Adventure in the World of Crimes

3.13 The Red Card

"What are you saying? Have you lost your mind?" Reign exclaimed, scoffing as he let out those questions like what he asked was the most absurd thing to ask considering that it was already midnight. "You must be sleepy now, Martin. Should we reschedule this for another time?"

The vlogger looked at her with a judging look, tilting his head as he carefully observed Reign's expression which remained unfazed even if he looked at her with a blank expression. "Why are you good at observing things then if you are not an agent?"

Reign cursed in her mind as she continued her act, she shook her head while chuckling, her face was with a slight of disbelief, "I am a fan of crimes, I love reading crime novels, and those have taught me of becoming observant of my surroundings. I wish I were a part of the agents you were talking about."

There was no way she would divulge her identity to this man, a part of his suspect, a possible murderer despite his alluring face. And to think that it was too early to be caught as being an agent, she would definitely deny it. It had never happened before that she was caught being an agent to the disguises that she did, she was always careful, getting in character as what Dahlia had informed her of who she was, that was also why she was regarded before among the agents as the best in camouflaging. But now, seemed like it would not be the case anymore as she was portraying someone that was very close to her true personality, plus that she was also making use of her self in this task, there might be a high chance that someone would find that she was an agent.

"Is that so? To tell you honestly, I find your whole appearance unusual, you just magically appeared out of nowhere, suddenly became the talk of the town, and now this aspect of you that is fascinating and odd at the same time. Your whole existence is also hidden in public." He explained, putting his hands inside the pockets of his hoodie.

Reign raised her brow, "Is this your way of asking me to tell me about myself?"

Finally, the man let out a chuckle, "That could be it, but no, I am just really curious about your existence. To be clear, that's why I was asking if you're an agent, I sent them a letter."

Reign froze and gawked at him, he was looking at the other side where there was a convenience store which gave enough light to them, the place they were at was at the front of the closed shop of which a clothing shop based on the name above them. "Pardon?"

As far as she could remember the sender was Freya Tim, was he trying to mess up with her and still trying to catch her off guard? She's getting frustrated with this guy.

"Let's talk there." He said as he made his way to the convenience store.

Reign huffed but still followed him, looking left and right to see if someone had already recognized them and decided to follow them, but thankfully, only a few people were walking and all were busy on their own stuff. Martin sat on the bench outside the mall beside a vending machine, he tapped the space beside him to which Reign sat but with decent inches of space between them.

"As I said, I sent a letter to the agency through an email. I don't know why I am telling you this but I introduced myself as Freya, I included in the letter about the upcoming award show, the murder happening then, and my fear of having me and friends being the next target of that tragedy." He started, his eyes fixed on his moving foot, his expression was serious which was what was rarely seen on him.

"I do not want to lose another friend, I do not want people to badmouth my team, I do not want to see them get hurt, I often get mad at people when they started to belittle us, they do not know how much effort we put on our every video we upload, but it was so easy for them to say something unpleasant like they know us very well. I also wanted to revenge for my best friend, and the other victim, no matter how much Greg had changed, he still was my friend whom I relied on when we were young. No matter how big my grudges towards him, I still want to seek justice for him, and those idiots, bribed police were little to no help at all." He continued, chewing his lower lip while watching the people, the car passed by the road.

"Why did you wrote as Freya though? Wouldn't it be misleading? Like if the agency sent an agent, they would go to Freya and tell her about the letter she had no idea about." Reign curiously asked, she had been looking at Martin throughout his story so she could tell if he was lying or not, and so far, he looked sincere, but something didn't sit right with her.

"Freya had suggested about it to me, I do not want to expose my identity so I wrote as Freya. Anyway, the agency still has no response from me. I think they haven't received it yet."

We did. Reign wanted to answer but kept her mum, she couldn't really bring herself on trusting a suspect, no matter how much he claimed to be the sender, which they were allowed to introduce themselves as the agent on task, but still, their choice, to gather more information from the sender, but this man along with Freya Tim belonged to the list of suspects.

"They will send soon, especially that this case is very interesting. You and your friends will be safe, nonetheless, you should be aware that I am no agent. I just really love mystery and crimes, and maybe we could put it to use in this one." She implied, crossing her arms and finally looking away from him as she also looked the same way as the man was looking.

The night had become colder, a little darker with mists filling the whole place, the surrounding was also silent if not for the engine of the cars shortly passing by the road. If she was not on the task at the moment, she might probably be out as well at this point but at her secret place in the wilderness where the city lights and the skies were seen all at once, she would surely visit it again after her task.

"I guess so. Let's go back to the real reason why we're here, shall we?" He asked with a grin, he sat up straight and crossed his arms, "About Greg's death, I don't think he was the real target of the mafia."

"Huh?" Reign confusedly muttered, glancing at him. "What do you mean?"

"I told you that he was not the only victim back then, right? And he was not the only one who received the letter of the rising star. I believed, Stephanie Wesley was the main victim, back on that day, when I arrived at the hotel after we received the call about Greg's passing, my friends took the elevator while I chose to run on the stairs for easier access, but just then, there were police who were going down the stairs bearing a dead body already in the bag, they were rushing like they were being chased. I was confused for a moment, battling with myself if I should go up and tell my friends about this, but I saw them took the emergency exit at the back so I ran after them in thought that the body they were carrying was Greg's. I tried to stop them from fleeing, but they were already driving away from the hotel, so I rushed back to the second floor and ended up more confused as I found Greg's body still on the bed."

"How did you know that it was Stephanie Wesley's body?"

"I don't know if this makes sense to the case but I like Steph, I've kept in touch with her on that day and she told me she was assigned in the room across Gregory. When I checked the room, it was locked, I tried knocking continuously and called her number, but she was not answering nor replying to my messages. I didn't have time to knock some more when my friends stopped me and told me that we were going to Greg's relatives to relay the news."

Reign squinted her eyes in confusion, "How and when did you know that it was her?"

"When the news about Steph running away and being missing popped out. I was baffled by the news, it was impossible for her to do that, she was very excited about the award, so that alone was really skeptical. When I went back to the hotel to book the same room she was assigned to, the room was entirely clean, no trace of her things, I do not want to think that it was her in the body that was rushed out by the police, but when I kept on looking around, checked every nook and corner, I found this,"

Reign followed his hand as he took something from the pocket of his pants, it was two red small envelopes with a card inside. The one looked old with little scratches and creases, while the other looked new and cleaner. "What's that?"

Martin showed the red card inside, it was elegantly made with the blank ink and cursive style of the writing, it stated the invitation about the award show with her name personally embossed on it. He fanned the card to his face, the scent of the paper was released that even Reign smelled it.

"Normal, right? But if you'd look at the one that I received," He opened the other envelope, and it showed a black card, with exactly the same design as the red one. "This is the real invitation, the one that Greg received, so why did Steph receive a card like this?"

"The card is the sign who is the next target."