Dutch Herrington looked every bit of the rich and successful man he was. The apartment above the 83^rd floor suite was just as intricately designed and had apparently been overseen by Dutch himself. The hotel owner was dressed in a three-piece suit Rico was sure hadn’t been pulled off a sales rack, fitting his broad shoulders comfortably. There was an air of dignity and refinement around the man as he prepared a teapot of boiling water.

“I’ll admit, Detective, I had been wondering when you would find your way to me,” Dutch began as he fiddled with the stovetop.

Rico sat on one of the stools which lined the tall bar. “I hope you haven’t been waiting too long, Mr. Herrington. I’ve been circling the pool of evidence we’ve built so far and have only just reached the point where I need to speak to you personally.”

Dutch nodded, glancing over his shoulder to where Jett sat. “And you’ve brought Mr. Richards with you. Mr. Richards, a pleasure to see you again.”

Jett grinned. “You know me, Dutch, I’ve always got to be involved somehow. I love the attention.”

Dutch opened a cabinet, pulling out a couple metal containers. “I would certainly hope you do, considering all the showboating you do on stage.”

Rico fought to not roll his eyes. “Mr. Richards has been brought onto the case as a consultant.”

“Because of the way the crime was done, or because Mr. Trentwood was a producer who specialized in magicians?” Dutch asked.

“Considering the difficulty of the manner of the crime, a skilled magician could be of great assistance. We’ve already pored over the room with a few ideas in mind, and now we’ve moved onto the next one. Namely, we need to know the possibility of the camera in the room having been tampered with,” Rico explained.

Dutch shook his head. “If it were the older security system, I would be willing to relent and say it was very possible the camera or recording had been tampered with. However, I personally oversaw the refinements of the security system after I became co-owner of Hotel Opulence. Just about every system in the hotel, casino, and theater was replaced with the newest hardware and software I could find.”

“Even the best equipment can be fooled,” Jett pointed out.

Dutch began spooning out loose leaves into a nearby container as the teapot began to steam. “True, which is why I was very particular about the system I chose to bring in for our security. Every second of the feed through one of the cameras is heavily encrypted and then broadcasted directly to three separate facilities in the country, where they are stored with hash checks on their own secure server.”

It certainly sounded fancy enough, but Rico asked, “What does it all mean?”

“I could certainly explain it completely to you, but the short version is, the footage you’ve seen is one-hundred percent genuine,” Dutch told him, pulling the kettle off of the stovetop when it whistled sharply.

“And the chances of it somehow having been manipulated?” Rico asked.

Dutch turned after pouring the boiling water into the container filled with dried leaves and herbs, plucking a thick tablet off the counter next to him, “I can see you’re not a man easily dissuaded.”

“I believe it’s called being stubborn,” Rico said with a laugh.

Dutch smirked. “Don’t worry. Charlie would say the same of me but I prefer to call it dedication. It’s something I can admire in someone else, especially in your line of work. I’m much the same when it comes to the security of this property, and even with all the assurances I’ve given you, which were given to me, I brought another level of security into the mix. After having everything set up, I also got my hands on a program which could take a piece of footage and evaluate it intimately. It scans whatever footage you give it, to detect even the faintest sign of tampering, in the recording proper or in the camera itself.”

Jett snorted. “And people say I’m paranoid about the safety nets I put in.”

Rico nodded in approval. “The security system is the safety net. This program of his sounds more like hiring someone to watch the net and make sure its secure.”

Dutch nodded, flashing the tablet toward them. “It took quite some time, as it’s incredibly thorough, but here are the results of the evaluation it ran.”

Rico scanned the screen, not understanding most of what he read, but one part stuck out clearly, “99.99% integrity confirmed.”

Dutch nodded, turning the tablet back to himself. “I ran the footage from when Mr. Trentwood entered the room the first time, several hours before his death, up until the moment Miss Chambers entered. It’s good you waited so long to come and see me, as the scan took until this morning to finish, but it was quite thorough. The remaining .01% is simply a shortening of the true number, the 9’s actually extend much further and is simply the scientific consideration for even the smallest chance of failure.”

“In short, there’s no way anything is wrong with the footage and we are seeing exactly what happened as it happened,” Rico said with a disappointed sigh.

