THE SERIAL MASK BY MORUFAT AJANI CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

 THE SERIAL MASK BY MORUFAT AJANI

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

The next day, after Badru left home, Leila dresses up. She wears full makeup and high heels. She picks her bag at exactly 4pm and steps out. She's going to Moyo’s creche.

She walks in the creche home, acting polite, a fake smile stretched across her face. She goes into the reception and says,

“Hi, I just moved into the area. I’m looking to enroll my daughter here. I heard good things about your creche center. And I must say, I am impressed with what I am seeing. Your creche looks like a standard school.” She has a sweet smile on her face as she talks.

The staff welcomes her and gives her a form and she fills it with a fake name. She then asks to look around the creche center and she's allowed to.

As she's moving around the classes, her eyes move around the room, until she gets to Moyo's class and sees her.

Leila freezes and her eyes are stuck on Moyo. The girl is coloring something on paper, talking softly to another kid beside her.

And why does she look so much like Badru? He told me that the girl is not his. But look at her, looking so much like him. Leila thinks, urging the needs to hiss and roll his eyes. She's extremely angry and jealous.

She manages to finish the enquiry without losing it. She thanks the staff, smiles, and walks back out.

Inside her head, she’s planning her next move. How to successfully ki-dnap Moyo.

At the interrogation room at the police station.

The walls are bare. A table. Two chairs. Surveillance camera blinking red in the corner. Therapist Akinola Bello sits calmly, his hands folded, back straight, and expression unreadable. His eyes are cold and fixed on the table.

Detective Ola enters the room holding a file. He pulls out the chair and sits across from Akin, placing the file flat on the table.

Ola opens the file and clears his throat. “Mr. Bello,” he says firmly. “You know why you’re here. A de-ad body was found in the river yesterday. Your name was the last one he contacted.”

Akinola says nothing. He doesn’t blink, doesn’t move. His silence is deliberate.

Ola leans forward. “The autopsy says he d!ed around 2 p.m. And checking your office CCTV, we realized you left your office around the same time and returned with a blood-stained shirt. Should I keep connecting the dots for you?”

Still nothing, he is just watching Ola.

Ola narrows his eyes, his tone sharper. “This is your second time sitting in this room. First time, we let you go. This time, the evidence is crawling closer.”

Akin finally speaks, calm and clear.

“I’ll wait for my lawyer.”

As everything is unfolding, the chief detective is in the watching room, watching them. With his blood boiling with anger.

Precious is also there, her teeth are so grits together, her hands clenched and tears well up in her eyes.

15 minutes later,

A tall, confident man in a well-fitted suit walks in with a briefcase. He walks straight to the front desk.

“I’m Barrister Femi Adekunle. I represent Therapist Akinola Bello. Where is my client?” He says confidently and is taken to the interrogation room.

The lawyer is now seated beside Akin. Ola is standing now, his arms crossed, looking so frustrated.

Barrister Femi opens his briefcase slowly and brings out some documents. He asks to see Akin privately and after they are done, detective Ola joins them.

After he and Ola exchange conversation for a while, he says,

“My client has nothing to do with the murder, Detective. And I’d advise you to stop pushing for a confession that will never come and you really need to stop accusing innocent people baselessly. You people are crossing the line.”

“It's not baseless. We have a message from the victim, sent to your client at 1:02 p.m on the day he d!ed. And he returned to his office around the time the victim d!ed with blood stained clothes.” Ola says, tapping the file.

Ola is trying to sound confident while deep down, he is shivering. With the way this interrogation is going, it's obvious he is on the loose end so the fear of what the chief detective will say or do to him is eating him up. He has realized he made a huge mistake by just inviting Akin just like that without strong evidence.

Barrister Femi chuckles lightly. “So? A message on the victim’s phone? Where’s the one on my client’s phone?” He takes Akin’s phone and put it in front of Ola and continues,

“Check my client's phone and bring out the message.” The lawyer says and Ola swallows hard. Ola doesn't take the phone, he talks instead.

“We’ve already checked it. There is no message there but….” The lawyer cut in,

“Exactly that's the keypoint,” the lawyer says smugly.

“The fact that the message isn't on my client’s phone should tell you it's not sent by him. Technology can be manipulated. Anyone can spoof a number, mimic a contact name, or plant a message. Are we really going to rely on that?”

“But it can still mean your client has deleted the message from his phone. And also, how about the blood stain?” Ola says, blinking rapidly, his confidence is gone now.

“Do you have proof? Do you have proof that he deleted any message or that the blood stain on my client's clothes was the deceased's own? The stain wasn't blood, it was red paint. A mad man at his office used a painted hand to hold his shirt. In fact, I am disappointed with the way you people operate here. Inviting an innocent man for questioning based on just a mere feeling and thoughts. And may I remind you this is not the first time you people are accusing my client wrongly, and thankfully he was cleared of the previous allegations. That includes your so-called ‘serial k!ller’ theory.” As he’s talking, Akin is watching him with happiness dangling in his tummy, thanking his star for the day he met him.

