CHAPTER 10: SLEAZY LAWYER

Gina POV

The atmosphere in this house now is so quiet, you could hear a pin drop. I can barely acknowledge the fact that Marcus and I aren't alone. I know that there are two people in here with us but I am only focusing on him. The man who broke my heart 7 years ago, is standing in front of me now with an ankle monitor around his leg. "Wait are you the person who is under investigation?" I ask as I stare at the monitor around his leg. "Yes. Didn't you know?" Marcus asks me. I shake my head at him.

Marcus walks closer to me and I can't help but stare at his muscles that are straining against his shirt. I keep imagining my hands running all over them and it makes me feel something in my body that I thought I'd never feel again. Jip. You guessed it. I have butterflies in my stomach. Sure I've been on a few dates in the past 7 years, most of them were blind dates that Glenda set me up with. But none of those guys could make me feel this way. Marcus was the only guy who can do that.

He stops right in front of me. "Where have you been all this time?" He asks as he looks me straight in the eyes. His brown eyes bore straight into my soul and if it weren't for my legs that were rooted on the ground then I would have fainted right here and now. It is a miracle that my knees haven't buckled from underneath me yet. And now I wish I had because I would love to be in his arms right now. And just the thought of that makes my panties wet.

'Snap out of it Gina. You are here on a mission remember.' I say to myself before I continue fantasizing about Marcus. "Uhm. I was in New York actually." I reply as I step away from him and I go and sit on the couch. I look around the room and I see that Mateo and Palvo are both looking at us with curiosity in their eyes. "Why are you guys staring at us?" I ask them to which they quickly snap their heads in different directions. "Nothing. We're just waiting for one more person so we can get started." Pavlo says.

Marcus comes and takes a seat right next to me. "I went to New York and I couldn't find you." He says. "That's because I didn't want to be found Marcus." I say as I take a sip of my juice. "Gina, can I talk to you about what happened between us back then after the meeting? It was a huge misunderstanding. April wanted us to break up….." Marcus started saying but I cut him off.

"Are you still saying that you did not hook up with April? Because I still remember that photo that she had sent me and it clearly had shown that the guy was you. I think we should forget it and move on." I say to him and it was not in a nice way.

"It wasn't me. I don't know how many times must I tell you that." Marcus says. "It was a long time ago and I think that you and I should just accept the fact that we will not be together again any time soon. I'm here to investigate your case. That's all." I say as I look at him. Marcus was clearly hurt by my words because he looks away. Maybe I was too hard on him. "I'm sorry.." I say.

"It's fine. I now know that you'll never believe me so I'm not even going to keep on defending myself on this subject." Marcus says as he looks at the watch on his wrist.
"Anyway, I was told that this is a murder investigation as well. Who was killed?" I ask them. "My father," Marcus says and my eyes go wide open in shock. "Mr. Castellanos is dead?" I ask him. "Yes. And they think that I killed him. I wasn't even here when he died." Marcus says as he crosses his arms over his chest. My heart breaks for him. I know that Marcus and his dad were close so I have no reason to believe that he would do such a thing.

"I'm sorry to hear that. When did he die?" I ask him. "4 years ago. I was 22 and still studying at Oxford. I came back for his funeral and then I left right after that." Marcus says as he looks at me. I know that I hurt him. I can see the hurt in his eyes.

"Where is that damn Lawrence Smith. He should have been here 20 minutes ago." Marcus says as he looks at Matteo. "I told you. The guy is unreliable. He's always late, even when he has to show up for his court dates." Mateo says just as the doorbell rings.

"I will go and get it." Marcus says as he jumps up and walks out of the room. "You know that you should at least give him some slack. You have no idea what Marcus has been through the past couple of years." Mateo says. "And I know that he's telling the truth about what happened between you two." Pavlo says. I look at the two of them but before I could say anything, Marcus walks back into the living room with another man. Behind the man is a woman. She looks up at me and her eyes go wide in shock. She turns her head around to look behind her but there is no one else. She looks straight at me again. That is when I realize that she is a ghost.

"You can see me?" She asks and I nod at her. "You have to help me, please! This man is a murderer and a thief." She says as she points at Lawrence. Again I have to nod at her because I can't speak to her in front of everyone. They might just think that I am crazy. "Everyone this is Lawrence Smith and he is my lawyer." Marcus says as he introduces Lawrence. "Pfft. Lawyer my ass. He is more like the biggest liar and crook that you've ever seen." The woman says. I don't respond to her because I'm trying to concentrate on what Lawrence is saying about the case.

I look at Lawrence and I see that he is staring at me. Marcus clears his throat making Lawrence look at him. "Lawrence this is Gina Rossi and Pavlo DuPont of Rossi P.I. Gina owns Rossi P.I. They'll be helping us in this investigation." Marcus says. Lawrence smiles at him and then at me. I take a good look at him. He is wearing a t-shirt and jeans, his hair is combed back but it looks greasy like it hasn't been washed in weeks.

"I know who Pavlo is but it is a pleasure to finally meet the boss of Rossi P.I. I didn't know that she was this beautiful." Lawrence says as he extends his hand towards me. I notice that his fingernails are unkept and there is dirt underneath them. "No offense but I just don't do the handshake thing. I am a germophobe. I hope you can understand?" I say. "None taken. But hopefully, I could persuade you to go on a date with me sometime." He says as I look over at Marcus. He looks mad like he is going to blow a gasket any minute now. He doesn't like the fact that this grease monkey had just asked me out on a date. "Do not do that. Do not go on a date with this asshole." The woman whispers in my ears. She is now standing behind the couch that I'm sitting on.


