An hour later, and Diana grew anxious and she was unrest. She kept calling and calling but like before it was going straight to voicemail.
"This is weird, he wouldn't switch off his phone if he knew that we have to meet today. Something is off" she said going back and forth in circles.
"Uncle Edmond is like that sometimes ma'am, he can be creepy" said Ian grabbing his attention to Diana "Better calm down"
Marcus intervened "You heard the kid Diana, calm down he'll be here"
"What if... what if someone got to him?"
"What do you mean someone?"
"I mean the men who shot Jacob, what if they get to him and finish him off"
"Diana... no one is going to get to him and finish him off you need to calm down"
Even though she felt something was wrong and she had every right to worry, Diana sighed softly and exhaled - then she sat on the chair again and trying to calm down.
Ian had that feeling perhaps Marcus and Diana were rich and they had a task for his uncle, but yet Edmond couldn't do it that's why he directed them towards him. For a while he observed, there was a Richard Mille watch on Marcus's wrist - that type of watch costs three hundred thousand dollars and more, Ian knew everything about expensive stuffs even though he couldn't afford. Then he saw a BMW X7 parked right in front of his apartment, that alone explained wealthy and he was intrigued to know more.
"So y'all are uncle Edmond's friends?" asked Ian crossing his legs and paying attention to them.
"Not friends as such, I met him yesterday at the station" replied Diana.
"What is it about? You a cop too?"
"I'm not a cop, just a victim"
"Of what?"
Diana sighed "My husband was shot inside an elevator, in our apartment and he told me that he saw footages from the parking lot but they were blurry and dark. He said you could fix that with your technology, and that I will be able to see faces of the murderers"
"Yes I can fix them, do you have the footages?" asked Ian, now he was so interested to hear more, also he probably was thinking about charging them extra money since they looked rich.
"No we don't, your uncle is supposed to have them" said Marcus.
Ian had a moment to think, his mind was wandering and he was thinking about the watch on Marcus's wrist. If he could steal the watch from Marcus then it would prove to be a fortune to him, perhaps he can finally leave the neighborhood and reside in the big city. Suddenly a young man barged inside the apartment dressed in saggy jeans, a huge black t-shirt and he also had tattoos all over his body and face.
"Yo! Yo! Ian, come with me" he said and didn't wait for Ian to say anything, he raced back to where he came from.
Ian got up on his seat and raced towards him, Marcus held Diana's hand and they went outside too. "Get in the car" he ordered Diana to get inside.
"I have to know what's going on"
"I will not tell you again Diana, get inside the car it's bullet proof"
"Marcus..."
"Diana! Please" pleaded Marcus and Diana had no choice but to get inside the car, and Marcus too got inside the car and locked the doors but still he left a space for the windows just so to see what was going on.
From a mile Ian could be heard crying "Uncle... Uncle... they fucking shot my uncle" and Diana's eyes widened with amazement.
"Is that Edmond? Is he the one who's shot?" she asked.
"I don't know..."
"We need to find out"
"I am not letting you out of this car, Diana you hear me?" Marcus was serious about this.
It didn't take long for the gangs which surrounded Edmond's body to start shooting, Ian blamed his enemies for the death of his uncle and especially when he couldn't find his phone and money, Martin made it look like a robbery since that's what the streets were famous for - robberies. Marcus passed on the shooting driving as fast as he can, some of the gangsters shot the BMW but it was bullet proof, also he was out of their sight in the next five minutes.
They reached the main road which led to the city and from there Marcus slowed down the movement, then he turned to look at Diana who was shocked and confused.
"Hey Diana, you alright?" He asked holding her hands which were trembling.
"I can't believe we survived a shooting... Oh my Goodness!"
"I told you those weren't safe neighborhoods, what sort of a cop would have you meet him at such ridiculous setting. He could have chosen a cafe or a restaurant in the city"
"Is he dead? Could he be dead?"
"Listen Diana, if he's dead it's because of the robbery and not what you think. People get killed on daily basis in America, especially in such neighborhood, it's not safe"
Diana exhaled and tried to stay calm, Marcus drove the car straight to his house for he knew Diana wouldn't be able to sleep at her apartment. Demi and Jared called her but she couldn't answer, later on they stopped calling and went on with their businesses. Along the way Diana talked about Detective Edmond and how he had that potential in discovering who the murderers were, such a shame to be killed by robbers who clearly had no future aligned up for them as Edmond had.
The moment they reached Marcus's house Diana went straight to Marcus's room and threw herself on top of the bed, she was used to it now. Marcus stayed behind with Martin. "Not here, follow me to the library" said Marcus and he led the way. The library was the only place which was specifically designed not to adhere to noises on the outside, or inside. One can scream and do all they want inside the library and no one will hear a thing - and this was the only place Marcus trusted to have a conversation with Martin.
The moment Martin closed the door, Marcus said "Now we can talk, how did it go?"
"Smooth as butter sir, I secured the footages which he was carrying on his backpack"
"Good, I also loved it that you made it look like a robbery so that it doesn't come back to us. Good job Martin"
"Thank you sir"
"Where are the footages?"
Martin opened the backpack and took out three hard drives.
All three hard drives contained the same footages just from different angles. The first one had wide shot, the second had medium shot and the last drive had close up shot which showed exactly Jacob being shot by Martin, but also Marcus was visible standing behind urging Martin to leave even though there was no audio but one could tell what he was saying through his movements.
"Shit! I warned you Martin, I told you that there will be cameras. I told you to stick to the fucking plan but you were so stubborn... and so stupid. Look... if this man would have succeeded in clearing up the tapes then it would have been over for us. My career would have been tarnished, everything that I've worked hard for would be gone. Do you understand how critical the situation is?" asked Marcus.
"I'm sorry Sir, my apologies. I understand that I may have put you in danger sir"
"In danger? You destroyed me, how do we know there's no other tapes out there huh?"
"Sir I promise you I will find out who else has the tapes, and I'll destroy the CCTV cameras in the place so they wouldn't be able to track anything down. I will kill anyone who has the tapes even if I have to kill the whole system behind the supervision of the cameras, I will not let you down sir"
Martin almost had tears but he quickly wiped them off and stayed still, there was no way he was going to tear up in front of Martin and showed his weakness. They erased the tapes together and Martin made sure to burn them just a few distance from the house - Marcus went back to his room and slept beside Diana. There was a lot going on inside their heads - after all it had been a long day even though it was just 1:30 pm, Diana felt like it had been forever.
"Thank you, Marcus. For today, for being on my side"
"You are welcome"
"I don't think if I've ever had someone caring about me the way that you do. You showed me today how much my safety comes first even before yours, and I appreciate that" said Diana and she smiled.
Marcus smiled too and then he grabbed his attention towards the ceiling and looked at it while Diana was staring at him. He knew that Diana was staring at him but he didn't want his feelings to be so obvious to Diana that he loses even the bit of friendship she just showed him, he wanted to take it slow.