100 Ways to Solve a Murder-Chapter 168: The Intervention II
Restaurant, Parliament
Sam shot her brother an apologetic look, and she turned to the bearded man.
"I’m in the middle of dinner, Marco, can’t this wait?" she asked, not wanting to make a scene in front of her brother. Marco fisted his hand, "No, Now. Please." he demanded, catching the redhead off guard. Marco was usually the patient one--he was always proper, but she knew this was not a request right then. Something really serious must be going on.
Sam turned to Ivan across the table, "If you excuse me." she said, and he nodded graciously. "Go ahead." He said, and she walked away with Marco and Lisa.
They find their way in an empty hallway near the Loo.
"What is it?" Sam asked, wondering what was going on. "Levi and you..." Marco almost seethed it out.
Sam frowned visibly, lost for a moment till Lisa gave her a look...and she catches on,
"Oh?... Oh!" she said, eyes wide. ’HOLY FECK,’ she thought.
"You’ve been shagging all this time. How can you do that?! You know he’s still dealing with his gambling addiction. This has to stop." he said, then he gestured to where her table was, clenching his jaw, "Right now you’re dating, and you’re...I can’t believe it." he said, disappointed.
"That’s cold, Sam. Even for you. No, especially for you." Marco corrected himself, ignoring Lisa’s hand on his shoulder, trying to catch his attention--she wanted to tell him that the man at the table was her brother and not a romantic date like he assumed. But he was too upset to even feel the hand on she placed.
"Marco, can we-" Sam tried to tell him, ’can we talk about this somewhere else?’ But the G.P. continued with his rant, clearly upset with the knowledge--all this time; they had been lying to everyone.
"Just STOP SHAGGING my best friend! And you can date anyone you want." Marco insisted, bawling his fist.
"Marco!" Lisa chided.
"Ehem." they heard someone clear their throat, and each of them whiplashed to the source, and there stood Sam’s date.
"Oh, I am so sorry--I didn’t mean to ruin your date." Marco stated, not at all ashamed, earning a ’tsk’ from Lisa.
Sam sighed at this, but the expression on her brother’s face was enough for her to know that it was not something new to him. He most likely knew all along; she would have blushed at the thought that there’s a hidden camera inside not only his flat but also hers. And people had seen them do it, not just once.
She cleared her throat shortly, a throat that felt like sandpaper, then gestured to the couple. "This is Dr. Marco Evans, and Atty. Lisa Evans. And Marco, Lisa this is Ivan Fredricksen, my brother." she introduced, causing Marco to whiplash at her, suddenly regretting what he just did. He did not recognize the man, but looking closely, he could see the resemblance. Why was he so stupid? Yes, he’d seen him before--he’d seen a photo of this man with Sam on the telly and tabloids; they were both younger then. But he could see it.
The two shook hands and exchanged awkward pleasantries.
Ivan turned to Sam, leaning close to her ear.
"I need to leave early, darling. And it seems like you are also needed somewhere else." he whispered, and she nodded. He shortly asked her if she needed a ride, and she shook her head. Ivan departed after a short "pleasure to meet you Dr. and Atty. Evans." sending both his professional smile.
It was 5 minutes later when Marco sat in the driver’s seat of his car, looking at Sam in the rearview mirror. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢
"I’m sorry." he said, admittedly feeling bad at how things went with her brother.
Lisa sat on the passenger seat, patted his thigh, firmly but gently.
"Just shut up for a second, sweetie." she told him as the three rode back to Eastbourne Rd.
Sam leaned back, watching the streets outside on their way. As the car slowed down, her eyes widened when she recognized her assistant’s car parked outside the building.
She whiplashed to the couple in front of her,
"YOU CALLED ELLE!?" she said.
Marco tensed, "Levi wouldn’t give me your location." he explained, somewhat intimidated by her sudden tone.
"Ah...shit." Sam said. She could just imagine it, Levi on the sofa, scowling at the image of Elle in his flat.
