You lied to Me, Cal.
Michael POV:
I had already called Cal ahead of my impromptu visit, he sounded confused over the phone so I simply hung up and waited till we met in person.
He was already outside waiting for me, I could see the surprise on his face when Mark came out through the passenger door.
"You both are together and not fighting"
"He is helping me solve a case"
"Yeah I figured, how did you both find a common ground"
"As much as I want to satisfy your curiosity, I rather have an urgent matter to attend to Cal"
He could see the seriousness on my face and figured out I wasn't in the mood for jokes.
"What did you want?" He asked
"I want the whole CCTV footage of that night"
"Why, I thought they found all they needed to already"
"Not yet, that's why I need to see it for myself"
"I no longer have it"
"What do you mean you no longer have it" I asked wide-eyed
"I deleted it"
"Why, why would you do it"
"Leo, he implored me to"
"Leo fucking Jordan asked you to delete it and you did. Are you spastic?"
"After Leo came for it first, he told me he found what he was looking for and asked me to erase it, he wanted no one poke nosing around it"
"And you believed him"
"I had no reason not to"
"You are being un fucking unbelievable right now," I said frustrated
"is there a way to recover the footage"
"There is but it will take some processes which take days"
"What about the cops, you gave them a copy right." Officer Mark asked
"I didn't"
"You told me you did"
"You presumed I did, I never told you so"
"You fucking lied to me Cal," I said calmly
"Technically, I didn't. I omitted the truth" he chuckled
"You think this is funny?" I asked angrily
"Calm down and stop being passive-aggressive with me. He told me he got a private detective to solve the case because he didn't want it exposed to the public and I believed him, I had no reason to doubt him"
"I don't what's going on with you and him, whether you are fighting over Aurora or you are hell-bent on solving the case to bask in glory in front of her. I want no part of it." He added
I was livid, I had never been this angry at him before. I bit my tongue not to say anything hurtful.
I glanced at Mark, he looked very uncomfortable being caught in our crossfire. He was trying his best to be invisible
"Let's go, Mark," I said turning to head back to my car. He scampered after me glad that was over.
"Stop being a child Mike," Cal said
I didn't take another look at him and kept on walking.
"Yeah, do that. Storm of in rage, I can do the same" He hollered.
We both got into the car from opposite ends.
"You should calm down with your friend"
"I'd address him however I deemed fit, I bit off"
"What if they were all right and you were wrong"
"Not you too, I can't believe you believe anything good can come out from Leo Jordan"
"I don't know what to believe, I didn't even know he existed till 2 days ago." He replied
"You are free to jump on the bandwagon, I can sort this out myself"
"There's no bandwagon anywhere, it's you who's acting obsessive"
"Obsessive?" I asked bemused
"Leo Jordan and Aurora Hardy. You are obsessed with both of them, with the latter you are obsessed about her, the former you are hell-bent on his crucifixion"
"You think I'm obsessed with them?"
"Yes, like you are scared and insecure about something going on in between and hell-bent on ruining it.
I stared at him blankly. I knew myself, I should be angry but I wasn't. I was rather bemused by the load of gibberish he just spewed.
"You are not going to snap at me too, are you."
"I guess not, I would have if there's any ounce of truth. But You are wrong my friend in black. You can never be more wrong"
"I guess, I am." He said unconvincingly
"Now that you know you are, will you focus on helping me figure this shit out?"
"I will play my part." he replied "As long as you hold your end, I'd hold on to mine too."
"Great" I replied
I drove him home, before racing home. All the way I think about my success and failure. It should have been a successful and productive day, but my spat with Cal ruined everything.