4: 4
The elevator doors opened again. Several uniformed officers came down the hall.
"Who called this in?" the lead officer asked, his voice low.
Lucas stepped forward at once.
"Officer, we did!"
Marina, clutching her clothes to her chest, stumbled toward them, sobbing.
"Officer, you have to help me! It's our boss. He came in the middle of the night trying to force himself on me, and when I flatly refused, he tore at my clothes right out here in the hallway! Everyone here can vouch for it!"
The officer glanced at Marina's disheveled state, then turned to me on the sofa.
"Is what she's saying true?"
"No, it isn't," I answered calmly.
"He's still trying to talk his way out of it!" Alma jumped in. "I recorded it on my phone. You can hear every word of him threatening her at the door!"
Lucas straightened his back and added,
"Officer, dozens of us employees saw him grabbing at Marina. Scum like this, we won't let it slide. Please, arrest him right now!"
The employees around them, worked up, took up the shout to arrest the scumbag and punish the boss.
The officer pulled out a pair of handcuffs and walked toward me.
"Since there are witnesses identifying you, I'll have to ask you to come down to the station with us."
Off to the side, the corner of Lucas's mouth curled into a smug, cold smile. He tossed the agreement and the pen into my lap and dropped his voice to a threat.
"Saul, last chance. Ten seconds. Sign it, and you'll get out sooner. Don't, and I'll make sure there's nothing left of you to bury."
The comments flashed wildly.
【Damn! This is killing me! Fight back already!】
【Male lead, pull out the evidence and smack these idiots in the face!】
I didn't look at the agreement in my lap, and I paid no attention to the officer coming closer.
I stood up, my gaze moving over Marina's face, then Lucas's.
"Marina, you're accusing me of trying to assault you." I looked her straight in the eye. "What actual evidence do you have?"
Marina lifted her chin without a trace of fear.
"The end of the hallway happens to be a blind spot for the cameras. You thought there'd be no proof, didn't you? Well, let me tell you, to guard against thieves I put pinhole cameras in the peephole and on the shoe cabinet by the door!"
"And the camera caught exactly the moment you closed in on me and put your hands on me! Once we're at the station, that's the ironclad proof that sends you to prison!"
"Is that so?" I let out a cold laugh.
I drew the mini remote control from my suit pocket and pressed the red button.
The LCD screen on the hallway wall, which had been playing a promotional video, flickered and switched to a crisp, multi-angle split-screen of surveillance footage.
I pointed at the screen and said, loud enough for everyone,
"Sorry. I have this habit. I take my personal security extremely seriously."
"So the moment I checked into this hotel, my bodyguards had already installed 360-degree miniature infrared night-vision cameras in every corner of this hallway. No blind spots."
I watched the color drain from Lucas's face and went on.
"Not only that. From the second you knocked on that door…"
"I used my backend access to feed this screen's live footage into our company's internal group chat, two thousand people, streaming it full-screen."
I walked to the screen and pressed play.
"Come on. Let's have all two thousand of our employees, and the officers here, watch together."
"And see exactly who set this trap."
