Countless times Osi subconsciously touched his lips as he remembered the kiss from earlier. Although it had been brief, it felt like heaven.
He cringed at the comparison and sighed inwardly.
-My God...you're really backsliding...
But the kiss isn't a sin now, as long as my thoughts are clean right?
-And who told you your thoughts were clean?
Arrrgh...okay I'd remember to pray for forgiveness...
-don't forget to pray for grace too, you'll need it...Imagine if you got hit by a bus now?
He put an end to the internal debate raging in his head and continued towards his destination.
His mind was on Paul now, Amara's point about his strong perfume had been too strong too ignore. He still had Steve on his mind; his clash with the European was too fresh and violent in his mind to be ignored also.

.·.·.·.·.·
He reached the house finally and just like before he met the same woman (Paul's mother) outside but this time she was cracking palmkernels with a large stone and dropping the seeds in a basket.
"Mama Ndewoo...please I'm here to see Paul again...he's my close friend" he added when she looked at him suspiciously (Another lie... His conscience reminded him again)
The woman smiled "welcome my son, please go inside, Paul went to run an errand for me but he'd be back very soon"
"Okay, I appreciate" he gave her a charming smile and entered the house.
The parlour was modestly designed with a three seater couch and a soft shade of red carpet that matched with the curtains.
On the wall were some pictures and Osi stood still admiring them for some minutes.
There was Paul and his sister smiling as children and different portraits of them as babies.
He noticed there was another child in the picture. He couldn't tell if it was a boy or girl and he spent time on the photo and traced his hand on the face.
He felt there was a slight resemblance between this baby's face and Paul.
"His name was Peter"
He jerked involuntarily at the voice and turned around trying not to look guilty.
He smiled at Oluchi.
"Hello...Peter you say, what do you mean by was?"
She dropped the bucket in her hand and sat down. She had been going to fetch water.
"Yes he was my brother, my immediate elder, after Paul. He died of pneumonia at the age of 6"
"Jesus...I'm so sorry"
Oluchi nodded solemnly "its alright I wasn't even born yet, my mother told me when I was much older"

Osi sat down beside her. He had been entertaining the thought of snooping through Paul's things quickly, thinking he was the only one in the house which was why her voice had jolted him. But now he wondered if he could get information from her about her brother.
"Have you been to the hospital too, how is Joy?" Oluchi asked him first
"Yes, I left there not long ago"
"I wanted to take my bath and go over there, I hope she's okay and Amara too?"
"Yes she's much better, wait....how did you find out?"
"My brother told me this morning. Apparently the news is all over Amaife"
"But how did it spread so fast? The incident happened late last night and the hospital is not even in Amaife" he tried to keep the doubt and suspicion out of his voice.
Paul was affiliated with a band of kidnappers meaning he was no saint, Osi wasn't sure but he thought Paul didn't really have large feet, he'd need to confirm though. And to top it all according to Amara he had a strong deodorant or aftershave. The only glitch was that Paul didn't wear okrika, he wore expensive designers but Osi waved it off. It was possible that Paul had a stash somewhere and wore it during his evil operations or perhaps he left the pieces as a distraction to point all suspicions somewhere else, to Okudili and it had worked. Yes it was highly possible maybe the devil didn't wear okrika, after all they say the devil wears Prada.
"Hello, are you still with me?" Oluchi asked him worriedly
He blinked "yes...yes...you were saying?"
"I said who would be trying to copy Okudili and continue these terrible crimes now that he's dead or do you think it was just a random coincidence?"
"No....I don't believe in coincidences" he hesitated about telling her Okudili was never the killer. If he should tell her and ask questions about Paul she might become suspicious and refuse to answer. On the other hand he had a responsibility to alert her for the sake of her safety (Although the irony was if Paul was indeed the killer then she was safe. Or was she?)
So he looked into her eyes and told her convincingly "look I believe Okudili was innocent, the real killer framed him and then killed him probably because he knew something"
"Jesus! But who?"
"I don't know..." That was the question, who? And he was no closer to answering it. He felt he was wasting precious time. He had less than 72 hours to spend in Amaife and he was still in square one. Or maybe not square one but he hadn't really gotten anywhere either.
Oluchi was visibly shaken and uncomfortable "I don't think I can go anywhere alone, even to the hospital. Please would you take me?"
Osi saw a possible opening to make a move "no problem your safety comes first. I just have one problem"
"What is that?"
"My shoe has been killing me, I don't know if my feet doubled in size over night or the shoe shrunk" she glanced at his feet. He had big, long feet like most tall people were known for but the shoe looked comfortable.
"I don't know if..." He scratched his head like he was shy and unsure.
"If what? Tell me now" she whined
Yes, curiosity worked every time.
"You know what forget it, I'll manage, it won't be proper"
"What won't be proper? Seriously tell me I'll do it for you" she was almost pleading.
"Okay...I meant if your brother has any spare footwear that I can borrow because I can't walk in this shoe...not that kind of distance" with the lies he had told this past week. He would need to spend a whole full days begging for forgiveness.
"Oh, okay...Paul has about a dozen shoes and I'm sure he won't mind as long as you return them"
"Surely, before evening" He was going to change his mind the minute he could get his hand on the shoe and run a mental comparison between the print size in the sand and the shoe size or better still..."I'd prefer if its a sports shoe preferably trainers."
She nodded and got up "he has one of those, although it's his favourite" She frowned suddenly "uh-oh"
"What, what's wrong?"
"What size do you wear?"
"46, why?"
"Oooh, Paul's shoe would not size you his feet is definitely smaller than 46"
Osi sighed inwardly. He just needed to look at the shoe although she had just told him what he wanted to know and she wasn't done. "46! Your feet is really huge...I'm not even sure Paul's own is up to 42"
"Hmmm..." He chewed on this information and was about to ask her if he owned any second hand clothes (with the excuse of donation to the less privileged-anything to get a reply from her) when the door opened and Paul came in.
He frowned immediately he saw Osi and struggled to hide his discomfort. Osi noticed it and wondered if he was bothered about what Oluchi might have learnt from him or what he might have learnt from her.

