Neither of them tried to make small talk on the drive to the private mortuary that Jamal Popola’s body had been taken to. Amina already knew that Ire wasn’t one to partake in small talk and while she was playful and chatty to an extent, she didn’t make any attempt to talk to him. Amina didn’t know what she thought of him yet, as far as first impressions went, there wasn’t anything to dislike about him and he might be one of the most polite boys that Amina had ever met.

She’d probably be impressed by him too if Joshua didn’t want to make him her replacement. Instead of talking, she let Taylor Swift’s new album play on her car’s speaker.

The drive according to the GPS was less than an hour, but there was one thing that it didn’t account for and that was the Lagos traffic. They’d gotten into the heat of it almost twenty minutes ago and Amina was certain that the cause was something that would have been easily solved if the rickety yellow transport buses weren’t so impatient.

Despite the coolness of the air-conditioning in, Amina felt a bead of sweat drip down the back of her neck; she was feeling impatience welling up in her. She had an appointment with her spy in the mortuary for four pm. It was past four now, Amina didn’t like to be late. She knew that Jamal’s body wouldn’t stay long in the mortuary; the police had likely cleared his body of all the prints they needed and sent it to the mortuary. The body would probably be moved to where an autopsy would be performed.

The so called spy at the mortuary was a lowly cleaner; the woman didn’t know when the body would be taken. Amina had made her swear to find out but she wasn’t counting on any information any time soon, she couldn’t miss a chance to look at the body before it was moved.

A cool gust of air snapped Amina out of her thoughts and she turned her head to see Ire winding down the car window. There was a fleeting moment where childish guilt filled his eyes but it was gone a second later. He looked like he’d been trying to open the window sneakily. Had she been that deep in her thoughts?

“What are you doing?” She asked harshly. He had expressive eyes, Amina noted as she watched surprise cause his eyes to widen slightly.

He was taken aback by her whiplash tone; he’d never heard her sound anything but mildly amused and playful.

“I’m hungry,” He said, jerking his head in a nod to the hawkers that loitered the sidewalk, some of them running after cars in the line ahead to sell different snacks.

The mild amusement was back on Amina’s face. “And you couldn’t tell me.”

He shrugged, Amina noticed that he was back to looking carefully bored. “You were muttering to yourself, you looked as if you were deep in whatever you were thinking about.”

Amina waited.

“And you were scowling, I got the feeling you’d take off my head if I said your name.” He added.

Amina tapped her manicured fingernails on the wheel, she felt his gaze follow the motion and she flexed her nails like talons. “Go ahead, call one of the hawkers.”

Ire didn’t thank her; he just wound the rest of the car window down, stuck his head outside and whistled at the hawkers. Several came running.

“Gala!” He shouted and Amina snickered quietly, she didn’t understand why the old man hawking rat poison on a tray joined the race to Ire. Most people wanted to buy food in traffic; rat poison was far off the demands.

The line ahead began to move and Amina took off, cutting off a yellow bus that tried to cut into her lane.

“Oloriburuku!” The conductor hanging on to the door swore at her. She silently raised her middle finger up at him.

“Slow down, Michelle Rodriguez,” Ire warned.

“Don’t worry, they’ll follow,” Amina assured him flippantly, referring to the hawkers she’d left in the dust. Ire shot her a look -- he didn’t dare glower at her -- and stuck his head out the window, calling the gala hawker.

The cars ahead stopped moving and Amina swore under her breath. Ire didn’t seem to care as he bought about ten sausage rolls and a frozen Pepsi – she was curious to how he’d drink it and was grateful her seats were made out of leather.

“You look like you’re failing a time based quest.” He said.

Amina decided that she liked him better when he was quiet. When she said nothing in answer, he still didn’t take the cue to shut up.

“Do you think the murders are connected?” He asked. “Victor Chike was very different from Jamal Popola. Different societies, different personalities. It’s not an Orion focused attack like you thought.”

She pressed the button that wound up both windows as if she didn’t want anyone hearing him. He was right though, she’d thought Victor’s murder was the second one in an attack against The Orion Project. Orion had many enemies, many people she could think of that would want plenty of them dead. But Jamal ‘s death had disproved that theory and it made Amina wary, it seemed now, that it was a society focused attack.

