The door slammed shut. Vincent and Sean's muffled conversation came from the hallway outside. After a few moments, their conversation moved away from the door and faded until they had made it outside.

Finally, some peace.

Nico spoke and ruined my moment of respite. "So, are we gonna go?" Before I could answer, another voice chimed in from the condo's entrance.

"Are you both ready?" I pocketed my phone and moved towards the opening for the entrance hallway to see Greta's upper body leaning through the front door. Our gazes locked, and she smiled nervously at my devoid stare.

"Greta, we just need a minute, then we'll be with you." I said evenly when her shoulders drooped in disappointment as she pulled herself back outside the condo. With her addressed, I ventured back into the kitchen.

"Ok, I'll be out here." Greta said muffled by the door as I crossed through the kitchen and approached my forced companion.

With everything I've witnessed from this man, a reminder may be for the best.

"Can you hear me?" I asked in a whisper. Nico gave a nod. "Remember, she can't know we're going to kill Harold. Let me handle her questions about how we're going to scare him off." With another nod, I waved him to follow me. I opened the door to see Greta standing just outside the door.

Her face perked up. "So, how are we doing this?" The elderly ghost asked me. I passed through her, then waved for her to follow as I began my descent down the stairs.

While the humans living in the building can't hear her, it could draw suspicion if they could only hear two-thirds the conversation.

With each creak on the carpeted staircase, I made my way towards a door with a tiled landing while the two with me conversed.

"Why isn't he saying anything? I thought he was supposed to help me?" I paused my descent and let out a sigh as the pair did exactly what I hoped to avoid.

Before I could advise her, Nico replied. "I mean, he doesn't talk very much and so far he's spent most of the time I've been with him on his phone."

Greta sucked her teeth. "The kids today are all addicted to those things and the internet. It's sad." I shook my head and let out another sigh.

It seems Vincent got the better deal for company after all.

I turned to Nico and Greta and looked up the staircase. "Be quiet until we're away from people." I resumed my trek down the stairs, then made my way to the next staircase leading to the basement. I sped up my pace and reached the door leading back to the storage units.

Let's check for people.

Crossing the threshold, I stepped onto the cracked concrete floor. My eyes went from their hazel brown to emerald green as the room's colors changed and I glanced towards the storage units.

No one is in here. I have about ten seconds of peace until they reach me.

I took a breath in. Despite the stagnant air hitting my nostrils, I exhaled and felt some peace.

"Let's do this." I said to myself when the sound of Nico's steps drew near and the door opened. The two entered and made their way towards me. "We should be free to speak now. Greta, can you tell us what you know about Harold?"

Her face soured as her lips curled in anger. "That man, if you can even call him that!" She mumbled under her breath, then huffed.

This is going to be pleasant. Let's see if I can direct her into being helpful.

"What does he do for work? I know he has the partner, but what exactly is his job?" A sardonic laugh followed and echoed off the concrete floor and walls of the nearly empty room.

"As if it can be called work, it's all just a farce. He's a conman and a murderer." I fought the urge to roll my eyes at her response. 

Instead, I leaned back against the concrete wall. "What kind of fraud?" Greta rolled her eyes and postured herself in a way that implied she had a story that would drag beyond what I needed to know.

"So back when my daughter first told me about him, she said he sold supplements. I finally got the name of what he sells and had my friend, who's good with computers, look it up." She paused. "You know what she told me?" I remained silent at her question, if only to shorten this story.

Nico broke the silence. "Umm, vitamins?" 

Greta scoffed at his response. "If only that were the case, he sells penis pills." She watched us for a response, only to watch me remain unfazed and Nico tilting his head slightly in confusion.

"Like fake Viagra or something?" Nico waited in anticipation when a smirk formed on her face.

"No, dear, more like those bogus pills they say will make it bigger. I can tell you it's all a load of shit just like all the wives tales my mother and her friends used to gossip about. I also reported him to the FDA a while back, but nothing came of that." Nico looked at her in surprise. 

"So people actually buy those? Is that like an actual problem for humans?" He looked at the two of us. "Cause I don't have that problem." His tone went smug, and I rolled my eyes while Greta's eyes looked Nico over for a moment when she gave a slight nod before returning her focus to me.

What the hell is this conversation right now?

Nico paused. "Wait, is that why all the women I've been with were so happy? I mean, I got technique too." His voice took on a smug tone before he paused and went into thought. "I mean, maybe Colton knew about it? Since he likes guys and all, but you can ask him that." I stared at Nico and watched him to see if his ramblings would continue.

I'm done with this. I'm gonna keep moving now.

