promised her boss, Inspector Lumley but, unfortunately, she couldn't have predicted another death.
Well, murder, really. Because, unlike Jack and Chris, Katie was convinced Amanda's death was not a suicide. Even if her friend's own finger pulled the trigger, the brain and the body behind it, was not Amanda Jones'.
Had Jack learned anything more from interviewing the hotel owner?
Katie opened the door to the staffroom. Jack must have gone somewhere, but Chris was at his desk, working on his computer.
Not too bad, often, particularly at the beginning of an investigation, Chris was easier to gain information from than Jack.
Katie cleared her throat, trying to keep the pesky lump under control.
'Did you get anything useful from Mr McBride?' she asked.
Chris turned his chair to face her.
'You mean beside the gun? Not much.'
'Any financial trouble with the business?'
'No. He still hasn't paid you?'
Katie shook her head. 'I may need to call him again, but I just don't feel up to it yet,' she added a sigh. Yeah, it was a good idea to pretend she was fishing for information for her own sake. 'When was the last time he spoke to Amanda? If I'm correct, it must have been on Monday morning.'
'Yeah,' Chris reached for his notebook and flipped through a few pages. 'He says it was about some discrepancies he had discovered on Amanda's HR file,' he read out.
Katie blinked. 'What sort of discrepancies?'
'Apparently her passport was expired or was due to expire. He asked her to provide a valid one.'
Katie leant on the doorframe. Things didn't add up. Why did Katie think it was Amanda who requested the meeting and why was she under the impression it was something to do with the hotel books?
'You've found her passport, haven't you?'
'Yes. And to be fair, it does expire soon. It's still valid, but I can see McBride’s point.'
'Why would he even need her passport?' Katie asked, pressing her hand to her stomach. That familiar tugging inside usually indicated a doubt.
'He says he wanted her to travel abroad on business, to a conference or something. There were looking at further expansion or joining a franchise. At least, that's what he claims,' Chris added after a brief pause.
'Do you believe him?'
'We have no grounds to disbelieve him.'
'But your gut feeling...'
'My gut feeling is telling me it's all too smooth.'
'He's a politician, apparently,' Katie added. 'Have you talked to Ellen, his daughter? She's the managing director and very business-like. Sometimes, a little too much.'
'She's overseas, due back tomorrow late afternoon. I've left her a message to get in touch with us on her return.'
Katie tucked a stand of hair behind her ear and suppressed the urge to twirl it. She didn't have enough information to process this yet, but something in McBride’s story didn't add up.
'I wonder what Ellen McBride is going to say about Amanda,' she said slowly. The familiar tugging in her stomach was back. 'I've always had an impression that Ellen didn't like Amanda.'
'Why?'
'Amanda made a comment once, which is quite strange, because Amanda never made comments like that. I always admired her ability to remain professional at all times. And it was only because I heard Ellen being quite brusque with Amanda. After Ellen left, I said something about Ellen not being fair with her, to which Amanda replied it wasn't the first time.'
Chris gave Katie a long look through narrowed eyes.
'Rivalry? Resentment? Bad performance?' he asked after a while.
'Amanda was pretty good at her job. Customers liked her. She was quick, polite, and she knew how to handle unhappy customers.'
'Mostly men?'
'Of course, men liked her because she was pretty, but she had a calming way with overdramatic women, if you know what I mean,' Katie replied on one breath.
Chris nodded. 'Good skill to have when you're working in a service job.'
'Definitely,' Katie added. 'Going b
ack to Mr McBride. If he talked to her on Monday morning, what is he saying she was like? Distressed? Sad? Anything that might have indicated the ... suicide?'
'Good question,' Chris replied and flicked through the pages in his notebook again. 'He said she seemed a little distracted, preoccupied. He put it down to the stress of the preceding days, dealing with a lot of angry and stressed customers and organising the boiler repair. But she was still able to raise her points clearly.'
'Hang on,' Katie interrupted Chris. 'Raise her points? Didn't you say that it was Mr McBride who wanted to talk to Amanda? This reads like it was she who wanted to talk to him, which was also my impression.'
Chris drew his eyebrows together and flipped a page. 'Um... You're right,' he mumbled. 'I didn't quite get it when I was speaking to him. I'm not sure who was the one initiating the conversation. I need to go back to him and clarify this.'
'Good idea,' Katie said, and a snippet of conversation flashed in her mind. 'On Saturday, I told Amanda he hadn't paid me yet and asked if she'd been paid regularly. Amanda told me she had, but she also said something about the hotel records not being right, and that she needed to talk to McBride about it. She said something, which sounded like "I'll teach him how to cook books".'
Chris stared at her. 'That's an odd comment,' he said sharply.
'That's what I thought. She mumbled it more to herself though. I'm not even sure if I heard it properly. I assumed she meant Mr McBride,' Katie explained. 'But I can't be sure,' she rushed to add.
Chris twisted his mouth and scribbled something in his notebook. 'I'll talk to Heaton about re-interviewing McBride. Thanks, Katie!'
Katie's memory ran back over the previous few weeks she’d spent working in the hotel.
'On a similar note, Amanda started doing night audits only last month. It's to do with bookkeeping, making sure all the activities during the day are recorded correctly. It's interesting that Ellen didn't like Amanda and had criticised her work at least a couple of times, but Mr McBride seemed to have a lot of confidence in her,' Katie said slowly. 'He let her do the audits, even though she'd never worked for a hotel before. She did say she'd done bookkeeping in the past though.'