"Oh God! She was about to say something" Bode lamented as they made their way downstairs.
"Who sent you to ask her questions?" Uche who had been quiet spoke out angrily to Bode.
"But I asked a relevant question"
"I don't know why you are here but you should allow us do our job and don't interfere" Uche concluded and walked faster away from the other two.
"Did I ask a wrong question?" Bode asked Helen who was still walking at the same pace with him.
"No, but you should have just let us work. That's what we are paid to do"
"But we're talking about a case that involves my friends here. The deceased was my friend and the accused person is also my friend"
Helen walked more faster and left him to catch up without responding to his last statement.
"Can I get that phone number of Nike Adejumo?"
"NO"
"Please, I need it"
"What do you need it for?"
"I think the claim by Kelvin and Amarachi that they were drugged begins to make sense now" Bode explained. "I think the caller made that call to get Ini out of the house"
"Hmm"
"So that caller should know about the drugging"
"That's true" she stopped walking and faced him as he stopped too. "But we are not dealing with a case of drugging here but murder"
"Don't you think those who drugged them could have also used the knife and dropped it back there?"
"Listen, Nike Adejumo was the caller. I don't in anyway see how Nike Adejumo relates with Frank or do you know any of Frank's friend, employees or clients who answers that name?"
"No"
"You see" she replied and started walking again. "I don't think Kelvin and Amarachi were drugged"
"But it is very possible they were. We don't even know if the Nike Adejumo is someone that we know, or that name was just used by the person who planned the whole thing"
"Okay, okay , okay" Helen finally gave up. "I'll give you the phone number, lets see what you can do with it"
“Good evening Ini” Dennis greeted as their faces met when she opened the door
“Good evening” Ini answered him and walked away from the door leaving him to close it by himself.
“I was told that you weren’t in your office today when I came”
“Yes, I told the secretary to tell you that”
“Why?”
“Simply because we have nothing to discuss and also because I don’t use my time in the office to discuss private issues”
“We have something to discuss Ini, your friend is not free yet and you are relaxed”
“What do you want me to do about it?”
“Dear Lord, you're asking me what to do? You're not even showing any concern”
"Have you come to blame me for whatever is happening to Amarachi?"
"No, I've only come to plead with you to help with whatever you know, you own this house and they found the knife here, do you know how the knife got there?"
"What kind of silly question is that? Didn't Amarachi already tell the police that she was the one who kept the knife there?"
"Yes, but I believe that knife was used by someone else"
"Used by someone else? By who?"
"Used by an enemy. You see, the knife that was found that day was tested and the test reveals that it was the same knife used for the murder"
"So?"
"So, you're in charge of the house and I'm suspecting that you should know how that same knife was used for the murder"
"Get out of my house right now" Ini slammed and stood up angrily.
"I'll go, but please don't let Amarachi suffer for what she didn't do"
"Get out" she shouted again and moved closer, watching him in disgust and anger as he stood up and walked out of the house.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
It was 9.30pm when Bode tried to get through to the number again but it was still switched off. He decided to go ahead with his next plan. He picked up his old deserted china phone which he dug out for the reason. He changed the voice output to the female option and dialed the customer service number. He also put on the recording function as the phone began to ring.
After about seven minutes of playing ads of the different services, a representative finally picked the call.
"Good evening, welcome to MTN call service centre, my name is Flora, may I know your name please?"
"My name is Nike"
"Alright Nike, how may I help you?"
"Thanks, one of my Mtn sim cards just stopped functioning properly, I don't know what's wrong with it"
"Stopped functioning properly, how do you mean?"
"It does not receive signals at all"
"Okay, try to switch your phone off and on again , it will receive"
"I've done that several times, but it doesn't work"
"Ermm... You should leave it off for an hour and switch it on again"
"That's what you people always say when I call, I've done it several times"
"Okay, kindly call out the number for me"
"0-7-0-3-8-8-9-9-5-6-2"
"Okay, give me some seconds to check it out on our system"
"Alright"
After thirty seconds, she spoke up again. "When last did you use the sim to make calls?"