“Yes, Detective. I’m sorry, I know it doesn’t help you,” Dutch said with a small hint of regret.

It eliminated a possible avenue but left no others to work with. He could see the flash of disappointment on Jett’s face, but Rico kept this to himself.

“You should only be proud you have such a reliable and trustworthy system in place,” Rico assured him.

Dutch poured the tea into different mugs with a chuckle. “I certainly hope so—the system was not a cheap one.”

“I don’t think anything in the hotel is cheap,” Jett said with a snort.

Dutch set the mugs before them. “Which is precisely why we are so well-regarded. I have no intention of letting our reputation slip simply because cutting a corner or two would be cheaper.”

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of the doors leading into the apartment opening and closing. A man, shorter than everyone else in the room and with a shock of vibrantly red hair, entered with the swish of plastic bags beneath his arm. When he spotted the three men around the bar, he hesitated.

Dutch cocked his head, fingers tightening around his mug. “You’re home earlier than I expected. Detective, this is my fiancé, Charlie Cooper. Charlie, this is Detective Hernandez, who’s overseeing the investigation into the unfortunate death of Mr. Trentwood.”

Charlie smiled nodding to Rico. “A pleasure, Detective, and I see you brought Jett with you.”

Jett waved over Rico’s shoulder. “Hey Charlie, how’s school going?”

Charlie winced, continuing his walk to the bar to set the bags down. “I really don’t want to talk about it.”

Rico lost the thread of conversation as he watched the brilliant aura, first purple, then the red slipped in, forming the magenta hue, as Charlie neared Dutch. Rico watched as the two men’s shoulders brushed, their elbows bumping, creating sparks of the purest gold where their bodies touched.

“I brought you lunch,” Charlie was telling Dutch, motioning to the bags he’d brought with him.

Dutch leaned over, sniffing. “Thai, I approve. Do you think me incapable of feeding myself?”

Charlie snorted. “If you were left to your own devices, you might only eat one meal a day. Honestly, for someone who enjoys working out and being healthy, you forget to eat more often than you should.”

Dutch sighed, one arm wrapping around Charlie’s waist and pulling him close. “I managed to live most of my life just fine before you came along, you know.”

“And now that I’m here, you’re going to live your life eating three meals a day,” Charlie told him smartly.

The sight of the two of them together was warm but brought a faint ache to Rico’s chest. The whole time they talked, teasing each other and bumping together, he watched the auras around them swirl and bond. The places where they bonded were some of the most brilliant gold he’d ever seen, streaking through their auras like lightning. The magenta auras meant the two men were meant for each other, but Rico knew the gold was a sign of just how much the two men loved each other. Just as with every other couple of soulmates he’d seen before, Rico felt a hollow sense of loneliness as his mind drifted to Chip.

Jett eyed the bags of food. “Bet you didn’t think of little ol’ us, huh?”

Charlie eyed him with a snort, then reached up to pull the bags away from Jett. “You can have one of your assistants get you something since you wanted to show up without warning. And you keep your hands to yourself, I remember the egg roll you filched the last time I ate around you.”

Rico would give Jett credit, he did give an awfully convincing innocent expression. “I have not the slightest clue what you’re referring to.”

“Yeah well, you just keep your hands to yourself,” Charlie warned, though Rico could see the corner of the man’s lips twitching.

Jett sighed sadly. “I suppose I’ll just have to get my own lunch, like some dirty commoner.”

“Perhaps if you stopped playing the field so much, you might snag yourself someone willing to bring you lunch too,” Dutch told him with a fond glance toward Charlie.

“And until such a time comes, I will be left to do it myself. Say, do you happen to have a spare recording of the video footage from Oliver’s room?” Jett asked.

Dutch nodded, setting a flash drive on the bar before Jett. “You can use the one I used for the program to evaluate.”

Charlie frowned. “What, is Jett helping? Does Jett help?”

Jett scowled. “I am very helpful.”

Rico rolled his eyes, smirking when he saw the gesture mirrored on Dutch and Charlie’s face. “He’s been brought onto the case as a consultant, considering the tricky nature of the crime.”

Charlie laughed softly. “Well, good luck, Detective. It doesn’t get much trickier than Jett.”