Rosetta

Chapter 3 : A Bitter Truth

a picture with a thousand words

Hans was speechless looking at the photo shown by Rose, photos from the night before william's murder. two photographs showing two people he knew very well, Zoe and William.

In the first image taken from CCTV on the street near William's apartment, you can see the two of them walking together carrying two bottles of wine and in the second image from the CCTV balcony of William's apartment, you can see the two of them drinking with Zoe pouring wine into William's glass and you can see a car parked in front of the apartment. the robber's car that killed william. He would never forget it.

“Ha! So being an intruder is your side job now?”

“Yes, this intruder has a lot of side jobs.”

“Stop it, both of you.”

Hans sighed and looked at Zoe, the sweet smile she usually showed had completely disappeared with a look full of annoyance on her face.

“Could you step back for a second rose? I have something to make sure.”

“Of course sir.”

Hans gave a hurtful smile, he wanted to trust Zoe like he always did. but reality is reality no matter how painful it is. instead of asking hastily Hans asked in a soft voice.

“Zoe..”

“Sir hans.”

Zoe, who was very angry with Rose's accusations, regained her composure after hearing Hans' voice. that smile sliced her heart, did he also suspect me?

At the same time, in the Glass House

“Yes, sergeant. Thank you for your cooperation.”

*Clack*

“Noah.”

“You come back early iris, what about our guests?”

“They will come within an 15 minute, who called earlier was it sergeant Ian?”

“good job, get the glass room ready and call jasmine too.”

“Yes sir.”

“And yes you're right, it's sergeant ian.”

“Will rose be okay?”

“Don't worry, it's just that the mission turned out to be bigger than we thought and Rose seems to have known this was going to happen.”

*Knock Knock*

Jasmine opened the door

“Master, Iris we have a visitor.”

"Who are they?"

“The head of the shu family and the head of the Oxley family.”

“They must be in a hurry.”

“What should we do sir?”

“Send a message to Rose that I've set the stage for her, and you two come with me with the data you have from Rose.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Now, now shall we greet the guest?”

At the police station

*sigh*

“Phew…”

Ian Davies, a police sergeant who looks exhausted after processing sudden information about the murder of a novelist several months ago.

Seeing ian deep in thought detective Matthew approached him to convey a message he had just received.

“Serg Ian,Here's a permit for arrest from the captain.”

“it's so fast, what did the captain say?”

“There is nothing that can be done but obey, from the beginning this was the negligence of the authorities in handling the case.”

“Looks like someone is meddling, So shouldn't we be leaving soon?"

“seeing the captain's expression looks like yes, by the way who called you just now?”

“Someone from the intelligence agency who is also involved in this case, you know The glass house?”

“The agency that is famous for working in the shadows? This case must involve important people.”

“Yeah really.”

“The captain said we shouldn't rush, they asked for a few hours as there was an agent and civilians there.”

“Yes the call earlier asked to cooperate to hold the arrest attempt in two and a half hours, they must be crazy to let the murderer be with agents and civilians in the same place.”

“That's really worrying but their agent must be well trained considering their reputation.”

“Yes let's hope that nothing bad happens and get ready so we can leave immediately later.”

“On it.”

Zoe Apartement

“you doubt me sir? Really?”

“Then tell me why are you there? You reported being on holiday out of town when it happened.”

“Couldn't you have thought I was gone when the robbers came in? Or the robbers wait to get in when William was alone?”

“I asked why you were there and why you lied? if you want to meet Will you can just meet him without making such a false report.”

“That's because I happened to run into him while out shopping preparing for my departure!”

“Then why don't you just be honest and tell it like it is? Just because you were last with him doesn't mean you're a suspect!”

“It's because I'm scared! Natalie doesn't even like me, what if she accuses me like that woman did! I could lose my position!”

“Then you can tell me, can't you at least trust me? If you know that Natalie doesn't like you why did it cross your mind to have a drink alone in the middle of the night with Will? even if the tragedy did not happen it still make you look suspicious.”.

“It was because he looked distressed by all of this! his career and even your and Natalie's engagement. I'm sorry but you love Natalie, you wouldn't believe me even if I said so!”

“Yes you are right I love Natalie, but I'm not that blind to not listen to my best friend.”

