Love, Lies and Billionaires

“I said, Mr Blackwood, that I was told…”

“I heard you the first time,” he interrupted and leaned forward to quench the cigarette in the ashtray. His face was gloomy, as he knew who had disclosed the information.

“So, sir, is there a chance I can get my hands on them?” The detective asked.

Alexander leaned back into his sofa and scratched his almost bare chin in thought. “Do you have a warrant for this?”

“Certainly sir.” he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper and showed it to him with bold shoulders.

Alexander looked away from it and contemplated. It really wasn’t easy getting that information. There was a lot of breaking in, colossal sums of money spent and, of course, torture involved before they could pull it off. “I can’t show it to you,” he finally said.

“Respectfully, sir, that will be flagged as obstruction of Justice if you don’t,” he said, trying his best to use offenceless words.

“What are you now, FBI?” Alexander scoffed

“I in fact am, Mr. Blackwood,” he replied and pulled out a badge which clearly confirmed it. “On leave for an accident, which almost cost me half of my body,” he explained and tucked the badge back.

“You’re a man of fame and great affluence and a lot of people admire, respect and, of course, fear you. I’m guessing you do not want anything that could tarnish your image,” Micheal said, getting a little too serious.

“Obstruction of justice is a crime punishable by the law and surely you do not want to be tangled in that kind of web, sir, as a lot could go down.”

Alexander turned sharply and locked eyes with him as he knew what he meant by that. One mind didn’t want to let go of the document, considering the way it was gotten. Another mind really was all for his reputation.

He turned to one guard, who stood nearby and tapped his fingers. The guard left immediately and after some minutes of silent waiting; he returned bearing a file which Alexander signalled to give to Micheal.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

The detective opened it and flipped through the pages as Alexander poured himself a drink.

“I need a copy of this,” he said, looking up.

*****

“He’s dead, so what?” Edie said, holding two bottles of beer in one hand and an opener in the other. He handed one to Alexander, who was slumped on a sofa glued to his phone.

“More than half of the city thinks I had something to do with it”

Eddie took his seat on a sofa opposite Alexander and opened the beer before passing the opener to Alexander. “I mean you’ve been rival with him since eighth grade, you married his fiance after they broke up, and you’ve screwed her even before the breakup”

“Shut it Eddie”

“Then you wouldn’t let him take his child when he came for him and then suddenly, he decides to take everything to court, then he’s murdered” he stopped, then gulped down half of the bottle. “You killed him, didn’t you?”

Alexander looked up for the first time since he walked into Eddie’s house. “Eddie, seriously?”

Eddie just shrugged his shoulders.

“There is no way I was going to kill him when I knew I had an upper hand in the case. That’s stupidity and a waste of chance to make a fool of him.”

“Let’s be sincere. You weren’t certain you and Maren were going to win the case. We all know William had always been cunning, he knew the easiest ways around things,” Eddie replied, now sipping on the beer.

“We had him at a tight corner this time and there was no way he was escaping this one. You knew it, Eddie, you’ve seen the evidence”

“Like I said, you weren’t sure it was going to be enough. You have a motive, Alex, you’ve always had,” he said accusingly.

“So we’re pointing fingers now, right?” Alexander said, as he put his phone down and picked up the beer to open it. “What about you Eddie?”

“What do I have to do with any of this?”

Alexander took a gulp. “That’s the point. You don’t have any major roles in this whole story, so it’s easy for you to get away with anything.”

“That’s ridiculous,” he chuckled nervously.

“Alright then. We both know you both never saw eye to eye after our friendship broke up. He was your bully back in high school and he stole your girlfriend”

“Okay, that is a really irrelevant fact. I can’t kill him just because of that. We were in highschool Alexander. We were just being teenagers”

“Oh, I’m not done,” Alexander said, a mischievous grin displayed on his lips. “What about that time at your dad’s funeral?”

“Alexander don’t, don’t say it”

Alexander chuckled, “That time at your dad’s funeral…

“I’m serious Alex”

There was even more amusement on Alexander’s face as Eddie’s darken in anger. “The time at the funeral when you caught him flirting with your mom”

“I swear to god, you’re going to be next to die, Alex”

Alexander gave off a gut wrecking laughter which rang throughout the house. “Now that the reaction I was waiting for,” he said as he regained himself.

“That guy was so disgusting,” Eddie said, shaking off the memory.

“You were so mad, I thought you’d kill him on the spot,” Alexander added in between laughs.

“William really messed with me that period,” Eddie said, his fists clenched. “He was an asshole.”

Alexander finally stopped laughing after a few minutes and everywhere fell silent as both men’s minds drifted to their high school days.

“But he really was a good guy.”

“Yeah, before he became a total piece of shit,” Alexander remarked. “I mean, we used to be friends. The three of us and Harry. ”

“god, Harry!” Eddie exclaimed as they diverted from the original topic, which was really typical of them when they were together. “RIP bro,” he muttered and Alexander affirmed.

There was silence after as they both remembered both their friends who had died.

“Hey, what about that lady, Irene? Maren’s best friend,” Eddie suddenly said.

“Oh yeah, they separated a long time ago.”

“Why?” He asked. “She could have killed him, you know. She also has a lot of motives.”