Chapter 3: CHAPTER THREE
It has been a few hours since she cleared the crime scene and she was in the Floor O building. Secretly she liked the name but could not voice her opinions to the VC ...just in case.
The parents of the six had arrived and she was in the room with everyone of them and they were there to sign some papers to give their consent. One of the parents, Mr Simon, was a law practitioner. Guess the boy who had given the idea that they all call their parents was his son. Learnt well from his dad.
Now that they have given their consent and she could do her job she thanked the parents for their time and went out to meet the kids. It was about time she started on this case.
Elizabeth's parents were the only ones who had not yet made it to the school. Her father had been informed, whom had taken the news quietly and promised to be there in no time at all.
Well, they had to face the news anytime soon. She just pitied the mother. She put herself in her shoes and knew that she would want answers to her child's death if she was in that position.
Kemi stopped a few feet to where the kids sat down and watched them. Anything could have happened and she was sure they all had answers to what could have happened, or give her some pointers to their friend's killer. One of them turned her head and saw her. She motioned to the rest and they all turned towards where Kemi stood with Paul by her side. She sighed and went closer stopping directly in front of them. Quickly she gave them a low down of what happened.
"Elizabeth was found dead this morning opposite the Moz hostel at about 8am this morning. The estimated time we think the death happened is to be 3:30 when the rain stopped till 4 this early morning. We need your statements as to when last each of you saw her. And also the kinds of things that she did. If she had annoyed someone or anything that could be useful we would welcome it. Even if you think it's a little detail I want to hear all of it," she stopped as she studied their faces, "who wants to go first?"
A girl, the particular one that had caught her looking at them stood up and said, "let's get this done with."
Kemi gave her a few minutes of her own time to get a low down profile of the young lady as she watched her.
Long hair, dark, tall, had large eyeballs that fit to her face nicely with a nose of a model. Her pants and a top spoke money and Kemi remembered the couple who had sat in front of her a few minutes ago and saw the resemblance of the father in the young girl. Mother...not so much.
Kemi nodded her head, turned for her to follow as they entered the dark room. Kemi took her seat at the head of the table and the girl did the same opposite her. She opened the file and pretended to scroll through before saying,
"Your name?"
"Mary Fanandex."
Kemi nodded and continued to open pages. "Your relationship to the deceased?"
"We were friends".
Already using past tense. Noted.
"How close?"
"Close enough to visit each other's rooms and eat from the same pot of soup". At that Kemi's head snapped up to stare at the girl. Mary didn't seem ordinary, tough on the inside and outside. Kemi had to tread carefully so she back- tracked.
"Where were you that night?"
"Before or after?"
"Both".
Mary took her time to think before saying, "before, we were all at odlt lecture room and around 1am I was feeling tired so Veesh and I left. So only, Liza, Fred and Luke were there. Faith and Emma weren't there at all. Though Faith arrived with us and immediately left to somewhere else but we had not seen Emma that whole day, even in class".
"So I believe you have an alibi that stands and Veesh too but you have no idea whether any of your friend's had gone else where?"
"Nope". Was her curt answer.
Kemi sighed again as she took notes in her note pad and returned to asking questions.
"Has anything been off about Elizabeth in the last few days?"
"None that I know of".
"You said you were close and-".
Mary cut her off, "what I said was that we were close enough to visit and share a meal".
Same thing.
Kemi thought but ignored that.
"If you want answers like that you'd better forward those to Veesh. She is her best friend or Fred, they are close".
Kemi knew immediately there was no way with Mary. She would need a bit of information from the others before she could tackle the strong head girl. So she did the best thing,
"Can you ask Veesha to come in next?"
"Am I done here?" Her face seemed surprised.
"No, but stay outside if I need you again I'll call". The young girl nodded and left the room. Kemi took a minute back to reflect on what she had learnt from Mary. The girl was smart....no mistake but could she outshine the police?
The door opened to reveal a teary faced Veesha. Kemi had her hands folded under her chin and used her right hand to point to the chair Mary just vacated.
"Afternoon".
Kemi raised her head at the sound of that voice and signed, grabbed the tissue and passed them over. Without looking, Veesh grabbed the tissue and blew into it. When she was more settled, Kemi went by asking for her name.
