Hell Mary

Chapter Twenty-one

"Why aren't you talking anymore? Huh?" Ashley asked. "What should I know?" Her eyes swept from Thelma to Stella and then back to Thelma.

Stella sighed and then casually shifted her weight to one leg. Thelma was visibly shaken. The bell had stopped ringing and everywhere was still. If one listened carefully, you would hear the slow chants of the rosary at the far end of the court. It was repeated like a mantra- one verse for ten times. A thin voice would call out and the multitude of others would respond in a loud inarticulate voice.

"Ashley there's something that happened," Stella began, her voice was low but clear. "I'll let Thelma say it." She looked into Thelma's downcast expression.
Thelma moved closer to Ashley in slow steps like a lamb approaching its death. Ashley had rolled her hands to a fold and widened her eyes with interest. "Ashley something bad happened. I did something bad," Thelma said.

"You killed Mary," Ashley said and Thelma froze. Her legs stopped jerking, she could feel it. Her heart sank and in a whisk of wild imaginations, she wished the grounds opened while wondering how many others knew.

"Wait! You knew?" Stella asked, moving closer. Ashley nodded slowly. "How?" Thelma had relaxed her weight on a seat, supporting her head with her hands.

"Well at first I never knew why she was so shaken and scared. I thought it was something I did. Then I realized if it were something I did, she should show resentment and not fear. When I asked, as always, she said it was because she missed Mary. It didn't seem right that you'd miss someone so dearly after death when you barely crossed paths in life. Of course it was a part of my random guesses but I just confirmed it."

"You can't tell anyone," Stella said.

"Let's go for the rosary," Ashley replied, turning to leave. Her hand squeezed her pink rosary beads that appeared crystalline with a soft light pink handkerchief she had drawn out from her bag.

Stella held unto Ashley's arm. "Ashley! I'm serious," Stella said. Thelma looked wearyingly towards Ashley as though her verdicts were final.

Shrugging off Stella's soft grip, Ashley replied, "I've had my suspicions for long enough up until I was very sure. Have I told a soul?"

"Thank you!" Thelma said.

"I haven't told a soul so you could do the telling yourself. Martins can end up in jail for a crime you committed and I will not allow that. If you don't tell the detective in a week's time, I'll tell her myself."

*****

Detective Uju sipped from another mug slowly. Her lips burned from the heat but she preferred the pain to the cold bland coffee most people preferred. She was absorbed by her jottings that she hadn't realized when Dayo stepped in. He sat opposite her leather office chair and watched her scrawl on a white board which was supported on a wooden frame.

She moved repeatedly from the desk to the board and suddenly the image on the board was becoming lucid. They were stick drawings surrounding a rectangular sketch which Dayo understood to represent the dinner night orientation of tables and chairs and the supposed occupants of each space.
She turned swiftly and was taken aback by Dayo's presence. His pecan brown skin and tiny sweat beads that popped out glowed under the light. Then she laughed. It was entirely inappropriate and long. She was drunk, he could tell but drunk on many warm mugs of hot coffee because the coffee maker still bubbled with more caffeine.

"Don't mind me," she said finally, slumping on her seat. "You're Dayo right?" She asked and Dayo nodded. "Where were you between the hours of eight to ten?"

"At the party just like everyone else." His answer was intended to dispel any thoughts of him being the murderer.

"It was you and your friends who connived the scheme to rape Mary," she intended asking but spelt it out like an already known fact. "Do you know the gravity of this offence? Do you know you can end up in jail like your friend Martins?" The mention of jail jolted him and he began to sweat the more.