August 30th, 2022.

    Detective Okoye decided to quit the cat and dog chase. He went to the control room where the security camera's main switch was. If he could go back to the night of the murder then he would be able to see the last person to enter the admin block and possibly, the killer.

   As he approached the control room, he saw that the door was already open. 

   "Hello?" He said entering the room. He saw a young man, probably in his early twenties, standing in front of one of the panels. The man turned in shock when he heard the detective's voice.

   "Good afternoon officer." The man greeted. He saw the detective's gaze shift from him to the panel and back to him. "Oh I'm Seyi. I was called to repair the cameras." He quickly introduced.

   "Repair? Are they faulty?" Detective Okoye asked, feeling the last ray of hope in him slowly burn out.

   "Not exactly. It was- come to think of it, it's strange sir." The engineer, Seyi, said. "When I checked the wires, it was randomly cut. The main software is still functioning. The camera stopped because of lack of connection." He explained and the detective nodded.

    "So what you are trying to say is, someone purposely cut the wires." Okoye said and Seyi shook his head in agreement.

   "I think so. I think whoever cut the wires just didn't want the cameras to work. If they wanted to damage the camera, then the main software would've been the target." Seyi explained further. He smiled proudly. He felt like a detective when he explained what he noticed. He knew that his sharp senses would be of benefit to him one day and this was the day.

    "Ok.." Okoye said slowly, he was getting somewhere. He walked back to the door and checked the handle and hinges. "When were you called to repair the cameras?" He asked the engineer behind him.

    "A few days ago Sir." Seyi replied quickly. The detective figured that the person that cut the wires didn't want the camera to catch them in action. Maybe they didn't want any proof that they stole the exam papers or that they were in the academic block that night. It all came down to two things: it was either the suspect had the keys to the control room or the school management repaired the door quickly.

***

7 days before the murder.

    It was very early that Sunday morning when the students headed to the dinning. Meanwhile back in the girls dormitory, Gabby, Nini and Brume scurried off into the bathroom and locked the door.

   "Have you come up with a plan yet?" Brume asked impatiently. It had been a few days since her friend suggested that they stole the mock exam papers but no plan has been laid down yet.

   "Calm down abeg. If you are that impatient, why didn't you come up with a plan yourself?" Gabby retorted.

    "Oya sorry." Brume apologized.

   "Let's hurry up before the hostel mistress notices our absence." Nini urged her two friends.

   "Okay. So I thought about the plan to steal the papers and I figured it was going to be close to impossible because one, there are cameras everywhere and two, we are not made for that type of robbery." Gabby explained and the other two listened with keen interest. "And I thought, why don't we dance to the tune of the principal?" She smirked.

    "What tune is that?" Nini asked curiously and Gabby sighed.

   "My older sister, before she graduated, said that the principal was rumoured to be a pedophile. He has approached some female students asking to sleep with him." She further explained and her friends gasped in shock.

   "So it's true o." Brume said, "I heard the rumors."

   "Wait o. Are you saying we should sleep with the principal?!" Nini exclaimed and her friends shushed her.

   "Never. That's disgusting." Gabby said with a shudder. She put her hand inside her sports wear top and took out a phone from her bra. She turned on the sound recorder app and faced the phone to them only to be met with their surprised faces. "Don't act surprised. I told you people I'll bring my phone to this extension. I just haven't found the right time to use it." She said. "Anyway, I can go to the principal's office, pretend like I'm interested, get him to say something of the pedophiliac nature and record it. We'll threaten him with the recording, get the papers and boom! we pass." She explained.

    "Omo that will be easy and if that old fart is girl crazy, we might not even need the recording for him to give us the paper. It's not everyday he sees a girl like that." Brume squealed in excitement.

   "When do we commence the plan abeg? I'm already looking forward to it." Nini said, bouncing on her feet.

   "Tomorrow morning we'll -" Gabby was cut short when there was pounding on the bathroom door.

   "Gabrielle and co, are you inside there?" The hostel mistress' deep voice shook through the walls.

   "Uh.. yes ma!" Gabby replied quickly, putting the phone back inside her bra. 

   "Nini has a stomachache and we're just waiting for her." Brume added, ignoring Nini's glare.

   "Ok, be very fast and head to the dinning. I'll ask the clinic prefect to get Nini some tablets." The woman said before walking away.

   The three girls sighed in relief before giggling. They slowly opened the door to check if the coast was clear and ran off.

   Damien and Kelvin walked out of their school dinning after having their breakfast. They were already dressed in their day wear which was worn during prep classes in the weekends and night preps. It was a sky blue checkered shirt and royal blue trousers for the boys and a checkered knee length gown for the girls which included a royal blue barrret but they rarely wore it. 

   The good thing about Sundays was the lack of teachers in classes. The students just had to read on their own. Saturdays only had morning classes and the rest of the study time was prep.

   "The principal should be here soon." Damien said, looking at his wristwatch. Kelvin snatched his friend's bottled water from his hands and quickly drank from it before he could stop him. Damien sighed before throwing the cap of the bottled water at Kelvin. "You even put your mouth directly… you are disgusting." Damien said and Kelvin stuck his tongue out at him.

   "Whatever you say. It's mine now." Kelvin said in a singsong tone.

