“Lauren, can you tell me where this happened?” I said calmly.

“It happened in the parkade at 10 a.m.” Lauren answered.

How come Mark was talking with her as if they knew each other? How did he know she was the one murdered? Maybe my instincts were wrong. Maybe he was the one who called the police. But no, the building had guards, definitely one of them saw her. I needed to know when she was murdered. I had to call Detective Ronald. I won’t tell him about Mark until I am sure about this, I reasoned.

“Where is the footage after five?” I asked curiously.

“I don’t know. I have to ask Donald, he was the one on duty last night,” Lauren answered.

Could Mark delete the footage? I must find out.

I returned back to the second floor and found Simba and Mark laughing. I sat on the chair and looked at him. I had a feeling Mark was behind this. I could see ‘guilty’ written all over his face.

“What’s wrong with him?” he asked.

“Just work stuff, I guess,” Simba chuckled.

“Let’s have drinks later,” he said and slammed the door.

“What’s wrong with you?” Simba shouted.

I ignored him, I didn’t want to talk. I sat down and continued my work. I didn’t want Simba to find out what I saw in the footage. He would probably think I hated Mark. He was a pretender, reminded me that he once beat his girlfriend when he came to work. Did the police also have a chat with him? After work I went home by foot, hoping Simba wasn’t worried about me. I actually ran away from office saying I needed to submit some forms. All I wanted was to avoid Simba.

I couldn’t sleep well, thinking about how Mark was connected with the murder. I woke up at four a.m. then did some work for the office. I went and made a cup of tea the way I like it, with five spoons of sugar and plenty of milk. I drank it while looking at the window. The orange round sun was setting in the east. The sky looked different, maybe it was going to be cloudy today, I thought. It was quite chilly though. I wore my cartoon pyjamas.

I walked back to my bed and took a note book. I wrote down all the evidence I collected. I doubted the police saw on the footage that Mark talked to her. My phone rang and I fetched it from the table.

“Hello Christopher,” a voice said. I recognised it but wasn’t sure who it was.

“Hello?” I said calmly.

“Can you come to the station?” Detective Ronald chuckled.

“Why? Is everything OK?” I asked nervously.

“Please come in before 10 a.m.,” he said loudly.

“OK. I will be there,” I said annoyed.

I didn’t want to go there. It irritated me then I put my phone on the bed and went to shower. I dressed up in my blue shirt and navy blue trousers with a blue tie. I sprayed some perfume on my armpits. People will think I wash in a pool of perfumes, I thought, everyone will look at me as I pass by. I looked at the mirror and felt confident that everything will be OK. Yes, everything will be fine. I grabbed my bag and put some papers inside and took my phone. I walked out. It was not yet the time Simba usually picked me up. I walked faster, in ten minutes I would be at my office.

A lot of people were in the street holding bags. I remembered everyone hated to wake up early every day. The faces I saw weren’t happy, but we had to go to work so we can do something with our lives. It as a must to work, we needed to provide for ourselves and others.

I entered the building using the front entrance, only a few were in. I climbed the elevator to the third floor. Three offices were in that floor with a kitchen. I was the only one there. I sat in my office so I could do some work and leave at 8:30. My phone beeped while I took some files to the director’s office. It was a message from Simba.

Where the hell are you?

I came in early. I should have notified you.

Yes you should have. What are you up to?

Nothing. I have to see the Detective.

OK. You find something.

No, they asked me to go there.

OK, see you soon.

***

Tell us what you think: Do you think Christopher will tell the police of his findings?