Sitting opposite Nancy and staring at her, I knew she was hiding something. Was it pain or regrets? I looked at her in the same way that I had stared at my mother when she was struggling to make the phone call. My mother had pains and was using annoyance to cover it up.
Here was Nancy, my best friend, going through some kind of pain. And the only way she could deal with it was to keep quiet. If something had happened between she and Ola, she had never quite forgotten about it.
"Nancy tell me all of this is about you?" I asked, so sure, this was her story and not mine.
"What are you talking about?"
"How did it go between you and Ola?" She blinked and looked away for a second.
"Nancy if you had anything with him, I see that you haven't digested it so well, have you?"
"Tola, where are you getting all these ideas from?"
"Nancy for once tell me how things are."
"Tola this is my office and you are a suspect...,"
"Nancy tell me you had a relationship with him. Tell me someone like Miss K came along and took him away from you? And tell me...," I paused.
"Tola, you keep thinking you have all the answers." She interrupted, " but you're making a terrible mistake."
"Then Nancy, tell me how it is. Give me the answers that I don't have. I've been looking for them for so long. And you like everyone else has told me not to look for them."
Bending her head, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Was she going to tell me what I already thought I knew? Or was she going to tell me that nothing happened?
"Tola?" She opened her eyes and looked at me. "Ola and I never had any relationship. But we were and are very good friends. And that's because both our families were friends. I used to be around him a lot, more than he used to be around other girls at the time. At one point I felt we would hook up, that he would ask me, if I wanted to be his girlfriend."
"I guess he noticed what you felt for him." I added.
"Yes, perhaps he did. And that's why one day while we were alone together, he put his arms around my shoulders. He then told me that we were so close to each other to have any kind of relationship. That we were like brothers and sisters. So as you see, we never had anything, Tola."
I pondered over what she had just said. Could it be that because of this refusal on the part of Ola to have a relationship with her, she was jealous of every other woman in his life?
"Nancy you were jealous weren't you?" Her eyes suddenly widened and she leaned forward in her chair like she was taking a closer look me.
"Tola, jealous of who, you or Miss K? Tell me what you both have that I don't have, I mean body wise?"
"I don't have my doubts about how good looking you are, Nancy."
So why should I be jealous?" She asked me
"I mean it could happen, I mean you were in love and he never gave you that attention."
"Tola, I still remember what he told me. He said, 'Nancy you're a very nice person. I pray that the woman I will marry, iwill be as nice as you are, and if she is your friend, better.' Now you tell me, who did Ola marry? You. Can you call this jealousy?"
For a brief moment I stared at Nancy. I knew that she was she still refusing to tell me what was bothering her. But perhaps she wasn't ready to tell me yet.
"Except now, I'm not the only woman in his life. But you only arrested me, and not the other woman, Why?" She got on the phone and called one of the officers who came in with the registry book.
"Officer did you bring the keys?" She asked him.
"Yes, madam." He handed them over to her.
"Okay wait outside." The officer went outside and waited while Nancy opened the book and wrote something in it. She then turned the book so it could face me.
"Tola, sign here." She said, pointing to the exact place I had to sign. I was baffled. Nancy was releasing me just like that. Was it out of guilt or what? "Tola, sign and get out of my office."
The look on her face and the tone of her voice, told me she was angry. I still had the handcuffs on me. But I took the pen from her and signed where she had told me to sign.
I gave her back the pen and she came forward and took the handcuffs off. She called the officer to come in and handed over the registry book to him. When he left the office, she closed the door and walked up to me.
"I have a good reason why I am releasing you, Tola." She shook her head while she talked, "But should something like this ever happen again, I will lock you up for good and like you said, throw away the keys."
I got up from my chair, finally free from the handcuffs. I rubbed my wrist while I stared at her. I then shook my head slowly, as what she had said looked to me like revenge.
"Nancy whatever you are not telling me, won't hurt me. You're the one carrying the pain of what you can't fight."
"And what do you think it is that I can't fight? Tell me, since you have all the answers." She said, opening her eyes wide. I still shook my head looking at her.
"Hunting down criminals is not as stressful as you are making it, Nancy. You have a much bigger personal problem. I pray you find a way to resolve it." Nancy walked up to the door squeezing her face. She opened it wide and stood.
"Tola, I think its best you leave now before...," She paused. I walked up to her, holding my handbag and looked at her.
"You were about to say something, Nancy." She ignored me and looked away. Looking at her reminded me of how my mother was struggling to call my dad. I forgot about the slap she had given me back then. I got up and held her hands and told her to come and sit down.
Just like my mother, I saw Nancy also struggling to come to terms with her past. Asking her questions seemed to have made her withdrawn. I placed my left hand on her right shoulder.
"Nancy I'm hungry let's go and eat and hang out together. You know, like old times." She slowly turned her head and stared at me.
"I could charge you for bribery and corruption you know that don't you?" She asked, as her face slowly brightened up.
"Fine, I'll wait for you in my car." I walked out of her office and out of the police station. Once outside I looked for my car and spotted it and headed straight for it. I got in and switched my phone on and called my parents. I told them I was free and that I would be with Nancy for a while before coming home. They were happy and told me not to stay out too long.
Nancy finally came after about fifteen minutes. She got into the car and closed the door. I looked at her and smiled. She looked at me and shook her head, while she clapped her hands. I kick-started the car and we drove out of the police station.
"Tola, Anita really talk am say you be smooth criminal. "
"Anita ke? And who is Anita by the way?"
"Tola have you forgotten her because she knows you too well?"
"Nancy, let's talk of the present and not the past."
"Tola sometimes what happens in the present makes us remember the past."
"What do you mean?"
"See the corner, corner way wey you take dey talk to me, inside my own office, just for me to release you."
"But Nancy say the truth, would you have liked to keep me in that cell much longer?"
"Why should I? I only wanted you to stay out of trouble. But your stubbornness will not allow you."
With no fixed destination in mind, where we could go and eat, I remembered the card Kemi's cousin gave me. We had stopped at a traffic light and I quickly searched my bag and found it. I brought it out and held it.
"Oh Nancy, here look at this card." I said giving her the card. She took it from me and read what was written on it.
'Jerry Kole-Manager, the Savage restaurant.' "Have you been there before, Tola?" she asked me.
"No but that's where I intend going right now if it's okay with you." She seemed to ignore me as she was wholly focused on the card. This bothered me a bit because she kept on staring at it.
"Hope there's no problem, Nancy?" She looked up and smiled.
"Oh, nothing. I'm just curious to know what type of food they serve there."
"Well, surely it must be Nigerian food. The name alone should tell you that maybe their products are directly from the villages."
"That means everything must be fresh and not processed, abi?" she asked.
"You can say that." After a few minutes of driving, we approached the restaurant. Nancy looked at the card again and this time frowned. Something about the restaurant didn't convince her. Seeing the look on her face, I stopped the car a few blocks just before the restaurant.
"Tola, drive pass the restaurant slowly."
"Why?" I asked her.
"Nothing, I just want to be sure of something." I started the car again and did as she had told me. I drove past the restaurant and stopped the car and looked over my shoulders. I had no idea what she was looking at, but I knew she was suspicious of something.