The Black Sheep XII

The fox could not get close to and catch the hare. Instead he says to the cheetah: "look at that lovely meal called hare. If you can catch him, he's yours for lunch". Off went the cheetah in the fury of his legs into a blast of speed. The hare turned a meal. But the chase had weakened his strength so that he could not even as much as have his meal. Just then the fox strolls down the path whistling excitedly. Seeing an exhausted cheetah laying helplessly with his meal. Here he settled down to feast. First, the cheetah himself turns a meal. And after picking their bones, he continued on his journey, satisfied.



I had been shocked to my bones and frightened out of my skin when I heard the doctor. It was unbelievable!
Within minutes the MD had called her next of kin, to formally say that Ada was not feeling well at work and needed urgent attention.
By the time I saw his call, quite a number of things had happened. First, it was difficult to suspect where she may have taken anything that dangerous because possibly, it could have been anywhere before she came to work. Or considering the heated atmosphere around the office, and as was everyone's thoughts, it could have been in the office. And there was one suspect, in fact the only suspect!

Yes, I thought there was only one suspect until the police arrived only to learn there was another suspect with a motive. Me!
"How can you even insinuate that officer?" I fired at the interrogating officer
"But its a possibility, don't you agree?"
"That's absurd! No quarrels whatsoever, not even in the least married to even have a anything reasonable to contend with her"
"I understand both of you are well known lovers" he said
I said nothing but stare
He continued
"And its against company policy for both of you to remain. You want to be the one to remain"
At this point, I saw through this guy. He was probably just digging, waiting for me to say something very suspicious.
So, knowing I had every right not to answer any more of his questions and wanting to remain polite, I asked him
"If I was in love and one person had to go. Would you think wanting to remain is solid motive to want to kill her?"
He was quiet. I was getting angered because I thought his questions were going to be about how best I could tell of where she went and/or what she ate. But since the conversation tilted to interrogations tainted with suspicions, I would rephrased my last statement like this:
"Officer, in all your years of service and with due respect to that, have you ever for once come across any sane man who attempted to kill his lover over who remains at work?"
But I'd rather not enter his black book because when the police around here decide to be vindictive, one could end up in jail for killing a housefly. 'Police is your friend' under the animal protection could nail you.

With the last question I put to him, he looked at me sternly, then I stood up and said
"Sir, when you strike my name off the suspect's list and need me to input something worthwhile, we should be in touch"
I turned and left.
I hadn't taken two steps, I heard him laughing in an attempt to soften the atmosphere
Hahahaha "Mr Stag, take it easy. You know how this works."
"I know. Of course, everyone automatically becomes a suspect and you need to strike names off one by one."
"You're smart"
"Well, I need to go know how she's doing"
"Of course. We'd have a word again soon"
I left.
Ada's office was locked and sealed off.

Well, by end of that day at work, everyone's has been questioned except one person:

Mercy.

Interestingly, Mercy was not at work that day. Her name was not signed in for work in the register, neither had the security guys seen her. Odd. Ada's rival at work is no where to be found on the day she was poisoned. Interesting!
The MD called her and asked that she should be around the next day. This she agreed to.
The office had been sober. This wasn't a thing to smile off. It could have been anyone. People were genuinely interested and want to see something done about this. A proper, conclusive investigation with a culprit. And as it happened, the MD would not want his company's name to be in the news for something this terrible. He had called a few friends that pull strings.

At the hospital, Ada had been stabilized. Ada's sister and three other family member were around. I had seen her once and have talked with her on phone couple of times. Just saying hi. We talked a bit and tried to calm them down. It was possibly food poisoning that occurs with spoilt or expired food items and maybe not what they thought.
Presently, we could only pray for Ada's quick recovery.

Later that evening, someone called me. I was surprised to know it was Ada's mother. Given the circumstance, it wasn't odd. I greeted and after talking briefly, she said her husband wanted to have a word. I greeted him and with everyone I talked with, they all wanted to know about the devilishly little wicked witch called Mercy.
I didn't need to blow Ada and Mercy's unpleasant work relationship out of proportion. I just tried to reassure them that since Ada is stabilized, we best pray for her quick recovery. But although her dada couldn't agree more, I could perceive some fury from the controlled way he spoke.
In the morning, before going to work, I headed to the hospital. I had to beg a nurse there to allow me see her. Ada was still sleeping. Different pipes, needles, hoses and wires going into her nostrils, veins and so on. She looked pale.
Drop by drop, the drips flowed into her veins and I prayed by every drop of it, she got stronger.
I left for the office.

Indeed an interesting day at the office. I was some minutes late. While signing in, I saw Mercy's name. Signed in at 6:40! Over an hour before resumption. Quite unlike her!
Apparently, she had heard what had transpired the day before. Needless to say won't find it any easy.
There were whispers and concerns. On Efe's face I could see some real concern.
A meeting was called by the MD and when I saw Mercy, I saw a scared face behind her make-up.

The MD announced that the police had commenced a thorough investigation the day before and would be continuing today. They would arrive shortly.
Everyone had eyes on Mercy. She must have felt really uncomfortable that day.
Not long after the meeting, the police arrived.
We gathered again in the meeting room as they requested to see the video footages of at least, from two days ago. The MD was willing to give everything they wanted. I wondered if Efe would have a good story with the cameras. We were all asked to return to our duties except, Mercy. Mercy was asked to stay behind.
"Stag, will you be leaving the office?"
"No sir, I'd be at my desk"
"Ok, please let me find you at your desk in 30, if that's okay with you?"
"No problem sir. In 30 minutes then" I replied.
As it turned out, the police had discovered a suspicious piece of paper in Ada's dustbin with powdery stuff on it, white as granulated sugar. As the saying with detectives goes: One man's dustbin is another detective's evidence box.

