Fall For Me

The workers gathered in the hall downstairs, waiting for my arrival, I walked slowly. The sole of my shoe was hitting the marble floor which made my arrival known to all the workers.

I walked over to where Benson stood, I sat down, and crossed my legs. The look on their faces told me that they were already informed about the unfortunate incident that one of them must have caused. Some of them already know how bad it gets when I’m angry but they don’t know that I have never felt this type of way about anyone before. This is the first time I can give my whole heart to someone after my mom passed away. Imagine the great lengths I can go for such a person.

“Have you briefed them?” I leaned towards Benson and whispered.

“No sir, I was waiting for you,” Benson said. He knew I would want to address them first. I nodded and shifted my gaze from Benson to the workers standing in front of me. I stood up and left Benson’s side and walked closer to them. I had a good look at the crowd before I spoke

“Some, If not all of you already know why I summoned you all here, right?” I watched as some of them nodded in unison, while others were too scared to react.

The head of workers stepped forward and I looked at the elderly woman who had been with me for years but something about her was unsettling, I could see through the mask she put up for everyone to see.

At this point, I didn’t want to trust anyone and everyone was a suspect.

“Sir we offer our deepest apologies for what happened to madame, Please be rest assured that we will help with the investigation, we will give our utmost cooperation, we will-” Shanice continued blabbering and I was having enough of it

“That will be okay Shanice, now return,” I said sharply and she felt embarrassed, of course, I wasn’t buying into the whole speech, The fact is they didn’t have any other choice than to cooperate.

“Okay sir” She bowed her head and stepped back to where she initially stood. I went ahead to look at the people standing in front of me.

“One or more of you all tried to kill Valerie and not only was it an attempted murder but the person left her in excruciating pain” I tried to calm myself down as I already started to yell, The thought of my Valerie being in such pain made my stomach twists and my anger doubled, I picked up a chair and threw it across the room.

I fixed up my suit and I could see some of them were already shaking

“Now let’s make this easy, who poisoned Valerie?” I asked while using my eyes to scan them for any suspicious body movements, I knew the person wouldn’t outrightly admit to attempted murder.

“If the person confesses now, He or she will be fired and never to be seen on the mansion grounds, and that is all” I lied to get the culprit to come forward, If the person knows He or she is not going to be punished then the person will be moved to own up to the grievous crime that has been committed. In my mind, It was either this is done the easy way and we all wrap this up quickly and go on with our daily activities or we can do it the hard way, I also have time for that.

I saw someone coming raising his hand and I smiled inwardly, I signaled for him to come forward

“Sir in my opinion you should question the people who made her meal,” A short male worker said. It wasn’t such a bad idea but it could be that the meal was poisoned without the knowledge of the people that made her meal, But they were the first suspects.

“What is your name?” I asked the man

“Steven Sir,” The man said

“You’re smart Steven, That makes you a core suspect,” I said, I saw his eyes widen at the last part of the sentence.

“B-but Sir I-” Steven tried to get out of the nasty situation he had just put himself in.

“Step to the side Steven, if you know you had helped with the preparation of the meal, step forward now,” I said, one by one they came out slowly and it was four of them out including Janet, I signaled for Benson to bring the paper he was holding.

“If you know you were present in the kitchen on that day, Step forward now,” I said with a serious voice.

“If you joined to serve the meal, step forward now” As I said I saw only one person making her way to the side. And only one person stepped to the side, now they were six in number

“Here it is sir,” Benson said and I nodded and Benson returned to where he was standing. I had a smile on my face and this smile only creeps in when I’m about to give everyone a tough time.

“This is the list of names of the people that helped to prepare the meal and that was present in the kitchen on that day.” Everyone got tensed and when I scanned through the names and noticed there were seven names present on the list.

One by one I called out the names on the list and I was answered with a confirmation of their presence when I finally got to the name I didn’t hear any response, so I called it out again

“Cynthia?” I called out again before I saw a young girl with blonde hair who wouldn’t have passed twenty years old walking out slowly, I don’t think I’ve seen her before.

“Here Sir,” She said without meeting my eyes

“Oh so glad you could join us,” I said sarcastically, When she lifted her eyes and they met mine, she fainted immediately

Perhaps I have found the culprit.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.