   "You should have taken one bottled water from the hostel." Damien complained with a frown. "I hope you choke on that water you are drinking." He said playfully as his friend happily drank the water.

   "Mhmm. I kept three bar soaps in the boys restroom, just in case." Kelvin said and Damien nodded. Kelvin slowly backed away from Damien who eyed him suspiciously. "Including your bathing soap." Kelvin added before sprinting off to their classroom block. 

    "Mumu. Let me just catch you!" Damien yelled, running after him.

~~

   Damien sighted his father from afar approaching their class and he nudged Kelvin. Kelvin took the sign and went out of the classroom immediately. 

    As the principal advanced, Damien stood up and left the classroom. The principal saw him and was about to reprimand him for leaving the class but Damien beat him to it.

   "Sir, the males restroom is locked and Kelvin is too pressed to go to the dorm. Can you please give me your spare so I can open the door for him?" Damien asked innocently and his father looked at him for a minute before taking out his bunch of keys.

    "Do you know the particular key?" He asked and his son nodded. "I'll be in your classroom. Bring the key there as soon as you open the door, not a minute later." He warned and Damien nodded. While the principal went to do his usual class by class check, Damien smiled victoriously and went to meet his friend.

    Kelvin had already lined the bar soaps at the entrance of the restroom waiting for his friend to come with the key. Damien quickly threw the key to him as soon as he approached the restroom.

    "It's this one." Damien said, singling out a peculiar looking key. He knew the key to the safe very well. He had used it once when his father asked him to get some files in the past. "Be fast." He warned and Kelvin nodded. Kelvin carefully pressed the key against the first bar soap and did it again for the second but this time, he pierced the key inside the soap to get the outline engraved. He threw the key back at Damien and Damien wiped the soap from the key before running out to give his father his bunch.

   Kelvin slowly kept the bars of soap inside a black polythene bag. Damien returned after sometime and the both of them headed to the back gate.

    "The principal just left." Damien said and Kelvin sighed.

  "I've never felt that much adrenaline rush in my life." Kelvin said, "Thank God it's Sunday, we don't have to worry about the principal returning to school." He added. Bartho, the youngest gateman, sighted the two boys and grinned. He was, for some odd reason, the only one stationed at the back gate of the school. Nobody used the gate, unless there was an event going on and the entrance was blocked. He usually let Kelvin out of the school in some cases especially when buying edibles.

    "Wetin una want this time?" Bartho asked, eyeing the bag in Kelvin's hand.

   "Bartho, you fit help us remake one key like that? We get the impression for soap already." Kelvin asked and the gateman looked at him curiously.

   "E get nothing I no fit do. The question na, Wetin you wan use am do?" The gateman asked, taking the bag from Kelvin.

   "Oga Elvis, that hostel mater, seized our gadget. We wan open the cupboard collect am but that man go notice if he no find his key. So we wan remake am abeg." Kelvin lied, keeping his poker face. Bartho stared at him for a minute before moving his gaze to Damien who wore his signature blank look.

   "Ok o. As long as una no put me for gbese (trouble)." Bartho finally caved in, "Give me 10k, my uncle go do am for you." He said. 

   "You sure say he go make the exact copy of the key, no mistake?" Damien asked and the gateman laughed.

   "Ehe na. My uncle na the oga kpata kpata for this kin thing." Bartho boasted with a proud smile plastered on his face.

   "Okay. We go give you 7k, if we see the key and it works, we'll balance you." Kelvin bargained. Bartho opened his mouth to protest before seeing the sense in what he said and nodded.

   "Come back in four days and take your key." He said and Damien shook his head.

   "Four days is too long abeg." He complained.

   "Na you dey make the key? E fit take longer time sef but I go tell my uncle make em run am fast fast." Bartho said and the boys resigned.

~~

   After the night prep, the students retired to their hostels for the night. The weather was chill so most of the students couldn't wait to be under their covers. 

   Joy sat on her bed and waited patiently for the attendance to be called and lights out. As soon as the lights were turned off, she threw the covers out of her lower body and took the plier and hammer she swiped from the hostel tool box. The weather was on her side as most of the girls were asleep.

   She carefully tip-toed to the very back of the hostel where a window that didn't have any burglary proof bars. She had placed a ladder under the window earlier that day so she carefully placed the plier and hammer in the pocket of her sweater and prepared to climb down.

   The moment her feet touched the ground, she sighed in relief. The plan was to run to the control room, do her business and be back because their hostel mistress usually did random check ups at night and she had to be back before then.

   Joy had never felt more terrified in her life as she snuck to the admin block. Never in her life had she broken the school rules. She looked up at the camera at the entrance and sighed. When she was done, nobody would be able to find that night's footage.

   The admin block was locked but there was a space for a window on the side of the building. A window glass was never placed there and the school had probably forgotten about it. Joy climbed through the space and headed for the control room. When she reached there, she took out the hammer in her pocket to break the lock open. But she noticed something odd, the door was already open. She slowly pushed it open only to see someone inside, a very unexpected person.

   
*****
C'mon guys, tell me your favourite characters so far😊

Anyways, this week's shout-out goes to BeCrystaL and @bobbybrownng. To be the next shout-out, vote and comment at the end of this chapter.

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~Korisa🧡