Levi shuffled the card silently in his hands, ignoring Elle’s glare while she sat on the opposite side with biscuits and tea within her reach.
...
7 Eastbourne Rd
The two geniuses sat next to each other on the sofa late that evening, attire matching. As though the two just came to a dinner party together, dressed to the nines. Not only that, their expressions mirrored each other while the three other adults present in the room (mostly Marco and Elle) performed a so-called Intervention.
"It’s not okay."
"People in a healthy relationship do not use each other for personal gain."
So on, and so forth.
"You two do know you’re both MORONS?" Elle asked rhetorically.
"More than half a year, you’ve lied to us." Marco said, disappointment clear in his voice. Levi rolled his eyes, "I wouldn’t say, ’lie’-- more like we just didn’t say." he reasoned, earning a glare from the other three. Marco pointed at him, "Shut. Up." he said sternly, emphasizing each word and giving him a pointed look for being a smart-ass.
The two remained silent, unhappily. Lisa was inwardly laughed, amused as she watched the scene fold. Sam & Levi, literally the smartest people she knew, sat like two kids being scolded by their school counselors.
Elle glared at the slicked blond man, who she saw as an overly-grown child in expensive suits.
"This is clearly his fault." she pointed out, earning a scowl from Marco. The bearded man turned to face Elle, "You can’t say that! It’s clearly hers for agreeing to this!" he defended.
Elle shifted to look at the redhead, "Did he seduce you? He seduced you didn’t he?" she asked Sam, who’s silence everyone considered as an admission.
"See! He seduced her!" Elle stated, wanting to blame the psychologist for their current situation. She had accepted the two ’geniuses’ as a sort of pair. But she had not seen that, maybe as a real couple-sort of, in some Alternate universe in a possible near future. But she did not expect them to be in such stupid-clearly-complicated ’relationship.’
Marco furrowed his brows, staring at the brunette. "Well, she could have said no! she should have said no! And shouldn’t have agreed to any of it." he debated Elle.
Elle scoffed at the G.P., "You know him, he’s clever and his looks doesn’t hurt either! Look at him!" she gestured up and down Levi’s body, her hand’s movement Marco’s eyes followed.
"He looks like some annoying catalogue model!" she pointed out, causing Marco to frown. His friend really was annoyingly good looking for a guy.
"It’s clearly his idea, Sam wouldn’t suggest such an offer." Elle claimed, looking at Levi in evident disgust.
"You took advantage of her sexually frustrated state, for what? I do not know." she barked at the slicked blond, something Sam would have laughed at if they weren’t in such a position.
"It was your idea wasn’t it!?" she continued to accuse the blond; Lisa watched in fascination; the scene reminded her of a courtroom. Levi and Sam as the key witnesses on the stand being questioned by the ’lawyers’ Marco and Elle.
"Elle, it wasn’t his--" Sam tried to defend, but Elle and Marco continued to argue who was mostly at fault. Marco turned to Sam, "You’re supposed to be rational." he said. The whole exchange made Lisa’s brows twitch in annoyance; she had enough of it.
"Shut up, you two. They are both responsible and equally at fault." the blonde woman said, then turned to look at the two on the sofa.
"What I don’t understand is why you two kept it hidden." she added—addressing them.
Sam and Levi looked at each other, "We figured you would make a fuss. Like now." Levi replied snidely.
The three rolled their eyes, "What I don’t see is, why you two can’t just date like everybody else." Marco said, hopefully.
Levi’s eyes turned dark, "Shut up.Stop poking your noses in things that don’t involve you. Its just sex, stop playing church!" the Irishman said, surprising everyone by his tone.
Sam sighed, "We have an agreement." she backed him up. It was true, they did have an agreement, but that had changed for her. But she wasn’t courageous enough to say that out loud.
"Is it really just sex?" Lisa asked curiously; from her experience in questioning people on the stands, she learned to recognize who was holding information or when they are lying. And from what she could see from the two’s eyes, there was more that they didn’t want to share with them.
