Episode 31.
*
Alice felt hungry, tired and nauseous. She hadnt had anything to eat since yesterday and she hadnt seen Tony since today. She was scared. She didnt want him to abandon her. And then she wondered if her mother knew where she was.
She looked at the other inmates of the cell, they were looking skinny and had dark circles around their eyes, they looked like monsters.
She relaxed on the cold wall, she was very hungry and very tired.
The cell opened and a policewoman who she later knew to be to Ekaite entered.
‘come, person wan see you’ Ekaite said and left.
Alice knew she was the one Ekaite was referring to her because she pointed at her. So she staggered to her feet with the little strenght she had and prayed it was Tony.
And it was Tony.
But there was something wrong with his countenance, he was staring at her dangerously, she was scared.
God help me, she prayed.
‘my love’, she called softly ‘how are you?’
He looked at her for a while before dropping a white eatery nylon in front of her, she took it and opened it, it was fried rice, jollof rice (in the same plate) with a mighty chicken lap and a chivita juice.
She smiled at him gratefully ‘thanks dear, i’m starving’
He looked away, then she heard him mutter something, but she didnt hear anything. He was behaving wierd.
‘Maria woke up,’ he said after few seconds of silence.
Her heart jumped into her mouth, and she quickly knelt down.
‘my God, thank you for vindicating me. I knew you would never let me down. God! So i’m out of this hell hole’ she said, she was very happy. Infact, she was no longer fatigued or hungry. She just wanted to leave there.
Tony blinked back the tears forming in his eyes, no! He would never cry in front of a murderer, never!
She stood up and hugged him, he just sat there motionless for a while, he wanted to just stay in her arms for sometime, at least to hold on to that memory.
Then he pushed her away, violently.
‘stay away from me you murderer!’ his voice was stern.
She was taken aback for a while ‘honey……’
‘dont honey me!’ he snapped ‘it was you. It was you who shot her. You wanted her dead. And it might also be you who killed your best friend. You decieved me, you made me believe you are an angel when you are a devil in disguise’
‘Tony…….’
‘Maria mentioned who it was that shot her. And it was you!’
‘thats not true!’
‘who on earth would believe a horrible woman like you, you desperate sl.u.t.!’
Tears trickled down her cheeks ‘Maria said i was the one who shot her?’
‘yes!’
‘my God! Thats a lie. I swear with my life and that of my son……’
‘you’ve said that a million times!’ he stood on his feet ‘i dont believe you anymore’
She fell on her knees and grabbed his trouser ‘i swear i’m innocent. I havent killed someone in my life, i swear’
A policeman entered immediately ‘we ransacked her house like you ordered us to do and we found this,’ he showed them a transparent nylon with a gun inside ‘we found this in her room’
Alice gasped.
‘are you going to deny this too?’
Alice cried ‘that gun belongs to my dad. I swear it Tony, it was in my room because i used it to threaten Gilbert one day and…..’
‘so you wanted to kill him too?’ Tony asked.
‘no!’
‘sir,’ the policeman said ‘we ran some tests on the gun and the gun had her fingerprints’
*
To be continued
