Murder On Christmas Eve

Chapter 4

"Kill it! kill it!!" Kachi shouted jumping on her bed, she was wearing a short and a singlet. Her hair was wet due to the shower she took minutes ago.

"What does it look like I am trying to do!" Chioma shouted, holding her left foot slippers in her right hand as she used the other one to slowly move the box which she suspected that cockroach was hiding in.

"Where did it go to?" Kachi asked looking around the room.

"It is in my mouth, you don't see me looking for it?" Chioma carefully shifted the lid for the box. She was ready to slam anything she saw inside but all that was inside was her favorite sweater. "Errh Kachi?"

"Yes?"

"What is my sweater doing in your rooooo... arrrgghhh!" The cockroach flew out from its hiding spot, under Chioma sweater. It was heading for her face.

"Chimooooo!" Kachi jumped down from the bed and ran out of the room and Chioma followed the suit, slamming the door hard behind her and laying back against it. "I am dead oo, there is cockroach in my room, it should be the thing that crawled on my body last night, but I ignored it. How did cockroach even find its way here?"

"You are asking me abi? Sha it is not my own room. I have left you and your new neighbor, I have work to do." She stood up properly from and walked towards the couch to take her bag which she had dropped there earlier.

She was about to go to work, when she heard Kachi screams from her room, shouting, "Cockroach, cockroach!!!" She had thrown her bag to the couch and bursted into Kachi's room like princess charming, but at the end, seems the cockroach succeeded.

"Wait na, before you go help me and kill it, where will I stay? It's in my room!"

"Go and stay in my room, when I get back I will kill it. Bye bye, wait, cook food oo, if you want me to kill the cockroach, cook food," She said as she walked towards the entrance door. "Don't invite new neigbors to our house, and don't touch any of my clothes again," She said out loud for Kachi who was already going to Chioma's room to continue her sleep.

She closed the door behind and took a deep breath in, relaxing in the scent the morning held. It was refreshing. Michael and her weren't going to work together today. She was going back to question Funmi and Michael was going to meet Nneka. At the end of the day, they will come together to join facts.

"But first things first, breakfas-" It was then that she finally noticed the envelope which lay in front of her. It was sealed with- with, "Is that blood?"
Chioma picked the envelope, holding it by the side. She looked around to see any suspecting figure, but the image that stared back at her was that of her neighbors. She slipped the envelope in her bag.

"Good morning." She greeted Mrs Parker as she walked to her car. Mrs Parker was Nigerian but she was married to a foreign man. They moved to Nigeria about 4 years ago. Mrs Parker wanted her two children to grow up here in Nigeria, and get to learn in some of the traditions she was brought up in.

"Morning beautiful, have a nice day," she said.

"You too!" Chioma called out as she got into her car. Settling down, she brought out the letter which she had kept there earlier. "Ok, let's see what the bitch has sent me."

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Michael got down from his car and walked into the compound that Nneka was living in.

"Excuse me!" He called to an elderly woman who was working out.

"Can I help you?" The woman asked in her strong yourba accent. She had huge tribal marks on her face, her two hands were holding a big cooler, from which came the salivating aroma of what most Nigerian children will call "Party Jellof rice".