The Devilish Assassin Meets The Angelic Detective

"How is she?" Bryan promptly asked Erick after returning inside the white room.

Erick carried Elle, bringing her to their company service van.

"She's now fine. She finally calmed down, resting at the van for a while. She refused to go home." Erick said.

Then Erick and Bryan took a peek outside where Sandy and Josh were preparing to shoot and do a live broadcast.

Officer Kim approached them. He could no longer hold his curiosity.

"Who's the girl who looks like Elle?" Officer Kim asked them with intrigue.

"She's Aliyah Ross, a reporter from Morning Star Media Network." It was Bryan who answered Officer Kim's inquiry.

Officer Kim just nodded and didn't ask them further. He had something more important to discuss with them.

"We also found these items here. The culprit purposely left these." Officer Kim said, showing them the items inside a small transparent plastic bag.

Bryan and Erick had the same expression. A deep frown appeared on their faces. They were very familiar with those two items- Catseye's personalized dagger and death card.

Even the culprit possessed items that were considered as Catseye's trademark.

"Sh¡T! These belong to Catseye. There's no way that this Catseye is fake." Bryan exclaimed.

Erick picked up the plastic bag, assessing the objects. Positive… these items looked authentic and not just counterfeit. Now, Erick had conflicting thoughts about this.

Deep inside he knew that Elle didn't do this but the evidence showed that the culprit was Catseye. The culprit told them that he or she did this because of revenge- collecting debts. 

This was related to Catseye or Elle's revenge. The victim was Roland Bienvenido. Erick knew that he had something to do with Elle's past. So this incident was clearly pointing Elle as the main culprit.

However, everyone thought that Elle was dead. Catseye was dead. Why suddenly someone appeared, claiming that he or she was Catseye.

But everything happened coincidentally when someone who looked like Elle came to them just a few days ago and now Catseye also appeared, proclaiming his or her comeback.

Erick was thinking hard when Bryan's voice suddenly pulled him out of his deep thoughts.

"Erick…" Bryan signaled him to follow him and go somewhere. He wanted to talk to Erick privately.

The two of them went outside, heading straight to the backyard of the house. When they were now both alone, Bryan confronted Erick.

"Erick, are you really convinced that Elle is alive? That Aliyah is Elle? Because if Catseye is alive then the primary suspect for this murder case will be Aliyah Ross. She looks exactly the same as Elle." Bryan said to him seriously.

Erick furrowed his brows. He didn't like hearing Bryan putting the blame on Elle or Aliyah.

"I don't think so. Even if Elle is alive, she will not do this." Erick said with certainty in his voice.

Bryan sighed helplessly. 

"Aliyah Ross… she's acting strange. And that sudden panic attacks a while ago… How would you explain that?" Bryan stated, feeling suspicious about Aliyah.

Erick stayed silent and didn't reply. Even he, himself, had no idea why suddenly Elle experienced a panic attack moments ago.

"And last night… I saw her leave in a rash. Where did she go? Why she left the party so early?" Bryan questioned him.

"Stop accusing Elle… I mean Aliyah. She had a reason for leaving the party early. She had work to do together with her team, Sandy." Erick said, defending Elle.

"Alright. I believe you. Sorry I didn't mean to upset you. Don't get mad. I am just thinking about the possibilities." Bryan said to Erick apologetically.

"I know. I understand." Erick simply stated.

"But Erick…. Can we ask Sandy to confirm if she was really with Aliyah last night?" Bryan suggested.

Erick just nodded at him in agreement. After that, the two of them approached Sandy and Josh, who just finished shooting their live broadcast.

"Chief Lee and Sergeant Velasquez, thank you for allowing us to cover this big news." Josh thanked them.

Erick just nodded at him.

"It's alright. No need to thank us. We know you are also doing your job." Bryan responded to Josh.

On the other hand, Sandy spoke to Erick.

"Chief Lee, thank you for what you did for Aliyah a while ago. I am really grateful to you." Sandy softly said. Sincerity could be heard in her voice. She cared about Aliyah so she didn't want to see her like that.

"No need to mention it," Erick said.

'Don't thank me. It's my responsibility to protect her… I don't want to see her hurting. I'll do anything for her.' Erick thought to himself.

"Miss Sandy, if you don't mind can I ask you something?" Bryan butted in.

"Sure, Sergeant Velasquez."

"Just wanna ask, were you working last night with Aliyah?" he asked her curiously.

Sandy paused for a moment, confusion surfacing in her eyes. She had no idea why Bryan was asking her that with so much seriousness. But in the end, she still gave him an honest answer.

"Aliyah took a leave of absence yesterday because she told me that she would attend someone's birthday party. So we didn't see each other yesterday. We didn't work last night as well."

Bryan and Erick were rendered speechless. They had one thought in mind.

Elle lied to Erick last night!

This raised another suspicion to Bryan….as well as to Erick.

***************

Meanwhile, the girl whom they were talking about was also racking her brain so hard, trying to figure out how the hell this incident happened.

Who is the true culprit? Why is it the culprit is using her alias? What's the purpose of letting everyone know that Catseye is alive? How did the culprit know about Catseye's revenge?

The culprit even murdered one of the people in Elle's list whom she was supposed to collect debts for attacking her family.

Elle was leaning her head at the backseat with her eyes closed. She was massaging her temples. What happened a while ago was unexpected. 

She was not able to suppress her negative emotions. She was utterly shocked and she lost control over her mind. She panicked as she was not prepared about this.

She felt like everything she had planned before coming back here was ruined in an instant because of this incident. Catseye should be dead. It should remain that way. Why the hell someone tried to bring Catseye back from the dead?

'Who did this? Master Phantom? No… I knew him. He wouldn't do this. Yes, he can be as brutal as this but he wouldn't use my name… he would not use Catseye's name especially now that he thought I was already dead.'

'Could the person be Charles? No… that's also impossible. He is the kind of guy who will faint from just a mere sight of blood. Though he is a man, Charles has a weak heart and can't be as ruthless as this.'

'Argh! I think my head is gonna burst just thinking about it.' Elle tugged her hair in frustration.

Then a certain man crossed her mind- Supremo! 

'I need to talk to him. Maybe he knows something about this!'

"[email protected]! I swear I will catch him! Whoever did this I will catch him myself!" Elle had sworn to herself.