CHAPTER EIGHT
Well, the estate also had a small section of the middle class. These rented apartments on some of the places set up for such use in the neighborhood and they too behaved in a similar way..
For two weeks Frank studied the people that he began to know their routine and they his. After all to them he was known as Tom the vegetable salesman. Frank was a man of limited height standing at 5feet with an athletic body and a smooth face. As Tom he wore his black pants daily and an MTN promotion T-shirt accompanied by a fake moustache and a cape. He actually looked different especially with the tire sandals he wore on a daily from the impeccably clad young uniformed policeman that Frank was. On several accounts he added a cigarette which the customers continuously advised him to drop as the habit was dangerous to his health
His favorite customer became Mrs Kityo Gladys. She worked with the National Enviromental Management Authority. She was a mother of three and a wife to one of the business tycoons staying in Bulenga. Their lovely house was found right behind the house that once Elvis called home.l before his demise.
She was a short lady of ebony complexion and an hourglass shape. She had two proportional dimples and a squeaky voice. The one thing she loved more than fruits was gossiping about the other neighbors. Everyday she bought a bunch of collard greens, a cluster of sweet yellow bananas and a few mangoes. She always parked across from the Corrolla and walked out of her car to get the fruits. She would greet Frank and ask him about his day each time. Sometimes she would make her order and then drive her car back home; promising to pick the fruits later. Gladys would return after an hour from the Gym and pick them on her way back home.
After doing a job for too long one finds situations that could have been hard totally easy. They become automatic. Using his skills, Frank gathered some information from Gladys.
'It's a shame what happened to that young man, I fear parking my car near your home for fear that he could come back for retribution. Did you know him?' Frank asked one evening as he packed her usual order except that this time there was an order of mangoes and passion fruits and tomatoes. Gladys looked at him suspiciously before smacking her lips and responding in her usually excited voice as she raised her eyebrows.
'Why do you ask, Tom?'
Frank pretending to count the fruits as he packed them took his sweet time to answer. He checked the passion fruits to make sure that they were fine and did the same to the mangoes to ensure that she didn't see the eagerness to get the juicy details she might have.
'My dear, if he was an angry man then his spirit will be too but if he was sweet then I can cease worrying about parking my Corolla near your home.' He responded with a wide smile forcing Gladys to respond with one of her own.
'I didn't know him that much so I won't lie about the dead. All I know is that he was involved with a married woman. I wouldn't be surprised if his wife dealt with him. I wouldn't be happy if my husband tried that with me.'
Gladys said with a smack on her face.
'Why do you think that? What I heard was that he didn't have any partner.'
'My bedroom is right behind that thing he called a kitchen. I heard them have an argument two weeks before he died. She was worried that her husband was suspicious and wanted to end their relationship. That Elvis didn't seem like he was in agreement with her.'
At this moment Frank noticed that now Gladys was whispering.
'You think he wanted to continue with the relationship? Her husband could also be responsible you know?" Frank wondered a loud.
'You don't get it. His wife knew and had commanded that he ends things with that married woman but he had instead demanded for a divorce.'
Silence as Frank tried to process that information as he slowly checked the collard greens.
'So one of the partners is responsible.' Frank said. It wasn't a question but a simple statement as he tried to process this new development.
'Now you are using your brain. All these cops are going around thinking that its part of the serial murders but I know different. Elvis wanted to marry that woman. I remember her saying that her husband wouldn't grant her the divorce. You…. what I found strange was how Elvis was convinced that he could make her husband grant the divorce.'
'You, my dear, know a lot.'
'And he also owed money to some loan shack and kept getting phone calls. He used the money on a certain trip and the married woman promised to help him pay it back." Gladys was excited to discuss her theory with someone else. She had been debating this information for quite some time and had been unable to voice it.
'Why do you refer to her as the married woman? You make it seem like there were others,' Frank said as he tried to probe more. Gladys smiled as though hiding a secret of her own.
'oooOh and the married woman was not the only one. There was another one who was carrying his child. If I remember correctly that one is called Beatrice. He really screamed that name, as he demanded that she aborts the pregnancy for he wasn't going to marry her. Do you see why I think the wife is guilty? So if you ask me, he wasn't as innocent as the public thinks.'
'Did the wife ever come here to see him?'
'Yes, how else do you think I know this information? Look that wife of his is tough but I assure you one thing she's guilty. Enough with the chitchat let me go home and prepare for my work out. Plus please stay away from that corner, I don't want to lose you.'
'Me or my vegetables?'
'Pretend I care about you but I can't drive to the market when I can get everything from you.' They laughed and she got her packed vegetables and fruits and went back to her car.
As she walked away, Frank tried to process the information. His team had been listening over the wire he wore everyday as he set off to go to Bulenge but they too were astonished at the amount of information she had.
They had five suspects none of which they knew and the information indeed sounded like gossip with no way of confirming it. A mistress, a wife, a loan shack, a jilted lover and a mistress' husband all suspects. No names and there was no way of identifying them. Frank and his team felt frustrated but at least they had some information no matter how unreliable it was.
A man on a motorcycle with a helmet rode in the estate that afternoon. Like Frank he too parked at a distance seeming to wait for someone or thing. Frank saw him and jotted down the plates on his motorcycle. For almost 30mins he didn't move and neither did he appear to be spying but how could Frank know at the distance he was and without seeing his eyes. The cyclist then rode to Frank's borrowed Corolla and purchased 3 yellow bananas and rode off. His voice was small almost feminine in comical way. The man was of a dark complexion judging by the color of his hairy hands. Leather gloves covered his fingers. Frank tried to be as slow as possible buying time to study the new comer in the estate. The strange man got his bananas and rode back in the same direction he had come from. He didn't speak to anyone.
Sharon Acen was known for her ruthless nature. She pushed her team so hard that even the weakest being felt the pain from a mile. Like her husband Frank Ashaba, she was using this case to be promoted. She often wondered how some of their colleagues could live by taking the job lightly. It bothered her that they were contented with being on the small town force yet there was bigger fish in the bigger towns and cities. Well she was not going to let weak-minded people slow her down. That evening after Frank told her about the strange cyclist in the estate she decided to get more involved in the case. Something really strange was happening in that estate and she wasn't going to leave any stone unturned.
But the cyclists wasn't about to be the only development in the case. That night Frank dressed in his police uniform and decided to go back to the town center and weight for anything strange. He was accompanied by William who was more interested in narrating stories about his latest female conquests to keeping watch. It was around eleven o'clock when the two police men saw a cyclist zooming by them. He looked to be in a rush. William had taken his turn on the wheel as the two law enforcers made their rounds in the estate.
Thinking the cyclist was a Boda Boda worker they continued on their drive to the town center. Few people were seen on the roads as everyone seemed to have locked their houses. The shops in the town center were locked up and at that hour it looked like a haunted town.
As they approached the cross roads in the town center they saw a headless body. William abruptly braked. They ran out to have a closer view. It was feminine and the head was next to it. eyes gouged out as the other bodies except Elvis.
Officer Frank noticed that there was something familiar about the head. Then his heart dropped as he noticed what was familiar.
Mrs Kityo Gladys. The only person that had given him more information regarding the death of Elvis was dead. Was this a coincidence or it had been a planned execution.