The Man In The Photo

"So," Oliver rubbed his temple and tucked the photo away. "What is our next course of action?"

"I still insist you speak to your father and to Valerie."

Oliver shifted a bit uneasily in his chair. "The first is outright impossible. Until I prove myself innocent, my father will never speak to me with a calm head. To him I'm a disgrace.

"The second person can be arranged, though, with great difficulty. She doesn't even want to hear me breath."

Steve sighed in sympathy and took another sip from his glass. He looked at Oliver through the rim of his glass and said. "Then we should focus on finding the hotel staff and then speaking to the bar owner but our main priority is to find out who the man in that photo is."

Oliver nodded in agreement. They sat there for a while in silent before Oliver asked. "How do we track this man down again?"

Steve shrugged. "I guess we could upload his picture on social media but this might tip him off. Honestly, I don't know yet."

It was at this moment that someone approached them. "Excuse me, good evening."

They looked at the lady who stood before them with a slightly dishevelled appearance. Her clothes were wrinkled and dirty with dust. She had tactically tied up the top and this revealed her belly button.

Oliver's first thought was that she was one of the runs girls but he changed his mind. Girls terrified him these days. Here he was being bundled up with one that would rather see his corpse mangled together enough to fit into her purse.

"Have you seen this man?" the lady held up a photo and showed them the two men in the photo.

Oliver and Steve froze the moment they saw the two men in the photo. One was clearly Oliver and the other was the man they just saw in the photo that Steve had handed him. In the lady's photo, the unknown man was holding a gun to Oliver's head while pushing him towards a building but the part of the photo was unclear.

"This is wonderful!" Steve looked excited already.

Oliver glanced at the woman and pointed at himself. "I'm the man in the photo."

The woman then took a careful look at him then she saw the semblance. The man in the photo had his hair trimmed short but this person here—though his hair was a little unkempt—looked exactly like him!

"Thank heavens I found you directly…"

"Who are you and why are you looking for me?"

She sighed and pulled a chair over. "My name is Clair and the man in the photo, the one with the gun, is or was my boyfriend."

Oliver and Steve felt a ton of questions erupt in their minds but they held themselves back from asking too soon. "He's dead?"

Clair nodded. "What's your name?"

"Oliver and this is my friend Steve." Oliver introduced. "We've been working on the case involving this man and me. He seemed to have kidnapped me for some reason and this photo of yours proves it."

Clair listened while taking in the excited expressions of both men. They seemed surprised and shocked but somewhat pleased. She too was pleased that she had finally found part of her answers but something left her unsettled.

The man said that they were investigating the reason behind why Bobby kidnapped him. This meant that their goals were aligned. She inwardly thanked her lucky stars. It was a relief after all she had been through in the past two weeks just to locate the man.

"That's perfect!" she said with a tired smile. "Bobby was murdered a few weeks ago and this photo is the only clue I have to answer my questions."

"Do you think this has something to do with your case? His murder I mean?" Steve turned to Oliver for confirmation.

Oliver wiped his brows yet again but before he could give a reply, Clair had already beaten him to it. "I think it has everything to do with it. I found a gun—the same one in the photo—in his box and also a uniform.

"He isn't wearing the uniform now but I'm pretty sure he was hired by those people who own that uniform to kidnap you and when you escaped they must have hunted him down and killed him."

"I didn't escape." Oliver said.

Clair gave his a quizzical look. Steve smiled tightly and gulped down more beer. Oliver then added. "I was brought to that location and then…I was forced to rape a girl."

He figured that there was no reason hiding it and there was no reason denying it or trying to prove his innocence to Clair. He just wanted her grasp the crux of the matter.

Clair snapped her finger. "That's it! If that's the case then he became a witness and a liability. One they could not afford to have so they took care of him!"

"I think this fits!" Steve said suddenly. "This might give us a clue to who the blackmailers are!"

Oliver nodded. "But if he was hired by this 'group' of people you talked about doesn't that make it dangerous to dig further into this matter?"

Clair shook her head. "I don't know but I think it's worth a shot. I want to bring down those people and any help will be appreciated."

"Grab a drink, girl," Steve pushed a bottle towards her. "You're in."

She nodded but didn't take the drink. "Let's see what you know so far then we can work from there."

"First we need to see that uniform."

She nodded. "Maybe tomorrow? I didn't bring it today."

"Alright," Oliver said. "We can meet here tomorrow by this time."

They nodded and exchanged glances. Steve then informed her, "We also found clues that might lead us to who paid your boyfriend to do what he did."

Oliver didn't know whether to be happy at this development or not. The lady's boyfriend was the one who dragged him into this. He was the reason his life was a living hell and personally he would feel better if he could strangle him.

However, he felt sad for her to know that the man was brutally murdered. At least he met his end. He pressed his palm on the table and sighed.

Clair was ecstatic to hear that the two had clues. She nodded. "Tell me about it."

The two brought her up to speed with all their findings so far.