People nowadays think that the opposite of
love is hate. That the more you love someone,
the less you are likely to hate them, and vice versa. But that assumption is not entirely
true. As a matter of fact, that
assumption is completely wrong. Love and
Hate can coexist. You can love and hate
something at the same time. It may be
for different reasons; or perhaps even the same one.
Take your wife for example. I’m sure you love her for who she is. But I’m also sure that there was a day when
you hated here for exactly who she is.
Now, that love didn’t go away when you started to hate her, otherwise
you would have left her right then and there.
It’s just that your love and hate for your wife coexisted at that exact
same time. It doesn’t happen all the
time, but I think it is wise for us to realize that hate is an essential part
in our relationships. Hating someone but
still realizing that you love them is something that I much rather have than
loving someone because you have never hated them.
Phil
was sitting outside the Donut shop sipping on a hot coffee under the
diminishing light of the sun when I arrived.
“Where’s
my coffee Phil?”
“Oh
Marcus. Done already? I thought it would take much longer so I didn’t order
yours yet. Wouldn’t want you munching on
cold bread and sipping on stale coffee.
Let me get you your stuff in a bit.”
“It’s
ok Phil. We have to go. I’ll just grab some coffee on the way.”
“Go
where?”
“Ms.
Chan. Office hours is almost up, she should be home in about an hour or so.”
“Ok.
Let me get the car, while you get your cup of coffee.”
“Thanks
Phil. You don’t know how much I needed that.”
We
got going and reached Romeo’s apartment in less than 30 minutes. We had some
time so I thought I’d take it to try to wipe my mind clean in light of recent
events. I talked to Phil about it, I wanted to make sure that he knows
everything that’s going on so I won’t have to explain myself when things gets
rough. It’s not like I’m planning to yield to the chief’s demands, but I need
to make sure that someone has my back when the going gets rough.
“Well,
that’s the way it is in the industry Marcus.
Not every crime is solvable. Even
if I was a clairvoyant I don’t think I could solve half the crimes passing
through our office. Unfortunately, not everyone understands that. And there are
some crimes that are more important than the others. Crimes that demands
resolutions and convictions.”
“I
understand Phil. But that doesn’t make the situation any less disgusting as it
is. And for the record, I am not planning on crossing the line here. I just
want to keep you in the loop of what is happening around here.”
“No
problem man. I told you. I’ve got your back. You wanna cross a line? I’m all
the way with you pal.”
“Thanks
Man! Let’s just hope we won’t have to go that route.”
I
caught the silhouette of a woman approaching our direction. She must be around 5 foot 1, short hair,
carrying a back pack and an over-sized notebook tucked between her arms. ‘This must be Ms. Chan’, I said to myself.
“Ms.
Chan. I’m Detective Marcus Gavin, I’m an officer in the National Bureau of
Investigations. I hope this is a good time to ask you a couple of questions
involving the Murder of Romeo Rosales.”
Ms.
Chan looked up to me through her glasses and nodded silently while opening the
door to her unit.
“Can
I get you some coffee? Or something to drink?” she asked politely.
“We’re
good Ms Chan. We just had coffee on the way.”
“Let
me just drop my stuff, give me a couple of minutes.”
I
smiled and nodded to let her know that we are not rushing in any way. After all, I can clearly see how tired she
must be just by looking at her face.
Phil
gestured that he will just wait outside since he isn’t done smoking yet. Which I perfectly understand, since it would
be such a waste to throw away an unfinished stick of cigarette. These little bastards went up from a less
than 2 pesos per stick to almost 5 pesos per stick. All due to the controversial “Sin tax” which
was meant to discourage people from smoking.
Almost 4 years of implementation and I still don’t see it fulfilling its
cause. As a matter of fact, I read an article on the internet claiming that the
number of cigarettes sold after implementing the said law has almost doubled
compared to the time before its implementation.
But hey, you know what they say, don’t believe everything you see on the
internet.
“Sorry
for the wait Mr. Gavin. How can I help?”
Ms.
Chan sat down on the couch across the center table. Still wearing what appears
to be a school teacher’s uniform and her pair of round eye glasses.
“Please,
call me Marcus. I just have some questions. And thank you again for
accommodating my request.”
“No
Problem Mr. Gavin.”
I
smiled and pulled out a tickler from my back pocket to start taking notes.
“How
long have you been staying in this apartment Ms Chan?”
“It’s
been over a year. I moved here the same time I landed a teaching job in one of
the Public secondary schools nearby.”
