Mysterious Disappearances

It all started in the summer of 2018, with the mysterious disappearance of the two wealthiest men in Seattle.

As written by Seattle Daily, "An unidentified body was found in the apartment of the richest most eligible bachelors in Seattle, The Hudson brothers who at this point are presumed the main suspects in this investigation whose whereabouts are currently unknown.."

The blonde beauty sipped on her morning coffee while reading Seattle Daily, Downing the rest of her liquid drug in one huge gulp, she tied up her long blonde curls into a bun at the top of her head while sighing, two missing billionaires to find and a murder case to solve, just another day at the office.

It has been exactly 24 hours since Grayson and James Hudson have been missing and a dead body has been found in their penthouse. The circumstances around their suspicious sudden disappearance make it even more of a challenge to work on finding their spoiled asses, keeping all information on the down-low has been the biggest challenge thus far. The media are like hungry lions waiting to pounce on any small piece of information.

"Detective Rush, I'd like to have a word with you in my office" The Captain of the Seattle police department had been leaning on the side of my desk while giving me an indescribable look. I gave him a sharp nod and closed up my files which contain all of Hudson's information.

I knocked lightly on the door, making my presence known before stepping in through the semi-opened wooden door. The atmosphere of the office was tense and sat in the office was Captain Braugher along with Lieutenant Jackson. I greeted both of them, "Please have a seat, Jessica" said the Captain in an anxious voice, hearing the tone of his voice had me sitting faster than a blink of an eye.

I directed my attention to the huge whiteboard on the far left wall off the office and on it were pictures of the dead body in the Hudson brothers' apartment, along with pictures of the Hudson men and their staff. Those who were with the Hudson men last before their disappearance were circled blue which meant they will be called in first for questioning and they would be monitored on our radar 24/7, actually everyone who has ever associated themselves with the Hudson men in the last two weeks before their sudden disappearances is on our suspect list.

Everyone is considered a suspect until proven otherwise.

Unknown POV-

I watched as the scene unfolded, the police flooded the entire building, boarding off a few floors. I watched the so-called "hot-shot" detective arrive at the "crime scene". It was a female detective, I guess we don't have much to worry unlike we initially expected, I scoffed.

I dialed my emergency contact, "Dejar saber al jefe, I don't think the cops will be much of an issue" I pulled my hood back up and calmly walked out of the building through the back exit, I switched off the burner phone and threw it into the nearest drain.

Jessica Rush-

My hand was completely enveloped by his much larger ones but his touch had been so gentle, he brought my hand to his lips, placing a tender kiss on my hand "It's a pleasure to meet you, Jessica." He spoke in a low gruff voice that made my heart leap into my throat. "I-"

TRINGGGG! TRINGGGG!!

I was awoken by the horrible shrill of my cell phone, I squinted at the bright light that had been coming from the device created by the devil himself. I groaned loudly in annoyance when I saw the large bold letters spelling out my so-called assistant's name. "Hello? Justin? Do you have a damn death wish!?" No one disturbs my sleep, NO ONE!

"My apologies Detective Rush, Captain Braugher has given me strict instructions to continue calling you until you pick up. He needs you at The Vintage." came Justin's timid voice from the other end of this horrible technological device. What on earth could have happened, I groaned before jumping out of bed and pulling on a pair of jeans, and zipping up my boots. It's going to be a long night...

I parked my car across the main entrance of The Vintage, shaking my head at the crowd and unusual amount of reporters, swarming The Vintage. It's an awfully chilly night although it's the middle of summer, zipping up my black hoodie, I pocketed my keys before pushing through the swarm reporters and entering the large building.

As I had been walking through the entrance, I heard the reporters talking amongst themselves about the mysterious disappearance of the Hudson twins causing my eyes to widen. What the hell? The disappearance of the Hudson twins?

I met Captain Braugher and Lieutenant Jackson in the lobby who I greeted with a sharp nod, before motioning for Justin to follow with a nod of my head, the moment he got closer to me I said to him in all seriousness "Let's walk and talk, brief me on what we know so far and you can leave out the part of the Hudson men being missing, I'm aware of that from what I've heard so far." Damn reporters. I despised them almost as much as I despised being woken up from my sleep, I rolled my eyes before looking over at Justin, Justin was a tall lanky guy, three years my junior, and completely obsessed with murders.

"Rush, it is an extremely high profile case and there's a lot of second-guessing going around, let's face it the Hudson's are not short of enemies. They've been crawling out from the shadows for some time now." there was a brief pause where Justin and I gave each other a knowing look, only a person with our experience would know that a person who is missing, is a person of interest. "If a person has nothing to hide, why would they run?" I said to Justin while raising an arched eyebrow.

"My thoughts exactly Rush, there's blood everywhere. This is definitely your scene" He pushed up his glasses before hitting the button to head up to Hudson's penthouse. I began pulling out my gloves and notebook as we rode the elevator in silence, it was not comfortable, I had to brace myself for the worst.

Their apartment was on the top floor, Justin and I pushed through the rest of the staff and hotel guests who had been peaking into the apartment but were being held back by officers who were boarding certain parts of the apartment using a bright red tape.

