Episode 10
Adam stopped in front of the church and slid the gear into park. A lot of thoughts had flowed in his mind as he drove to the church. He still was not sure if the murder of this girl had any connection to the church street killer’s murders, it was a murder case still and it needed solving.
He got down from the car and moved towards the stairs of the church, Tola on his heels. A group of people stood hurdled together beside the church talking in hushed tones. He ignored them and headed for the church. The door of the church swung open as he pushed it. He stepped through it and held it for Tola to enter. Immediately he entered he sighted the Pastor siting on one of the front pews with a younger man, the younger man was dressed in a suit and had an air of importance. Both men heard them enter and turned to face them.
“Detectives, I wasn’t expecting you here today.” The pastor said when they got close to him.
“Well, we need to ask you some questions.” Adam said. “In private.” He added.
“Oh sorry Detectives, I am Barrister Patrick Jemiluwa, I am his lawyer.” The younger man said. “I’ll like to sit in when you question my client.”
Adam smiled and nodded. The pastor led the way to his office. Adam wondered why the man suddenly needed a lawyer, maybe he knew they were coming. Could be a sign of guilt. Or not. He had no love for lawyers, smarty pants who did not know as much as they thought they did.
“Why do you need a lawyer Pastor? Like you said, you did not know we were coming.” Adam asked as soon as they were seated in the office.
“My client has a right to a lawyer, he doesn’t need a reason to have one. Please just tell us why you are here.” Jemiluwa answered before the Pastor could say anything.
“Pastor, I’ll still like you to answer the question.” Adam said, ignoring the lawyer.
“No, he doesn’t…” The lawyer started but was cut off by a wave of the hand by the Pastor.
“It’s okay Patrick, I’ll answer his question. Patrick here is my son’s friend and technically he isn’t my lawyer. I’m not sure I need one yet.”
“You don’t have to tell them anything sir.” Jemiluwa tried to dissuade the Pastor.
“Let me just tell them everything I know. There’s no problem.”
“Speak on please sir.” Tola said speaking for the first time. She flashed the lawyer a glare.
“A few days ago, a girl came here claiming that she was pregnant for my son. I laughed her off because my son has been in Lagos and hasn’t come home for two years. She insisted she had met with him a few times at a particular hotel here in Ilorin.” He said and stopped.
“Did you ask your son?” Tola asked.
“Well, that was when things changed. I asked him frankly and my son would not lie to me, he admitted he had been in town a few times but that he never slept over and he did not want to bother me. Can you imagine that a father would be bothered to see his son? But he denied the pregnancy. He admitted that he had had intercourse with the girl…” he paused, sighed and continued. “But he said she was not pregnant for him.”
“And you believe him?” Adam asked.
“Yes, I do.” The pastor replied. The lawyer shifted in his chair, he obviously did not like what was going on.
“Why do you need a lawyer then?” Adam asked.
“The girl threatened a lawsuit against us. To be honest, I don’t know why she would add me to the suit. Patrick here is my son’s friend and he came over to help.”
“Help with what exactly?” Adam asked, genuinely confused. If the girl was dead, the pastor did not need a lawyer to fight her lawsuit.
“The lawsuit, if she eventually sues.”
“What are you talking about? The girl is dead.”
“What?!” The pastor looked genuinely surprised. The lawyer leaned back in his chair. “How do you even know the girl I am talking about?”
“Is her name Antonia Fashola?” Tola asked, looking at a notebook she held.
“Yes, that’s her name. She’s dead? What happened to her?”
“She was murdered. Mr. Lawyer, you don’t seem surprised by this at all, why is that?” Adam asked, turning to the Lawyer.
“Well, what do you mean I wasn’t surprised?” The lawyer asked, immediately assuming his commanding posture.
“Answer the damn question, did you know about this?” Tola asked, giving the lawyers one of the hardest looks Adam had ever seen. Apparently she did not like him too.
“The truth is, I heard about her death before I came here this morning. It was part of why I came here.” He looked apologetically at the Pastor.
“How did you hear about it?” Tola asked again.
“I don’t have to answer any of your questions. I have not been arrested or brought in for questioning. In fact, this interview or whatever this is, is over.”
Tola stood up before Adam could say a word and was standing the lawyer up and cuffing his hands behind his back.
“You wanted to be arrested? Well, you are under arrest Barrister Lawyer, you need to answer some questions.”
Adam smiled, proud of her as she walked him out of the office. The lawyer was apparently too shocked to speak.
“Pastor, where is your son now?” Adam asked.
