Louisa's p.o.v;
After a week,
Today's the graduation day for Danielle, not only her but I was also waiting for this day to come. I decided that today's my last try for the red stone. If I can't get any leads, I'm dropping this search and going to put an end to it.
Danielle, "Hey Lou!" She gave me a hug and said, "Thank you for showing up early. But I have yet to get my certificate from the principal inside the college and the ceremony will take place here in the open space. If you don't mind, can you please wait here with others?"
"Yeah, no problem. I'll wait."
"Thank you again, Louisa. My friends are waiting inside. I'll get back to them. See ya at the ceremony." She walked into the building.
I took a seat in the open space area she mentioned. It was literally an open stage for the students to celebrate their graduation. I looked around and saw parents, siblings, friends gathered here for their sons and daughters on their graduation ceremony.
When I looked at them, I thought, 'I'm going to graduate in two years too. I wonder who'll show up for me.'
While I was looking at my phone after getting tired of looking at the empty stage, I got a message that Ryan and others are here already.
After I spotted them, we sat together and chatted with each other.
Ryan, "When will the ceremony begin?"
I answered, "In an hour. That's what she said before leaving."
Lily, "Then, let's talk about some business."
I whined, "Not here too."
"We shouldn't waste our time. Come on, let's have a discussion."
"What do you want to discuss?"
Ryan, "The Medovik."
I asked, "Not again."
Lily, "Since people who are dining gave good reviews, why don't we put it on the main menu and serve it?"
Ryan, "We should make deliveries to. People love the Medovik cake. They'll definitely order for more."
I said, "It is just a snack. If we liked it, that doesn't mean others like it too."
"How can you come to conclusions without even giving it a try? Let's give it a try. Let's see if people like it or not. Then we can decide what we should do next."
Lily, "I'll go with Ryan's point. Without giving it a try, we shouldn't give up. You should have known about this since you study philosophy, right?"
I said, "I don't know how philosophy came into Medovik discussion." I let out a sigh and said, "Okay, we'll do what Ryan said but like he said. If anyone doesn't like it, we should stop this."
Ryan, "When did I say that? I said we shouldn't give up without giving it a try."
"Both have the same meaning. Yours is optimistic whereas I was being pessimistic. More practical."
Ryan and Lily gave a high five to each other.
I said, "Only one try."
Lily, "Atleast, we made you agree, right?" And laughed along with Ryan.
After a while,
The graduation ceremony began. The students were seated in the front and we were behind.
Lily, "Don't forget to take video while Danielle was on stage. I'll take care of the picture session."
I nodded and looked at the stage where people were talking about the graduation.
After the welcoming speech, the students lined up to talk one after another with lengthy speech, poems and stories.
When Danielle got up to go to the stage, I took my phone out and got ready with the camera. When she started to talk, I turned on the camera and started recording the speech she was giving on the stage.
Once the speech was over, she returned to her seat, I turned off the recording and saved it.
After the ceremony got over, we circled up and wished Danielle for her graduation from high school. She looked really happy seeing us being there for her.
I got a call from Raphael. Should I block him? I excused myself from them and answered his call.
He asked, "Where are you right now?"
"I came to attend a friend's graduation ceremony. Why?"
"The case is solved. I made a call to inform you. Okay, I'll end the call."
"Wait!"
"What is it?"
"Can you tell me about it? I'm surprised. After a week of investigation, you finally solved the case. I'm curious to listen to it as well."
"Keep it confidential. I didn't report it yet."
"Okay."
"This was an extramarital affair case. The guy who was spotted near your apartment was spying on a divorced man in your apartment. The divorced man's wife asked him to keep an eye on him to know if he's cheating with her."
"I don't get it. Didn't you say he's already divorced? Then why does the wife care about his affairs?"
"Yeah, but that's his personal problems. We don't have anything to do with it. The court will take care of it further."
"Did you get the guy?"
"No, we didn't get the guy yet."
"Then who told you about the affairs thingy?"
"The wife turned in herself and told us about everything."
Ace must have done something in this. I can't believe they cooked up a story to cover it all.
"Okay, then i guess i won't be getting calls from this line hereafter."
"If a crime takes place near you, you'll be getting a call for sure."
"Guess I have to change my place. Lot of things are happening in the building."
"Louisa!" I heard Danielle calling out my name.
I said to Raphael, "Congratulations for solving the case." And ended the call after hearing a thanks from him. I felt bad for Raphael who fell for a story like that.
I walked to the gang and asked, "What did I miss?"
Lily, "Danielle introduced her brother to us. You missed it."
"Her brother? Where is he?"
"She took her brother to introduce to her friends."
"Did you see where they go?"
"In that direction. Do you want to see her brother that badly?"
