As we walked downstairstogether, I was deep in thought. Now, as an ex-policeman who hadput in 12 years, I was not carried away with Nagoth’s, Tonye’s orPhilip’s story. The stories were neither here nor there, especiallythose of Nagoth and Philip. Either of them could have killed herand concocted the story they were telling me. Yet, both could betelling the truth, as their stories did not contradict each other.The whole truth was what I had to find out. The only truth I knewright now, was that I did not kill Maria Marshall.
I parted with Philip at thebottom of the stairs and watched him heading for the main door,when a batch of policemen intercepted and swarmed around him. Iwatched him get turned back. We were all under suspicion, Iknew. Theyprobably suspected that the culprit would try to run away.
I mademy way to the room where Maria had died. It was painted in a lightshade of blue. The furniture consisted of two armchairs, a chest ofdrawers, a coffee table and the bed, which was a good but silentwitness to the murder. If only it could testify. A small lamp stoodon a bedside stool. When I opened it, I found her clothes andshoes, which were quite many, arranged neatly by their colours. Thedarker shades were on the right and they lightened up graduallyinto the bright screaming colours on the left. I wondered if thatsaid anything about her personality. A split one,perhaps?
On her dressing table, whichhad a full-length mirror, were her handbag, keys and an assortmentof cosmetics. But my interest lay in the chest of drawers. Isearched methodically through the three drawers and found a lot ofpersonal items, letters and papers but nothing that seemed to throw anylight on themystery of her murder.
I spent about five minutessearching the drawers. At times, I would hear footsteps whichseemed to be coming to her room and I would hide myself in thecloset. I knew the consequences would be dire if I was found snooping. But it was arisk I was willing to take, in order to get to the bottom of thisbrutal murder.
After failing to uncoveranything useful, I decided to rest for a minute. I had thought thatthe answer to the entire case would be revealed to me, the second Iopened the drawers. Yet, I had searched fruitlessly for the past five minutes. I moved to one of the armchairs andsank down heavily into it. I got a nasty shock! One of the legs ofthe armchair was shorter than the others. A piece had probablybroken off sometime ago. The chair fell to one side. I quickly got up and moved over to the otherchair. I sat down with more care this time; the chair wasokay.
Justthen, I heard footsteps, which stopped at the door. I knew theperson was coming into the room. I dashed inside the closet andshut it. The person seemed to hesitate, then pushed open the doorslowly. They were a man's steps. He entered the room quietly,almost as if on tiptoe. There was no sound in the room for almost afull minute after he entered, except for the ticking of mywristwatch, which seemed louder than usual. I felt in my heart thatthe person in the room was staring at the closet.
Then, Iheard the sharp crackle of a police radio.
“We have asituation.”
“What is it?” asked the man inthe room.
“We need you here, rightnow.”
“On my way,” he said and ran outof the room. I breathed a sigh of relief.
I cameout of the closet and thought frantically, keeping my eyes on thechest of drawers. Then, a memory came to me. When I was still insecondary school, I had a similar chest of drawers in my room. Ihad kept my English Textbook in the top drawer, but later, when Iwent to get the textbook, it had disappeared from the top of thedrawer! I searched for it everywhere, including in the other twodrawers, but I could not find it. My parents had concluded, ofcourse, that I had lost it in school and I was covering up byinsisting that I had kept it in the drawer. They had, after sometime, bought another one for me.
Afterthis, I had decided to change the position of some of the furniturein my room in order to give it a new look. But the chest of drawerswas too heavy for me to move, alone. So, I took out the drawerswith the items inside and kept them on the floor. And behold! I sawthe textbook standing inside, at the back and bottom of the chest!There was a space behind each of the drawers and the textbook hadfallen into this space, right down to the bottom.
Iwondered if I was now facing a similar situation. Maria had beenlooking for a rat. She must have taken out all the drawers. Idecided to do so, too.
An eerie sensation crawled upmy spine, as I found myself looking at a black purse. It waslike dejavu, exceptthat the purse was now in the same position that my textbook hadbeen, years ago. I took it out cautiously, noticing that it wasbulky. I decided to escape with it to the privacy and safety of myroom before attempting to discover the contents. I had afeeling deep within me, that I was on the brink of discovering somethingcrucial. Something which Maria had also discovered and for which I felt, she had beenkilled.
Imanaged to get back to my room, without any hindrance. Thepolicemen were still around. But as long as you did not attempt togo out, they did not bother with you.
As soonas I got to my room and locked the door, I emptied the contents ofthe black purse on my table.
On my table was a bundleof Nairanotes secured with a green rubber band. Two
