The stairs

Chapter 16

It took the three of them about ten minutes to get there. The crowd at the entrance was visible from quite far away.

They joined the crowd. Lex spotted a friend in the crowd immediately, and asked him what was going on.

"Someone was stabbed again," he answered, "some were saying it's the same guy who was arrested yesterday, but I didn't see him, so..."

"Is he okay?" asked Cassie.

Not that she cared, but if he was faking being stabbed, he'd try to avoid being fatally injured.

"He was dead when he was found."

No, it couldn't be Robin. He was the killer. There was no reason anyone would stab him. If his 'power' was derived from him being the son of a powerful government official, killing him would make no sense. It wouldn't be a coup. No, the personal responsible would be in a lot of trouble.

Cassie called Clark. She immediately sent a policeman to fetch the three of them.

This time, too, the body was on the stairs, between the first and ground floors. There was a trail of blood down to the ground floor. The body was on the upper section of the stairs, apparently, because they couldn't see it from the ground floor.

"The victim is Robin," said Clark.

She was leading them to the stairs on the other side of the dorm, probably in order to get to the ground floor.

"We heard," said Lex, "Are you sure it's Robin?"

"I've been interrogating the guy for the past 24 hours, pretty much. I'm positive," said Clark, "Any ideas about why he'd be killed?"

Cassie looked at Lex and Phillip. The two of them seemed to be as lost as she was.

"I see. This is a bit of a problem. Now we have three murders on our hands, and our prime suspect for the second is dead."

"For the second?" asked Cassie, "what about the first?"

"He was the most likely suspect for that, too," said Clark, "I thought it was the boyfriend the first time - that would make sense, statistically. And then, he was killed, and Robin was the most likely candidate. Now he's dead."

"I never suspected Mark," said Cassie, "yes, him trying to contact you could be misdirection, but the way he said it - he was sincere. It sounded like he believed he had something with a bearing on the case..."

Lex looked up suddenly. "Wait, did you find whatever he was trying to..."

"No. We searched Robin and his dorm room. We didn't find anything."

"Then maybe Robin didn't take it," said Phillip, "if it was someone else..."

They had climbed to the first floor, and walked to the landing at the top of the staircase where Robin had been killed. Cassie noticed the blood spatter on the walls - it had been a violent stabbing.

The body was covered with a sheet. But there were several trails of blood splatter as the knife was repeatedly pulled out. Cassie counted them almost instinctively - one, two, three - he had been stabbed at least thrice, and it was difficult to see if there were more trails. According what Cassie had read, that could indicate strong feelings towards the victim.

What sort of strong feeling could it be?

And then, it clicked.

"We need to find Rosa, now."

"You suspect her?" asked Clark.

"She doesn't have a reason to live anymore."

Clark stared at her for a second. "Where's she?"

"Her room's in dorm B1," said Lex.

Clark dragged a random officer from the scene, and the five of them ran for dorm B1. It was about a hundred metres away.

"Second floor," said Phillip, as the entered the building.

Cassie and Detective Clark reached the floor first. Cassie was briefly confused about which room it was, but Lex remembered it. He ran for the door, and knocked.

No response.

Detective Clark knocked more insistently. No response.

The officer who had followed them ran downstairs again, possibly to find a security guard so that he could get the keys. Cassie knew it would take ten minutes at the very least. If she was right, Rosa wouldn't have that much time. In fact, they could be too late already.

Then they heard a phone ring inside. Cassie looked at Phillip. He was trying to call Rosa. Cassie looked at the lock. It was a simple enough lock. Theoretically, she could unlock it with her hairpins, but she hadn't tried picking a lock before. She could lose a lot of time trying to figure out how it worked in reality. Instead, she knocked on the door.

They could hear her phone ringing inside.

"Rosa, it's me, Cassie, open up! I need to talk to you!"

Phillip's call was cut from Rosa's end.

Cassie knocked on the door again. "Robin's dead. He may have talked his way out, but he's dead now. You're safe. You can come out. Everything's okay."

Probably not the best thing to say, thought Cassie, but was there an ideal thing to say in a situation like this? Rosa was a danger to herself.

Phillip tried calling again. The phone started ringing again. And then the ringing stopped.

Cassie looked at Phillip, and he understood - keep trying to call.

"Look, open the door. We might be able to help you if you let us," said Cassie.

No response. The phone started ringing again. This time, Rosa answered.

"Hey, it's me, Phillip. Look, we're just outside, me, Lex, and Cassie. Open the door. We want to talk to you."

They didn't hear Rosa's reply.

"Um, no, no, they're in Robin's dorm. It's just the three of us. Can we come in?"

Detective Clark moved out of sight of the door. The other officer was nowhere to be found.

"It really is just the three of us. Look, let us in, we'll talk, and figure something out. Just let us in. We can talk."

The door was unlocked from the inside.