Same Day
Friday, 23rd November 2018
1:45 p.m.
“I met Doctor Patrick Umanze some years ago when my husband and I were having fertility issues, and we became lovers. We’ve been having an affair for some time now, and yesterday morning, we were at the Lagos Star Hotel. Patrick had reserved the room for the month, and we knew what time to meet there each morning.”
“How?” Inspector Osbourne asked.
“We met at the hospital and planned to meet at the same time every day for the month.”
The inspector nodded. “Okay, go on.”
“We had gotten intimate immediately we got to the hotel room as usual because we always had limited time,” Desola Ogunba continued. “Then we ordered room service afterwards. So when we heard a knock at the door, Patrick went to open it without checking who it was. I only knew what was happening when he asked the person at the door what they were doing there. I got up at that instant and went to see what was going on.”
“Who was it?”
“It was Patrick’s wife, Enitan. Against my wishes, Patrick invited her into the room and tried to negotiate with her. They talked for a few minutes while I sat there and watched. She said she wanted the affair over and wanted me gone, or she would take the affair public. When Patrick didn’t agree to her terms, she got disappointed and angry and started walking away. Patrick knew that he would lose his license if she talked, so he went after her and pulled her back in.”
“Lose his license?” Inspector Osbourne asked. “Did she know that you were his patient?”
“I don’t think so, but it was only a matter of time. She had found out about his affair and went as far as coming to the hotel, so he felt that if she had pictures of me and posted them online, then someone would talk, beginning from my husband.”
“I see. What happened after he pulled her back in?”
“She resisted, so he intensified his hold on her. They began struggling, then she fell and hit her head, and I believe that was when she passed out, but she wasn’t dead.”
“How do you know that?”
“Patrick checked her pulse and confirmed that she was still alive, then he came up with the idea to set her up as well. He made a call to my husband from the hotel room and asked him to come over. When he arrived, Patrick knocked him out. We stripped them naked and put them on the bed, then took photos to blackmail them. Patrick then sent the text message from Enitan’s phone to make it look like they were having an affair.”
Inspector Osbourne shook his head, surprised but also somewhat impressed. It was indeed a clever plan, and they would have gotten away with it were it not for Princewill Jackson.
“Then what else happened?” the inspector pressed further.
“We were supposed to leave our access cards to make it look like the room was reserved by both of them, then leave afterwards. And they were alive when we left.” She paused. “Well, when I left, because I left first. So if anything happened to them, Patrick would be the best person to tell you what.”
“The plan was quite good, actually, extremely good, so why would he want to kill them?”
“I don’t know. When we met at the station to identify the bodies, I had asked him if he killed them, and he said no. He seemed to have been surprised that they were dead, but maybe that was all pretence. Maybe they woke up before he left, maybe he panicked, I don’t know. But the only way to find out is to ask him.”
Inspector Osbourne hit Stop on the recording, and Doctor Umanze sat shocked.
“I think you need that lawyer now, Doctor,” Inspector Osbourne said.
“I can’t believe she spoke. I don’t know how you made her speak, but I can’t believe it,” the doctor said. “And that’s not how it happened, at least not completely.”
“You had your chance to talk, and you blew it.” Inspector Osbourne shrugged. “It’s too late now.”
“But it’s not the truth.”
“What is the truth then?”
“Everything was correct right until the part where my wife showed up. Yes, I tried to negotiate with her, but she didn’t accept. She wanted me to end the affair and wanted Daisey gone. When I understood that by ‘gone’, she meant Daisey should walk out of the hotel room naked and never come back into my life, I refused. I couldn’t do that to Daisey.”
“So what happened?”
“My wife got angry and turned around to leave. Daisey couldn’t take that and asked if I was just going to let her go. I said I couldn’t make her stay. Daisey reminded me that she was once my patient and that I would lose my license if my wife talked and exposed her in the process. I told her I knew that. She said she could lose her husband, and she didn’t want to, and I told her I also knew that, but I couldn’t force my wife to stay or do anything. My wife was already at the door by this time, and the next thing I know, Daisey ran towards her and dragged her back in, then slammed the door shut and locked it. They got into a minor scuffle, and I tried to come between them, but they pushed me away and held tightly onto each other. Moments later, my wife tripped, fell, and banged her head.”
“That was when you came up with the plan?”
“I didn’t come up with the plan. Why would I have had to?” Doctor Umanze opened both palms. “My wife already found me out, but Daisey’s husband knew nothing about the affair. She had no idea how much my wife knew about her and feared what damage it would cause if indeed she knew anything. So to be safe, she needed something to implicate her husband.”
“So what happened next?”