"Veesha Eze".
"Igbo?"
She just nodded.
"How close are you two?"
"Best friends". Just as how Mary said it. "We did everything together".
"Even with Mary and Emmanuelle?"
"Sometimes yes and sometimes no", she stopped but continued, "we are all close but we did more girlie stuff together. As Mary is more reserved and Emma is more of a guy's girl than girlie".
Kemi noted she had used present tense for her friend unlike someone who had come in terms of losing her friend. She asked about Mary.
"Mary might seem not to care but her interior is weaker than the exterior. She might strike you to be the odd one, and yes she is but she actually is very caring for towards us all".
"What about Emma?"
"As I said she is a tomboy. Always with the guys but she is also nice. We all sometimes have a playdate in Emma's house-"
"She doesn't stay in the hostel like the rest of you?"
"No, she had accommodated herself at the house opposite the school's gate".
"Did you find Elizabeth a little strange before now?"
"No....she had no worries at all".
Kemi nodded and asked the last she had for her.
"Why did you and your friends take long to identify your friend?"
It took a while before Veesh decided to open her mouth, " well we didn't know it was a friend of ours as we heard the news in class today as Emma told us about a certain death in the school".
Kemi nodded her head. Of course all the students would have heard about the incident and with how Emma knew and had heard about the incident firsthand had her believing the fact that of what her friends had spoken about her.
"Where were you during 3am to 4 this morning?"
"In my room sleeping".
Kemi waited for her to finish that sentence. "I had finished reading around 1am and had wanted to retire. I asked Liza but she said she needed to catch up on some pointers, so Mary and I just left".
"So you are saying that you are sure Mary was gone around this time?"
"Yes".
"How many minutes does it take to walk from odlt to your hostel?"
"Thirty to forty minutes at most".
Kemi took out her pad to scribble something down.
"Thank you Veesh can you call in Fred for me". More as a statement than a request.
The younger lady just nodded her head and disappeared. Paul came and sat down on the chair Veesha just vacated as he twirled his pen in his fingers. A habit he had taken to when he was thinking hard.
"You know we shouldn't give off steam about suspecting one person".
"I know, I just have a weired feeling this Mary girl has a lot to tell that she is not sharing".
"Tough girl hunh?"
Kemi chuckled, "Yeah".
"What do you think about this boy?" Paul asked meaning about Fred.
"Nothing useful yet".
Then the door jingled in a way to tell that someone was coming in. Paul winked at her and mouthed good luck before he disappeared to the dark part of the room as Fred made his way in. Kemi had her hands under her chin as the big boy came in and sat down. His size seemed to eat up the room as he slumped on the chair in a helpless way, and Kemi knew depression when she saw one. This time she just said his name instead vice-versa.
"Yes". His voice was croaked giving an evidence that he had been crying since forever.
"How was your relationship with Elizabeth?"
"Okay.....I guess". The last part didn't come out as she wanted. It sounded like he was not sure of himself so she pressed further.
"Why would you say so?" She actually wanted to know.
"I don't know....I just felt like if she wanted to have killed herself I would have known. I would have sensed it right away. She has never been able to keep stuff from me....never". At the last word his voice cracked and Kemi had the urge to push the tissue to him as she had done for Veesha. But thinking back to what Fred had said,
"Why would you think she killed herself?"
"I don't know, but she was not the kind of person to get herself killed by some loser overnight".
"And you think she had that kind of head to kill herself?" Kemi let that question hang in the air as she had no reason for him to answer that
"You were the last to see her?"
That seemed to out him in a tight position before he answered, "yes".
"How sure are you?"
" Because I made sure she entered the hostel before turning to head to mine". He didn't even try to hide anything. Seemed valuable enough.
"Why would you do that?" Kemi thought it strange and the only reason she felt that would happen was if they had a friendship that was more than just friends.
"Because we are friends?" He seemed to ask her as he looked at her with those eyes as if scrutinizing her ability to do her job correctly and also as if he knew what her next question would be.
"Did you have feelings for her?" At that Fred's face twisted in a disgusting way before vigorously shaking his head as he choked out.
"My God! We were cousins".
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