He just got to the station and he met the Jannah as she cried her eyes out. "Have you taken the statement from her? Because she's the only one at the crime scene that can actually tell us what happened, and the ones we've captured when they've regained back conciousness. That'll help us to get the rest of them and find her father."
Small nodded his head at him and began telling him all that he had taken and the progresses on the case. He asked Stephanie to bring Jannah to his office and when she did, she left the office for the two of them. He asked her to sit down on one of the chairs facing his and she did, sobbing hysterically.
"You said your name is Jannah Idris Kakangi, right? From which state are you?" he asked, and she looked up at him while trying so hard to stop the fountain coming from her eyes.
"My father is from a village in Kaduna State, so that's where I'm from too. Kakangi." She was so naïve and innocent that he wanted to know more about her.
"How old are you, Jannah?" he asked, and she cleared her tears once again before she answered him.
"I'm 18 years old, I finished my secondary school just now." She ducked her head down seeing how intensely he was staring at her face, not knowing he was trying to read her expression so he could understand her words more and believe her too.
"That's fine, they've taken all the necessary informations from you, Jannah. Stephanie will take you to her house and she'll take care of you before we finally rescue your father, is that okay? Or you have relatives to go to, in Sokoto?" She quickly shook her head at him.
"I don't know any relative of mine, not even the ones in Kakangi. I'll go to her house, thank you sir." She thanked him and he called out to Stephanie without responding.
Stephanie rushed into the office and he pointed at Jannah before he spoke, "Please, take her with you until this case is resolved. She can stay with you until we're able to rescue her father from those bandits, okay?" She nodded her head and saluted at him. Wondering what kind of man he was. How could he just ask her to go back home with a grown up lady and not bother wether her husband would be okay with it or not? He was so self concerned that she wondered how he think.
He didn't leave the office until it was after 10pm and he drove home directly, exhausted to the point that he didn't even know where or how to start from. The worst part of it was, he knew he couldn't sleep the way he wanted to ease off his tiredness. He parked the car in the parking lot and went directly to the dining table because he was so hungry beyong words could explain.
And there he met her, in her pyjamas with her hair roughly brought into a bun and she hanged a veil loosely on it. She was studying something, with huge textbooks placed before her while she ate. He stared at her for a minute before he sat down and served himself. Even though she had noticed his presence, she didn't bother to look up from her books while her hand moved from tracing the lines to putting the snack into her mouth.
It was difficult, and she wasn't even understanding what she was reading. The case was so jumbling and hard that she didn't know when she screamed out of frustration and looked up at him. "If it were you, how would you go about with this case, Al-mustapha?" She didn't even know when she asked, but then a part of her knew he might have something to say about the case. He might help her solve it.
"What?" he had already lifted himself up and was about to go when she asked, but he found himself sitting back on the chair after she did.
She sat upright, gulped down her drink at once before she spoke. "The case is, two men love a woman. She sets an to meet the first guy and the second guy happen to know about where they were about to meet. So he followed her behind without her knowing. At the scene, let's say the eatery they planned to meet with the first guy, she was found died, but the two guys claimed they weren't the ones that killed her and the people working in the restuarant said they haven't seen any one them. But it has to be one of them that killed her, who do you think it will be?"
From the way she was talking, raising her hands up as she listed between the guys and the woman and explained everything, he followed her every move. The way her eyes moved, she was tired. The way her lips shrunk while she spoke, she needed to rest or even sleep. Her facial expression screamed how she was exhausted and wanted nothing but to sleep, since she had just eaten.
She groaned and banged the table, which brought his attention back to her not to her face alone. "I'm asking you of something, did you zone out?" Annoyance was evident on her voice and she watched as he quickly got a hold of himself and walked to where she was seated, at the far end of the table.
He held her hand in his and packed her books in the other. "What are you doing? Will you please tell me what you think about this case? I asked you because you're a police officer and you might solve it for me, I have to represent my solution tomorrow." He dragged her to the corridor and despite how she was struggling to get out of his hold, she couldn't. And she reluctantly followed him until they reached her room. He placed down the books on her bedside drawer and made her sat down on the bed.
"Your facial expression says you're tired and you need some sleep, do that." He said with finality laced on her voice and she locked at him with tired eyes that she worked so hard in opening up.
