Empire of Vendetta

[D-35] Crime Scene Investigation

Lilith did not know what to do. When she was told that she would be working alongside Valerio, she assumed she would just be attending court hearings with him. She did not know her job entailed visiting crime scenes. In fact, until that morning, she didn't even know that Valerio's job entailed such a role. But apparently it did and here she was, walking around on an underdeveloped road in heels as high as her head. As soon as she got home, the first thing she would do is throw away all of the high heels Alia bought for her. 

With that thought, she sighed and continued to follow her boss around the victim's neighbourhood. 

"I have a question," she said, slightly under her breath as she watched Valerio look around for a CCTV camera. Alberta Garcia's husband, Abilio Garcia, had been murdered in his home which was located in a shady neighbourhood that seemed very crime friendly. Because of that, there were not very many real CCTV cameras in the vicinity. There were only fake ones and the occasional real ones they came across were all broken. 

Valerio's gaze turned from the convenience store's dysfunctional CCTV camera to Lilth. 

"Go ahead," he flatly answered, although his eyes were blazing hot. He looked like he was staring right into her soul once again. 

"Why are we here?" she asked. He looked like he was going to give her the standard answer of how it's important to examine the crime scene so she quickly shook her head before she continued. "I mean, according to the documents the police have already investigated this entire town. There are no cameras and all the witnesses have already spoken. Why are we investigating here again?" 

As Lilith spoke, Valerio's eyes moved from her to something behind her. His eyes narrowed and he looked as if he was deep in thought. 

She felt frustrated at being ignored but she didn't bother to repeat her question. She didn't care all that much about the answer anyway. She just wanted to be out of her damned heels as soon as possible and that meant leaving the b****y town.

When Valerio continued to stare at the object behind her, Lilith turned to see what he was so interested in and saw a white van standing in front of the family restaurant across from the convenience store. 

As Fen Luo's student, she was taught absolutely everything she needed to know about keeping her tracks clean of her traces. So the moment she saw the van behind her, she knew exactly what Valerio was thinking so deeply about. 

"Black box," she found herself saying out loud. If the perp was smart enough, he would have handled that van's camera. 

Without responding to her, Valerio walked into the restaurant and started talking to the old woman who worked at the counter. Lilith followed closely behind and listened to him ask her if the van had a black box. 

"We used to have one," the old woman said with a frown. "Unfortunately some hooligans stole it though." 

Exactly as Lilith had expected, they got rid of it. 

"When did that happen?" Valerio asked. 

The old woman thought about it for a second and looked as if she was not able to recall before her brows rose and eyes lit up. 

"Oh it was that night that poor Mr. Garcia was killed," she said with a frown.

"Are you sure?" Valerio asked.

"Definitely. I told my son to call the police but he didn't need to because they were already at our door."

"May I speak to your son?" Valerio asked the woman who frowned in response. 

"No," her frown deepened, "he had to leave the country for a business meeting."

"Do you know when he'll be back?"

"No idea. I'll give you his number if you want though?" she smiled at us. 

Valerio took the number and thanked the woman before they left the restaurant. 

"Now tell me," Valerio asked Lilith once they were seated in his car. "Do you think this is all a coincidence or do you think this could be related to Mr. Garcia's death?"

Lilith thought about it the entire ride back to the firm. On one hand, it could very much be a coincidence considering how shady the neighbourhood was, but on the other, it seemed a little strange that someone would steal a CCTV camera without robbing any of the nearby stores. Not to mention, there were no other crimes reported on that night from that neighbourhood. So either the person who stole it was a black box bandit, or it was released to the Garcia case. 

And if it was related to the Garcia murder case, then there was a high chance that Mrs. Garcia was not involved. It did not make much sense that an older lady would have enough energy to kill her husband, clean up after him and then go out and break all the CCTVs and steal a black box, only to go back home and reported her husband's murder only one hour later. According to the reports, Mrs. Garcia woke up for a glass of water in the middle of the night and found her husband dead. The post-mortem report also states that he had died only an hour before her call. It would be impossible for her to do all of that in such short time unless she had an accomplice. 

"Maybe she has an accomplice," Lilith said out loud. She hoped such a suggestion didn't sound too ridiculous but judging by the smirk on Valerio's face, it probably was. 

"We found our reason for an extension," Valerio said with an almost non-existent smile as he parked the car and exited, once again leaving Lilith to follow him. Turned out, her "Valerio's shadow" job description was actually her real job and not just a metaphor or something like she had thought when Tara first told her. She couldn't say she enjoyed the job at all, she hated not being the lead in something. However, it also meant that she didn't have to worry about revealing her cover since she did not have to do anything too drastic. 

By the time she managed to reach his office, he was already sitting on his computer and writing up his request file to give to the lawyers and judge involved in the case. 

Lilith couldn't help but sigh at the sight before her. Sure it was only her first day on the job but she couldn't already tell that the man before her was a serious workaholic. She really hoped his behaviour changed at the end of the work day and he was more on the friendlier side because she had no idea how she was going to win over this workaholic otherwise. 

As if aware that Lilith was thinking about him, Valerio looked up and his eyes met Lilith's. 

"Your day has ended. You can go home now, I'll stay back since I have more work to do." 

Lilith let out a fake smile that didn't reach her eyes before she nodded and turned around and left. Her first day was over and it already looked like a failure. She needed to find a way to get him to notice her as something other than his intern. 

Now, how would a woman with no knowledge on social interactions manage to gain the attention of a man who looked as if he also had no knowledge on social interaction outside of the workforce? 

Lilith sighed at the fact that she had so much more work left to do for the night. It really made her miss her hitman days. She almost even missed her days as Fen Luo's disciple. Almost being the keyword.