“I checked my wife’s vitals and confirmed that she was still alive, then I proposed to take her to a hospital. Daisey said she had a better plan. I didn’t buy into it at first, but she begged me because she didn’t want to lose her husband. She asked me to call him, obviously because he wouldn’t easily recognise my voice, and if the information that his wife was cheating on him came from a man, he would believe it. I made the call, and we waited for him to arrive.”
“Who knocked him out?”
“I did. But it was nothing excruciating, just a jab at the right place underneath his jaw. He went down before he knew who or what hit him.”
Inspector Osbourne was surprised that the doctor could knock someone out so effortlessly and try to justify it by saying that it wasn’t painful. He also remembered the brown patch he had seen on Kamar Ogunba’s jaw area and made a mental note to cross that off as a solved mystery.
“Okay, so this is where the story gets tricky,” Inspector Osbourne said. “Desola Ogunba left the hotel room before you did, so you could have finished them off, then left. The question is ‘why’?”
“Exactly. Why? Why would I want to finish them off when we already had a plan? Besides, I had nothing to lose. My wife was never going to talk if she knew there were compromising photos of her and a man that could be exposed, even if she knew the photos were fabricated. The man never saw me before I hit him.”
“Did he see his wife?”
“Yes. She opened the door for him, and when he walked in, confronting her, I came out of nowhere and hit him.”
“Are you suggesting that she went back to finish them off?” Inspector Osbourne asked. “She seemed pretty shocked to learn that her husband was dead.”
“I don’t know. All I’m saying is that she could have gone back to kill them, but I didn’t.”
“One more thing,” Inspector Osbourne said. “What was your meeting about at Freedom Guest House?”
“We had agreed to deny anything brought up against us and never say a word no matter what. That’s why I’m surprised she spoke. How did you get her to talk? Did you promise her freedom or something?”
Inspector Osbourne smiled and got up. “I only told her that you had confessed and that you blamed everything on her after the hotel room call logs were discovered.”
“What?” Doctor Umanze exclaimed. His eyes popped open, almost tearing out of their sockets. “That was a lie. Why would you do that?”
“To get answers, of course,” the inspector replied, then walked out of the interrogation room.
***
Inspector Osbourne met Princewill Jackson by the door and sighed.
“My bet is on the doctor,” Princewill Jackson said. “Because he was the last person to see both victims alive. Maybe Desola Ogunba was right. Maybe he panicked and killed them.”
“Maybe, or maybe not.” Inspector Osbourne sighed again. “But he seems convincing.”
“Yes, he does, but he’s a good actor. He would say anything to get himself cleared.”
“True. But what if he wasn’t the last person to see both victims alive?”
“Who else do you think would have seen them?”
“Maybe Desola Ogunba. If I can confirm that she never went back to the hotel, then Doctor Umanze would have a lot of explaining to do. I need facts, not guesses.”
“How are you going to confirm that?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Inspector Osbourne replied. “I’ll have another chat with the driver, Gabriel Makun. I’ll ask him to come in.”
***
Same Day
Friday, 23rd November 2018
2:35 p.m.
Gabriel Makun smiled genuinely this time. When he was asked to come in again, he didn’t know what to expect, but he was now sitting in Inspector Osbourne’s office, and not in the interrogation room. To him, it meant that he was now important to a certain level if the police wanted to cooperate with him, and not interrogate him.
“Thank you for coming on such short notice, Mr. Makun,” Inspector Osbourne began. “I need information about Desola Ogunba’s whereabouts yesterday morning.”
Gabriel Makun looked perplexed.
Princewill Jackson, who was also in the office, said, “Daisey Ogunba. He meant Daisey Ogunba’s whereabouts.”
“Right, Daisey,” Inspector Osbourne corrected. “Where was Daisey all through yesterday morning?”
Gabriel Makun’s smile faded instantly, and worry befell him. “What about my books? You don’t have them anymore?” he asked.
“I do,” Inspector Osbourne replied, then rolled his seat over to a cabinet and picked out all the books from a drawer. He rolled back and placed the books on his desk, right in front of Gabriel Makun so that he could see them. “They are all here, but I need some information that might not be in them.”
Gabriel Makun scrutinised the books as if he was counting them, then pointed at them, and said, “Everything is in there.”
“No.” The inspector shook his head. “When Desola Ogunba, or rather Daisey Ogunba makes random stops, you don’t record them because they were not in your plan in the first place, just like the stop at the guest house yesterday. You wouldn’t have recorded it, right?”
“I would have eventually because it turned out to be a drop-off and pick-up request, not a quick stop. But you are right, I don’t record the random stops, especially if they are not regular.” Gabriel Makun stopped to breathe, then added, “And if I understand, you want a list of all her unplanned stops?”
“Yes. Just yesterday morning. Can you remember?”
“Yes, I can.” Gabriel Makun nodded. “I took her to Lagos Star Hotel early in the morning, then I went to pick her up later. On our way to her house, she asked us to turn back because she had forgotten something.”
