Thursday, 22nd November 2018
7:25 a.m.
The weather seemed a bit confused; not sure if it wanted to be hot or cool. The heat stung like a sharp needle while the clouds looked pregnant, threatening a downpour. Many would have used that as an excuse to stay home, but not the man in the dark glasses on a mission. He slouched in his car seat, stationed at a strategic spot in the parking lot of a hotel and watched the main entrance.
He had been sitting there for the past one hour, patiently waiting as night turned to day even without the sun showing up. He toyed with the radio in his car, flipping through stations until he got to one that wasn’t playing noisy songs. The radio host was announcing the 8:00 a.m. news, but that wasn’t what interested the man.
He looked at his wristwatch to confirm the time, and like clockwork, he saw Subject A approach the entrance of the hotel. He sat up immediately, took off his dark glasses, put his camera to his face, then began to click away. In the space of thirty-something seconds, he had taken about fifty pictures of Subject A, and he shook his head at how predictable people could be.
Subject A was a man who shouldn’t have been at the hotel at that time or any other time. He was a man who should have been at home with his wife but instead chose to be with another woman. He had been difficult to find at first by the man in the dark glasses, changing his rendezvous locations without notice until he discovered this hotel, and for the last two weeks, he had always been there at the same time, every day. Thirty minutes after he arrived, Subject B always arrived; a woman who should have been at home with her husband as well, but instead chose to be with another man. Whatever both parties said to their spouses to be away from home so early in the morning, the man in the dark glasses didn’t know.
The man threw his glasses back on and continued the wait, and exactly thirty minutes later, as expected, Subject B trotted to the fore of the hotel, wearing dark glasses and a scarf wrapped around her head. It was a disguise that worked with anyone who didn’t know what she was up to, but not with the man in the dark glasses. Just like with Subject A, he flung off his glasses immediately, picked up his camera, put it to his face, and began to click away, taking more photos in a shorter time than he had done with Subject A until Subject B was out of sight.
The man replaced his glasses and sat for a few minutes going through the ton of evidence he had collected within the space of one month since he was hired, and was confident that it was time to hand something over to his client. He put the camera away, pulled out his phone, then dialled a number.
The call rang once before it was answered. The man didn’t expect that it would be answered any second later, especially by a woman who suspected her husband of cheating and who was probably awake and wondering where he was.
“Hello,” the groggy-sounding female voice said.
“Good morning. It’s me,” the man in the dark glasses replied. “I have everything you need.”
“So, it’s true?” the female client asked and confirmed at the same time. Her voice had suddenly switched from groggy to shaky. Her worst fear had been confirmed.
The man in the dark glasses did not need to reply to the woman’s question-cum-statement. Instead, he asked, “When can we meet? To hand over the evidence and get the balance of my payment?”
“Today. Same place and time.” She sniffled twice, then added, “In front of my children’s school by 2:20 p.m.”
The man knew that it was unprofessional, and it was something that he had never done before, but strangely, he felt pity for his client. It must have been the sniffling that got to him. He sighed, and said, “Lagos Star Hotel.”
“What?” The female voice suddenly came alive.
“Lagos Star Hotel. That’s where your husband is right now. He arrived at eight and usually spends about two hours there.”
The man hung up after his last statement before the woman could say any other thing. He knew she would have further questions, and he didn’t want to hear them, neither did he want to answer any other question. His work was done, and he had gone the extra mile.
To complete his private investigation, he would have waited the remaining two hours for his subjects to leave, then taken final photos of them. But in that instance, he thought that maybe it would be better to let the wife see them physically, in case she was still doubtful, then she would conclude for herself.
So instead of leaving the scene, he slouched once more in his reclined car seat and waited for his client to arrive, which she did at about 9:00 a.m. After they reconfirmed their meeting for later in the afternoon and that he would bring along printed evidence, she set a reminder on her smartphone, then headed for the hotel entrance, while he fired up his car and left.
***
Same day
Thursday, 22nd November 2018
12:30 p.m.
Titilayo Lawrence stopped in front of room 202, where she was supposed to clean for her morning rounds, and knocked, as she yelled “housekeeping.” No answer gotten, she knocked again and there was still no answer. She slid her access badge into the card reader and pulled it out when the indicator light flashed green, then she opened the door and entered the room. Seconds later, she took a hold of her cleaning trolley and pushed it in front of her.
A pillow lay on the floor, not too far from the door, which she picked up and placed atop the trolley. She shook her head as she advanced further when she saw male and female clothes littered about. She hoped that she hadn’t walked into a love-making session, so she decided to announce her entry again by yelling “housekeeping.”
No one answered, so it was evident that she was the only one there, as there was no sound of water running in the bathroom. She imagined the couple making love and wondered how many rounds they must have gone. She smiled at the thought of that, then picked up the clothes and also placed them on the trolley before going to the main room.
The sheets and the blanket covered the entirety of the bed, but Titilayo Lawrence noticed some strange red patches on them. She gripped one edge of the blanket and pulled the whole thing from the bed. She staggered back when she saw two people on the bed, a man and a woman, both naked.
At first glance, it looked like they were snoozing, but they lay too haphazardly to be that asleep. So out of curiosity, she bent over them and touched the woman, but when she saw patches of what looked like blood on the man, she knew that they were far from asleep.
She withdrew her hands immediately in utter shock, then began to walk backwards. As the reality of seeing and touching a dead body played in her head, she placed a hand over her mouth and the other on her stomach. She was horrified and thought she was going to throw up. She continued to walk backwards until her back reached the door and bumped into it.
She then turned around without hesitation, screamed, and ran out of the room.