I let out a nervous smile and said, "Not like that. She always talks about her brother so I got a little excited when I heard about him."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah."
I looked around to see where Danielle was while Lily and Ryan were talking. Where did they go?
"Louisa!"
I saw Danielle walking towards me. Beside her, I saw the bodyguard who was with that rich guy that day too. The guy who i bumped into the hospital. Danielle brother.
Danielle, "Louisa, this is my brother I was talking about. He's Lorenzo."
Lorenzo, "Hi, Danielle talked a lot about you. She said you're the one who bought her phone. She was really happy about it. Did we meet before this? It feels like we met before."
I smiled and said, "How can that be possible? We're meeting for the first time."
"I must have made a mistake."
After a brief introduction to each other, Danielle left to be with her friends. Lily and Ryan left to eat at the buffet leaving me alone with Lorenzo.
Lorenzo started the conversation, "Thank you again for the gift. She was asking me for a week but i couldn't buy it for her. When she got it as a gift from you, she was only talking about you. She told me to give you a return gift to your graduation as well. Since it's two year away, I'll work hard for the gift."
"With the expensive stone you possess, you could buy it easily, right?"
"What?"
"I wonder what you did with that money. What did you spend it on?"
"I don't get what you are speaking about."
"Stop acting like you don't know. I know that you have the stone. Where's the stone? Do you still have it or sold it already? Tell me."
"Who are you?"
"I'm Louisa. Your sister introduced me. Did you forget about me already? Tell me, where's the stone?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"I know what you did before. Where you worked and who you worked for. I know that you worked as a henchman for Samuel."
"I don't know the person you're talking about. I don't know any Samuel. And I didn't work as a henchman for anyone."
"Lorenzo, Samuel is dead. He was murdered."
He had a shocked expression on his face.
"If you didn't know him, then why are you getting shocked after hearing that he's dead?"
"I don't know who you are talking about."
"The people who murdered Samuel, doesn't know that he had a henchmen. What do you think would happen if they happened to know? I found it before they did. I didn't tell them after knowing that you're the brother of my friend. And, I won't tell them even if you refuse to give me answers. I didn't want to corner you into getting the information I needed. All I wanted to know was the whereabouts of the red stone. Even if you had it, keep it with you. I won't ask for it. I just wanted to know. That's all."
When I tried to leave, he held my hand and said, "I don't have the stone."
"It's fine."
"It was stolen from me."
"What!?"
"Samuel, my boss said he found a guy to trade the red stone. When he went to meet that guy, I stole the stone from his locker and ran away from there. I tried to sell the stone by myself for money so I caught a dealer. But the dealer fooled me and ran away with the stone."
"How did you contact him in the first place?"
"Through a friend."
"Where's this friend?"
"Are you going to go after the dealer? I couldn't find him. He flew away overseas."
"How did you know that?"
"When I tried searching for him, others told me that he flew to some country."
"What does the dealer look like? Do you remember him?"
I took out my phone and showed him some pictures of the guys which were sent by Arthur. He wiped every guy and stopped at one guy and said, "It is him. This is the guy who showed up as a dealer."
Danielle, "Guys, what are you talking about? Looked like some serious discussion while looking from over there."
"Hey, I gotta leave now. Take care of the rest of the ceremony."
After bidding byes to Danielle, Ryan and Lily. I walked out of the school campus.
Lorenzo ran after me and said, "Do you think you can find him?"
I nodded and asked, "Aren't you coming with me?"
He shaked his head and said, "Get the stone!"
"Don't you want it for Danielle's college fees?"
"I will earn it by myself by working hard. Stealing did teach me a lesson. I don't want that stone anymore. Good luck on finding the stone."
"Thank you."
I walked out of the school and came to the casino. I asked around the casino while showing the picture of the man I wanted to find. Some said they didn't see him before while some say they did see him but don't know him since he doesn't come often.
While I was looking at the picture, one of the guys came up to me and asked, "You were with Arthur, right?"
I nodded at him.
"Why are you looking for this guy? Do you have something valuable to sell?"
"Yeah. I have expensive rare artifacts with me. Do you know him?"
He nodded and whispered, "We shouldn't talk here. Let's go downstairs."
After we came downstairs, he asked, "Show me what you're trying to sell."
I took some pictures of artefacts in Ace's room. Let's show him that.
After seeing the pictures, he said, "Wow. I thought you'll be having some low level but this is a really big one. What do you expect from this?"
"I want half of a million reais."
"Okay, I'll talk to him and arrange a meeting. When he agrees to it, I'll inform you. Don't talk about this to anyone here. You can leave now."
I walked out of the casino with a smile on my face. One last step to the red stone.