Sean shook off the random thoughts. Stay focused, he told himself. He led with his pistol, keeping it out in front as he pushed across the threshold. Inside, he found something he hadn't really expected. The apartment was in good order. The black couch was pressed neatly against the wall. A small metal writing desk with a glass top sat next to it. A few documents lay on top, but the rest of the letters and other paperwork were organized and placed in slots on a shelf that ran along the back edge. Either whoever kidnapped Dr. Ott was mindful enough to put everything back where they found it, or the police screwed up the scene.
It looked as if no one had searched the place, though. As he recalled the information Emily had given him, that notion actually made sense. She'd said that Ott was taken while at her research laboratory. That meant the Black Ring might not have even come here. Why would they? If they had Ott, they wouldn't need anything from here.
He closed the door behind him, making sure to lock it again just in case someone was following. To the left was a small bathroom. It was minimally decorated, white walls and tiles, an ordinary glass shower, and a small washer and dryer next to the sink. He crept deeper into the apartment, keeping his weapon drawn and ready. Around the entryway corner, he found a small kitchen with white, Swedish-modern cabinetry, a matching white bistro table with two chairs and a stainless refrigerator. Through a pair of double doors, a balcony opened up with a view of downtown Lucerne. Through some of the canyons of buildings, he could get a peek at sections of the Reuss River.
A loud clicking sound came from a room off to the right of the living room. Sean raised his gun and aimed it through an open doorway. He could see the corner of a bed on the other side. Light poured into the bedroom from a window that was out of his line of sight. But in the light, he noticed a shadow moving around.
He stepped cautiously, careful not to make a noise on the faux wood flooring as he approached the bedroom door. He heard the noise again. It sounded like someone rummaging around just around the corner of the bedroom. When he reached the doorframe, he paused for a second, forcing himself to breathe calmly. Then he whipped the pistol around the corner and checked every corner of the room within two seconds. He saw what was causing the noise and lowered his gun. A pigeon was occasionally tapping on the window with its wings as the bird fluttered them.
Sean sighed. "Stupid bird," he said to himself.
The bedroom was as simply decorated as the rest of the home. A flat black floor bed sat low in the center of the room against the back wall. The sheets were plain white. A few black-and-white paintings hung on the wall across from the footboard. Another bathroom, the master, was situated through a narrow doorway to the left. Across from it was a small closet.
"It's like looking at the IKEA catalogue in here," he muttered.
Although one thing did seem out of place: Next to a black dresser, a wooden desk sat at an angle in the corner. It didn't match any of the other decor, and was clearly much older than everything else in the place. It had a main drawer and two lower drawers on either side of the sitting area.
Keeping his weapon low, but still at the ready, Sean walked over to the bathroom and checked inside, then checked the closet, just in case. Both were clear. He shoved the weapon back in its holster and walked back to the living room. He flipped open a black organizer and searched through some of the entries. Most of Dr. Ott's calendar was open, save for a few meetings she'd written down with other doctors. They must have been research scientists like her.
He closed the organizer and started sifting through some of the other papers and letters on the desk. There were utility bills, a medical bill for a routine checkup, a few pieces of correspondence for new credit cards, and a subscription renewal form for a scientific journal he'd never heard of.
None of it was helpful.
Sean walked over to the kitchen and searched through the drawers, pulling them out one at a time. Again he found nothing, only silverware, a typical kitchen drawer full of scissors, pens and tape, and one with a few hand towels in it.
He rubbed his eyes for a moment then pinched his nose. "What were you working on, Dr. Ott, that got you into so much trouble?"
His voice bounced around the room, but the walls had no answer.
Sean walked back into the bedroom and over to the dresser. He felt a little odd about going through a strange woman's personal things, but if she'd hidden something there, he needed to find it.
Panties and socks filled the top drawer, which he quickly closed when he realized there was nothing else in there. The second drawer proved equally embarrassing for him and just as disappointing. All he could find were brassieres, pantyhose, and a few more items of underwear that were a little more risqué.
He shook his head as he closed the second drawer. "Sorry, Dr. Ott," he said quietly.
The contents of the lower two drawers were less personal, jeans and T-shirts for the most part. But still, nothing of interest in regard to why the Black Ring would have taken the scientist.
Sean scratched his head. It was one of the most sterile scenes he'd ever investigated. Not a single clue as to what Dr. Ott had been working on or why she'd been kidnapped. The next place he'd need to look would be the research lab. That would be information he'd need to get from the report Emily had emailed him.
He started to take out his phone to check the email when he remembered he'd not checked the antique desk in the corner. He took a few steps over to it and pulled the matching chair out from under the seating spot. He sat down and tugged on the middle drawer. Inside were old black-and-white photos of people he didn't recognize, probably some of her old relatives. From the clothes they wore, it appeared that the pictures were probably taken around the 1930s or early 40s. There was a young man with dark hair and round spectacles with a woman of roughly the same age. In some of the pictures, the man was in a white lab coat. There were a few of the couple together, including one that must have been their wedding day.
Sean closed the center drawer and opened the one on the left. It contained various files, most of them empty, but a few that held sheets with mathematical equations he didn't understand scribbled on them. He pushed that drawer closed and opened the one on the right. There were a few books stacked inside. The Bible was on top of two others, a book on physics, and another on the science of black holes. Again, though, nothing that would be of help in the current situation.
He gently placed the books back in the drawer and started to close it when he noticed something odd. His eyes narrowed and he reached back over to the other drawer, twisting in the chair, and opened it again. His gaze shifted from one drawer to the other and back again, comparing the two with a critical eye. There was definitely something different about the drawer on the right. The back of it was a good four to six inches shallower at the back than the one on the left.
He leaned over and yanked on the back of the drawer. It was loose, and after a few more pulls, he was able to free the false back from its housing. Wedged into the small space in the rear of the drawer was a small leather notebook. Sean plucked it from its hiding spot and placed it on the desktop. The cover had been well worn with time, indicating that it was at least several decades old. The other thing that indicated how old the book might be was a familiar symbol pressed into the cover: a Nazi swastika.