11 Silence (1/2)
As I walk my way home, I saw Mateo walking through the halls of the hospital. What is he doing here? Does he seriously want to rage war and visit his ex?
”Mateo!” I say as I call out to him.
He turns to me and he walks towards me. I see a notepad on his hand with a pencil held through the spirals of the notepad. It seems that he is not here for a visit at all.
”Rose, I thought you've gone home,” he says as he walks towards me.
”What is your business here?” I ask bluntly.
”I am doing our business,” he corrects. ”I've come to investigate and make an article as we are supposed to do. I have been walking around and asking men and women for what they know. I have even asked the guards. For a five-star hospital, they really need to replace the guards. They admitted that they were asleep when it all happened.”
”They're not asleep,” I say firmly. ”They were not paying attention. This hospital has terrible security.”
”Well, anyway, I took the liberty of asking for the footage,” he says. ”A guard and I went through the security footage of the entire night and we saw Mr. de la Rama getting out of the building alive. Then, next thing we know, the footage is suddenly broken then it turns back on only for a janitress to go back inside the building in a frightened hurry. We managed to follow the janitress' trail and after the incident, she immediately ended her shift and went her way home.”
”Do the cops know this?” I ask.
”No,” he says. ”Apparently, the cops stopped doing their search. It was as if they had been paid to do so. I asked the same guard and he said that the cops stopped coming here. They had urged every media to keep a hush-hush about it. Apparently, someone paid every major media outlet a huge sum of cash to keep this story off the papers and the news.”
”It could be the de la Ramas,” I suggest. ”Perhaps they would want privacy.”
”No, apparently, they do not care about that,” he says. ”Nothing moves the investigation forward since the media and the cops had been paid to keep silent.”
”Does that mean that the boss also received a kickback?” I ask.
”I don't think so,” he says. ”But, I am also not sure.
I am stunned by all that's been happening. Whoever person involved in this matter must have been powerful. They managed to take down the security footage at the time of the murder. They managed to keep a silent murder without making a noise to make it subtle. More importantly, they managed to keep all forms of investigation silent by paying each company that would dare investigate silent. We are journalists. Of course, we are going to search for the truth no matter what happens. Searching for the truth has always been my life.
Well, I have a degree in Mass Communications, but seeing a lot of documents in my lifetime, I always managed to do my own investigation and conclude. This has been my life. But now, I shall have to search for the truth when everyone else did not dare to do so.
”Anyway, let's just investigate this matter and pass it over as an article,” I say flatly. ”Do you have the picture of the janitress?”
”I managed to take the screenshot of the footage,” he says. He takes out a sheet of paper and it shows a zoomed in photo of a janitress that is in her thirties looking frightened after what she saw. Her noticeable feature is her high cheekbones. That is pretty much it after I take a close look at the lady. It's not a high-quality photo since it is a security footage and it is zoomed in.
”Have you found this lady yet?” I ask.
”I have been asking around all day,” he says. ”I have not managed to find this woman. Maybe I should ask her fellow utility workers.”
We walked around finding a janitor and moments later, we found a young man that seems to be in his early to mid-twenties and he seems annoyingly enthusiastic about his job.
”Good afternoon, madam and sir,” he says as he mops the floor joyfully.
Alright, this is kind of shocking. It is as if SpongeBob SquarePants came to life and took the form of this man. The only thing that's lacking now is that he looks like a kitchen sponge and use himself to mop the floor.
”Yeah,” I say steadily. ”Anyway, may we ask a simple question?”
”Of course,” he says like a SpongeBob. ”I would ready to serve a visitor.”
”Have you seen this woman?” Mateo asks bluntly as he pulls the screenshot out. The young man looked at it carefully and it seems he is trying to remember who she is.
”Oh, that's right,” the young man says. ”That's Ms. Jane Herrera. She works the afternoon shift here. Did you know that she has three children and she had to – ”
Then, suddenly, a woman in her thirties walks right up to us. She has the high cheekbones prominent on the woman in the photo. Her hair is tied in a ponytail and she looks weary today.
”Robert, quit it,” the woman suddenly says.