"About 3 months ago I ran into some bad company in the City" Paul explained looking into disbelief and shock in the eyes of both girls.
Kosara had excused herself when the awkwardness got too much to bear. Afterall she was grieving.
"what kind of bad company?" Oluchi sounded confused. She folded her arms as she glared at her brother in disbelief. Amara watched the drama unfold silently. She was a spectator...for now.
"I owe people...some very bad people money. I had to leave Lagos for my safety but I couldn't come home straight, I had to sort myself and lay low somewhere close by, so I-"
"Paul all this one you're saying I don't understand, the day we picked you at the park did you arrive from Lagos or you just strolled in from the next village. That's my question"
"Not to mention that girl called you Emeka" Amara added studying him suspiciously. Plus she had said he was Chinaza's friend. The same Chinaza who had been murdered. That would explain the tension she noticed between the both of them that night.
"Oluchi, Amara please now is not the time, not here in the open" Paul said weakly as he noticed the tall pastor walking towards them.
"Amara, nice to see you again, hello...I can't remember your name" Osi said cheerfully
as he caught up with them.
"I'm Oluchi"
"Oh...very nice to meet you, hope you enjoyed the communion"
"Yes I did"
Osi finally looked at Paul. The young man looked flustered and Osi studied him with an intense gaze.
"Its nice to meet you once again. I'd like to have a word with you if you're not too busy"
But Paul had his shoulder up. He didn't look comfortable. "I'm sorry but not today...or not at this moment I'm really busy"
With that he walked briskly away leaving his sister behind.
However Oluchi was not done yet and she followed, calling after him. "Paul? Paul? Talk to me now..."

.·.·.·.·.·
"Hope I didn't interrupt anything?" Osi said to Amara as they watched brother and sister walk away.
"No you did not" she smiled at him "I enjoyed the sermon and the communion...it was my first time today"
"Wow..how was it?"
"It felt...strange at first but I'd go for unique now"
Osi smiled "the important thing is to understand the concept and what it represents. Are you ready to go home? I'd walk you"
"Actually I was planning to pay my last respect to Chinaza and her father when they bury them later today"

"Oh...I'd be heading there myself, we can walk together, I just have to make sure that everything is okay over here first"
"No problem...how is your investigation going?"
"Investigation?" He looked at her surprised
"You were asking some questions about Ozioma if I recall correctly"
"Oh...well the questions haven't really brought any form of enlightenment"
"Oh...thank God the killer has been identified"
Osi frowned, he hoped that was true and that he was wrong to have his doubts.
"It just struck me, do you have any idea where one can find plenty second hand clothes that he can tear out a piece of material at will?"
She thought hard for a minute then shook her head "nope...I can't think of anything at the moment"
"Okay...please don't hesitate to let me know if you remember anything.

.·.·.·.·.·
Little Jelemba ran round the village wailing and crying, stopping every now and then to pick up sand and throw in the air as he shouted.
The dibia was dead!!
The dibia was dead!!
The dibia was dead!!
He soon drew a loud crowd and people began to follow him. No one talked to him and they kept their distance.
Jelemba was a chosen one, handpicked by the gods in his early years. Only few people dared speak to him. They followed him silently to the dibia's shrine to see for themselves if what the young lad said was true.
It was.
Before long, just as Bush fire is known to spread, the news of the dibia's death went ahead the wailing messenger and reached the elders' ears.
"The dibia is dead. Murdered in cold blood!"
"What!"
"It's an abomination!"
"It's not possible!" Dé John began pacing frantically. "I dare say our land is cursed...cursed!!!"
"They say his young one is weeping on his way here"
"What do we do? What about the body?"
"This means that Okudili is still in our midst"
"How could he not foresee his own demise"
"That bastard Okudili!"
"What do we do now?!!"

It was not a good day to be a leader.

.·.·.·.·.·
"Please leave him alone...pastor Osi you are a stranger...you don't understand how things are done here...let him be, the kind of news he's carrying has so many evil spirits attached to it, please...biko let's mind our business"
But Osi wasn't listening. All he could think of as he watched young Jelemba wailing round the village was: this misguided lost soul!
"Amara believe me. It is because of people like this young boy that I'm here" with that he moved closer to the boy who was busy writing something in the sand.
"Hello, young one, peace be unto you"
"He's dead! He's dead! The one who calls the rain when our soil is dry...the one who calls the sun when our lands are flooded! He's gone! Killed like a dog...ooooohhh...the gods have cursed us!"
"Listen to me, you are not cursed...no one cursed you, the bible says cursed is he who hangs from a tree...do you know what that means? When Jesus hung on the tree, he took your curse, he took my curse...its left to you to believe and claim it"
The boy blinked. This was the first time he was hearing such. It sounded alien to his ears. "Jesus?"
"Yes son...lemme tell you about Jesus...then you'll tell me why you are crying okay?"
Surprisingly the boy nodded.
Amara watched in disbelief then the disbelief gave way to pride, then the pride she felt for Osi melted into something else. As she watched him interact with the child, she knew she was in love.

.·.·.·.·.·
The devil always made sure he never regretted his actions. Which was why he took his time to plan out every attack and why he hated losing control when he was overpowered by rage and lust. But he was angry now, the Pastor was obviously very much alive and healthy, the poison hadn't worked!
And then the dibia had been murdered. That was good news. Besides the dibia really knew secrets and chances couldn't be wasted.

But he wondered about the piece of clothe he had left at the previous scenes. He had gone with impulse then and had thought to make it his signature but now he wondered if it was such a smart move. Especially as a little serious digging could link the clothes to him. Although no one had made the connection and he was sure no one ever will.
It didn't really matter. What mattered was that he was beginning to feel the urge surfacing. The urge to have Amara to himself, the urge to ravish her body and it was getting stronger than ever.
Amara would be his last. His final performance before the curtain fall, but deep down he knew it was a lie. He was a killer now. That was who he was.

.·.·.·.·.·
The dibia's shrine was in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by trees and rocks. It was more or else on the outskirt of Amaife and closer to the next village.
And as the few villagers marched grimly towards the shrine, a heavy silence descended on them as they stomached the fact that their messenger, the one they turned to for advice and held in high esteem as their liaison with the gods was as vulnerable as every one of them. He was so vulnerable that he had been killed.
Dé Nwachukwu led the small crowd walking in a very slow pace, eulogizing the dead and greeting all the spirits sure to be hovering about in a dialect most people didn't understand.
At the front of the shrine, they all saw the dibia's legs protruding out of the tent as he had been knocked backwards.
And this time everyone noticed the torn piece of clothe around the deceased legs. It was from a shirt that had definitely seen better days. The material was stained with blood and had smudges of dried alcohol stains.
Everybody knew the shirt. It belonged to Okudili.