Chapter 6
634 Words
One day later, I'm back in the interrogation room with Tobias Miller.
"Hello, great to see you again!" He greeted first.
"Good morning, Mr. Miller."
"Oh, kilala na natin ang isa't isa, Nathalie. Call me Tobias."
'What do I do now?'
I'll stick with formality.
"Mr. Miller, let us start with questions."
"When I think of it, Mr. Miller sounds good too."
"Focus, please. Gaano mo na katagal kilala ang biktima?"
"Since I decided to move to the Palacio quarter and started looking for someone to share rent with."
"Kailan yan?"
"Errr...seven months ago."
"Bakit ka nagdecide na tumira with Mr. Stevens?"
"He seemed like a nice guy, at first."
"Seemed...what happened later?"
"Turned out he was messy and loud."
"Did he pay the rent regularly?"
"Humiram siya sakin more than once. But he returned all the money a couple of days before....errr..."
"Before the murder. So he wasn't very well?"
"He performed at some fancy clubs, but he just wasn't good with money.
"Pwede kaba magsabi samin ng bagay na can lead us to the perpetrator?"
"Well, I could tell you some things..."
"I'm listening."
"But first, ipangako mo muna na you'll go out with me."
"What?! I'm getting someone else to finish the interrogation. And this time it's going to be a bad cop."
"You said you don't really do that."
Nathalie, besides myself, dials Chief Williams.
"Sir, it's Nathalie. Can you get an officer to finish the interrogation here, the witness is uncooperative?
"Calm down, Nathalie! What seems to be the problem?"
"He has developed....feelings... that he cannot suppress in my presence. And it's damaging the investigation."
"Haahaahaa! He fell in love! Aww! How sweet!"
"It's not funny, sir."
"Oh, but it is! I can't help you right now. May meeting ako in 5 minutes from now and the only one free is si William."
"But he never..."
"...gets it right. I know."
"OK, i'll try to fix this myself somehow."
The call ended.
"Mr. Miller I would really like you to leave your emotions out of this."
"Uh..OK. I didn't want to get you upset. I was selfish. Just let me ask you one question and then sasabihin ko lahat. OK?"
"Urgh...OK."
"If we had met in different circumstances, would you consider a date with me?"
'Ano isasagot ko?'
Stay professional.
"Mr. Miller, we hadn't met in different circumstances."
"You cannot try and imagine it?"
"I'm sorry, I'm working with facts."
"Fantasy belongs to your world, not mine."
"Magkaibang mundo, right.."
"Maaari na ba tayong bumalik sa imbestigasyon?"
"Sure...Uh, you asked me about Razen..."
"Yes. Anything that can be considered suspicious."
"OK, so he played at the club called the Pirate Ship for the last four months. Nung nagsimula siyang maglaro doon, he was dating this young waitress, Vanessa Stein. She came by often. However, several weeks later, they started fighting real bad. A week later, naghiwalay na sila."
"Anong rason?"
"Turned out he started seeing this girl he met at The Pirate Ship, Valerie."
"At sino naman iyon?"
"The owner's daughter. And he also said the owner was a dangerous man."
"Von Martin."
"He was also kind of secretive about that whole thing with Valerie."
"All right, so a jealous ex-girlfriend and a dangerous club-owner. Good places to start. You also said Mr. Stevens paid his debts several days before the murder?"
"Yes."
"A new girlfriend, with rich and dangerous dad, and suddenly he's throwing money around. Well, thank you Mr. Miller, sobra itong nakakatulong."
"I'm glad, nakakatulong ako."
Umalis na si Mr. Miller, at naiwan akong mag isa dito sa interrogation room. Nag-iisip ako nang biglang tumunog ang phone ko.
"Chief?"
"Nathalie! Pumunta ka ngayon dito sa office ko. Dalian mo, importante ito!"
"On my way, Sir!"
- Writer
