Brant followed his gaze up from the designer shoes to the white dress pants and matching jacket. The man's shirt was an off pink and was cut in a deep-v.
The detective was not a fan of this 80’s throwback style, but it was fairly common for the up and coming crowd of the city's elite.
“This is an active crime scene sir.” The detective said gathering himself. He noticed the stranger was several inches shorter than his own 6-foot frame, and was extremely slim.
“Terribly sorry officer, I just purchased this building and was just doing a final walkthrough of the property.” The polished man said as he tried to look through the open office door.
“What sort of crim..” he started to ask.
Brant did not have time for a nosey civilian and ushered the man down the hallway.
“A murder actually,” the detective said, regaining his composure and pulled out his pocket notebook.
“Your name?” The man answered and he wrote it down, though he couldn't say if he had heard the name before.
“You said you recently purchased this building? Did you have any idea that someone was squatting inside?” The officer said, and studied the man's reaction to his questions.
Television shows would have you believe that every criminal could wear a mask of nonchalance, but the truth was they usually folded immediately and often returned to the scene of the crime.
“Yes, my company purchased the property.” The man said and tried again to look around the big detective like he might catch sight of something interesting.
“And your company's name?”
“Sugarpig Productions. We’re a gaming software developer. That's why we purchased this building, a big gaming studio used to be housed here.”
Well that at least made some sense Brant thought, continuing with his notes.
“..and the squatter?”
“I had never seen one here, this is only my second visit. I know this city has quite the problem with it though.” The man said in a voice that told the detective that the man didn't know about this problem firsthand.
Brant heard the medical examiner moving the parts of the body onto the stretcher and he motioned for the video game executive to make his way down the stairs and out the door.
“Sir, if you have a card I will contact you when you can re-enter the structure. I may also have some follow up questions for you, if that's alright.”
“Yes.. certainly detective McCain” the man said smoothly and like magic pulled an all black business card from between the fold in his suit.
“Anytime.” he said and walked out into the street.
McCain found the whole encounter odd, and as he turned a corner he thought to himself, he had never told him his name. Curious, he thought to himself and looked down at the card.
He was going to need to follow up on this.
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