CHAPTER V

After two days, detective Lemi made his first visit to the Kaiza mansion. He had been grumpy for the most part of those two days. He had not had much sleep. The mystery angle in the case gave him insomnia. It was impossible for him to sleep when he knew there was something in the investigation he was missing. His work had become an extension of him. One day he wore black-light goggles, very eager to solve his first murder case in Nakuru. When he took them off, seventeen years had passed - no family, no life outside his profession. When it came to investigations, he was the best. He had achieved numerous accolades in the force, including the highest for a detective; a medal of honor from the Commander in Chief. He had the highest ratings for crimes solved by a single detective in the whole state. He was commonly used as an analogy for exemplary work in almost all of the cadet classes. He had reached legendary status, a yardstick in the force. Everybody who joined the police was made aware of the name Daren Lemi. All the badges, all the literature, and unlimited government privileges, Detective Daren had it. He knew three things, the fact that he would probably die alone, death itself, and solving murder mysteries.

“Hello! You must be uuuuum…Shree?”

“Yes, but people call me Cassie.”

He ran his hand through his hair and straightened out his jacket.

“Is your mum in?”

“Yeah, she is at the back, come on in…nice car!”

“Thank you”

“Anything new?” Her face dulled.

“I think I should discuss this with your mum first!”

“Sure, go straight ahead, take a left then go through the kitchen door.”

He nodded.

Cassie had become skinnier and Detective Lemi had noticed. He really sympathized with the family. Every case he was called upon to solve always seemed to take a personal turn for him. He was not really a social person, but he always tried his best to show remorse or support to victims or the victim’s families. He looked back to take a glance at her and their eyes met. Not knowing how to react, he awkwardly nodded and disappeared into the corner.

Cassie’s real name was Shree Rajul. She was originally from the small town of Muzaffarnagar on the outskirts of India’s capital. One ill-fated day her life was shattered by unknown assailants. She had gotten home from school and on reaching the door of her house, she heard her mother scream for help. She instinctively pushed through the door and flung herself in the direction of her mother’s voice. What she saw changed her life forever. Her mother had knelt on the floor holding the bloody corpse of her father.

“Father!” She yelled while crashing beside her mother.

She almost had not noticed the masked men in their house, and the gun that had been pointed at her mother’s temple.

“Shree! Get out of here, go!”

“No mother!”

“Shree! I said go, leave now and save yourself!”

“I am not leaving you, mother!”

The thirteen-year-old stood up and blocked her mother from the riffle and pointed at her head. She pressed her palms together and pleaded with the gunmen not to take away her mother’s life.

One of them moved to her and roared, “You should be a good girl and listen to your mother!”

He back-slapped her across the face and Shree fell several feet from her parents. She almost fainted. She could not hear or see properly. She tried to crawl back to her mother. That is when she heard a loud bang, and her mother’s lifeless body fell on her father’s.

“Mrs. Kaiza!” The detective gently called.

She immediately recognized the voice and turned.

“Oh, hello detective!”

“How are you?”

“A day at a time I guess…”

“Time usually really takes its time, but it does heal.”

There was silence for a moment.

“I have some interesting developments…”

She looked at him for the first time since he walked in.

“Please share!”

“Well, as you know because of time constraints and the pressure the media was giving us on this case we had to release an official autopsy report quickly…”

“Yes! I am aware of that!”

“…that report however was rather inconclusive.”

“I was also aware it would be!”

“Well, we took several tissue and fluid samples from your husband's body and we have been running several tests on them…preliminary reports show that…”

“He was murdered!” She cut him off.

“Well, we are not sure yet…”

“So he was not murdered?”

“There was a synthetic chemical in his stomach fluids, we are still running the tests…he could have been poisoned…”

“God! I knew it!” She was almost crying.

“…or committed suicide!”

“What? What the hell are you saying? Are you saying my husband went to a hotel room locked himself in and killed himself? Do you even hear yourself, officer?”

“I am sorry, but we have to consider all the possibilities. This is a unique case, but incidents like these however isolated have been on the rise in Nairobi for the past several years.”

“My husband is not one of your statistics, officer...your job is to find my husband’s killer, not to give me mortality figures of the city!”

“There was no sign of struggle and I have talked to the hotel management, no one had gotten into your husband’s suite that night except him…look here, I can’t say that I can relate to what you are going through or feeling right now, but I want to solve this case as much as you want to see justice being served. We are on the same side here.”