Inspector Osbourne immediately sat up. “She had forgotten something where?”
“At the hotel. I drove her back for whatever it was.”
“How long did she spend there?”
“Just a few minutes.”
“Thank you,” the inspector said. “You can leave.”
The driver eyed the books on the table, then looked at the inspector. “Can I take my books with me, sir?”
“Yes, you can.”
The driver stood up dramatically, carried all the books in front of him, then dashed out.
***
Same Day
Friday, 23rd November 2018
2:45 p.m.
Inspector Osbourne walked into the interrogation room where Desola Ogunba sat, and he was not smiling. She noticed the expression, and it worried her.
“Is something wrong?” she asked. “I told you what you wanted to know, but I’m still here.”
“Doctor Umanze confessed,” Inspector Osbourne said. “He wasn’t behind the idea of setting up your husband and his wife.”
“Hold on, what do you mean by ‘he confessed’? I thought he already confessed before?”
“He didn’t confess before I spoke to you. I said that to make you talk, and Doctor Umanze wasn’t too happy about that, especially as you both had agreed not to say anything when you met at the guest house yesterday.”
“You lied.” Desola Ogunba banged her hand on the table, rattling it. “You tricked me.”
“Well, it didn’t do much good because you also lied. You were the one who struggled with Doctor Umanze’s wife. You came up with the plan to set them up, and you had the doctor call your late husband because you knew your husband wouldn’t recognise the doctor’s voice.”
“Patrick would say anything.” Desola Ogunba rolled her eyes.
“He also said he had nothing to lose or gain, and frankly speaking, it’s believable because his wife already saw and confronted him. But you, on the other hand, you could still get into trouble with your husband and lose your marriage, so you had everything to lose if he found out about your affair.”
Desola Ogunba didn’t say anything.
“And when your husband came into the hotel room, he saw you first, so it confirmed the caller’s information that you had gone to the hotel with another man. It was later that you probably realised that staging his affair with another woman wouldn’t have done you any good because it wouldn’t have mattered to him since he already knew the truth. And let’s face it, a man with naked photos floating around is less troubled or concerned than a woman in the same situation.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“That Doctor Umanze truly had nothing to lose or gain by killing his wife, and your husband for that matter.”
“You think I did?”
“Yes.”
“Why would you think that? I left before Patrick did.”
“Not according to Gabriel Makun, the driver who picked you up.”
“What?”
“We know that you went back to the hotel because you had forgotten something,” Inspector Osbourne said. “So, let me guess, you had forgotten to kill your husband and the doctor’s wife?”
“No. I didn’t kill them. And yes, I went back there to drop off the access card.”
“The access card?”
“Yes. We were supposed to leave them behind. Patrick was to leave his in my husband’s wallet and mine in Enitan’s handbag. I had forgotten to drop mine, so I went back to do it.”
Inspector Osbourne remembered that the handbag was nowhere to be found. “Did you take the handbag with you?”
“No. I didn’t get the chance to drop off the access card.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I got there, I heard a voice from inside just as I was about to put in my access card.”
“A voice?” Inspector Osbourne repeated. “Just one person?”
“Yes, just one person.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Do you think one of them woke up?”
“I believe so.”
“But why would whoever woke up first want to kill the other person, then commit suicide?” Inspector Osbourne asked. “Do you know which of them it was?”
“I have no idea.”
“But was it a male or female voice?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. It could have been someone else entirely. I ran off and took the access card with me because I didn’t want to be discovered by any chance. So whoever was in the room with them knows what happened to them.”
“Why didn’t you say any of this before?”
Desola Ogunba shrugged her shoulder. “Because you never asked.”
Inspector Osbourne stared hard at her, finding it difficult to believe that she had kept such vital information from him. He continued either way, “What was the person saying?”
“I didn’t care to listen. I left as soon as I heard the voice.”
“What time was this?”
“Just a few minutes after 11:00 in the morning. I didn’t—”
Inspector Osbourne didn’t say another word. He just stood up and left the interrogation room before she could finish her sentence.
***
Same Day
Friday, 23rd November 2018
2:55 p.m.
Inspector Osbourne’s hands trembled as he returned to his office. There was a new player in the equation, the killer possibly, but that wasn’t why his hands trembled. They did because he had missed a very important detail. Access to the room. He hadn’t checked who had entered the room and when. He gnashed his teeth, miffed at himself, and was so focused on his omission that he didn’t notice Princewill Jackson, who had been talking to him and following him since he left the interrogation room.
“Inspector Osbourne,” Princewill Jackson yelled, moving to stand in front of him. “What’s going on? I have been trying to get your attention.”
Inspector Osbourne looked up. “I missed an important detail.”
“Access to the room?” Princewill Jackson asked, as he stepped aside.
