Chapter 49: Chapter 49

Detective Taylor, dressed in a blue shirt and brown pants, held a file in his hands. His usually calm face was differently serious, and he glared dangerously as he paced towards Inspector Roosen's office which they both shared as partners.

Knock! Knock!

He softly tapped his knuckles on the door before reaching for the door knob.

" Manners detective, what if I had my hands in my private parts?" Inspector Roosen joked as she dug her head back in the file laid on her table. She wore magnifying glasses that added a mature allure to her appearance.

"Tsk!" The detective clicked his tongue as his brows twitched. He could never get used to inspector Roosen's banters. They were always too vulgar and extreme.

" We have report regarding the murder case involving Bob Richardson..." He said as he neared her table and dropped the file in his hands in front of her. He leaned over beside her and rested his hands on the back of her chair.

Inspector Roosen straightened her back and furrowed her brows at the file. She quickly flipped it open and read through. She was especially interested in the Adam Mash's murder case.

" Just yesterday, we found a golden tooth with blood stains in a corner of the crime scene. Experts said it must have fallen out from a struggle put up by the victim. There were indications on the victim's right knuckle..." Detective Taylor informed in brief details, pointing out the lead they had regarding the case at hand.

The inspector kept flipping through the files and nodded her head indiscernibly as she skimmed through the report file.

Being used to this, Detective Taylor continued nevertheless " Just today, one of the neighbors had said they had noticed the appearance of one of the suspects during interrogation..." He leaned closer, and put a finger to where the description is.

" Here..."

" Tall figure, black curly hair, tattoos on the neck and arm" Inspector Roosen muttered seeing the report.

" And what'd the database point out?" She asked.

" Five suspects fill the profile. And guess what..." Detective Taylor who leaned forward with his hands on the back of the investigator's chair straightened his back and tucked at his neck tie as he said with a smirk.

" One'o them flashed a golden grin"

The inspector turned in her chair and,

Pa!

" Attaboy" she cheered as she smacked the detective's behind.

The detective jolted but soon fought back the embarrassment.

As though she'd done nothing at all, inspector Roosen rose from her seat and grabbed her coat which she'd prior hung over the back of her chair.

Seeing her flick on her coat, detective Taylor asked with furrowed brows " Ahem! Where are you going?" He cleared his throat to ward off the awkwardness.

' And I'd appreciate it if you could leave my behinds the heck alone!' The detective complained internally. It wasn't like this was the first time he'd voice out his discomfort, she just wouldn't listen anf would even respond with an even more vulgar act.

" To catch the criminal of course!" Inspector Roosen stated as though it was obvious, causing detective Taylor to sigh exasperatedly.

...

Few days later,

Val sat facing Attorney Chris in an open space restaurant. She couldn't help but remember the conviction she made the last time to stay away from attorney Chris.

This time however, she had no choice. Attorney Chris had called her a day after to apologize for his actions. He'd said he understood her stance and would cease from causing her any discomfort henceforth. He further informed that he had something very important to discuss with her, and it was pertinent to the divorce trial.

Val had thought it through and didn't have a choice but to reconsider. Although, she didn't put aside the fact that attorney Chris could be a pervert. Therefore, Val chose a public place to meet with him.

He'd argued about keeping secrecy about the discussion of their meeting and Val had suggested that she knew a safe place...

And that's how she's here with attorney Chris yet again.

But this evening especially, Val didn't regret making the decision to meet with him at such a place.

The evening was slightly breezy, contributing to an atmosphere that set a different kind of outgoing vibe. It was one of those evenings you'd want to go out to unwind.

The interior of the restaurant had a vibrant, yet classical mood. The dining tables were quite far apart from each other and it was almost impossible to eavesdrop on conversations. The aroma of sweet delicacy filled the air.

" Enjoy"

The waiter left after having placed their drinks before them on the table. Val had her usual cocktail whilst Attorney Chris was quite old fashioned in his choice, he had a manhattan.

The attorney gulped a sizable amount of his drink, shook his head and looked at Val for a few moment. Val frowned but didn't show much of discontent, knowing she could come off rude to attorney Chris after the talks they'd prior had to set aside the things of the past.

Val was an adult after all, she hadn't caught the attorney really being a pervert so she couldn't make him to be one just like that.

She only had an intuition that he had done something to her when she had fall unconscious that one time, though not too vulgar. But in any case, pervert or not, she still had to tread carefully around him from now on.