"I'll sleep, but please tell me what you think. Just what you think, Al-mustapha. I know I might not be able to see you tomorrow morning, and I have to answer it before tomorrow. A legal answer, not just my assumptions." She begged and stifled a yawn. She knew she can be so persisting when it came to something she wanted so bad, and she was not going to give up on this.
"Lay down, tuck yourself in the blanket then I'll tell you what I think before I leave you to rest." He didn't what got into him, but he couldn't just read her facial expression and ignore what he saw in it.
She did as he said, and surprisingly, she held his hand tightly with her both hands, her eyes threatening to close. "I'm listening." He looked at her hands that firmly held his and looked at how she was struggling to open her eyes.
He sat down on the bed close to her and gave her more closeness to hold his hands before he spoke, "If I were the police officer that take care of the case, then I'll definitely hold the both of them captive but first, I'll interrogate the second guy before the first guy..." And it went on until her eyes closed completely and he placed down her hand and tucked it into her blanket. He stood up and walked out of the room before he turned the lights off for her and closed the door behind him.
He needed to talk, to get things clear on his head. He took a drink and walked to the pool, that was his favorite place to think. He sat down nearly for an hour and thought about how he was going to capture the rest of the robbers that robbed Alhaji Mahdi's house and killed him with his two sons and a wife. He needed to find that girl's father, he had promised her to. His thoughts slowly wandered to Alex but he was quick at pushing them off. Then came Fatima Zarah...something he had never thought to think of.
He slowly reminisced the way her lips moved while she explained to him, from the way her eyes tirelessly opened and closed as she spoke, her whole facial expression that spoke the fire that she was. He loved the way her lips curved and opened slightly, those lips able to spurt fire fiercely. His eyes slowly moved to his hands and he could still feel the softness of her palms when she held him tightly. It was not until the night was matured enough to give birth to full grown stars and the wind strong enough to cool itself down that he finally walked back to the house and into the house.
The next morning he woke up from a loud knock on his door and when he sluggishly muttered 'Come in', he wondered who the intruder might be. And when Fatima Zarah walked into the room all clad into the lawyers attire, he got tongue tied. She sat down on the vanity stool and looked at him, putting on an innocent look.
"I came so you could tell me what you think about that case, please. I need to leave early, I'm sorry if I woke you up." They both know she was being this innocent and respectful because she wanted to hear something from him, and he groaned softly before he spoke.
"I told you that..." she cut him off from where she sat.
"I can't hear you from here, will you please increase your tone?" She politely asked and Al-mustapha closed his eyes, he was sleepy beyond words could tell.
"Come over here, please. I can't speak louder, I'm sleepy." He motioned for her to come over to the bed and Fatima Zarah took hesitating steps towards him. She sat down beside him on the bed, like he did to her yesterday night and she motioned for him to go on.
"I told you that if I were the police officer in charge of the case, I won't let any of the guys leave. Even though I think the second guy might be the one that killed her..."
She was quick at cutting him off, "But how can it be the second guy? Because let's say he's her husband and he wants to catch her red handed cheating on him, you know he has to wait until she's already together with the first guy, right?"
He groaned softly and his hand slowly placed itself on hers that was resting on the mattress, he didn't know what he did, because all he was trying to do was to make her listen to him. "Will you please listen? You're using a woman's perceptive on this case, I know how sharp and smart those criminals can be." She looked at his hand that was on hers and slowly nodded her head.
"Okay, go on. But you need to talk fast, Al-Mustapha, I need to leave in like..." her words trailed off while she searched for her phone to see what time it was. And when she finally checked it and looked up to him with the words, "In like ten minutes from now," he was already asleep.
She didn't know when she used her both hands and shook his chest convulsing, "Please get up and tell me all you think of, I promise to listen without interrupting, you can sleep after I leave!"
"Ugh! What kind of woman have I gotten myself hitched with? Fatimaaa..." He took her hands that were on his chest off, and the next she did was fell onto his chest completely without knowing how it happened. And for the second time, she heard the rhythmic heart beat of Al-mustapha Muhammad Maccido.
Since y'all aren't commenting. I'd update once today. Bye.