She Gathers Evidence(1)

Chapter Ten

"What happened, Youngest Wife?" Mama Sara came close to examine her eyes. Oh…a bruise on the knee too? What again?"

"King."

"King, again?" she was bewildered " Something is wrong somewhere… what did you do?".She perched on the Divan where she sat with her knees folded up, resting her back against the high arm of the Divan.

She was silent, her lips tightened together with the hands looping the bare legs.

Going back, Mama Sara muttered: This girl must have spoiled this thing…I must re-do it, this time, without telling her."

She sat at the vanity table and reviewed all that had happened.

Elder Mary has to probe the tape.

"As a lawyer, I must be strict with the law. His confession that Princess Abigail was inside her mother when he married her was not concrete evidence. It was made under the spiritual influence. How will Elder Mary be aided to find out the truth?

"The truth and nothing but the truth is the only thing that will pave the way for my peace and their peace," she said.

Keeping that pending, she went to the window. Yes, the more Elder Mary delays probing the claim by King, the more her heart wanders from King to Jackson…Jackson…Jackson.

He seems to be a willing heart, the type she needs because an affair with him will be totally out of any human's imagination, and has the propensity to produce a child faster.

" What will I tell him…that I love him? Hehe-hey…Lati…Lati." she mocked her shyness and began to search in her phone for a name she had on her contact list. "No". She dropped the phone and went to a drawer, took an old phone, and began to scroll and scroll until she saw the name, a name for so many years she had forgotten.

It was Petu, a friend on the Campus.

"Who is this!" Petu's excited voice could be heard ten meters away.

"I want to ask you something, after, we will surely throw banters." She tried to control her excitement to allow her to ask what made her want to contact her. First thing first they say.

"What is it that is greater than hearing from you, Lati?... You forgot me, Lati!"

"Nooo…both of us are to be blamed."

"Not me, Lati…I heard you were married to the king of Ile Ife…will I just barge into a Queen's palace uninvited?"

"Now, you are invited," said Queen Lati. "There's something I wanna ask."

" Lati-baby, what's up, ask…ask…am eager oooo!"

"You said Tim used to be on you four hours nonstop, was it real?"

Petu laughed and laughed."Lati-baby, come again."

"You heard me well."

"With whom do you want to experiment it, king?" asked Petu.

"Yes."

"At his age?...never try that Lati. It was for young people and most of those stories were made up."

" Okay, how's your hubby, I know you're married."

"Yesoooo…Lati-baby. Whoa!... He went to the villa and how about the first Queen, please, don't be offended. There was a time I heard a rumor…"

" Rumor as in…?"

"You know she was once my husband's relative's girlfriend, that's why I'm asking."

"Oh! Petu! True?" Lati asked, very much surprised." And how is he now?" asked Lati.

"Mr. Peter, he's late…just a stone's throw from our home was his home "

"Where?"

"Ilorin, 2B Azeez street our home."

"Oh. May his soul rest in peace. When was that, I mean when did they date?"

"How do you expect me to know something that happened when we were kids?"

"But the man had a wife?"

"Yes, Mrs. Peter, with two or three children. Last December, they visited."

"Oh, you went home for Xmas?"

"Normal, nah."

"So, try to visit nah.No more excuse."

"I will…I will…now that I have IV!"

"Lati, tomorrow…Ilorin. I must dig out why King married Queen Sabina during pregnancy or was it a joke? Why will a king tell an expensive joke in an important and urgent matter?... On the bus, I will continue to examine and re-examine my thoughts.

She took public transportation and landed at the garage.

Pulling her bag by the handle out of the garage, she realized she had made a great mistake. How many days is she going to stay? She would have come with one clothe in a handbag.

Now, a fine girl gifted with alluring contours dragging a traveler's bag unaccompanied along the street asking or looking for a hotel? Let not men hear that.

She tightened her lips as they ogled and ogled. Some catcalling, some using anything available to beat sound like jesters.

