At the same moment, Sean was on his way to the technical department. He opened the door, walked in, and was surprised that someone had beaten him there. “Mrs. Larson, who told you to come here?”
Natalie turned her head toward the door as she heard someone coming in. She greeted, “Good morning, Sean. Do you want some breakfast? I have some sandwiches here.”
She made all the food to give Brendon a choice of what he preferred for breakfast, but he didn’t eat much as he had no appetite, and so she now had a lot of leftovers.
1 “Are they Mr. Larson’s leftovers? No thanks, I don’t want it,” Sean replied apologetically. Suddenly, he gave Natalie a weird look and said in a strange tone, “Mrs. Larson, did Mr. Larson update you on the situation?”
“No, my family said that the dash cam is currently being repaired in the Larson Group’s technology department. I just came to check in on the situation,” Natalie explained. She felt that something was amiss from Sean’s tone and gave him a curious glance. “Did you quarrel with Brendon? Anyway, he didn’t even touch these sandwiches, so they are not really leftovers,” she added.
Sean looked unhappy but he still politely replied, “I didn’t quarrel with Mr. Larson.”
He was just a little sad that a half-year bonus was deducted from his salary.
Just then, a colleague from the technology department appeared and greeted the two, “Hello, Mrs. Larson and Sean. This way, please.”
Sean and Natalie followed the colleague into the office, and they reviewed the footage captured by the repaired dash cam.
From the footage, they confirmed that someone had indeed tampered with the brakes in Sean’s car. The culprit had a clear goal and acted really quickly. He was carrying a backpack filled with tools and was also very cautious as he wore a mask and black hat to hide his identity. The only obvious feature in the footage was his eyes.
“It seems that this guy had the intention to harm you, Mrs. Larson,” Sean said in a serious tone. His breath quickened, and his expression suddenly became stiff. He crossed his arms across his chest and thought aloud, “The only clue we have is this pair of eyes. But many people in Barnes have single eyelids. It’s going to be hard trying to locate him.”
“You are right. Maybe, we can find out something from his clothes instead,” Natalie said while deep in thought. After careful observation, she pointed at the screen and said, “Look at his hat. It looks new. He must have bought it recently. It looks like a famous brand too. Although this brand has many shops in Barnes, at least we have a lead now right?”
Sean smiled and agreed, “It should be doable. The Larson Group can offer a high reward for useful leads. This way, we don’t need to act solely on our own. We can probably catch the culprit sooner with more people helping out.”
Natalie nodded and said, “This is the phone number of the person in charge of the investigation from the White family. If you need anything, you can contact him. I’m sure he can provide you with some clues too. You can also share information with each other.” She then copied the footage into her thumb drive and continued, “I’ll go back and watch it again carefully after work. I might have missed out on some details when we were watching it just now.”
Sean agreed without hesitation, “Of course, everything here belongs to Mr. Larson. Please, take anything you need with you.”
Before leaving, Natalie patted Sean’s shoulder and comforted him, “I’ll be going now. I’m sorry about your bonus being deducted.” She then held out the bag containing the sandwiches she made and asked, “Since your bonus is deducted, you should learn to be more economical. Are you sure you don’t want the sandwiches?”
Sean patted his empty wallet in his pocket and sighed sadly, “Sure, I’ll take it. Thank you.”
It was already noon when Natalie returned to the W Marks Studio. She had already applied for leave from Draco, and now, she was packing up the documents she needed, before bringing them to the hospital to work.
Just as Natalie returned to the studio, Tasha and Elizabeth spotted her.
They hurried over and asked in unison, “What happened? Why did you apply for leave?”
Natalie was surprised by the incredible sync between Tasha and Elizabeth.
“I have something to deal with at home, so I applied for two days off,” she replied tiredly. Looking around carefully, she made sure that there was no one eavesdropping before whispering, “Brandon had a car accident. I need to look after him in the hospital these few days.”
It then dawned on Elizabeth, “Oh, I see. No wonder you looked absent-minded when you came in.”
After observing Natalie for a while, Tasha asked sympathetically, “Elizabeth and I thought now that the dress you designed for Estella was a great success, you should be happy about it. But you looked so upset! Turns out it was Brandon. Do you need our help in any way?”
Natalie gently shook her head and replied confidently, “I am almost done in handling that matter. And now we’re going to focus on catching the murderer on the loose. I hope to catch him as soon as possible.”
Tasha was shocked by Natalie’s words. A few seconds later, she finally snapped out of it and said in astonishment, “Didn’t you just attend a award ceremony with Estella? Why is there a murderer?”
Desiring not to draw unnecessary attention from her other coworkers, Natalie discreetly signaled to Tasha to lower her voice.
Fortunately, it was still lunch break, so many of their colleagues had left the office and the ones who remained were occupied with their own tasks, oblivious to Natalie and Tasha’s conversation.
With a sigh, Natalie confided in her friends about the recent events and asked them to keep it between them. “Oh, I see.” Tasha was rather unfazed by the news. Coming from a wealthy family, she was no stranger to this kind of situation. She just told Natalie to always watch her back when going out.
“From the looks on your faces, it seems like you think this kind of thing is quite normal,” Elizabeth interjected. “I’ve never encountered anything like this in my life. Dealing with a lunatic like Jorge was torture enough for me! How can you be so calm, Natalie?”
Natalie gave a small, wry smile. Instead of being discouraged, her eyes shone with determination. “I’ve been numbed to the fact there’re always people who try to harm me. I can’t really stop them, nor will I run away from it though. In fact, I’ll make them pay for their actions.”
Tasha, inspired by Natalie’s fierce demeanor, felt inclined to stand and give her a round of applause. “You have to understand, these people enjoy bullying the weak. If you stay quiet and take it, they’ll only become more arrogant and continue to hurt you.”
“Wait, I think we should try to be level-headed for now,” Elizabeth said evenly. “Shouldn’t we try to identify the person who tampered with the car first?”
Natalie let out a barely audible nasal sound, something between a hum and a sigh.
“I’ll show you the man in the video first. You can check him out for me.” With that, she took out the flash drive containing the copied footage from the car’s dashcam and inserted it into the computer.
“His face was covered so tightly that I wouldn’t be able to recognize him even if I saw him on the street,” Tasha remarked, clearly distressed.
Elizabeth, standing next to Tasha, perked up and suddenly exclaimed, “Freeze it!”
New Book: Beginning with a Daring Encounter
Celsie was tired of being labeled as an introvert, workaholic, and dull virgin by her friends. Determined to prove them wrong, she made a bet that she would do something daring on her 25th birthday. Now that the day had arrived, it was time to fulfill her promise. On her daring to-do list, there was one task: a one-night stand with someone.
Leave a Reply