Hakim Bello was still in the kitchen fixing the pipes when the police came to the house.
"Who's there?" He yelled, responding to the banging on the door.
"It's the police, please open the door."
'The police? Why were they here?' He pondered as he walked to the door.
"May I help you?" He said with a frown that formed lines on his thick forehead.
"We are looking for Veronica Bello." The policeman answered. "Is she inside?"
"No, she hasn't been home since morning." Hakeem lied before realizing that he didn't even know why they were after her. "But why are you looking for her? Is she in any trouble?"
"Yes, who is she to you?" The other policeman spoke.
"She is my niece." Mr. Bello answered. "Now I ask again, is she in any trouble?"
"Not particularly sir, but we have reason to believe that a killer is targeting her and friends and we want to bring them in."
"What the hell!" Hakeem explained. "Why should I believe you?" He asked.
"Don't you worry sir, all will be clear when we get to the station." The officer replied
"Okay, very well then."
Hakim locked up the front door and followed the two men to the station. There he met June's parents as well as Margret's mother, all of them sitting impatiently on a bench.
"Who are these people?" He asked.
"Who are you?" Gabriel retorted.
"This is Mr. Bello, Veronica's uncle, and guardian... Mr. Bello, these are the parents of your niece's friends." The policeman answered.
"Oh, wow," Hakim said calmly. The issue was more serious than he had realized.
"Wait here." The officer said as he left. "I want to bring in the lead officers on this case."
What followed was an awkward silence as Gabriel and Gladys held each other's hands and we're cuddled up to comfort one another, Maryam sat by herself on the other side of the bench with Baby Stanley on her lap, playing with his toys without any care in the world while his mother was lost in her thoughts. Hakim decided to stand beside a wall, doing his best not to overthink the whole situation. Hopefully, the policemen would come back and clear the whole thing up and he would be on his way home.
Soon enough, Officer James and his partner Ade came into the room to address them.
"Good afternoon sirs and mas, I'm sorry for keeping you waiting. To the mister I am just seeing for the first time, my name is James Dike and this is my partner, Adeyemi Adisa. The reason we brought you all here is that we are currently solving a case that involves your children or ward as the case may be."
James went on to explain everything again from the beginning for the sake of Maryam and Hakim and immediately the expression on their faces changed from perplexity to bewilderment. For Hakim, he now began to understand the reason behind Veronica's action. He now understood why Veronica asked for the car that Friday afternoon, and why Veronica wanted to go to a party the next week, and why she quickly left the house immediately her friend came in.
"I can't believe my daughter kept all this from me," Maryam said out to know one in particular.
"Don't you get it already?" Gladys yelled. "We are horrible parents! They chose not to tell us anything because we never understood them, and on our part we didn't even notice anything. Everything just happened right under our noses."
"Speak for yourself madam," Hakim said. Despite everything he heard, he still felt the need to protect Veronica. She was placed under his care after all, what would Mr. Badmus think if he found out what was going on.
"Are you saying you knew about this all along?" Maryam asked him.
"No, I'm not saying that... All I'm saying is I trust Veronica's judgment and I am sure she has a reason for choosing not to tell me anything."
"All you're saying is total rubbish!" Gabriel replied with his temper already rising. "My daughter has been kidnapped, where did the good judgment lead them to now, eh?"
'"Gentlemen please, calm down!" Officer James pleaded with the two men. "Now I want to update us on the issue."
Gabriel spoke on behalf of the rest.
"Okay, we are all ears."
"So we can't find Margret and Veronica at the moment because June tipped them off about us coming, but we won't stop searching for them... But as parents I want us to try to reach out to them and let them understand that running away is only going to make them easy targets for the killer. Let them understand that they have to come back and cooperate with the police so that we can find their friend... I am also talking to you, Mr. Bello."
"Okay," Hakim said with a shrug.
"I have been trying to call her since," Maryam stated. "Her phone is switched off, what do I do?"
"It's most likely Margret and Veronica would be together," Officer Ade said. "So reaching out to one would be the same as reaching out to the other."
"Okay, all this is fine and good, but what about Grace?" Gabriel asked. "I mean this girl ran out of town with her brother, she must have a hand in this."
"On the contrary sir, it seems like she is willing to help us solve this." James objected.
"What? How?"
"Alright, so based on the previous information I collected when Grace was first arrested for Raymond's murder, I was able to get her and her elder brother's contact... She didn't pick up when I called her so I tried her brother's next and he told me that Grace left him a voice message saying she knew who the killer was and that she was coming back to town to help us end this."
"Wow!" Gabriel exclaimed. "So what is the plan?"
"We will still try to call her..." Officer Ade answered. "And when she picks it up, we will station a police car to pick her up from the bus stop and bring her down here."