Chapter 10 #2
Brett pulled out his ID and held it in front of the camera.
Then he waited. And waited. Finally, the door clicked, and he pushed through, entering a large hallway.
How the noise of the household didn’t leak through the windows or doors was beyond him.
They must have had significant soundproofing.
But given those Felix roomed with, it was understandable.
No one would want their conversations recorded, so soundproofing was essential.
There was a reason Windsor Castle had it in some rooms—and not because of the extracurricular activities.
Though most would benefit from that, too.
“What can I do for you?” a guy said, the voice matching the one from the camera. He was Austin Tomlinson, the drummer for a band called The Ports—as in, they had a girl or boy in every port. They’d added the boy part to that recently, because one of the band members had come out as gay.
“As I mentioned, Felix hasn’t returned. It’s unlike him. I wondered if you’d seen him recently?”
Austin shook his head. “I’ve not seen Felix since yesterday. He was already gone when I got up this morning.”
“Do you have any idea of places he might go other than here or work?”
Austin frowned. “Book Drunk? Other than that, I don’t really know.”
That knowledge seemed to irk Austin. As if he hadn’t spent enough time getting to know his housemate. It wasn’t Austin’s fault, though. Felix could keep secrets like the best of them.
“Okay. If he comes back, could you tell him to call me straight away, please?”
“Sure.” Austin paused. “Do you think something had happened to him?”
Yes. “No, he’ll have got waylaid somewhere, I’m sure. He’ll be back soon.” Brett turned to the door. “Thanks for your help.”
“I wasn’t much help, but you’re welcome all the same.”
Climbing into his car, Brett paused, rubbing his forehead. Where was he? Had he become distracted and gone off on an investigation without telling someone? No way would he do that. Not after everything that had happened around there lately. Then something occurred to him.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Brett! Check the fucking CCTV!”
He revved his engine, reversed out of the driveway faster than he should and then sped towards Windsor Castle.
He was a complete idiot and was unworthy of being Head of Security right at that moment.
Stupid rookie move. The first thing he should’ve done was check the CCTV footage, but he was so used to Felix thinking of that option that it hadn’t occurred to him straight away. Fucking imbecile.
The moment he entered Sec HQ, he grabbed his computer and pulled up the feed across the front of the castle, which showed the road where Book Drunk was located.
He rewound it to approximately the time he stormed out of the room, and then slowly fast-forwarded it until he saw Felix, then he rewound it again to where he first stepped into view and let it play at regular speed.
Felix walked down the street, his hands swinging by his side, and looked before he crossed the road.
As he stepped onto the other side, he jumped and jerked his head to the side.
He stopped moving everything except his head, and Brett knew, from previous experience with him, that he was listening for something.
He then turned and walked in the opposite direction of Book Drunk, disappearing around the corner.
He pulled up another camera, which had a better view of the street Felix went down, but it wasn’t brilliant. He zoomed in and watched him walk a few steps before pausing flat against the wall. Then he moved again and disappeared once more.
“Fuck,” he muttered. “What the hell are you playing at?”
He let the camera play, waiting to see Felix come back, but he didn’t. The only thing that came was a car, which drove off again after a few minutes. He had to check the area, but he needed backup.
“Dominic,” he said when he answered the call, “I have Felix’s last whereabouts, and I’m going to check it out. I’m taking Des and Jade with me.”
“Okay. I’ll hold the fort. Where do you think he is?”
“I honestly don’t know. Hopefully, this place will give us more of a clue.” He exhaled. “We don’t need more of this shit, Dominic. I haven’t even had the chance to look into what happened yesterday as much as I wanted to.”
“Don’t worry about that for now. No one died, so it can wait a little longer. Find Felix.”
“I’ll try.”
He hung up and called Des and Jade, arranging to meet them in the car park.
Looking around him, he wasn’t sure what he needed to take with him.
Then he grabbed some evidence bags and some gloves, just in case there was anything along the way that he thought might help.
Heading for the car park, he strode towards Jade, who had already arrived.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
“Felix is missing.”
The colour leached from her face. “He is? Do you know where he is?” She shook her head. “Stupid question. He wouldn’t be missing if you did. What are we doing?”
“Sorry, I’m here,” Des said as he joined them.
“We’re going to Felix’s last whereabouts.” He headed towards the gate.
“Where’s that?” Des asked.
Brett pointed down the road. “Down there.”
He led the way, not giving too much more information to them because he wanted them to see it with fresh eyes. They crossed the road.
“He stopped here for a few minutes and then walked around the corner. I want to scour every inch of the space between here and there to see if there are any clues.”
They searched with a fine-tooth comb, but nothing came up when they got to the wall where Felix paused.
“He went in here. Same thing, you two. Every inch.”
It took them a while because it was a fairly large alley. As they moved deeper, Des called out.
“There seems to be a piece of fabric stuck to the bin here. No idea if it’s relevant, though.”
“Everything is relevant until we rule it out.” Brett went over and put some gloves on before taking a photo with his phone, pulling it free and putting it in a bag.
“Bullet casings,” Jade said.
Brett’s heart missed several beats, but he pushed it aside and put them in another bag. He looked around the walls to see if there were any blood splatters or holes, and he got lucky.
“Can you shine extra light over here?” he asked. Both Des and Jade joined him, using their torches to point to where he indicated. “Two bullet holes but no blood. Why would they shoot the wall?”
“A warning?” Jade suggested.
“Maybe.” He took photos and continued to look around them before pointing at the floor. “Does that look like a footprint in the dust?”
Jade leaned down. “I think so.”
Brett placed his torch next to the potential print and took a photo, using the torch as a rough guide for the size of it. Then he blew out a breath.
“Someone took him,” he stated, certain it was the truth. “We have to find him before…” He swallowed hard and didn’t finish the sentence. There was no other option.
They had to find him.
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