55

Amaka put her phone on speaker, placed it on her lap and looked in the mirror as she pulled out.

‘Hello Ibrahim,’ she said, ‘I have evidence that a policeman was responsible for the lynching yesterday at Oshodi.’

‘I’m at your house,’ Ibrahim said. ‘Where are you?’

‘I’m not at home.’

‘I know. How soon can you get here?’

Amaka didn’t recognise the policeman who opened the gate when she honked. As she drove in, she saw him peering out onto the road. She pulled up alongside a black Range Rover with tinted windows parked in front of her father’s old Rolls Royce. She couldn’t see Matthew the gateman and the front door had been left open. Ibrahim’s car was not in the compound.

She watched the policeman in the mirror as he shut the gates. She was sure she had never seen him before. She kept an eye on him as she unlocked her phone, then she became aware of somebody by the passenger door. The man bent down to the window. She dropped the phone and her hands flew to the steering wheel and the ignition. She had started to turn the key when Ibrahim walked out of the front door.

‘I’m sorry I startled you,’ the man said.

Amaka got out of her car.

The man was in his twenties. He had a gleaming shaved head and a full beard. He was slender and wore a purple polo top tucked into faded, tight blue jeans. He stared into Amaka’s eyes.

‘Who are you?’ Amaka asked.

‘Alex.’ He held out his hand. He had at least three bracelets on his wrist, leather, wooden beads, and colourful fabric.

‘Alex, what?’

‘Just Alex.’

She did not take his hand. ‘You don’t have a surname?’

‘He’s with a branch of the DSS,’ Ibrahim said.

‘What are you doing in my house?’ Amaka said facing Ibrahim. She noticed that Alex was watching her.

‘Where were you last night?’ Ibrahim asked.

‘I don’t see how that is any of your business, and you haven’t answered my question.’

‘I’m sorry. Last night we received an anonymous tip that your house was being raided. I wasn’t on shift then. They sent a patrol van. Our men spoke to the security guard.’

‘What did he look like?’

‘I don’t know. I came here first thing today after they updated me. Nobody was here when I arrived. The gate and the front door were both open.’

‘Had the house been burgled?’

‘Yes.’

‘What did they take?’ Amaka walked towards the door.

Ibrahim and Alex followed her into the living room. She looked around. The TV was missing from the credenza. Nothing else looked out of place.

‘What happened to the guards?’

‘Ibrahim thinks they robbed you and absconded,’ Alex said.

Amaka looked back from the bottom of the staircase. ‘They will never rob us.’ She began to climb. The men followed.

‘I agree with you,’ Alex said.

‘And why are you here again?’ Amaka asked on the landing.

‘Ibrahim was afraid something had happened to you. He contacted the Foreign Ministry. They sent me.’

‘You could have called,’ Amaka said to Ibrahim. ‘I got my phone lines back.’

The door to her parents’ bedroom was open. She stood in the doorway and looked inside. Someone had pulled out the drawers of her mother’s dressing table.

‘May I?’ Alex said. He eased past her into the bedroom. ‘What kind of robbers will leave that behind?’ He pointed at her father’s double-barrelled shotgun resting against the wall by the bed. ‘And this,’ he waved his hand over the dressing table. ‘It’s too neat. Also, they didn’t take the TV in the library. The trouble of taking it down the stairs was too much for them?’

Amaka left the doorway and went to her own bedroom. The contents of her drawers were on the bed. The wardrobes were open, clothes and hangers on the ground, shoes, bags and boxes strewn everywhere.

‘They took their time here,’ Alex said. ‘Do you know what they were searching for?’

Amaka walked around the bed, her eyes not missing anything.

‘Who is Malik?’ Alex said.

Amaka shot him a look.

‘I asked Ibrahim if anyone would want to harm you. He told me everything you told him.’

‘I didn’t know where you were,’ Ibrahim said.

‘It’s OK,’ Amaka said. ‘You don’t think this was just a robbery?’ she asked Alex.

‘No.’ Alex said. ‘Ordinary thieves won’t attack a well-guarded house. And they would not leave a gun behind, unless they had superior firearms. It also looks like the driveway has been washed. I suspect to get rid of blood. I believe the guards are dead.’

‘If they’re dead, where are the bodies?’ Ibrahim asked.

‘I believe they took the bodies to make it look like an inside job.’ He pushed his hand into the tight pocket of his jeans. When he brought out his hand he had two empty shells in his palm. ‘I found one downstairs and in your room.’

‘When did you find those?’ Ibrahim asked.

‘One was under your car. I collected it after your driver left. The other one was in one of her shoes. You missed it. This was not a robbery. This was an assassination attempt.’ He turned to Amaka. ‘Ibrahim said you’ve never met this man and you’ve been trying to locate his building. What more can you tell me about him?’

‘I know how to find him,’ Amaka said.

‘How?’

‘The girl he left for dead on the express, the reason I’m after him, her phone has been off and she hasn’t been returning my calls. Last night she sent me a message. She wants to meet.’