Familiar Foe √

Epilogue

     I had only been to one funeral in my entire life, until now. Just like the first, it was awkward but Charles insisted that we went even if we sat at the back, which was where we were at the moment. It didn't make that much of a difference, he was an uncomfortable mess until Vera Coker mounted the podium to deliver her tribute, then he became a weeping statue, sat still with silent tears rolling down his cheeks.

He had read a tribute to his parents at their funeral and unlike Vera who looked like she was reciting a well rehearsed poem, he had meant every word because he had written it. I placed a hand over his tightly clasped ones and felt him jerk.

"Are you okay?" He quickly unlinked them so he could wipe his eyes before turning to me.

"I'm fine. You should be worried about Tamara, she looks pissed."

It was the easiest thing to notice once you got past the market women crying behind her. Everyone could see it was for show. Of course Mrs. Coker was beloved to many but these women with their designer bags and matching attire were clearly relieved at the loss of a competitor.

The funeral was intended to be small and private but word got out and the little church was filled to the last pew. Men in flashy suits and hard accessories kept trooping in to whisper few words to Funmi before leaving almost immediately.

Things got more dramatic when the congregation was called to the altar to pay their last respects with one final look at Mrs. Idara Coker in her open casket. Funmi held on to Vera, not letting her behold the dead face of their mother, again.

Tamara stared for a while, her dark shades not letting her emotions be seen but I could bet she shed a few tears. It wasn't easy, losing a family member at the hands of another family member and that was what Sade had been to her, what she'd always be because Funmi insisted the information be kept away from her sisters and the genera public.

Mrs. Coker was dressed in her wedding gown and just like the first time I had seen her, her beauty was apparent. I wanted to hold her to her actions against a girl that called her mother but just like it was with my own mother, I couldn't bring myself to. All I could do was utter a quiet farewell and pray that wherever she went from here, she found some peace.

It took a while to get some weeping strangers away from the casket but after that, it wasn't long before the church service was over.

    The body was to be laid to rest at the Coker compound and luckily for me, Charles wasn't going to go there even if he was offered a bribe of a million naira which was very unlikely since I was pretty sure the Coker girls weren't any more delighted to see our faces.

Tamara approached us outside the church as the casket was being loaded into a white van. She still had on her dark shades and her black scarf hung around her neck so it flew with the wind behind her.

"Detective Banky." Her lips lifted in a smile and he nodded at her.

"Detective Kaima." The smile was gone.

"Tamara. It was a nice funeral."

"It was mundane at best. That is what you get when Funmi is in charge, you know. With our senior sister being incarcerated and all that."

The case was still in court but I wasn't going to point that out, there was no doubt that Sade was going down.

"Funmi said the charges against her are second degree murder and post mortem assault and that's cool, whatever it means but can't I charge her for greed or something because the lawyer said mom was preparing to change the next of kin and make us all equal beneficiaries and that is why that greedy bitch killed her."