"Not happening." I said before standing upright, to move away from the two. As I made my way through the room, I switched my sight again and saw there were no souls in the space beyond the door. "The hallway is clear." I said, without turning to face the two.

I moved swiftly to the weathered metal door stamped with red letters and stepped into the basement hallway of Vincent's building. At the midway point, the base of a carpeted staircase stuck out. As I made my way to it, the door I had passed through opened.

A sigh of relief came from behind me. "Oh, it's way easier to breathe in here." Nico said as his footsteps followed behind me. "Seriously, these basements are musty as hell."

Greta spoke. "Oh, it's been like that since I was a girl. Back in the summer of fifty-five, we had nonstop rain and the basements of these buildings flooded. Even with all the repairs, the smell settled in after that." Her trivial tale elicited a question from Nico.

"How long have you lived here?" I tuned out their conversation and passed by a window set just above the ground outside. The morning sun passed through the stained glass and warmed my skin.

Vincent said his building should be empty. Let's be sure.

I reached the base of the stairs and looked up at the building above. The lack of souls confirmed Vincent's intel. With nothing in my way, I trekked up the stairs. Making my way through the first floor, I glanced at the mailboxes. All except for one was nameless.

G. Müller

Seems Virginia hasn't removed it yet. Besides that, there won't be any neighbors to worry about for the time being.

With my scan of the area set, I made my way up the stairs as Nico and Greta followed. Reaching the door, I took my backpack off and dug through until I found a pair of gloves.

"Nico, take these." I held them out towards him. He grabbed the gloves. With my hand freed up, I reached back into the bag and found another pair. "Try to limit what you touch in there. We want to leave as few clues as possible that we were in there."

Nico smirked at my response. "Tell Vincent that. He was the one who crashed there last night." I rolled my eyes at his answer. With my gloves on, I grabbed a baseball cap from the backpack, putting it on. I tucked my hair into it, then held another cap out to Nico when he shook his head, causing his long strands of loose hair to sway again. Not wanting to press it, I put it back and threw the bag back on.

Don't blame me if those flowing locks of hair end up on the ground and get you caught. Vincent can always visit Virginia once she's back as a cover to why his hair and fingerprints might be in her condo.

With my gear on, I put the key in the lock. With a twist, the deadbolt clicked. Before I could enter, Greta passed through the wall, then stood before me as I opened the door.

"Welcome to my home." She waited for the two of us to enter. "Why don't we start with the safe? Harold keeps his laptop in it when he's not using it. He keeps all his important things on it." I gave a nod.

Perhaps she won't be a burden.

The door slammed behind me when I turned my head towards Nico. "We don't need to draw any attention to ourselves. For now, stay in one spot and limit what you touch."

A groan escaped him. "Fine." He walked past me and moved into the living room, decorated in tacky floral furniture in colors that assaulted my eyes. Nico looked at his options before settling for the couch. It creaked as he settled onto it and pulled out his phone. "Just don't leave the condo without me, ok?" He said without breaking his focus on his phone.

"Got it." I said, with him placated. I faced Greta. "Lead the way to that safe."

She gave me a nod. "Sure thing, but we..." Her face sunk "Well you, have to grab the key, since I can't." I stared at her until she spoke again. "Right then, let's go." The enthusiasm had left her voice. Entering the bedroom hallway, I saw the layout was identical to Vincent's. Two doors lead to bedrooms, a third lead to a bathroom, and a pair of sliding doors for the hallway closet took up the remaining space. "It's taped down, right here." Her hand pointed at the top left panel indented in the closet door.

The door creaked as it moved along the track until I reached my arm in and felt the key. With a quick pull, the key and the tape pressed to the door were in my hand.

My eyes went back to Greta. "Let's see that safe." With no comment, she lead the way to the master bedroom.

I can replace the key after we're done with this place.

Stepping into the bedroom, I saw the same gaudy color scheme and floral patterns had continued from the living room. The morning light coming through the sheer white curtains only made the floral patterns all the more aggravating to my eyes. I focused on Greta, who stopped before the corner closet.

"It's in the back left corner. Just lift the sheet and you'll see it." Great said as I entered the closet and felt the strain on my eyes ease within the dim space. Per her instructions, a small tarp covered an object in the back corner. Lifting the sheet revealed a green metal box bolted to the floor.

This looks like a gun safe, albeit an old one. Does Harold have a gun on him? We will need to factor for that possibility.

I scanned the door of the safe for a keyhole. "Greta, do you own any guns or rifles? Or does Harold?" I looked over the safe handles that formed a star shape with the five spokes. Beneath it was the keyhole.