“You think now that it’s a society attack. Somebody wants to get rid of the organizations on campus by killing some of the important people in them. Victor was the third in command, behind you and Jamal Popola was The Medusa Society’s leader.”

Amina realized what Ire was doing, he was trying to get her to think, find flaws in her theories and find a more solid theory. She couldn’t help but wonder what Joshua would think if he saw the both of them now. She thought that Ire might not just be her replacement but he was to spy on her. But it didn’t quite make sense, Ire hadn’t sought her out – their first meeting seemed like a genuine accident – she had sought him out this time.

“But Ahmed wasn’t an important Orion member,” Amina said aloud. Ahmed, the first murder that everybody seemed to have forgotten because he’d been killed years ago.

Ire looked surprised at the mention of Ahmed and she quickly filled him in.

“He wasn’t important, when he’d been murdered; he was a hundred level student. A fresh Orion recruit, I don’t even remember much about him because there was nothing about him that stood out.” Amina said, frowning and this time it wasn’t because of the still traffic, in fact, she’d forgotten about it.

“How do you know he’s connected to the recent murders?” Ire asked, he tore off the wrapping of a sausage roll and bit into it.

“Because he was murdered in the same Sports Center, on campus. He’d had his hands cut off at the wrist just like Victor and Jamal had a body part missing.”

Realization dawned on Amina even before Ire said it. “Amina, you’re dealing with a serial killer. These three murders weren’t done coldly and efficiently like an assassin would. I think you would know that more than anybody.”

Everybody in Orion knew that Amina was their go to mercenary, still, the reminder made her flinch. Ire continued nonetheless. “Every serial killer carefully selects their victims, there is always a pattern. Some killers only target pretty young woman, usually with the same hair color or something that is similar with all of them.”

“There’s nothing that binds the three of them together, I’m sure of it.” Amina thought of Joshua who she was sure was a target too. There had been a note on Victor’s body addressed to him and he’d received an email about Jamal’s murder. She didn’t think Joshua had anything in common with Ahmed, Victor and Jamal. Except that they were all affiliated to some organization or other.

“You’d be surprised,” Ire said softly. He ignored her probing look and polished off the last bite of the roll.

She hadn’t even considered that they might be dealing with a serial killer. But it made sense and it frightened her. Amina had dealt with wicked politicians, wealthy men who dabbled in some of the darkest stuff but she’d never dealt with a serial killer. They were always said to be more than a little twisted in the head.

She got the feeling she would be chasing them for a long time. The coaster bus in front of her car roared to life and Amina saw that traffic was clearing so she focused on the road ahead. She’d cross the bridge of serial killers when she saw Jamal’s body.

*****

A smile found its way on Joshua’s lips as he entered the new Tetfund complex; the doors were thrown open, welcoming to anyone ready to learn. The venue for the tutorial was new, a lone building surrounded by tall grass besides the Faculty of Education, it was a new building, recently built and nicknamed the Tetfund building.

Usually, the tutorial was held in a lecture hall opposite the MBA building but it was currently occupied by a group of Faculty of Science lecturers. They’d had to move.

Joshua was sure that the smile on his face looked as stiff as it felt. Most people didn’t know that The Joshua Phillips didn’t really like people, sure, he was easily one of the most popular students on campus and two years ago, he’d been the most liked too but he really loathed playing the part of social butterfly. It had been necessary though; he’d had to be well liked so he’d made friends, smiled at all the girls, and helped the boys out.

Two years ago, nobody had anything bad to say about Joshua Phillips until his father had gone to ruin that. He was still popular but now that his father was long dead, he was the one designated to answer his sins. People were wary of him so Joshua needed to remedy that, he kept a smile on when he was on campus, he extended his kindness to the freshmen too, and that was how he’d started out a tutorial session to help 100 level law students. He’d started it almost a year ago, reaching out to one of the professors in his faculty for backing and he’d gotten it.

So every two weeks on a Thursday, Joshua Phillips spent three hours with freshmen. He had help from a few other volunteers, one of them in his class and two others from 300 level students. It was bearable, sure but sometimes, Joshua wanted to scream.

He twisted the straps of his backpack and his smile slipped off, he could hear growing chatter from one of the classrooms down the right corridor, fading sunlight cast shadows on the courtyard in the middle. He took in a deep breath and just as he was about to step away from the entrance doors, somebody barged in and bumped into him hard.

