BABY TUNMISE

Chapter Five

A few days passed and soon, it had been a week since the disappearance of Tunmise. The police still hadn't said anything useful, nobody had come forward to confess that they were the one who kidnapped the baby, and Dipo was starting to think that the disappearance of his baby was a metaphysical occurrence.

There was simply no way to explain it. He was starting to believe in witchcraft. Perhaps some witches were angry with him? They probably were, anyway.

And then he received the call.

The business could not wait. His business partners were already threatening him. When he let the phone drop from his hands, he was trembling and sweating profusely.

What did he have to live for? He needed his baby.

* * *

Tamilore knew that if, going by logic, indeed, one of the people currently in her house (or perhaps they had a partner) was her baby's kidnapper, she had to watch herself around them, but it still felt weird, and she couldn't.

For most of her life, all she had ever known her sisters was that-sisters. She loved them and she knew they loved her too. And then Bisola got married, and Tamilore had love for her sister's husband too. And only God knew...if she found out that it was one of her domestic helps that was responsible for this, she wouldn't think twice before she killed whoever.

* * *

In the night, Bisola, Dami, and her husband were in one of the guest rooms, the one they had been sleeping in since they got here.

The others had retired into their rooms too. It was late, around eleven o'clock. Dami was fast asleep, but her father was on his laptop, working on some documents, while Bisola was deep in thought.

The electricity suddenly went off, and it didn't come on for about fifteen minutes. In those fifteen minutes, Bisola suddenly felt a rush of desire come to her. Maybe it was the pregnancy hormones, because she hadn't been sexually aroused in a while now.

The darkness wasn't helping matters. Bisola felt like an adrenaline-filled teenage girl again, trying to get a few thrusts from her lover in the middle of the night, on a busy road with a police man on patrol.

She boldly walked towards to her husband and he raised his gaze from the laptop and focused on her. She carried the laptop and placed it on the wooden table, then she sat on his laps. She smiled mischievously when she heard him gasp.

She placed a light kiss on his lips. Before she needed to deepen it, her husband already slipped his tongue into hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck and savoured his scent.

"I have missed you," he whispered. She nodded against his ear.

"I can't wait..." he slipped his hand into her top, "...for this mess to be over so..." he twirled a nipple, "...we can go home."

He made her stand up, then he walked both of them towards the bed, shifting his sleeping daughter to the far end of it, near the wall.

* * *

When Itunu woke up, she felt dirty. She knew she couldn't go to the living room yet, because she knew she wouldn't be able to come back into the room for a long time with everybody sitting there, so she decided to brush her teeth and have her bath now.

She stood up from her bed and checked the time. It was past seven. Itunu never woke up this early in her house, but how could she afford to wake up late here, with everything that was going on? She would look extremely insensitive.

The lights annoyed her greatly. Itunu wasn't used to sleeping with the lights on; in her house she always turned off the lights before she slept. But here...with the situation at hand, she could take afford to sleep in the dark. What if the notorious kidnapper came and tried to stab her or worse, kidnap her too? What then? At least with the lights on, she had a good chance of seeing and identifying them, whoever they were.

The reality that the person who kidnapped her cousin was in this house, with them, frightened Itunu greatly. What if one of the people she knew and loved as family members were a murderer? What if she didn't survive this ordeal?

She knew these were frightening thoughts, but Itunu didn't know why she wasn't scared. Maybe it was because she couldn't imagine that her aunties or their husbands could do such a thing, she thought.

Itunu tried to push her thoughts to the back of her mind. She went to her travelling bag and brought out the smaller bag that contained her toiletries. Itunu looked at her travelling bag; it was small. Her and her mother didn't plan that she would spend a lot of days here at all, but a criminal among them had other plans.

She went into the bathroom. It was bigger than the one she used in her house. The tiles were a light blue, and the toilets were light blue, too. Even the sink was blue. It had a beautiful mirror. She filled the bucket with water and turned it off, then she washed her face with soap, and started brushing her teeth in the sink.

After that, she removed all her clothes and wetted her sponge, then rubbed it with soap. Then she had her bath.

When she finished in the bathroom, she towelled her body and went into the room. There, she returned her toiletries bag back to where it was. She looked at the floor, at the rug. It was quite dirty. She decided to sweep it first.

She turned off the AC and got a broom and a packer from behind the door and started sweeping. When she was done, she packed the dirts returned the broom back to where it was before. Then she turned the AC back on and went into the bathroom to wash her hands in the skin.

She still hadn't dressed up. She went into her travelling bag and brought out her black joggers and a blue shirt. She chose the outfit to appear moody and serious.

Then, something caught Itunu's eye.

In her bag, was a torn piece of yellow cardboard. Itunu didn't think it was hers, she didn't remember the last time she set her eyes on cardboard. Maybe that was in JSS2, when her teachers have her mid-term projects to do on cardboard. But now? It wasn't possible.

She curiously brought it out. It was blank. But then she turned it, and scribbled on the other side were the words, help me.