THE CULPRIT'S VERDICT
CHAPTER 7

While waiting for our order to come to the table, Lexter started talking about his meeting with the private investigator.

"Our investigator had been looking through various profiles your parents had a connection with. He couldn't replace any suspicious individuals yet, but-," he cut his words short, hesitant if he should say it or not. "But?" I urged impatiently.

"H-he is thinking that your parents were involved in a syndicate or an unknown organization. He has a basis for saying that, but he wished not to spill all the beans yet," he continued.

I pondered the investigator's suspicion. I knew my parents were quite secretive and they had kept me out of their business. My almost eight years of separation from them, living in Canada to continue my study, had made me lose track of the things happening in their life.

"Also, agent Joe asked me to give this to you." Lexter handed a dual seal system tear strip, brown envelope. "He said, what's inside are just copies of evidence the NBI had obtained and had been looking into. He can't see any valuable relation of these to the case, but he was thinking you might know something."

I opened the envelope. A sharp pain pierced my chest as I stared at its contents. It was as if someone stabbed me with a knife. Most of it was photos taken from the crime scene while others were CCTV footage taken in our garage. They brought back memories I hated to refresh on my mind, but if I couldn't be strong enough to check it, there won't be any future to my plans. I need to be brave.

Surprisingly, while swapping the pictures, a small transparent zip-lock pop plastic bag fell on the table, my eyes grew wide in incredulity. "What's this?"

I removed the inside and examined it closely. It had a yellow-gold necklace with a seemingly twin snake, similar to the miniature I saw in the CEO's office, hanging as a pendant but with a pointed edge. Lexter gawked closely, "Is it a key pendant necklace?" he inquired.

His word made me think, "More likely."

"If there's a key, there must be a lock," he presumed.

"But there isn't anything here anymore," I said as I showed him an empty envelope.

Later that night, I figured out from the investigator that the necklace was obtained in my parents' burnt-out vehicle. I didn't remember seeing my Mom wearing it, hence it remained a puzzle piece to me.

I didn't sleep well, so I got up early the following day and went to the office. The ground floor was peaceful. Only a handful of staff was working, not much more than one drowsy guard and a fine lady who busied herself at the counter.

I got startled when my boss showed up from behind me.

"I'm guessing you're quite excited to see me that's why you come to work very early," he said with a smirk playing on his full, rosy lips.

"Morning sir. Being punctual is just my hobby," I said in a lazy voice, not minding his other statement.

"So, how was your first day yesterday?"

"It was awesome sir. Probably the best and most productive day of my life," I said sarcastically and for a goddamn reason, he chuckled softly.

"Really? Should I make each day an awesome and productive one for you?"

I stared at him, assessing if he was serious about what he had just said. "Whatever it is that pleases you, sir," I responded. He was the type of person who would annoy you to death, so instead of joining him on his game, might as well quit. Staying calm with him around was hard, yet I had to control my temper, so I won't be kicked out of this company.

While we were walking in the hallway, I saw a familiar face. He was staring back in our direction. I didn't take away my eyes from him as I walk; I was trying hard to think where I had possibly met him.

"Ouch," I complained when I bumped my face on a hard surface. Oh, it was just Ryle's back. Why did he stop?

I caught him glaring at the man I was looking at.

"Hey," he called the attention of the man. I acknowledged who it was when he approached, Mr. Valmier Llaneda, the CEO.

"What makes you come early? It's so unusual."

"Am I not the CEO of this company? I can come and go whatever time I want," Mr. Lleneda explained; barely interested in the topic

"Yeah, right. Anyways, we still have works to do," Ryle declared and motioned me to follow. I lowered my head to the CEO as a sign of respect, then walked after the devil, Ryle.

That man was the CEO and Ryle was the Chief Operating Officer. Shouldn't it make the two of them more closely and respectful of one another?

When I reached my area, just outside of Mr. Ryle's room, I grabbed a hold of the folder containing his schedule. I was at the door when I heard him talking to someone over the phone. I couldn't understand the conversation as they were speaking in a different language, so I decided to save my purpose for later.

