Chapter 506 A Guilty Conscience
Tina had already fallen asleep on the way back. On the way back, Tina had already fallen asleep. Hearing her mumbling right before she slept, Alexander knew that she had not dared to sleep or eat for the duration that she was kidnapped. When she was tired, she would take a short nap by the door and boil some water when she was hungry. It was only if she was starving that she would take a bite or two of the food delivered to her.
Alexander’s calm gaze began to darken upon hearing this as he waited until Tina was in deep sleep before calling Eric.
“I want you to find Raymond faster than the police.”
Then, he hung up after saying that without giving the other party any explanation or questions that he could, not caring whatsoever how helpless Eric was feeling.
“What? If I were to do it faster than the police, why don’t I just join them instead?”
Even though Eric grumbled, he still put his foot to the floor and drove like mad to the central business district of Melrose City.
Back at the Duncans’ ancestral home, Tina was still asleep as Courtney had gotten an IV drip from the hospital. Her pale complexion only improved after the drip was finally used up.
At around 8.00PM, Alexander received a call from Eric, saying that he had found Raymond.
Eric was obviously hesitating because he did not know how to convey the news, so he paused for a bit before adding, “I did manage to find him, but… he’s dead.”
Alexander was not all shocked by this.
After hanging up, he took a coat from the wardrobe before going out. His presence vanished together with the fading sound of the engine in the courtyard. Standing on the first floor balcony, a visibly fatigued Courtney adjusted her blouse.
Raymond had died in his own apartment. By the time Alexander arrived at the scene, the police had already cordoned off the area and even though the entrance of the apartment was wide open, one could still detect the thick smell of gas inside.
Eric, who was being questioned by the police at the side, was the first one to discover this and informed the police thereafter.
“I came to look for Mr. Newman due to some personal affairs. When I arrived at around 7.00PM, I knocked on his door, but nobody responded. So, just as I was about to leave, I felt something off as I smelled a whiff of gas. That was why I kicked the door down to find him already unconscious. Then, I called the cops.”
Scratching his hair, Eric had messed his slick and shiny hair into more of a bird’s nest as the image of Raymond foaming at the mouth with rolled eyes still frightened him.
While Eric was being questioned, Alexander used this chance to stand at the entrance to take in the general situation. Looking inside, he saw that there were a lot of pills scattered across the floor and he knew they were sleeping pills at one glance. Seemed like he really was determined to kill himself, even taking sleeping pills before opening the gas.
“Officer Lennox, I found something!”
A young police officer suddenly came running out of the apartment with a computer in his hands and an excited gaze.
Hearing this, a middle-aged man turned around and smacked the officer’s head with a newspaper, saying, “How many times have I told you to be calmer? Steady yourself!”
“I found something big, though!”
“What did you find?”
“There was a will in the deceased laptop. It seemed like he was forced to commit suicide by a company called Citron Apparel.”
Officer Lennox was the young police officer’s superior and did not say anything.
As the young officer’s voice was obstreperous, Alexander had heard it all, which caused his expression to darken. He was stopped by the authorities just as he wanted to step forward.
“This is a restricted area. You cannot enter.” After that, the said officer looked at Alexander suspiciously. “What are you doing here?”
At this point, Alexander was getting a bit impatient, but Eric, who had just finished giving his statement, spotted him and went to embrace him in an unexpected twist of events.
“Alex, you’re finally here. I was so scared. You are here to pick me up, right, my brother?”
When Alexander heard those words, he had goosebumps as he lowered his head and stared fiercely at Eric. Since this was his first time being embraced by a man like this, he was feeling a bit queasy inside.
“He’s your brother?” the confused police asked.
Seeing this, Alexander squeezed out the stiffest smile anyone had seen. “Yes. Did he finish giving the statement? I’m here to pick my brother up so that we can head back to eat.”
After that, they left the building.
Moments after getting into the car, Alexander then removed his coat and threw it to the side in disdain. “Brother? You couldn’t have made up a less convincing tale if you tried. How do I look like your brother?”
Feeling wronged, Eric scratched his already messy hair and smiled. “It was in the heat of the moment, so please simmer down, President. I was afraid that if you clashed with the police, they might suspect that you had other motives—”
It was at this point when Eric noticed that he had slipped up, so he shut his mouth in a hurry.
The aim of Alexander wanting Eric to find Raymond before the police did was easy to see, but no one would have predicted Raymond to turn up dead at night when he had just escaped in the afternoon.
“But this doesn’t add up…” Eric then thought of something. “If Raymond really chose to take the easy way out, then why did he still risk it and jump down from the staircase to run away?”
Alexander then shot him a glance. “Who said that he committed suicide?”
“He didn’t?”
Seeing Eric tussle his hair into an afro, Alexander knew that he must be fatigued, so he chased the man out of the passenger seat. “I’ll drive home by myself. Do the same too. Take the day off tomorrow. I’ll see you back at work the day after tomorrow.”
Finishing his statement, Alexander disappeared into the traffic of Melrose City, leaving Eric to take in what he heard just now as he was silently grateful to his employer.
As Alexander had expected, all the big news agencies had released articles and reported on how Citron Apparel was breaking the law and using illegal dye the next day and how after the dean of the World Vision Orphanage complained to no avail, so in a desperate measure, he kidnapped the daughter of the apparel company. After being exposed, he was then forced to commit suicide.
To this, Eric had contacted the police, but they had confirmed that it was not them who leaked this information.
After the news came out, it was undoubtedly another blow to the company as even though Citron Apparel had received a certain amount of evidence on their side, the latest incident was starting to tilt the opinion of the masses.
Yet, this was nothing as the true cause that made Alexander so mad was the slander inflicted upon Courtney and Tina.
Sitting in his office, he sifted through all the negative comments as his blood boiled while calling Eric without hesitation.
Eric, who was about to sleep again when he had just woken up, was thoroughly awakened by his phone. Knowing that he needed to give up on sleeping in, he also awakened from the lie about him having a day of rest by Alexander.
“Make those news agencies that are trending right now rescind their articles within the hour. From now on, forbid those agencies from ever working with us again.”
“Understood, President Duncan.”
Eric started to look through the trending articles in a sleepy state, only to feel the same way after reading all of them.
The use of such dirty, disgusting words to describe a child who had been saved from a kidnapping made Eric feel revolting, after which he left a comment before getting up to work. ‘Sheeple. You keyboard warrior.’
Within one hour, all the articles concerning this topic had disappeared. Yet, not only were the comments not suppressed, they even got more out of hand as some dissatisfied individuals started to use this to comment about the power imbalance in society and how twisted humans truly were.
This had also affected the date of inspection for Citron Apparel since the original date was meant to be next week, but it was brought forward due to the comments blaming the mismanagement of the regulatory authorities. This was why they were forced into producing results as quickly as they possibly could.
After confirming the latest time of the inspection, Courtney called Ruby to tell her to prepare all of the necessary information, samples and inventory. Once she had instructed all this, she went into the bedroom only to stumble upon Tina looking at her in a pair of thin pajamas while standing at the balcony’s door.
