Money Talks

 Aidan wasn’t having a good day. The flu that had been going around town, had taken most of his colleges out of work this week, causing him to be one of few people left in the office. Which meant a lot of the work, normally done by five people, was being done by two. However, now it was one, him. Monique, had just left to pick up her son, as he seemingly had caught the bug.

Aidan was now alone in the office. As he looked around the empty desks, in various states of organisation. With some desks still lined with tissues and cold and flu medications. He looked past the desks, toward his boss’s office. Just behind the half-frosted glass, and office walls stood Mr Hunwick’s office. He carried on work like nothing had changed. Being the boss had its benefits. Mr Hunwick didn’t seem too phased, by being short staffed. Aidan and Mr Hunwick both knew, in their line of work thing must; carry on like normal. That is what Aidan always said. So that’s what he must do.

Walking back to his desk, Aidan sat down, hearing the usual moan of the flood boards under his desk. He clicked open his inbox and saw the amount of email awaiting him. Twenty-four emails were calling him. Not to mention the amount of repots and files sitting on his desk, to his left. An amalgamation from everyone who was out sick. He couldn’t go on like this.

Coffee! That was what he needed. Coffee would sort everything.

Aidan got up, and walked through the empty open plan office, to the kitchen space towards the end of the office. This room too need to so TLC. Just like other places in the office, the lack of staff was really showing. The sink was over flooring with used mugs, plates, and cutlery. It was usually Janet who kept things in order in here, but since she was out no one had picked up the slack. Aidan went to the cupboard next to sink and took out his mug he kept hidden behind the dishwasher tablets and placed it underneath the coffee machine. He couldn’t decide what coffee he wanted, as browsed the numerous coffee pods. He decided on a salted caramel latte macchiato, he placed the pod in the machine and waited.

While he waited he looked out of the window, which over looked the flowing London river. He looked up and saw the clouds had suddenly turned a very dark pewter colour. Which couldn’t help but make things look more ominous.

Just as the coffee dripped the bit of liquid into the mug, the building was suddenly draped in darkness. With the aid of the sky turning darker and darker, it made the office look almost as dark as night. With the only thing giving off light were the green fire exit signs. The seconds seemed like minutes as the darkness lingered. Then suddenly it was over. The lights slowly flickered back on, and then hum of the refrigerator could be heard again.

That was odd, though Aidan. Then he a sudden shock realisation. He ran back to his desk, dripping a few drops of coffee on the floor. To find that the power cut, had done what he didn’t want, turned off his computer. Aidan took his seat, and banged his hand on the desk as he turned back on his system.

He said to himself, ‘Save, save, save. Always save documents before you walk away. If things like this happen, you know all your work is safe.’

When his computer allowed him to log back in, he was relieved to see all his files had auto saved. Aidan let out a huge sigh, and was grateful his day wasn’t going to get worse. Then he heard something odd.

For the slight second, he had turned away from the screen, he heard a noise. A noise he shouldn’t have heard, because he was alone in the office. He had heard hurried footsteps. Which didn’t make sense as there was no one to be seen. It wasn’t like it was easy to hide in the office, as it was open plan, and you could see in every messy corner. He must have heard wrong. Or it was upstairs. There wasn’t an upstairs. It was nothing. He was just over tired, and his mind was playing tricks on him. He really did need to sleep.

Suddenly, there was loud yell. Which sent a sudden jolt down Aidan’s spine, like he was struck by lightning. He felt wide away now. The yell had come from Mr Hunwick’s office. Maybe the steps he heard wasn’t in his imagination. Something had run across the office, and was doing something to Mr Hunwick.

Feeling like it was the right thing to do, Aidan ran towards the office, making the floorboards creek as he made his way towards the door. As he reached the door, it swung open. A man stood, dressed in all black down to his leather booths and gloves. All Aidan could see were two piecing blue eyes, in between a slight gap in a black pig mask.

Unsure what do, Aidan stood for a moment, before he went to grab the man. It was a mistake. The man dodged, grabbed him by the throat, and the slammed him on to the frosted glass. Not once, not twice, but three times. Which caused Aidan to lose consciousness.

When Aidan woke, he didn’t know how long he had been out for. There was a pulsating throbbing in his head. He slowly reached his left hand to the back of his head. It felt warm, wet and sticky. Bring his hand towards his face he saw, the crimson blood stranded across his fingers. Getting up gingerly, he looked in to the office and saw something he wish he could unsee. However, he knew he would never forget it.

Mr Hunwick was sitting in his desk, frozen still. His eyes were opened wide, and staring up at the ceiling. His arms were dropped slack, by the arm rests of his office chair. His clothes were ruffled; his tie askew. The most shocking thing of all was what was in his mouth. A large wad of various bank notes had been stuffed down his throat. He had been choked to death by a large sum of money. As Aidan moved closer, he could see other bank notes laying on his lap and some fallen to the floor.

Mr Hunwick had been murdered. Aidan wanted to know why.