Chapter 96 - Manong Cardo

Joseph was looking at Nathan the whole time, watching what he was going to do.

When he saw that he was just standing there, staring at the 'culprit' he furrowed his brows in confusion.

'What does he want to do?' he thought,

At the same time, he heard Nathan's excited voice.

He asked, "Huh? Did you notice something, boss?"

Nathan did not even look at him and nodded his head.

Joseph's eyes lit up, "Really, Boss!?"

Smirking, Nathan said, "Of course."

After a while, he said, "The first thing that I learned is that that man was just ordered by someone to deliver the bell to our cafe."

"Huh?" A thoughtful look appeared on Joseph's face, "Then, who is it that ordered him then?"

He did not even question as to how Nathan know of such information the moment he saw the old man.

It was because, he already saw Nathan's means before and it was just as confusing as well.

To his question, Nathan let out a small smile and said, "That's what we're going to find out."

Since not everything was written on the appraisal, asking Manong Cardo directly will be necessary.

With that in mind, without waiting for Joseph, Nathan started walking towards Manong.

….

Just like any other day, Manong was drinking alcohol outside his house while looking far away.

"Hais, what a stupid life this is." He said,

Chugging a bottle of Emperador, the heat from the alcohol flows through his throat down to his stomach.

"Puah~ Alcohol is really the only thing that's able to make me feel alive now…" He said, a little melancholic staring in the void.

Suddenly, a tall man appeared in his line of sight.

Irritated by it, he frowned as he angrily said, "Get out of there, you're blocking the view!"

But the man, did not move an inch.

He looked at him and said, "Hello, Mr. Cardo. Is it possible to ask you a few questions?"

This man is of course, Nathan.

Following a few feet away is Joseph who looks at this scene without saying anything.

Before they approached Cardo, Nathan already told him to not let his emotion take over him.

It was a little unacceptable to him since a lot of employees almost died including him if Nathan was not there at that time to solve it.

However, since Nathan is the one in power here, he followed his instructions and decided to just remain silent.

At this time, Cardo raised his head to look at Nathan's face.

Seeing that it was someone he's not familiar with, the frown on his face deepened.

"Who the hell are you? How did you know my name?" He asked with a suspicious look.

Nathan just smiled at him, saying, "Let's talk about that some other time. For now, please answer my question. Who is it that–"

Cardo suddenly interrupted him as he was talking.

"Ptui! Who are you to order me around, huh!?" He stood up unsteadily and stared fiercely at Nathan with his hazy eyes.

Although he is now a drunkard, the momentum of an ex policeman is still showing itself at this time.

But Nathan was not even affected by it.

Directly staring at Cardo's eyes, the smile on his face gradually disappeared and his eyes lost it's light.

Looking at Cardo with dull eyes, Nathan said, "You just have to answer my question, is it that hard to do?"

As he said that, he grabbed Cardo's shoulder and exerted a bit of his strength.

Cardo's eyes widened as he started to scream in pain.

"AHHH!"

Suddenly feeling the pain, he was not prepared for it and accidentally dropped the bottle of Emperador on the ground causing it to shatter.

But he doesn't have the time to care about it since the pain he's experiencing was really too much!

"Stop it, stop it, it hurts!!"

Seeing that Nathan is not relenting, he finally gave in.

"Fine, fine, stop, I'll do as you say!"

Hearing that, Nathan immediately stopped exerting strength on his shoulder.

The smile on his face came back as he patted him on the shoulder.

"It's good that you're easy to talk to." He said,

Pushing his hands off his aching shoulder, Cardo looked at him hatefully and even thought of fighting back now that he was released.

But after thinking about it, he shook his head and just sighs.

"Hais, so, what is it that you wanted to ask me?"

He asked as he sat back down, rubbing his shoulders while looking at the wasted alcohol on the ground with regret.

Nathan did not pay much attention to him and just shot his question.

"Who was it that told you to give this to the cafe, Mountain's Fragrance?"

He took out the bell that he's been holding since he stepped out of the car and showed it to Cardo.

Cardo furrowed his brows as he took a careful look at the bell.

After a few seconds, a bulb seems to light up on his head as he remembered.

"Ah! That bell, huh." He propped his hand on his chin, "That bell was from the owner of the Star Cafe.

"He told me to just hand it in to someone from there so I did. He paid me 1 thousand pesos for such a simple job." He chuckled as if treating the man who paid him as a joke.

Then his eyes somehow landed on Joseph who was a distance away from them.

"Oh, wait, it's you! The guy I gave this bell to." He smiled widely and innocently added, "It was a good bell, right?"

Hearing his words a tick mark appeared on Joseph's forehead.

"Good bell? Are you really insulting my intelligence or what!?" He was not able to keep it in anymore and shouted at Cardo.

"Huh?"

Cardo was dumbfounded by the sudden outbursts of Joseph and looked at him with surprised eyes.

He turned to Nathan who was just observing this and hesitantly asked,

"Is he alright?"