His Bad Luck Charm

Murderer

This chapter has NOT been edited.

***

I felt a harsh panging in my heart as I stared at the posters posted all around the hospital. I attempted at taking them down but there was so many that no matter how many I took down, the hospital walls were still covered with them. 

People began surrounding and picking up the posters and gasping at the word written on it. Some were defending and others were denying the allegations on the poster. I wanted to scream and shout at all of them but knowing that wouldn't help anyone, I ended up marching towards Daniella. 

"Have you seen these?" I all but growled as I slammed the paper on the table before her. 

She took the paper from my hand and examined it before carelessly dropping it beside her. Instead of replying, she continued to stare at her laptop screen. I walked around to see that she was watching some movie.

"Are you serious?" I shouted. "There are posters all over the hospital claiming River to be a murderer and you're watching a movie?" 

Daniella didn't even bat an eyelid. Tears of anger formed in my eyes. I had an urge to break the laptop on her head but I wasn't fond of the idea of spending the rest of my life behind bars so I squeezed the thought down. 

"Look," Daniella finally spoke, "you can either continue making a scene but know that that is not going to help anyone. Or you can sit down and wait for Theo to return so the real detective can do something about this mess."

Her tone annoyed me but she did have a point. There was nothing we could do at this point besides wait for the police to do something. That was one part about being a lawyer that sucked. 

"The whole hospital has seen the posters," I frowned. "Do you think River saw them as well?" 

"He has been at the hospital since last night. It would be impossible for him to not have seen them."

She didn't even try to sugarcoat it. 

"And no one saw who posted them? In a hospital this big? What were the security guards doing?" 

Daniella didn't reply. She simply went back to her movie. 

I sighed as I picked up a poster and examined in. Smack in the middle was a photo of River Yates, looking as dapper as ever. Over his body, was a large, bold red font that read the word "MURDERER" in capital letters. That was it. It didn't say or show anything else but it was still so effective. The whole hospital was whispering about it from the doctors to the patients. 

I tried to imagine what River would have been like after seeing the poster but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't figure it out. I just felt really guilty.

"Don't worry about River," Daniella said, as if reading my mind. "He's had worse than this happen to him. He'll be fine."

"He's had something worse than publicly being called a murderer happen to him?" I asked, incredulously. 

Daniella smirked but continued watching her movie. 

"So what do I do now?"

"Watch a movie, read a book, I don't know, find a way to waste time. Theo should be here soon but until then, we're free." 

**

I stared at the CCTV view as Daniella, Theo and I sat huddled up behind the laptop screen, trying to make view of the face of the culprit. 

"He has no mask or any cover whatsoever but you're unable to give me a view of his actual face?" Daniella asked Theo, seeming more than annoyed. 

"Don't blame me, blame the camera angles at the hospital."