"I told you to investigate him and you gave me incomplete information? If you’re so incompetent at your job, then why the fuck am I paying you? You fucking trash!" Drew bellowed, as he punched the man kneeling in front of him.

The man tried to shield himself but was unable to, as Drew continued to rain down punches on him.

After a full minute of nonstop punches, Drew felt like he had finally let out a bit of the rage boiling in him, but it wasn’t enough. He won’t be satisfied untill he has taken care of Steven.

He turned to one of the men standing a short distance from him and signalled for him to come closer.

"Yes, boss," the man said, as he got closer.

"Have you gathered enough information on his daily movements," Drew asked.

"We have followed him for a few days now and we saw that he goes to the gym, at least three times in a week," the man said.

"Is that all you were able to get?" Drew asked, with clear dissatisfaction in his voice.

"Unfortunately, so. He doesn’t come out much and we can’t access the building, without causing a scene.

"Then we will have to make do with that. I want you to gather the boys and everything you need, and bring him here tomorrow," Drew said.

The man went silent for a moment, reassessing and running a scenario in his mind.

A moment later, he nodded. "I will get on it immediately and we won’t fail you," he said.

"You better don’t. Or you will be the one I will melt my anger onto. I want a clean job. Make sure nothing can be traced back to any of us."

The man nodded and walked, signalled to the others to follow him.

Drew exhaled heavily, then looked at the now unmoving private investigator and kicked him one more time.

"One of you should come and take this trash away from here. Take care of him properly," he said, spitting on the body.

The sound of a phone ringing echoed. Drew reached into his pocket and took out his phone.

He looked at the screen and he picked the call, and brought the phone to his ear, without a moment of hesitation.

The phone on the other end spoke inaudible but from the look on Drew’s face, one would know that something was up.

"It didn’t go as planned but I’m going to take your advice and take care of him once and for all," Drew said.

The person on the other end spoke again.

"No. I can handle this. I have your guys helping me out, remember? You don’t have to worry," Drew said.

The person said something and Drew clenched his fist tightly, before slowly releasing it.

"Don’t worry. I won’t mess this up and if anything comes up, I will call you immediately," he said. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

The call ended after the person on the other end spoke for the last time.

Drew squeezed the phone with all his might, after the call ended, gritting his teeth in anger.

"Now, everyone thinks I’m incompetent just because of one damn nobody. I must kill that dog bastard," he growled.

Thinking of what was going to happen tomorrow, a cold and sinister smile bloomed on his face, and he decided to store his rage for when he would need it.

***

After his call with Hargreaves, Steven was currently chatting with Marcus and being updated on the progress of the case so far.

His meeting with Holt was later in the afternoon, so Steven had more than enough time to indulge himself.

Lawyers called again this morning. They said the camera footage on Westheimer came back clean. There’s a vehicle pulling out without signalling, timestamp matches exactly. They said it changes the liability picture significantly.

Steven read the message, them typed back.

That’s the footage you needed. How are you holding up?

Honestly? Better than I expected. Still processing everything. But they keep telling me not to worry and I’m starting to actually believe them.

Good. That’s the right place to be. Let them do their job.

I will. Steven, I don’t know how to say this properly but — thank you. Whatever you did, whoever you called. It changed everything for me.

Steven looked at the message for a moment before replying.

You would have done the same. Focus on the case. Everything else can wait.

He set the phone down on the cushion beside him and looked out through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the midday city.

He could had asked about the case progress from Hargreaves, but he didn’t because asking Marcus directly was also a way of Steven checking up on him.

The footage had been the key variable from the beginning. A vehicle pulling out without signalling, timestamped and on record, established the primary cause of the accident with the kind of clarity that didn’t require interpretation. Whatever the company had been planning to do with the gross negligence framing, the camera had removed the ground from beneath it.

Marcus would come out of this with his name intact. Steven had been reasonably confident of that from the night Hargreaves took the call. Seeing it confirmed through the footage brought him satisfaction.

He checked the time.

His meeting with Holt was at two. It was approaching eleven-thirty, which gave him enough time to prepare himself for whatever was to come.

He was indeed curious about what Holt wanted to discuss but he wasn’t bothered, as all he plans to do was to get to the meeting and sign the papers.

Steven picked up the controller and started gaming, to pass the time.

***

Nearly half an hour to the meeting time, Steven dropped the controller, stood up and went to his bedroom to get changed.

After he was done, he picked up his things and left the apartment, making his way down the hallway to the elevator.

When he got to the underground garage, he walked to the Aston Martin and got in. He started the car pulled out of the space, and drove up the ramp into the afternoon city.

The navigation displayed that Holt’s office was just forty minutes away.