Mysterious

"He paid for it ten days ago and I haven't seen him since," the hotel manager said. "According to cleaning staff, he stuck a 'Do Not Disturb' on the door, never asked them for anything, and nobody's seen him come out or go back in. Door Dash brought him food a few times, but that's about it and… Why are you even asking about this guy?"
      "His wife reported him missing," Officer Smith replied.
      "Surely there are other ways to leave besides passing the front desk," his partner, Officer Ray, commented.
      The manager pursed his lips. "Yeah, we've got other exits, but they're kept locked. Most are designated for emergencies only, but a couple are for deliveries. An alarm would've sounded if he'd opened any of those, though."
      "Staff must leave the front occasionally. Everyone's gotta use the bathroom, right? Do you have cameras up?"
      "Nope." The manager shrugged when the officers exchanged exasperated looks. "We value our customer's privacy. But sure, people could slip by unnoticed, I guess."
      Moments later, Smith stepped out of the elevator on the second floor, and headed for Room 221, Ray on his heels.
      "Mr. Weston, open up," Smith called out, rapping loudly. "It's the police."
      After getting no response, he used the master keycard to unlock the door, but still couldn't pull it open.
      "The dang thing must have a second lock," Ray muttered, turning to eye the manager. "How do you open it?"
      The other man chewed his lip and insisted, "We don't have other locks on the doors. So if there is one, he musta put it on himself."
      It didn't take long for them to physically remove the hinges and deal with the second latch. Smith stepped inside, gagged, and took an involuntary step backward. "Your allergies acting up today?" he asked his partner.
      "No," Ray replied. "My sniffer's fine, thank you very much. And yeah, I smell it."
      The pungent odor of rotting meat and copper permeated the air, along with fecal matter, and they didn't hesitate to call the coroner. Once there, he confirmed Weston's death and estimated it'd occurred thirty to thirty-two hours earlier.
      Hours passed and Ray sighed and rotated his neck, rubbing the back of it. "If only everything was cut and dried. But I guess we wouldn't have a job if it was."
      "Agreed. Now let's run through the facts again and see if we can figure out who sliced and diced Weston and stuck the dagger through his heart." Smith ticked things off on his fingers. "The room was locked from the inside. No windows or other points of exit exist except for two vents a small child would have trouble squeezing through. The main lock on the door is electronic and the hotel's system shows it hasn't been opened in a few days."
      "Well, the killer didn't go up in smoke, so how the hell did he get out?"
      "That's the million dollar question, isn't it?"
      Days later, they returned to the scene, reexamining everything once more and considering possible scenarios.
      Without any warning, Ray inhaled sharply and spun to his left, whipping out his gun.
      "What the…?" Smith drew his weapon, too, and looked every which way.
      Ray sighed, expression reflecting sheer confusion, and his shoulders drooped. "I coulda sworn I saw something move from the corner of my eye, but nothing's over here but this thing." He tapped the figurine on a side table, then lifted it, staring at it closely. "What in the world is this thing anyway? It looks sort of like a cross between a person and a rhino or hippo or something."
      "Taweret, I think."
      "Huh?"
      Smith repeated the name, drawing out the pronunciation of each syllable. "Taa-whu-ret. She's the Egyptian goddess of childbirth and fertility and is considered a protector of mothers and children. She's portrayed as having the body of a pregnant hippo with two legs. Lion's legs and paws. Human breasts and a crocodile's face."
      Ray's eyebrows went up. "How do you know that stuff?"
      "My son was assigned to do a paper on her last year." Eying the statuette, Smith snickered. "I don't think you have to worry about her moving, though. She's nothing but…" He stopped short and cocked his head to the side, grin vanishing. Striding over to a nearby bookcase, he leaned in for a closer look and plucked a folder from behind some books. He opened it but dropped the thing as if it were on fire.
      Taking a look for himself, Ray ground his teeth together. "So our victim had a dirty secret to hide."
      "Yeah, he was a freaking sicko who liked kids. Those pictures are nasty as all get out. Maybe someone knew and that's why they did him in."
      "I don't know. Maybe."
      "Let's look around again and see if we missed anything else."
      However, they had nothing to show for their efforts two hours later, and turned off the lights before leaving.
      Silence ruled supreme, along with darkness. But the faintest whisper of sound came from the left. Something shimmered there, and the figurine moved, eyes changing to a glowing green.
      The end.