Chapter 27.

“Mr. Genovese, are you okay? You look a bit pale.”

“Sorry, I was a bit out of it just now.”

“Why are you in the dark, why didn’t you turn on the lights?”

“Uh, the power to the lights seemed to go out randomly when I tried to charge my phone just now.”

“Charging your phone tripped a breaker? You’re messing with me right?”

He tried to flip the switch to the lights, but they didn’t turn on.

“What? Seriously? They’re really out? What were you really doing to trip the breaker?”

“Fortnite and Minecraft take up a lot of power?”

“Is that so?”

“Of course not. I really have no idea why the power tripped from plugging in my phone, but it really did. I swear!”

He rubbed his forehead clearly frustrated and said, “whatever, forget it. As you probably expected I’m Investigator Zenos. I’ll get to the point since it’s already late. We found a few contradictions in the statement you provided and we need you to provide another statement.”

“What exactly was wrong with the statement I gave?”

Before he responded to my question, Investigator Zenos walked over to the center of the table and turned on the lamp. He put down a digital recorder on the table and posed a question to me.

“You said you went to Rick’s apartment before you discovered his body at your apartment, is that correct?”

“Yes, that’s right. Was there something wrong with that?”

“Are you certain you really went there?”

“Of course I am. Why would I lie about that?”

“We didn’t think we would find anything wrong with that statement when you boldly claimed there should be recorded footage; however, the problem was there was actually no such footage as you claimed there would be.”

“That was the only flaw in the statement you gave to us. Everything else checked out perfectly fine. Based upon the logs and recorded security footage at the hotel you stayed at that night, it should have been absolutely impossible for you to be involved in his unusual death. After an autopsy, his death was estimated at 2:00 AM during your stay at the hotel. Based upon that alone, you should have been completely unrelated to his death. However, that is under the assumption that the time of death was truly accurate and wasn’t manipulated in any way, or the body wasn’t cleverly moved with some sort of hidden gimmick. You’re a smart guy, Mr. Genovese, would I be wrong to say that?”

“I’m really not smart. Also, are you really trying to insinuate I was involved with Rick’s death right now?!”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Never. I wouldn’t be so presumptuous to do such a thing. After all, as we say in law, the murderer is always innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. You’re not a murderer, now are you? So you don’t need to worry about that.”

“But on a side note, if you were the murderer, how would you have tried to manipulate the time of death and move the body?”

“I have no idea. I’m not a murderer, so I wouldn’t know about things related to your field of expertise as an investigator. Although, I’m sure an investigator like yourself would be the perfect murderer since you would know all the tricks in the book to cover up your tracks.”

“An investigator like me? You surely jest. With your track record of poor relationships, I’m sure you’d know much more than a small time investigator like me.”

Dude, you’re with the FBI. If you’re a small time investigator, what are private investigators worth?

“Let’s get back on track. Can you explain why there was no footage or witnesses around who saw you at his apartment that day?”

“Did I ever say I went inside the building in my previous statement?”

Investigator Zenos frowned when he heard my question.

“Then are you saying we misunderstood your previous statement?”

“Yes. I did pass by his apartment, but I never left my car. I parked outside and called him from my car, but I didn’t receive any answer. I thought there would at least be recorded footage of when I was parked outside in front of his place. I thought I would have been in view of a camera at the front, I guess I was mistaken in my assumption.”

“Why would you simply park in front of his place and not go inside when visiting to check up on a coworker who didn’t call out sick for work?”

“Rick always left the window and the curtains in his room open whenever he was home. Just by looking, I could tell he wasn’t actually home, so there was no need for me to enter the building to verify it.”

“Couldn’t it have just been that he was home but he didn’t bother to open the window or curtains?”

“I didn’t really think too much into it at the time and figured he was out since the window was closed on such a hot day. I didn’t want to wait all day staking out his place, so I left not long after.”

“Your story is a real stretch, you know that, right?”

Obviously I know that, but would you like me to tell you it was the doing of a ghost or something?

“Hah. Well it’s fine, there was a record of you having called approximately when you said you were there. Sorry about the trouble. I’ve been wracking my head over this case since it was assigned to me. It’s been nothing but a complete mystery to me. Why would a kid with such an optimistic future commit suicide? It really makes no sense. Maybe I’m just digging too deep into things after all.”

“Was that the only problem with the statement I gave before?”

“Yeah, that was all. In truth, I was grabbing at straws by calling you out on that flaw. You probably have your own concerns after all with those psycho exes of yours. Mr. Genovese, please accept my apologies for my presumptuousness just now.”

Could it be my boss really didn’t lie to me about anything she told me? Investigator Zenos had practically verified everything my boss said was accurate. There wasn’t a single discrepancy to be found between the information I acquired from her compared to what Investigator Zenos had told me just now.

“It’s fine, it’s just work. I get how it is. It must be tough getting put on cases that don’t make much rational sense.”

“You’re correct Mr. Genovese, it is quite mentally taxing. A lot of cases nobody else wants to take up are typically dumped on me. It’s only because the majority of cases I look at are somewhat similar that they get to claim, ‘oh, Zenos has experience in this let him do it.’”

“You don’t need to be so formal with me Investigator Zenos, just call me Dio.”

“Then Dio, you can just call me Seth.”

“Dio, I do have a few other questions I’d like to ask.”

“Like what?”

“I know you were asked this before, but do you really not know anyone who might have any sort of motive to kill Rick?”

“No, I can’t think of anyone with such motives.”