Straight, she set her face. Yes, she knows she is a fine girl, not just a fine girl because of her height or color or flat butts enhanced more with very good wide hips or her killer breasts that no matter how the nipples and areolas are covered, still, depict out of their covering giving eyes the shapes of two giant feeding bottles.

But the conclusion was that she was beautiful and sophisticated.

The men came out to know where she was going and girls, and women too, all were looking and looking.

She stopped a girl, she was about twenty.

" Please can I see a guest house around?" she asked her. Using the name hotel would create panic in her.

She made a U-turn to take her to a guest house.

She lodged in and it was 3 pm.

Late Mr. Peter's home was in Azeez Street with No.2B.

Petu said her husband went to the Villa. Is he at home now? She does not know him, and going in to look for him–a man who has never known her before–the husband of a school friend will sound very odd indeed.

She passed the address and it was five and the streets were very busy but she spotted a joint where they sell drinks.

A stranger on the investigation, where will she get the information? Beer parlor of course.

So, she entered and took a seat in a corner.

A woman in her early fifties, perhaps the owner of the beer parlor, came and sat with her.

" This hair fits you o," she tried to touch her red hair flowing down to her back because she has not seen her before.

She stopped and just admired the color and also complimented the length that touched down to her back.

"You haven't been here before, soon better men with money will come," she told Queen Lati.

Queen Lati's flat cheeks swelled up with a smile and unwittingly she cast eyes at two young men at a distant table eyeing her and deciding whether to call her attention.

"Not these kinds of yeye customers drinking a bottle for hours," she told her, "better ones will soon come, just wait."

Queen Lati told her she just came to relax.

Her eyes glittered with surprise."Oh. Sorry…I thought you were looking for a customer "

"No, I'm from Lagos to see a friend."

"Lagos?" she exclaimed." I was in Lagos as far back as 2005…where in Lagos?" she asked.

"Ikeja."

"Ikeja?...this world is small o!... I used to live in Agege and my shop was in Allen before I came back."

" Why?"

She laughed." Because of marriage o!"

"It's good. So, how is marriage?"

"Ah, my young sister." she hissed and waved her head a couple of times." The man just left me with two kids and I'm here looking for daily bread."

"Sorry, sorry…was he sick?" asked Lati.

She hissed louder." I never knew some men are foolish."

"Why?"

"You have a wife, and a past and failed relationship gave you heartbreak, isn't that foolishness?" asked Mrs. Peter.

She went on," I'm Mrs. Peter, my husband married me after the girl she was dating got married to the king of Ile Ife, then a prince." she continued," he told me she was pregnant with a baby boy. As foolish as he was, it so pained him because it was a boy. But we later heard she gave birth to a girl but he kept thinking about what his ex did with the baby boy she was pregnant with."

"So?"

"Because we could not have a male, he died…they said he died of heartbreak."

"How many females?" asked Queen Lati.

"God just blessed me with two. One is with me. She'll soon be back.

Just in time, a young girl walked, her eyes cast at Lati.

Lati trembled. If not just age differences she would have pinched herself if she was in a dream. She was Princess Abigail, nothing to remove, nothing to add.

"Come here, what's your name, how old are you?" Lati, in a haste, was asking, the reason for her journey jelling.

Her mother answered the questions.

She's Mirabel. She is 13."

"Mummy, who is she?" whispered Mirabel into her mummy's ear.

"Your sister from Lagos, greet her well."

"Aunty, welcome," she knelt by Lati and requested to take a picture by her side.

"Aunty, she loves you, little children…don't mind her.

"No, I'm willing," said Lati, adjusting for the picture.

She brought out her phone and snapped just once.

Miracle took more different poses using her camera.

To Queen Lati, mission accomplished. She has to take the first bus tomorrow. She was trembling with the available evidence to add to the one on the tape.

She wanted to bless the family of the late Mr. Peter.

"Ma, let's go in, I want to go," she said. At the counter, she gifted them some money.

If King is not the father of Princess Abigail, won't it cast doubt on his capability to impregnate her?

Won't it increase her craving for an affair with Jackson?

Would she be able to grab Jackson?