It had been three days since Rebecca’s forced leave began. All she did was sit at home, watch TV and eat. Ben did everything he could to make her come out of her depression but she chased him out of her house. “You are slowly losing your mind. You’ve changed Rebecca” He yelled on his way out. “Ben, you knew my kind of work before you entered this relationship and every investigation has its own difficulty” she replied, her hand holding the door open for him to leave
“This investigation did not change you, I noticed the change the day you came back from that church. I know something happened when you went to that church. I’m here when you are ready to tell me; ask your partner Onu he will tell you that I am right”. He walked out and Rebecca banged the door after him. Nothing mattered to her anymore; not her relationship, house, job, social status. The only thing that mattered to her was catching the person who murdered Bishop Chukwu.
“Mama, I swear to God I did not kill him; I did not kill anybody”, Isaac was with his mother in the prison’s visitor’s room. “My son, whatever you do in this life, do not swear with the name of the living God” she began to cry. Isaac looked at his sad mother; he wished to hold her and tell her that everything would be alright but his wish was a tall order. His hands were in cuffs and he knew that it would take a miracle to prove his innocence because of the evidence mounted against him. “My son, I know that nobody believes you but I do. I know that you cannot kill anyone talk more of a man of God” her words made him cry. His mother meant the world to him and her belief in him was all he could hold unto in this hopeless situation.
“Look at me Isaac, as you can see I am here without Onu, so now is the only chance for you to be honest with me. I just may be the only chance you have to gain your freedom back” Rebecca was stern “I am telling you the truth, I did not kill him”, Isaac cried. “I know that you didn’t but what did you go there to do?” There was a long silence. “You better be honest with me”.
It was the first time someone in authority believed that he was not the murderer; a song he had been singing for weeks. “I went there to shoot him… but I didn’t, I swear”. Isaac found himself being honest. Rebecca, unperturbed by Isaac’s confession asked, “are you going to tell me the whole story?” Isaac told her everything that happened between Bishop and Gina. He told her where he got the gun and how he watched Bishop die but was unable to catch up to the person who did it. Rebecca finally had a lead.
Rita sat in a small black car; her hair covered with a scarf and glasses with very big frames on. She held a camera with a wide angle lens, her eyes fixated on a particular section of the area she was in. Rita waited for hours but she got nothing.
She has been following Elder Mba for days trying to get something dirty on him, something she could use as leverage against him in order to win the position of General Overseer of the church. But so far all she had were pictures of him going to work, his children’s school, home and the church. And that day was another fruitless day because he was in the market buying groceries. She hoped that he would finish his shopping and enter the hotel nearby with a woman that was not his wife but Elder Mba was an honourable man. “Damn it! Another wasted day” she exclaimed and drove off.
Rebecca was at home going over all the new information she had just collected when the doorbell rang. She opened the door and it was Onu. “Onu, you didn’t tell me that you were coming”, she said as she let him in. An average person would have been surprised to see him but not Rebecca. She knew that the news about her visit to Isaac would reach him sooner or later and it would propel him to find her. “I came to see how you are doing. I miss you at work” “That’s nice of you to say, please sit”, she offered but he preferred to stand.
They made small talk for a few minutes until he developed the courage to ask her why she went to visit Isaac. “I wanted to talk to the suspect who got me fired” .“You haven’t been fired, you still have your job” he replied discreetly scanning her living room for signs that she was still investigating the case. Rebecca was not a stupid woman; she knew why he was there and decided to indulge him by leaving him in her sitting room for a few minutes. “I would be living now, I just came to make sure that you are fine” he announced as she walked back in. “I hope you find what you are looking for”, she retorted holding the door open for him to leave and with a mischievous smile on his face, he walked out peacefully
A few steps away from Rebecca’s front door, Onu dialled his phone. “She has nothing, I have checked,” he said into the phone. “Okay, thank you. You are indeed a brother”, the voice on the other side replied. “I told you that I will protect you no matter what. You did us both a favour when you killed that useless Bishop. Nothing will happen to you” Onu promised. A promised he made to Bishop Chukwu’s killer; a promise he was going to keep at all cost.
A late night knock on the door woke Rita up. She opened the door and it was Rebecca .“You again? Is it that you don’t like your job? Or the first complaint I made against you wasn’t enough?” “I am here to learn the truth; to hear the story of what really happened the day your husband died”. Rebecca walked into the house with an unusual confidence.“I will give you two minutes to apologize for disturbing me and leave”, Rita threatened but Rebecca didn’t budge
“My apologies but I can’t do that. I am not going anywhere until you tell me the truth”, Rebecca sat down and crossed her legs. Rita threatened to call Inspector Dele to report her but Rebecca advised her against that action “for your own good, do not call him” . “How is it for my good?” Rita was irritated. “One word, Nkechi”. At the mention of that name, Rita’s phone suddenly felt like a stick in her hand.