CHAPTER 5

Claire deves to the restaurant at Allison Baker's way. She sees the restaurant immediately with ease and drives to a safe place where she can park. She gets out of her car after locking it and walks into the restaurant. She walks in as she looks around the restaurant. There were people eating and drinking when a waiter at the counter called her attention.

"Do you need anything ma'am?" She asks her.

"Yes please. Where is your manager?" She asks the waiter.

"Any problem?" He asks her as though he is scared that he must have done something wrong.

"Not at all. I just need to talk with him. Can I see him please? And oh, I am detective Evatt but you can call me Claire." Claire introduces herself as she shows the waiter her ID.

"Sure detective, I'll get him for you but do you need anything like a drink before he gets here?" He asks again politely.

"I'm okay, thanks." Clare replies as the waiter nods his head and walks into the backroom to get the manager. In a short while, she is with the manager.

"You must be detective Evatt." He says to her as he pulls a seat on her table where she is seated.

"Yes, that's me. Nice to meet you. Call me Claire." She replies as they exchange pleasantries.

"I am Taylor. How can I help you?" He asks her.

"What a nice restaurant you have, tasty food." She replies.

"Thank you but you aren't eating…how do you know it's tasty?" He jokes.

"From how they eat the food. One can tell that they are enjoying their meal." Claire replies.

"Thank you once again." He replies with a broad smile. The manager is a young man with red jet hair.

"I don't mean to be rude but can I see the tapes of last Thursday?" She goes straight into what she came for.

"Those are private…I'm sorry but it can't be taken out. Why do you need them by the way?" The manager asks.

"I am a detective, remember? There was a lady who came into this restaurant to eat with a friend. I want to know who that person is and all that happened on that day. I'll also be grateful if you can show me the surveillance recordings outside the restaurant…you do have cameras out there right? Please can you help me Mr. Taylor?" Claire pleads for the manager to grant her request.

After some seconds of silence, the manager agrees.

"Okay, I will help you but you have to come with me into my office. Then I'll show you all the tapes of that day. One more thing, call me Taylor please." He says to her.

"Thank you so much Taylor." Claire replies with a smile as she follows after him. At the office, he offers her a seat.

"Please sit." Taylor says to her as he starts working on his computer.

"When was it? In the morning…afternoon or evening? Do you know the time too?" Taylor asks her.

"In the evening. I don't know the time." She replies.

"Okay erm…here we are. I don't know this girl in particular so you can check." He says to her as he titled the computer for her to have a clear look at it.

"Thank you." Claire says as she watches the video tape that played before her. She brings out her phone as she has a soft copy of Emerald Warren's picture. She sees someone that looks familiar like her entering the restaurant.

"Wait wait…take it back." She says as Taylor stopped the fast forwarding and took it backwards.

"There. Yes…" She says.

"Yes yes .. that's her…You can let it play now." She says as she keeps a close eye on her and everyone coming in at that time. She notices a young man walks up to her table then she asks Taylor to take it back so she can see when the man entered.

"That must be him. Please can you zoom in his face?" Claire asks Taylor.

"Sure." He replies as he zooms in on the man's face as he takes his seat opposite Emerald Warren. She asked for a photo of it on her phone.

"You can play it now." She says to him as she continues watching the tape. They were having a cool evening and chatted away without any form of misunderstanding or anger towards each other.

From the recording, Claire gets to understand that he works at the same company as the deceased and they were an underground couple. Also, she didn't get to know his name as the deceased called him with pet names which confirmed them to be dating.

From their conversations, it points out to the fact that the deceased needed a promotion in the company which she and Ava were fighting for. She asked her boyfriend to help her get the position. Claire didn't get much from the recordings as they didn't talk much before they left.

The man dropped leaves with her as he said he would drop her off. Claire thanks the manager and asks for that clip to be sent to her mail. She needs to gather more information and trace all the deceased last visited places and people. Claire's next suspect is the boyfriend of the deceased. She doesn't know him nor has she seen him before.

On her way out as she is driving, a letter is sent to her. She hears the notification sound and checks her phone.

"Oh, that's so fast." She says to herself as she opens it. She then looks at the time on the video and compares it to what Ava said to her, confirming her alibi.

Claire browses through her contacts and sends a message to Jack.

"Please send me your brother's phone number, Maxwell Wright." Her message read.

After five minutes, he replied to her and sent the number. She sends him a "thanks" and quickly dials the number after saving it.

"Hello, who's on the line?" The husky voice of Maxwell goes through.

"Hi Mr. Wright, this is detective Evatt Claire, I was at your office earlier." She says to him on the phone, introducing herself again.

"Yes. How did you get my number?" He asks her.

"Hahahaha…funny joke. Your brother did, sorry to disturb you but by any chance, can I speak to Ava? Do you know Emerald's boyfriend please? He works at your company." Claire asks him.