"Oh, it's been years since I sold off my father's rifles he used to keep in that old safe. Besides that, my Beretta should still be in there." She paused when I turned to her grumbling to herself. "If only I had shot that bastard when I had the chance. Maybe we wouldn't be in this mess right now." I stared at her in silence.

"Does Harold have a gun or not?" I asked, her expression shifted to one of annoyance. I spoke again, "Yes or no, this is something I can't mess around with. Or would you like to be responsible for someone getting hurt?" My question made her stare soften.

"He shouldn't have one right now. Virginia doesn't like them, so he left his revolver in there." Greta said then perked up. "Oh, but his partner has guns too and knows how to get them without a paper trail."

Not like it's hard to get a gun anyway, but it's more the noise it would make that could be a problem for us.

I gave a nod to her answer. "Sounds like scaring off Harold's partner first is our best move. That should be easy enough for Vincent."

I opened the safe and spotted the two guns set on a shelf. Taking my backpack off, I set it on the ground before me. I looked over the snub nose revolver first. Opening the cylinder, I saw it was empty and put it into my backpack. As I looked over the Beretta, I saw the magazine well was empty. Glancing back to the safe, I found the missing magazine. The beretta then joined the revolver in my bag and I looked over the section of the safe meant for rifles and spotted a laptop and the charging cord at the bottom of the safe along with a flip phone.

I grabbed my backpack, the devices, and then ventured back to the kitchen. The laptop thudded on the table as I set it down and pulled up a seat at the table. Greta stood behind me as I powered the laptop on. We watched as the screen light up with the computer's logo. A prompt to enter the password followed. 

Without having to take my eyes off the screen, Greta spoke. "The password is 'Endure it all'; capitalize the 'E' for the first letter." Greta hummed to herself for a moment. "Oh, no spaces between the words or any of those little dashes that are around the feet of the letters."

I believe she means no underscores or spaces... at least that's my hope.

She continued her poor explanation of special characters. "Oh, the 'A' in all is one of those swirly A's. Also, the 'I' is a 1. I've watched him type it in enough to remember that. Though the idiot gets it wrong a lot." She said with a chuckle.

My, her dedication to hate watching this man would make my trolls blush.

I hit enter. The screen changed to a welcome message. "Thank you." I said to Greta as the desktop loaded.  I sat patiently in my chair and asked. "Greta, my takeaway from your past comments is that you watch everything Harold does. Where should we start?" I watched as Greta's reflection on the edges of the screen moved about in her thinking.

Her head tilted slightly to the side as she raised a hand to her chest. "Well, what do you think we need?"

Fair question.

"You mentioned he made a lot of money from this, right? Does he do his banking on this laptop?" Her response was near instant.

"Yes, he does! He even uses the same password to login into it!" A laugh came from the living room.

"Dumbass," Nico said as Greta and I remained in an agreeing silence. Opening the browser, I accessed the history and found his banking. Clicking in, I reached a login page with the credentials pre-entered. 

Before clicking in, I turned to Greta and looked her dead in the eyes. "Important question. Does Harold get a text message whenever he logs in? If the answer is yes, he's gonna know someone is messing with his bank accounts and I'll need to leave this for now."

I watched as she nodded, then elaborated. "He gets a text, but it goes to the phone you have. I know he keeps all the stuff related to his business on that one."

This will benefit us later when the time comes to lure him in.

"Good." I clicked the login button when the prompt to enter a code appeared. Reaching for the flip phone, I powered it on. Once it's start up had finished, the text appeared. Putting the code in the page loaded on his account.

Over Five-Hundred-Thousand from selling fake supplements, meanwhile I pour my heart into podcasts, LPs, and voice acting to only make a fraction of that. Well, he won't need this money once he's dead and I don't work for free.

Minimizing the window, I gave Greta my next question. "Does he have any recordings on here? Anything of him talking? I need a sample of his voice."

Greta was quick to reply. "Yeah, he records his ads for his bullshit pills on this." Greta pointed to a shortcut icon on the desktop.

Perfect, just what I need.

EndureItAll podcast Ad

I clicked on the shortcut when Greta let out a sigh. "Just a warning; this ad is terrible. I had to listen to him record it." Defeat filled her voice as she watched me move the cursor. Regret hit me the moment music  started to play.

Why does it sound like he just had music playing in the room rather than record his lines then work the music into the recording? Does he not know how to mix audio?

The music made me think of a parody of porn from decades ago when a gruff voice spoke. The music had slightly drowned him out. Listening to him was a struggle. I paused the recording.

Damn, this is gonna make mimicking him a challenge. I suppose I can do a take and work with Greta until I sound passable. For now, focus on his voice, how he says certain words, the tone, and his inflections.