Joshua lost it and swore very loudly. He hadn’t seen the attack coming and he tried to steady himself but the person who’d bumped into him was heavy and he fell to the tiled floor, his palms in front of him to caution his fall.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” A high pitched voice said. Joshua rolled on to his back and glowered at the person standing in front of him. It was a girl and he knew her.

“Are you fucking blind?” He shouted.

To her credit, she looked chastened, her lips twisted apologetically and her eyes kept darting over his body as if she was checking where he was hurt. She bent in front of him and without his permission; she forcefully reached for his hands and yanked him that he was sitting up.

“Are you hurt?” She asked. Joshua gritted his teeth, his pride was hurt. He pushed her shoulders and she stumbled, falling on her ass. “What is your problem?”

He stood and brushed off dust from his black trousers. He swore again, he knew he should have changed into casual clothes. She’d gotten his shirt dirty too.

“Hey, I have a spare shirt,” She said. Joshua ignored her and continued to fruitlessly dust his clothes and his backpack. He looked like a school boy after a rough day playing ball with his mates.

Joshua was breathing harshly, he tried to keep calm and not explode but his rein on his anger was slipping.

“You stupid, stupid girl.” He snapped. “Do you bring chaos everywhere you go?” He hissed at her, referring to the line she’d caused at the university gates a week ago. She stopped rummaging in her tote bag and flinched.

Spurred by his anger, Joshua continued. “You think this is quirky, causing a scene because you want to be seen?”

Her own face twisted in anger and for a brief moment, Joshua thought she would reach out and hit him when she bunched her right hand in a fist. She didn’t though; she only reached into her bag and pulled out a crumpled t-shirt out of it like a magic trick. She shoved it at his chest.

“You think a few swear words and a sneer is intimidating? Get over yourself, Phillips. If I wanted to hit you, you wouldn’t see it coming.” She muttered angrily, without another word, she brushed past him.

Joshua glanced at the shirt in his hands with disdain. He didn’t put it on though; he only marched after her, to the classroom.

Inside, up to fifty students chatted loudly. Not all of them were law students though, Joshua noted, 100 level students wore their black and white like a badge of honor, they were proud to be law students, they stood out now. There were a few other students in casual clothing.

“Political science students.” A voice came from behind Joshua. He managed not to jump in surprise. He turned around to face Uche Dike; the only other 400 level student volunteering.

She wore a wry smile on her face but Joshua couldn’t bring himself to replicate it; he cursed himself again for not changing. Uche was wearing jeans and an Ankara shirt with a slit between her chest that hinted at her cleavage. Uche was one of those people that could wear rags and still look stunning in them; she was fair skinned and an inch or two taller than he was. She wasn’t voluptuous by any means but her hips curved generously. Joshua could name at least five people who thought she was the hottest girl in their class.

She’d also briefly dated Firepemi Kingston, it meant that they weren’t quite friends but were friendly enough that she was the first person he’d approached to volunteer for his tutorial.

“Uche,” He greeted sourly. She quirked a brow at his clothes but she said nothing.

“I assume you’ve been in school all day, shame you heard about the cancelled classes too late.” She said. Joshua didn’t tell her that he was in school every day of the week, classes or not.

“I’m just glad that it cuts down our crowd here by half,” Joshua replied. He couldn’t imagine dealing with more than a hundred students on a day like this.

Uche touched his shoulder and Joshua followed the motion and saw that her nail polish was chipped on several fingers.

“Let’s just get this over with.” She said distractedly.

A few minutes later, she’d managed to get the class settled and began the first tutorial of the semester. Joshua found out that one of the courses he and Uche were taking was one that several Political Science students were borrowing too. He stood at the door for the duration of the lecture, watching the girl. She sat at the back of the class, seemingly paying attention to everything Uche said about the Nigerian constitution and Joshua tried to watch for anything strange with her. He kept getting the feeling that he knew her from somewhere.

She raised her hand to answer a question Uche had thrown to the class.

“Yes, uhm, what is your name?” That was an Uche thing, she liked to know the name of every student she interacted with and she always seemed to remember their names.

Joshua found himself tensing, he wanted to know her name and as if she could read his mind, her eyes met his from the back of the room.

“Nina with an h.” She answered. “My name’s Ninah Adam.”