"Ermm, last week's Sunday"
"Okay, hold on while I check for you?"
After another thirty seconds, she spoke again." Are you sure the sim is inserted into a phone?"
"Yes, it is"
"What's your name again please?"
"Nike Adejumo"
"The name you registered with?"
"Yes, Nike Adejumo"
"I'm sorry, our records does not show that. I think you made an error with the number you gave me"
"There's no error"
"Can you call the number again?"
"0-7-0-3-8-8-9-9-5-6-2"
"The name on our system is not Nike Adejumo, are you sure this is your number?"
"Yes, I am. Check, I made a call with it on that "sunday around 12pm to 0-8-1-6-3-7-4-5-1-1 "
"Errmm" she checked again and replied. "Yes, that's true but the name you're giving me is not on the records"
"Okay, so what name is on it?"
"I'm sorry, you may have to call back while we try to fix this issues. I can't give you that information"
"Okay, thank you. Make sure your rectify it, I'm sure you guys made a mistake in your database"
"Yes, we will. Sorry for any inconveniences"
"Okay"
""Have a nice day"
"You too"
THE NEXT DAY
**10AM**
Helen sat down at the front of the questioning table as she discussed something quietly with Uche who was just pacing round the room. They were waiting for Amarachi to be brought in by a junior officer whom they had sent to get her.
After two minutes of waiting, the officer showed up with Amarachi who walked with the handcuffs in her hands, struggling to lift her legs as she had a lot of strength and weight already.
Helen couldn’t stop herself from pitying her as she observed that Amarachi did not look like the same person was arrested, but what could she do? She was only doing her job as a police officer and it wasn’t her fault that the evidences found were against her.
“Hi Amarachi” She greeted as Amarachi sat down at her front.”How are you doing today?”
Amarachi did not reply with words but just nodded. Helen continued, “This is most likely the last time we will question you here before you appear in court, so I would like you to tell me the truth. You know I don’t like seeing you this way”
“So Amarachi what exactly did you use the knife that was found in your room for?”
“I was trying to leave the house in a rush when it cut my hand” Amarachi replied softly
“But our test result proves that the knife was used to murder Frank”
“I didn’t kill Frank, for God sake why would I kill him? He has nothing to wrong me”
“hmmm” Helen stood up and carefully sat on the table touching the floor with one of her legs. “But how do we explain that the knife got into your room?”
“The knife in my room wasn’t used for murder; the blood on it was from my hand”
“So do you want us to believe that someone else took the knife after you dropped it there?”
“I don’t know, all I know is that I didn’t use it to kill”
“Hmm, okay. Who do you think could have killed Frank?”
“I don’t know”
“Alright” she stood up and faced Uche who was listening quietly; she made a signal to him asking if he had any question to ask which he answered negatively to.
“Take her back to the Cell and get the other suspect Kelvin” she ordered the junior officer
After five minutes, Kelvin was brought in. Helen was already back into her seat and was writing something into a jotter when Kelvin sat down and greeted her.
“Good morning Kelvin” She replied and looks up at him. “How are you today?”
“I’m fine” he replied confidently.
“Hmmm, I can she let out a smile and continued.
“This is the last questioning Kelvin, we are ready to help you. Just tell us what happened”
“You’ve asked several times and I’ve told you already”
“Yes, but I just want us to act like it is this is the first time. Just forget about all you’ve said now and tell us the whole truth”
“I have nothing new to tell you”
“Kelvin, all the evidences available are against you already. If we know the truth, it will make things easier for all of us”
“I’ve said the truth already, I didn’t kill my friend”
“Take him back officer” she stood up at once and ordered the officer.
“What do you think we do now?” She asked Uche as soon as Kelvin and the officer were gone.