Thirty-five minutes later, Detective Kayode met me at my desk.
"Let's take a walk, if you may?"
"I'd have to take permission from my boss though"
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his mobile phone. And punched a few buttons, waited a while and said
"Please, do you mind to borrow me Mr Stag for sometime? We need to chat"
He had called the MD straight.
"Well, I meant the Head around here" I said politely and before I could turn
"Go on Stag. We all need this mystery solved and resolved once and for all" my HOD said. Always the cool guy he is.

A moment later, myself and the detective were in a fast food joint biting on meat-pie and coke.
We chatted about Ada, most of her dealings I knew of, who I suspected and why, who Ada complained bitterly of, thing like that.
"Stag, you're a key to all these. She's not here to speak because she needs her rest at this moment, so you're next best person to help here. Her family may not know about her and any other private things as you do."
I described her type of person as much as I could. And yes, mentioned Mercy as an official menace.
On who or why anyone might go that far to have Ada away, I hadn't any idea.
He looked at me for a moment and shot me a question
"Among her belongings we inspected was her phone. Do you know who Zoro might be?"
I thought about it a bit and remembered the mysterious sms she had told me about from 'Zoro'.
"I don't know sir."

An hour later, I was back to the office. Of course, Efe hears whispers and I needed to hear those inaudible yet loaded sounds. So I went to him.
This time, sh*t just hit the fan so I'm not going to press with a carrot. He didn't have much to say except of course, that he was waiting patiently for the outcome of the investigation because he suspected Mercy would at the heart of it but it beats him how she wasn't in the office of the day it happened.

I went away having 50 shades of thoughts in my head, not knowing what to believe anymore...

Could it be Efe? Was he expecting Mercy to be in the office that day and fall the easy suspect? I didn't know what to think anymore.

I was confused, could it really have been Mercy? Why would she do a dumb thing like that when she knows all fingers would be point to all? Or could Efe be the evil, devilish mastermind behind it all?

I was about to find out...


 Security cameras do a good job of capturing every visible thing within its range. Within its range. Unfortunately, there are grey areas security cameras' lens can not capture. One is directly below it. And someone who knew how cameras work had come from under it and wrapped it with a cloth, covering the lens. Detective James Iyara couldn't make much out of it.

But one thing he seemed to be sure of is that I could lead them to the culprit. That if I thought well and hard enough, I could make a good guess. I wondered how he thought I could pull out a name out of thin air and then they go arrest the person and 'interrogate' the person with gadgets in a locked room till the person confesses?
He had given me his private number that if anything came up, I should waste no time in letting him know.

I go to the hospital once in the morning, then go after work and stay till night.
Today, she was doing well at recovery. Her family and friends were always around and colleagues at work too always came by both formally and unofficially. Her church members and neighbours. Sometimes, I'd just stay away, but within the hospital.
Ada's consciousness was returning to normal now. And of course she could recollect things but I didn't want to start bugging with questions. Yet, this mystery was eating away at me. Because I remember we were together the evening before the incident. We ate dinner and she had gone home to sleep. In the morning it happened, she called me immediately she woke up, as was norm, and when she was leaving the house, we spoke again. She hadn't eaten at home, so I knew that whatever it was she ate was in the office.

While Ada was receiving visitors, I left the hospital and went across the street to a mallam's kiosk. He had a bench and sold drinks too. I sat there with a bottle of pepsi.
The street was busy and I watch on to keep my mind busy. People passed by and went their normal businesses. Hawkers passed by with their wares, truck pusher pushed by with his omolanke. And NEPA task force were busy climbing pole to pole cutting people off electricity for defaults in payments.
As the van came to the next pole and stopped, two men brought down the ladder and set it properly on the pole, then one of them climbed and continued his work. For a moment, I wondered the height of the pole from the ground. Then I wondered why the other guy had to hold the ladder while he worked, was the ladder not good? Or so his colleague doesn't fall? I wondered.., I wondered.., my mind just kept moving from one thing to another, blankly.
One thought leads to another until a question popped in my head:
'What did that person climb to have been able to reach the camera and cover it?'

Like a driver abruptly stepping on the brake, my mind screeched to a stop right there. Then a rush of questions bombarded my head.
'Was the person working alone?', 'what did the person use if it wasn't a ladder?', 'what's the person's height?', and on and on the questions came.
Just maybe a clue might pop out from there...

I pulled out my mobile phone and dialed James Iyara as saved on the phone. A moment later, the detective picked up.
"This stag."
"Yes, I know"
"Good evening"
"You got something for me?"
"I was wondering if I could see a replay of that video from the camera?"
"I was wondering if a few things that could help slipped the eyes"
He paused for what seemed like eternity. But enough for me to reflect on the words I had just spoken.
"Well sir, I only meant for things like the timing on the camera to be noted, maybe when she recovers, she might be able to tell..."
"Look, I do not have the patience for all these"
"I know but I was wondering what this person climbed on and perhaps how tall or short..."
He seemed a bit quiet again.
"Where are you?"
I told him
"Can you come over now?"
I jumped up and got on my way.

I really missed Ada a lot. Its been days now without her with me. It broke my heart to see her on sick bed. I loved her and realized I nearly just lost her. I was going to make sure a name came up. Whoever did this wasn't about to get away with it.



An hour later I was viewing the video footage. While at it, my phone rang...