“Haha sir with all due respect, If you weren't crazy about her you wouldn't be able to do the engagement and convince William that everything was just for show.”

“I'm a coward asshole who takes advantage of other people's feelings, happy? that's why you drink with him? to let go of everything? do you have feelings for him to make you care about him that much?”

“What? No! Didn't the agent tell you who my heart belongs to? I do everything for you and only for you!”

Zoe was shaking, she never thought there would be a moment in her life to get this kind of treatment from Hans. you always believe me, you always help me, and you are always on my side, then why are we like this? why you doubt me and believe in that woman?

*Clap*

Hearing Rose's clap distracted the two of them from the fierce argument, both of them fell silent looking at Rose.

“I think that's enough sir, I'll take over”

“But-“

“We will gain nothing from this and you will only hurt each other.”

Exhausted, Hans sat down on the sofa nearby and rose slowly walked up to Zoe. Zoe gasped when she saw Rose approaching her and fell to the floor.

“So Zoe, you admit you had a drink with him?”

“Yes then why? don't you ever drink with other people? your life must be so sad.”

“Where was the wine bottle after you drank it?”

“!!!”

“why isn't it written that there was wine the evidence reported by the police at the scene?”

“That's because it was empty and I threw it away on the way home.”

“Even the glasses you guys use? in the dishwasher there are only plates used for the snacks.”

“that’s beca-“

“Because you drugged him and you had to destroy the evidence.”

hans stood up from his seat and took the report rose was holding looking at her in disbelief.

“what? No! I didn't! I didn't kill him! it's not me the robbers have confessed!”

Rose knelt on one knee in front of Zoe and took a tape recorder out of her pocket. she starts playing a record.

*Click*

*( this italics mark is the recording sound)

“yes yes I confess! all this was her plan! we only fulfill her plan for the promised money.”

“What plan has she prepared for you?”

“that.. that is us going in as robbers and injuring that man”

“not to kill him? then what happen?”

“No! she said she wanted to finish it herself, so we had to immobilize him.. but.”

“go one.”

“she told us that she would make him unconscious first to dispel suspicion, but when we entered his room he was very drunk and started attacking us.”

“So you want to say that you have no other choice?”

“yes yes that's right! she also said that everything had happened and we did a good job and would give the money.”

“how much did she pay you?”

“its around 10!(((_!*#)&9-6#80!*”

*(The sound recording is finished here)

“They are absolutely lying!”

“Really? How about this?”

“if you just talk nonsense-“

“Zoey willow bank notes month xx date xx expenditure xxxxx, month xxx date xx expenditure xxx and many others, do i need to continue?”

“It means nothing! those are just normal expenses for home furniture, did you know they are quite expensive!?”

“Unfortunately there is no record of going in and out of household equipment in this apartment since 6 months ago.”

“!!”

“Only data transfers to drug dealers and 'Robbers' are routinely sent, you're pretty careless about this.”

Hearing that, Zoe's body trembled violently and her face turned pale. Hans trembled and walked up to the two of them with a look that couldn't believe what he was hearing.

“This…this can't be real, you killed Will….why?”

“it's...it's because.”

Hans fell to his knees, Rose swiftly held him so he wouldn't hit hard. Zoe, who saw Hans fall wanted to approach him but was restrained by Rose's hand so she wouldn't come closer to him.

Hans was still staring at Zoe. dozens of emotions filled his mind and involuntarily tears started to fall from his eyes.

“Zoe…Why?”

*KNOCK KNOCK*

“!?”

“This is a police officer, please open the door”

“what….no, no no NO!”

Sergeant Ian and his team have surrounded the building and are standing by the door, because they did not hear the reply from the previous knock they decided to break down the apartment door.

hearing the sound of the door breaking, Zoe rushed to get the weapon that she hide between furniture and pointed it at Rose.

Rose remained calm and positioned herself in front of hans to protect him from unexpected things while taking out a gun which she hid under her long skirt.

“Police, put down your guns!”

“!”

Ian raised his guard when he saw the situation in the apartment, a blonde woman who was trembling pointed a gun at a black-haired woman and behind her was a man in a state of shock.

