I dialled Charles' number the second I walked out of the COD's office.

"Kaima." He said sleekly.

"We are on." I told him

"Figured."

"Doesn't this case scare you?"

"Every case does but we always pull through."

He was right. We always pulled through, Charles and I. I would never say it out loud but sometimes I doubted I'd have made it that far without him.

"What's wrong?" I could hear the worry in his voice.

"Why?"

"You stopped talking. What did COD say?"

"Looks like I have a new home."

"Wait, what?"

"Meet me at my place."

"On my way." And he was gone.

In my few years of service I had never had to lodge in a crime scene, never even knew it was a thing until now.

As a kid I didn't have future dreams or a career set in mind but I knew I hated it when my immediate elder brother got punished for the things our eldest brother did because he threatened him and we were all scared of his buff body.

I wanted justice for my brother and every other bullied sibling and when I said that to him, his reply had been;
"Why not just be a lawyer?"

It was a good point but words weren't really my thing, I liked action.

"I've never seen you this tense since your mom sent you that picture of her flight ticket to Nigeria." Charles said from the bed, watching me throw clothes into my emergency backpack.

"Don't start." I warned. The thought was enough to put a smile on my face.

My mom had been so worried a year ago when my granny accidentally told her I had come down with typhoid, she got plans tickets immediately but cancelled because Pinky's diabetes shot up. If she ever saw the way I live here, she'd have me bundled and thrown back to Columbia.

"Seriously Kay, what's up? Do I really have to use the 'you can talk to me' line?"

"I'm just stressed."

"You spent the last week napping and treating yourself. Try another excuse." I sighed and dumped myself unto the lone chair. He wasn't going to let it slide.

"I'm scared." He blinked repeatedly.

"Sorry I think I zoned out coz I heard you say something that sounded like I'm scared."

"That's what I said."
Once he got over his shock, he leaned towards me.

"Why?"

"This case screams wrong. We had to cancel our leave for it, the victim was passionately murdered, possibly by her own daughter and now I have to go camp in a murder site, it's all wrong."

His brows scrunched together in thought as they always did when we were comparing clues.

"I can see how this scares you and honestly it does scare me a bit too but we can't run away from it. Even if we turned in our resignations COD would still manage to get us on the case. Kay, you are not alone in this, I will be there with you, as usual." A faint smile appeared on his lips as he said the last words.

"Shut up. You are just grateful that you aren't the one who has to camp there."
He shrugged.

"Why don't you take today off? Gather your bearings and start tomorrow. I will handle things there for now."

I tossed him a grateful smile. One last night on my sweet bed sounded good before I was shipped to my new spooky accommodation where I could lose my life or worse, my sanity.

"You don't have to pack so many underwear, I'm sure the girls will have no problem sharing theirs with you." He said as I stuffed undies into the almost filled up bag.

"Sharing undies with a murderer doesn't sound very thrilling."

"Let's not put them all in a box, what happened to innocent until proven guilty?"

"I prefer to go with guilty until proven innocent."

"Why do you always have to take a different route?"

"The fact that everyone is going the same way doesn't make it the right way."

"Okay, save your diplomacy till you get to your new home."

      Charles left a few minutes later to return to the crime scene. I did my best to not think about the case but it wasn't as easy as I hoped it would be.

I kept thinking about how a girl would kill her own mother, so brutally. They say Nigerian moms are extra hard to deal with, I could never relate to that.

My mom, though Nigerian schooled abroad where she met and married my dad. My brothers and I were all born and raised in Columbia, Maryland and had collectively been to Nigeria just once for our grandfather's funeral.

Mom's relatives had used that opportunity to siphon money from my oyibo father in the name of dowry.

My mom was a disciplinarian but she never used the cane, though we had all received slaps from her that sent us into starry dazes.

From my six years of living in the country, I realized that most mothers could be harsher and more verbally abusive but I never felt like their children loved them any less than I loved my mom.

I knew I couldn't dismiss it but I tried my best to not dwell on the possibility of such inhumanity.

     Deciding to get it over with, I picked up my phone and placed a call to my mother.

"Young lady, I've been trying to get through to you. What happened?" Her soft voice came up after the second ring.

"Must have been the network. What did you want to tell me?"

