JAJJA

Chapter 1

"Hmmm" A throat gets cleared.

Two dark men enter the room closing the door behind them for privacy. They sit before her as a glass of water is placed before her.

"Would you tell us your name?" The familiar face speaks placing a recorder next to the untouched glass of water.

"You want to know my name yet you already know it."

"For recording purposes." He corrects giving her a sympathetic look.

"Alice Nyamba" Her voice betraying her. The events of the previous day taking a toll on her physic. She can't even hold a glass of water without it wanting to pour all over the table.

She barely takes a sip of water before barely placing it back on the table.

Watching her intently, the unfamiliar detective unfolds his thick arms from his chest reaching for the recording tape and placing it further away from Alice's hands and the glass.

With that reaction she decides to fold her fingers on her lap to compose her self further she straightens her back. Convincing herself that she can go through this.

"What was your relationship with the deceased?"

Deceased, deceased. The word rings in her head over and over again that she forgets what the question was.

"Alice?" The voice brings her back to the present.

"Sorry, what was the question again?" Remembering her posture as she pushes back her shoulders for emphasis.

"What was your relationship with the deceased?"

With a shakey breath and a lonely tear sliding down her check, she answers.

"He was my husband."

"Formally?"

"No we had been staying together for five years, then our Jaja blessed us. And to us we were married. We were so happy" A fond smile appears on her face. "Then we had our daughter. For the first year things we're fine then they became worse and before you know it he left us because he was frustrated and then he came back to us after a year but things between us were bad . We took a break. He became better, he was around more often, very attentive, trying to get back with me despite knowing l had a boyfriend then. He was fine. I don't know how this could have happened."

She rubs her face in frustration with my handkerchief. "I promised myself that l won't cry." She rubs at her eyes furiously before looking back at the detectives remembering her composed posture as though they had not witnessed her mini breakdown.

"He was my husband, friend ex-lover and baby daddy. Choose one."

"How was he like the last time you spoke to Mr Hadi?"

In thought her brows bow. "He was mysterious. But that's how he always gets when he has gotten an interesting story. I didn't think it to be anything special."

"Did he share what he was working on?"

"No" Her shoulders drop without realizing it.

"Do you know of anyone who would have wanted to hurt Mr Hadi?"

Memories she had wanted to store at the back of her brain flooded her.

Overwhelming her resolve. A loud cry leave her patched lips.

"He was good man, so good. I don't who wou..... " Another cry leaves her lips making her bow her head on the table.

"I can't do this.....l can't do this."
She sobs for quite a while before a voice interrupts her.