275 Die in Suspense

Samantha did as told.

After a few seconds of starring at her and the picture, Wei said decisively, "it is a perfect match. This is where the pictures were clicked."

Sam's heart was hammering loudly now in anticipation.

"But how could anyone click my pictures while I was awake. I am looking at the camera in some of them, remember?" she questioned.

Wei sat down on the bed and ran his gaze everywhere around. Getting up, he puttered around the nearly bare room. He overturned a few things, moved another few.

"You know the first picture is the most disconcerting out of all. It's almost as if the photographer is looming over me while I lay naked, posing for him. I can't imagine how…" she stopped talking mid-sentence.

Wei had immediately turned around and come to lie down next to her.

"What are you doing?" she asked in surprise.

He didn't answer but kept staring at the roof. Suddenly he got up and stood up on the bed. Following his gaze, Sam looked up as well. There was a minute red dot blinking on one of the fan blades.

"Is this what I think it is?" she asked him, suppressed excitement in her voice.

Wei didn't want to raise her hope yet so he told her that they needed someone to extract it and examine it.

"Oh my God! I know when were these pictures clicked. Yesterday… yesterday morning I had gone for a run to the garden nearby. After coming back home, I was feeling really hot so I stripped and flopped straight on the bed. Idid some cool down stretches right here before going in for a shower," she told him.

That explained the various postures and angles in which the photos had been clicked.

"But how did this camera come here? I have always had the house key with me. I am very careful about it. How could someone enter and install it here without my knowledge. Wait a minute," she remembered something and ran towards her wardrobe.

She pulled out her jacket from there which had been clicked in the video which Zhu Cheng had sent. A custom-made 'Guns n Roses' logo was stitched on its back, making it look unique, which is why she had recognised it as her own in that video clip. It wasn't a commonly available design and she had bought it off an online auction from a GnR fan last year in London. Zhu Cheng couldn't have found someone so quickly to have an identical one made. She told Wei the same thing.

"So if mine is hanging in the wardrobe and someone else is wearing it in the video… how do we prove that it's not me? And what about this secret surveillance? Zhu Cheng may be a devious bastard but he is no secret service agent. He couldn't have done this undetected," she played the devil's advocate.

Wei looked at her face which was oscillating between hope and despair.

"Do you trust me?" he asked her in his deep voice.

Samantha stared at his serious expression. She didn't know the answer to that question for sure but someone inside her was asking her to say a definite YES.

She nodded her head slightly.

"Good, now I want you to go back to office and concentrate on your work. I will come pick you up from the building sharp at 5pm. We shall go to your father's house together," he said.

"But we haven't figured out the complete thing yet. And where are you going?" she asked in return.

She didn't want to go to the office and die in suspense while he played the hero.

"I need to go somewhere to figure this out. Unlike the movies, I am not stupid enough to take you with me there. I don't want to worry about your safety there. Can I just focus on getting some answers?" he said with a sardonic curl to his lip.

He had guessed her thoughts accurately.

Sam rolled her eyes at his exaggerated words. But she realised that he wouldn't take her along if he had said so. So she agreed to stick with the plan.

"Oh! If in the meanwhile, Zhu Cheng is stupid enough to call, make sure that you record it," he said as a parting short.

Time went by at an excruciatingly slow pace for Samantha. By the time it was 5pm, she had chewed all her fingers' nails.

"Where the hell is he? He isn't even picking up my call. If he hasn't managed to find the answers, I am simply going to beat the truth out of Zhu Cheng," Sam decided.

She was sick of feeling worried about the whole thing by now. She was tempted to call her mother but knew that she would only add to the negativity instead of giving her courage, unfortunately.