Same day
Thursday, 22nd November 2018
2:25 p.m.
The man in the dark glasses was getting worried, and for two reasons. First, his client was running late. She was five minutes late, but late all the same, and she was never late. She always got there before him. He had called her at exactly 2:20 p.m. but the call had rung out. The second time he called, it rang only twice or three times, he wasn’t sure which, before it was cut off. He had just tried to call her again and her line was switched off. So the second reason he was getting worried was that his client was not reachable.
He wondered if it had been a mistake leading her to the hotel to see her husband because it appeared that she had gotten what she wanted and didn’t desire to work with him anymore. It meant that he could as well kiss the balance of his payment goodbye.
He sat in his vehicle, his air conditioning on the highest dial because of the scorching heat, and watched as cars drove by, commercial motorbikes and tricycles zoomed off, and people strolled around. His worry began to turn to anxiety with each passing second, and he literally counted the seconds.
Another ten minutes passed and there was still no sign of his client, so his worry turned anxiety now transformed to burning anger. When he heard the school bell ring and kids began to troop out, he thought about kidnapping his client’s two children and holding them to
ransom until she paid the balance of two million naira, but instead, he gnashed his teeth and drove off.
***
Same day
Thursday, 22nd November 2018
2:30 p.m.
Doctor Patrick Umanze was on his bed, clothed in only loose pants and deep in slumber when he heard what sounded like thunderbolts on his bedroom door. He jolted up from sleep and rushed to open the door. He noticed that his steward had a troubled look on his face.
The doctor looked both ways over the steward’s shoulders first, before he asked, “What is it?”
“Sir,” the man blurted, but no other words followed. He was already panicking.
“Calm down,” the doctor barked. “Tell me what it is.”
“There are some policemen downstairs,” the steward said, then exhaled right after, feeling a little tranquil. “And they look serious.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know why they look serious, sir.”
“I meant why are they downstairs?”
The steward hesitated. They were downstairs because he let them in, but he knew that wasn’t the response his boss wanted to hear. He chose the easy way out, “I don’t know sir. They just said they want to see you urgently.”
Doctor Umanze threw on a shirt over his loose pants, then jetted down the stairs. He met a fine-looking man in a dark grey suit and two other men in police uniforms. They were all standing by his front door, their faces void of expression.
“What can I do for you?” the doctor asked, eyes fixed on the man in the suit.
“My name is Inspector Tunde Osbourne of the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department of the Victoria Island Divisional Police Station.” The inspector flashed his badge, then pointed to the officers with him. “These men work with me, and we are here to talk about your wife.”
“My wife?” the doctor repeated, this time his eyes bouncing back and forth between the three of them.
“Can we sit down?” Inspector Osbourne asked.
“Yes, of course.” The doctor led them to the sitting room, then looking at his steward, he said, “Bassey, please bring them something to drink.” He turned back to the inspector. “Water or juice?”
“That won’t be necessary, but you can go, Bassey.”
Bassey turned around and vanished as if running for his life.
“What’s going on?” the doctor asked. “What about my wife? Did something happen?”
“When last did you see your wife?”
The doctor thought the question was odd. He raised an eyebrow, and said, “Yesterday at about 9:00 p.m.”
“Yesterday? You haven’t seen your wife since then and you aren’t worried?”
“I don’t understand.” The doctor looked confused. “What should I be worried about?”
“You don’t see your wife for a whole night...” Inspector Osbourne paused and looked at his wristwatch, then continued, “And it’s 2:35 p.m., but you’re not worried?”
“I’m a doctor. I’m on call at night, so I leave in the evenings to work and come back in the mornings to catch some sleep,” the doctor stated. “Sometimes I see my wife in the house and other times, she’s out running errands.”
Inspector Osbourne glanced at the officers with him, then turned back to the doctor.
“What is this about?” the doctor asked, after he noticed the look.
Inspector Osbourne didn’t know how to pass the news along. He swallowed, then said, “I’m afraid to tell you that your wife was found dead this morning.”
“What?” Doctor Umanze stood up. “What did you say?”
Inspector Osbourne looked at him, then at the chair, and said, “Doctor Umanze, please, sit down.”
“No. Don’t tell me to sit down. You just told me that my wife was found dead, and you want me to sit down? How did this happen? Where did it happen?” Doctor Umanze’s voice began to waver. When he remembered that his wife was responsible for picking up their children from school, he added, “What about my kids? Where are they?”
