Fear engulfed me with every step I took. I was scared, because I wasn t sure that this plan would work. When I arrived at Room 320, I reached in my pocket and pulled out the key which I had stolen from the front desk of the hotel lobby. As I inserted the key I heard a voice coming from the end of the hallway, so I had to act quickly. I rushed into the room looking for a place to hide for surely he would be back soon. The closet was the only logical place to hide, so, I dashed into the closet just as the door opened. I could faintly hear him speaking to himself. His speech sounded slurred. I assumed he was drunk, because he was known to be a heavy drinker.
After an hour of sitting in the closet , all seemed fairly quiet. I figured that he was either asleep or that he had passed out. Ever so slowly, I began to open the closet door and crawled out into the darkened hotel room. I reached for a small flashlight in my back pocket and instantly turned it on. Hastily, I started my search for the envelope. I quietly looked through the drawers near the bed. In the first drawer was a gun and a single bullet. In the second drawer was the envelope, so I looked inside and found the money. Suddenly, I heard a noise and knew it was him. Chad had awakened, as I frantically tried to hide. However, it was too late for he saw me. I suddenly realized that the first drawer was still open. As I began to reach for the gun, a tall man in a black outfit burst through the door.
I then threw the gun at him as he came through the door. As he fumbled around trying to catch it, I slipped out of the room. I ran to the elevator. When I got on the elevator I felt a little safer. I pressed the button to go to the lobby. When the elevator stopped, I waited for the doors to open. The doors opened, and a tall Caucasian male jumped in and pushed me back in with him. He was dark-headed and well built. He said, Hi, I m Sergeant O Malley, NYPD. I had a feeling he knew something was going on, but he said nothing more. He pressed the button to go to the third floor. Quietly, I stood there, hoping he wasn t there for me. As the doors opened onto the third floor, there it was. Chad s body was on the floor at the opening of the elevator. He was dead, and I noticed the envelope in his pocket.
O Malley pulled out his gun and headed down the hall. I followed him and was careful not to touch anything. I saw the envelope and resisted the temptation to grab it. I knew it was valuable, concrete evidence that would play a major role in this murder mystery.
Sergeant O Malley reached Room 320 and found the door wide open. Hotel security was already there and informed O Malley that there had been a struggle of some sort. He was also told by ambulance personnel that the coroner was on his way. Reporters had reached the scene and were snapping pictures. The Live Eye from Channel 6 had been set up, too.
O Malley left the room and pulled out his small notebook. He pushed his way through the onlookers near the elevator. He ordered the reporters to leave, and they did so reluctantly. I finished answering a few questions and watched O Malley begin his work. It looked like Chad Wisner had sustained numerous bullet wounds to the chest. My heart skipped many beats as O Malley took the envelope from Chad s pocket. He looked inside and found twenty, 1,000-dollar bills. He carefully put the contents in a ziplock bag.
After the coroner made his reports, the body was taken away for an autopsy. O Malley then decided to examine the room more thoroughly. He had the police escort me to the police station, and he continued on his way. At the entrance of the room, O Malley bent down and observed some footprints made of fresh mud on the carpet. He ordered the forensic expert to take pictures and samples of the footprints. He willfully did as he was told.
O Malley entered the room and surveyed the area. An open drawer near the bed caught his eye. In it, he found a single bullet and added it to his ziplock bag. He was slowly beginning to assimilate the events that had transpired that evening.
O Malley then left the room and made his way down to the lobby. He told one of the police officers that he needed to see me. Then he went to the police station where I was being questioned. I suspected that the police could think I was the murderer. After all, Sergeant O Malley had seen me coming from the elevator shortly after I had broken into Chad s room. I stuck to the story that I had come from my room on the fourth floor and left to go down to the lobby. I then heard the door open, it was O Malley.
O Malley came in with a confident look on his face. He looked at me and said he thought he knew exactly what had happened. I was stunned but skeptical that he would know. He asked me if I had been gambling last night. In a nervous tone I said yes. He then told me what he thought had happened to Chad. You were gambling last night at the casino across the street. You saw Chad playing poker. You had brought a good bit of money with which to gamble. As the night went on you realized that you had lost everything. You were frustrated and decided to leave. You heard Chad screaming that he had won. As you were leaving, you saw him cash in $20,000 in chips. You were jealous. You went back to the bar to have a drink. Suddenly, the idea came to you that you could steal Chad s winnings. You went over to the lobby desk and stole a key. Then you went up to Chad s room to look for the money. You couldn t find it, but you found a gun in one of the drawers. Someone in a black suit came in and surprised you. You opened the chamber of the gun and didn t see a bullet. Chad went to jump on the man in black, and out of fright you threw the gun. You ran out and took the elevator down where you met me. I told him that for the most part he was right. He went on, You saw there was no bullet in the gun but there was. That pistol had five rounds in the magazine. When you opened the chamber it appeared empty, but when it closed a round was loaded in the gun. You threw the gun, and the man in black caught it. That s when you ran out of the room and bumped into me in the elevator. By this time, Chad had been shot in the chest three times by the man in the black suit.
By the way, what did you say your name was, asked Sergeant O Malley. It s Tony Roberts, I replied. Just one more thing, asked Tony, How did you know all of this? Well, what you didn t know, was that Chad Wisner was a new and upcoming movie star. He had many fans, but one of them started stalking Chad on a regular basis. Chad then hired and individual for police protection, and that person was me. Chad had just finished making a movie in Hollywood which lasted six months. He then decided to take a trip to Las Vegas for some gambling and relaxation. The first night of his trip he did some big gambling at the casino. This is the night in which you had seen him win 20,000 dollars, what you didn t know was that the man in black was following Chad around all evening. It turns out that this was the stalker, who had been obsessed with Chad. He had followed him all the way to Vegas and had planned to kill him. When you were up in Chad s room, the stalker obviously was getting ready to attack him. You just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even though you should not have been there in the first place, I think under the circumstances, I will let you off lightly. I will definitely schedule you to perform community service work for a period of six months. I m counting on you learning a valuable lesson from this unfortunate incident.