What happened to Jim?

All characters in this story are fictional and any that engage in sexual activity are over the age of 18. I hope you enjoy reading it!

At the conclusion to While You Were Sleeping, many readers asked the question, "What happened to Jim?" At the time, I had every intention of leaving that question up to the readers' imagination. At some reader suggestions, I decided to have a little bit of fun, and make a mystery story out of it. This story could stand on its own, but it compliments that other series so if you want more context for this story, you should read that series first. There is not a lot of sex in this one, so you have been warned.

A huge thank you to my editor Guinahart for making this much easier to read. Enjoy!

********

Margie was working a double-shift at the dispatch center. Her friend Beth wanted a night out with her husband, so Margie agreed to take her shift for her. Dang she was getting tired. At least it was a Sunday; the call volume was lighter most Sundays.

"About time for another cup of coffee, huh?" she asked herself, out loud.

She got up, and before she could leave her desk, the phone rang. Shit, so much for that coffee. She sat down and put the headset on to take the call.

"Nine-One-One, what's your emergency?" she asked.

"Hi, I'm the manager at the Motel 6 in Schiller Park, on Lawrence Avenue. Someone here has been shot!"

"OK, Sir, I'm going to dispatch the police right now. Can you stay calm and tell me what happened? Is there someone still shooting?" she asked, as she was typing notes. She also sent a page for police dispatch to the address she found for the Motel 6. The Chicago PD automated dispatch system responded with an ETA of about four minutes.

"I don't think so. One of my housekeepers came running into the office screaming that someone in room 203 was shot, and she saw a lot of blood everywhere," Mark answered the dispatcher.

"OK Sir, I have dispatched the police and medical. They should get there in just a couple of minutes. Can you tell me anything about the person that was shot?" asked the dispatcher, calmly.

"I haven't gone up there yet, but my staff said there was a lot of blood and the guy wasn't moving. My name is Mark by the way, Mark Howard. What should we do now?" he asked.

"Sir, do you know if the shooter is still in the hotel? You should stay in your office, and tell your staff to stay put until the police arrive," she advised.

"OK, we can do that. I hear the sirens now," he said nervously. The stress of the situation was starting to rattle his nerves.

"OK Sir, once the police arrive, let them make sure the shooter is gone and it's safe to come out. Once they do that, I will let you go, so you can talk with them," Margie said with a comforting tone. She could tell he was probably in shock, and needed to stay calm.

A few minutes later the cops did arrive, and she let the manager off the phone. She ended it by saying, "I am glad you're safe, and you should be in really good hands now."

He thanked her and hung up. Two of the officers that arrived came into the office, while others were out in the parking lot. The two that came in were a man and woman, and couldn't be any more different in appearance. The man was a tall, skinny looking guy, and his partner was a shorter, medium build woman. Both looked to be in their mid-thirties and had serious expressions on their faces.

Mark was standing behind the counter when they came in. They walked right up to it and introduced themselves.

The man said, "I am Officer Smith, and this here is my partner Officer Dunleavey. I know it's getting late, but we are here to help. Are you ok? Have you been hurt at all?"

"No, I am ok, just a bit creeped out," he replied, still shaking a little.

Smith radioed someone, asking for an all-clear. Apparently getting a positive response, he asked, "Can you take us to the room?"

"Sure, follow me." Mark grabbed the master door key card and went out the door.

He led them down the sidewalk several rooms until they got to the stairs at the end of the building, and went up to the second floor. This floor had a balcony that overlooked the parking lot. He led them down two rooms until they got to room 203. The door was shut at this point so he gave the officer the card key to open it.

The shorter officer put on some gloves, slid the keycard into the slot and opened the door slowly. Once it was cracked, Smith opened it with his weapon drawn. He scanned side to side in the room, making sure no one was waiting for them with a gun. He ran in to quickly check the bathroom, but no one was there. While he was checking the room, Dunleavey put her fingers on the man's neck, checking for a pulse but finding none. The body was already getting cold at this point.