“Calm down, Doctor.” Inspector Osbourne pointed to the chair so that the doctor could sit back down. “You need to sit down.”
“My kids. My wife should be with them now. You said she’s dead and you expect me to calm down? It means they would be the only ones left in school after the pick-up time.”
Inspector Osbourne bit his lower lip. Doctors were usually the ones who told people to calm down, so he wondered how he was going to get a worried doctor to calm down.
“Can you give us the name of your children’s school?” Inspector Osbourne asked.
“What?” The doctor did not understand. He hadn’t expected to hear that.
“The name of your children’s school,” Inspector Osbourne repeated. “I’ll send one of the officers there right now to pick them up. He’ll have them call you once he gets there.”
“Okay. But Bassey knows where the school is. He can go with the officer,” the doctor suggested. “My kids won’t go home with anyone they don’t know.”
“Excellent,” Inspector Osbourne replied.
The doctor called Bassey, and Inspector Osbourne gave the instructions. Bassey, frightened of the inspector and his seriousness, was already heading to the door before the inspector completed his sentence. The inspector followed and ensured that Bassey listened to the end before letting them go. After they left, Inspector Osbourne returned to his place in the sitting room. Doctor Umanze sat with a hand on his chin, looking morosely at the floor.
“Doctor Umanze.” The inspector cleared his throat, then sighed. “There’s something else.”
The doctor didn’t look up, but the inspector could tell that he was attentive.
“Your wife was found naked on a bed in a hotel room.”
The doctor looked up immediately.
“With a man,” the inspector added. “Who was also naked, and dead.”
“That’s impossible. If you’re implying that my wife was having an affair, then it’s a lie.”
“So why would she be in a hotel room with another man?”
“I don’t know. She’s always at home. I trust her so much...” The doctor paused. “I mean, I trusted her so much. It’s difficult to believe that she would have an affair.”
Inspector Osbourne said nothing.
“Do you know how long she’s been having the supposed affair?” the doctor asked.
“No. But do you know anyone by the name Kamar Ogunba?”
“No.” The doctor shook his head. “Who is that?”
“The man found with your wife.”
Doctor Umanze buried his face in his hands for a few seconds, then looked up. “I don’t know what to say. What am I going to tell my kids? They looked up to their mother.”
“I’m sorry for your loss, doctor.” Inspector Osbourne remembered something, then asked, “Doctor, did your wife usually go out without her wedding ring?”
“Never. She never removed it from her finger. She did everything with it, and also went to bed with it. It’s pure gold and titanium, handpicked herself, so she never removes it.”
“We didn’t find it at the crime scene. The man’s ring was also gone.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“Were they robbed?” The doctor stood up. “So it was a robbery gone bad?”
“It’s a possibility, but nothing is sure for now.” Inspector Osbourne looked at the chair again. The doctor’s constant getting up was rather distracting. “Please, sit down.”
The doctor sat down. “They were found in a hotel, you say? The hotel should have some sort of security measures or at least cameras. Why would a hotel have thieves trooping in and out?”
Inspector Osbourne thought briefly about what the doctor had said and liked the direction it was going. It couldn’t have been a premeditated robbery, it had to be someone on the inside. But who? He pulled out his notepad and added Random robbery? Crime of opportunity? and Insider job? to it. And simultaneously, he replied, “The security cameras were out of order, so the hotel management can’t tell who came in or went out of the hotel during the time.”
Doctor Patrick closed his eyes, but he had a look on his face before he did. It was a look Inspector Osbourne couldn’t decipher. It was something between worry and relief, but the inspector didn’t know which. It was probably both. He pencilled into his list: Doctor worried or relieved about no security camera? But he still needed to confirm.
“You seem relieved to hear that the cameras were not functional,” Inspector Osbourne remarked.
“Yes, inspector.” The doctor exhaled loudly. “And that’s because I wouldn’t want any footage of my wife with another man exposed.”
Inspector Osbourne thought it made sense, but not completely. “Even if it would help find her killer?” he added.
“It’s your job to find her killer, and mine is to keep her dignity, even in death.”
“Even if she clearly cheated?”
The doctor nodded. “Even if she did.”
The inspector was now convinced. He crossed out the last entry from his list, then saw an earlier entry that prompted him to ask another question. “We also noticed that your wife didn’t have a handbag with her. Is that normal?”
