Page 29 of Corrupt Game

His expressions weren’t the same as the ones he used when he was working a con. Instead he was relaxed, almost happy. Nowthat I thought back on it, he didn’t appear to fear for his life or that he was caught.

We always did cons growing up. There had never been enough to go around, so we’d been on the lookout for people that simply left things lying around.

It wasn’t stealing if they were too dumb to protect their stuff. Or so we’d always told ourselves. It was what helped me sleep at night.

He had continued the same things we’d done as teenagers. He had upped his marks and the con though. Which would ultimately have serious consequences.

What if he’d managed to con Mr. Holdt? He could have tried to pull a fast one and Mr. Holdt had disposed of him.

Mr. Holdt had appeared cool and calm.

They’d shaken hands.

Wait! Had it been a handshake or one of those handshake hugs guys did? Like a bro hug with secret steps? That would make all the difference. Wouldn’t it?

Was it more of an amicable parting than I’d assumed? Could they have been working together? Was I all wrong about this? Mr. Holdt had to be the killer. Didn’t he?

Anger and emotions had fueled me into that elevator. I was letting that cloud what I should have seen. There were signs that he thought he was the more important person. But that would’ve been a given for a man of Mr. Holdt’s stature.

Already upset, I’d been pissed when he’d smirked at me. Not laughed or chuckled, but smirked. As if he knew more about everything than I did.

He’d had everything given to him. Money always spoke to people like Mr. Holdt. They assumed that they could pay people off and no one would care. As long as money exchanged hands then it was all right. The police looked the other way when a donation was made. It covered all problems—except for people like me.

That had grated on my nerves. It wasn’t like I was some newbie coming up. I’d been through many of life’s rougher or more intense situations than most people dealt with in their entire lifetimes.

Things were still tough, but I’d dropped everything to make sure that my brother got justice while this douchebag walked around free. He had to be held responsible for his actions. Even if he wasn’t the killer, he knew who had done it.

Honestly, I was certain that Ian Holdt had never had a hard day in his life. The research I’d done on him had shown he might have built his company from the ground up, but he’d done it with his family’s money. So where was the struggle? The blood, sweat, and tears that it took to build something out of nothing. Mr. Holdt never had nothing.

What motivated him to use others as a stepping stone to climb the ladder to success?

I had no use for people that pushed the poor down further to help them get to the top. It wasn’t the way things should be done.

Yeah, sure, Andy and I had done things that I wasn’t proud of, but they hadn’t hurt anyone. The cons we pulled were born out of necessity.

Murder hurt people forever. It wasn’t a victimless crime.

Maybe I’d gone about this the wrong way. Instead, I should have been looking at his motivations and not about what he was covering up. Most people didn’t have their evil actions out whereothers could see them. They wanted them as far from a chance of discovery as possible.

An actual golden child. He’d used his wealthy connections to establish a base to build his company.

A tech company that produced things so expensive there wasn’t room for the little person to have an opportunity to buy them.

Sure, the things his company made were making the world a better place, but so were the drugs that the pharmaceutical companies produced. They just priced them so out of reach for the people that needed them the most.

I didn’t know how to take my interactions with him. Added on the things I knew and I wasn’t any closer to knowing anything. Just more confusion.

He had never uttered a word in the elevator. Not a sound.

In that short space of time, he’d managed to make me feel sexy, annoyed, and ready to forget about the fact that he’d killed Andy.

Charisma oozed out of him. It was something I hadn’t thought about or added into the mix when profiling him. It would make it slightly harder to pin down things he was doing illegally.

People tended to forget things they’d seen when someone was talking to them in such a charming manner.

There wasn’t a shy bone in his body. He was confident and in charge of those around him. When he asked a question or made a request, people jumped to obey.

It wasn’t a demand, but more of a quiet firm tone that made a person not ask questions.

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