He came back out and they both asked Mark to stay outside the door for a minute. Smith clicked on his shoulder-mic and requested the Medical Examiner, as well as the CSI team, to come out and help process the scene. Lastly he reported that the suspect was still on the loose, details about the shooter were coming after gathering evidence. He looked around at the room and waved his partner over.

"I just radioed in for the M.E. as well as CSI. Why don't you go out and see if anyone in the rooms heard or saw anything, and I will get this scene under control," Smith said.

"OK, but next time I get the easy job, while you go door-to-door," she grinned at him. It was normal for them to take turns like this.

Dunleavey left the room to go to the next room down, and knocked loudly on the door. Smith stood at the door to room 203, and asked the manager to go get the staff assembled in his office. They would meet them down there in a minute. He waved over another officer that was standing on the balcony, and told him to guard the door until CSI arrived.

When the CSI team arrived, they did a thorough examination of the room, as well as the victim's car down in the parking lot. What they found was both very informative and confusing at the same time. This scene was very complicated. By this time Dunleavey had completed questioning the people in rooms near their crime scene, so she and Smith watched the CSI team work.

First off, the room was a mess. They found that his suitcase had been dumped out on the floor, next to the double-bed. They found the victim's wallet sitting open on the desk, face down. They pulled out his driver's license, and identified him as Mr. Jim Harding. The wallet had no cash or credit cards inside, and several other miscellaneous pictures and items were scattered on the desk around it.

The victim, Jim, had three GSW's, or Gun Shot Wounds. He had been hit in the head, the chest, and the inside of his right thigh near the groin. The lack of blood splatter on the wall behind him suggested that he was shot in the head lying down. The pillow under his head had some blood soaked in, but the majority of his blood was all over the sheets under his leg, and on his abdomen. All three of the wounds were small, suggesting a small caliber weapon was used to shoot him. The Medical Examiner gave them the time of death, around six PM that evening.

They found that he was bound by duct tape. His feet and hands were taped together, along with a strip covering his mouth. The tape over his mouth would have kept any screaming, or yelling, pretty well muffled. The body had signs of a beating, but not fresh. It looked like he had gotten into a fight a few days prior. His face had some bruises along both sides of the jaw, and a small cut under his left eye socket that had already started to heal over.

Looking around the bed, the sheets were tossed around and half off the bed. Aside from the blood, the only fluids found were some urine and feces, as a result of his death. The room stunk so bad, that they had the door and window open to try to air it out.

"God I hate dead bodies," said Smith.

"No shit, they always smell like a fuckin' barn," replied Dunleavey. "When I go, I want to be cremated. I want a little bit of dignity, even after I'm gone."

On the table, there were two wine glasses next to a tall bottle of a cheap white wine, the kind you can get at a gas station. The glasses had been dusted, and one set of prints were found on one. The other glass had no prints, but did have what looked like a lipstick impression of someone's lips on the rim. The glasses were bagged up and would be sent to the lab for processing.

"And here I half expected it to be boxed wine," snickered Dunleavey.

The CSI guys just looked at her, shaking their heads, and continued their examination of the room. The shower tub was still wet, as if it had been used recently. They found a few brown hairs collected in the drain, which they bagged. As they were collecting the hair, a small amount of blood was also found around the drain. The towel on the floor was found damp, as if used to dry someone off. They found some hair in the sink that was short, and looked like it had been shaved from a man's face.

The officers left the room in the capable hands of their CSI team, and went to the office to question the staff and guests that had been rounded up. When they got there, the first thing they asked was to see the hotel security footage from the last twenty four hours.

It took them at least an hour to review the footage, fast-forwarding and rewinding to make sure they saw enough. The hallway camera caught Jim when he entered the room, earlier in the evening. He arrived, left for about an hour, and came back with a left-over box of food.

A few minutes after he closed the door, another person went to his room. The person looked to be about 5' 6", and was wearing full a full sleeved coat and gloves. The camera only caught long brown hair and a slender build, but no shot of the face. Either that person knew to not look at the camera, or just got lucky. The time-stamp on the video was about an hour before the time the M.E. had estimated his death.