“No, it isn’t. She only had expensive designer handbags, and she used them for all sorts like a mini storage room to keep her phone, makeup, snacks for the kids, and a lot of other things.”
Inspector Osbourne added phone of female victim? to his list, then made a mental note to check the collected evidence for the phone and that of the male victim as well.
Both Inspector Osbourne and the doctor heard the front door open followed by the screams of happy children, who probably didn’t mind that they had overstayed in school beyond their usual pick-up time. Inspector Osbourne stood up at that instant.
Doctor Umanze also stood up, and asked, “What next, Inspector?”
The inspector looked at his wristwatch. It was about an hour to the time the medical examiner said he would be through with both autopsies and that the bodies would be ready to be identified. He turned to the doctor, and said, “You’ll be expected to come to the Forensics Department of the station in about an hour to identify your wife’s body. We would be able to provide you with further information about the time and cause of her death by then.”
“And her killer?”
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to find that out as well.”
“All right, thank you.”
At that moment, the kids ran to their father and gave him hugs. They stopped briefly to greet the inspector, then continued with the hug. They did not ask for their mother yet, and Inspector Osbourne didn’t want to be there when they did. He only imagined how their father would handle it when the question was popped.
Not wanting to stay any longer and interrupt the moment, Inspector Osbourne took out one of his business cards from his chest pocket and put it on the centre table, then mouthed to the doctor, “I’ll be expecting you at the station.”
The doctor glanced at the card, then nodded, and the inspector left with the policemen.
***
Same day
Thursday, 22nd November 2018
3:30 p.m.
Desola Ogunba opened her front door and was shocked to see three straight-faced men. She could have screamed, but two out of the three men had on police uniforms. Her heartbeat had initially flown above the norm but regularised gradually.
“Mrs. Desola Ogunba?” Inspector Osbourne asked.
“Yes?” She turned to the inspector. “Is there a problem?”
“My name is Inspector Tunde Osbourne of the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department of the Victoria Island Divisional Police Station. Did we meet you at a bad time?”
“I was going to the store to get some foodstuff for dinner.”
“For dinner? Are you expecting guests?”
“No. I just want to surprise my husband when he returns from work.” She smiled.
“About that.” The inspector sighed. He didn’t know how to relay the news, and if the woman needed to sit down for it. “Do you mind if we come in and have a seat?”
The woman didn’t care if she sounded rude, but she didn’t want to sit and talk. “If you have anything to say, you can say it here.”
“Okay. I just have a few questions to ask you.”
“Like an interrogation?” The woman wasn’t sure what was going on. “Did something happen?”
Inspector Osbourne didn’t answer her question but asked his. “When last did you see your husband?”
“This morning.” She narrowed her eyes as if trying to recall specific details. “He left for work at his usual time by 7:30 a.m. Did something happen?”
“I’m afraid your husband was found dead in a hotel room this morning.”
“What?” the woman exclaimed, shocked. Her look complimented the reaction. “Dead?”
Inspector Osbourne nodded.
She held onto her doorpost for support, then asked, “Are you sure? I just saw him this morning.”
“He was found naked, and with a woman,” the inspector replied. He knew he sounded funny, but he added, “The woman was also naked, and dead.”
Desola Ogunba staggered back inside her house, her chest heaving as she tried to control her breathing.
“Mrs. Ogunba, did you know that your husband was having an affair?” the inspector asked, as he followed her into her house. The two policemen joined him.
She stood by the doorway, not advancing any further, then replied, “Of course not. He was always busy, always working long hours and la...” She stopped.
“What is it?”
“He worked late hours. He received calls, which he always said were work-related. Yes, I suspected him of cheating, but I was yet to prove anything.”
“Does the name Enitan Umanze ring a bell?”
“No. It doesn’t. Who is that?”
“The woman he was found with.”
Desola Ogunba shook her head vigorously. “I don’t believe any of this.” She pulled out her phone from her handbag, dialled a number, then added, “I’m calling my husband now.”
Inspector Osbourne and the policemen watched quietly as she put the phone to her ear and shut her eyes.
After a few seconds, she opened her eyes, looked at them, and said, “His phone is switched off. Is he truly dead?”
Inspector Osbourne added male victim’s phone status and spouse suspected husband of cheating to his list. He looked at the time on his wristwatch, then nodded, and said, “Yes, he is, sadly. And we will need you to come with us to the Forensics Department of the station to identify his body.”
