Alvana!!' I shouted as I stood up fully from the bed, " Hey be careful , remember you aren't fine yet" He drew me back to the bed gently. " Alvana, you are Jason the thief?" I asked , his smile suddenly faded away. " I am not a thief" he defended himself, " But you.." He interrupted me, " I never stole anything , I was implicated" He sat on the bed. " I won't believe that, you wrote a letter to your girlfriend promising her …" He interrupted again. " I didn't write the letter" He said smiling as he got up, " Why would I believe that?" I asked him, " Didn't you write a letter to Adanna when you were in Newriton?" He asked me while I opened my mouth in shock and surprise. " yes I did" I told him, " What was the content of the letter?" He asked smiling and opening a wooden made drawer in his room. " I professed my love to her, I also told her that my coming back might be extended" I explained to him, he smiled and nodded as he brought three piece of papers from his bag. " Take" he handed one piece to me. " Was that the letter you wrote?" He asked with a smile as I took a glance at the letter.
1, Madu street.
Atata.
Adanna,
How are you, I hope your parents are doing great, and how is Atata. I only want to use this medium to clear your mind from all tiles you might think is between us, i would be a sinner if i continue to lead you on. I have a fiance in the city, so please dont think there is anything between us, i love my fiance and wont want to leave her for any girl, not even a village girl. I have nothing for you, I only played along with the moment. Go get married, remember, you are growing older by the day.
Gabriel Omiyi
" I didn't draft this!" I shouted in anger as I sprang up from the bed, " But this was the letter that got to Adanna" Alvana smiled. " No, it can't be, if this sort of letter go to her, then why didn't she tell me when I got back home?" I asked him in anger. " Because I asked her not to tell you, I managed to convince her that you didn't draft this, you can ask her when you leave here" he explained with a smile while I scratched my head. " wait!" I stood up, " I wasn't the one that submitted the letter to be posted that day" I said while he opened his eyes in surprise, " Who did?" He asked. " My friend Israel, he is my room mate" I explained but he just hissed. " Israel wasnt around during my time" he said silently. " What does the letter have to do with your time?" I asked him. " Because the same person who changed your letter also altered my letter" he handed me another piece of letter, I stared at the letter where he was promising his girlfriend to bring some money for her. The strange thing was that the letter had exactly the same hand writing. " Yes that was the letter that implicated me, I only posted a letter telling my girlfriend I would be coming back soon" He explained, there was tears in his eyes. " Sorry about that bro, but I think this is a headway, the person is someone I know and you also know" I told him and he nodded. For once, Alvana didn't smile, tears dropped his eyes. " I knew you were from Newriton when I saw the mark, I was only unlucky not to have completed my trainings " he told me while I nodded. " How did the money get into your room?" I asked him, " My card was cloned, someone cloned the card" he sat down still holding a piece of paper in his hand.
" Why will someone want to implicate you that way?" I asked, " I was the best fighter in my set, a lot of people wanted to be the best so they wanted to dismiss me, many also wanted to be the best but they couldn't get it when I am still there" he explained further. " That's bad, but why will the person change my own letter?" I asked him, " Maybe that person wanted Adanna" He said but I found it hard to believe. " Why did you kill the chief priest?" He suddenly asked, I looked at him in surprise, does Alvana know everything? " I didn't…" He interrupted me. "Remember that night, when you thought you heard footsteps behind you and you immediately turned with your gun, I was the one following you" he smiled while I opened my mouth in shock. " I wasn't actually following you" he started, " I was going to the chief priest place to make my own investigations, I had always suspected him" he said. " I had been earlier worried about I was to enter into his inner house with violence, and then you came and helped me distract him" Alvana continued. " I dont get you" I said relaxing on the bed. " My mission that night was to search the chief priest house which is at the back of the shrine, I wanted to see if I could get any suspicious exhibit. Your coming was of advantage because you helped me distract him, I took cover among the bushes and found my way to the small back shrine house. I heard your discussions with him and how you finally shot him. Gabriel, you are a spy, you should learn to always take things easy and keep calm, its step by step" he stared at me while I nodded. " So what did you find out?" I asked him and he handed me the last piece of paper. I stared at it and all I could see were names, " That is the name of the people the serial killer had planned to kill, look well, your name and Adanna's are among them, I got it from the chief priest place, there was also a bag of money, the chief priest us being paid to make the people believe that Anu kills its people" Alvana explained, " the names isn't what got my attention about the letter" Alvana continued as he collected the previous letters he had given me, " The fact that the three letters have the same handwriting is what to be suspicious about" Alvana added. I looked well again and he was right, the three letters were written by the same person. " Now Alvana, am