“I think the next the court’s decision”
“But we now have a new suspect to apprehend”
“Will there really be need for that? What I think is that Bola was just talking based on her emotions yesterday. The same person who told us that the Killer was her Father and we later did find out she was wrong, now she’s saying that it is her ex boyfriend, how are we sure she is saying the truth now?”
“We can only be sure when we apprehend this Ken, he could have carried out his threat”
“But we already have enough evidence against Kelvin and Amarachi”
“But they’ve refused to own up with all our interrogations even after we presented the so called evidences to them. “
“They are only pretending, maybe they still need more torture”
“More torture?” Helen asked, looking at him weirdly. “You want us to kill or amputate them before we can get them to say what we want even if they lie against themselves?”
“No, we just need to press a little further. If this new Ken is the supposed killer, then how did he get the knife into Amarachi’s room?”
Helen looked at him sternly and paused for a while before she spoke again, more authoritatively “Go and prepare, get some back up, in the next twenty minutes we are going for Ken Fayemi”
“Alright ma” He saluted and cursed under his breath after she walked out of the room.
"Hey" Dennis called out as he dropped off from his car, Helen was about entering the driver's side of the car when she heard him coming towards them.
"Good morning inspector" Dennis greeted as he approached them, Uche was already seated in the other side.
"Good morning Mr Dennis" she replied as she placed her hands on the car, standing up straight.
"I can see you're going somewhere but I want to see you about something"
"We have to leave here now, is it something really important?"
"Yes, I think you guys need to interrogate Ini, she should be able to provide some information about the knife. We can't ignore the fact that the knife was found in her house and Amarachi wasn't there at the time it was discovered"
"We'll see to that later, the reason we've not considered that option is because Amarachi acknowledge that the knife was kept there by her"
"The knife could have been changed"
"We'll find out about that very soon, we'll find out if it was changed"
"How?"
"Leave that to us, we have to leave here now. We have an arrest to make" she stepped back into the car and drove off with Uche.
Helen and Uche remained quiet for some minutes as they drove in the car, then Uche began asking questions.
"How do we intend to find out if the knife was changed, remember we found it in the same position she said she forgot it in her room"
"It could have been changed and kept back in the same position"
"I don't think so"
"It is very possible that it was changed, having presented the enough proof we have to Amarachi and Kelvin, I don't expect them to still maintain their position that they didn't kill him"
"Maybe they just have to be ... " he stopped abruptly and looked at Helen's face.
She understood him and smiled, "tortured more, you want to say?"
"Yes, but... "
"Listen, we've tortured them enough already and we are not getting the response we require"
"I don't just think the knife was changed when we discovered it there, we found it the same way she left it"
"Ok, so if it wasn't changed before we discovered it there, maybe it was changed after we did"
"Ehn?" He seemed shocked by her reply, "what do you mean by that?"
"If it wasn't changed before we discovered it then it was changed after" she took a look at him, and smiled in a way to emphasize her point.
"But I was the one in charge of those exhibits"
"Yes, I know"
"So are you suggesting that I changed it or what?"
"No, I'm not saying that yet. I'm only thinking of different possibilities. See Uche" She placed her right hand on his shoulder to pacify him. "We've tried all we know how to do to make them admit that they did this crime but we've not succeeded, with my experience they are actually responding like they are innocent"
"So what do we do now?"
"Why are you acting like a new person in this Uche? What kind of question is that?"
"I'm sorry, its just that this case is a simple one and I don't think it should have lingered for this long, so it seems I'm kind of getting weary, I'm sorry"
"We have to investigate if Amarachi really used the knife or not, if she did; we'll continue in this direction"
"Oh! I see" he smiled briefly and pause for a while. "And if she didn't, we'll move our focus on the new suspects?"
"Yes, especially her flatmate Ini"
"Hmmm... Seems like an idea that would work, so what's our next move"
"We need finger prints test now of both Kelvin and Amarachi, it would give us the answer we require now"
"Good, we should conduct that as soon as possible. I want to get this case off my neck"
TBC......