The black haired woman was very calm also holding a gun as if she was protecting the man behind her.

“Did you call the police? how dare you!!”

“Ma’am, calm down, put down your weapon now!”

Still not lowering his weapon, she looked at hans who watch her worriedly, Zoe's tears started to flow.

“Hansel….hansel look what she did to me..”

“Zoe..”

“I..I can't believe you betrayed me like this.”

“No zoe.. please, I beg you. Let just stop.”

“Stop what? I did this all for you! because I love you....”

“Ha!”

“!”

Rose stood up from her original position and aimed her gun at Zoe. Rose, who kept on being calm, showed a sharp and cold gaze that made Zoe flinch.

“What love? You sick psyco!”

Rose made eye contact with ian, Ian seemed to realize what Rose meant, nodding and started walking slowly to her side.

“Shut up! you don't know anything!”

Zoe continues to shout at Rose and focuses on her, Rose took the opportunity to push Hans to Ian and ran quickly towards Zoe. Ian immediately secured Hans and Matthew secured the surroundings.

When Zoe's focus was split on Hans and Rose that running towards her, she lost her balance. Rose twisted Zoe's wrist and dropped the gun then slammed Zoe on the floor with her hands behind her back. Matthew secured Zoe's gun and put the handcuffs on her.

“Let go, let me go! Hans! Hansel! Please!”

“Take her away.”

Matthew directed the other officers to take Zoe to the police car. Seeing that sight hans speechless then he followed matthew to a safe place and to get treatment.

“Nice job agent..”

“Rose, you can call me Rose.”

”Allright Rose, I'm sergeant Ian Davies. Nice to meet you”

“Nice to meet you too sir, and good call earlier. Thank you.”

“Its nothing, as expected from a trained agent.”

“Look at you, there must be a lot of questions from you sir Davies.”

“Indeed I am, shall we go to the office?”

“Of course, before that, can I call someone first?”

“Yes, Take your time. we'll deal with the rest.”

“Thank you.”

Ian walked away from Rose and approached another officer. Rose took out her cell phone and made a call.

“Master.”

“Rose, how was the mission?”

“Everything is going according to plan, Mr. Hansel and i will be at the police station for a while.”

“That's a relief, is anyone hurt?”

“No, everything is fine. are our guests there?”

“Yes as your request, and they are listening to our talk now.”

“Great, with all due respect gentlemen I hope you listen to what's going on through the bugs I planted and I hope you make a decision regarding Zoey willow as soon as we get back there.”

“Ok rose, message received. we'll be waiting for you back, pass my regards to sergeant ian.”

“It's my pleasure.”

*Click*

“Agent Rose, are you done?”

“Yes Sir, shall we go now?”

“Yes, this way.”

At the Glass House

*Click*

Noah put his phone back down and looked at the two people in front of him.

“Alright gentlemen, let's move on.”

“Thank you mr Noah, and i cant express how grateful i am to agent Rose for working so hard for my daughter, Natalie.”

“You don't need sir, we get paid properly for our work.”

“Sure, but still no one pays as much attention to this as miss rose does, i really appreciate it. rather than directly publicly exposing the truth and dragging a lot of names and even smearing it, this way is much better.”

Relieved by the truth that was finally revealed by Mr. Shu, Natalie's father can get justice for his daughter. Next to him Mr Oxley, father of Hans patted the poor man on the shoulder as a sign of sympathy.

“Mr shu, i apologize for my son's behavior and zoey willow is a part of our family for a long time. I even consider her as my own, i don't know how to apologize.”

“No, no sir. It was my ego and pride that distanced them both and made me lose them, even though I know how happy my daughter is with him. If I let them be together Hans will lose his chance and the woman will not do anything.”

“That's not right, we don't know what will happen even if you do. our position is indeed difficult, at least from now on we should be able to see it in a different way.”

“That's right, Mr. Shu and Mr. Oxley. To prevent the tragedy from happening again, we have a lot to learn from now. It's never too late.”

“Phew…finally I can let my daughter go in peace, at least she is happy with the people she loves in a better place. I hope one day she will forgive me.”

“Yes, let's hope for the best.”

“Well, let's make the decision now. what are you guys going to do to Zoey willow?”