I was not prepared for the way Hudson's dining room looked, in the middle of the room their huge glass table had been shattered, there were bloody handprints across the walls. On the far right of the room, there was an unmoving lump covered with a white sheet that had red stains on various parts of it. The room was quite dark due to the lights flickering continuously; I guess it looked like a scene straight out of a horror movie.

I bent towards the body and lifted the white sheet of it, I was greeted by the sight of a man, or what I should be saying is what was left of this man. He had a blunt force trauma to the head and only half of it was left behind, it looked like he had been repeatedly hit by a baseball bat. Jon Doe had deep lacerations across the other side of his face, I'm guessing from when he was thrown onto the glass table.

I removed the white sheet further off his body to reveal a bread knife stuck in the middle of his chest. It didn't even look like a struggle, more like prey being hunted in the most gruesome and brutal manner. It looked like no mercy was given to this man.

The bread knife stuck in Jon doe's chest had an unusual pattern, I grabbed a camera from the nearest person and clicked a few pictures of the design "Email them to me." I said as I was handing the camera back to them. It looked ancient and rare, not the usual bread knives you'd find at our local stores here in Seattle.

I looked up to find a detective watching my every move, it seemed that his one side of the face looked sunken in, similarly, you only see this in people who don't have teeth, which prompted me to look into his mouth, to find that all of his teeth had been pulled out. I sighed loudly and said, "well, here goes our identification route of checking dental records, this body was left in the hopes that no identification will be made!"

Craning my neck to have a look at the coroner who had just arrived on the scene, I recalled working with her once before on another case when I first started as a rookie, Dr. Leslie Adams is an expert in her field and one of the most professional and efficient woman. She looked down at me and stated "Detective Rush you do know that the body you are looking at has been dead for more than 3 days, and also looks as if it was stored in a body freezer before being planted at this scene"

I shook my head and realized that this is getting more intense by the second, "I hadn't realized so Doc, that's the reason we have you here, to help me solve the mystery " I said whilst walking up to her, I held out my hand and gave her hand a firm handshake.

"We need an autopsy done as soon as possible, we might not be able to identify him but we can at least find out the cause of his death, anything that would help us figure out where the Hudson twins are or who has taken them," I said to Dr. Leslie, she looked up from her notepad and gave me a nod. I think the kidnappers jammed the knife in his chest to distract us from something else, something that we would find out from this corpse after all dead men tell no lies.

I looked up to see Justin watching Dr. Leslie instead of investigating the crime scene, I shook my head before slapping both my hands together, Justin was the replica of a deer caught in headlights before he became extremely flustered knowing very well that I had caught him gawking at our doctor over here, in my opinion, Justin didn't stand a chance with Dr. Leslie, I smirked at him before turning my attention back to the crime scene.

The captain walked into the apartment, "Captain" I said while nodding my head, "Detective, I assigned this case to you because I'm well aware of your capabilities, I want these men found before the end of the week." Captain Braugher said in his usual detached tone, the Captain always spoke in a detached tone, never revealing any emotions, I admired that about him. He has always been straightforward and truthful, along with Lieutenant Jackson, who had trained me when I first joined the force.

There had been gun residue near the entrance of the apartment, the forensic team had been all over the apartment, taking samples and notes. The strange thing was that the blood on the walls and the corpse had been fresh, strange considering that Jon Doe over here had been dead for a few days now.

It's one of two things from what I can see, either the blood is fake or from a blood bank, the scuffle to the wall suggests that the Hudson brothers had tried to fight off someone in here. The Hudson brothers are two very large men, they must have put up quite the fight but in the end, could have been outnumbered.

Now, this is starting to look more like a kidnapping rather than a murder and fled the scene.

After the rather unpleasant visit to The Vintage a few hours ago, I had Justin acquire a list of all the people close to the Hudson brothers as well as all the staff who worked at The Vintage and the guests, I turned to face the huge table in the middle of my study glancing at the stacks of files laying upon them after a mere two hours of the kidnapping, I rubbed my temples before diving in.

The first name on the list had been Tristen Michael the Hudson twins, third musketeer. The three men were inseparable since high school that's according to the file I have in front of me.

It was clear that whoever had taken the Hudson brothers and who had been so kind to leave behind the corpse, has access to the hotel without attracting attention which brings us back to Tristen Micheal, who happens to live on the same floor as the Hudson brothers. I read over his file, it appears that Tristen was not only a good friend but also a business partner, in fact, the three men had invested in a number of hotels, restaurants, and nightclubs around Seattle together including The Vintage.

I continued to go through the list and files on all the people who have day-to-day contact with the men throughout the early hours of the morning while nursing my glass of red wine until my alarm went off, 6:30 am already. I decided to close up the last file in my hands and let it drop onto the wood-finished table.

As I looked at my bathroom mirror puffy red eyes looked back at me, I splashed cold water onto my face to help with the puffiness then let my robe drop to the floor as I stepped into the warm abyss of water, I couldn't help as the dreadful question resurfaced, "What if one or both of the men had been badly injured or worse?" a vision of the suite had flashed before my eyes, I wouldn't call myself a pessimist but even without the lab reports, there were no doubts in my mind that the blood in the suite belonged to the Hudson men.

