The Case Of The Missing Child - 2

If you missed Part 1, read it here:

The Case of the Missing Child - 1

En route the woman's house, I kept silent, thankful for her car's air conditioning as I was deeply immersed in my thoughts, reviewing my past cases in preparation for any brain work this case would require of me.

"Ah-ah! You're taking this thing too seriously," Shola said in a hushed tone. "We're only going to look around. There's nothing to the case..."

"Even if we establish that the child wasn't kidnapped or anything, we might still be required to help find him," I replied, eyeing Shola. He was reliable, but he could also be annoyingly unmotivated.

"This is such a pain," he said, sinking further into the chair. The rest of the ride was quiet until we reached her house. Or I could have as well said mansion because that was what it was.

"Welcome," she said, her intonation weighing in deeply. She still had a worried facial expression. As we both stepped out of the car, I took some time to stretch my legs while scanning the house.

"12 o'clock," Shola whispered, handing me a 200 naira note. It was our code used as a decoy to scout the area. This meant that someone was watching.

Holding the note to the sun as though I was checking if it was counterfeit, I angled my eyes towards that direction and caught the faint outline of a slender female figure in a white hijab spying on us.

This person was obviously not cut out for spy work.

"What's that?' the woman asked, obviously surprised that I'd been like at for a few seconds.

"Nothing," I said calmly, noticing the figure withdraw. "Sorry, what's your name, Madam?" I asked, just noticing that I had not even asked of her name despite her being my client.

Little wonder I didn't have a lot of friends.

"Alhaja Aisha Hanifa Usman Sanni," she said, smiling a little too toothy for my liking.

"Madam Aisha.' Shola said, echoing my very thoughts. We both ignored the look she shot us. Women and their pride, I cursed, walking into the house.

"Call in all the occupants of the house," I told her. The only way to begin this was to cross-examine everyone in the house. She quickly went about the business of calling everyone out.

In the end, there were 5 children and four adults in the room- Madam Aisha, her husband, a maid, and our shadow, the lady who was spying on us. Apparently, she didn't suspect she'd been seen, so she didn't change her clothes. Or she just lacked the competence to.

"Are you guys running a daycare in this house or?” Shola suddenly asked.

I couldn't help burst into laughter: Shola's knack for funny, blunt comments at the wrong time was quite hilarious, but I quickly comprised myself.

"Shola," I said, forcing him to stop laughing as well. "Are these your children, Madam?"

"Yes," she said, her cheeks becoming red. She was embarrassed by our casual mention of her large family.

What the hell happened to family planning?

"Wait, plus (in addition) the child that's missing, you have six kids?" Shola asked. It took all my willpower not to laugh at that point, but I couldn't conceal my shock. The eldest didn't even look like she was up to 18. How did they pull this off|?

"Mm-hmm," the woman nodded, keeping her gaze on the ground.

"Sorry about my partner’s rude questioning," I said pointedly.

"Sorry Madam," Shola said, detecting the atmosphere in the room.

My attention was drawn to another development in the room. I'd been careful to maintain my focus on the occupants of the room, and I could swear I caught some uneasy glances between Madam’s husband and our shadow. They kept on making and breaking eye contact, and it was becoming all too noticeable.

I decided to confirm a theory I was brewing.

“You two, come here,” I said as authoritatively as I could, pointing at both of them.

Then I caught it.

 The uneasy jolt in their bodies, the sudden bulging of their eyes, the way the man’s hand began to shake as though he was left naked in the middle of winter, the way the lady suddenly broke a sweat.

“M-m-me?” they both stuttered.

“Yes, to the balcony, if you will,” I said, relaxing my tone as I turned.

Shola’s eyes were fixed on mine, and he winked. He noticed it too.

They were both having an affair.

 Chapter 3