Chapter 99: Poke The Lion

"My name is Douglas Powell, brother to the now late, Lilliana Powell. She was stabbed in the heart, here in Denver, at the King's Rock Hotel, by that man, exactly five years ago. He used his money, power and connections to avoid the law and pinned the murder on some thief when he was the one who killed her. He has the police on his payroll and they closed the case so he wouldn't go to prison," Douglas said.

"Sir, do you have any proof to back up these allegations?" A reporter asked.

"No, I don't have any evidence, but I do have witnesses who can attest to the fact that Mr Addicus here is a murderer and can vouch for me. I also have one particular witness who saw the crime with her own eyes."

Just then, Peter knew he was about to mention Sharon's name and he wasn't happy about it.

"We have to stop him from mentioning Sharon, otherwise Addicus might think she was the one who sent him here," Peter said to Chris.

They tried to get to Douglas so they could drag him away before he did more damage, but they couldn't get past the large crowd of reporters.

"And who is this eyewitness?" A reporter asked Douglas.

"Her name is Sharon Thompson and she can bear witness to all the multiple crimes Mr Addicus has committed, including the murder of my sister."

Addicus' eyes widened as soon as Sharon's name was mentioned. He was furious, although he tried to hide it behind a mask of oblivion. He didn't want to believe that this was Sharon's doing and that she had breached the terms of their agreement. But, his suspicions became confirmed when he saw Peter and Chris who had managed to get through the crowd and were now beside Douglas.

He exchanged a hateful look with Peter before he started to walk into his company, shielded by his guards.

The reporters all surrounded him, asking him questions about the accusations but he didn't comment.

With the reporters' attention focused on the retreating Addicus, Peter and Chris used the opportunity to take off with Douglas.

Addicus entered his company and Mr Andrew was already inside, very displeased by these accusations and Addicus could see the displeasure in his facial expression.

"I assure you, Mr Andrew, that none of what that man said outside was true. I don't know who he is or what he wants, but he was probably sent by one of our competitors who aren't happy about our partnership to ruin the deal signing," Addicus lied.

"This isn't good for both our companies' images, Mr Addicus. You have to take care of this," Mr Andrew whispered angrily.

"I will take care of it. Don't worry about it! Let's go into the office and get the deal signed," Addicus said convincingly and Mr Andrew nodded.

Addicus put on his fake smile and they headed to the office.

.

.

.

"Do you have any idea what you've just done?" Peter yelled at Douglas, grabbing him tightly by the neck of his shirt.

"Peter, calm down! Let him go," Chris said and pulled Peter off Douglas.

"I did what I had to, for my sister's memory," Douglas said, breathing heavily.

"You've doomed us all. You've brought war and violence to our doorstep and it will only end with the spilling of blood," Peter said and punched the side of the building where they hid in the corner.

"I just exposed him for the scum that he is in front of the whole world. There's no way he'll come after us because if anything bad happened to me, you, Sharon, or any of us, people would know it was him," Douglas said.

"You have no idea what you're talking about, Douglas. No fucking idea!"

************

The very next day after the incident at Worthington Enterprise, all the newspapers ran the story and most of the headlines read: **ARE THE ACCUSATIONS TRUE? IS THE CEO OF WORTHINGTON ENTERPRISE A MURDERER?"**

The issue was the topic on every radio channel. It was on the front page of every newspaper and the number of people reading and listening was immense.

Addicus was in his study at home with a large radio. He tuned in to various stations and as he dialled from one to the other, all they talked about was the same thing; ***Is he a murderer?***

Addicus was so angry with all this negative attention that was now on him just after he signed a huge deal with Modex. It was awful timing and his displeasure knew no bounds. He picked up the radio and smashed it on the wall, stomping on it multiple times in his anger.

Martha was about to inform him that breakfast was ready, but she heard him in his study, breaking things and yelling in anger so she decided to leave him alone so as not to have him transfer his anger and aggression to her.

Just then, Jacobos Winston showed up at the house. He asked Martha where Addicus was and she directed him to the study.

"I must warn you though, he's not in a good mood!" Martha said to Jacobos.

"Well, his mood's about to get even worse," Jacobos replied to her and went into the study to speak with Addicus.

As he entered, a flying chair came at him but he ducked in time and it narrowly missed his head.

"Uhmm, Sir?' Jacobos said, nervous because he was the bearer of more bad news.

"It's on every freaking station. They're all talking about it. Every single one of them," Addicus yelled without looking at Jacobos.

"Sir, I think you need to see this!" Jacobos managed to say and handed a newspaper to Addicus.

Addicus snatched the paper out of his hands and read its content. He became even more furious as he read the article and he ripped the newspaper into pieces.

The article wrote that the police would reopen the case of Miss Lily's death and do a thorough investigation to make find out if Addicus was involved in the murder or not. Addicus sat down and took a large gulp of whiskey to cool himself.

"Put a call out to Captain Henry and tell him that I'm calling in the favour he owes me. I need him to make sure that this **investigation** is just for show and that nothing they find traces back to me," Addicus said to Jacobos.

"I already spoke to the Captain, and he said that the higher-ups are taking him off the case and that there's nothing he can do to influence things in our favour this time around," Jacobos informed.

"Why would they take him off the case?"

"The man that accused you mentioned that the police were involved in sweeping the case under the rug and Captain Henry was the one in charge of that case five years ago, so this is their way of appearing impartial to the media. They're giving the case to detective Matilda Cuomo! She's rather immune to bribery and she's also merciless," Jacobos replied.

Addicus was fuming now and he only had one thing on his mind; **Sharon.**

"She broke my trust. We had an agreement and she broke it. I will make her pay for this."

"Now sir, we have to be smart about whatever we do from this point on. We can't act without thinking about the implications because the world is watching us. Miss Sharon will get what's coming for her but not yet, not until this goes away."

"So, what's our next course of action?"

"We have to make sure that the murder doesn't get traced back to us. Anyone that may have seen you in that hotel on that very day needs to be found and convinced to keep their mouth shut. We also have to hope the case doesn't reach the court, because Sharon's testimony would be largely influential in the judge's verdict and, should the case get taken to court, we have to put the right amount of money in the right pockets," Jacobos said.

Addicus heeded the advice of his attorney and was going to play things out, but he wouldn't let Sharon off the hook this time. He would make sure that she longer remains a problem to him by removing her from his life, ***permanently***.

"You've made a big mistake by crossing me, Sharon. A calamitous mistake!"