Chapter 20.

Ready for my shift, I crawled into the driver’s seat from the back and immediately made my way to work. I parked in my usual stall outside the office and entered the building. The moment I entered the room, the chatter inside died down; it was to the point that a pin could be heard if one were dropped. All the eyes in the room locked onto me the moment I stepped into the building.

It appeared that there were already rumors in circulation that had spread about the incident with Rick.

“I get that you all may have already heard a bit about the situation and you probably have questions, but I don’t know anything more than you do. Honestly, I’m just as confused as you all are regarding what happened.”

“...”

Nobody spoke up at first, but after a few minutes in this awkward silence, one of the junior repair technicians finally worked up the courage and asked.

“Do you really not know more about what happened to Rick? I-i-is he really...”

Before responding to his question, I breathed in before letting out a long drawn-out breath.

“Yes, he is.”

When I affirmed the truth, whispers once again broke out in the surroundings. It was at that very moment a woman from HR came over and pulled me towards the boss’ office away from the chattering workers.

“The boss would like to see you immediately. Please go in.”

I knew it was bound to happen eventually. I followed as instructed and opened up the door and instantly locked eyes with my boss. She had an intense glare directed towards me the moment I stepped into her office.

“Mr. Genovese, I presume you know why I’ve called you here, correct?”

“Is it because I stole pens from the office?”

“Cut the crap. I received a call this morning from the cops who informed me that one of our junior technicians committed suicide yesterday.”

“Suicide?”

There was no way they would really declare it as suicide so quickly, right? Did they even properly investigate? It’s only been a night.

“Yes. Suicide. But of course, when they explained the circumstances behind his death there was no way I could easily believe it was a mere case of suicide. Tell me now, did you really have nothing to do with Rick’s death?”

“Definitely not. I have a solid alibi, there’s no way I could have killed him. The cops should have been easily able to verify everything I did yesterday.”

“Yes, I heard about that too. You stayed at a hotel and allegedly visited his apartment to check on him, worried that something was wrong when he didn’t show up to work yesterday after the drinking party you had with a few of my other junior repair technicians. Was that what your story was?”

“... that’s right, but how do you know all that?”

“Thanks to a friend of mine in the force, I was able to gather a bit of information about you and the details related to the case.”

“I see.”

“Did you really only go visit his place to check on him like you said you did yesterday?”

Uh oh, did they catch onto the fact that I’d entered his room? Did somebody actually discover all the events that transpired when I visited Rick’s place?

“I definitely did visit his place.”

“Why are you lying?”

“What do you mean lying?”

“The cops were able to verify that you were definitely at the hotel you said you were on the night he died. They were also unable to find any connection linking you to the scene of the crime. The sensor logs showed that you entered the room and never left it until the door was opened by the housekeeping worker. The housekeeping worker verified you were in the room as well when she entered. There were also no signs of forced exit through the window in the room, nor was there any trace of tampering with the sensor data or security footage. There was no footage of you seen leaving the room or building. The only contradiction in your statement was the fact that there were no eyewitnesses or recorded footage of you entering Rick’s apartment yesterday. Explain to me, what is the meaning behind this one contradiction in the statement you gave the police?”

“What do you mean I never went to his apartment?! There is no way there isn’t any footage! I was definitely there! And what do you mean no witnesses saw me as well?! I know for a fact there was at least one girl who saw me that day.”

“Like I said, they found not a single witness or recording. There is zero evidence that you ever visited his apartment. Not even a single fingerprint.”

“The cops should be contacting you soon to follow up on the contradiction in the statement you gave them. I hate dealing with unnecessary and bothersome work you know.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“In the information I collected on you through an acquaintance of mine, I learned of a certain name, ‘Adele Homestalk,’ does the name sound familiar to you?”

“Yes... I know of her.”

“It’s good that you know of her name. I would have fired you on the spot if you denied it. Then, how about these four women? Do you know them as well?”

She slid a piece of paper across the desk with the names of four women I was quite familiar with. Reading the names one by one, I felt horrible; my stomach was churning to the point of sickness just from thinking of any one of the five women's names she’d written down.

“Well?”

“Yes. I know them as well. They are all ex-girlfriends of mine.”

“Really… if I knew you had such baggage I would never have hired you. Five insane psychopaths for girlfriends. You really are a chick magnet, aren’t you?”

“Trust me, if I knew they were psychopaths I would never have dated them.”

“Well, what’s done is done. Since you were honest about it and didn’t lie to my face, for the time being, I’ll let this slide, just this once. However, there will not be a second chance after this. In the meantime, you better come up with a way to fix the contradiction in the statement you gave the cops. I don’t know why you lied about something unnecessary like that, but the cops won’t be as lenient as I am. I hate scandals. You’re lucky I still consider your skills to be an asset to the company; however, if things blow up, I will cut all ties between you and the company immediately. You may take your leave.”

Ouch. She was still as cold and heartless as ever. Meeting the boss was always nerve-wracking, but thankfully it was over. Since I’d received pardon and a heavy warning, now that I was dismissed, I turned and exited the room in record time before she had a sudden change of mind.