BITTER_LOVE Episode 25.
Bob and Lubona were over at the police station where they were awaiting interrogation. Baison and I stood at a sp©t where we were out of earsh0t.
“You sure you alright?” Baison asked me, handing me a mug of coffee.
“Yes, I’m fine.” I appreciatively took the coffee. “Thanks for the coffee.”
“You welcome. By the way, you have any idea who done it?”
“No, Baison.”
It had been two hours since my maid had discovered Angie’s mutilated n-ked and still pregnant dead b©dy. Whoever had had the guts to do that to a pregnant woman was a psychopath, no two ways about it.
“Are you sure you wanna be pres£nt while I interrogate the only suspects we have thus far?”
“You speaking of Lubona and Bob? Of course I wanna be pres£nt! Baison, just because Angie was discovered on my veranda doesn’t make me a weakling. I’m freaked out, yes. But I’ll handle this like the cop that I am.”
“Okay, okay.” he raised his hands in surrender. “Here goes nothing,” he muttered un-der his breath as he led me to the interrogating room.
Bob was first to be questioned. Baison re-ad him his rights and turned on the tape recorder. We all then took our seats.
“Mr. Bobby Chizinga, would you kindly share with us the kind of relationsh!pthat you and your wife shared while she was still alive?” asked Baison meticulously.
“It wasn’t a walk in the park. Angie and I were having some hiccu-ps to the extent where I was even planning to divorce her as soon as her father’s la-id to rest.”
“Sadly, that won’t be possible because your wife’s lifeless b©dy is lying in the mortuary, awaiting aut©psy.”
“It’s really sad that she had to die like that. She was so young and full of life, whoever mutilated her b©dy deserves to rot in jail for the rest of their life.”
“And we’ll see to it that justice is served,” Baison as-sured Bob in an un-dertone. “Mr. Chizinga, would you kindly tell us where you were last night from 9 PM to 12 AM?”
Bob didn’t flin-ch. “Sure. I was in my h0tel room at Radison Blu h0tel as that’s where my late wife and I had been staying ever since we got back to Zambia. I watched a bit of soccer, took a shower and then took a nap.”
“Do you have an alibi?”
“Pardon?”
“I’ll rephrase that,” Baison took a de-ep breath. “Do you have evidence to prove you were inside your room last night from 9 to 12?”
“I guess so. Doesn’t the h0tel have CCTV? They should have a video footage or something.”
Baison raised his eyebrows in thought and bit his lowerl-ip. “Do you have any idea who’d want to do such to the late Mrs. Angela Chizinga and later dump her b©dy on Officer Alicia Zulu’s doorstep?”
“Unfortunately,” said Bob, shaking his head in regret. “I don’t know anyone who’s capable of such.”
Baison rose and extended his hand so him and Bob could shake hands. “I’m sorry for your loss, sir. And thanks for your cooperation.”
“Anytime,” Bob rose too. “I’ll be at your service 24/7.”
Once Bob was gone, Baison whispered. “You think it’s him?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. He seemed calm and composed. If he were guilty, I think he’d have fidgeted at one interval or two.”
“Yeah, I guess you have a point there. But I think we’ll just waste our energy and time on the Lubona girl,” said Baison meekly. “I mean, she’s so sweet and fragile she reminds me of my sweetheart Diana. And both of them can’t even hurt a fly.”
I sighed. “But it’s only right we interrogate her too so let’s get on with it.”
Lubona had been crying floods ever since she c@m£ to know Angie was no more. As she took her seat, she sobbe-d, “We were just from burying my beloved father yesterday and today my sister’s gone? Why does life have to be so unfair?”
I handed her a handkerchief and glas-s of water. “I’m sorry for your loss, Lubona. But you’ll have to compose yourself for the sake of this interrogation.”
She nodded and took the water which she drank in a single gulp. Once she was re-ady to be questioned, Baison turned on the tape recorder.
“Ms. Lubona Habeenzu, would you kindly enlighten us on the sort of relationsh!pyou and your late sister shared?”
“We weren’t close, no lie. But our bond would have grown stronger now that it was only the two of us in the world but no, she just had to leave me.”
“I’m sorry about that. It’s alre-ady known that Angie had spent almost the whole day at the funeral house yesterday where you too happened to be, what time did she take her leave?”
“Half past 9 PM, approximately.”
“Did she perhaps mention where she was headed to?”
“Yes,” said Lubona hesitantly. “The h0tel where her husband and she had been staying since their return to this country.”
“Did you hear from her after that?”
“No,” Lubona ruefully shook her head. “I was so drained that as soon as Angie left, I retired to be-d.”
Baison took a pause. “Would you happen to have any clue as to who could have murdered the late Mrs. Chizinga in cold blood and then later dump her b©dy on Officer Alicia Zulu’s doorstep?”
“No.”
“That will be all,” Baison pushed back his chair and stood. “I’m sorry for your loss and thanks for your cooperation.”
“You’re welcome,” Lubona was on her feet too. “And officer, plea-se make sure you catch the lunatic who did that to my only sister and make them pay for killing two innocent people at a go. She was pregnant, they could at least have spared her for the sake of her unborn baby.”
“It’s our duty to ensure no guilty man goes scot free.”
