Haunt [Aidan Hunter series book 2] [RE-WRITING]

Chapter 4

POV: Aidan

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Perp's in the building. Go get 'em, tiger.

I raised my eyebrows at Parker's text. It'd been a while since we caught a perp this easily. I had to admit, I was slightly disappointed. I'd expected at least a little more of a challenge.

"Where are you going?" Robert called.

"I'll be back," I replied in a Terminator voice and left the room, heading to the elevators. First I'd get Henry and then we'd search the place together. It wouldn't be too hard to hide.

The elevator arrived with a 'ding!'. The golden doors opened to reveal a mirror splattered with blood and the slumped porter of the body in the middle of the floor next to a discarded gun. Blood pooled around his head.

"Hello there," I muttered, staring at him for a few seconds.

Taking out my phone, I called Henry, telling him I had found our guy. The poor soul had to run six floors, which was hilarious. I kept the button pressed so the doors remained open till he arrived.

He shared the same disappointment I did upon seeing the body.

"Ah Jesus Christ," he groaned. "That was our lead."

It didn't make sense to me why the porter would threaten Amelia and then kill himself. Not that it wasn't a possibility, but somehow, I guessed he wasn't the real mastermind behind all this. There had to be a reason for his suicide. It definitely wasn't because he was afraid of being caught.

"Yes and no," I said.

"The hell does that mean?" said Henry.

"It means, yes, he was the one who called Amelia. But no, he's not the actual criminal." I pondered for a moment, releasing the elevator button without realizing. "Remember the Trickster?"

Henry scoffed. "You really have to bring that up?"

"He used Toby, Dustin and Mary to do his dirty work. They committed murders but they weren't the actual criminals. They were simply pawns."

"You think that's what this is? Somebody used this man to threaten Amelia?"

"I have a gut feeling, and my instincts are never wrong."

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, okay, whatever. It's not uncommon for a criminal to commit suicide after a crime, especially when they're scared of getting caught."

"That may be true, but this guy had a lot of time to disappear from here. Forty minutes, to be exact. He could've escaped. Maybe he was coerced. I don't know, something's off about this."

"Something's always off."

He half-smiled and I returned it. The elevator doors closed and his smile dropped from his face. We exchanged alarmed glances. The people in the lobby would be in for quite a shock.

"Shit," he said.

The two of us dashed towards the fire exit. We nearly stumbled as we raced down the stairwell.

We heard screams as we approached the lobby. People shrieked in horror and backed away from the elevator. Charlie came to see what the commotion was about. Hotel security arrived as well. Some of them went in and stopped the elevator, while others tried controlling the crowd.

"Somebody call 911!" a man yelled.

I took my badge and flashed it to the crowd. "Here we are, thanks for calling us!"

Parker came out of the surveillance room and joined us.

"Oh, great," she said. "Please don't tell me that's—"