Working Cases - Episode 3

 

I have come to realize the people who can get me the answers I need are usually either dead or mentally challenged.
Lanre Abidemi, multimillionaire investment banker and money laundering crime magnate, definitely fit the former. He was dead. Very dead—I mean, a triple dose of bullet to the head can’t leave you anything but dead.
I had the pleasure of being first officer on scene, it’s like I'm psychic or something, because I was on my way to see Mr. Lanre after the information Natalie had given me earlier in the day . From the information I gathered from his neighbors, shots had been heard coming from Lanre’s house about five minutes before I arrived. Two or three men, depending on who you asked, had visited Lanre ten minutes before then. That was about fifteen minutes ago, around the time I pulled out of the driveway on my way here. Nobody had seen the men’s faces and that was understandable for one of the most obvious reasons.
Lanre’s house was big. One could have easily fitted two large shopping malls in and still had enough space to plant a garden and keep a herd of cattle. And it was fenced round, with recently repainted white walls that shot up ten meters high. You could do almost anything in there and no one would be the wiser. 
It was fancily decorated too

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. I had waited for the next group of officers to join me and we had gone into the house to see. That was where we had seen Lanre, sprawled out on the ground, holes in his head, blood and brains on the floor and some on the walls. There were a few kola nuts on the table and three half-finished glasses of wine. It was either a social visit gone wrong or some of Lanre’s friends had come to off him without him knowing about it. 
Forensics swept the room looking for evidence and I stood a bit of a ways off, my back against the wall, examining the details and trying to figure out what went down.
“Looks like someone got to him first, huh?” Natalie walked gingerly over to me, her face screwed up in disgust as she sidestepped a bit of grey matter on the rug.
I raised myself off the wall. “Yeah. It doesn’t make sense that they would kill him, unless they were friends of Duncan’s looking for retaliation, but I have a feeling these were some of the same people who killed Duncan. I mean, why kill Lanre if he helped them kill Duncan?”
“Maybe, they figured Lanre had been exposed or that you were on your way to see him.”
“It doesn’t hold up. They were here even before I got my car on the road.”
“Gabe saw him. Gabe saw Lanre’s face, but he didn’t see the rest of the men’s faces. Maybe they saw me talking to Gabe and decided to tie up the loose ends.” Natalie said. She sighed and ran a hand through her long black hair, smoothing out the loose hairs.
“But, why not just kill Gabe?” I asked. Wouldn’t it be easier to take out the one person who could link them to anything?
“Kill Gabe?” She looked at me like I just suggested she should drown her dog, “Even if your heart was the darkest shade of black, you would never hurt Gabe. He’s challenged, and orphaned, yet he’s so kind and helpful. He’s like everyone’s son around here. He sleeps in whoever’s house he feels like.” She gave me a pointed look, “Everyone loves Gabe.”
“Okay, I get it,” I said to calm her down, “Everyone loves Gabe. I'm still new in town. I don’t know the guy very well.”
A light bulb flickered to life in my brain. “Come here,” I beckoned her to follow me as I approached the body.
“Found a clue, Sherlock?” she sniggered behind me.
“As a matter of fact, yes, I have. When you first told me, Lanre had been at Duncan’s house, I thought Lanre had killed him because he slept with his wife and acquired half his business in the same month.”
“Duncan slept with Lanre’s wife? How do you know that?”
“Gabe told me.”
She sniggered again.
“Hey,” I said, “I didn’t say Gabe wasn’t helpful, just that I didn’t know him very well, and besides, it was on our first meeting and it came up when we were talking about the people in this part of town.”
“Focus, Sherlock.”
“Anyway, Duncan was clearly into whatever illegal business Lanre was into and there was a disagreement between them and Lanre and the rest of the guys killed Duncan.”
“Yes?” From the look on Natalie’s face, I could tell she was putting it together too.
I continued. “But, Gabe saw Lanre, and they couldn’t kill Gabe because no one’s that evil, and they realized that if Lanre’s name was mentioned, I or any other detective would figure it out–––”
“So, they killed Lanre so he couldn’t give the rest of them away.” She cut in.
I smiled, “Exactly.”
“So we have Duncan’s killer.” She nodded towards the body on the ground.
“We have Duncan’s killer. That leaves us with the other two or three guys involved. There are three glasses on the table, but that could mean either two others plus Lanre, or Lanre didn’t pour a glass for himself but only for his visitors. But that isn’t all.”
“You have something else?” she asked.
I pointed at the wall, “There’s blood on the wall. Now, there’re no signs of a struggle. And the way Lanre was shot shows there’s no way his blood could get on the wall.”
“So it’s one of the other guys’ blood?”
“Yeah, there were three shots fired,” I pointed at the forensic report, “but only two bullets are in Lanre’s head. Also, there are three holes in his head and one of the holes is twice as wide as the other two.”
“What does that mean?”
“Something extremely rare! The third bullet ricocheted off Lanre’s skull at an odd angle and hit one of his assailants somewhere on their upper body causing the blood spray on the wall.” I beamed at her. I was very proud of myself for noticing that one.
“So, that means we can test the blood on the wall, and also look for anybody who reports at the hospital for an upper body gunshot wound, or just anyone found in the vicinity with an injury?” I could tell she couldn’t believe how easy it would be to catch the other guy. 
“Yes,” I smiled again, “We’ve found our second killer. Let’s hope killer number three is with him.”  
“Or the hypothetically possible killer number four, you know, the third guy that walked in to visit Lanre.” She said.
“Yeah,” I drawled, “but there’s no evidence to prove more than two visitors. He’s still…” I probed my brain for the right word, “Invisible.”