THE BLOODSTAINED BRACELETS

CHAPTER ONE

June 11 2009 , Jos , Nigeria .

        Martha couldn't believe her ears , perhaps the housegirl was lying , yet she couldn't stop herself from running after medu the house girl , her face contorted in creases connoting fright and anxiety .

  They got into the bathroom and there it was , the immaculate whiteness of the bathroom's wall tiles had been desecrated by a generous splurt of blood dripping in careful trickles through the little crevices of the wall , some streaks going all the way to the floor by their own selves while others merged into bigger rivulets before completing the downward journey .

  The back of micheal's head had a deep gash in it , showing signs of a serious smash with a clinically circular hole in it , while the rest of his body was crumpled up in a lifeless mass with his legs sprawled sideways .

  Martha let out a sharp howl ,sometimes it came out in intermittent shrieks , as if she was confused about the choice of sound that would best convey her grief , medu looked on, unsure about what to do .

  Medu rushed out again , returning a few minutes later with Mark the eldest child of Micheal , Micheal rushed into the bathroom , stopped in his tracks by what he saw .

 His eyeballs bulged as if about to pop out of his head the moment he saw his father's lifeless body , "who could have done this" he said in a voice that was a clear marriage between a wishper and a shout as though the loudness induced by urgency was struggling against the hushness induced by disbelief all in his voicebox .

 "Medu go to the gate now and put the security on alert it looks quite recent", he said nestling closer to his dad's lifeless body .

 Mark brought out his motorola cocktail V E70 and put a call through to the nearest police station with his hands and voice trembling , "this is Mark Micheal Muplang , a murder just occured here and there's a high likelihood that the murderer is still close by , I'll appreciate if you can mobilize at once" he finally managed .

  Mark left the spot immediately , rushing out towards the emergency exit that led towards the emergency staircase , the fire exit was unbolted and showed signs of recent use , he increased his pace as he moved and rushed down the stairs .

 Medu was just coming back from the gate when she heard a loud bang accompanied by a shriek from the back of the house , she rushed towards the place and found mark sprawled on the lawn writhing in pains , what happened she asked ," I saw the emergency exit was open while rushing towards the bathroom the other time so I decided to check who used the door , but the person had poured a lubricant on the stairs so I fell while running to check" , forget about me for now please tell the gardener and the gateman to start combing the whole courtyard , the bastard couldn't have left yet .

 "But i can't leave you in this state" medu protested , just go and do as I said I'll be fine , Mark said trying to mask his pain but failing terribly at doing so .

              ★ ★ ★                

    The police arrived a few minutes later with nine men seated at the back of charcoal black toyota Hilux , five of you should surround the whole perimeter of the house , three officers should follow me in the leader of the team a middle -1aged man with a dark fleshy face that ended in a double chin said in a tone of authoritative finality .

 The officer was taken straight to the bathroom by medu , the inspector put on a pair of gloves before entering , he ordered the two other officers to search the whole house while he followed medu into the bathroom .

 He urged martha out of the room , bringing his camera out to take photos of the corpse from various angles , afterwards he took a closer look at the bullet drilled holes at that back of micheal's head , 0.38 Acp he muttered to himself , his eyeballs rolling behind the pair of steel rimmed glasses.

 And who owns that bracelet over there , Inspector sam said pointing towards a brown blacelet with a single bead of wooden material that lay a few centimeters from the right corner of the bathroom , "it must be for the animal that killed my husband " martha said angrily, her rage colouring every bit of her words .

 Inspector sam brought out a small plastic bag from his back pocket while he gingerly picked the bracelet up and put it into it .

 Two thoughts crossed his mind simultaneously about the bracelet , a high profile crime in a well protected household like this couldn't have been carried out by an amateur who would forget a relic at the sight of crime , secondly there was a high likelihood that the relic was intentionally dropped to ... , to do what exactly he couldn't wrap his head around the thought.

 He turned back to face the new widow and her maid , how did you know of this he asked posing the question to no one in particular , i was cleaning the corridor outside when I heard a loud sound medu said , her voice shaky with fright , I came in and saw master's bedroom door ajar , I entered his room since the sound came from its direction , I entered his room only to find him sprawled on the floor in his bathroom .

 "Incredible " , Sam muttered repeatedly , and you didn't see anyone or hear any footsteps he probed further , medu shook her head to deny sight of anyone .

 Sam left the room , his mind beclouded by the strange order of events just rendered by the housegirl , a bullet shot delivered and about three doors opened in such a large house yet no one saw or heard anything , it all seemed impossible , there had to be a lie in what he had just heard , a thought immediately crossed his mind "the housegirl' , the only one who heard the shot , the one who alerted the whole household and the one who saw no one or heard any footsteps , the jigsaw puzzle was finally making more sense in his mind .

