I happened to witness a crime. I saw a man tamper with the parts of a parked Lexus RX in the parking lot of the bottling company where I worked. The owner of the car was my archenemy at work. He was a friend of the chief executive officer and he got my position on getting employed. He did not even think of how his being employed got me to leave the seat of the financial manager for him, he was specifically cruel towards me. I knew he abhorred me because his friend, the chief executive officer, praised me in his presence for taking care of the position better than him when I was there. He hated me till he finally found a way of getting me out of his sight forever. He plotted against me and that made the enraged manager order me to leave the company. However, on getting to the parking lot, I found a man doing something to his car while looking around once in a while.
I watched the man leave and I immediately left where I was hiding. Despite having worn a cap to cover a large part of his face, the stranger was identified. I walked towards the main entrance but paused in my tracks as I watched my archenemy walk out towards the parking lot.
He had on a dirty grin. “What are you still doing here?”
“I'd like to speak with you.”
“But I don't want to speak with you.”
He shoved me out of his way and headed to the car.
“You're going to die!”
He paused at the car's door and turned to me. “What did you just say?”
“Felix just left here. I saw him doing something to your car.”
He chuckled as he walked up to me. “Felix is my mechanic. My car developed a fault so I called him to come and check it. Not everyone can be as devilish as you are!”
I lost my voice.
He muttered. “If I may ask you, how do you know Felix?”
My lips quivered. I was ashamed of myself. ‘How on earth do I tell him that Felix has been my friend since childhood? How do I tell him that Felix and I attended same school from crèche till varsity? How could I suspect him like that? Well, I was only being careful. I tried to tell him in a sensible way but he wouldn't allow me. I was just afraid that he would die.’
“I'm s...sorry. Felix is just someone I know somewhere out there.”
He shrugged, returned to his car and drove out of the factory.
A few hours later, I got home and showed the sack letter to my mother who had come visiting and my newly wedded wife. They were not surprised. They knew all I had been facing and had expected such an outcome. However, while I was eating lunch that day, someone knocked on the main door and my mum went to check who it was. It ended up being police officers and I was arrested as a suspect in the attempted murder of my archenemy. When I got to the police station, I realised that his car had been actually tampered with and the brakes had been destroyed. Two eyewitnesses had informed the police that I was at the company's parking area before my archenemy and had always hated him because he got my position. Even the CEO, who had always admired and praised me, spoke blatantly against me. I asked how my archenemy was and I was told his condition was critical then. I spoke of Felix and he was summoned but he was not as suspected as I was. Others testified to seeing my archenemy instructing Felix to take care of the car.
I stayed in the police cell that night and in the next morning, I was informed that my archenemy had recovered and had also spoken ill of me. I was informed that he believed Felix did not do any harm but I was just trying to put the blame on him because I saw him attend to his car.
“If I had tampered with the brakes, how did Felix not notice that when he went to repair it?”
“Don't you think it's because you did it after Felix left?”
“After Felix left? In how many minutes! That guy walked out of the company immediately Felix was through with the repair.”
“No. Felix had left long before he walked to his car. Your colleagues testified to that.”
“Can I speak with Felix?”
The officer left his gaze on me for a while and shrugged before walking out of the room.
Felix showed up few minutes later accompanied by the officer and took his seat.
“Felix, what's going on?”
He tittered. “How am I supposed to understand your question?"
“Why did you do that? You're implicating me!”
Felix remained unruffled. “Why? Why did you have to be there?”
The officer frowned. “Are you insinuating that you did that?”
Felix ignored the officer. “Why did you chose to be there?”
“Why? Why did you do that? He said you're just his mechanic.”
Felix chuckled. “Yes but who's more fit to be a pawn in the skilled hand of his friend? I was paid to do that. His friend paid me.”
“The CEO?”
Felix nodded.
“Why did you let him use you?”
Felix chuckled. “No, I didn't even think twice. That bastard deserves death. If you can remember when I told you that someone sued me for getting some of his car parts burnt, he is the one. The car had overheated before he got to my workplace and I wasn't around. While my apprentice were trying to do something about it, the car exploded. He refused to listen and got me arrested. As if that was not enough, to free me, he had to snatch my girlfriend. I didn't tell you why I broke up with her but now you know – she left me for him.”
The officer sighed.
Later, the friends were summoned and my archenemy was told who actually tampered with his car and who asked him to.
“Why would you do that to me? For how long have we been friends? We've been friends since we were only toddlers. What could I have done wrong?”
His friend chuckled. “You know what you did!”
“But I begged you for forgivene—”
“And you did another!” he barked. “You've always been an arsehole. I kept forgiving you because we're friends! But the last you did is unforgivable. I employed you in order to get you closer and get rid of you without being suspected.”
“What did I do?”
“Aren't you the one who poisoned Killian? You killed Killian!”
“You kn...knew?”
“Of course I knew! I've got webcams in my house!”
The officers were as astounded as I was.
“He's a murderer? He killed someone?”
“He's a murderer! He killed my pet!”
“What!” “Is this some kind of a joke?”
“Killian is my dog. He's a huge dog that had been with me for years and he's the most cherished gift from my late father! This bastard killed Killian! If I reported that, it wouldn't sound sensible but I knew that eventually when he has nothing more to kill, he'd kill me.”
“Are you insane? I'd never kill you! I love you. I'm just jealous. You are always the centre of attention. Nobody notices me. When you're around and when you are not around, they speak of you and you alone. And Killian, you valued him more than you value me.”
I sat there trying to understand the feelings of the two. The reason for the murder attempt seemed insensible but right there, I discovered what love could turn into. I realised how badly we could behave when love turns sour or when we try to keep the ones we love; when we seem invisible and when we just want to make our presence evident to the ones we love and to those who hardly find us noticeable.