Chapter 239: BRIBED
"That’s impossible," Ethan muttered. "If there was a power outage, how come the results are still messed up?" He asked no one in particular. It was obvious he didn’t believe the police officers.
Ethan stared at each of them, waiting for one of them to act stupidly but they all held the same firm expression so that they could believe their words but he wasn’t buying it.
His eyes landed on the youngest who mentioned the power outage earlier. He noticed the little one who seemed to be in his mid-twenties fidget and that alone was already suspicious.
Ethan moved his gaze to the other three who seemed to be trying hard to not breathe too much as sweat glistened on each of their foreheads. ’That is suspicious,’ Ethan thought to himself.
Without a word, he turned back to make eye contact with Adrian whose eyes seemed to want to bulge right out of their sockets. From his expression, Ethan already concluded that Adrian probably had no clue about the power outage.
Facing the officers again, Ethan walked towards the youngest one who was starting to sweat nonstop already. Placing his hand on his shoulder which ended up jolting the fella, Ethan demanded with a firm tone,
"Tell me everything that you know." His sentence was very short and curt.
Mr. Brown was quite confused by Ethan’s question about the officer. Stepping forward, he walked toward Ethan and said, "They said that there was a power outage, right?" The last word was directed towards the officers whose heads were lowered, planning on avoiding any sort of eye contact.
"They are hiding something," Ethan concluded. Felix and Edward shared a look, not quite understanding Ethan’s words. "Especially this one," he pointed at the youngest officer.
Mr Brown glared at Mack, the youngest officer, and demanded, "What are you hiding Mack?"
With an unsettled voice, Mack tried to speak up but his voice betrayed him.
"I-I have n-no idea, sir," he stuttered and his effort to speak without doing so only made his body shake more.
Ethan wasn’t buying it. Taking a step towards the officer, Ethan glared at his head and questioned,
"What happened here when there was a power outage?"
The other three officers quickly came to Mack’s rescue.
"Mr Anderson, nothing happened when the power outage occurred. If you want, we can show you the cameras," said the other officer who hadn’t spoken since they arrived.
Ethan clenched his fist tightly and the urge to punch every one of them arose. Their lies were starting to annoy them. Of course, he wouldn’t waste his time by checking the cameras since they had already deleted the footage. That’s if there was a power outage in the first place, he thought to himself.
"Someone came here and bribed all of you," Ethan stated but didn’t question. They were only going to deny it anyway.
The shocked expression of the officers proved his suspicions right. These officers have been bribed. Ethan hissed, not taking it lightly that the officers had been bribed just like that to change the reports of the fingerprints.
"Who was the one who bribed you?!" Ethan demanded with a harsh voice that nearly made them pee in their pants. On the other hand, Ethan wished that he had not yelled like that. Suddenly, he grabbed his head and stumbled around before finding his balance.
Quickly, Edward rushed to grab a hold of him. His migraine was acting up again. Ethan cursed at himself at that moment for being so weak but he wouldn’t leave without getting the truth out of the officers.
"Talk!" He added when he saw the officers staring at him without speaking a word.
"Sir, w-we were not b-bribed or anything like that," said the fourth officer. He found it hard to believe that Ethan already found out they had been bribed. But how? They were confused. Which path should they follow? Tell the truth and be imprisoned in the same station they work in or not tell the truth but receive even harder punishments. The decision was tough to make. They had only collected the money that the man had offered to them because they thought that no one would ever find out about it and also erased the camera footage so that nothing would be held against them. But now, they regret that decision.
When Mack couldn’t handle the tense atmosphere that suddenly enveloped the station, he raised his hands and spoke.
"We were bribed," he revealed. Instantly, the other ones glared hard at him to shut up but his head was lowered so he didn’t see their glare instead he felt it. But it was nothing compared to the glare that he was receiving from Ethan. "Two men came here very early this morning and requested to file a case on someone but then they requested to see the reports which would be ready in about an hour...." The officer continued until he was done narrating his story and the other colleagues could only wish that they were able to dig a grave right there and bury themselves or if possible, shoot a bullet in their head and end their lives as soon as possible.
Once Mack was done with his story, Ethan sprang up from the seat and attacked Mack by punching him in the face while the latter stumbled until he fell flat on the ground.
This was the worst day of their lives since their career was obviously going to come to an end and if they ever live past this day, it will only be by miracle.
"Arrest them all!" Ethan demanded and the other ones who were in the morning shift did as they were told. The four officers were locked up and their prediction will be announced later.
Facing Mr Brown, Ethan said, "Adrian should not be released from jail no matter what. He was the one who owns that gun so he should never be released." He turned to face Adrain who glared at him and he glared right back at him.
