They struggled inside and through the boiler room door, finally dropping the body in the middle of the floor. The room was basically all cement with cobwebs, rusty pipes, and flickering lights. Every time the thunder boomed, the aging bulbs would shake and dim. The heavy rain added weight to the tarp and dead body, which immediately began to flow a tiny river of water and blood toward the drain in the center of the room.

Officer Wellburn removed his hat and rain coat and pointed toward Peter. "I think you've got something to tell us." Awkwardly, Officer June did the same, following her superior's lead.

Peter did not look up. The blood had drained from his face completely and his eyes were still as wide as ever. Perry looked up, made eye contact with Wellburn and decided to help the conversation. He cleared his throat and engaged Peter again. "Hey, Pete. How did you know this guy?"

Peter finally spoke but struggled to look at anyone else in the group. "He was supposed to stay a couple of days. He checked in this morning."

Officer June kept him going. "Does he have a name?"

"Mr. Thane. Chris Thane, actually." Peter brushed the wet hair out of his face. "I can't believe he's dead."

Wellburn crouched down to get a closer look at the body and looked up to ask the big question. "Any idea why that is, Peter?"

Peter, obviously still in shock, struggled to find the words. "I don't know. I don't think so, I guess." A small beep sound broke Peter's trance and he seemed to focus again. After a short pause, the sound came again. The officers and Perry all made eye contact, curious what it could be. After a third time, Perry realized that he'd heard the same noise once before. Earlier that day, when Peter came to his hotel room, they were interrupted in the door way by his work radio. Peter finally turned back and took a few steps away from the others, muttering something to someone, before turning back to the others. "I am terribly sorry, everyone. I have a hotel to keep and patrons to attend to. I don't know -"

"We understand." Officer Wellburn cut in with his hand raised. "Just keep this quiet and don't plan on heading out anywhere."

Peter politely nodded his head. "Of course not. Thank you, officer."

With that, Peter quickly left, closing the door again behind him, leaving Perry alone with two police officers and a bludgeoned, sopping wet corpse. Wellburn was still crouched by the body, inspecting the face and poking at it with the tip of his pen. "What do you think?"

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As if Officer June knew he wasn't talking to her, she looked at Perry. Surprised, Perry spoke back, "You're asking me?" He looked around the room, confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, what do you make of all this?" Wellburn stood up and looked at Perry. "It's clear Pete is rattled by this. He damn near fainted out there when he saw the body. And you don't seem to be terribly fazed by this whole thing."

Perry looked at Officer June and then back to Wellburn. It seemed like the mood was shifting and Perry suddenly felt like he was under investigation. Suspicious, Perry asked Wellburn, "What are you getting at?"

In another rare moment, Officer June piped in. "What do you do for a living, Mr. Stone?"

Perry was becoming agitated and naturally reached for his cigarettes. "I'm a journalist, actually. Here to write a piece about the hotel for Earl & Sons." Perry fumbled with his package of cigarettes and his injured finger, finally getting on into his mouth.

June spoke again, surprising Perry that she had it in her. "You can't smoke in here."

Perry rolled his eyes, annoyed, and spoke out of one side of his mouth with his cigarette still pursed between his lips. "Look, I probably look unfazed because I have seen a thing or two in my line of work. I don't make it a point to be around a corpse that often, but it's not exactly the worse thing I've seen before."

"Makes sense." Wellburn was back in the driver's seat of the interview. "We're just trying to get a better idea of what we're dealing with here."

Perry pulled the cigarette from his mouth. "So tell me what you plan to do next? Because from what I can tell, whoever killed this man is still here in the hotel. Either that or drowning out there in this God-awful rain storm." As if on cue, thunder boomed over head. "Should we expect more help from your precinct?"

Office Wellburn shook his head. "Not in a storm like this. I'm sure the road is flooded over by now. Trust me, nobody is going anywhere for a while."

Perry sighed deep, frustration growing. "Great."

Wellburn could see Perry's frustration growing. Trying to keep him calm, he continued, "I know it's not ideal, but we might be working a lot closer together than you'd like. You don't seem the killer type to me and we could use someone like you that's trained to look at things with a critical eye. I imagine you've done a lot of interviewing and asking questions with your job."

The statement was more of a question and Perry began to feel a little more at ease. "I have, yes."

Wellburn looked at Officer June, nodding toward Perry. "That could be useful."

Perry put the cigarette back in his mouth and padded his pockets, searching for his lighter, and spoke out of the side of his mouth again. "So what do you suggest?"

Wellburn was already moving around the room, looking for anything useful, inspecting their surroundings like an old hound that was visiting a new farm. "First thing's first, we need to quarantine this body. We can't have someone messing around in here. June, you head down to the lobby and see if you can't get a key to this room so we can keep it locked up." Officer June nodded and left without saying a word. Wellburn slid his arms back into his rain jacket and placed his hat back on his head. He then pulled Officer June's jacket from the back of a chair and tossed it to Perry. "You'll need this." The dark, night sky belted out a loud thunder and the lights flickered again. Wellburn motioned toward the door and continued, "You and me are gonna go back out there and look for a murder weapon."