"Can't a mother just be worried for her child?"
I rolled my eyes before I could stop myself.

She definitely wasn't that type of mother, she had gist and I wouldn't have to prob her for it.

"How sweet of you mom. So, how are things?" I dawdled.

"Things are surprising. You remember the Waynes  from next door?" She said, taking up her broadcaster tone.

I did remember good old Mr. Wayne, he was at least ten years older than his luxury loving wife.

"What about them?" I asked, trying to pour myself a shot of whiskey.

"You know little Will? You and George used to like to play with the kid so much when you were younger, I even started imagining what my grandchildren would look like.

You will not believe that he turned out to be gay, gay Mary! Such a waste of healthy fine sperms that will never fertilize an ovum."

"Mom!" She didn't relent.

"I really thought you two must have made out during one of your many visits to their house but now I'm worried he did it with George. Do you think he might have had a crush on your brother? What if George is also a closeted fag?"

"Fag? When did you get so homophobic?"

"Homophobic? Don't put a fancy label on my morality."

"So your morals no longer include not judging."

"You are one to speak madam police." She sassed.

"I'm just saying mind your business mom and George has a girlfriend."

"So did Will."

"You know he is going to be amused if he knows you think he is shagging his buddies."

"I never said that."

"You insinuated it." I said, taking a sip from my glass, suddenly enjoying our gist.

"It's vain to argue with you. I got new sheets for your room today. Do not forget to get those special seasoning and ankara from your aunty."

This was the hard part.

"Mom, I sort of won't be able to make it this year." I rushed out but she heard every word.

"What? Why not? Don't tell me you got put on another case, I will murder somebody."

"No you won't coz I'd personally put you in jail."

"This is not the time for jokes, Chukwukaima." She was pissed, the whole full name calling was prove.

"I'm sorry mom, it's not like I can control it."

"You can quit that job and return home."

"I am home, mom."

"I know baby but we miss you. You haven't seen Carson since he was born and Sean and his wife won't be in town for much longer."

My eldest brother became a father fourteen months ago and I had only seen my nephew through Skype and on his mother's Instagram posts.

"I know mom and I miss you all. Once this case is over, not even the apocalypse will stop me."

"I hear you. You dad just got back, talk to you later darling."

"Say hi for me. Bye."
I heard her sigh defeatedly before ending the call.

I would give anything to be there with my mom, with family, listening to made-up stories about her childhood and suffering through Nollywood movie marathons but apparently the city needs me.

I never kid myself with the thought of completely eradicating crime, I couldn't even do it in my street. Goats still went missing and batteries disappeared from car bonnets.

People still got burnt alive for snatching empty wallets or pieces of a Nokia phone held together by rubber bands.

I took solace in knowing that my name had gotten out there and could instill even the slightest of fear.  I was a threat and that was enough to live with.

      I took a seat on the sofa facing the TV that had a muted show of Empire on display. My phone vibrated in my hand and I slid my finger across the screen before putting it on speaker.

"Charlie." I acknowledged.

"What are you doing?" He asked. I could hear shuffling on his side like he was moving around.

"Nursing a glass of whiskey."

"Sounds like fun. COD called." He sounded tired so I was not alarmed.

"What did he want?" I inquired.

"Same old. The body was sent to the morgue, it won't be buried until the case is closed."

"It is a she."

"It is dead. It is no different from the others used as cadavers in labs."

The thought of that irked me.

"Any new developments?" I asked, mostly to change the course of our discussion.

"Someone showed up, an aunt demanding justice for her sister."

"Interesting. What do you think of her?"

"She is a gravely annoying attention seeker with her made in Aba English." I snickered.

"You don't think she did it?"

"Let's talk about this tomorrow. You have less than twelve hours left, use it to think about things that are less disturbing."

"Aye Mr. Timekeeper, make sure you report to work early tomorrow."

"Your life kind of depends on it so, sure." He teased.

"Shut up."

"Goodnight Kay." I threw my head back as he ended the call.

The Coker girls better be nice housemates.

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Hi!
Sorry for the late update, I got sucked into another project. Updates for this book won't be that frequent because I'm still working on it anyway.
Thanks for giving it a try❤
Don't forget to tell me what you think.