They fast-forwarded about an hour worth of nothing happening, then hit play. The door to that room opened, and the same slim, brown haired person left the room. Whoever it was, they ducked quickly down the stairs, and ran out to the parking lot. The person looked like a woman, but without a face shot on camera, they couldn't be certain.

A security camera on the building across the street picked up the shadows of the suspect, which ran across the parking lot to a waiting taxi cab. The suspect got in the cab, and it drove off.

The room was registered to Jim Harding, with no one else on the registration. The hotel phone records show that his room made an out-going call about two hours before the time of death, and a single incoming call about an hour after the first call. Both calls were to a pre-paid, unregistered TracPhone number. Some people called these "burner phones" because the person who owned them didn't have to have an account or registered address to use it. The phone had been found, out in the parking lot, where the cab had picked up their suspect. They bagged it for the lab, but at the scene, dusting showed no prints on it.

They questioned the hotel staff that was working that night. It really amounted to two housekeepers, the front desk guy, and the manager. It was the night shift after all. The two housekeepers couldn't be further apart in appearance. The first one was skinny and very dark skinned, while the second was a bit taller, and looked like she hit the gym pretty often. The front desk guy looked young enough to still be in high school, and the manager was a balding man, in his late forty's.

After a short huddle, Officer Smith took the first housekeeper, and Dunleavey took the other. The one Smith interviewed, said she heard the gunshots, but was on the other end of the hotel. At the time, she had thought they were fireworks. Apparently kids light them off in the empty lot beyond the parking lot quite often. She didn't see anything suspicious and only knew something had happened when her manager called her on her radio, to come to the office in a hurry.

Dunleavey had a little more luck. She was talking with the other housekeeper, who had been the one to see the suspect after hearing the gunshots.

"Can you describe what you heard, and saw, Miss?" the officer asked.

The housekeeper was quiet for a second, then cleared her throat and said, "I heard some really loud pops, almost like party poppers, but much louder. I was cleaning a room down the hall, when I heard those noises. I stopped, ran out to the balcony, and saw what I thought was a brown haired woman, leaving the room. She turned, ran down the stairs very quickly, and ran out to a waiting cab. I went down to the room," here she paused. She looked like she was going to gag, and swallowed.

"I saw the guy and all the blood...and freaked out. I ran as fast as I could to the office, to get the manager to call you guys."

"Could you describe the noises you heard?" asked Dunleavey.

"Well the first one shocked me, and then a few seconds later, I heard the second shot. At that time, I was worried that I could be next. When I stopped what I was cleaning, I dropped to the floor, and crawled behind the bed. About a minute later I heard the last shot. After that I didn't hear anything for a minute, so that's when I went out to the balcony, and saw what I saw."

The officer thanked her for her time, and went to meet her partner back in the lobby. They quickly chatted again, and decided that Smith would take the manager, and his partner would take the front desk teen. The front desk guy, and the manager couldn't tell them much more than they already knew.

After they finished the questioning, they went home to go to bed. Both had some pretty unhappy spouses, but they knew what they were getting into by marrying cops.

The next morning was Monday. They met for coffee before heading over to the taxi company. They checked and found the cab that had made the pickup. Apparently it was a call-ahead, where the rider calls ahead and pre-arranges the pickup. The call came in to the cab company about 40 minutes before Jim's estimated time of death. They were able to question the driver, but he didn't know much. He said it looked like a woman, but he didn't get a good look at her face. She paid cash, and left him a ten dollar tip. These cabs didn't have cameras installed yet. Unfortunately, that was scheduled for next month. The driver told them that she had asked to be dropped off at the Mall, at the parking garage entrance.

They checked with the mall security, and found that only one camera faced the parking garage where they could clearly see the suspect. They were calling her "the brown haired woman" at this point. She got out of the cab, walked towards the garage entrance, and up the stairs to one of the upper garage levels. They checked the cameras on both second and third floors, but did not see her at all.

Smith and Dunleavey took a break, and had lunch at the mall. Once they were done, they went to Jim's workplace to question everyone that knew him. Maybe he had some enemies, which would really help narrow down their suspect list.