The two looked at each other and mr shu nodded in agreement, mr oxley took a deep breath and explained the decision the two had made.

“We agree that Zoey Willow will be punished according to the law and reveal that she is the real culprit but will not disclose the process to the public, and as an apology from the big oxley family who have been negligent we will be doing social charity activities regularly which will be led and managed by my son for several years.”

“You don't have to do that.”

“No, you lost your daughter. This is the least I can do by making the environment a little better.”

“It was a very wise decision sir, the agency will help both families according to the agreement until the end.”

“Thank you.”

“Well now let's discuss the payment of this mission.”

“Yes, of course.”

At the police station

“hei,hei.”

“what?”

“Look who's at Sergeant Ian's desk.”

“Woah, maybe his girlfriend? What a bauty.”

“Yeah really, she's very pretty.”

“Look, even the person in the cell kept looking at her.”

“No wonder sergeant Ian never brought her here, with that face he would want to hide it.”

“What are you guys doing gathered here.”

“Detective Matthew, No we just looked at sergeant ian's girlfriend, she's a real beauty even with those glasses.”

“Girlfriend? No she's not. she's an agent from the intelligence agency we worked with for the arrest earlier.”

“What!?”

Rose who realized the conversation behind her turned and saw Detective Matthew, she waved a little and smiled at him.

“Are you sure sir? she looks sweet and fragile.”

“Yes how come, maybe she is not a field agent.”

“Sigh…….. yeah whatever.”

Ian had prepared the documents he needed back to the table to talk to Rose, he was astonished by the attitude of the officers who kept stealing glances at her.

like implied language to tell them to focus on work, he glared at them and the guys awkwardly left.

“Agent rose, I'm sorry for earlier.”

“No problem sir, you must have a hard time sometimes.”

“Thank you for understanding, can we start now?”

“Of course.”

“First, can you describe what evidence you have against Zoey Willow?”

“I have some CCTV traces that show the perpetrator and the victim, documents that serve as an alibi, records from the bank accounts of Mr. William and Miss Zoey the last few months and these are the recordings of the robbers confessing to the crime.”

“That's more than enough to put her in jail, so what are you going to do with her?”

“The agency will leave all decisions to the Shu and Oxley families that involved.”

“Have you heard their answer regarding this?”

“Yes but no official announcement from them yet maybe they still want to keep the process in secret for the sake of family, we'll find out soon.”

“Allright, is it okay to let Miss Zoey and Mr Hansel meet?”

“Yes, of course. even if you forbid them to meet they will still meet one way or another. they have to talk.”

“Is that why you asked us to delay the arrest?”

“My mission is to restore justice to all three, Mr Hansel, Mr William and Miss Natalie. having her admit it in person was the best so there would be no more doubts.”

“Don't you think about the impact when you put Mr. Hansel in that position?”

“Why should I care what he thinks of it?”

“What?”

“My mission is only to tell the truth as what my guest wants, whatever happens after that is none of my business.”

“Allright, now can you tell me where did you get this tape? they are behind bars even the police would have a hard time doing it.”

“You could say I got help from various parties, agency secrets.”

“Yes I'm sure your master has a lot of connections for that.”

“I will take that as a compliment.”

“Then what about Mr. Hansel?”

“I can't bring him back to the agency can I? see the progress status.”

“Unfortunately yes, he has to do some check up.”

“Okay, currently the two heads of the family is at the agency maybe, they'll be here to give you news about this case as well as pick him up. we will update you later.”

“Ok, we're done here. will you be back soon?”

“Yes, once again, thank you for your work. Sergeant, let's work together again another time.”

“Yes I also thank you, be careful.”

After Rose left the office, Ian stood and looked at everyone.

“all of you must correct your manner”

“Yes, sir!”

“phew….”

“A lot of things happen isn't it.”

“matthew..”

“What do you think about her?, she looks very young considering his highly experienced performance.”

“She is young, 21 years old. and yes I agree, maybe agencies do train their agents from youth.”

“What? 21? how could that be?”

“That's the truth and she is very strict in her work boundaries, quite a cold person.”

“You're right, especially the look in her eyes even when she smiles.”

“Yeah, let's stop talking about this.”

“Yes, see you later sir.”

“You too.”