I looked at the pictures of the bread knife while getting ready for work, before doing a quick search on the internet, I realized my guess had been correct, the knife had been ancient, almost 90 years old, and part of a cutlery set. I forwarded the pictures to Justin, telling him to get more information on the knife and where it could have been purchased from.

I packed the files into my work bag and held onto Tristen Micheal's file, if anyone knew the twins better than well each other it would be him so Tristen just turned out to be the main suspect. I called Justin before leaving my apartment briefing him on the list I had e-mailed to him the list of possible witnesses/suspects that we would be calling in today for questioning after we head to The Vintage, to meet with their "security team" to collect the hotel's camera footage among other things. I would have preferred if we received it a couple of hours ago as I had asked, I mentally scoffed at some security team.

"Detective, I brought your usual," said Justin as he handed me my coffee, bless him for knowing my preferences. I gave him a grateful smile as I sipped on my heaven in a cup while we rode the elevator to the fifth floor also known as the management floor, the minute Justin and I had stepped out of the elevator we were greeted by Daniel, Hudson's head of security.

"Good morning, detective and Justin if I recall correctly," said Daniel as he extended his right hand, Justin gave him a brief handshake while I nodded.

"I presume that the footage is ready to be collected for reasons I hope is not lost on you, as I do remember both your employers being taken from this hotel in the middle of the night without alerting any of their so-called bodyguards or security personnel." Daniel lowered his head in what I would assume was a shame then lead us into their security room, every inch of the room was covered with CCTV monitor screens and multiple tables with computers, there was a total of ten men at approximately 8:30 am, which sparked my curiosity.

"Humour me Daniel, is this room always filled with this level of testosterone, or is it just this particular morning?" surely someone would have seen something last night, with this many CCTV cameras, monitors, and men.

"No Detective, there's usually five men during the day and five at night," said Daniel glancing at me from his hunched position over one of the computers, he had been extracting the security footage from two weeks prior to last night as I requested, to pull off something like this it must have taken our kidnappers weeks, maybe months and if we're lucky we might be able to identify someone or something out of the ordinary.

"I need all ten of them to be brought in for questioning later today," I said to Justin and Daniel before walking out of the security room, towards the door that leads to the stairs. On my way up in the elevator I had seen the security camera, now I need to check the staircases.

Sure enough, there were cameras here as well. Which still leaves the million-dollar question unanswered how did they bring in a corpse and drag out two 6'3 footmen out of this damn hotel without anyone realizing it?

"Justin, please stop by the hospital, check with Dr. Adams if the autopsy report is ready," I said to Justin in the elevator on the way down to the lobby, Justin's face lit up at the mention of Dr. Adams, talk about a crush.

Driving back to my apartment went by in a blur, I had been back in my study, going through more files when my phone started to ring "Talk to me, Justin." I said while putting my phone on speaker, "There's an identical cutlery set being sold in an antique store here in Seattle, do you want to check it out or should I go before seeing Dr. Adams." The excitement had been practically dripping from his tone, I wasn't that evil. "I'll stop by, you go straight to the hospital," I said before cutting the call.

I pulled on my leather jacket and grabbed my car keys, loading the location Justin had texted to me onto my GPS, I took off with the hope of this being a lead. I parked outside the small store and glanced through my car window, it had been a small cluttered store, the sign outside had been close to falling down. I jumped out of my car before pulling out my phone, sending Justin a quick text informing him that I was here and he should keep me updated on the autopsy report.

As I entered the store a little bell above my head chimed to alert the owner of a customer, few seconds later an elderly woman appeared, she hobbled towards me with the help of a walking stick.

She gave me a semi toothless smile before welcoming me in "Come in beautiful girl, what can I help you find." I gave the woman a small smile before searching for the picture of the cutlery set on my phone, definitely not one of the bread knives that had been jammed into a corpse, one I had taken from the internet. "I'm looking for a set similar to this one," I said to the elderly woman while showing the picture.

Upon seeing the picture her eyes had immediately lit up in recognition "I have a set exactly like that one but I must warn you, it is very expensive." I immediately wanted to ask her who purchased the bread knife but knew she wouldn't answer unless she made a sale.

She started to walk through the cluttered store towards the back to the kitchen section or what seemed to be like a kitchen section, she had the rest of the set in an old wooden box that had rusty hinges and sure enough, there had been an empty space in the box where the bread knife lay.

"Wow, it is the exact same but there is something missing," I said in an oblivious tone. "Ah, yes the bread knife. A very beautiful woman just like yourself came in a couple of months ago and it caught her eye, she paid a lot of money for the single bread knife." The lady said as she recalled the woman.

"Such a crime to break up a set," I said in an offended tone. "I told her the same thing but she offered a large amount for just the knife, I insisted she take the whole set since she technically bought it but she refused." The elderly woman smiled brightly before saying "Cash or Card?" I internally groaned as I pulled out my wallet while smiling back "Cash."

The second I jumped back into my car, I called Justin "There's a woman involved."