Catch You!My Billionaire

First Suspect

 Seven in the morning, on the same Sunday. Olivia walks past the crowded crosswalks and went to the police station. The glass door opens, and right in front of it, is her friend, Emmy, chatting with a policeman at the information desk. She grins and laughs, thus she didn’t notice Olivia was there, a few inches away from her, but Olivia doesn’t care, her friend’s smile made her lips smirk, because he is the first guy, in almost a year who made her smile. A spark of joy tingles on her spine.

‘Oh!, Hey Olivia!”, Emmy approaches and gave her a tight hug, Olivia looked at her eyes and giggles, Emmy didn’t understand her friend’s expression, but when Olivia sways her head towards the policeman at the information desk, she gasps, “It is not what you think it is”, Emmy’s face went straight, but behind her round brown eyes sparkles a smile which roots deep in her heart.

“All right, if you say so”, Olivia chuckles,

“Stop!”, Emmy pinches Olivia’s arms a little which forces her to say “Fine, fine, I’ll stop”.

The two strolled through the corridors of the police station, Emmy shifts their conversation from the man at the information desk to Olivia’s task on the very day. She asked if it make her mind double, Olivia shook her head, she said, “The number of people I interrogated exceeds the number of fingers in my toe and hands combined”. They then walked past the offices and went on the back door, towards the empty parking lot.

When they went out the beam of the sun, rays on their forehead, Olivia covers it with the folder in her hand, but Emmy laughs at her, she ridicules her for being afraid of the ray of the sun, but not of the task she must achieve. Olivia hits her with the folder and walks away, therefore, Emmy catches her, and apologized, “You teased me earlier, did I get mad?”, she asked. Olivia looked at her in the eyes, for a few seconds, it made Emmy ponder her friend’s inexplicable, actions, but all of a sudden Olivia chuckles and tapped her shoulder,

“What are you doing?”, Emmy asked,

“Messing with you!”, Olivia runs towards her car

Emmy sighs, at how childish her friend is. She couldn’t think how she handles such serious and dangerous cases. She exhales once more, for Olivia’s involvement in political conflict starts now, but when she looks at her face, there’s not a single sign, of a grimace.

Emmy dashes towards Olivia. She gave her a short, concise piece of advice, “Be careful and always look out on what’s behind you”, she said to her friend. Olivia’s face went straight, she nodded, “I will”, and went inside her car.

Olivia’s ride through the noisy, smoke polluted road of the main highway in the city to the silent, windy outskirts, is a journey of a great difference between the busy middle-class citizens of the city, to the rich secluded people. Most of the mansions, villas, and gigantic condominium buildings, were not even their homes, but a palace to stay in when they run away from the outside world.

The soothing breeze makes the trees at the side of the street dance. Olivia’s car roars in the middle, after it drives across the whispers of the wind, at the empty road, then out of nowhere a scene enters her mind. She and the CEO Glen Hopkins, are in a police car right at the very place. Olivia didn’t know why the memory crosses in her mind even though it was nothing but exasperation after Glen demanded thousand of times to let them go because she and Emmy was a bunch of waste of time. Olivia can still recall the sound of his nags, which annoys her the most, especially the last time he threatens Emmy. Olivia understands the reason the jerk acts arrogant is because he was a well-known founder of a huge company, too bad Olivia would still go to see him, Glen was one of the people on the list who has to be interrogated. Well, Olivia doesn’t care about any of his riches or status, she is a woman of law, and the law must put him in his own place.

After an hour of drive, Olivia reaches the outermost part of the outskirt, one street away and it will be another city. There lies alone a tall building, yet even though it has no neighbor infrastructure but only the trees, the building is well guarded. Around ten armed people is outside its intricate metal gates. A famous brand of sports car awaits at the gates, when two of the guards approach it, they exchanged some words with the driver before they let the car in. It’s now Olivia’s turn, she drives her car and the same two guards stand in front of her and stops her.

The guards then ask for her identification and the name of the person she will visit, as well as her purpose in the place. Olivia keeps her mouth shut all the time they question her, instead, she picks up a thing in her pocket and showed it to one of the guards. It is her ID, which indicates herself, a police detective. The guards looked at each other, they didn’t utter a single word, so Olivia made herself clear, “I am be here to interrogate a person if you’ll block me, I’m afraid a conflict might happen, do you want to see more of me come in here?”, she said. The guards didn’t argue with her anymore, and let her car drive inside the place.

Olivia parked her car outside and turned her face everywhere around the building, she tries to memorize and look for information, which might be helpful for the case. She went inside and didn’t notice a single odd thing, therefore she continued and walked towards the information desk.

“Is there a Jennifer Norman, who stays here?”, she asked the concierge,

“Yes, ma’am there is, do you have an appointment with her?”, the concierge said

“No, but I need to have a talk with her right now”, Olivia then drops her ID to the desk, which made the concierge looked at her, with a frozen gesture, but after a few seconds the concierge said, “ In the penthouse…..at the fifth floor”.

“Is she in there now?”, she asked

“Yes,”, the concierge, swallows an invisible air, to her throat,

“Good! Now, keep your mouth silent”, Oliva smirks and thanked her afterwards.

