Chapter 43: Blood Stains

The whole scenario looked like that, just a stupendous party with lots of exotic dancers and expensive wines. Yet Marcus woke up with a dead body on his bed and he was freaking out. He kept calling for Martin while racing outside "Martin! Martin..." he screamed.

Martin got out of his room "What the hell?" he said looking at Marcus running around the pool half naked. He was screaming as if he'd seen a ghost, that wasn't something Martin was used to, seeing Marcus afraid and nearly on the brink of losing his mind so he barged out and run after him.

"Sir? Sir? Hold up..." said Martin trying to catch up to Marcus.

"Martin? Oh, thank God!" Marcus stopped and then he bent down trying to catch his breath. "She's dead..."

"Who's dead?"

"Shandla, I fucking saw her on my bed. Someone stabbed her and left her there, I swear Martin... I didn't do it..."

Martin couldn't wait for Marcus to finish what he wanted to say, just the idea that the woman who he met yesterday could be dead had him run towards Marcus's room like a mad man. Inside his thoughts Martin wished with all his heart that what Marcus said was a lie, and Shandla wasn't dead. But reality always hits the hardest, and it nearly destroyed Martin the moment he laid eyes on a stabbed and cold dead Shandla lying on the pool of blood. Her intestines were out, practically whoever did it wanted to do it a long time ago but he was just waiting for a proper time - or it could be a she, one may never know.

Martin thought out loud "How could she be dead? She was the first one to leave the party?" and then he bent down to look at Shandla, but he didn't touch her and he was careful with fingerprints and suchlike especially since it was a murder case.

Marcus walked in still shaking and shocked, this time he was wearing a bathrobe and slippers.

"You sure you didn't do this sir?"

Marcus replied quickly "I didn't! You left me at four am in the morning Martin, I was drunk as hell. How could I stab her while I couldn't even move?"

"You could if you had one of your episodes. It has been days since the last time you took your meds"

"For Godsake Martin!" said Marcus then he exhaled and sat on a chain close to the bed. "I am in remission okay? I'm trying to minimize drugs use and that includes the antidepressants, this was your idea Martin and I haven't felt anything like crazy lately, Diana has been keeping me busy"

"Well then who could it be?"

Marcus raised his hands motioning he didn't know who it was, then he leaned back on the chair and paid attention to Shandla's body on his bed - the dark and vicious images of her were so fiery and very observant to the point he felt maybe she may hunt him on his sleep tonight.

A phone rang and it made both Martin and Marcus's nerves to jump over the roof. "It's my phone, it's alright..." said Marcus to Martin who was alarmed way more than he was, then he hoped to his feet and picked it up.

"Diana, good morning" he said.

"Lovely party yesterday, I'm just wondering why wasn't I invited"

"You know the reason"

"Come on Marcus, I'm coming over so we can talk"

Marcus intervened "No, no, no... not today, I... I need time" he said then turning back to look at Martin.

"Time?"

"Yes, I mean like a... a space. A time to figure it all out you know, so I can think clearly if I still want to be with you since you accused me of killing a person"

"I know what a space means Marcus, plus I've said I'm sorry for the confusion. Are you really going to punish me like this?"

"Yes, and bye" Marcus hang up the phone leaving Diana on edge and on the brink of wanting to say more but she was cut short.

Then Marcus grabbed his attention to a laying body of Shandla, then to Martin.

"What do we do now? She's an academy award winner. The press won't let this go, they will hunt me for the next century" Marcus exhaled then he went back to sit on the chair. "I will never find peace of this gets out, I may go to jail"

"I will never let that happen to you sir"

"Then we need to find out who did this Martin, and bring me their heads. They want to destroy me so bad that they had to leave a dead body in my bed, how pathetic"

"I'll fix this sir, you needn't worry about anything. And I'll go through all the security footages to see if I can find anything" Martin assured Marcus and then he went on to look at Shandla again, perhaps he thought she was just playing with them and all that was just a prank or something.

Marcus went outside and Martin began his work. First he made sure to cleanse all the blood in Marcus's room and that included the matress which was full of fresh blood, the sheets and blankets, and then he cleaned the whole room using a moper and soap. Shandla's body was taken to the garage, waiting to be chopped into pieces so as to fit inside a bag and thrown into an ocean, that's the idea Marcus had ever since Linda's remains were found near his house. "The fishes will eat her off, throw her into the ocean" he suggested.

Just when everything was done and the room was cleaned off the blood and properly sprayed by a detergent which hid blood stains in the scanners used by the police to track blood, they saw two police cars with NYPD logo coming towards their way through a security camera.

"Shit! Did you call the cops?" asked Marcus.

"Fuck no, why would I do that sir?"

Marcus was unrest "Then you believe me now Martin? Someone is trying to frame us for murder"

"First leaving a dead body on the bed. It's nine past ten, he must have thought we were still sleeping by now"

"Then boom! Police arrive and they find us with the body, I get sentenced to life and lose all of my wealth and fortune, if I won't be hanged. Shit Martin, we have to find who this person is" said Marcus unrest and he was moving in circles.

"Go, go to the back and start exercising, I'll handle them"

Marcus left his room and raced to the gym, Martin put on his brown leather pants and a black t-shirt, then he watered the t-shirt just a little to show that he'd been working out, and he held a jumping rope too. When the police arrived Martin made contact with the security guards on the main gate and allowed them inside - then he walked to them with all the confidence in the world, after all Shandla's body was inside the garage waiting to be chopped up but he never thought if the police would search the whole house, and find her - he hoped they never get to that point.

Upon the arrival of the two NYPD cars, Martin was already there to greet them and he was the most charming and most confident. Two officers were on on car, and four other officers on the second car - a total of six police officers inside their house and Martin knew straight away that something was up and it was indeed a set up as Marcus inclined early on. The most important thing Martin did was studying the language of the officers, were they frustrated or calm, looking for trouble or simply doing their job, those were all the qualities Martin checked out real quick and he found all of them to be good guys.

"Hello officers... Welcome" Martin stretched out his hand to each police officer and shook them with a smile and a show of gratitude. "You see I was in the army, as a captain. Fought in Afghanistan, and Iraq" he said charmingly.

The officers were quite at first observing the scenario, then one of them finally spoke up. "You have a great house" he said.

"It's not mine, I'm just a bodyguard"

"Well as a bodyguard then I guess you must be aware of the incident that happened right here last night"

"I'm sorry, you said incident?" Martin acted shocked to hear the news from the officers but it was all part of his plan. "Oh, right... You mean the party my boss threw last night?"

"Yes sir, the party"

"Oh! Were you all there last night? I couldn't keep up with the guests, too many faces..." said Martin and then he spotted how the faces of the police officers went from being charming, to actually serious and clearly looking for trouble.

"Sir I'm gonna need you to step aside so we can look around" said one of the cops, he was the tallest one in the group.

"Do you have a search warranty? You can't just storm inside someone's property and..." Martin tried to speak but he was pushed away by the cops and they walked pass through him ready to investigate.