“And
what time do you usually work?”
“Usual
schedule is 6AM – 12 Noon from Mondays to Fridays. But I also have some part
time work from 3PM to 6PM on weekdays and 9AM – 11AM during weekends.”
“I
hear ya’. Single job doesn’t make a living right?”
“Yes
Mr. Gavin. Not when you have a couple of siblings to finance and debts to
settle.”
“Yeah,
the burden of lineage. Anyways, given
your schedule, it seems like you are out for more than 12 hours a day. Around
what time do leave for work and arrive at home?”
“I
leave around 5 in the morning, which means I wake up at around 3:30 and then
arrive sometime between 7 and 8.”
“And
earlier this morning, around the time you woke up to the time you left your
apartment, did you hear or notice something unusual in the unit beside you?”
Ms.
Chan swerved her head from left to right before answering the question.
“No.
Nothing unusual.”
“How
about the night before then?”
“Nothing.
I was here starting Sunday noon and didn’t really notice anything. As a matter of fact, I don’t recall seeing
Romeo since last Friday.”
I
knew that it was unlikely that the interview with Ms. Chan would give me any
leads I could chase. But I had no idea that it would be an utter waste of time.
Obviously, Ms. Chan is neck deep into work and doesn’t have time to socialize
with her neighbors or anyone else for that matter.
“Let
me ask you Ms. Chan, how was Romeo as a neighbor? I mean up to what extent were
your interactions with him?”
“To
be honest, we had zero to no interactions at all. I just know that he lives
next door. But I’ve never really gotten into a conversation with him. Now that I think about it, we never really
talked at all.”
As
I said, this was a complete waste of time.
I was about to end the questioning when Ms. Chan suddenly opened up a
piece of information that may lead me somewhere.
“If
it helps at all Mr. Gavin. Romeo was a
very reclusive person. I have never seen
anyone visiting him or ever heard him talk to anyone here. But in the last couple of weeks I have
started to hear him having a conversation with someone next door. You know, not that I’m eavesdropping or
something. But the walls here aren’t
exactly sound proof. So it is easy to
overhear some conversations.”
“I
see. And do you happen to know who this
person was?”
“No. Unfortunately I don’t. All I know is that they’ve been going out
together and that they were planning to live together. That was the only thing that I can recall.”
This is great lead! I said to myself. Knowing that Romeo had a partner definitely
increased the odds of solving this case.
Now this case isn’t just about suicide or robbery; but it could very
well be a case of domestic abuse or homicide.
“And
have you ever seen that person Ms. Chan?”
Ms.
Chan just shrugged her head and apologized that she could no longer provide any
additional information.
“No problem Ms. Chan. You have helped me by a great
deal. Knowing that Romeo had a partner
is a key information that will get me a long way.”
“That
is nice to hear Mr. Gavin. I hope you
find more information on the case. I
really hope you can put the person behind this to justice. I may not have been friends with Romeo. But that doesn’t mean that I am not saddened
by what has happened to him.”
I
paused for a while and took a second to think through what Ms. Chan just
said. ‘I may not have been friends with Romeo’. Anywhere I go it is the Gay people who are
the friendliest and are likely to be friends with the people around them. Specially the female ones. And seeing how Ms. Chan and Romeo are likely
to be in the same age bracket… Well I am not saying that they should be
friends, but why not? They live next to
each other after all. I let the thought
go and bid good bye to Ms. Chan after giving her my contact information. I requested that she contact me just in case
she stumbles upon any information that may be helpful. She thanked me and wished me good luck before
retiring to her apartment to rest.
I
walked over to Phil who was waiting for me outside and was already burning
another stick of cigarette.
“Done
already Marcus?”
“Yeah. Didn’t really get a lot. However, I found out that Romeo was in a
relationship with someone and they were planning to move in together.”
“Well
that’s good news Marcus. Maybe that
person got into a fight with Romeo and it ended up with a bloody scuffle. Which explains why none of his valuables were
taken.”
“Oh
I wish it was as easy as that Phil. I really,
really do my friend. But it just doesn’t
add up. Why would Romeo write these
letters then if that was the case?”
I
pulled the envelopes out of the inner pocket of my jacket and showed it to
Phil.
“I
don’t know man. Why don’t you open them
up and see for yourself?”
“Oh
yeah. I’ve been holding off on
that. ‘Coz you know… I don’t want to
make things too easy for us. Besides, we
haven’t really had the time to sit down and check these. So what do you say we go back to the office
and have these recorded and read?”