“I told you we were wasting our time,” Baison said when Lubona was out of earsh0t. “Alicia, if things go on like this, I’m afraid we might not even catch the gooddamn murderer.”
Mulenga my maid was interrogated and so was I.
.
I arrived home several hours later when it was alre-ady dark. I shuddered as I set foot on the exact same sp©t where Angie had been discovered just this morning. If the killer had dumped her on my doorstep, that meant he knew me and was probably watching me from the darkness, laughing his as-s off.
I dre-aded to even think who his next victim might be. Without glancing back, I opened the door and stepped into the house. I found Faides seated on Curtis’ l@p in the living room, they were listening to the evening news.
“Hey, guys.”
“Mummy,” Faides rushed to hvg me. “I’m so happy to see you.”
“And mummy’s happy to see her amazing daughter. Curtis, can I talk to you for a minute?”
“Sure.”
I led Curtis to my be-droom where I locked the door behind me and ushered him to the be-d. We both sat on the edge of the be-d.
“Thanks for staying with Faides and watching over her,” I begun. Faides still had no idea a cadaver had been discovered on our veranda this morning as I had seen to it that she stayed in her room until the forensic dep@rtment showed up and took away the corpse.
Curtis took my hands in his. “Alicia, there’s no nee-d to thank me. You know I’ll always be here for you guys. Any lead on who the killer might be?”
“Nothing yet,” I shook my head. “There’s something I want to tell you but plea-se promise me you won’t get mad at me.”
“It depends on what you tell me.”
“Just promise me, darling.”
“Okay,” brow furrowed, Curtis said. “I promise, pinky swear.”
I heaved a de-ep, very de-ep sigh. The moment of truth had come. With all that was going on, there was no room for secrets.
“Lisa was my elder sister,” I blurted out. “Faides is your daughter.” that was easy.
“Excuse me?” Curtis sprang to his feet and let go of my hands like he’d just come into contact with ferocious acid. “Can you kindly repeat what you just said?”
“Faides is your daughter.” I rose to my feet too. “The late Lisa was my elder sister and Faides is the child she gave birth to before dying, your child.”
“And this is when you’re telling me this? After a murder? Had it not been for the murder, you wouldn’t have told me, would you?”
“It’s not like that, honey. I always wanted to tell you but the courage was what I could not muster.”
“You’re a selfish woman, Alicia. A heartless pretender. All along I’ve been telling you how much I would like to be reunited with my child and all you’ve done is comfort me when in actual s-en-se you’ve been mocking me?” I could tell he was trying his best not to yell. “Alicia, you yourself know the pain of longing for a child quite too well, I can’t believe you’d be capable of being this self-centered.”
“Curtis, I know this doesn’t justify my actions but I had promised Lisa on her deathbe-d that I would take care of Faides like she were my biological daughter. In fact, Lisa had insisted Faides never finds out that I’m not her biological mother. I was fine with being a single mother until you c@m£ along and told me your tale. Seriously Curtis, did you expect me to reveal to you right there and then that Faides is your daughter?”
“I don’t give a d–n about that! I’m now ordering you to go over to the living room and inform her I’m her father.”
“I’ll do just that,” I desperately said, trying to get a hold of his arm but he j£rked it away. “You promised not to get mad, Curtis. plea-se calm down.”
“That’s bull$h!t! Go tell Faides I’m her father and then maybe I’ll consider calming down.”
I found Faides watching Sofia the First on Disney Junior. I knelt before her. “Honey, you’ve always wanted to know who your father is, not so?”
“Yes,” she couldn’t conceal her excitement. “Why, is he coming back from abroad?”
“He’s alre-ady back,” I flashed her a broad smile. “Uncle Curtis is your real father, sweetie.”
“No way!”
“Your mother’s not lying,” c@m£ Curtis’ voice from the doorway.
Faides ran to him and threw herself into his welcoming arms. Curtis crouched down as he k!$$£d almost every p@rt of Faides’ face. He was shedding tears of joy. “Daddy’s back and he’s never leaving.”
“I’m so happy you are my father, Uncle Curtis. Oops,” she giggled. “Daddy Curtis.”
Curtis and Faides’ reunion brou-ght me to tears. It made me think about my Fred, would his and my reunion be this epic?
After they had chatted and laughed the night away, Faides finally fell asleep. Curtis handed her to Mule who took her to my be-droom as per my instructions.
“I see you’ve got guards tonight,” said Curtis when it was only him and I in the living room.
“Yes, Baison insisted some policemen guard my house for the next few days.”
“That’s so thoughtful of him. My cousin Dee’s lucky to have him as a p@rtner unlike me who has you.”
“We are still talking about this? I thought I said I’m sorry.”
Curtis took a few strides towards me so that him and I now stood face to face. “Alicia, Faides is as much your daughter as she is mine. Unlike you I’m not selfish so I won’t even tell her you aren’t her real mother,” his tone was deadly and I didn’t like the look in his eyes one bit, it s£nt chills down my spine. He gritted his teeth and added. “But one thing is for sure, you and I are throu-gh. It’s over between us, Alicia. I can’t picture myself spending the rest of my life with a woman as selfish as you’re by my side so I’m setting you free..”
TBC…..