“He did not commit suicide!” She said calmly.

“Toxicology report will be out in a week. Then we will know what we are dealing with and how it got into his digestive system…until then I’d like for you to really try and remember your husband’s last days, anything out of the ordinary, any changes…”

“I’ll try!”

“We’ll thank you for your time!”

“Thank you…if I had the energy I would have served you tea!”

“It’s the thought that counts. Thank you!” He smiled and walked back into the house.

Nancy sunk herself back into the lounge chair and closed her eyes. She tried to remember her husband’s last moments as advised. But all he could think of was the kind man that she shared a bed with. He wouldn’t hurt a fly to save his life.

“He was always extra clean all the time…” She thought with a level of surprise like she had just discovered that about him.

“Honey, I’m off to go take a shower!”

“Really? Why?”

“Just to freshen up!”

“You took a shower like two hours ago, between here and the garage what filth have you come in contact with that is so lethal you will die before evening?”

“You know, instead of questions, you should join me…”

“And who is going to roast the steaks?”

“Then we’ll just have to be quick about it…”

“I know what you are up to, I can see right through you mister!”

“My dear John and the shower…” She muttered, “…it’s probably going to miss you as much as I will!”

She picked herself up and dragged up to her bedroom. She moved slowly across the room momentarily supporting herself with the bed as she made her way to the closet. She entered the room and held the handles to John’s closet. She paused. She needed more strength to open it. She closed her eyes…then swung them open. His cologne scent still lingered there. She stared at a neatly arranged closet.

“Well, I never really liked these ankle-high trousers!” She thought.

“Honey, these are Tom Ford trousers!”

“Why should I care?”

“You should…you like Gucci, don’t you? You like YSL? This guy has been the mastermind behind all these brands! He is a fashion icon and a trendsetter for this generation!”

“A trendsetter for what exactly? Metro-sexual clothes?”

“That’s a closed-minded thing to say…”

“Yes! My mind is closed right now, it’s closed to such clothes…you want to wear them? Fine! But I am never going out with you dressed in Tom Ford!” She affirmed.

“…you really don’t like these?”

“Yes, sweetheart, I think they take away a substantial chunk of your manliness!” she replied rather more gently.

“But…”

“And I like your manliness so damn much…you want to take that away from me babes?” She insisted with a whinny voice while holding his crouch.

“Well…”

“I said I really like your manliness…you mind showing it to me…”

She held one of the ankle-high trousers and hugged it. She then walked over to the bed and threw herself on it. 

The bedroom was quiet and cold. The first time she noticed. She could see the goosebumps on her shoulders. She caressed herself and struggled to get into the covers. She looked over at her husband’s side and reached for his pillow. She pulled it closer to her and inhaled it. Tears, now an all too familiar visitor to her eyes had called again. She was tired of constantly wiping them off. So, she closed her eyes and let them fall on her husband’s pillow. She then suddenly threw the pillow across the bed. She had underestimated her strength. The pillow flew right across the room and hit a photograph. It fell from one of the cabinets and crashed to the floor. She was a little bit dazed. She woke up to go pick up the photograph. She picked it up carefully. The cover glass was cracked. There were three people in the picture; a fourteen-year-old Cassie, John, and a certain gentleman his husband had vaguely described the first time he brought their daughter home was standing in the background. John’s story was a little bit complicated, but it nevertheless made her assume that Cassie was under the man’s custody before the completion of the adoption process. Other than that, he was a stranger in a very fond picture of John’s.

“Shit!”

The cracked piece of the cover glass cut her index finger and she violently threw the framed photograph to the floor. It broke into pieces. She stood on her toes. There was some blood on her finger. She put the finger in her mouth. There was something strange though. As she picked up the actual photo, she saw some faint writing on the back. It read, ‘ours.’ That was the first time she had seen it. Something was off. She tip-toed out of her bedroom with the photograph. She immediately called out Cassie’s name when she reached the stairwell.

“Yes, mother!”

“Sweetheart, can we talk?”

“Sure…”

“Backyard?”

“Okay!”

“I found something in my bedroom and I want you to help me make sense of it.”

“What is it?”

“I found a photo of you and dad…and some other person in a certain photo…”

She showed her the photo and pointed at the man.

“…do you know this man?”

“Yeah! He came with dad to get me…nice guy!”