Olivia hoped into the rectangular glass elevator, then delivers her towards the highest floor in the entire establishment. On her way, upwards, a blurred mountain covered with fog can be seen from the elevator. Beneath the landscape is a forest filled with gigantic trees, therefore it made the top cone part of the mountain visible.

The sight gives a sigh of relief in Olivia’s heart, but she doesn’t know why. Could she be tired of the city? “Probably”, Olivia whispered to herself, and all of the elevator dings, and its doors open.

A wooden door appears right in front of Olivia, she turned her head from side to side, but it

is the only room, on the floor. “This must be it”, Olivia told herself and knocks on the door, three times, and an instantaneous high-pitched bark of a dog causes her to flinch a little. Olivia knocks on once more, and at that moment the door opens.

A young black-haired woman in red lingerie shows up. Olivia averted her eyes at the side, “Oh!, would you mind putting on some clothes”, she said to the woman, “Why would I? I don’t even know who are you?”, the woman giggles. Olivia now turns her face to her, she must let the woman know, her true purpose, to cut the interrogation precise and short. “Are you Jennifer Norman?”, Olivia asked, her words resulted on Jennifer to narrow her eyes, and stand straight. “What do you want from me?”, she said. Olivia makes herself clear, therefore, she flips open her ID holder, and showed her identity to her. “I am here to ask a few questions about the latest incident of the former Mayor, Sotto, I hope you cooperate with us”.

Jennifer’s face went straight. With her expression, Olivia perceives this woman, might have a useful piece of information about the incident, and she must know it.

“All, right....come in”, Jennifer, said, in an undertone voice, and covered herself with a robe, from the top of her couch. The two women came in, yet only Olivia pauses a few inches away from the door. She looked around for a few seconds, and still, nothing, not even a single odd detail seems strange around the place. However, a pair of clothes are on the floor. she was about to ask if Jennifer has a visitor, or she has someone who lives with her, but out of nowhere, a man in a boxer comes out on one of the bedrooms. Olivia turned her back this time, and when, Jennifer noticed it, she apologizes to her and ordered the man to get out.

They said, the first impression lasts, this event for sure will stick in her memory. Jennifer offered Olivia to sit down, and after a couple of minutes, she places a glass of orange juice on the table in front of her, then sits down.

“What can I do for you?”, Jennifer asked. Olivia takes out a series of pictures and places it on the table. Jennifer, picks up one of them, it was a picture of her, and the former Mayor Halbert in the bathroom, kissing. She didn’t say a word, instead, she bites her lips.

“Eight-thirty in the evening, ten minutes before the murder happened, you were with the victim, can you tell me what is your relationship with him?”, Olivia told her. However, Jennifer shrugs her shoulder a little and said,

“Nothing”. Olivia smiles at her, and pulled more pictures of her and Halbert, from the folder, “Are you still going to deny it?”. Jennifer is now left with no choice but to tell, the truth.

“We had an affair”, she sighed, then her eyes widen, and she holds Oliva’s hand on the table, “Please keep it a secret, I don’t want to be involved with him, anymore”, she said, then Olivia asked, her, “Halbert created, many enemies”, her hands became cold and sweaty when she uttered the word one by one.

Olivia stares at her eyes, and said, “Do you know who they are?”,

Jennifer shakes her trembling head, then she leans forward “He always assures, I have guards on my side because our lives are not safe”, she whispered.

“Did you hear him say anything, about them”, Olivia asked, and once more, Jennifer shook her head, “We don’t talk in regards to politics, since we see each other, for only once a week”,

“I see”, Olivia sighs, she understands, Jennifer is Halbert’s mistress, “Did you notice or saw

signs, of you know...something odd about him, even before the event?”,

“Nothing,” Jennifer said.

“What about during the event? Why did you leave Mr. Sotto alone in the bathroom”, Oliva added,

“ I don’t know, anymore, I left, him, because I forgot my phone, on my bag”, she cried, “I can’t leave it….I assure you, there must have been a CCTV footage of me, in a call”, Jennifer uttered with conviction

Olivia replied, she would look into it, yet inside her mind, she found Jennifer’s statement, ridiculous, and she doesn’t believe a single word from her. But still, she took down notes and recorded her statement. and afterwards, she said “Did you see a strange event or action?”, then all of a sudden, Jennifer gasps, “ The guards, it must have been the guards, I noticed their eyes were on Halbert, most of the evening”,

“Is that all?”, Olivia, asked since she already suspected one of the guards was murdered. They have caught their footage before the incident happened.

“Yes”, Jennifer nodded

Olivia pulled more pictures again, this time, it was her, and the CEO Glen Hopkins, “Can you explain this picture to me?”, she said,

Jennifer smirked, “I met him at the event, that’s all”,

Olivia wrote it on the pad paper, then picked up all of her stuff, and placed it inside the bag. She stands up and offered her hand, “Thank you for cooperating Ms. Norman, I might need your help, again soon, I hope you wouldunderstand”,

“No, worries”, Jennifer told her.