I paused the recording and restarted it, closing my eyes as I focused on Harold's voice. "Fella's, are you tired of women laughing at you behind your back about how lackluster your performance is? Are you one of those one pump chumps that no woman wants?"

"God, people bought this shit." Greta murmured as I tuned her out.

"The ladies are sick and tired of being with a bunch of... I guess we could call you men. Yeah, that. Men who can't deliver?" A smug laugh peaked the microphone. "Well, you can fix that with EndureItAll, not only will it make your dick-" I paused the recording and stared blankly at the screen.

Dear god, where do I begin? The file name with one word left uncapitalized? A lack of mixing and how the music obstructed his voice? The lack of preparedness to deliver his ad? It's one thing to improvise as I play a game but this was an ad.

"What the fuck?" Nico said when I looked at him as he sat up on the couch. "I feel kind of bad for all the people that have that issue. Are people that desperate?"

Greta let out another sigh. "Dear, it's easier if you don't think about it."

"Greta," I said when she focused back on me. "I need to test out something. Let me know if I sound like Harold." She looked at me in confusion.

"You do impressions or-" I cut her off.

"Greta, be quiet!" My voice sounded like that from the recording, but less garbled. "How was that? Do I sound like him? I'm gonna talk a bit more so you can compare it." Greta only stared at me in disbelief, as did Nico from the changes in my voice.

"Whoa, how did you do that?" Nico asked, when Greta shot me a look asking for the same answer.

"Demon of Envy, I can mimic voices and a few other things but, it's still limited." I said when Nico sat up and rested his arms on the back of the couch.

"What else can you do?" He asked like a child awestruck at a new discovery.

"I can mimic people to a surface level, but I'm not powerful enough to do everything yet. Eunie is much further along in her contract, so her mimicry is much more effective than mine." I said in Harold's voice.

Though I do a get a lot of compliments for all voices, I can do when I'm playing dating sims for my viewers.

Nico gave a nod when I asked Greta. "So, does this sound passable? I need to call Maxwell and set up the plan. If it's a yes."

Greta gave a nod. "Yeah, it's not that far off, plus Maxwell is dumber than Harold, so he's probably not gonna notice anything."

"Ok good," I said in my regular voice. The change back made Greta's eyebrows raise a moment. "Greta, I need some voice direction for Harold. What can you tell me?" her brows rose again and hinted at confusion when I shook my head. "How does Harold normally speak to Maxwell?"

With the revision to my question, she immediately understood. "Oh, easy. Harold is a condescending asshole who needs to remind Maxwell that he's smarter than him. Just act like that and you'll be good."

Easy enough.

I grabbed the flip phone and, using the arrow keys, I made my way to the contacts when I found Maxwell and called him. A few rings sounded when there was an answer.

"Yeah, boss?" Maxwell asked, surprised by the call.

"We got an emergency. Someone figured out I killed the old bitch." I said, when Greta narrowed her eyes at me. I only shrugged at her.

Greta, I need to be believable, so just be quiet while I get this set. Acting out the body language helps too.

"What? But how you said the people there didn't see nothing? Who saw you?" he asked as I shook my head at him..

"Just shut up and listen. I want you to come here and leave your phone under the doormat." Before I could continue, he spoke again.

"Why would I do that?" A growl escaped me.

"If you'd shut the hell up, you'd know by now..." An aggravated breath escaped me. "You're leaving your phone here, so I can't have it tracked to where I need you to go. Understand?" I said with that last word as oozing as much smug condescension as possible.

"Yes," He said, finally understanding to limit his words.

"Good, now you're also going to leave your car here. After you hide your phone, you're going to meet my helper. His name is Bryce. He's at the old mill not too far from my condo. Walk there on foot! We can't have anyone see your car driving there and you can use the woods to get there and just wait at the main entrance of the mill." I said, outlining a plan that would lead him to Vincent. A pause followed when I sighed and asked. "You got all that?"

"Yes." He said again without complaint.

"Great. Now head out in about fifteen minutes. I had the door to the building propped open for you." I said, giving him the last piece of information he needed.

Only for him to ask another question. "Wait. Aren't you supposed to be with Virginia right now on a trip to keep her happy till you can make it look like she killed herself?" Greta's face contorted in rage at what she had overheard.

"Maxwell, what did I say about asking questions?" Annoyance jabbed each word I spoke.

"Oh, sorry-." I ended the call and whatever he was about to say.

Well, I've done my part of the job for now. It's up to Vincent to deal with Maxwell and find a spot to dump his and Harold's corpse. For now, I wait for that phone to be delivered, then give Vincent a heads up.