.·.·.·.·.·
The doctor, after running some tests and observing Joy decided she was ready to be discharged.
"The blow to her head was quite hard...thank God it didn't result in amnesia..or something worse"
Dé Nwachukwu shook his head angrily. If only he could get his hands on whoever had done this to his daughter...
He had almost had a heart attack last night seeing Joy on the floor, unconscious and unmoving.
"I'd recommend a lot of rest and that you finish your drugs, follow the instructions and don't miss any one"
"Yes doctor I will" Joy assured her. She couldn't wait to leave the hospital. She had been horizontal for hours and she hated hospitals.
"I'd make sure she takes it" Amara added
"Okay, we just have to wait for the last drip to finish, we never rush it you know"
The doctor smiled at Joy's expression "it shouldn't take up to an hour then you're free to go"
"Don't worry doctor, what ever it takes there is no hurry" De' Nwachukwu said.

It took 30 minutes but the drip finally finished.
After disturbing her father that she was uncomfortable, Dé Nwachukwu stood up "let me go and get the doctor, baby ndo' oo... (sorry oo) Amara will prepare groundnut soup, your favourite when we get home"
Joy's face brightened immediately and Amara smiled, her sister loved the dish.
Dé Nwachukwu exited the room to look for the doctor.
Immediately he was gone and out of earshot Amara asked joy: "Are you sure you didn't forget anything...the slightest detail might be very important"
"No I don't think so...honestly I just want to forget about everything"
Amara nodded then looked at the door as it opened, expecting to see her father come in but instead it was Paul and Oluchi.
"Aaaaw...my baby, my sister..." Oluchi cried over Joy as she hurried to the bed.
She turned to Amara. "The youths are finally starting to act...the church is organising a rape awareness program and Pastor Bartholomew announced there is going to be a special youth task force in charge of the program. You were nominated today as one of the leaders...the secretary I think. We're about ten...me too I'm the treasurer! We are supposed to have a meeting with Pastor Bartholomeu tonight in church"
Amara nodded "That's a good one...good initiative" but her mind was on Paul and she eyed him suspiciously as he strode towards her with uncertain movements.
"Hi"
"Hi"
"I'm sorry to hear what happened...I'm just glad your father was there to save her"
"Yes, yes...whoever this killer is his time is up, he's going to pay for everything" it was definitely a threat and her gaze didn't waver as she stared Paul in the eyes.
He was the first to look away.
"Yes...I totally agree with you, the son of a bitch needs to be caught"

.·.·.·.·.·
Osi roamed the village thinking about what he had learnt so far which was a lot but still didn't amount to much.
Paul had said he would take his sister to the hospital instead and he had been ushered from the house in a polite but hasty manner.
He sighed in frustration, the missing letter, the okrika clothes and the shoe print. Those were the major clues he had. Now he had to figure out how to connect them to the killer. It was either Paul or Steve.
The letter was tied to Steve because of the similar writing and the strange manner it had disappeared in his home but the shoe print was tied to Paul who had little feet the size of cloth pegs. What he needed to do was to link the okrika to one of them. That was the major clue and then the case would be solved.
He saw a familiar face in the market and searched his memory trying to recall the name. "Sofi...Sofiri!!!"
Pastor Bartholomew's younger brother turned and scanned the faces looking for who had called him.
He saw Osi smiled and came over, crossing the short gutter and Osi noticed he wasn't alone. A woman was with him. She had to be his wife, the one pastor Batholomew had said provided lunch and dinner everyday and Osi couldn't help noticing that they made quite an odd couple. For one she was huge, Ovie's size actually and while Sofiri wasn't slim per say there was still a sharp contrast in their size.
"Pastor, it's so nice to see you. I heard you stayed behind" Sofiri pumped his hand furiously
"Yes. I have some unfinished business but I'd be gone by Saturday"
"Oh...I thought you were going to remain as one of us"
"No..I have responsibilities in PortHacourt but I'd surely visit once in a while"
"Okay, this is my very lovely wife Mabel"
"It's a pleasure to meet you"
Osi took her hand and returned the smile.
He suddenly felt in his spirit that this moment was important.
Although why it should be important was foreign to him.
Mabel was a ray of sunshine. She was currently smiling, still yet to let go of his hand and saying: "You need to come over for dinner one of these days, if you can before you travel"
"Baby I'm sure the pastor is really swamped with responsibilities" Sofiri said. There was a certain edge to his voice that set off alarm bells in Osi's head.
Osi couldn't remember when he had eaten a proper meal. Since Bukky had left with his friends his diet had consisted of cereal and noodles and today was his birthday after all.
"You know what...I'd love to drop by, if tonight won't be too imposing...it's my birthday actually"
Sofiri was surprised but before he could speak his wife beamed with joy "really..you're very welcome then and Oh...happy birthday"