"No thank you, Mr. Smith. I'm only in town for business today and I will be leaving for Paris tomorrow." I lie through my teeth. "No worries. Maybe another time." Lawrence replies. "Can we please get to the issue at hand." Mateo says. I look at him and he has this annoyed expression on his face. Pavlo as well. They are both looking at Lawrence. I think that they don't trust this guy and neither should I.
"Here are the files that I had gathered a few days ago." Pavlo says as he takes out some folders that contain the information we have on Marcus's case.

"Right. The case. I suggest that Marcus should take the plea deal. That's the only way out of this mess." Lawrence says. "Are you nuts? Have you actually done your job? You know that he is innocent so why are you suggesting that?" Mateo says as he looks at Lawrence. I take the file that has the word FRAUD on it and I see some similar numbers on them. Similar to the ones that I found on the USB drive that Tatiana had given me. That reminds me that I should call Dax and hear how she is doing.

I take the other file that is laying on the table and I open it. This is the file that has all the information on Andreas Castellano's death. "I see that Mr. Castellano's death was ruled as a suicide four years ago." I say and the others look at me. "Yes but now new evidence has come out that it wasn't." Lawrence says. I look at him. Something about this guy is off. For starters, he has a ghost following him around everywhere he goes and I intend to find out why.


"Would you mind showing me this evidence?" I ask them. Pavlo takes the Ipad that was also on the table. "He is referring to this video. It was leaked onto the internet and it went viral." Pavlo says as he plays the video. It is a short video, barely 30 seconds. I see Mr. Castellano walking out onto the patio where his private pool is and then it ends with Marcus killing him. Marcus is wearing a black shirt and also a black tracksuit. I know that this isn't Marcus. He will never wear the same color shirt and pants. He likes to mix it up. It was only on special occasions that he would wear a black suit and tie because his mother would make him do it.

I play the video again and I notice something else. There are two separate dates and times on this video. "This is not Marcus and also this video was edited." I say. Lawrence looks at me.

"How do you know that?" He rudely asks me. "I know Marcus very well and he would not wear all black clothes." I say as I look at him and then at Marcus. Marcus smiles at me and I smile at him back.

"And second. Look at the time and date on this video clip right here." I say as I press pause where I see Mr. Castellanos walking out to his pool when the attacker attacks him. "The date on this clip right here says March 14 and the time says 10:38am," I say as I point it out on the Ipad. Everyone looks at the Ipad screen. I then press play again to where Mr. Castellanos was stabbed before I pause it again. "The date changed to March 17 and the time was 11:30am when Mr. Castellanos was stabbed. He is also wearing different clothes now." I say as I once again point out everything to them.

"That can't be. This video is authentic. I had my IT guy look at it and he said that it is real." Lawrence says. "No, it's not. The times and dates on this video don't match and neither do Mr. Castellano's clothes. I can see the color difference of his pajamas. You and your IT guy are clueless." I say as I look at him. He stares at me with a disgusted look on his face.


I turn and look towards Marcus. "That means that someone is out to get Marcus and make him suffer for no reason at all. I'm going to help him prove his innocence. Now as for you. I would like for you to do your damn job for once and stop being a lazy asshole." I say to Lawrence as I look him straight in the eye. He starts squirming underneath my intense gaze. 'Yeah that's right asshole. I'm onto you.' I think to myself.

"This guy is a pig. You should see his house. Eew." The ghost woman says. She is still standing behind me.


"You see. I told you this video was fake." Mateo says as he looks at Lawrence. "You should stop staring at me boy." Lawrence says to Matteo. "Or what? What are you going to do? Release another stupid video again." Mateo says as he keeps staring at Lawrence with an angry look on his face. "I have told you a million times already that I didn't do it. It wasn't me who released the video." Lawrence says. "If it wasn't you then who was it? Because as far as I can understand this is a highly confidential case and only the DA's office has a copy of that tape as well as the legal representative of Mr. Marcus Castellano. You're his legal representative and I've already checked the DA's office's computers. The video didn't leak from there so that leaves only you." Pavlo says.

"I don't have to sit here and listen to this. I know that I wasn't the one who leaked this video." Lawrence says as he gets up. He turns and looks at Marcus who looks like he has been fuming this whole time. I swear I can see the smoke coming out of his ears. "You fucking asshole. Why is it that Gina saw the date and time differences on that video but you didn't? You were supposed to notice that first because you are my lawyer." Marcus yells at him.

"That's because Gina is way smarter than him." Mateo says as he looks at Marcus before he turns his attention back towards Lawrence. "Why don't you just tell the truth already? You leaked that video onto social media." Mateo says.

"Oh for fuck sake. I already told you that I didn't do it." Lawrence says. "Pretty boy over there is right. Lawrence did do it. I saw him do it all from his computer in his secret room. He was paid to do it." The ghost lady says as she points to Mateo and then at Lawrence.

I should really talk to this woman so I make up an excuse to go to the bathroom. "Hey, I need to use your bathroom real quick." I say to Marcus. "Sure. You can use the downstairs bathroom. It is just down the hall behind that door there." Marcus says as he points to a closed-door at the end of the hall. "Thank you." I say as I get up and I nudge my head towards the bathroom as I look at the woman, hoping that she would get the message.

I quickly walk towards the bathroom and I close the bathroom door behind me. I see the woman standing right behind me as I turn around.

"He is the one that killed you isn't he?"