confused" I said to him, he only smiled. " let's leave the letters alone, you said israel posted your letter, we should try talk to him " He stood up and walked around. " Maybe someone might have seen him posting the letter" Alvana added. " I will talk to him" I assured him, " Now, how do we get the killer?" I asked and he smiled. " We will use the list, the latest person he killed was Eneda, now, the next on his list is who?" He asked as he opened the list himself, " Whoa, the next on his list is Mbe " he concluded and laughed, " I would have loved Mbe to be killed" I also stood up, " Even I myself, but that's not what Newriton portrays" he sat down . " Okay, what we have to do is to watch Mbe the cat secretly, the killer might attack soon" Alvana added. " Hmm, please I would need that my letter for investigations" I pointed at the letter with him, " Sure" he nodded
AS NARRATED BY ADANNA
Coming to the stream that morning, I had only one intention, to see Gabriel. I was surprised and down casted when I didn't see him among his friends, I didn't bother to ask because I knew he must be fine. We had to gist deal with Mbe before going to fetch water with the city girl, Morgana. The city guy israel was behind us like a guard as we walked back home, he might probably be watching out for Mbe the cat or has Alvana might have put it, Mbe the Dog. " I dont think I can remember anything about the guy" I had told the city girl when she asked me what I remembered about the night I had an encounter with the man in black. " Are you sure there is nothing you can use to describe him, anything at all" she pressed forward while I stood for a while to think, " Nothing" I finally said since I could remember nothing. " Okay then" She said and we walked home.
°°
" Now, I think you have to go home and prepare" Alvana told me, " You see, some of my friends from the city are here with me in the village, I mean fellow spies like me" I told Alvana as he handed me my white T-shirt which he had washed for me. " That's great, they can also be of help but can you trust them?" He asked me and I nodded. "Okay then, get them prepared" he tied a wrapper around his body and carried a cutlass. " let me lead you out, I am also going to the farm " He walked out and I followed him. His house was surrounded with bushes, it was the only house in the environ, Alvana had certainly lived a life of stigmatization. " You live in a bush?" I asked him, " No, this is my own estate" He smiled as we found our way through the bush path. " Wait, dont you think the chief priest might have fortified the killer?" I asked him and he bursted into laughter, " Who killed the chief priest?" He asked me, " I did" I simply replied, " Didn't the gun kill him? Why wasn't he fortified? Didn't he call on Ani that day? Why did the bullets kill him?" Alvana asked me as we walked along, " That simply means Ani doesn't exist" Alvana concluded and silence fell upon us until we got to the main village. It was still morning and people had not started coming out, so I quickly found my way home. " Oyinbo, where are you coming from looking so rough?" My father who was sitting on his arm chair asked on seeing me, " I went for a little adventure dad" I replied trying to smile, " is that why your face is also rough and swollen?" He added, " it looks like you have been beaten" He said . " papa, am tired, where are my friends?" I asked him walking towards the house. " They are inside, they have really been good in helping us" He smiled , I nodded and went into my room. I met Morgana and israel pacing the room with worried expressions on their faces. " Fool, must you play with everything, where have you been?" Israel asked on sighting me, Morgana took a deep breath and fell into the bed. " I had an encounter with him, or let me say them" I started, " who is him or them?" Morgana asked as she sat up on the bed, " The serial killer and Jason" I said , the expressions on their faces showed they were interested In the discussion. " I went to the forest of Ani as I had planned, I saw the body of the dead girl and true to our thoughts, there wasn't any other body in the forest. I hid myself in the bush hoping to see what will happen and I saw people come to take her body away, where they took her to, I dont know. I was happy on my discovery but never knew the killer was behind me, I only noticed when he talked. We both ended up in a fight, he was stronger than I had prepared for. Nothing I did worked on him, he was able to defeat me and about to cut me with the sword. I tried punching him and then he angrily hit my head with the back of the sword and that was all I could remember. When I woke up again, I was in a room, on a bed, Jason's house" I concluded, they were all listening attentively. " Did you see his face? I mean Jason? " israel asked while I nodded, " I saw him, he even happens to be someone I know, he is my village friend" I explained. " You see, we can't also trust this Jason, remember he is a thief" Morgana stood up from the bed and started pacing around. " He isn't a thief" I defended and they both turned to me waiting for an explanation. " He was implicated with a letter, a letter he never wrote " I started, " I dont understand" Israel chipped in, " Israel, remember that day you helped me post a letter, was this the letter you posted?" I asked handling the letter to Israel, he took it and read through it. " No, I didn't post this" Israel laughed, " But this was what got to Adanna" I said while they both stared at me in disbelief. " Wait, there was one person with me that day I had posted the letter" Israel said placing his left fingers across his lips, " Who?" I and Morgana asked in union.