Even Heroes Fall

23. Justice

Max left the office to check out the security footage and I was alone for the first time in Marshall's office. I could no longer avoid not looking at where there was still a blood stain on the carpet close to his desk. It felt strange to be back here, in the place where I usually worked. The entire office had been turned upside down. I was not sure I remembered it being like this from the crime scene but then again, all I was able to focus on was the body.

Eyes wide, gaping hole in his chest, arms splayed out, one at an awkward angle....

I crouched down closer to the stain even though it was making me feel sick. My father had been lying close to the desk, the angle of his arm indicated he was pointing to it. The desk was the one thing in the room that had not been flipped over. It was a massive mahogany piece of work that had been in the office before Marshall's time and was fixed to the floor. I remembered it being in the office when Theodore was mayor which made me wonder if the desk had originally belonged to him. I reached underneath to see if I could find anything but there was nothing there.

I sat back on my heels pondering my next move. It would be next to impossible to search through the entire mess looking for something that was not there. And besides, surely Marshall would have done so already, and since I caught him in Theodore's office it suggested whatever Castlemain was looking for Marshall had not found either.

With no other leads I decided to continue my inspection of the desk, unable to shake the image of Theodore lying on the carpet seemingly pointing towards it. I went around the other side where Marshall usually sat. The drawers, like the rest in the room, had been torn out and their contents disposed on the floor. The drawers themselves seem partially smashed up, as the murderer searched for false bottoms.

Whatever he was looking for he knew it would be well hidden. I thought it was likely to be in the desk as it was the only thing in the office from before Marshall's time and therefore explained why Theodore knew it was there.

Theodore had been pointing to the bottom of the desk where the outwards facing side came all the way to the ground and stopped just short. I tucked myself under the desk and tapped it looking for a secret compartment. I found nothing and was about to give up when I slid my fingers underneath the desk again and this time turned them up to feel the base of the desk. Aside from a lot of dust I felt something small and cool taped to the very edge where the overhang was, an almost impossible to reach spot unless you had patience and slim fingers. Luckily I had both. I managed to free whatever it was and when I retracted my hand I saw it was a flash drive.

It nestled in the palm of my hand, dusty from lack of contact. Was this it? Was this what Castlemain had been after or was it coincidence it was there? My head spun with new questions. 

'We need to leave.' As quickly as he had vanished before Max reappeared in the doorway, making me jump so I hit my head on the desk. I scrambled out, shoving the drive into my pocket.

'CCTV has been completely wiped,' he said, striding over to the door, tutting in frustration. 'And I think security heard me when I tripped over a chair so they are on their way up here.'

'You tripped over a chair?' I rubbed my head from where I'd hit it, not sure I had heard what he said correctly.

He scowled looking irritated. 'I move fast sometimes I don't see things in my way.'

I resisted a smile which was threatening to appear, because now was not the time to be laughing at him, although his words amused me. 

'Did you find anything?' he asked me.

'No.' I was not sure why I lied to him at that moment, as we stepped out onto the balcony, rain sluicing down from above and onto our heads. After everything we had been through I had no reason not to trust him and yet there was a part of me that reasoned Theodore had died for whatever was on the drive. At that moment the only person I knew I could fully trust was myself.