“Sounds
good to me. But I’m going home after
that.”
We
drove back to the office and headed straight to the evidence room to have the
letters recorded. We both know that
chain of custody has been broken because I didn’t submit these letters right
away. But no one here will ever make a
fuzz about that. The thing that most
people don’t understand is that there are so many factors that may hinder
investigators to follow what is in the book at all times. And sometimes the same law that we promised
to uphold is also the same law that hinders us from doing what we have to do to
execute it. Sometimes, law and order
becomes shackles rather than weapons.
Sometimes they restrain you rather than empower you. And sometimes, it is the very law itself that
lets the bad guys walk because it restricted the good guys too much. So no, not a single one of those sitting
behind the desk in the office dared to question me when I said that we went
back to the crime scene and found these letters.
Phil and I then moved to my desk and
started to examine the envelopes. The
ink smears were still there and were clearly visible if you look closely. I took extra care not to touch it as I opened
the letter that was addressed towards Romeo’s landlord, Mr. Santos.
Romeo’s
letter to Mr. Santos
Mr. Santos,
I would like to inform you that this
will be my last month here in your apartment.
While I did not exactly feel welcome during my stay, I would still like to
thank you for allowing me to stay here.
I have included this month’s rent
along with my arrears from last month in this letter. I hope you can finally sleep well at night
since I have now settled my debts.
Perhaps this will now stop you from slamming your fists on my door every
9 in the morning when I am just about to sleep.
I understand that this is the only
source of income that you have. But what
I don’t understand is why you have to be so cruel to me. I promised you that I will pay the rent as
soon as I can. It just so happened that
I got sick and I needed money to pay for my medication. It was just 3000 pesos and all you had to do
was wait for my next payday which was due in 2 weeks. But that wasn’t good enough for you? Right?
You had to go about and humiliate me
by shouting at me from outside the door.
You told everyone here that I don’t pay my rent on time when in fact
this was the first time I have ever been late in my payments. I always knew that there was something more
than just the rent. That was the first
time that I have failed to pay rent, but you have treated me with disgust ever
since you found out that I am gay. You
hate us Mr. Santos! You are one of those
shallow minded people who still doesn’t accept us for who we are. That explains why you didn’t tell me about
the fumigation 2 months ago. You knew
very well that I keep my window open whenever I sleep during the day. Yet you didn’t even bother to tell me about
it. Did you know that I almost
suffocated on that day? Or did you
really want that to happen? I had to
hide in the toilet just to keep myself from inhaling more of those harmful
chemicals.
Do you also remember the time I asked
you to put your dog on leash? All the while I thought you have never put him on
a leash before. I politely asked you
because he kept on barking at me every time I go down to go to work at
night. There were even several instances
when he chased me and almost bit me. You
know what I found out? It seems like you
have been putting him on a leash all along. You were just taking them off during the
night, intentionally setting your dog loose on me! Why would you that? What have I ever done to
you to be treated this way? Did I offend
you in any way? Or is it because of the way I look? Or my gender? What is your problem with me you fucking
asshole?
Did you know that you have made my
life here miserable? I hated every day that I have to go back to this apartment
because you had to be such a dick and treat me like a piece of shit. And all because of what? Because you can’t
wrap your head around the idea of people being gay? Are you really that dense?
I really wish that this will finally
give you the peace of mind you so obviously need. After all, the threat you have made earlier today made it more than clear that I have to leave as soon as possible. Perhaps it is really no longer safe for me to stay here.
I will go now Mr. Santos. I will go... but not before telling you that you are a
fucking ass hole you good-for-nothing, discriminating old piece of shit!
Fuck you!
Phil
turned his head slowly towards me as if he has seen a ghost.
“Holy
shit Marcus. This is spot on.”
“I
know Phil. His alibi was shaky and even if this doesn't seem like a clear motive, the things written here simply can't be overlooked. And what threat was Romeo referring to?"
He
stood up and lit a stick of cigarette for what seems like the 25th
time for this day before turning his attention back to me.
“Do
you want me to take him in for questioning?”
I
shook my head and looked at the cash that was enclosed within the envelope.
“No
Phil. Let’s deal with that later. For now, I need you to check our database if
this guy has any records.”
Phil
nodded and left my office to do as asked while I was left alone to wonder what
I else the other 2 letters would reveal to me.
“God damn son of a bitch. It seems like I
will have a suspect at the end of the day after all.”
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