Chapter 8 (pt-1)

Porters Central Construction, the label was written in big silver symbols on the grey-colored building with blue glasses. Samantha stood sighing. “The place looks fancy.”

She blinked her eyes, looking at the whole building with curiosity. She wore a long khaki coat with a white shirt. Even though she was an assistant, she is someone from the station; there has to be some sign of that on her body. Samantha rubbed her hair back to make it stay down as her eyes went to the person beside her.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Jamie asks her. The officer was frowning at the guards looking at them. There was an expression on them, and both of them were whispering something.

Samantha bites the bottom of her lips as she watches the building again. “I wish Sir Alex was here; I am not good with the interviews.”

Alex and Orion were supposed to be here, but for some areas, both of them passed the interview and drove away as soon as they arrived at the station. Samantha was pissed about the act of her senior, but it was an order, so she needed to question the employees of the office anyway.

“What bothers me is they have the right to deny us entry as well.” She blew out a bit of air from her nose, fuming in frustration.

Jamie raised an eyebrow. Samantha was fun to watch as she kept on running around trying to get the work done for her boss.

“I am thinking of how to approach the people who will stare me down.” She turned around, looking around the street a bit; she rubbed her hand in and out of the pocket. Rubbing the back of her neck and cracking to get rid of tension while her fingers unconsciously checked if the hair bun pins are in the right place. She ticked the glass to sit properly on the nose.

“Alright, let’s do this.” She informed Jamie with a nod.

Samantha started to walk with Jamie just behind her. She took long steps, keeping her back straight to show confidence. Jamie walked just two steps behind; he was here for the protection. They stopped just a moment in front of the gate as Samantha showed her badge. The guards let them in with a nod. He also made a note in his small com to inform their entry. Jamie noticed his lip moving; he tried to understand the words from the receiving end, but as usual, it was not clear. Jamie gave up and focused on walking in with Samantha.

The lobby was decorated with pictures of their latest achievements, making the advertisement. Only a few employees were walking in the middle of the building with suits and tabs in their hands. Samantha scoffs as she approaches the wooden-colored front desk where two receptionists sat with their faces staring at the computer. The sound of her feet made both of them alert, even though Jamie was confident they got the information of their arrival before. Samantha took out the badge. We are from the station; I believe an appointment has been made.

The receptionist eyed the badge first before asking. “We cannot let anyone enter without a warrant, and there was no appointment made, according to what we see here.”

She scrolled through the tab screen. “I see…”

Samantha took out her phone and pulled out a screen before the receptionist. “As you can see here, I booked an appointment with your boss yesterday. It was this place here who approved the timing. Are you claiming this is not real?”

The girl took the phone and placed it on the desk as she watched the virtual form. “Indeed there was an appointment made. However, it seems to be missing in my list. Please wait for a bit so that I can make a call.”

She handed back the phone as she took the phone from her side.

Samantha nodded and stepped back a bit, facing Jamie. He stood straight, not giving out anything to the second receptionist, who was eyeing him. “Was there really a mistake?”

“I don’t think so. Instead, I think they tried to avoid this. I want to know who is on top now with the main man gone. They should have expected us with their CEO dead.” Samantha moved her face looking at the employees moving in the lobby. She is surprised at how the office is still moving without Liam Foster.

“Excuse me… Mr. Clark will see you now.” Samantha nodded as the second receptionist helped guide them to the office.

She kept on eyeing Jamie a lot. Her eyes were trying to understand him from the corner of her eyes. She looked concerned about something. Jamie wanted to talk to her about this, but they were already in the lift and in front of the fifth-floor office. The glass door had a white tiled tag on the door.

‘Jeffery Robert Clark, Managing Director’ The receptionist opened the door for them. Samantha entered first with Jamie just behind him. There were two men inside the room. They both had suits on. Both of them had gray suit on and one with white shirt blur tie while the other with gray tie and brown shirt.The man in the front came over to offer his hand.

“I am Jeffery Robert Clark; I am sorry we were not informed of your arrival. Please forgive the situation. We have a difficult situation in the office with the loss.” His words mimicked his hand.

It moved from one part to the screen in the office. Channel CityBeat24/7 was on with Selena reading the latest headlines. She had a white suit on with the papers before her. There was a bar of official news on the bottom. The picture of Liam Foster was on the left side of the screen. They were just giving out the name of the victim.

Samantha nodded as her shoulder sagged. “This is what we are here to talk about. It is a murder case, as you can already see. We would require some information from the office, if it is possible.”

Her eyes went to the second man in the room. Clark looked at the man beside him. “Oh, do not worry about him. This is my brother Anthony Roster. We are both working on the company, also the largest shareholders after Liam.” Samantha watched them for a moment. “I believe you are both in good connection with Mr. Foster.”

“Ah yes, of course, we are like brothers, and we share everything.” Clark replied, but at the end, his voice became a bit grim.

He blinked his eyes as the room went silent. He quickly dropped it and raised his head to face Samantha. He wanted to ask something, but his face went confused. Samantha also realized the mistake she made.

“Sorry, I am Detective Samantha Thompson, and this is Officer Jamie Bennett from the station. We are working with Detective Alex Carter in this case. We would like to get some idea on our victim and build a timeline if you have information for us.” Samantha took her time uttering the words to check his expression at the moment.

“If there is anything the police require from us, we would be happy to answer the questions.” He quickly led both of them to the sofa in the middle of the office.

“Please have a seat.” Samantha was interested in the gesture and was ready with her questions.

“I know this might seem out of the blue, but can both of you tell us where you were on Sunday night around one a.m.?” Jeffery and Anthony both matched eyes on the abrupt question.

“Are we under suspicion, detective?” Samantha quickly waved her hand and discarded the word.

“It is not like we are just following formality. There is no suspect list formally made yet.” Anthony blinked his eyes.

“I thought the culprit was the serial killer.” He pointed at the television.

Samantha frowned without even glancing there. The news channels do their best on making news without a proper declaration. “The police need to make sure there is nothing missed in the case.”

Her mind was trying hard to keep the tension normal.

“Ahem, yes, the news channels tend to exaggerate the reality. On Sunday…” His eyes went to the television channel again.

Samantha was confident he was checking the death day of Liam Foster before answering any questions.

“On Sunday, I was in the office party; in fact, we all were…” he pointed to Anthony to clarify.

“Do you remember? Liam was there as well. We achieved a deal from Fitzburgs; it was a hard one to get that deal, thus Liam wanted to treat the whole team.” He leaned back a bit as his eyes were unfocused.