There weren't many workers yet, so I roamed around to familiarize myself with the area, peeking from room to room to feed my curiosity. When I got contented, I decided to go back to my post. Suddenly, a slight creak of the door and a weird hiss resounded from the room adjacent to me. It stopped me in my tracks.

I slowly turned my head in the direction of the sound and got some goose-bumps seeing a door gradually open, revealing a small light from the middle section of the darkroom. This was the only lighted room I saw last night.

My feet strolled forward. I collected some courage to push the door a little bit more so I could have a good look, but my heart jumped out when a voice barked from behind me.

"What is a person like you doing in this area?" His authoritative voice echoed in my ears. I slowly looked back at him and gave him a lame smile.

"I-I wa-as j-just having a tour s-since I'm n-new to this place." I managed to answer him, though it was sort of shaky. I didn't know but there was something in him that made me feel intimidated.

"You're not allowed to be in this area," he said. Slowly, he brought his face close to my ears. "A friendly advice, don't be so adventurous as to check every place in this building. It won't be of any good to you."

"O-of course sir. If you d-don't mind, I want to go back to my place, please." At first, he stared at me like he was reading my thoughts, but then he gave way.

"Excuse me," I said and walked past him. Before I fully disappeared into his sight, I look back to get a glance. Unexpectedly, he was staring back at me; I became anxious all of a sudden. There was something weird about him, on how he looked at me. Did we cross paths before? Maybe I should keep an eye on him.

The hands of the clock moved so fast. Some staff had started fixing their areas; others invited me to go with them but I turned them down politely. I had an agenda I needed to finish.

"Not done yet? " Mr. Ryle asked after closing the door to his office.

"Almost, sir. I'm just finalizing your schedule for the whole week." I was actually done, but I wanted to stay for a little while.

"Finish it today. We still have busy days ahead so don't be such a snail when working,"

"Sure, sir," I responded without glancing at him, acting like I was busy.

"You can choose to stay for long but mind you, the ghosts won't be happy to have you here late at night," he said before bustling his way out. An annoying smirk was playing on his lips as he took his exit.

I raised a brow. Was that supposed to scare me? Ghosts? Well, I'm not scared of them!

I spent a little more time browsing the web and checking the CEO's profile. There was nothing much written about him except for his accomplishments. Well, I must say, he was a genius and extremely popular. He had a lot of good records and contributions to this company no wonder at the age of twenty-eight, he was already in charge of running a company.

After settling with the limited information I'd gotten, I pushed my one foot backward and started organizing my things. I locked the drawer and left my post.

On the way, I passed by the area I surveyed earlier. Out of curiousness, my feet dragged me back in front of the "restricted" room. The butterflies in my stomach grumbled as I pushed the rectangular door open. The lights glinted for a second and I thought it was just in my imagination. I peeked with my head first to search for any sign of a human being, but darkness was all in there.

I stepped in, contented with the ample amount of light coming from my phone, and started rummaging each side and corner of the room. It was empty of any furniture.

Why did my instinct hoist me in this place when nothing seemed intriguing here?

Just when I thought it was nothing but a vacant room, a hiss once more lingered in my ears. I turned my body in three hundred sixty degrees to follow the sound, but there was nothing. "Who's here?" I asked with a brave tone; my voice just echoed in the air.

I got goosebumps upon sensing that someone was watching me from the ceiling. I slowly raised my phone and caught a pair of crimson eyes. It twinkled as the light reflected on it. It was just the tiny portion, yet striking part of the huge painting of a serpent with a golden crown on its head. It was quite familiar to me, not that I had seen it once in the CEO's office and my Mom's recovered necklace, but because there was a memory I couldn't pull out of my head. Suddenly, a concealed silhouette created a sudden movement and it snapped me from my preoccupied mind. It freaked me out and made me pull a few steps backward. As my heart started to pound hard, my phone rang. I got particularly surprised that I let the phone fell from my grip.

I stretched my neck to look for my cellphone on the floor, still ringing, I bent my body down to reach it, but I fell on my knees upon a blow on my back.

"Ouch!" I complained.

"What the hell are you doing here?" His voice dominated and reverberated in the air.

With bared teeth, I threw him an annoyed look.