“Okay.” Desola Ogunba’s eyes were already bright with tears. She nodded several times, releasing a few drops down her face. She wiped them with the back of her hand, then nodded again. “I will go with you.”
The policemen led the way and she followed after locking her door.
***
Same day
Thursday, 22nd November 2018
4:05 p.m.
Inspector Osbourne got back to the station and after Desola Ogunba signed in, he asked her to wait for him in the lobby before heading to his office. Two reports were waiting for him on his desk and a box of evidence sat beside the reports. He went for the evidence box first, tearing into the contents as if the aggression would get him to his answers faster. He started from the big items, before combing through the small sealed bags that had been put in a corner of the box.
He searched thoroughly and didn’t find any phones. Both were stolen, he concluded. He also concluded that it might have been a crime of opportunity. A different thought crossed his mind, however, that, maybe, the spouses of the victims had something to do with the murders since spouses were always the first suspects. But given what he had heard and seen so far, the spouses probably had nothing to do with it. The doctor, yes, but Desola Ogunba, he was not too sure since she suspected her husband of cheating.
The inspector also opened the medical examiner’s report, which had conveniently come at the right time, and skipped to the end; the cause of death was suffocation. He had a question or two regarding that and was going to ask the medical examiner about it much later. As he got up to leave his office and rejoin Desola Ogunba, the profile of a bulky man stood in his doorway. It was the Commissioner of Police for General Investigation, who was also his boss.
Inspector Osbourne stuttered when he asked, “Commissioner, I hope there’s no problem?”
“Why don’t you tell me?” the commissioner retorted. “Is there?”
Inspector Osbourne thought briefly. His boss never came to his office, and if ever he needed to see him or wanted information, he always called or sent for him, so the visit was both surprising and shocking.
“You’ve heard about the murder, I assume,” Inspector Osbourne said.
“Murders, Tunde, not murder,” the commissioner replied. “And of course, I have heard about them. You didn’t want me to?”
“That’s not what I meant, but I was going to stop by at your office with an update.”
“I’m here now. So what’s the update?”
“Unfortunately, I know as much as you do at this moment.”
The commissioner shook his head. “That’s not acceptable.”
“It’s been barely three hours since we were called in.”
“And I believe it’s enough time to give me something tangible.” The commissioner breathed loudly as if the conversation was tiring him. “I need something fast because you know what will happen when I get back to my office.”
Inspector Osbourne knew what was likely going to happen, but he didn’t say anything.
“I will receive a call from the Deputy Inspector-General of Police and he would demand an update because he will be under pressure from as high up as the minister. I need something.”
“I’ll update you as soon as anything changes, but what you need to know now is that the couple found dead were probably having an affair and their spouses have been called in to identify their bodies while we continue the investigation.”
“So, no suspects for now?”
“None for now. The hotel’s cameras were down, and they have no records of the victims being in the hotel.”
“So basically, you have nothing.”
“For now, that’s all I have.”
“For now, you have nothing,” the commissioner repeated. He looked at his wristwatch. “I will need an update by 6:00 p.m. on the dot. Not later.”
He walked away and Inspector Osbourne sighed. If there was something his boss was great at, it was putting pressure on him. He glanced at his wristwatch; it was almost 4:15 p.m. He had less than two hours to provide an update for his boss. He hurried out to meet Desola Ogunba, who had been waiting for him. When he got to the lobby, he saw Doctor Umanze there, and he was talking with Desola Ogunba.
“Do you two know each other?” the inspector immediately asked, an eyebrow raised.
The doctor shook his head, indicating ‘no’.
Desola Ogunba, on the other hand, said, “No. He just came in right now and was asking me if there was a queue to be attended to. I said I didn’t know, and I was just about to tell him why I’m here before you came over.”
“I see.” Inspector Osbourne nodded.
He was glad that he had come in at the exact time he did. He then made sure not to mention that they had come for the same purpose, to identify their dead spouses and that their dead spouses were lovers.
He looked at Desola Ogunba, and said, “Follow me.” Then to Doctor Umanze, he said, “I’ll be with you shortly.”
Desola Ogunba followed while the doctor sat on the arm of a chair.
***
Inspector Osbourne led Desola Ogunba to an empty room in the Forensics Department that had only one small square window covered with a curtain. He knocked on the window, and announced, “Desola Ogunba, here to identify the male victim.”