The lawyer stands up, closes his briefcase, and faces Ola directly.

“Unless you have strong evidence, I advise you never drag my client here again. Or the next time, we’ll be the ones suing you.”

Ola just stands there, sad and is scared. This is definitely not what he expected. He didn't know Akin would exercise his right by not talking or answering his questions before his lawyer arrives.

What is in his mind right now is;

God, please don't let the chief detective remove me from this case. And Hanan, that Hanan. What's wrong with her and why was she working at that therapy center. Has her husband freed her to work again? Working there means she might now be available to work here again if she's given the opportunity. The chief mustn't know about her at all. Otherwise, I am long gone.  I need to do something. Ola thinks.

Akin and his lawyer stand and leave the interrogation room.

Meanwhile, while the interrogation is going on and the chief detective realize it's a lost battle for Ola at the interrogation room, he punch the air angrily and says,

“Chai, that's good for nothing guy. I am sure he's on a mission to put me into trouble. If the IG hears about this, then I am certainly going to be in trouble. There is no way Hanan will handle this case like that. I really need to remove that slow guy from this case but who on earth will I replace him with?”

Detective Precious is equally frustrated with how the conversation is going at the interrogation room. And being the fact that the case is so personal to her, she's even shedding tears. She just joined the police a few months ago so she can't be made a team leader. And to the chief detective, no one is capable of handling this case except Hanan. He just has no choice.

So at the mention of Hanan, her mind travels back to when they were at the therapy center and Ola mentions Hanan's name as detective Hanan. So hearing the chiefs detective mention the name too now, she says,

“Sir, do you mean detective Hanan? A dark tall lady like this?” The chief detective nods, looking so sad.

“We saw her today at that guy’s therapy center. She's working there.” Hearing that, the chief detective’s eyes widened in shock. He recovers a few minutes later and says,

“What? Hanan is working there? How? She resigned here a few months ago to focus more on her marriage. So what do you mean she's working at a therapy center?”

“I don't know why she's working there but yes, she's working there as a therapist. I am not mistaken.”

“What? OMG. Please come to my office later after that rubbish is wrapped up and come and tell me everything about her in detail.”

“Yes sir.” Precious says and the chief detective leaves the interrogation room.

Precious blood is so boiling, she's so angry at detective Ola. She also hates the way he's handling the case but what choice does she have, she's just a rookie.

As she sees that Akin and his lawyer are about to leave the room, she dashes out. She picks the bottle of water on the table on her way out.

Outside the room, detective Precious is standing at the entrance, her arms folded, and her face hard with fury. She's waiting for Akin to come out.

As Akinola Bello steps out with his lawyer, Precious marches forward and splashes the water directly onto Akin’s face.

Akin flinches, shifts back and frowns deeply. His jaw tightens and hand twitches, he wants to slap precious so badly but holds back. Instead, he straightens her body, trying to keep composure. The lawyer gasps in surprise. He can't believe what Precious just did.

He looks straight into Precious’s eyes and she also steps closer to him, seething.

“You and your sweet-talking lawyer can fool everybody, but not me. You’re the serial k!ller. No matter what the court says, no matter what anyone says, I know what you are. You definitely can't fool me..”

Akin is wiping the water in his face slowly with the handkerchief that the lawyer gave him. He looks at her darkly with his lips pressed in irritation. He doesn't talk, but he definitely wants to do something physical to her but just holding himself back. He is extremely angry.

The lawyer steps forward but Akin raises his hand and says,. “Leave her. I’ll handle this.”

Precious glares at him and continues talking. “Every time I see you, I’m reminded that monsters also wear perfume and smile in public. You are indeed one of the monsters. But trust me, you’ll make a mistake soon and when you do, we’ll be waiting. I will be here to catch you myself and send you to jail.”

Akin moves slowly, closes to her more and looks at her creepily. He says, “If you keep getting emotional every time you see me like this, you will soon be removed from this case and your dream of catching me might not be fulfilled. I will advise you to work on your emotion first if really, you want to catch me yourself as you said. And until the day you will catch me, as you’ve always been saying, I am rooting for you.” After he’s done talking, he moves forward, smiling in a mockery.

His lawyer, standing beside him, also bursts into a small amused laugh, clearly entertained by Precious’s rage.

Another surge of anger builds up in Precious’s chest. Her blood boils. Her jaw tightens. And without blinking, she lifts her hand and throws her middle finger in Akin’s face.

“F**k you,” she says, sharp and cold.

Akin doesn’t flinch. He smiles wider, nods once, like she just proved his point and turns around.

The lawyer smirks, taps his file against his palm, and follows him.

As they walk off, Precious stands there, breathing heavily while watching them, burning with fire of fury.

“God please send a messiah to this case and let's catch this cold blooded murderer soon. God please.” Precious whispers to herself.