They got to his office and found it was a very small insurance agency. They only had to question two people, Mary the assistant and the owner, Jim's uncle.

Officer Smith started by asking the receptionist some questions first. "So Mary, do you know if Jim had anyone that would want to hurt him, anyone that might have threatened him in any way?"

"Officer, he was kind of a horn-dog, but he wasn't a fighter either. He had a lot of dates, but he was single, so I never really judged him for it." At this last comment, the uncle gave her an angry glance. Apparently he wasn't happy that she was talking about his dead nephew that way. "I'm sorry Todd, but I'm not going to lie. I will say that he was always professional around me, not trying to hit on me or anything like that. He was sweet, and used to get me coffee sometimes on the way into the office."

"Thank you for being honest. We really aren't here to judge his character. We are trying to solve his murder. Mr. Harding, do you know of anyone that might have been upset with your nephew?" Dunleavey asked.

"No, not at all. My nephew was very good with the ladies, but I didn't know anyone that would want to hurt him. He had a few friends, and was bringing in a lot of new customers. He was helping me expand into the consumer markets more. You see, I used to primarily only deal with corporate customers, until he got out of college and joined me. He was the one that suggested we should expand our business to include consumers."

You could see the look of pride on his face as he spoke of his nephew. He got a faraway look for another minute, and then got a grim looking expression. "I expect you guys to find out who did this. My Nephew didn't deserve to die. He had a long life ahead of him, and he was the closest thing I had to a child of my own."

Smith piped up again, "Who were the people that came to visit him this week? Do you have a list of the customers he dealt with very recently?"

"Sure, I could look that up. I know his friend Matt visited him a few days ago, and that one of his previous girlfriends, Marie Williams, also stopped by," Mary answered.

She was looking up his schedule from the last week, as they asked Jim's uncle a few more questions about his role at the agency. She printed off the list, and handed it to the officers.

"So, according to this, he was either visited by, or had appointments with these people?" asked Dunleavey.

"Yes that's correct. One other thing, on Friday when his friend Matt visited, Jim left to get coffee with him, and went home afterwards. He called me to tell me that he wasn't feeling well, and he would be in on Monday, well...today. I'm not sure how relevant that is, but it just struck me as a little odd."

"How was that odd?"

"He almost never left early for the day. He was quite the workaholic during the day."

Dunleavey turned to Smith, and read off the names aloud. "Marie Williams, and Ted Smith, were both in during the week for policy changes. Tom and Beth Wilson were scheduled for a Monday morning appointment, and a Selena Marsh was in last Tuesday. Thank you Mary."

As they were getting ready to leave, Todd asked them to step into his office for a minute. "Look, I know this might sound bad, but my nephew did date a few married women. He wasn't a bad guy; he just picked the wrong girls all the time. Lately, he had been seeing that single lady, Selena, but also had gone out with a couple of married ones. He didn't tell me all of their names, but I think Marie Williams was one of them. Oh, that Beth Wilson might have been another. Anyhow, I hope this helps," he finished.

"Why didn't you mention this earlier?" asked Smith, angrily.

"Officer, Mary didn't know any of this about my nephew, and I really didn't want to upset her. She is like the glue around here, and I can't afford to have her come undone right now. I wasn't planning on hiding it from you."

The officers shared a look, knowing how ugly things could get when married people have affairs. They thanked him, and left a card to get a hold of them if he thought of anything else. They would question everyone on the list that the receptionist gave them, as well as Jim's parents.

On the ride over to the first on the list, the two didn't have much to say to each other. I think they both were wondering, what if? What if it had been one of their spouses cheating on them? How would they react to that? Both trusted their spouses, but still it was enough to make them wonder.

First on the list was Ted Smith. Ted explained he was in to add a new home-owners policy to his account. He just bought a new house for his fiancé, as they were planning to move in together and he wanted to surprise her. His fiancé was about the same height as the woman in the video, but quite a bit heavier looking. Outside of the agency, they never saw or hung out with Jim. The officers left a card with them, just in case. That seemed to be a dead end.