Chapter 05: I am an epitome of fool

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A L I S H A

"What?" He asked me, as he finally blinked his eyes.

He slowly unwinded his arms from around my waist, and helped me stand straight.

"Who are you?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Shouldn't it be other way around, Miss? Who are you? "He said, as he walked towards the mahogany desk placed near the glass wall.

Rude Brat.

"Alisha Carter." I answered instinctively.

"So, Miss Carter, may I know why did you come here, might I add spectacularly?" He questioned me, as he leaned backward on the front edge of the table.

"I came here for Rhys Andres." I answered straightforward.

"What business do you have with him, Miss Carter?" He questioned me.

"I came here to meet him. That Little Rice, filled a complaint against me, without even knowing the truth."

"Little Rice?" He asked me as he raised his left eyebrow.

I sighed. "Tell me again. Why am I discussing all this with you? I don't even know your name."

He took a minute before answering me "Call me Luca."

With that attitude and black suit, Batman would have suited better.

"And if you don't give a reasonable reason for your presence here, I'll just have to call the security." He continued, while reaching for the handset of the cordless telephone placed on the table.

"Wait! Wait!," I yelled "I will tell you everything."

I sighed in relief as he placed the handset back, and started telling the whole episode from the beginning.

"And thats the reason for my visit today." I said to him as I ended the story after fifteen minutes.

"To summarise, all you did was pick up the envelope near the coffee shop and deliver it here because of the company logo at its back."

"Exactly!" I exclaimed.

"Why didn't you tell all this to the receptionist, you gave the envelope to?" He questioned.

"Well I did tell her. I have no idea why she hide all these facts." I replied.

There was pin-drop silence for around a minute before I continued speaking.

"This office must be under CCTV surveillance, right?"

"Yes." He replied.

"So, problem solved. All we have to do is go though the footages of that time duration and voila."

"There is a slight problem. The building is undergoing maintenance, so most of the cameras have been turned off. Only few cameras are working. For the reception area, it is the one located at the back, so it shows people standing directly infront of the reception." He told me as a matter of fact.

"Its alright. Atleast give it a try. We may find something. You never know." I said to him.

"Fine." He replied as he straightened from his slanted posture. He walked around the table and picked up the handset of the cordless telephone.

He pressed some buttons and spoke after a minute, "Dan, I want you to send me all the yesterday's footages of the reception area from 9am to 1pm, immediately to my laptop."

I am so going to butcher that Little Rice. All this is happening, 'cause of that idiot. Moron. Blasted Moron!

"Pardon." Luca suddenly spoke.

"Huh?"I replied absent mindedly.

"Did you speak something?" He asked.

"No. Well, I didn't exactly spoke. I was just thinking, about butchering that blasted Little Rice into small-small pieces, and then serving him with boiled rice." I spoke with a heartwarming smile.

Luca coughed vigorously.

"Thats some murderous intend. I could almost see small devil figurines swirling around you."

I laughed, almost snorted at his words.

He continued, "Aren't you over-reacting a bit there?"

My eyes narrowed at his question. "By any chance, during my bedtime story, did I forget to mention that I went to freaking jail?" I asked him calmly.

That shut him up pretty much.

Ping.

We looked at the laptop on the desk.

"Come here. I will play the footage." He said to me.

I walked towards him and then stood next to him, as he scrolled through a few media file's icons.

"You entered the building around 10am, right?" He asked me.

I gave him a small nod. Now that I was next to him, I again noticed the scar, that ran diagonally on his right eyebrow. Looking closely, he looked more like an asian than an american.

I got distracted again.

Focus.

I looked at the laptop screen. He finally stopped scrolling and clicked play on an icon. As soon as the video began, he clicked the fast-forward icon.

It was a twenty minutes video. It showed the people entering the reception area. We can even hear the conversations at the reception desk. Unfortunately, as Luca mentioned earlier, due to the alignment of the camera, only the backside of the receptionist was visible.

"You must hold a great position in this company, seeing as you can get hold of such footages with just a call." I asked him, with my eyes still glued to the screen.

"You can say so. I am kind of like a manager." He said.

The video ended. He clicked the media icon right next to the one we just viewed, and placed it on fast-forward too.

After few minutes, I saw a familiar figure clad in blue jeans and black jacket, with a cast on right hand wobbling towards the reception desk with an awestruck look.

I then looked at my own right hand covered in cast.

I looked like a kid at amusement park.

"Thats me." I muttered embarrassingly.

"I noticed." He replied with a faint smile on his face.

He set the video at original pace.

"How may I help you Ma'am?" I heard the receptionist ask, as a nervous me reached the desk.

A clearing of throat was heard, before I heard myself replying "Umm..Can I meet the head, you know like manager."

"Sorry Ma'am," again it was the receptionist's voice "You need to be specific. Do you have any prior appointment with someone?"

All we can see was a nervous me and the back of pin straight haired receptionist, clutched in ponytail.

He fast-forwarded it a bit.

This time it showed me pulling out the satan's envelope from my purse and handing it over the receptionist.

I heard her speaking again "Well it does seem to be a company's envelope. Anyways, I will send it to our manager. Can you please provide your name, address and contact details, incase we are required to contact you."

"I guess so." My then less-nervous self spoke.