"I don't know…I'll send you her number to ask her." He replies to her.

"Okay thanks. I'll appreciate that." She replies and is about to end the call when someone drives recklessly and almost crashes into her as the car makes a screeching noise.

"Are you okay?" Maxwell's voice goes through her panicked heart.

"Yes...I'm fine. Just some reckless driver that wants to get arrested. I'll get back to you." Claire says over the phone as she gets down from her car to talk to the man who almost crashed into her.

"What's wrong with you young man? Can't you watch where you are going?" Claire asks him as she examines her car bonnet and front side to be sure it wasn't scratched.

"What? You are the one who doesn't have the eyes to see where you are going. How dare you? Do you know how much my car is worth?" He yells back at her.

"Don't you talk to a detective like that or I'll get you arrested now!" Claire yells back at him. Just then, she recognizes the face.

"You look familiar…where have I seen you…?" Claire asks in a low voice as she tries to recall where she had seen his face.

"I don't know…I don't know you either. You're a detective…maybe you've seen me in passing." He says to her as he gets into his car and is about to drive away when she recalls where she had seen him before.

"Yes! Why didn't I remember that…he is Emerald's boyfriend. Hey! Hey wait!" She screams at him to stop but he has already driven out. She gets into her car and follows him but traffic doesn't let her be immediately behind him as another red golf car comes in between them.

"Shit!" Claire exclaims as she hits the steering wheel. Her phone rings.

"Who's it again?" She asks no one in particular as she adjusts her bluetooth in her ear.

"Yes, who am I unto?" She asks as the person from the other end says a "hello."

"This is Ava…my boss told me that you asked about Emerald's boyfriend." Ava happens to be the lady at the other end of the call.

"Yes yes…what's his name?" Claire asks her as she tries to keep her eyes on the car she is following.

"I'm afraid you got the wrong information…she doesn't have a boyfriend that works here. I'm not aware of her being in a relationship with anyone." Ava says to her. Claire is now confused.

"Are you sure about this?" Claire asks Ava to be sure that she is giving her the right information.

"Yes ma'am. I'm one of the closest people to her…and one other person…Jason. Jason is our head in the department so she only interacts more with us. I feel bad that she is late but I can't do anything about it." Ava explains her sadness.

"It's fine Ava. Thanks so much, you've helped me a lot and please, this Jason you talked about…do you have a photo of him? Send it to me please if possible now." Claire requests as she continues driving.

The call went off and a picture was sent to her. She opens it and is shocked to see the same person that she is chasing after! She gets a call, asking if she has seen it and she says yes. She then asks again if she is aware that they are not dating and Ava laughs, wondering why they will be dating. She tells her maybe she got things mixed up, thanks her and ends the call.

"So his name is Jason. Mmm…this is getting more and more interesting…are they some sort of underground couple or they only pretended to be a couple at the restaurant? I'll get all of my replies when I talk to him." She says to herself as she parks her car when he leaves and enters a building which looks like a shop.

"Hey, are you following me? What did I do to you? Did I commit a crime that you are chasing after me?" He asks her, surprised to see her.

"Yes I was following you. I tried to stop you but you didn't hear me so I had no other chance than to chase after you." Detective Evatt replies to him.

"Chasing after me? Come on detective! It wasn't intentional that I ran into you okay? I am sorry and will pay whatever it is to cover it up but please don't arrest me!" He says to her.

"Be calm…I'm not after you because you ran into me or drove carelessly a few minutes ago." Claire tells him.

"Then why are you chasing after me? What for?" He asks her.

"I think we need to talk. Can we?" Claire asks him.

"Okay…come over to the bar. This is my friend's shop, we can talk here." He says to her.

"Sure." She replies and they sit to talk.

"I'm detective Evatt Claire, what's your name?" She asks him as a start of their conversation.

"I am Jason Jeff." He replies.

"It's him." Claire says in her mind.

"A nice name you've got. What do you do Jason?" Claire asks him.

"I work at Wright sons and limited, I am the head of my department." He goes further to explain, saving Claire the stress of asking.

"Okay, that's interesting. Do you know Emerald Warren? Detective Evatt asks him. Jason's brows were raised high.

"Yes I do…she's my colleague and works in my department under me." He explains.

"And?" Claire asks him.

"That's all…that's all I know about her." Jason replies.

"Are you certain? You guys were only colleagues and nothing more?" Claire asks him, wanting him to confess being her boyfriend but he wasn't at all.

"Yes…anything?" He asks her.

"How come I'm just seeing you for the first time? Were you at work on Friday and Monday?" She asks him.

"I am on leave. Is there a problem?" He asks her.

"Since when did you go for your leave?" She asks him again.