Less than ten seconds later, the curtain opened, and the upper torso of a body lay covered with a white sheet. A hand in a blue surgical glove lifted open the white sheet and Desola Ogunba cried in response.
“It’s him,” she confirmed, between sobs. “That’s my husband’s body.”
Inspector Osbourne knocked on the window, and the curtain closed after the white sheet was replaced over the body.
Desola Ogunba stopped crying and sniffled. “How did he die?”
“By suffocation.”
“Suffocation?” She looked perplexed. “I don’t understand.”
“According to the report, someone had probably covered his face with a pillow, but there was a sign of an obstruction to the flow of oxygen.”
“My goodness.” Desola Ogunba resumed crying and refused to stop. She held a hand over her mouth.
Inspector Osbourne gave her some time, then said, “We will need a photo of your husband for our press release. Since we currently have no leads, it will help us find the killer if anyone might have seen or heard something.”
Still crying, Desola Ogunba brought out a purse from her handbag and took out a passport picture from it. She gave the picture to Inspector Osbourne. It looked like it had been taken years ago, but he accepted it nonetheless. Then holding her by the shoulder, he led her out of the room.
***
Moments later, Inspector Osbourne led Doctor Umanze into the same room. He was more relaxed than earlier when the inspector had met him and more composed than Desola Ogunba. The inspector figured it was because he must have already recovered from the initial shock, and also because he was a doctor, who had probably seen a lot of dead bodies himself and was unmoved by them.
Like the first time with Desola Ogunba, Inspector Osbourne knocked on the window, then said, “Doctor Patrick Umanze, here to identify the female victim.”
The curtain opened after some seconds, and the same hand in a blue surgical glove raised the white sheet to reveal a female face.
“That’s my wife,” Doctor Umanze said. He swallowed with noticeable difficulty, then asked, “How did it happen?”
“By suffocation.”
Doctor Umanze didn’t say any other thing, he just turned around to leave.
“Wait, Doctor,” Inspector Osbourne called. “We’ll need a photo of your wife for our press release. We currently have no leads, so it will help us find the killer if someone saw or heard anything.”
Still, without saying anything, Doctor Umanze pulled out a passport photo from his wallet, which looked even older than the one Desola Ogunba had provided of her husband, and gave it to Inspector Osbourne, then walked away.
Inspector Osbourne could understand that the doctor was grieving, so he let him go without further dialogue. The inspector then went to the other side of the empty room, knocked on one of the several doors there, and entered.
Doctor Sunday Akachi, the medical examiner looked up at him, and said, “Inspector. I didn’t expect to see you here. I already dropped the report on your table. Did you read it?”
“Briefly. I went through the collected evidence first, but I didn’t want to keep Desola Ogunba waiting, since she came in with me.”
“Okay.” Doctor Akachi nodded. “Whoever did this really wanted them dead.”
The inspector’s interest was instantly piqued. “Why do you say so?”
“I mean, the killer had hit them on the head several times, knocking them out; the woman with an object that wasn’t identified and the man with a glass bowl. The killer went further to cover their noses, probably with a pillow, just to make sure they were dead.”
“What if someone had hit them on the head, then a thief came by later and killed them?”
“Yes, but why would the thief want to kill them first? If they were already knocked out, the thief would just steal from them and run off. Even if the thief bumped into them asleep, the first thing would be to sneak around, and not to commit murder,” the medical examiner pointed out.
“What if they surprised the thief?”
“Then we come back to my conclusion that they were knocked out first, then suffocated.”
Inspector Osbourne nodded. The medical examiner had already answered his question even before he asked it. Just a quick think through and Inspector Osbourne concluded that it could not have been a crime of opportunity after all. It seemed more personal than that. It was murder. Whether it was premeditated or not was up for debate.
“And the time of death?” Inspector Osbourne asked. “I don’t remember seeing it on the report.”
“Between 11:30 a.m. and 12:00 p.m.”
Just then, there was a knock at the door, and someone entered to see the medical examiner.
The medical examiner looked at Inspector Osbourne. “Is there anything else I can help you with, Inspector?”
“That would be all. Thank you, Doctor.” Inspector Osbourne smiled, nodded at the visitor, then left the room.
The inspector went directly to the team responsible for the press release to drop off the photos and other relevant information so that the statement would go out with the 4:30 p.m. news. His mind wandered as he watched the team prepare the content for the press release. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was missing something.