Saint Patrick's College

Chapter Sixteen

She walked towards the girl's hostel, her bag slung over one shoulder. There were a few kids littering the front of the building. Some in their everyday wear and some still in their Saint Patrick's College uniform. There were also police officers still lingering about. At first, Adaeze thought nothing of it, there was after all a dead girl and a mystery surrounding her death. There was also a book of secrets and a clique of kids that may or may not have had a part to play in the girl's death. Bottom line, there was a lot pertaining to Ogechi Nwafor's death and seeing police officers didn't move Adaeze, not anymore.

She stared at the officers through the corner of her eyes as she made her way through the front doors and into the reception. They seemed to be talking to the kids outside.

"Hey, got any idea what that's about?" Adaeze asked the hostel security as she signed in her name and room number. It was a new policy, students had to be accounted for whenever they left and returned from classes.

The women behind the desk shrugged. She shouldn't have expected anything different.

She continued to the elevator. She pushed the button and waited.

It was while she was waiting that she heard someone clear their throat.

She turned around.

It was an older man in a police uniform, but he stood out from the rest. He had more badges on his chest. "Miss. Adaeze Okoro." He called out to her. "Did I pronounce that right?" He asked reading her name off the book she just signed in with.

She nodded, the hairs at the nape of her neck standing on end. Why would an officer want to speak with her? She didn't even know the girl, there was no information she could possibly give him that he couldn't get from interviewing literally anyone else.

"I am the chief investigating officer Mr. Kayode Nwabueze and I want to talk to you about your classmate Ogechi Nwafor."

She stiffened just as the elevator doors slid apart. She didn't know what to do or what to say. She didn't know if she could just not talk to him. There had to be some sort of rule that she couldn't walk away from an officer. Why was the chief investigating officer even involved in Ogechi's case when the actual cause of death was yet to be revealed unless it had been revealed and Adaeze just didn't know it.

She let the elevator doors slide shut.

She walked with him back to the reception.

He set the book down on the desk where the two security women were sitting.

He walked her to a sitting area in the reception. The sitting area was merely some metal chairs in front of a television with a DSTV decoder fastened to the wall.

He sat. She took the seat next to him.

He cleared his throat. "What can you tell me about Ogechi Nwafor?"

Adaeze swallowed the lump in her throat. Did she tell him all she had found out? Did she mention the book that she found rifling through the dead girl's room—no she didn't acquire that through legal means—she didn't know what to tell him, but she feared if she stayed silent for too long, he would begin to suspect her. "I didn't really know her." She hoped that answer would suffice. She shifted in her seat. She wanted to leave, she wanted to be back in her room even if that meant being with Ayomide. Anything would beat being under the direct scrutiny of Mr. Kayode.

"It has come to my attention that some of you children posted an article on the school website about her cause of death." Was that what this was about? "I don't know if you people thought it would be funny, but let me tell you," He wagged his finger in her face. "It is not." He shook his head solemnly. "A girl is dead and you and your friends are posting an article claiming she died of an opioid overdose." He scolded her as if she had something to do with it.