Chapter Seven

At the hospital, Angel found her way to sneak in putting on a beach hat and dark lensed sunglasses. She walked past the active doctors and nurses parading about in the hospital and since she already had an inside information about Junior, it wasn't hard locating his room which she found and met him lying face upwards, eyes closed and still unconscious. She brought with her a bag loaded with food and let it down on arrival to his room.

Slowly turning the keys in the hole of the room towards the right, it gave off a click sound and the door was hence locked. She sat by the end of the bed and slowly rubbed his tiny feet. She sang all the melodious children songs and poems which was all she could think of doing to distract herself and noticed his fingers twitch after a while, bubbling back to life. She was tempted to call a doctor, but saw her perfect opportunity and wasn't willing to lose it.

"Hey Junior," she called calmly and his eyes popped up and suddenly squinted on account of the bright dazzling light day brought into his room. Stray rays of sun maneuvered its way into his room through the window and settled above him causing excessive perspiration.

"Mummy?" He weakly asked. His eyes darted about in confusion and he shook excessively as he battled to stay strong and alive despite his weakened bones.

"Oh no it's not mummy but aunt Daniella. Your mum left you all by yourself but I brought food for you," she said bringing out a flask of steaming hot Jollof rice assorted with beef in a semi circular format. She also brought out table bottle water and a can of Ribena. "Your favourite food is here so eat ok?"

"My mum said I shouldn't collect food from strangers," he said struggling to talk without tiring out and he breathed slowly. From each squeaky sound the bed made, his throbbing back had shifted its position and he tried to sit on the bed and Angel offered a hand to that. The room where he stayed wasn't big enough, but enough to accommodate him and create enough room for other fittings like the functional middle fan, a cupboard and a small flat screen television which had been switched off but Angel turned it on on arrival.

"Oh my! I'm not a stranger. I'm your daddy's friend and I cooked it myself. Here try a spoon," she said and scooped in a stainless spoon into the food digging out the tasty orange richness but still he refused. "This is gonna take longer than expected," she thought to herself.

******

Amanda sat calmly at the waiting area of the police station filled with seats buried into the earth when she saw Okon walk in and whisper something into one of the officer's ear. Her heart raced and pounded momentarily and when the officer retreated to the inner office, she jumped up and dragged him outside.

"Okon what are you doing here?" Amanda asked him.

"Madam I.. I no fit take am again. I know wetin happen to Oga. I no fit lie," he replied.

"Now listen to me. I pay you double your salary to keep your mouth shut. Everything you have right now can be stripped away if you say anything implicating," Amanda replied.

"Mr Okon, the detective wishes to see you," The officer said and led Okon into one of the inner rooms.

"Hi I'm Detective Uju," Uju said flashing her badge and adjusting herself on her seat when Okon stepped in. "You said you have information for us? But first please tell me your name."

"Okon Etim Akpan One," he said.

"One?" She asked holding up her pen and staring up surprised at him. "I'm sorry did you say one?" She asked again.

"Yes. Na only me get that name for my entire village na why I add one to am," he replied.

"OK umm let's cut the chase shall we? What information do you have for us?" She asked crossing her legs and clasping her fingers around them.

"I.. I just wan tell you wetin I know o," he started as he subtly reflected on Amanda's threat. "I no know who kill Oga but I know the people wey come house that day and Oga been dey very angry dey shout shout up and down."

"OK umm so who and who visited exactly?" Uju asked.

"Aunty Tolu come house dey find Oga, Angel abi na Devil or wetin dem dey call her come house too... "

"Umm.. Okon I'm sorry but your lead is vague. We've questioned all of them already," Uju said.

"Aunty detective I dey tell you something you dey talk day im fake," he replied somewhat upset.

"Where were you when the gun was fired?" Uju asked.

"I no dey house. Oga been send me make I buy something for am but I bin hear gunshots so I rush come back," he replied.

"Are you sure you don't know who killed him?" Uju asked again.

"I no know."

******

"Aren't you going to eat?" Angel asked frustrated. Junior shook his head repeatedly and Angel drove the spoon into her mouth and munched two other spoons of rice while she poured herself a rubber cup of water from the bag she had tagged along, "Too bad. The food was great!" She jeered.

"I want to see my mum!" He screamed louder fighting to live. He kept releasing long heavy breaths and his eyes were closely getting shut. Angel saw him fight to live and quietly kept the food she was munching. Her bottle of water on her laps, fell onto the floor releasing a light thud causing his eyes to pop up again, then died slowly afterwards.

