Timi caught up with Louris in the principal's office . He had left Tola behind who was still examining the car. He figured that the guy probably liked to work alone. Which was after he had tried to get his attention several times, something he failed to do.
"Is he always this crazy? "
"Sometimes." Lou replied. She didn't want to talk to him. That question alone told her he was nosy and loved to gossip.
" Typical men " She thought.
The two walked through protocol and security flashing their L.P.D badges as they walked through. Lou loved the attention and respect it brought her. She hated the ebola hand - sanitizer and temperature checks. It was a time waster and was stupid to her. Your temperature could be 37°C but immediately you faint in a public place, Nigerians would assume its ebola and clear faster than Clearsil.
" ah God, Saleem's dry jokes are getting to me. " she thought.
"I'll speak." Timi said as they were led into a waiting room for the Principal's visitors.
"Why?" Lou immediately regretted asking him this as he gave her a do you really want to know look .
He has a lot of looks she thought.
Soon a middle aged white man came in and asked them to follow him to his office where they could talk privately. His green eyes shone when he greeted them with his friendly smile and Lou automatically wished she hadn't left England for a Nigerian all girls , Catholic school.
"I'm Principal Allan Jones. I hear you two are from the Lagos Crime Lab. What can I do you for?" He asked a bit worried as to why he'd have police men in his school.
"Nothing serious Mr. Jones. I'm Detective Bakare and that's Detective Mayne. We're here to inform you that one of your students, Miss. Adesuwa Martins was found dead this morning at an abandoned filling station on Lekki-Epe Expressway." Timi said, taking a break so that Allan could soak up what he had just told him.
" My blood ! What? How? Miss. Martins was in school yesterday. She was bright and happy. She didn't seem to have any issues. Please tell me more!"
"Unfortunately Sir, that's all we can say for now. We were hoping you'd give us any information you know about her. Did she have any friends in school that may have wanted to hurt her? Any class rivalries or confrontations she should have been worried about? " Lou asked the man.
"No. She was a good kid. Brilliant. She was on the school's cheer team. Played brilliant soccer for the school's female team and she didn't have any issues with the students. At least none that I knew of. In fact, she was running for student body president. Her testimonials were looking good already.
"Are you ruling this as a homocide or suicide attempt?" He asked, looking stressed already.
"Unfortunately, it looks like a homicide. Don't worry, all information will be duely communicated to you. But for now, we need a list of her classmates, close friends, subject teachers and team mates." Timi said standing up from where he was seated.
"Alright. But Detective, is this school in any sort of trouble that I should be worried about?" Allan asked scared as to what may cause his school to shut down.
"No, no worries. We would advice you to keep important information on mute. You may inform your students of her death but that will be it. Necessary Information illegally released could pose as a threat to our investigation and you could be arrested for obstruction of justice." Lou said getting up too.
"Alright. Thank you Detectives. We'll be in touch then." Allan said taking Timi's card from him. He was scared. What if someone from his school did this? It would definitely be bad publicity for the school.
That was the last thing he needed right now.
* * * * * *
Lou and Timi walked out of the waiting room and into the school hallway where the students had began coming out of their classes laughing , happy and jumpy.
Typical kids. Lou thought. If only they knew.
Tola caught up with them soon enough and he was also in his happy jumpy mood.
"What's up with you?" Timi asked waiting for a crazy reply.
"Sooooo ! Found out that the G-Wagon belongs to Ruben Williams. You know.. Senator Aliyu Williams who married Irish Ambassador? "
"Oh yeah. ." Lou and Timi echoed together waiting for him to get to his point.
"Their son sha. So Yeah, so turns out the car was stolen."
"Stolen?"
" Ah hah ." He replied Timi bringing out his tab again.
"Chassis number doesn't tally with car documents. You remember two weeks ago when a woman reported her car stolen? Around that time, was when Ruben got the car according to documents and analysis."
" oh? " lou asked not sure what was happening as he showed them pictures of the Chassis number and car documents.
"How are you sure it's not his car? And how did you get all that information in such a short time?" Timi asked half amazed half creeped out.
"Ah hah .. again ! This is where Jolasun our Computer geek comes in. So I managed to get the bonnet open, don't ask me how. Then took pictures, sent it to Jola for analysis and BAM!.." he caught them unawares by clapping his arms loudly getting rude glares from the students
".. we got that. Alsoooo !"
Lou wasn't sure if she could cope with his speed and accuracy. They had been gone for only ten minutes after all. They didn't even do half as much as he had done.
"Also ya, after calling Ruben out, we got the .. wait for ittt!" Ruben said flipping through his pictures.
"The victim's bag. Complete with an ID, purse , a few personal items and.. her phone. I called for back up already and we've got Ruben in custody. Jolasun's checking out the phone anddd we'll know what's up soon." With that, Tola closed his tab.
Timi was beyond impressed. He hadn't seen this kind of passion in solving an investigation before. Usually, people would take all the time in the world when solving crimes in Lagos which weren't even as complex as the ones he'd helped solve back in New York.
Louris cleared her throat and checked her time.
"Well done Tolani. You beat your own record. Can we go now? "
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
If this isn't long, I dunno what is.
I really like Tola :D do you? :p
2 Mad men .
Start from the beginning
