WHAT BILLIONAIRES TASTE LIKE

“Xho is dead. Yes food poisoning,” Ziu Lee said on the phone, shedding tears and struggling hard not to wince. He had been on the phone with all his billionaire associates who kept sending their condolences.

He had spent better part of his days with the family of Xho; his pretty young wife and two children. He had been with them, consoling them and giving them succor. What he was yet to understand was the autopsy result that mentioned he died from food poisoning? He could recall vividly that they had visited Ruby’s Suite and everything they ate and drank was solely supplied by the motel. He rubbed his jaw thoughtfully and picked up his phone to dial Ruby;NôvelDrama.Org is the owner.

Ruby had been at the balcony staring out to the fallen horizon and the huge skyscrapers that ascended into the cloud; he had actually been thinking over the sudden demise of Ziu’s personal body guard, who was admired so much for his dedication and expertise in delivering his duty.

Opula joined him, holding two cups of coffee. “Coffee,” she said and handed him a cup. “Are you still thinking about his death?” she asked, wiping the sweat on his brow. She also had been pondering over it. The moment the news of the death filtered to her ears she thought it was Ziu and she winked happily until Ruby mentioned emphatically it was his personal body guard, and then she raised a brow; ever since then she had been thinking and restless more than anyone else. She wondered if actually it was the bartender that flopped the simple task she gave him or there was a miss up somewhere. When Ziu requested for a cocktail, and the cocktail was served, the bartender had winked at her to give an assurance of his drink being poisoned. But there was a shocker that struck Opula; she had watched keenly at Ziu, waiting for him to have his first sip but to no avail. Her prey had busied himself with business talk with other billionaires. While others sipped at their drinks Ziu became annoyingly a talker, abandoning his drink. Her phone had buzzed and Fanny was the caller. She had excused herself, tucked to a corner to answer the call which seemed to have lasted forever. There after the call, she was about returning to their gathering when Ruby met her at the corridor to announce to her they were through with the discussion. Disappointed, she returned to her suite without knowing whether Ziu drank the poisoned cocktail or not, even though she believed he drank it. When Ziu had left with his security she had expected news of Ziu dying from poisoning. She had turned on the TV and scanned through stations that would break news of the Chinese richest billioanre dying from food poisoning but to no avail.

“I have assembled the cooks and bartenders for questioning and no one owned up to it,” Ruby said to Opula, and stroked his hair confusedly. “Who could have done this aborminable act?” he said, staring in the space.

“You don’t expect any of them to own up to it. This is death we are talking about here, not a missing meat in a pot of soup. Any body could be responsible. As far as I am concern it could be coming from the enemy amonst your business associates. What am i even saying? Didn’t they make an attempt on our lives some weeks back? So they could be responsible,” she intoned.

“Ziu has gone haywire and is out to fish out the murderer,” he said, looking away from his cup of coffee and losing interest in it.

She winked hastily. “How does he plan to that?” she asked.

“Whether he does it or not I am going to fish out the murderer myself. This is going to raise a stare at my hotel.” he said and looked at Opula with eyes full of misery. “Although I am yet to confirm it, Johnson phoned to tell me it is already in the newspapers.” He stroked his hair confusedly. “Why would any sane person plan to take the life of another, life he didn’t give?”

Opula watched as his countenance dropped. His face went crimson and he forced the cup of coffee to his lips to have his first sip. She wondered how the bartender would poison the wrong person. “No, it can’t be true. I saw him bring the cocktail. There is a miss up somewhere,” she said in her head, still shocked by the death of the security, and Ziu still breathing on the surface of Kowloon.

“I have ordered my security to fetch me all the CCTV footage in this hotel. I need to watch them and see if by chance camera captured the perpetrator,” he said, and snorted.

“That is a nice idea. That is what we will do. The question now is who amongst your staff could be responsible for this?” she sipped at her coffee and smacked her lips.

“It can be anyone. My staff could be guilty or innocent. I am suspecting it is an outsider; someone liaised with my staff to bring about this evil.”

Opula stroked her nose, as the wave of guilty hit her mind. “Someone like who?”

Ruby dimmed his eyes in one moment of thought. “All fingers point at my enemies. If they could send assassin after me then they would do worst to get me down.”

She breathed hard. “Your enemies? Do you actually know these enemies in person? You have been mentioning them.”

She felt like changing the topic. “We have just one week to be together, and Fanny would be back from Japan.

Ruby’s face scowled greatly. “Are you sure?” he asked, as loneliness and lovelorn possessed his eyes .

Just then one of his securities walked in.”Boss, the CCTV footage is ready on the screen.”

He held her hand and kissed it. “Join me let’s see how Xho was murdered.”

Opula breathed uneasily; she was greatly troubled that the bartender would be implicated thereby fishing her out.

The center couldn’t hold.