  He made his way into the house probing every corner with his eyes ,his eyes quickly caught the emergency exit which was still open , he made his way towards it and rushed downwards slipping from the ante penultimate stair floorwards in a fall that was enough to destabilize his gait but unable to cause any harm to him , he found Micheal still sprawled delicately on the carefully tended lawn , "are you okay" he asked trying to make sense of the situation.

  Guess I have an ankle dislocation, Mark said obviously distressed , i saw the emergency exit open , followed the stairs down slipped and got injured ,he said , his words hard to make out as they were accompanied by a grunt, let's get the ambulance then Sam said bringing out his mobile immediately.

                    ***

 All police officers within the house had now assembled at the front of the house sam standing before them with a puzzled look pasted on his face , 'you mean you can't find a single footprint , clue or anything in this whole house ' , yes was the answer that pervaded the atmosphere even though it wasn't clearly defined .

 Sam entered into a slight reverie , everything seemed to point in the direction of his initial position , but then another thought struck his mind "what if it wasn't her " , it didn't make any sense that a killer could have left the premises so early and without trace too , his mind slightly went in the direction of the emergency exit.

 " You " , sam said suddenly pointing to a fair complexioned officer who had his both hands behind him with a smirk across his face , go and arrest the house girl , and inform everyone in the house that the bathroom and the adjoining bedroom is now out of bounds to anyone , yes sir the officer said his fleshy cheeks vibrating, while he marched briskly into the house .

 July 14, 2009.

     Three days later AIG Dickson sat in his office at the state criminal investigation Department shifting uncomfortably in his chair , the papers had gone beserk over the high profile murder that had been transferred to his department two days earlier , POPULAR NIGERIAN BUSINESSMAN FOUND DEAD IN HIS BEDROOM , MICHEAL MUPLANG ,CELEBRATED PHILANTHROPHIST MURDERED IN HIS BEDROOM , as usual all the newspieces focused on lampooning the police force for its inability to apprehend the killer of such a high profile figure in the corporate world .

 But Sam's mind had strayed far beyond the activities of journalist and their own job of pokenosing and complaining , the main source of trouble in his mind that Monday morning was the turn the investigation was taking , after three days nothing of substance had been discovered .

 The forensic experts called in to check the scene of crime had found absolutely nothing , no strange fingerprints were found at the scene of crime and more insanely no strange DNA was discovered on the scene , worse still ,even the house girl that seemed like a useful lead at the start of investigation had become a human cul-de-sac .

 Medu's belongings and room had been searched severally but nothing incriminating had been found , every person quizzed about her seemed to say the same thing , she simply didn't look like someone with enough nerve to kill a man but that was of course not quite strange in murder cases , what was more disturbing was that if the girl had indeed committed the crime she couldn't showcase the expertise that was now being seen .

 The staff of the private security outfit that was employed to secure MM castle had proved to be a set of irresponsible jerks , they had confessed to being drunk at the time of crime and the only reasonable information they could give was that someone made an advance payment for free liquor at their favorite joint on the fateful day making both of them drunk beyond the zenith of their senses , but even that did take an insane amount of t*****e to make them speak , he quickly thought about the law prohibiting the t*****e of criminals and couldn't help laughing , how were bastards like this supposed to be dealt with then .

  The estate security further compounded the situation when they claimed to see Mark on his power bike at a time mark maintained he was in the house , his claim was corroborated by his mum , the bike in question itself was faulty and wasn't in a state which could be used for such operation , this further compounded an already complex situation.

  The check conducted on the household showed that it was seriously breached , the electric fencing grid had been disconnected , further pointing to an outside source , Sam was still neck deep in his ocean of thoughts when his mobile phone rang .

 It was the inspector general of police , a shiver immediately went down his spine , it wasn't unexpected and as a matter of fact he had expected it earlier but now that he was facing it , his mind suddenly went blank .

 Sir , he managed not to stutter , he explained everything to the IG in a manner whose altruism surprised even himself , the IG made himself clear and laid before Sam a suggestion that was more of an order , if at the expiration of the week ,no reasonable evidence could be gathered about an outsider then the housegirl would bear the brunt , and when Sam tried to explain how unfair it would be to entangle the girl , the IGP gave a sad trisyllabic laugh that unsettled Dickson .

 " You think it's not fair to indict the girl for a crime she hasn't committed , but you think it's right for the police force to be dragged into disrepute and called a toothless bulldog isn't it , and yeah don't sell me the evidence argument , just build it ,get her fingerprints onto the bracelet somehow,weave out some acrimony between her and her boss , it's not an uncommon thing so it won't be hard to sell to the public , our reputation is what is on the line here , Good day ", he said and hung up .