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CHAPTER 9

Exactly two weeks after Angela Orlu's death, David got to work as early as usual at 6:00am and sat in his chair. He just stared into space all through his first hour in his office. He was thinking about so many things- His new job, the outrageous salary and bonuses, the deaths, William's return and his offer to help keep him safe. Keep him safe from who or what? Elizabeth's involvement in Angela's murder. Could she have done it? Could she have done it and still act so saintly as she had the other day? He had no answers to the questions. The two biggest celebrities under the company just died under mysterious circumstances which gave him or anyone enough reasons to be wary. He tried getting himself to get to work but he just found it hard to concentrate. One hour later and he had not still done anything other than stare into space and think. Some minutes past seven AM, Professor Charles Chole peered in and walked into David's office.

"Good Morning sir." David said standing up.

"Morning." Charles mumbled and nodded. "How are you preparing for your examinations?"

"Errmm.. I don't know. Fine. I've been distracted by the happenings around but I'll cope." David said.

"Distracted? How? How are they any of your business?"

David raised his eyebrows. He kept silent.

"Better get properly prepared. You wouldn't want to break the record would you?"

David still kept quiet.

"Good." Charles said and walked towards the door.

***

"David got up and headed for the door. He walked out of his office towards the elevator. He got in and noticed the button for the tenth floor had been pressed. Apparently the beautiful young lady beside him was going to the tenth floor too. "Hi," David said to her.
She was dressed in tight black leather pants which emphasized all of her features and David had almost never beheld a pair of stilletos that high. She flipped her head backwards and her hair flung to the back to form a beautiful mane while she stood with her head high. "Hi." She said to David.

"You're new here?" David said trying to strike a conversation with her.

"Yes. I'm about to sign a movie contract."

"You're an actress? I don't know you.

"You've probably been watching the wrong movies."

"I'm David. You are."

"Stay updated with movie news. I'm sure you'll find out what my name is and you're gonna bless this day." She responded and stepped out of the elevator which had stopped on the tenth floor.

David got out too. Richard and Moni Aji were standing outside the elevator. Moni gave him a smile while he forced himself to smile back. He veered to his right towards the movie studio. Posters and wallpapers bearing the photos of Angela Orji still remained on the walla but they instead bore mournful messages and there was a sad tone to the colours of everything around him. He kept walking and entered into the studio. It was dreadfully silent And dark. He looked at the stage and he came to a stark realisation of what his business really was in there. Investigations were ongoing and here he was at a murder or death scene as the case may be. He strode round the large room looking for nothing in particular. Everywhere was cleaned up and there really was nothing to find even if he was looking for anything. He decided he was going to leave afterall then something struck his attention. A leather-jacket was on the floor well out of view. It was right under the director's seat. Which explains why nobody took any notice of it. The cops must have concentrated mainly on the stage where Angela's corpse was found. "Dumbos." Davod muttered to himself. He bent down to pick it but straightened himself. Common sense told him if the jacket was some sort of evidence, he'd better pick it with gloves and keep it in an evidence bag or polythene bag. He looked around and could find nothing that would suffice for the items he needed. He dashed out at once towards the elevator bumping into a cleaner outside. "Sorry." He managed to say and walked as fast as he could towards the elevator which took him straight down to the second floor.

***

In the topmost floor of COLE Consolidated Building, Charlie and Eddie were relaxing in their chairs before the numerous screens where the watched people real time. A young man dressed in cleaner robes got into the room half-breathing half-gasping. "I got it." He said raising a leather-jacket up for the duo to see.

"Great." Eddie said.

"But I found the new guy snooping around. Do you think he might be suspecting something?" The cleaner asked.

"There is only one way to know." Charlie said and pressed some buttons and David's office came into view on one of the screens. "There." He said smiling satisfactorily. David was seen holding a bag and heading out of his office.

"-Bleep! He was coming back for the jacket."

"Thank your stars. And hope the boss doesn't know about the mistake." Eddie said.

"What's going on here?" Max, the heavily built man bellowed as he came in. "And why are you watching David Osho?"

"He was in the studio today. I don't know what he was looking for but he was there." The cleaner said.

"Okay." Get back to work. "Richard and Moni Aji have been taken care of." He said and went out back the way he came.