My Ex's Ex

ELEVEN

'What is Mr Fringe's involvement in the death of Lily Plugger?', was James' first thought when he woke up that morning.

They were going to check the security camera recordings of the estate today for some clues. Ordinarily, it should have been one of the first things they should have done but in an estate filled with rich civilians, it took a few days of back and forth before they could legally gain access to it. That was a story for another day, though.

The morning air was chilly and felt like ice in his throat as he inhaled and exhaled. It was 6:30 am, so no one was on the road, James liked to go for his morning jog at this time. Since he had gotten to East Wings, he hadn't gone for a run, and so he was beginning to feel out of shape.

Towards the end of his run, James decided to get breakfast from a small breakfast cafe near his apartment.

"Hello, good morning," James said as he paused the podcast he was listening to on his phone.

"Good morning. Welcome to Tilly's Cafe. What can I get you this morning?"replied the brown-haired lady at the counter.

"Two chicken sandwiches and a cup of coffee please," James replied.

"Okay, sir, how would you like your coffee? "she replied as she bagged the sandwiches in a paper bag.

"With milk and sugar please."

"Alright," she said, then handed James his order, which he paid for and left.

.

As James sat down to eat his meal, a piece of paper fell from the paper bag containing the sandwiches he bought. It was the server's name and number.

'Dazzle. 6778906544. Text me :)'

James was flattered, but he decided not to text her yet because he did not know what to say to her.

********
"Morning. Sorry I'm late, there was traffic, "James said to Charlotte as he walked into her office.

"No problem. Morning. I just got in too, there was traffic, "

"Okay then. Shall we?"

Charlotte nodded and grabbed her coat.

"I didn't get anything to eat. Can we quickly stop at the doughnut place on our way?"Charlotte said as she locked her office door and they made their way to the car.

"Yeah, sure, of course. You don't even need to ask me, "James replied with an awkward chuckle.

"Of course I need to ask you," Charlotte said while laughing.

.

When they got to the estate, it was Mr Grunger on duty, and James felt a little awkward again remembering their last encounter.

"Morning Detectives, what can I do for you?"Mr Grunger said with an impassive face

"We want to take a look at the security cameras around the time of death of Lily Plugger and a few days before it", Charlotte said pulling out the warrant and giving it to Mr Grunger who scanned it for a brief second and returned it to her.

"Also a few days after the murder," James added.

"Alright," Mr Grunger said while moving the mouse, looking through the saved surveillance footage by date, then finally landing on the day Lily Plugger was murdered and then he pressed play.

"Wait, let's start with the time she was murdered. She was found at 11 pm, let's start at 9:30 pm, "James continued.

"Okay," Mr Grunger replied and moved the mouse till it showed 9:30 on the screen.

James and Charlotte inched closer, trying their best to ensure they missed no details
At exactly 10' o clock, they saw a figure walking towards Lily's door.

"Zoom in," Charlotte said, sounding out of breath, either from anxiety or excitement that a lead was forming.

They couldn't see his face as he walked up to her door. He knocked, and it took about a full minute for her to open the door. Once she did, it took everything for James not to gasp out loud. She looked so alive even in the scrambly quality of the CCTV footage.

Lily and the mystery man talked for about 5 minutes outside her door. James held his breath, hoping that the mystery man would turn at least once so they would identify who he was. Although James already had a hunch that he knew who it was.

Finally, Lily walked away leaving the door open for the mystery man to follow and just as James thought they had lost all hope of identifying who the man was, the man turned his face just as he was about to close the door to Lily's house. It was a brief turn, but it was enough time for Mr Grunger to pause it and enough for them to identify that it was Mr Fringe.

At this point, James and Charlotte knew that he had to be arrested. Too much evidence was pointing at him.

They immediately left Mr Grunger's office in a hurry, hastily thanking him on their way out. Charlotte started making a frantic phone call to her dad asking for a warrant for the arrest, and then they made their way to Mr Fringe's office.

Yet, even as they did, James still had this feeling that wouldn't go away.

Thank you for sticking with me up till this chapter. It means a lot to me to see your support.
However, for every chapter, I will now be tagging one of my mutual so that they can give me their review of the chapter and the story so far.

Mutual for the chapter is:
-emology
I look forward to your review💖