“He was not the guardian you were living with before dad came for you?”

“No! He is dad’s friend…they seemed like friends!”

“Well, that’s not what dad told me.”

“You’re sure?”

“He did not exactly share with me the information you have just given me.”

“And do you have any idea who would have written this?”

 “Nah! In fact, this is the first time I am seeing this photo, I thought it was like a moment for the successful adoption process…I didn't think much of it.”

“It’s fine, I’m just a little bit confused that’s all…still kinda trying to figure out what happened…”

“I understand…but that’s the detective’s work now you know.”

“Well, he is also convinced that if we try and retrace dad’s last days, even in the house, we may come up with something substantial to aid the investigations.”

“So…show him the photo!”

“I will!”

“Thank you, honey!”

She bent over and hugged her mother who was sitting down.

“Tea?”

“No, thank you!”

“You have to eat something you know…you can’t go by with just uji.”

She looked up at her daughter and squinted.

“Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately, you are like an ad trying to tell people that I’m a bad mother! 

“Late lunch?”

“Ummmmm…” 

“…together!”

“You are a smart girl!”

She took her mother by the hand and they both walked into the kitchen. She stole a glance at her daughter and saw how big she had grown. She was now a woman. She thought she knew everything about her adoption process, about her daughter, but clearly, something was amiss.

“So, tell me about our new child…”

“Well, the part where she is almost here in a home with us is about the most positive thing I can tell you about her…”

“…okay, tell it to me anyway…”

“…child trafficking victim for a little over a year, she’s been to three continents, she was smuggled into countries like counterfeit goods, child labor, two months as a…”

“…it’s okay, you don’t have to then.”

“…but I do, you are my wife and about to be a mother, again!”

She crawled to his side of the bed and hugged him from behind. He was holding some pictures of Shree.

“Thanks to Interpol, they intercepted a group of militias who were trying to sell the children off to some pornography company in Corte d’Ivoire…eleven children, eight girls…three boys were rescued. I heard that there is a boy that died a few days before Interpol ambushed the militia. A few diplomatic meetings later and the children are in Kenya, something about our country being in a better position to handle victims of such madness. So, I’m taking my morning coffee and there she is. From her eyes, I could just tell that she is wounded. The foreign affairs ministry had requested people who were willing to temporarily accommodate any number of children until their immigration paperwork was finalized. I have a few friends there…they called me and I went there. Every child was excited, they couldn’t wait for the paperwork so that they could go back to their families. It was really hard and it took a lot of calming down for the children to understand that they had to wait a few days before they went back home.”

“…and she wasn’t?”

“She wasn’t sad, she was expressionless…empty! She just sat there, looking down. So, I went and sat next to her. The bruises on her face, you’ll see them, cut marks in her arm…”

“People can be such animals!”

“She looked up at me and she said ‘I think I’m ready to die!’”

Her eyes widened. She welled up. He looked at his wife and told her that he had reacted the very same way.

“I all of a sudden felt a certain urge to just bring her home with me. I don’t know how I was going to do it but I just somehow knew there was going to be no other way about it. I reached out for her hand and she instinctively pulled it back. I told her I was one of the good guys and I understood what it felt like to be alone. Her parents were brutally murdered right in front of her, so she did not have a home to go back to. She did not know of any close relatives so she already knew how her life would be, she’d either end up dead or worse, in six months she is likely to be right back in some downtown pub in Abuja quote unquote entertaining adults…that’s when I called you.”

“Your parents would have been so proud of the man you have become!” She whispered in his ear.

“You really think so?”

“Of course, yes! Do you know how many people much more privileged than us turned a blind eye to that situation? Do you think your friends at the ministry called you because you are the most capable? They called you because they knew you cared that much!”

“Well, my parents thought I was a little bit impulsive.”

“You dance to the pulses of life…there is nothing wrong with that!”

“I love you!”

“I love you too John! You are my hero!”

“I told her I knew she wasn’t really ready to die just yet! Pulled a few strings, Derrick is looking over the legal work, then a medical check-up, so she can come home in a week tops!”

“We have an Indian baby, if that is not a wonder, I don’t know what is!” She said gleaming.

“Is that the guy in charge of the kids?” She questioned pointing at the stranger in the photo.

“Yeah…I mean, he was around during the whole process, I dint really follow the politics behind it, he helped though!”

She looked up at the bedroom ceiling, still confused.