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Perla Zapata lived close to her office. The apartment caretaker’s face lit up when Ryan mentioned Perla’s name and readily showed the way to her apartment on the third floor. As expected Perla was a beauty. She had a slim frame. Her perky breasts disturbed Ryan. She maintained her body well. She placed her hands on the door frame and eyed Ryan and Grace suspiciously. Ryan made introductions studying her long fingers and painted nails. “We came to ask you about the murder of your boss’s wife, Nancy.”
She arched her eyebrows. “Murder?”
“You didn’t see the evening news?”
“I slept throughout the day. I checked the mail by noon and learned that Nancy had committed suicide. I was so tired at that time. Actually the first thing that came into my mind was, “Thank God. I don’t have to go to office today.” I didn’t know she was murdered. Who killed her?”
“Did Theo leave his office at any time during the night?”
“Do you suspect him?”
“Answer my question.”
“Usually he leaves his office to have coffee at the first floor café. Sometimes he goes up to roof to enjoy the breeze. Working at night is so boring. Anyhow, he was absent for three or four hours yesterday. He left at eleven, I don’t know the exact time, and might have returned at three or four. I don’t know exactly as I was so sleepy at the time.”
“So you didn’t have work yesterday.”
“Correct, there were some network issues on the other side and the people at our Asia offices were unable to set up video conferencing.”
“What exactly you do?”
“I filter emails, calls on priority basis, set up video conferencing, call helpline if there is any technical snags, compose letters, check out MIS reports of our companies in Asia. If our people are busy in Asia, I have no work. If the business is dull there, everybody wants to talk to the boss and leave their opinion on how to improve the business. I’ve been having a hard time filtering the calls.”
“You live alone here?”
“Yeah.”
“Why do you prefer to work at night?”
“The pay is good. I need to earn money for my wedding. My boy friend is in Vegas, working in a night club. So I’m slowly adapting myself to night life.”
“Did you see any changes in Theo in the recent past?”
“I’ve been on his payroll for just three months.”
“You two work in the same room? “
“Separate rooms, he’s in his office room and I’m in my cabin.”
“Did Theo at any time misbehave toward you?”
“No, he is a gentleman.”
Ryan changed the tone of his voice and said sternly. “You acted your part well, Perla. The game is over. Come on. Tell me the truth.”
Perla’s face went ashen.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“We know who you are. Okay, Theo’s staffer Tabitha gave us a slip of paper containing your address along with a small memory card. I have inserted the card in my cell phone and listened to the message she had recorded. She planned to send it through courier to me anonymously. ” Ryan pressed the key pad of his cell phone and Tabitha’s voice rang out.
“I want to remain anonymous. The night staffer Perla is a fake. When she was appointed, I and my colleagues wondered how a woman could stay awake all night and work alone. We wanted to ask her about her experience as a night staffer. We were dying to meet her. But she was avoiding us. Then we started to doubt whether she was a spy or something, trying to steal our client’s data from the server when Theo was busy at video conferencing. One of our staffers came at night to check on her, but the building security refused to let him in as he was a daytime staffer. Our HR department told us that Perla was not on the payroll. Our Accounting Department people told us they had debited twenty-five thousand dollars in the account head client service and transferred money to an account holder with the name Anita Hunter. Is Anita and Perla same person? Our IT department guys ran Perla’s picture over the internet and found Perla was working for an escort company. We knew what Theo was up to. We sent an email to Nancy. We waited at the café on the corner.
“Nancy didn’t turn up on Tuesday. But next day she came at 10:15. We were happy. Theo and Perla would be caught red handed, we thought. Nancy left the building at 10:30. Next day, Theo looked very casual and there was no sign of having been caught with a call girl by his wife. One of our staffers waited at the café and confirmed that Perla came to work as usual and she was not sacked. We thought Nancy was a fool. I couldn’t contain myself so I made an anonymous call to her. I asked her how she could let her husband continue his relationship with a call girl. Nancy replied coolly. “You’re wrong. She was once a call girl but not now. She wanted to change and lead a decent life. But the companies she went to for interviews refused to take her in because of her bad reputation. But Theo is a gem. He forgave all her past discretions and gave her a job, intentionally night time duty as he feared the day time staff would harass her if they knew about her past. When I went to Theo’s office to check on her, she told me her story and wept. I saw truth in her eyes and I believed her.”
Perla smiled. “Okay, the cat is out of the bag. Why should I worry? I’m a call girl. I didn’t try to hide that fact. But you people have to maintain your social status. The doorman in the business complex at night would not allow anyone into our office until he checked with Theo. But the doorman couldn’t stop Nancy when she showed up. She would get suspicious. But he alerted us. Theo went to store room and locked himself in. I told all the lies Theo trained me to tell. Nancy believed everything and went away, such a nice, innocent woman. It is a pity she was murdered.
“Yesterday, after we had fun, I went to sleep. But I woke up shortly to drink a cup of coffee. Theo was not in bed. We had a small enclosure inside his office room where we had a bed, bar, and rest room. I walked out. I saw Theo leaving the office. I could only see his back. I noticed he was wearing a brown colored wig and some fluffy clothes to make him appear big. It was a strange sight. If it was not for his body language, I would have thought a burglar was leaving the office after looting the safe. I followed him to the hallway. I looked out and saw him entering the car park. He didn’t get into his car. Another mystery. He climbed into another car and drove out. I was confused. I returned to the bed. The time was 10:00. I didn’t sleep. When Theo returned, I checked the time. It was 3:40 am.”
Ryan showed the picture of the wig found at Nancy’s study room in his cell phone.
Perla studied it. “Yeah, I’m sure. Theo wore this wig when he went out of his office yesterday.”
“When he returned in the early morning, did he wear the wig?”
Perla thought for a moment. “No, the wig was not on his head.”