By the time we reached the office, it was 5:46 pm. That wasn't a time to still be at work, but there was no need rushing off home - we'd probably get trapped in the rush-hour traffic anyway - something I didn't want to experience at all.
"It'll be best to stay here and review our findings from the cross-examinations, right?" Shola asked, already carrying my pad.
"Yeah," I said, carrying his.
We had both, more or less, the same information from Alhaji - he was quite angry about Usman's disappearance - and he was surely putting most of the blame on his wife.
But in Shola's pad, I saw something he didn't hear from Alhaji.
"Shola?"
"Yeah?"
"Here, you wrote that Alhaji mentioned that even Khadija noticed and complained to him about how Aisha was handling her children..."
"Yeah, the man was babbling a lot about how his wife was being too hard on the kids, and that Khadija had always told him about it, especially in the past four or five days leading to the kids' disappearance," Shola said, pausing to look at me.
"Hmmm," I said, thinking.
"What is it?"
"I have a feeling that Aisha is involved in this disappearance," I said.
"Yes. Your notes taken from her statement have a few facts that stand out, especially as she is trying to portray herself in a good light a lot," Shola said.
"Huh?"
"Well, she keeps trying to emphasize on how she's not gone to her all at the market since the kid's disappearance,"
"That's true, and from what I saw, she was quite passionate about Alhaji," I added.
"Exactly. So do you think her motive is to get Aisha out of the way? It might just be that classic story after all,"
"Yes, it might. She's basically our only suspect, but she doesn't look like someone who'd go to those extremes,"
"When some women are 'in love', obsessed if you'd ask me, they could do things that you wouldn't expect. Plus, Alhaji is very faithful to his wife. It just looks like he made a mistake and got into a sticky situation with Khadija. He's probably trying to cut all ties, but she's not letting go,"
"If that's the case, why doesn't she just tell his wife the truth? 'Hey, I've slept with your husband, and he's an unfaithful piece of trash'? Then she'd surely have him all to herself," I said, already tired of the lovey-dovey path the case had taken.
"You're really a robot aren't you?" Shola said, laughing.
"Thunder fire you, (a curse)" I said, smiling.
"There are way too many risks involved in that. First, there's the chance that Alhaja doesn't believe her and then kicks her out for trying to break their marriage,"
It was a bit plausible - women's actions were unpredictable. But...
"Then again, Alhaja may well believe her friend, and then she'd leave her husband in tears and all that. Do you think that Alhaja would happily remarry the woman who wrecked his marriage with his wife of over a decade?"
Maybe it was the excessive amount of sitcoms he'd watched, but Shola clearly had a better picture of the situation than I ever could.
"That means, the only pathway open to her was to try and portray herself as someone better than his wife," I mused.
"And the best way to do that was to take the side of the kids whom Alhaji loved dearly," Shola concluded.
That had already been somewhat confirmed by Khadija's complaints to Alhaji over how his wife was 'maltreating' their children, but they would need to confirm their hypothesis by cross-examining the children.
"I know what you're thinking, Ifeanyi," Shola said, "but Khadija knows that the kids would probably lead to her getting caught, so she won't be allowing you get near them so easily."
"I know that. Which is why you're the one that's going to cross-examine the kids. Remember to carry loys of sweets," I said, looking at my watch. 6:50 pm.
"What? Then what'll you be doing?"
"Khadija thinks I'm hot on her trail - you know that clearly. It's obvious that she'll be very interested in my actions much more than yours. But she'll be wrong to underestimate you," I said as we packed up our things.
Shola smiled. "So, Einstein, what's the plan?"
***************************
We were both at Alhaja's place by 11:00 am the next day, and we were revved to bring the investigation to a close and trap Aisha. The big question on my mind was where she could have kept the child throughout the whole thing, and where the boy was now.
She did not strike me as someone who would kill the kid, or hand him over to a gang or a human trafficking syndicate.
I hoped more than ever that Shola would find something useful.
Madam Aisha and Khadija were soon back, having left early in the morning. Khadija was quite surprised to see Shola and me there, and I could tell she was agitated.
"We're just here to follow up on some leads we were able to obtain," I said, answering Madam Aisha's questions. "I see you were out for a morning drive?" I asked, smiling at Khadija who greeted back without much enthusiasm.
"Not really. I wanted to go check my car at the mechanic's, and Khadija had to go see her friend who was at the hospital (hospital)," Madam Aisha said.
"Your friend's sick?" I asked Khadija.
"No. She's in a coma. I had to go buy her drugs," Khadija said, not maintaining any eye contact as she walked in. But a white piece of paper fell off her clothes, and Sholamhiurriedly picked it and pocketed it before anyone noticed.
"What brings you here, my pren?"
"Oh! We've got a major lead in the case. We might know where your son is being held, so I just wanted to drop by and update you before we make our move," I said, smiling.
Khadija was behind the door eavesdropping. The midday sun cast her shadow on the ground right where I could see it. Now all I hoped was that she'd take the bait.
"We'll be off now," I said, giving her a warm handshake as we left the house. We soon boarded a taxi and left the place.
Soon, I saw Khadija's car a few meters away but surely following us. Sure enough, she had taken the bait, which showed she was interested in what Shola and I had found.
But she wasn't aware of one thing.
This was a wild goose chase.
Shola was still at the house.
*******************************
I'm super excited because this story has just two parts left (should be all done by 31st UwU) and Taken has just one part left, which will be posted tomorrow.
Tomorrow, my announcement of the contest will be posted and you'll get to know all about it, so stay tuned (or whatever!)
good job