Of Kings and Aces

38| Four

"Jaxx, come on. Ring, dammit!"

I've been calling Jaxx the moment the theory hit me, but I could not reach his mobile number. Where the hell was he? It was barely one P.M., and he was nowhere to be found.

"I can do this. I can do this," I coaxed myself. "I'll just need to wait for Jaxx so that we'll watch it together."

I had to find out if Jacob was in danger, if he was the last guy in the equation that Beau and Alvaro wanted dead. I knew there was a reason for that spare copy I made of the files. It was so that when something like this happened, I could view it immediately while in the office.

"Goddammit!" I cursed, giving in to the irrational yet urgent voice in my head that always got me into trouble. It was always more dominant than my common sense. That was why five minutes later, I plugged the thumb drive into my laptop and  found myself clicking on the file named 'four.'

The camera was situated somewhere behind the mayor and obliquely from the dealer. Carlo's side profile was still identifiable except for the mayor's hat, which occasionally obscured his face's lower half. From this view, it was irrefutable that Admiral Fuentabella was the man sitting on Carlo's left. The man seated to the left of the admiral was none other than Mr. Beaumont Montevideo, in a crisp black dress shirt with the sleeves folded to his elbows.

The dealer's physique still hid the last guy in the equation from the view because the dealer was rather bulky. He was standing and slightly leaning forward while the last player was leaning on his chair. I just know he was wearing a black baseball cap from the first security footage. 

The cards were dealt, and the bets made, with each player shoving stacks of chips to the center. When the last player pushed his chips to the center, the mayor stood up to fix his jeans, and this cowboy hat covered the man's face.

The mayor's shoulder shook every now and then. At one point, Carlo had to suppress a laugh. Across the table, Beau gritted his teeth and threw dagger looks at the mayor. He was saying something, but I could not lip-read. The footage also did not have any audio. 

Admiral Fuentabella eyed the mayor sharply, his jaw clenching, but he did not speak. The mayor won the first two rounds, then Carlo and the last guy alternately won the next seven rounds, leaving the rest of the players across the table fuming mad, especially the admiral and his seatmate.

On the last round before the mayor's death, Carlo looked down on his right side, and suddenly there was fear in his eyes. His calm composure vanished. His eyes darted from the dealer to the other people, seemingly asking for help. The admiral seemed to have picked up on Carlo's panic because he stared at the mayor. He smirked and started talking back. 

They placed their bets, and it seemed the admiral taunted them to put all their money on the pot. He placed all his chips in upping the ante. The admiral and Beau added more to the pot, but not their entire stack. Carlo folded. The last guy also folded, but when he pushed his cards to the center, the mayor raised his hat to wipe his head.

"Stupid ugly cowboy hat! Why does he even wear it if it makes his balding head sweat?" I half-yelled at the laptop.

It was imperative I find out who the last guy was. I needed reassurance that it wasn't Harris, or worse, Jacob. Suddenly, a thought occurred to me: could it be Brigs? He was always inviting me for poker. And he's been acting weird lately, suddenly showing on my doorstep, and texting or calling often.

But I swore that if I found that the guy was in no way related to me, I was going to shove this pen drive down that man's throat and serve him to Sheryl and Carlo on a platinum platter. In return, I'd make them swear to keep me alive and out of this murderous vortex. Otherwise, I will kill both of them myself.