The Hole in The Wall - Season 1 - Episode 7

4 years ago

The Hole in The Wall - Season 1 - Episode 7

Why?
It was few minutes before 2 in the afternoon and the sun was at its very best or very worst.
We stopped by my vehicle which was closest to the entrance. The swarm of reporters had followed us outside.
“What can you tell us about the murder?”
“Have you found out who the killer is?”
“Is it true the deceased is in fact the long wanted shadow?”
The questions kept coming from different directions making me feel like a boxer cornered on the ropes by an unrelenting opponent.
“What has the manager got to do with the murder and is he under arrest?”
“You should have asked him yourself when he passed here moments earlier!” Andy retorted. I unlocked my car and we slid in gratefully shutting out the sounds.
“So we head to the station to interview the maid and the other guests…plus I want to speak to that clerk again, right now he’s the only one we know who made contact with the killer” I said as I fiddled with the knob control looking for a suitable radio station.
“Honestly man before I can go to any other place I need to eat first.” Andy said and I suddenly realized I hadn’t eaten. I was famished.
“How about your car” I asked him
“I’ll come back later..let’s just leave this place”

I started my car still pleased it responded once and didn’t cough anymore and drove silent in my thoughts. Apparently so was Andy because he suddenly looked at me. “What do you make of everything that has happened so far?”
I shrugged “the shadow was a killer, a deadly one but basically an assassin for hire. Its not hard to imagine he offended the wrong kind of people but this time someone got close. Too close” Even as the words left my mouth I knew it was deeper than that, it was more personal.
” so why would the killer use Olivia as an alias?”

I slowed down for a zebra crossing of children coming back from school. “I swear that is the question of the hour”
“Does Olivia know about any of these yet?”
“I’m yet to tell her, not even the email from shadow”
Andy sighed then looked out the window “whatever it is we’d get to the bottom of it.”

“I hope we’ve gotten to the bottom already or that it can get to the bottom of itself by itself” I trafficated into the driveway of a brick building painted with the blue, yellow, black colours of the Nigerian police.

°•
The metro station city of excellence or MSCE as the cops often referred to it was a massive building in the heart of Obalende. The msce was supposed to be a world class police force with state of the art equipment and had been installed by the outgoing Governor in partnership with the president. And according to the papers, construction had begun in badagry for another branch and about a dozen states as well.

The building also served as a holding cell and a special elevator led to an underground prison that had the capacity of holding 150 people. It was supposed to be a holding cell until the bail was paid or the court date set but with the backlog in most courts and the steady uprise in crime the cell was more or less a prison and probably overflowing too.
As I navigated the parking in between the red and white police Honda cars around, Andy stretched and picked a paper from the dashboard. It was the newspaper I had bought two days ago in traffic.
He saw the heading immediately. It was small and at the bottom but it caught the eye immediately and was indeed the reason I had bought it.

He traced the number the article was on then flipped the pages.

I watched him while he read and finally parked in between an armored van and a hilux. His brows were drawn together as he read the folly that was in print. I had also been livid but my mind had been on more pressing matters at the time. Now with the shadow dead and the threat nullified, it came rushing back.
The title alone conveyed hatred;
“The odious actions of Rex Obasi and the unsavory stand of the BROTA agency”
It is no secret that members of the B.R.O.T.A agency are heroes. They rescued women and exposed a trafficking ring. And even now barely two years after and with the euphoria weened down a bit, people are still forgetting that a killer is a killer. Rex Obasi left a long trail of dead bodies in his wake, some innocent some criminals but like I said a killer is a killer. I paid a visit to his former neighbourhood and his next door neighbour had this to say:
“Right from time that boy is hiding something, even when he work in the bank he still kill. With my korokoro eyes I see him drive to this front one early morning when I wan wake my children go bathe. Naso him dump five bodies even plus woman for road speed off. And na because him see me. Everybody been know say Rex na ritualist that time….”

After a little digging, I was indeed astonished at the number of people that had been killed. From his own bank partner, his fiancee, an old woman, a cleaner, a nurse, then the handful of shadows as well.

The intentions may be good, but I think its time we took a critical look at this agency because with the highest clearance pass the Governor signed for them recently it would be a disaster if we put our security in the hands of trigger happy people who hide behind the badge to carry out violence.
~ Helen Edith Koker.
“Jeez..what a bitch!” Andy exclaimed as he leaned back into the chair and tossed the paper on the dashboard.

“The annoying thing is she didn’t get her facts right. She’s been calling for a statement since just imagine”
“That neighbour that was spewing such trash who is she?”
“Who else if not mama Nkechi.” I actually remembered the morning she talked of and she had exaggerated the number of bodies, there were 3 and they weren’t even dead just unconscious then. Every event was still clear in my eyes and some still visited me once in a while at night.

We sat still for a moment. The article seemed to awaken memories. ‘Dead bodies in his wake..’ Mona,Fomé,Fumi…
Finally Andy said “we better go see what we can get from the interrogation”
°•