Sinners and Saints

Chapter 31

"Nanny, this my guest, Olivia. She's going to be staying with us for a day or two till this whole thing wears out. Please see to it that she's well taken care of."

The lady turned to Susan. Susan shrugged her shoulders, she didn't want to get involved. She watched the lady turn back to Olivia, she looked a mess in that blue jumpsuit.

"T-they couldn't find the dress I went to jail in from six years ago." Olivia finally spoke up. She was really nervous with the way the two ladies in front of her were staring at her.

"Nanny?" Rafael called for the woman's attention again.

"O-Of course." The woman quickly walked up to Olivia and grabbed her hand. Olivia was really surprised "All you need is some food, a warm bath and a change of clothes."

She started to pull Olivia away gently. Olivia quickly turned to Rafael, wondering if it was okay to just go with them, She was a bit surprised at how comfortable his nanny was with her. Rafael exhaled watching them.

"Excuse me sir." The maid bowed slightly, turning quickly to follow them.

"E n'asu igbo?"

The old lady's voice became really faint from the hallway. Rafael turned away slowly and started to retreat to the other path of the hallway leading to his office with Susan right behind him.

"We need to get back to work Susan." He said as he walked as fast as he could past the large sitting room, heading towards the brown door with carvings beside the room.

"But sir, we just won this case, we could really use a day off don't you think?" She smiled as Rafael opened the door to the room. He walked into the big office, throwing his jacket on the large sofa beside the huge book shelf.

"If anything Sir, I think we need to celebrate." She stood in front of the desk, watching Rafael walk to the tiny bar then walk away from it with a bottle of red wine and two wine glasses.

The smile on her face spread as he placed them on the table and filled them up with wine, he handed one of the glasses to her, loosening his tie so he could breathe better while he made himself partly comfortable on his table.

"Cheers." He said raising his glass up to meet hers. Susan exhaled before she gently hit the tip of her glass with his.

"To many more wins." She added pulling her glass away. Rafael smiled just a little bit as he watched her take a sip from her glass. She was so excited. He slowly turned away, dropping his glass gently on the table, without bothering to take as much as a sip.

"I need you to run an investigation on everyone at the Silvers's house Susan." He started again. Susan slowly lowered her glass from her mouth. She glued her eyes to him. "I want you to find out what really happened on the day Andrew Silver died, who was in the house when he died and what they were doing when he died. I just can't shake off the feeling something is not right, like they are all trying to hide something, to protect the real murderer."

"You think the real murderer is in that house?"

Rafael nodded as he slowly got up from the table . He walked to his chair and gently threw himself in it.

"If there is one thing I've learned all my years in this practice, it's that the real culprit is always more of an ally than a stranger. I have a strong feeling that someone killed him and is intentionally trying to pin it on Olivia, we need to know who it is and what next he or she plans to do."

"But sir, I thought you said you weren't going to get involved with this lady or her problems after this? Isn't it enough that you defended her for free? Why do you have to go this far, putting yourself in danger too? People like the Silver's, they don't care about status, ethics or anyone, they'd do anything to make sure they get what they want."

Rafael stared at her

"You've done enough for her already sir, I think we should just hand this case over to someone else and stay away from it."

"Why?" Rafael asked her. She stopped talking for a second "Are you scared you won't get paid after working so hard?"

"No. Of course not sir-" she cut him off.  "I'm just worried about you."

Rafael chuckled faintly

"About me?"

"If anything happens to you sir, the chairlady and the chairman won't let me live-"

"Susan." Rafael cut her off. She stopped talking for a second. She went red all of a sudden in embarrassment, was she talking too much?

"Sir?" She answered softly.

"Please get me information on the whereabouts of everyone living in the Silver's mansion on the day Mr Andrew Silver died."

"But sir-"

"Who do you work for? Me or the chairwoman?"

"Of course it's you sir."

"Don't you want to work for me anymore?"
She inhaled sharply.

"Of course not sir-"

"Because that's what's going to happen the next time you try to tell me what to do or what case to drop."

She bowed her head quickly

"I'm sorry sir."
He exhaled.

"Find out what I asked and also reach out to Victoria. Ask for her permission for an autopsy on the corpse of the deceased."

"Sir?"

"It's going to be difficult to get something considering how old the corpse is but I'm sure If we look deep, something should suffice, but we'd need to be granted the permission to do so first and also find a way to restore sole custody of the little child in her care back to Miss Silver."

"But sir-" Rafael drew a sharp breath to stop her from complaining again, she exhaled. It was obvious she wasn't remotely comfortable with any of it.

"Alright sir." She picked up her bag from the table. "I'd get to it right away."

She turned to leave.

"Susan," he called her. She paused and bit hard on her lip. She slowly turned to face him. "You don't have to go now, we are still celebrating." He told her "Finish your drink first."

He reached for his wine glass and raised it in the air before he drew it close to his lips. Susan slowly walked to the table, she pulled a chair out and sat in it, slowly reaching for her wine glass.
She took a sip from it, narrowing her gaze on the man  in front of her.

She didn't take her eyes off him for a second.

She forced a timid smile the moment his eyes met hers and looked back at her wine in embarrassment.
Rafael let out a tiny smile right before he slouched into his chair and wheeled his chair around so he could look outside the huge window.