“He is on his way back from Lagos. Although, I have to admit I’m not sure of that now, I’m not sure of anything. Over twenty years I’ve been a pastor and it’s all about to crash because of a foolish son.”
Adam could not argue with him. “Well, we will need to speak to your son immediately he gets back. We would not want to have to arrest him, so please tell him to report at the CIB office immediately he comes into town.”
“He will come to your office Detective. I cannot believe I have been questioned over two murders. I’m sorry I wasn’t much help with the portrait of the man I told you came to our church. I just could not remember how he looked like. How is that investigation going?”
“Fine. Just call me if you have any information to help on any of the cases.” He answered handing the Pastor a card.
*** *** ***
Adam wiped his brow with his sleeve as he moved towards one of the interrogation rooms. If somebody had told him two months ago that he would be neck deep investigating three murders in less than a month, he would have laughed. He still was not sure about his position as director of the CIB or if he wanted it but it was good that his life had a purpose again. The killer had done him a favour, of course he would have preferred that the favour did not include loss of lives.
He felt a vibration in his pocket, his phone was ringing.
“Hello Faruk. You’ve been calling too often nowadays, I think you need a girl.” He said with a chuckle.
“A girl? I’m a player Adam, a player who’s got girls – a lot of them. By the way, it’s not like I’ve been calling to say hi or ask you out. I’ve been solving your cases.”
“Sure you have Faruk. Maybe you should open a P.I. office so I can bring you on as a consultant.”
“Are you serious bro, that would be awesome.”
“Wait, I was kidding.” Adam said, laughing at the eagerness with which he jumped at the offer. “Consultant for what? This is big boy stuff we do here man.”
“You just broke my heart Adam, in fact I don’t think I want to give you the info I had anymore.”
“You have info for me? Kelvin Little! Come on, I’m sure you want to tell me.” Adam said, pausing at the door of the interrogation room.
“Alright, the second victim – the student, I went back to the club where she was said to have partied and asked around till I found someone who saw her leave with a man. I traced where they were supposed to have gone and I learnt that she left in a cab. Now get this, the man who saw her leave said the cab she left in stopped after going a short distance the girl got down from the cab with a man that he had not noticed enter the cab and they entered a bus parked a short distance from the cab. The man never saw the driver leave.”
“What are you saying? You think the driver was the man who left in the bus with her?”
“Yes, and I think he is the killer.”
“The girl who found the body had seen a bus too, could be the same one. How did you find out all these and my team of detectives couldn’t?”
“You guys don’t know the streets. These guys on the street won’t talk to cops.”
He had a point. “Faruk, how about you register that P.I. thing, I might need you to consult after all.”
“Don’t play with me man.”
“I’m not joking, do it. I have to question this lawyer dude, we’ll talk later.” Adam said and disconnected the call. He had to give Faruk more respect, he getting results.
He was about to turn the knob and enter when is phone rang again. It was Ese.
“Ese, how nice of you to call. Your snitch isn’t giving you all the info you want?”
“Adam, I have no snitch at the CIB, cut the crap.” She sounded offended.
“Okay, what do you want? I’m a little busy. In fact not a little, I am very busy. You should know about the third body that was found this morning.”
“Yeah, I heard about that. Do you think it was the same killer?”
“Very smart, you know there’s no way I’m answering that question.” He said with a smile.
“That’s why I called actually. I need you to come on our program. I promise you will pick the questions you are willing to answer before the program starts and you can decide to stop the program midway if we ask anything that you had not agreed to answer.”
“And you tell me this on the phone?”
“Well, what difference does it make? The last time I was in your office, you practically laughed me out.”
She had a point. He would not be more agreeable because she came. In fact, to hide his attraction to her, he would probably have done or said something stupid he would regret later. He had given a lot of thought to talking to the press though since he read Kate’s report.
“Alright Ese, I don’t know if it’s the lack of sleep talking but I’ll think about it and I’ll give you an answer before the end of the week. That good enough for you?”
“I guess so. I would appreciate it if you said yes.”
“I know.” He said, he smiled and disconnected the call.
He opened the door and entered the room. The lawyer was sitting on one of the chairs, arms folded across his chest. He had removed his suit and even folded the sleeves of his shirt. He stood up as soon as Adam entered.
“You kept me in this room for one hour? Do you know I am a lawyer?” He shouted.
“Sit down.” Adam said firmly. The lawyer shook his head and sat down. “Look here, I don’t want to lock you up especially if you did not kill that girl. You scream again, I’ll consider you a hostile witness and you will be locked up. So, let’s be gentlemen and do this quietly, okay?”