“Yes.” Inspector Osbourne nodded, then continued to his office.
As soon as he entered his office, he went straight to his desk, took out his notepad, and glanced through it. After getting what he wanted, he flipped the notepad shut and moved to his computer. He browsed through the internet for the contact number of Lagos Star Hotel, then gave them a call. The receptionist answered, and he asked her to transfer the call to the hotel manager after introducing himself.
“Hello, Inspector, how can I help you?” Mr. Akande Bishop asked.
“What time is housekeeping done daily?” Inspector Osbourne went directly to the point.
“It depends on the room, but it starts from 10:30 a.m. daily.”
“The room where the victims were found, what time was the housekeeping to be done according to your calculations and your cleaning process?”
“Give me one minute.” Mr. Akande Bishop typed into his system, then said, “It was meant to start by 11:00 a.m. to last for thirty minutes.”
Inspector Osbourne’s heart began to beat uncontrollably fast. He opened his notepad again and fixed his gaze on the first entry, then asked, “So why did Titilayo Lawrence go in to clean the room by 12:30 p.m.? More than one hour later?”
Mr. Akande Bishop mumbled when he said, “I don’t know. I have no idea. I would have to ask her.”
“Don’t bother asking her. I’ll bring her in for questioning shortly and ask her myself. I’ll also need the record of entries into the room from early yesterday morning up until 12:30 p.m. on the same day.”
“Anything you need, Inspector. The access record will be waiting for you when you arrive.”
“Thank you,” Inspector Osbourne replied, then added, “And one more thing.”
“Yes, Inspector.”
“Do your staff have lockers in the hotel?”
“Yes, they do.”
“Can you inconspicuously run a search in the lockers to check for some stolen items?”
“I can do that,” Mr. Akande Bishop replied. “What are you looking for?”
Inspector Osbourne didn’t know exactly what he was looking for, but he thought fast and said, “An expensive designer handbag, money, maybe a lot of it or an amount that seems out of the ordinary, one or two smart phones, and two wedding rings.”
Mr. Akande Bishop puffed loudly. He didn’t know how to begin. He scrambled on his desk for a pen and paper, then said, “Do you mind repeating the items? I thought it would just be one item, so I didn’t take any note.”
Inspector Osbourne sighed. “Are you ready to jot them down now?”
Mr. Akande Bishop got a piece of paper, then scratched the pen he had found on it. The ink wasn’t dry, so he said, “Go ahead, I’m with you.”
The inspector gave the manager a few seconds, then repeated, “An expensive-looking designer handbag, some money, a little or a lot, just anything that seems out of the ordinary, one or two smart phones, and two wedding rings.”
Mr. Akande Bishop thought the items were odd, but then he realised they were probably the belongings of the victims that were unaccounted for. When he was done writing, he said, “I will provide you with feedback when you come over to the hotel.”
“Thank you, Mr. Bishop.” Inspector Osbourne hung up and took a deep breath. He had just found his breakthrough on the case.
***
Same Day
Friday, 23rd November 2018
3:30 p.m.
When Inspector Osbourne got to the hotel, he met the manager standing at the entrance. The inspector didn’t know how long the man had been waiting there, but he had a sorry look on his face, and it made the inspector worry.
“What happened?” the inspector hurriedly asked.
“We found nothing in all the lockers.”
Inspector Osbourne wasn’t sure if there was more to the look. “Is that it?” he asked.
“Yes, Inspector.”
“And the report?”
“It’s in my office. Please, follow me.”
The inspector followed and was handed the report as soon as he entered. From the report, two things had been noticed. Titilayo Lawrence had used her access badge by 11:01 a.m. to enter the room, which was the time she was supposed to enter, then used it again by 12:30 p.m. It was certain that she had entered the room twice, but no one knew what time she left when she entered the first time or what exactly she had done in there because if she had done her round of cleaning, she would not have had to enter a second time.
And apart from her two entries, there were only two other entries to the room by 8:05 a.m. and 8:35 a.m., and Inspector Osbourne figured that it was when Doctor Umanze and Desola Ogunba entered respectively.
Inspector Osbourne looked up from the report. “Where is Titilayo Lawrence now?”
“Back in the main office. I’ll bring her to you now.” The manager left without waiting for a response from the inspector.
A few minutes later, the manager returned with Titilayo Lawrence, and she was crying. The inspector knew that the manager must have said more than was necessary to her, but it didn’t matter. He got up and brought out his handcuffs. She saw it and her crying increased in tempo and volume.
“Is that necessary?” the manager asked. “She has agreed to cooperate.”
“It is.” The inspector looked at her, then began “You’re under arrest...”
That was the only thing Titilayo Lawrence heard when she fell on her knees. The inspector finished his statement, raised her to her feet, handcuffed her, and took her away.