Gracey hoped for too much. He didn’t make a lick of headway on the Ashbrook case from morning until night. Lawrence went home to eat with his wife and kids, but would be back soon. Gracey tried to tell him to go home for the night, but that never worked before. Why would it work this time?

The minutes ticked by at a crawl these days. Gracey thought that it would actually go by faster when there was real work to do. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. These days, so much work piled his desk that there wasn’t enough time in the day to complete it. But time never sped along either. There wasn’t an end in sight to his workday, but he also wasn’t getting enough done during that time to go home at a normal hour. So, like always, he sat at his desk well into the night, and cradled his flask while there was no one else in the office. 

The office wasn’t quiet whether it was during peak hours or after dark. There was always a phone call, paper rustling, a typewriter clicking, conversation going, or even heels clacking against the linoleum of the floor. Even after hours, as it was, there was more activity at the station than ever since its inception. 

The click-clack of heels approaching drew his attention from the words of the page. He put the flask that was half lifted to his mouth back into the inside pocket of his suit jacket. Even if no one would fault him for a drink now and then, his near nightly forays to the liquor store only stayed unnoticed if it didn’t interfere with his job. 

Gracey turned, willing to take any distraction from the blurred letters on the pages of the evidence reports he still needed to go through before he could go home tonight. 

“What can I do for you, Julie?” 

“Sorry to bother your work, but I have a telephone call you should take.” 

“A call I should take?” Gracey raised one of his eyebrows. He wasn’t usually who was asked to field calls. In fact, he distinctly remembered that he was told not to answer the telephone even if the receptionist stepped away when a phone came in. 

“It's from Ashbrook.”

“We’re in Ashbrook. Every call is from Ashbrook unless the operator doesn’t know how to do her job.”

“No… It’s from Ashbrook Castle.”

Gracey stood up and motioned for Julie to lead. “No one’s supposed to be in the Castle, unless I drank too much on duty the day they told us they sealed the place up for the investigation.”

Julie laughed. “You drink too much on duty every day. Don’t think I didn’t catch you hiding that flask.”

“Knowing something doesn’t mean you should say it out loud. The Castle?”

“The operator connected me. Some kids are in the Castle and they’ve found more bodies.”

“More guests? We’ve already accounted for all of the townsfolk there.”

“It’s gotta be. Unless the body is new.”

“Women really shouldn’t curse, Julie.”

Julie snorted and rolled her eyes. She didn’t need to speak for Gracey to know when his input wasn’t wanted.