Green Harbor

CHAPTER 9

"You're the driver? You drove miss Villamor home?" The police station was her home now, apparently. Zelena looks down at Florence Caballero.

"I did." The man nodded, calm.

"Were you... a group?"

He let out a small laugh. "I don't know."

"You don't know." Zelena's head ached again. She gets this man may be a traitor of some sort for those he worked with but she's gonna have to suck it all in and actually trust he wouldn't be a traitor to her, too.

"The people I worked with ... They kept sending trouble, and they were hurting my family." Mr. Caballero said.

"To have you work for them?"

He shakes his head. "No. Because."

Zelena looked at where Officer Javier was standing, who had his face frozen.

"I knew something. Something they protected more than their own lives. I never even asked to be involved. They were chasing each other's tails, plotting and listening everywhere." Caballero continued.

"Can you confirm, was Villamor involved?" Officer Javier stepped forward.

"I don't know!" Caballero started laughing.

"You are wasting my time, what are you all hiding?—" Zelena zoomed her way towards the suspect, her voice being the only sound echoing in the room. Officer Javier held her back and she struggles in his arms. "My sister is dying, and my goddamn family still question my identity—"

"Well, I can't help it! Neither can your sister!" Mr. Caballero yelled back.

Zelena scoffed. "Katha?"

"Just how pathetic are you, getting mad at me for kindly giving out what you want to know?" The old man rose from his seat, only being pulled down slightly by the cuffs on his hands. "Katha Luka had her fingers around everything your mother hid! Everything even I didn't know!"

Zelena's legs almost gave out.

"Can't you see, Zelena? Your sister was so delicate and she loved everyone. She knows now, who really killed your father, but that person couldn't squeeze anger out of her so she ignores it, and threatens me!"

As if those words weren't enough to make Zelena's heart crumble, Caballero yelled again.

"As for Cayla... Well, I honestly have no clue which side she was on, but you better keep her away from your sister. I was there at Villamor's ball and I saw that presentation. The presentation she sabotaged. In fact, it was two things, it was right and wrong," Caballero explained. "Right because, the Green Harbor murderer was there. And wrong because, it was the wrong Luka."

——

Months ago, Florence Caballero was out with his farmers to check on their sugarcane field. When the farmers received their salary, they thanked Florence and went home. Florence, tired and wanted to go home, he waited for his driver to pick him up. Just then, he heard a loud crash so he went to see what it was. He ran his way closer to the scene, hiding in the shadows of the abandoned Green Harbor bookstore.

As he was pressed against the wall, Florence couldn't believe his ears. Slashing, flesh being cut. Someone being impaled. He can hear water flowing against marble tiles, too. He peaked to see what's happening and he saw a tall person, changing out of a uniform to ordinary work clothes.

Florence took out his phone and called for police, running somewhere the suspect couldn't see him. "Someone is being murdered here in the abandoned Green Harbor bookstore out of the city, and he's still here! He's still—"

Florence stopped talking suddenly when he sees the suspect standing right in front of him now. Before he begged for the suspect to let him go, the suspect grabbed his arm and told him to run if he didn't want to get involved.

It had been ages since that incident but so many more events kept coming to him. Florence had their harvests stolen and burned that led to his business partners cutting ties with him. His daughters being raped and harassed. But that day when one of the Luka twins went to visit his office in the city proper was his last straw.

She knew everything. And she was out to get revenge. Threatened to frame Keone when he tries to get away with everything. Even with her suffering a terrible fate a few hours later in an explosion, Florence loved his son so dearly, but he couldn't believe the risky things Keone had been doing all this time he never came home. And he took his wife and daughters away from the city.

Florence is never in the whole goose chase. But his son is. And so, he turned himself in as a suspect of the Green Harbor murder.