89

November 27, 202*, 8:05 p.m. at Luna's Hotel

A man in his mid-50's entered the hotel together with a woman. The woman was sweetly clinging to the man's arm while walking to the hotel's counter to check in. The lady at the counter smiled and greeted them like she knew both of them.

"Same room, Sir?" the lady asked. The man laughed at her, "Yes! Yes! Thank you." He said and the lady handed the key card to the man. The man and woman walked into the elevator to go to their hotel room.

When they entered the room, the woman took off her feather jacket revealing her beautiful luxury dress. While the man took off his coat and folded his white long sleeves button shirt until it reached his elbow. On the other side, the woman took out a small bottle containing a red liquid and poured it into the man's wine. When she saw that the man finished fixing his shirt, she quickly disposed of the small bottle by sliding it into the man's suitcase. She smiled sweetly at the man as she gave the wine glass to him. The man accepted it and gave the woman a peck kiss on her cheek. "Cheers? Let's enjoy this night." The man said to the woman as they both stood near the glass window of their room, looking at the city below. "Cheers!" The woman said and drank her wine. A smirk plastered on her lips as her lips touched the rim of the wine glass. After the man drinks his wine, he starts kissing the woman and guides her to their bed. While doing that the man suddenly feels dizzy causing him to stop.

"What happened? Are you okay?" The woman said but her voice sounds like she is enjoying what she is seeing. The man held his head and closed his eyes, "I suddenly felt dizzy." He stood up but he almost fell if the woman didn't hold him. He gets off the woman's hand and starts walking to the table where their wine glasses are. "Bitch." He murmured. He got his wine glass and showed it to the woman who is now smiling at him, a smile as if she won a game. She crossed her arms while watching the man slowly getting weak. "W-why…" the man mumbled while holding his chest. He is now kneeling, almost out of breath. The woman is laughing like an evil witch as she walks towards the man who is almost dying. She touched his face and smiled evilly to him, "Die." She said and pushed the man causing him to fully fall on the floor. He tried to reach her but she just stepped on his hand which made him moan in pain.

"Are you that dumb not to notice that I only approached you because of your business? Villa Love. What a disgusting name for a beach resort." she said and poured another wine into her glass. She sat on the sofa near the man who was about to lose his last breath. "Your resort is quite prominent. I hate it. I like that people only notice my resort. I want my resort to be at the top. You see, I am selfish." She said while playing with her wine. "Do you think that I am willing to be your woman? Of course, not." She laughed in disgust. "And I don't know that you are that idiot when you let me buy stocks at your company. Well, thanks to that, I am now your company's biggest shareholder. You are going to die now, I guess, your company will soon be mine?" The man can't do anything except look at her with his angry eyes. "Everyone in your company knows that I am your woman, they will not be shocked if some of these days I will announce that I will take over your position." She walked toward the man and shook her head. The man's already dead.

She gets her phone and dialed someone's number who is not saved in her contacts. "I'm done. Tell your men to clean this up. Tell them to make it look like a suicide, that he poisoned himself." She said and ended the call. She puts on her feather jacket and confidently walks out of the room. She winks at the lady at the counter and puts her pointing finger to her lips while smiling at the lady.

***

"Aish! This damn traffic!" Lanie complained. She opened the window of her car and peeked at what happened to be this traffic at 6 a.m. She saw some policemen including Lieutenant Alvarez looking stressed early in the morning.

A gloomy atmosphere welcomed her when he entered the lobby of the Pyeha Hotel. She didn't see any people roaming around and it was too silent here. She changed in the locker room, she expected to see Althea there but no one was there. Where the heck did people go? She went again to the lobby and saw Althea walking in. Did she go outside? Althea seems in her deep thoughts because she did not notice Lanie. After a minute, Mark entered the lobby, same with Althea, it seems like he did not see her too.

'What happened?' Lanie was clueless about what was happening.

"Hey." Althea looked at her in horror when she greeted her. What's with that… look?

"What happened? Why were you outside?" she asked. Althea gets tissues and wipes her sweat. Then, people start to come in. Wait. These people are their guests.

"Why did he do that? I can't see any reason to kill himself like that."

"It's creepy. Did you see his corpse? His face was almost black and his eyes were rolled back."

Her eyebrows furrowed when she heard the gossip from the people passing by. Did someone die? Fear slowly crawled through her body with the thought of that. She looked at Althea who was still calming herself down. Did she go outside to look at what happened? Did she see the corpse? Althea will not act like this if not. So, Lanie quickly got her phone to search for what happened. Her eyes became wide and she almost fell if she did not hold on to the counter desk. She breathed and read the news article once again.

"Exactly 9 p.m., Mr. Gary Lopez, the owner of Villa Love, was found dead in room 89 of Luna's Hotel. One of the staff of the hotel saw the cold body of Mr. Lopez and immediately reported it. The authorities found a small bottle on the floor near him that was said to be the poison he used to kill himself. Based on the CCTV footage of the hotel, Mr. Lopez entered the hotel lobby by himself at 8:05 in the evening. The authorities are still looking for the possible reason why Mr. Lopez took his own life."

She immediately went to the employees' pantry. She drank water to calm herself. Luna's Hotel is just near to Pyeha hotel. How many times does she have to witness and hear the news that someone died either before her eyes or in the same and near place as hers?

'Should I leave now?' She thought.

"No. Not yet. I still have to finish the investigation." Lanie said to herself. She fixed her hair, the mannerism of her every time she needed to compose herself. She went out and went back to the lobby and there she saw Mr. Lancaster and Kieffer talking to Althea seriously. They looked at her when they saw her coming.