My Middle Name

The drop

Leah's eyes were glued to the sign that read Shell Roysambu Service Station. From where she stood, she could see a myriad of people coming in and out of the public washrooms. Others would hail motorbikes, board matatus, drive out of the parking lot in their own vehicles or just walk from there. No one stood out to her. Everything seemed ordinary.

Unfortunately, the sight was insanely frustrating to her. All she wanted was to spot whoever was initiating the drop. The one that had made her lose two days of sleep. If she could, she wanted to find the person and kill him. Or her.

Two days ago, she was going through her mail like usual. She then opened an envelope and took out the content of it. It was a USB drive and a note with three sentences.

TUESDAY 17TH JULY, 11:00 AM

SHELL ROYSAMBU SERVICE STATION

PUBLIC WASHROOMS STALL 1

At first, she thought someone was playing a joke on her. She then played the footage on the flash drive then she knew things were bad. There were explicit videos of her and her boss having a sexual affair. This was blackmail. Whoever sent the envelope knew her well enough to know that she could not afford to have the videos seeing the light of day. It would mean the end of her marriage and the loss of her job if the higher-ups found out.

She walked towards the washrooms and paid ten Kenya shillings to the man sitting on a plastic chair outside. She entered the female section, took a deep breath, and approached a girl standing at the corner.

"Did you see anyone enter this stall?" Leah asked her. She had paid the girl Ksh. 250 to be a look out and take a picture of any suspicious person that entered stall no.1 and left anything suspicious around.

"Madam, lots of people have entered the stall. How will I know who you wanted to see exactly?" The girl said as she stretched her hand for her final cut, "Plus I checked every time someone left, no one left anything suspicious."

She reluctantly handed the final Ksh. 250 to the girl and entered to check the stall for herself.

Nothing was out of the ordinary. Everything that made a public washroom what it was, was in place. Broken tiles, discolorations on the wall, and a loose flush handle.

Frustrated, she got out and left the washrooms.

"Madam!" A voice shouted from behind her.

"Nimeambiwa nikupee hii, ni kama uliiangusha. I've been told to give it to you, seems like you dropped it."

That was it. The drop.

The one thing that she had tried to spy on and find the initiator but failed.

"Do you remember how the person that gave it to you looks like? I want to thank them."

"Hapana, ilikua mama amevaa mask, na alikua na haraka. No, it was a woman that had a mask on, and she was in a hurry."

She took the envelope from the guy and opened it. It had a set of keys and a note.

RAINBOW APARTMENTS, HOUSE 212

She took a deep breath and sighed.

"I guess I have to see this through then."