Yamilet walked up to the cash register and saw Liang rapidly jotting down numbers in his ledger.
Stacks of receipts were piled on the glass case, and a thick book lay open as his Sheaffer pen danced across the pages, leaving a trail of ink behind.
After every few strokes, Liang would set down his pen and recalculate on the mahogany abacus beside him, causing the polished wood beads to clack together noisily.
Yamilet leaned against the case and noticed a service fee receipt detailing her job, with a note in initials "Y".
She picked up the slip and examined it.
There were no specific instructions listed, but judging by the payment date, it was from last month's beginning.
She recalled: it was a $2 million project that required a 50% down payment before completion. Half of that fee would be taken as commission by Black Whale.
The target was a middle-aged man named Liam from Southeast Asia who was nearly fifty years old. He had no job and had moved to Hong Kong long ago with his family to make ends meet. Despite being unmarried without children, he lived off his brother's hard work at their father's ice cream factory year-round, while indulging in laziness and gluttony.
The person who hired them for this assassination was Nergui, Liam's sister-in-law, the wife of his brother, who funded him like a saint.
The task at hand was to design an "accidental" death.
Black Whale taking the job never asked for reasons from the client; they only needed a name and payment. The client's motives, however, often came to light when Yamilet and her team investigated the target's whereabouts.
Dorian provided a lot of personal information regarding Liam's family, including his father's assets and medical records indicating he had terminal cancer.
At first, Dorian believed Nergui wanted her husband's inheritance and sought to eliminate her brother-in-law as a contender for succession.
Yamilet sifted through the files and looked at Jacques' candid pictures of Nergui outside a private women's clinic. She then examined Nergui's husband's medical records before, declaring that it was not as simple as Dorian initially thought.
One day, while tailing Liam to a hotel, Jacques witnessed Nergui entering the same hotel thirty minutes later. He followed her upstairs and found her entering his room.
Jacques eavesdropped on their argument via a bug previously planted in Liam's phone.
It turned out that Nergui had been raped by Liam - her husband's brother - and was pregnant with his child. Since Nergui worked as an accountant in the ice-cream factory, Liam used this information to blackmail her into giving him more money or risk exposing their affair by telling everyone she was the shameless slut to allure him.
Dorian then changed his narrative, claiming that Nergui came to Black Whale because she did not want to be threatened anymore.
Yamilet laughed at Dorian for being such a fence-sitter.
Setting up this accidental death wasn't difficult at all.
Liam and a few friends enjoyed swimming, and during the hot weather, they would go to Shek O (a beach in south-east HongKong) three or four times a week.
Yamilet learned his habits inside out and caught him alone on their last visit. She swapped his water bottle with an identical one that had been spiked with Granny Lin's secret potion - a colorless, odorless concoction that temporarily paralyzes the muscles.
Liam drank half of the water bottle before entering the sea, causing his leg muscle to cramp and spasm when he reached the middle of the ocean. He floundered for less than half a minute before being carried away by the waves.
The plan went smoothly, with added benefits- Liam's father fainted upon hearing about his son's untimely demise.
The finance department quickly collected leftover funds from Nergui, but Yamilet and Dorian wagered on whether Nergui would give birth to the child.
Jacques was instigated by Yamilet to follow Nergui for some time and found out that she continued to attend prenatal checkups as usual. In fact, she even shared her "good news" with her husband- who was ecstatic with all those efforts - and they told her bedridden father-in-law together.
The old man trembled with tears in his eyes, muttering overjoyed words repeatedly- their family finally had an heir.
What an ending where everyone is "happy" together.
Yamilet had already seen the darkest part of humanity and was already used to it.
She put down the thin receipt and asked Liang, "Why did he make you do the accounting again? Didn't he hire a new finance girl a few months ago? A young pretty girl."
Liang sighed, "Ah, don't bring up that matter. The girl was fired."
Yamilet raised an eyebrow. How did she suddenly get fired?
She asked, "Why?"
"Why? The little girl had thoughts she shouldn't have had, knowing full well that the boss..."
Liang didn't say much more and pointed to the old grandfather clock swaying behind him as a reminder. "You're going to be late."
Yamilet pouted and grabbed a candy from the glass case on top of the counter. She unwrapped and tossed it into her mouth before walking towards the small door next to the cash register.
The stairs were narrow, and the entire second floor was a warehouse filled with boxes of goods without even any lights on. There was so much dust in the air.
But when she turned onto the third floor, it was completely different. Antique Western wall lamps with turquoise glass shades swayed gently on the wall, while Persian carpets with exquisite workmanship and soft texture lay in front of redwood carved double doors.
Knock knock.
She knocked on the door rhythmically until she heard a "come in," then pushed open the door.
The room wasn't overly decorated. The lighting was dim, and on the left-hand side of the wall was a bookcase that extended to the ceiling. On the other side were liquor cabinets and cigar humidors. Facing the entrance was Luis's desk, with a famous painting hanging on the wall that caught all attention.
Caravaggio's "Judith Beheading Holofernes."
The beautiful widow in black seduced the violent general, got him drunk, and then decapitated him with a sword on her bed. Blood spattered everywhere as she wielded her weapon.
"You're late."
Luis played on his phone behind his large desk without looking up. The brightness of the phone screen created a thick icy barrier on his lenses, hiding away his narrow and sharp eyes, blurring monsters swimming in darkness.
"Sorry about that, boss," Yamilet apologized lightly as she walked straight to Luis's office chair and looked up at the painting.
There is another version of this painting called "Judith Slaying Holofernes" which is now kept at Musei Capitolini in Rome.
Yamilet had visited it years ago, where Judith wore a white dress with furrowed brows full of anger while staring at Holofernes whose throat she had just slashed open.
Luis' version of Judith wears a velvet black dress; her skin is as white as snow with an effortless expression on her face even when holding Holofernes' hair tightly by one hand - all while slightly lifting her slender fingers.
To her it seemed killing someone was as easy as cutting soft tofu.
Yamilet's gaze collided with Judith in the picture. She stood for a moment before asking Luis: "Is this really an original?"
According to online information, during summer 2019, this painting was auctioned off in Toulouse, France for about 100 million dollars and was bought by a mysterious collector.
A hundred million dollars? Hidden in this small and shabby building?
But wasn't this Luis's style?
"Does it matter if it's real or not?"
Luis, who had been sitting in his chair, suddenly appeared behind her like a ghost and pressed himself tightly against her.
Yamilet leaned back slightly, revealing the skin of her back outside of her dress which touched Luis' cool jacket. She pouted, "Okay, it doesn't matter."
She turned around, and her chest pressed directly against Luis.
Reaching out, she picked up his phone from the desk next to him; it was the same model as hers - an old Nokia - but with a different color. Those unaware would have thought they were couple phones.
The screen showed the end score of the Snake game that was much higher than Yamilet's average score.
"I still can't beat your previous record," she complained while looking up at him with sparkling candy crystals in her dark eyes.
"Well then keep trying. Once you surpass me you'll be able to leave Black Whale," he replied calmly.
Luis touched Yamilet's thigh and took the dagger off her leg. With a quick movement of his hand, he put it away in a drawer.
The cold fingers on his slender hand slid open Yamilet's collar while his ice-cold gaze noticed the hickey marks on her chest .His eyes seemed to lower in temperature again.
His voice was gentle as if reflecting moonlight but bluntly impolite: "Already fucked tonight?"