Merry Christmas

The Sloan murder

I was relieved by Derek's words. I thought finally I could see him get back to cases.
" Mark Sloan was a business tycoon. On 27.01.16 he was found lying in a pool of blood in his hotel room in LA. His body was found by a hotel staff. He had no living family, only his girlfriend Julia Kenner.
He lived in Detroit but was very rarely in the city. All the servants of the house were present. None of them had seen Mark since almost a year. All of them were very well paid and didn't have any unusual bank account activity.
The only lead here was that Mark had not made any deals with anyone since 6 months. Three days before he died, he updated his will making Julia his only heir. His lawyer said he reviewed or updated his will every year around the same time and it wasn't anything troubling, only it was a month early.
I interrogated Julia. She barely had any idea about Mark's financial activities. She had been to his home in Detroit only once.
No murder weapon, fingerprints, suicide notes or any lead was found at the crime scene. The hotel CCTV did not cover the halls but only the stairs. The last person seen to leave Mark's room was Julia and that was 6 hours before he died."

"Did you check Mark's past account activities for any signs of blackmail?" , I interrupted, trying to find a lead.

"That's precisely what we did next. We called his secretary Catherine and obtained all the information that she had. But there seemed to be no catch, at least initially. Mark had given her a paid leave exactly one year before his murder . On the day of his murder he told Catherine to come to his hotel room at 8:30 pm which was precisely after we were done with the investigation of the crime scene. All the clues from the lawyer and Catherine and Julia were pointing at only one conclusion. But the conclusion posed more questions. Why? How? By whom? My mind was spinning." He paused as if reliving the confusion.
Taking a Deep breath he continued,
"On 17.06.16 , I was sitting outside the house with all the clues and a big sheet of paper. Just then someone..."

Suddenly, out of nowhere someone fired a gun interrupting Derek or maybe causing more damage. I took out my gun to counter attack. I ducked under the wheel. After 3 more rounds of firing, I could finally open my eyes wide . What I saw sent a shiver down my spine.