#TENDER_BEAUTY
EPISODE 10
Tunji’s parents sat in a room that was definitely too large to be a sitting room but that was what it was. They both had facial expressions which shouldn’t naturally be seen on the faces of important state personalities that they were. The entire room was almost filled with b©dy guards who seemed to be created with stony faces. Mr James picked up his phone to call the commissioner of police for the umpteenth time since Saturday. He picked immediately. “Your excellency sir”, the commissioner said.
“how far?” he asked
“sir, the investigation is still ongoing sir”, he replied with his heart in his mouth.
“Listen to me carefully, I would be coming there tomorrow and if I don’t see the b****** that murdered my son, you would be in serious trouble, do you un-derstand me?” he asked emphatically.
“ye… yes sir”
“good”, Mr James said and hung up. He stood up and started pacing angrily. His wife could still not get a hold of herself as she sobbe-d uncontrollably. They had informed their girls who were abroad, Tola and Tinuke, and they were on their way home.
“If someone thinks he can kill my only son and go scot free with it then he must be out of his mind”. Mr. James said as he paced the length of the ridiculously long but tastely furnished room. He remembered the phone conversation he had with his son the very day he was killed and recollected him talking about traveling out. He called the commissioner immediately and told him to find out all he can from the workers in Tunji’s house. He had a strong feeling that the trip has something to do with the murder of his only son.
********************
Richa-rd entered his father’s house in a hurry. His father was one of the few people he cared about the most in the world and he did not want anything to happen to him. His father had re-married after their relocation to Nigeria and despite all he heard about step mothers, she was the best person he knew. She had given birth to two girls and a boy. The last girl, the last born, was still five years old.
He entered the house and responded to the greetings of some of the workers as he went in. upon entering, he saw his dad seating in the reception and he greeted him. “gud morning dad”, he said as he went to meet him. They exchanged a warm hvg because it had been a long time they saw each other and they were not just father and son, they were friends.
After a few minutes of catching up between father and son, Richa-rd ’s father said, “there is someone here that wants to see you, that’s why I called you”. Curious, he asked,
“who?” Instead of answering, his dad led him to the main sitting room and he stood rooted to the ground as he stared at the woman who had abandoned him many years ago, his mother.
The look on Richa-rd ’s face was unre-adable, maybe surprise, anger, uncertainty, or even all of them; his expressions were always unre-adable just as he was unpredictable. He stared at the woman before him and knew without a doubt that she is his biological mother. He was ba-rely above five the last time he saw her but he still remembered how she made no move to bid him goodbye. She never really loved him; she always hit him even though that sort of treatment was not allowed there. She loved her daughters a lot and his father had told him of how she fought for their custody in the court. People say that you can’t remember what happened to you as a child but he remembered everything because no matter how small you are, bad things have a way of printing its footprints on your mind that you find it ha-rd to forget.
She still had the blue eyes he knew her with and even though everyone admired it, he wished she hadn’t pas-sed that same colour of eyes to him. She had aged but she still had the fascinating beauty that seemed to draw everyone to her; something that pissed him off beyond words as he stood opposite her.
The room was as silent as a tomb for more than 20mins and Richa-rd later broke the silence. “What are you doing here?” he asked in an icy tone.
“Son, I…” she was saying.
“Cut it out ma, you are not my mum OK? That is my mum’s ph0to over there”, he said pointing to a picture of his step mother on the wall. She looked distraught at that and she started sobbing.
“Pls, forgive me my son, I should not have treated you badly then, I am sorry”, she said as she advanced towards him. He st©pped her before she got to him and said straight to her face,
“you have never been my mother and you can never, EVER, be my mother”. He stormed out of the house and for the first time ever, he did not st©p even when his dad called him back.
********************
I entered my office and was impressed the more. Everything about the hospital was just excellent but I kept a straight exterior not expressing my amazement. Tony’s secretary had done a good job of showing me around but left my secretary with the job of showing me into my office, showing me my working environment and other things.
