ELEVEN

The line sounded too cheesy to be a threat.

“I know what your brother did.”

“Excuse me?” Amber frowned into her phone. It sounded like a ripoff from the 1997 horror flick ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’. And because of that, Amber had trouble taking the call seriously at first.

Until the caller said, “I can prove his innocence.”

That sealed the deal for her. As much as she had tried to encourage Anson to turn himself in to the police, deep down, she had been filled with dread. The alleyway was a blindspot and all evidence pointed to Anson. There were witnesses from the first night when Anson had a heated verbal exchange with the man. And he had touched the knife with his bare hands for goodness sake!

So when the mysterious caller dangled the key to freedom for her brother, of course she had to take it. But Amber was no fool, she knew there would be a catch.

“Who is this?” she whispered, gripping onto her phone so tightly that her knuckles turned white. Behind her, Anson stopped putting on his sneakers.

“An ally,” said the voice with a little chuckle. “I happened to be there and took a video of the whole thing.”

That sounded a wee bit too coincidental to Amber.

“What do you want?”

More laughter. Amber decided she did not like the caller.

“My, you catch on fast. Why don’t you and your little brother come to my office? I’ll show you a copy of the video and IF you can give me what I want, the video will be given to you.”

So he does have a recording…Amber thought to herself. She had initially thought the caller to be a hoax. She bit her lips pondering on the proposal as her nails dug into her palm,

“You have nothing to lose. Come and see before you decide.”

Her heart was palpitating by now and her cheeks were pounding with blood. This was their only chance to prove her brother’s innocence!

“Alright, text me your location. We’ll meet you there in an hour.”

With that, she ended the call. Her hand was shaking like a leaf caught in the wind.

Anson looked at her with a tired but perceptive look, “Who was that?” he asked quietly.

Amber did not immediately answer, examining her phone slowly, apparently hoping that the caller would send the video clip of the incident as well. A ‘ping’ sound came to the phone. To her disappointment, the mysterious caller had only sent her his location, nothing more.  

They were to meet at his office near Silicon Valley. ‘Smithsonian Holdings’ was the name. It sounded strangely familiar.

She looked at her brother, he was so young and he still had a long road ahead of him. If the video could truly prove his innocence, then her brother’s future would be able to remain bright as it rightly should. Surely there was no harm in meeting the caller first before going to the police?

“Could be a friend, let’s find out.”

***

Liam Smith sat at his desk on the third storey of his production company. Outside his window, the Californian sun rose to midday, sending birds off to hide from the heat and find shelter. His room was sparse, furnished with mostly prototypes of his company products on a simple white shelf and boxes of files that needed decluttering.

It turned out Liam Smith was the mysterious caller.

“Welcome! Please, take a seat!”

Amber remembered now as the solid grey panelled door closed behind her that Smithsonian Holdings was fairly new. It was incorporated only about a year ago after its CEO Liam Smith quit Virtuex for reasons unknown. The ongoing lawsuits between the two companies were the talk of the town.

Both she and her brother remained standing near the door.

“We’d like to take a look at the video,” Amber heard herself say. She sounded more calm than she felt. She gave Anson’s hand a squeeze, they were holding onto each other like little children – each trying to feed off the other’s bravery.

Liam tsked, shaking his head, “That’s no way to talk to your benefactor.”

They remained standing in solidary unity. Liam shrugged, “Suit yourself,” and turned towards the plain white wall in front of him. He turned on the projector and immediately, the wall flashed to life as the events from the alleyway played out soundlessly on the wall.

Amber’s eyes went wide and her hands went to her mouth. Anson did not kill him!

But someone did. The video was grainy, typical of every other videos that were taken in the dark but Amber could see it clearly.

Anson had lost the fight and tripped, banging his head on the ground and the man had kicked him in his face. This explained the bruise on his cheek. But just before the man turned to go, a figure clad in black came up from behind, picked up the fallen knife and stabbed the man in the back. The murderer’s face was obscured and the video ended right after the stabbing.

“Who was it?” Anson blurted out in disbelief.

“Darn if I know,” was the reply. Liam stopped the projector rught before Anson stepped forward to take a closer look.

“It’s enough evidence to clear your name,” Liam quipped.

“Wait,” Amber interrupted. “Why didn’t you report this to the police? And how did you know Anson’s my brother?” Her eyes narrowed with suspicion. Things were not adding up.

“I saw you two at the La Fire Club a few days ago. He picked you up didn’t he? And Cecil’s a good friend of mine.” Everything he said seemed to make sense, and yet, for some reason, it did not sit well with Amber.

She opened her mouth to question him again when he said,” I could destroy this piece of evidence and let your brother rot in jail you know.” This was a threat.

“There were eyewitnesses like me who saw them arguing the other night, plus I believe your brother here, ”he pointed his index finger at a nervous Anson, “touched the murder weapon.”

Amber could feel the glimmer of hope in her fade, she cleared her throat all the while wishing this was all but a bad dream, “What do you want in return?”

They had nothing to offer him. They had neither fame nor wealth. What would a CEO want with them?

Liam Smith had been waiting for Amber to ask this very question. Leaning back on his black leather swivel chair, his lips curled up into a sinister smile.

He watched her intently, with a peculiar look in his eyes that Amber found disturbing.

 “You, I want you.”