Chapter thirty-nine: Ethan Royce
Ethan once again was locked out of his house, his soon to be x-wife tended to do that when he worked late and forgot to call and warn her ahead of time.
Ethan stayed at the office and was surprised when that Ryder kid had come in well into the night with a Brook Fields-Laurence and Hank who was supposed to be well on his way to Arizona for that supposed better job offer. Ethan had had Ava lock the two in separate conference rooms until the morning; he was in no way shape or form to question anyone tonight.
The next morning after his coffee and well deserved nap Ethan had gotten another message from Naveen calling in sick, he couldn’t really question her for it or anything of the sort because she had a lot of days she hadn’t used and she was obviously using them all up now but it still made him curious as to why.
He entered one conference room and had Ava enter the other. He watched Hank from the conference room camera’s as he tried his hardest to escape the room last night, he could now see him through the one sided glass this early morning sound asleep on the floor in a corner. Ethan entered the room and if he could he would have slammed the door but it was the kind of door that closed itself. He made his footsteps heavy as he walked toward the table they were to sit out when the questioning was to begin. Hank was in no rush to get up Ethan could see so he asked one of the other people in the office to get him a glass of cold water knowing his intent at this point was to throw it on him and wake him up that way. As the water landed on Hank he jolted up immediately but made no other moves to get up.
“Join me,” Ethan said as he sat at the conference table with hands folded. Hank rose slowly and took his time getting to the table.
“Why am I here? I mean no disrespect sir but this has to be some kind of mistake,” Hank said respectfully.
“I’m under the impression that no mistakes were made,” Ethan said just as respectfully.
“Now tell me Hank,” he said his name as if he as well questioned it which at this point after everything that that Ryder kid had told him he did indeed question it. “Why aren’t you in Arizona?” he asked curiously.
“I decided to stay instead I was going to make the announcement as soon as I showed up to work today,” Hank answered without hesitation.
“Well needless to say you no longer have that as an alibi. I am correcting in guessing so am I not?”
“Yes sir, you are.”
“Good then let’s rule that out immediately. Tell me Hank, why is it that you decided it important to show up at Ms. Royce’s house uninvited, well into the night at that?”
“I was under the belief that a book of mine was there—”
“You mean this?” Ethan said as he held up the book in question having confiscated it from Brooke Fields-Laurence’s persona. Hank said nothing as he eyed the book of secrets. “I’mma take that as a yes,” Ethan said as he put the book away from Hank’s viewing. “Tell me why exactly this book, which might I add is not yours, was so important to you?” Hank seemed to have lost all formalities as he answered the question.
“Technically it is my book because I was a part of the Whisperer of Night just as much as Aaron was and since he passed away the book should now be in my possession, rightfully of course.”
“Hmm,” Ethan mused as he reviewed the papers that the Ryder kid had given him and the research he had taken the time to look up himself. “I see no Hank Henderson listed anywhere here on the roster for Whisperer of Night participants so what exactly is it you’ve done during the Whisperer of Night tournaments?” Ethan asked as he looked back at Hank.
“I was Aaron’s assistant!” Hank said raising his voice just a bit.
“Were you? Because it says here that a Mr. Richard Masterson was Aaron Fields assistant,” Ethan said with a knowing look on his face. “Are you trying to tell me that this Richard Masterson is actually you?” Ethan asked with a raise of his brow.
“I see what’s going on here and I refuse to say anymore until I get a lawyer,” Hank declared with a simple fold of his arms to show his defiance.
“Fine, you may not be willing to talk but I’m sure someone is,” Ethan said as he grabbed hold of all of his evidence and left the conference room.
Ethan didn’t have to walk far in order to be in the place where Brooke Fields-Laurence was being held. Ava saw Ethan standing in the door way of the conference room and she began to wrap it up. Ethan thought it a great idea to switch as they did because there was a greater possibility of one getting more information out of the suspects than the other—some lies are hard to remember. Once Ava had left Ethan entered the room and took her place in front of Brooke Fields-Laurence. He watched the girl she looked confident and not at all worried. Ethan was well aware of Brooke being Skylar’s friend but he never once spent time with the girl so she was virtually a stranger to him and he intended to treat her like every other suspect.
Ethan pulled out the suspects’ rap sheet and the witness statement that Ryder had given him. Ryder didn’t have much to say about Brooke as he did about “Hank” but there was enough to go on.
“Do you know any of these people?” Ethan asked as he slid the pieces of papers toward her to view. Brooke didn’t even pretend to view the papers he had slid in front of her, her eyes never once left the door since he had come in here. “Ok so obviously we’re going to have to get straight to the point with you,” he declared causing her to look over in his direction for the first time since he had sat down. “These whisperers here have gone missing and it has come to my awareness that you have been taking them, draining them and dumping them, are those accusations true Ms. Fields-Laurence?” Brooke continued to say nothing. “I don’t have time to waste Ms. Fields-Laurence now if you have anything to say in regards to these accusations now is the time to say them otherwise we’ll be forced to take matters into our own very capable hands.” It hadn’t escaped Ethan’s notice that there were tears shimmering in Brooke’s eyes, he didn’t know what had caused them but she wasn’t acting as if she was being questioned for a murder. Something was…off about her.