After a minute or two, I saw myself exiting the building. At the same time, the receptionist in question walking towards her left. I could hear a faint click-click sound. And then the video ended.

"See. I was telling you truth. You saw it, right?! Me handing that envelope to her." I exclaimed.

"It seems so. If only we could have seen her face." He said.

"Its alright. Atleast this video proves that I am not some thief. Thats sufficient for now." I replied with a small smile.

"Do you remember anything else about that receptionist apart from what we just saw?" He questioned.

"Let me think. I think her name was Cara or Clara or something like that. And she was just about my height, which would be around five feet six inches." I answered.

He nodded his head and went for the drawer of the desk. After rummaging through it for a minute, he pulled out a file with bunch of A4 size papers, and started looking through it.

"If only the front camera was activated instead of the one on the rear side." He said as he continued looking through the file.

It took me few seconds to analyse his words.

"Thats it!" I just had an eureka moment.

He gave me a puzzled look.

"Thats her name." I exclaimed.

"What? You mean rear as in 'butt'?" He questioned with a puzzled look on his face.

I snorted. "No, idiot. Its Claire. That was her name. I just remembered."

"Well, here's the list of all the receptionists recruited in this month. Out of which we have three Claires. Here, look." He said as he handed me that file. It didn't contain a file photo. All it had was name, age, contact details and medical details like height, weight, vision, allergies and current condition, mentioned neatly in rows.

Claire White       24             5'2"
•High blood pressure
•Intake thiazide diuretics regularly

Claire Summer  27             5'2"
•Needs to sit at regular intervals
•No medication involved except ice

Claire Paige       23             5'6"
•Migraine
•Pain relievers

"I think we should call all of them. Then you can tell which one you met." He said to me.

I looked at the list again, and then gave him a million dollar smile.

"No need to call all of them. I think I know which one is ours." I told him.

"How?" He asked me with a surprised look.

"Look here." I said to him as I again played the last viewed video. I fast-forwarded it to few seconds before end and increased the volume.

"Listen carefully." I told him.

Click..Click..Click..Click..

Then the video ended.

"I still don't understand." He looked at me expectantly.

"Its the heels," I exclaimed, and continued "Its the clicking sound of heels."

"Okay. So, Miss Paige is crossed as she is already about your height. But I still don't understand, how you knew which one of the other two is the one we want." He said as he looked at me for further explaination.

"The one in the middle, Miss Summer needs to sit at regular interval and has no medications except ice, which means either her knee or ankle is damaged. My guess would be that she is suffering from heel pain considering, no medications are involved." I paused for breathe before continuing, "Patients suffering from heel pain are not supposed to wear heels as it would heighten the intensity of pain."

"So that means Miss Summer isn't the one. Our culprit is Miss Claire White." I concluded my explanation.

He took a minute before speaking, "You know, you aren't as stupid as you seem at first glance."

"I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or insult." I spoke monotonously.

He gave me a small laugh as he picked up the handset of the cordless telephone.

"Phil, I want you to send a notice to Miss Claire White to immediately report at the company."

He placed the handset back and looked towards me "You are a doctor?"

"No. I am a dentist." I answered him.

There was silence after that.

"Luca, what now?" I asked him.

"Well. Now, we wait for her arrival. And then we'll see what need to be done." He replied.

Again the room was consumed in silence. I sat on the nearby chair while he resumed his working.

It was precisely ten minutes later, that loud noises came from outside. Suddenly all the noise died, accompanied by knock at the door.

"Come in." Luca said without looking from the file, he held in his hand.

A brown haired guy entered the room. He was clad in navy blue suit and wore spectacle, though I couldn't make out their shape due to the distance.

"Sir, there has been a report of an unauthorized lady entering the building. She has a cast on her-" He broke mid-sentence as he saw me.

Amidst the whole receptionist thing, I totally forgot about my grand entrance.

I tightly clutched onto the handle of the chair with my left hand.

"You..You..What are you doing here?!" He yelled at me.

I couldn't do but reply with a crooked smile, which I am pretty sure looked miserable.

"Phil. Please remember where you are standing." Luca said calmly, not even bothering to look up from the file in his hand.

"Forgive me, Mr. Andres. Its just, this woman is the one we have been searching for last one hour." He replied politely.

Wait..Wait a second.

My head underwent a whiplash moment to look at the Phil guy. It almost unhinged my head from the atlas in my neck.

"Mr. Andres, you say?" I asked Phil, as I slowly stood from the chair.

"Yes. Are you an idiot or what? He is sitting right there." Phil replied tight lipped, pointing towards Luca.

I turned my head to look towards Luca, who was still going through a file and then back at Phil.

"B..but he is Luca." I softly spoke.

"Luca? Who the hell is that? What are you babbling about woman?" This time he gave me a puzzled look.

Finally I understood everything. I turned towards Luca or Mr. Andres or whatever the hell he was. "You liar. You told me your name was Luca." My eyes zeroed on him.

He finally closed his file and looked towards me, "I never lied."

He stood up from the desk and walked toward me "Let me introduce myself again. Its a pleasure to meet you Miss Alisha Carter."

He stopped walking, as he stood right infront of me "Myself, managing director of Andres Enterprises Inc., Rhys Luca Andres."

......END OF CHAPTER 05......

So, I have finally updated. I know it been a really long time. Got caught up in things.

Anyways I hope you liked this chapter.

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