When she was sure he was completely out either asleep or dead, she got the fluffy pillow from under his head and stared contemplating whether she should take his life or not. It was going to be a very clean job and no one will ever know or trace it to her. She didn't have to ponder on it much, when the door to his room echoed a loud bang from outside.

"Why is this door locked?" She heard the feminine voice say and knew she had to act fast. There was no toilet in the room, else she would have hidden there till whoever it was had gone. She wasn't prepared to jump a three storeyed building either. The wriggling and squeezing on the door knob didn't stop until whoever was behind the door, opened it forcefully and pushed her way through. It was Tolu and a young nurse.

Tolu was the first to walk in, while the young nurse who apparently was an intern, tagged behind with a note and a pen. Tolu had her ID on a blue lanyard that dropped from her neck and settled midway her abdomen dangling and swaying at her every move. Her hair was a thick black straight weave that bounced in fullness settling on a milk jacket that wrapped the black trouser suit and camisole within. As expected, she was on a steady heels.

She quizzically looked searchingly behind the door and dabbled with the knob wondering why the door was locked when it was only a sleepy child she had met. While she did, the intern took readings of Junior's pulse and penned the observations down.

"How's his pulse?" Tolu asked still fixated at the door wondering if there would be a need to change the lock.

"Normal. He's just seemingly exhausted," the intern said.

"Ah! Good. Put his mother on the phone and tell her that her son is ready to go home," Tolu instructed.

"Yes ma," the intern replied and dashed out while Tolu looked at him and as if not fully trusting the nurse's examination, took his own pulse by herself. She wondered if he was the one that had locked the door. She nearly tripped on a bottled water and slowly bent down to raise it up and noticed it was half filled and again she returned her gaze to Junior.

"This place is stuffy," she said in a low tone and attempted opening up the curtains reaching close and grasping the curtains by the end to drag them to the other side into one of the iron bars on the window, when her phone rang. She picked it up and said into her phone, "Hello... Alright I'll be down there as soon as possible," she said and taking one wishful look around, she left the room and closed the door behind her.

Angel held on for a couple of seconds then came out from behind the drapes breathing heavily and looked back to catch Junior wide awake again staring at her.

"Why did you do that? Why did you pretend like you were unconscious? Why didn't you tell Tolu I was here?" Angel asked.

"I want to eat," he replied leaving Angel speechless.

Tolu placed the phone over her ears again as she went down the stairs hurriedly. She cut the call when she passed by the reception to the hospital and went over to meet the man behind the computers.

"Christian did you have the security cameras installed at every strategic place in this hospital like I instructed?" Tolu asked.

"Yes ma'am." His fingers stopped its multiple taps on the keyboard and he faced Tolu.

"Good. So I was just wondering, when were they installed?" She asked again.

"About two weeks ago," he replied.

"I need security footages from room 304 and 206," she said.

"206? Ma'am that's your husband's office," he said.

"Yeah! I need to make reference to a particular diagnosis of a woman and my husband is head of the obstetrics and gynaecology section so I need all the resources I can get," she replied.

He nodded and brought out two identical white compact disks only differentiated by the room numbers written at the top and she thankfully took them with her into her office hesitating for a while before slotting the CD labelled 304 into her computer.

The footage was from Junior's room as she had suspected someone had been there but surprisingly and to her dismay, she saw no one but had to put up with a video of a sleepy child. She dragged the mouse and clicked fast forward but saw nothing convincing.

"Hmm, I guess I was just being paranoid," she thought to herself.

A slight knock on the door let in the same intern that had accompanied her to Junior's room. The young lady came to inform Tolu that she had placed the call already and that Amanda was on her way.

"Well that's good. Have you packed up his things and cleared the room?" Tolu asked.

"I have ma and he has finally awoken from sleep too. He told me that his aunt, Daniella came to visit him," she said.

"Aunt Daniella? I am with the security footage from today and yesterday and no one was in that room," Tolu said.

"Maybe Christian didn't give you the complete records and you can also check the entrance, reception for any unfamiliar face," the intern suggested.

Tolu chuckled and commented, "this is a hospital Mabel. A thousand people troop in and out everyday there are always unfamiliar faces everywhere but why would Christian withhold some records from me? Please call him in." The lady left to do as she was told.

Tolu slowly removed the disk and placing it in its case, opened the other labeled 206 and sighed. She slotted in the disk and saw her husband writing down some things into a file and she clicked the fast forward button to see her husband molesting an older lady in his office. She squinted and blinked repeatedly stopping the tears from falling off. Moving the mouse further, she caught the part where he had forced himself on Amanda and finally let the tear out.