My office was tastefully furnished and decorated with mind b!owing images that would help my job immensely. I inspected everywhere with my eyes appreciatively as my secretary ranted on about things I alre-ady knew. After some minutes, I was alone and I looked everywhere not believing that I was actually seated in my own office. I closed my eyes several times and opened it to be sure I was not dreaming. When I was sure that everything was real, I knelt down and for close to twenty minutes, I just appreciated God for my life. I knew it could only be God because everything had happened so fast that I still could not believe it was real. I stood up and opened the patient’s file with me. I scanned throu-gh it re-ading the case file and noted a lot of things. The patient’s name is Deji and he had just lost his memory due to a fatal car crash. It also showed that he is from a well to do family and they had demanded for two hours everyday in order to speed up his recovery.
I closed the file and started organizing my things. I brou-ght out my diary and started writing some things. My diary is always in my bag because I use it very frequently. Most of my things were still in my house so I didn’t bring anything much.
Around 10 o’clock, I headed towards Deji’s room and I was glad to start work immediately. From the file, I had been told that he was in Ward C and from there I was directed to Deji’s room by a nurse. I knocked and entered the room. I saw the patient on the be-d slee-ping with his parents by his side. I greeted and introduced myself as his psychologist and they had been extremely happy. Just then, the patient turned in his sleep and opened his eyes. He looked exceedingly attrac-tive in his sleep and I could not but pity his pres£nt state internally but that was not what I ought to do as a professional so I smiled lovingly at him. I gave him a few minutes to get familiar with his environment and just as I was about to open my mouth, his mother spoke.
“it is good you are awake dear, your psychologist is here”, he smiled at me like he had known me all his life.
I went to him still smiling and said, “Hello Mr. Deji, I am Miss Belina Badmus and your new psychologist, don’t worry, in a few days, we would have fixed this little thing up there”, I said casually and he laughed slightly. He had a positive manner; I noted delightedly and knew that it would help me tremendously.
********************
Inspector Sule marched into the house of the deceased with a renewed vigor. He had been like a mad man trying to find the murderer who had the guts to come against the Deputy Governor’s son and hadn’t gotten anywhere even though they had made useless arrests knowing fully well that the people in the cell knows next to nothing about the case. He had appointed three police men to stay permanently at Tunji’s ap@rtment monitoring the workers and ensuring that they did not go out at all.
When he got into the sitting room he gathered all the workers in the sittingroom and asked them collectively, “What do you people know about your late boss’ traveling plans?” One of them who looked like the cook looked up and said,
“oga olopa, e don tey since my oga don dey talk say him go travel go oyinbo land with hin wife?”
“Wife? What wife?” the inspector asked, alre-ady liking the news.
“Aah, oga bin wan marry one girl o, but e be like say the girl no dey gree for am because na the papa just dey come hia everytime, I never take my eye see the girl before”. The cook completed. Inspector Sule nodded thoughtfully and said,
“so he was traveling out with his fiancee that Saturday right? Maybe the girl killed him”. The driver with more fluent English then said,
“Yes sir, I wanted to drive him to the airport but he said I shouldn’t worry, so he drove himself and just about two hours later, he c@m£ back very angry”.
“Yes, he angry well well o”, the cook interjected, others just kept quiet. “He just dey shout on t©p of everyb©dy head and he bin break plenty cu-p o. I even hear am as him just dey shout for phone say make person bring money come give am for night”.
“What? Who was he talking to?” the inspector asked.
“I no no ooo” she replied. One of the most silent of the other two staffs felt uncomfortable and the eyes of the inspector tormented him until he opened his mouth and said,
“sir, I am not an amebo but I also heard his phone conversation and didn’t hear any name mentioned but after the call, he started saying some things out loud and from what he said, I feel the person he was talking to was Belina’s father”. Elated, the inspector was visibly relieved and he asked the driver if he had knows the address and he replied in affirmative saying he had driven his boss there times without number. He took the address and walked out smiling victoriously.
WATCH OUT FOR EPISODE 11