" Again, I apologize for the last time. I just..." Attorney Chris who seemed to have regained his confident calm said listlessly. It was difficult to speak to her after the last conversation they'd had. He seemed a little unsure of how to explain himself.

" It's fine Attorney, I totally understand" Val tried to encourage.

" Haaah!" The attorney sighed as he reached to take another shot at his drink.

' Must be hard for him...' Val pitied the attorney. How awkward it must be to continue a cordial relationship with someone after you'd asked them out and got rejected?

" About the business?" Val shifted the focus of the talk.

" Right!" Attorney Chris said as he put down the glass. " As you very well know, the next trial date is soon on the 24th. And I want to believe that at the moment, we have quite enough to refute most of Mrs Courtney's claims at least" The attorney stated.

' Just how fast time flies, it's close to the trial already?' Val thought. If she knew her date correctly, that would be the next Saturday.

' Do courts open during weekends?' Val doubted. However, she remembered that this was a billionaire's divorce trial.

Val took a sip of her drink and nodded in echoing thought. " Yeah, I don't see her causing Bob so much loss anyway" Val added a speculation seeing this as an opportunity to get the attorney's take on the matter. It's his expertise so Val was curious to know his conjecture.

The goal from the start was to cause as minimal as possible loss for Bob, and that wasn't too far away now that they had Mark's confession in an audio recording.

As a matter of fact, Bob himself knew that without doubt he was going to lose a thing or the other in the divorce trial. But if he didn't do all of this, he might be risking more than he could imagine. After all, Courtney had made her intentions very clear.

" Well, that's about right Ms Valerie. But I and Mr Bob have come up with a thought..." The attorney directed the course of the conversation to the main point, causing Val to let out her concern,

" What's that?" She squeezed her face.

" You see, we have a feeling that the woman might be hiding something. And we suspect a certain place. In fact, it's one of the few places you might ever think of. Her office" Attorney Chris smiled.

Val's eyes widened as she stared at a fixed point in thought.

' That's true. There has to be something relevant to the matter in Courtney's office. She wouldn't hide such things in a safe bank, hehe. As a matter of fact, she'd want to keep such a secret close to herself. And where else but her office?'

Besides, any additional information that could aid as evidence towards the divorce was needful, and without doubt, an additional information of such nature has to be in Courtney's office. There just has to be something.

Val was brought out of her thought when Attorney Chris spoke again.

" So we thought to ask if you could do this for us."

" Why me!?" she quickly retorted. it was a critical mission after all, how was she to carry it out?

" Well, it's easier for you to make excuses to infiltrate. Don't worry, we'll make certain that the coast is as clear as day for you to infiltrate. all you have to do is a quick in and out mission" Attorney Chris explained.

' Bullshit, with these terms you speak why not just send a special op?!' Val almost screamed.

Val thought about it for a while. It was plausible what the attorney had said. But she just couldn't shake the nerves she got from the idea.

" I don't think I can do this, attorney"

" We suspect she'd have to leave for the trial by Friday. We'll confirm her flight time and schedule how we can make you infiltrate. Of course, she'd believe that I have to be out of town as well, I'd be leaving by Thursday by the way. So she wouldn't have a reason to suspect that we'd pull such a final blow" Attorney Chris stated seriously.

" At that time you can infiltrate her office with a key card that we're gonna provide to you, and send anything you find to me through your phone"

" So, now what do you think? hm?" He asked picking up his drink again.

Val raised her brows in realization. It doesn't sound so harmful the way he explained it.

She figured she was in on this already, she shouldn't back out from helping that man now. It could raise her chance of getting more than she deserved from Bob after all, she really had her hopes on this. She wasn't the only one dependent on it. There's another life at stake here.

' After the trial, I'd be leaving the company.'

" The cams?" Val asked, however, all she got was a "seriously?" look from the attorney. He was currently not a flirty perv that she had previously thought of him.

" Haaah! Alright. But tell Bob this will cost an addition to the tab..." Val sighed after thinking about it for long. Of course, Courtney would suspect that something was off if a new employee was employed at this moment to do this job.

In truth, she'd been in the company as a harmless decoy for long enough that Courtney must have realized Bob had only put Val in there to make Courtney fear that he was up to something. In short, she must have realized it was nothing but a bluff.

Hence, she wouldn't see this 'final blow', as attorney Chris called it, coming.

" As you wish" The attorney beamed with a professional smile.