Of course, she had the same name with Joshua’s ex girlfriend. Nina St. Clair had made his life hell.

“That’s a peculiar spelling,” Uche noted lightly. Ninah seemed to hesitate.

“It’s short for Peninnah.”

Joshua gave a snort without meaning to and all eyes turned to him.

“Not even good enough to be called Hannah.” He quipped, making his voice light that everyone thought he was joking. Everybody but Uche and Ninah burst into laughter.

“What can I say, Phillips? I’m petty, not good natured enough to be a Hannah.”

Uche cleared her throat before Joshua could give Ninah an answer. “Can we get back to the question?”

Joshua said nothing for the duration of the lecture and Ninah didn’t answer any more questions asked. But he didn’t take his eyes off her.

*****

Amina was grateful she had turned down one of Ire’s sausage rolls because Jamal Popola’s body was more disgusting up close. It wasn’t a thing people would say while he’d been alive but his killer had turned his body into grim art.

The cleaning lady crunched her nose up because of the smell, she stared at both Amina and Ire incredulously, and she probably thought that the both of them were one of those rumored ritualists who bought body parts from mortuaries. Amina had several staff across several mortuaries on her payroll; she paid them to keep tabs on the dead for her. She’d come to them many times to confirm that people she’d killed actually stayed dead. Amina liked to cover all bases thoroughly.

“Leave us,” Amina commanded the older woman who was all too glad to scurry out and leave them with the dead.

“Okay, tell me everything you can see.” She said to Ire.

He laughed softly, his eyes never leaving Jamal’s body laid out on the tray.

“You’re clever,” He said. He’d finally figured out the reason why Amina had brought him along. Up till a month ago, he’d been a three hundred level forensic medicine student and she needed somebody to look at a dead body.

“Start telling me things I don’t know, Ire.” She deadpanned. She took out her phone and took several pictures of the body. With her glove clad hands, she turned Jamal’s head to the side to take a closer picture of the lines around his neck. Amina didn’t dare show a flicker of disgust when she slid down the sheet covering his body.

Ire cleared his throat, the sound echoing in the silent room. “The marks on his neck tell enough, he was strangled, with something thin, I think the attacker snuck from behind him to strangle him, enough to cause him to pass out but it’s the knife wounds and slashes that killed him – look here, “ He pointed to the mark above his stomach and Amina’s eyes followed. “The knife cut deep, puncturing vital organs and causing him to bleed to death.”

“I think he died very slowly, this wasn’t a swift kill. The killer savored this kill.”

Ire’s eyes were pointed and Amina heard his unspoken words. Only a serial killer lived off the thrill of watching their victim die. Jamal Popola wasn’t the nicest person around but Amina wondered what he’d done this time to warrant a brutal death. She wondered what Victor had done and she felt a pang of pain.

Victor had been her friend; he didn’t have the taste for violence like her and Joshua. Amina wasn’t saying that he was innocent – he’d run Orion’s brief stint with dealing drugs, an operation that Remilekun Phillips had forced on Joshua – but he hadn’t deserved to die like he had.

“His hand was severed.” Amina added, forcing herself to return to the task at hand.

Ire made a humming sound. “I reckon that was done after he died, it looks like a very clean job. He would have struggled if he’d been alive.”

“He could have been sedated.” Amina argued.

Ire shrugged. “I can’t say. I’m making deductions, remember? But I highly doubt it, Amina. According to your sources, it’s been a recurring thing for the past three bodies to be found striped of their clothes. The killer is enjoying their pain, they wanted them to suffer. It’s why in death, they still suffer some form of humiliation.”

“Let me guess, you find serial killers fascinating, maybe you even read crime fiction.” Amina mocked.

Ire took a step back from the body, he didn’t appear offended. Amina watched his lips quirk up in a smile.

“Is that a deduction?” He asked, fiddling with the collars of his jacket.

Amina shrugged. She wasn’t sure what to do with the new information; she usually killed people and not solve murders. All she knew was to compare Jamal’s murder with the past two, to see that they matched perfectly. Maybe Ire was right, maybe they were dealing with a serial killer; maybe she had to start comparing the victims, looking for similarities in personalities before this killer got to Joshua next.

*****

Have yourselves a Merry Christmas! Hi, I've been gone a while and it's a triple update this time.

Tell me everything you think about TWG so far, theories, romantic pairings and the likes!