The Roosting Curse

Dr.

6:28AM: KADUNA STATE POLICE DEPARTMENT

Detective Franklin Julian arrived at his office an hour and a half before his actual resumption time only to find his partner already at work.

He studied him quietly for a bit seeing how engrossed he was in the case files laid around on every surface of the office.

He had a pen stuck behind his ear which he retrieved at intervals to jot down on a little pad.

He wiped a handkerchief over his forehead and took a tired drag from a cup wedged between the files on his table.

'Murad?' Franklin finally called, 'what's up man?'
'Frank!' Murad answered and he walked over to shake hands with his partner, 'what are you doing here man? Shouldn't you be home with Judy?'

'And shouldn't you be home with Hanna?' Frank replied evenly.
'I couldn't sleep man and I was worried that I wouldn't be much good to her now that my mood is in a topsy turvy', he replied grimly.

Hanna was Murad's daughter from his ex-wife, Farida who left when the girl was three months old to pursue a modelling career.

Murad had been deeply hurt when she left because he had loved her immensely and had tried to convince her to come to a less drastic decision, anything other than a divorce but she remained adamant.

After the divorce was finalized, she passed up her partial guardianship of Hanna to him saying that her future didn't include a child.

Farida moved out of their home and never looked back but all that was four years ago. Now Hanna was his very heart, he raised her himself with help from his Mom who started living with him after his father's death. It was just the three of them against the world.

'How's Hanna by the way?' Franklin asked while settling into his chair with a file.
'She's awesome as always, she wants to invite all her age mates in our neighbourhood to a slumber party. How I am going to organise that is still beyond me', Murad smiled faintly.

'I knew I loved that girl, she helps me torture you', Frank joked.
'Asshole', Murad said.
'It takes one to know one', Frank laughed, 'but you can always say no', he added playfully.

'I could never say no to Goldie', Murad said calling Hanna by her pet name.
'of course not but you'll figure it out', Frank said, 'has Anas got anything new on the case?' he added after a lapse.
'Not yet but I am conducting background checks on the victims to see whether there were threats on their lives, or if one of them got into a confrontation with an acquaintance. That could give us probable cause and then we may find someone to bring in for questioning', came Murad's prompt response.

'Anything yet?', Frank asked.
'Well it depends on what we unearth on this guy', Murad said passing a file over to Frank, 'meet Omar Jesse, a senior lecturer at the Kaduna Polytechnic and Nina's colleague. He worked with Nina on a joint project with the National Environmental Protection Agency for which Nina received critical acclaim and a promotion. Their friendship began to go cold afterwards because such light didn't shine on Omar. He only got an honorary award and in one occasion, the faculty security had to be called to escort him out of Nina's office. He had threatened to expose her fraud or die trying', Murad concluded.

'Bloody hell! What happened? They seem to have been such good buddies', Frank said flipping through the file.
'Well strong affection can easily become strong hate. I mean, Nina got to attend multiple meetings at Aso Rock Villa as the representative for Kadpoly after the project they both worked on while he sat and watched from the sidelines. In comparison to her he got nothing', Murad added.

'So he kills her?' Frank asked a little sceptical.
'He's got motive, we can bring him in and work his angle, see what comes of it', Murad suggested.
'But what about the Noah case? These two cases are connected, the crime was committed in the same fashion, the exact same MO', Frank said.

'I know, perhaps we can find something that connects the two, perhaps they have a history of some sorts. Anyhow, I strongly believe we should bring in Omar for questioning', Murad suggested.
'Yeah', Frank said looking over the file, 'man you did some solid work here.'

'I have to. I was the one who wouldn't even entertain for a second that Alex Noah could be innocent', Murad stated solemnly, 'I pushed for a conviction, I thought he had to be the one but look what we have; someone else may have done this and Alex is just a man hurting on different levels and I contributed to putting him in jail.'

'Dude, that's on all of us. We measured the evidence and came to a rational conclusion. I will not have you beat yourself up for something we had no control over', Frank said strongly, 'we just gotta find the nut-jobs doing this and bring them to justice.'

'Yeah', Murad replied, 'we wait till nine to go pick up Omar right? I mean at this hour only freaks like us will be in office', Murad joked and they both managed a laugh.

'Let's go get some coffee', Frank said holding the door open for his partner as they headed to the cafeteria.