The Second Path

Chapter 42

Chapter 42

He was dead.

That was all that kept replaying in my mind. From the minute the zinc door shut, to when I was dragged into the clinic's van, to when we got to the police station, to when we slept in the police station for safety and to when we all woke up the next morning to be questioned by the police officers.

I didn't want to believe what my mind was telling me, but, all my life I have seen the impossible happen.

If I said I fell asleep last night, I was lying. Everybody was sound asleep in either the van or the police station reception, pretending like we didn't just have a rough night. But I stayed up all night, staring at the ceiling of the reception area. No tears to cry, no strength to fight.

Until morning came.

"Do you understand what we're saying?" The police officer asked me.

I remained silent.

"Miriam."

I stared into space, my brain refusing to respond to anything.

"Miriam Garba." The second police officer called me.

Just leave me to die.

"Miriam Garba!" The first police officer slammed his hand on the table in front of me. It didn't scare me but just caused my brain to finally respond back to reality.

I looked up at the two police officers sitting behind the desk in front of me. They both stared back at me in frustration, probably tired of my attitude.

"I said did any of those fake soldiers touch you?" The first police officer asked while resting his back against his chair.

Usman Danladi almost did. He wasn't even just going to touch me, he was going to go all the way. That bastard.

"No." I finally responded.

The men nodded and the second police officer wrote down something on his paper, probably the statement of what happened last night.

"This man here, " The first police officer stretched out a black and white passport photo of a man printed on a sheet of paper. "did you recognize him before last night?"

I stared down at the picture. It was Mantis.

I shook my head, "No. why?"

"He was the defence lawyer for Abbas Hassan's case." He responded, "We believe he is the killer we've been looking for but unfortunately, we were not able to get enough information because he was killed last night by one of our soldiers."

"You're saying Mantis is the children killer?" I asked for more clarification, because none of this made any sense.

"Yes. Why else would he defend Abbas Hassan in court? And why else would he be leading the riot?"

I scoffed in disbelief. These police officer's speculations were far worse than mr Zamani's own. They clearly had no evidence but they were ready to dump a serious matter on a dead man's head because that was the easy way out.