“Okay.” The lawyer said. Adam smiled, Tola would have been proud of him.
“How did you know about the girl’s death? Let’s start from there.”
“After Solomon, that is Pastor Alonge’s son heard about the threat of a lawsuit, he told me to help him talk to the girl. The truth was, he was not sure if the baby was his or not. I tried contacting the girl a few times but she refused to talk to me. I asked around and I found out a place where she usually partied with friends so I decided to meet her there.”
“Crackos?”
“No, another place downtown where lowlifes drink away their pitiful lives.”
“Go on.”
“Unfortunately she started to leave as soon as I got there. I went after her and introduced myself, she told me to get lost. She said she wanted to talk to Solomon himself. I followed her trying to talk her into talking to me, she just flat ignored me. She stopped a taxi and I heard her tell the man she was going to Crackos, so I decided to go there as well.”
“I’m assuming you drove your own car, right?” Adam asked, the lawyer nodded. “Did you follow her taxi or just met her there?”
“No, before I could get my car, the taxi was gone. So I just decided I’d meet her there. I got there and didn’t see her so I decided to wait for her. Well, I was waiting for her when that nut-job came in to call the manager saying he found a body. I followed them out of curiosity and discovered she was the one who was dead. I promptly left the place.”
“Is there anybody who can confirm any part of this story you just told me?”
“They have cameras at Crackos, you can confirm the time of my arrival and all.”
“I will do that but that doesn’t mean anything. I don’t think I need to tell you that you are a suspect so don’t leave town.” Adam said, standing up. “And before you open your mouth and start threatening me with lawsuits, I just want you to know that I know about the law too and you should not bother.”
The lawyer opened his mouth to say something, but he closed it without saying a word.
“I’ll send in somebody to establish a timeline, map out where you were at every minute that night. So get comfy, you still have a few minutes to spend here.” Adam said and left the room.
*** *** ***
Adam walked into Tola’s office with a bottle of water in his hand. He was yet to eat and he was starting to feel hungry. Kate sat at her desk totally engrossed with her phone. Tola was reading through a file, she put it down and looked at him.
“How did it go with the lawyer?”
“He’s a suspect alright and he might have been the last person to see her alive apart from the killer if he isn’t the killer.”
“Do you still think this isn’t the church street killer?” Tola asked.
“I don’t think it is, although it’s not smart to rule that out. We have a window of a few hours when the girl was killed. I have sent Benjamin, one of the detectives to try and establish a timeline.”
“Alright. By the way, Miss World here has been bored.” Tola said, nodding in the direction of Kate who was now listening to them. “You need to get her something to do.”
“Yeah, Uncle…sorry Detective. Maybe I can go with you next time you go to question somebody.” Kate said, eyes pleading.
“In your dreams.” Adam said, laughing. “I think I have something for you though. I am considering going on a program on TV.”
“Really? Ese Johnson’s program, right?” Kate asked with a wink.
Adam felt a little flushed. What did she know about Ese? “Yes Kate, Ese Johnson’s program. Now I need you to write about twenty questions you think she should ask me and what my answers will be to them.”
“Isn’t Ese Johnson supposed to compose the questions?” Tola asked.
“Well, not in this case. Kate, make sure the questions aren’t too revealing and not too detailed. I’ll pick the best ones.”
“I’ll get right on it sir.” She said and saluted. Adam smiled. Maybe it was not a bad idea to work with Kate, he was growing to like her again.
“I’ll be in my office, I need to go over all the information we have about that very first murder.” Adam said and left Tola’s office.
His phone rang as he walked to his office. He did not recognize the number.
“Good afternoon.” He said.
“Detective, this is Pastor Alonge.”
“Oh, is your son back?”
“No, that’s why I called you. I told you he was on his way right? Well, he told me three days ago he was coming today. But I just got a call from his office in Lagos that he left for Ilorin two days ago and he was supposed to be back already.”
“Have you called him?” Adam asked.
“Of course I have, all his numbers are not available. And they told me the numbers have not been available for over thirty six hours.”
It meant he was already in town when his baby-mama was killed.
“Do you think maybe the person who killed that pregnant lady could have killed my son?” The pastor asked. Adam could hear the tension in his voice.
“Why on earth would you think that?”
“I’m just afraid. I pray my son hasn’t been hurt.”
Adam talked with him for a few more minutes and ended the call.
Solomon Alonge was either a killer or a victim, either way he needed to be found.
Demons On Church Street (Complete Episodes)
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