Chapter 15 Wrong Girl

“I realized that the barrier to girls’ education isn’t just resources. It’s also about attitudes and beliefs – the belief that girls simply aren’t worthy of an education; that women should have no role outside the home; that their bodies aren’t their own, their minds don’t really matter, and their voices simply shouldn’t be heard”. First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama

........

What do you do when you get a message like that?

You definitely can't just stand there or in my case, sit there and do nothing. The only thing I could do at that moment was to take a deep breathe, so I took plenty of it. Not only did Jax die, his killer sent me a message. How does a soon to be 16 year old girl process such huge information ? I couldn't tell mum, she was totally going to freak out. Especially if she found out that I ran the blog because the principal had already posted the search announcement on the school Facebook page, and my mum was a religious follower of the damn page.

Rotimi was probably going to tell me to report to the police or if he wasn't in the mood, he'll just tell me to get myself away from the mess and to be honest with myself, I didn't want to get away. I've been the plain girl for years, I've been looked down upon by everyone in the school. Solving the crime was my chance to finally prove to them that I wasn't exactly plain in the inside, and I also wanted to feel safe in the school. I can't be going to a school when I know a killer might be lurking at every corner. Who wants to die?

So I did the unbelievable. I sent a message to the anonymous person.

Who are you?

Whoever it was replied almost immediately.

YOU DON'T NEED TO KNOW. IN FACT, IT WILL DO YOU A LOT OF GOOD NOT TO KNOW. JUST BE GOOD. AND PLEASE, DON'T BOTHER SOLVING THIS MURDER. LIKE I SAID, HE DESERVED IT. THE BASTARD DESERVED IT.

If you don't ......what I want to say is, why are you telling me this?

I'VE BEEN TELLING EVERYONE THAT'S BEEN SHOWING PITY FOR THE BASTARD THAT RUINED MY LIFE. GOODNIGHT.

He ruined the persons life. Was Jax that horrible? Did he really deserve to die? What am I saying, no one deserves to die.

Why did you kill him?

HE....DESERVED.... IT. GOODNIGHT.

I sent a couple of messages to the killer. (If I can call them that) but I didn't get a reply anymore. There was only one I could call. Lara. I put a call through to her and after a few rings, she picked.

"Hello? I'm in a middle of a conversation with my mum. I'll call you back."

'Oh yeah, I forgot.'

"I'm sorry, I forgot. Make sure you call me. It's really..."

She ended the call.

I sat in front of my laptop and bit my nail. It was the only way I could stop myself from freaking out.

I had to do something, I had to tell someone. I took a deep breathe and pull a call through to Tomison. She didn't pick at first, but picked when I called again.

"Remi?"

"Are you free?"

"Currently, yeah."

"Something just came up."

"Yeah, I have to tell you something too, I posted about Jax's death on Facebook and I got a weird message from an anonymous person."

"The person said something like, he deserved it?"

"Wait, you got the message too?"

"Yes! Yes! On my blog. I'm scared right now."

"You see, that's why I told you girls not to involve yourselves in this matter."

"I know I know, and it's weird because I never knew Jax so well, but I can't help myself. I just feel like I need to help and even if the message freaked me out, it just made me even more curious."

"Are you for real?"

"Aren't you scared, Tomi. Aren't you scared that whoever that person was might be in the open. Jax was killed in our school!"

"We don't know that for sure."

"But his body was found in the school premises. Am I the only one that thinks it's creepy. Can't believe everyone else is curious to go to school and talk about the death. It's absurd. Y'all should be scared."

"I totally understand you, Remi. And I'm really sad about what happened to Jax, but the anonymous person was right, he actually did deserved it. Remi Jackson was a really horrible person. I told you what he did to the principal, and a couple of things he's done to almost every girl in school. Do you want to know why we broke up?"

"Why?"

"I caught the.......the....." I could tell that she was about to cry.

"Calm down, Tomison. You really don't have to tell me."

"He drugged my elder sister and raped her, claiming she forced herself on him."

So that was her secret. Maybe he really deserved it.

"OMG. So what did you do?"

"I couldn't do nothing, he threatened me with my secret and what could I have possibly done, his father can buy  everyone of us in our family. We'll never win a case against him in court."

So, that wasn't her secret?

"So you just let him go?"

"My sister actually made me promise to. She couldn't stand the humiliation."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. He's dead isn't he? Remi, He's really very horrible. Whatever he did to me is little compared to other girls. I can't even start to think of the lives he's ruined."

"I understand. But let's find this person. Whoever it is can expose the evil-4"

"More like evil-3"  she muffled.

"Yeah...let's just find this killer for our sakes."

"You're just curious, Remi. You're not doing this for our sakes. Who ever killed Jax came for Jax only. But if it will satisfy you, I'll help. I owe you anyway."

"Thanks, Tomison. And I'm very sorry for what happened to your sister."

"That's in the past, besides, she's alive and happy but he's dead and rotting."

Now I understood why she wasn't looking affected by his death.

"Talk to you tomorrow." I said and ended the call after she said goodbye.

I was staring at my laptop hoping the killer was going to reply my message. When the noise of the door knocking sent me jumping in shock. I knew it was either mom or Rotimi. I took my phone downstairs and checked the peephole before finally throwing the door open for mom. Looking at her standing in front of me with a leather bag in her hand made me want to hug her so badly. Her presence made me feel secure in some kind of way.

"What's wrong with you? You look like you've seen a ghost or have you been watching horror DVD's?"

"No mum." I said, grabbing the bag from her and giving her my regular small hug.

She kept looking at me like she knew I was hiding something.

Moms. They just know everything.

"You've eaten?" She asked in Yoruba.

"Yes ma" I answered. As I walked behind her to the kitchen.

"How about your brother?" She asked in Yoruba again.

I told her he'd eaten in Yoruba.

"So why do you look strange?"

"I just woke up from sleep?" I lied.

"Oh, okay." She was about to place the fish she'd bought into the freezer when she stopped immediately and called my name.

"Ma?"

"Did you hear about......the boy?"

"Yes, ma."

She made an exclaimed and said a few words in Yoruba before asking. "Did you know him?"

"He wasn't in my class, but he was popular in school."

"Who could done such a terrible thing?"

'Trust me mum, that's what I'm trying to find out'

"Only God knows." I answered.

"Did he get into fights in school?"

"I've never cares to know. But boys don't usually fight in my school."

"I've forgotten that you're always minding your business." She joked and I have her a reassuring smile. Only if she knew.

"May his soul rest in peace." She prayed and dumped the dripping fish into the freezer.

"Amen." I answered. She decided to take the opportunity to advice me about life and it's oddities.

"Be careful of those you call friends. I know you don't have friends but you'll be leaving for the university soon , you'll meet different people from different family background. Be careful."

"Don't join bad gang. There's nothing good in it."

"Learn to pray."

"Learn to fast."

"Always be polite."

"Mind your business."

"Don't poke your nose into other people's"

Why did she have to end with that? It was like she knew what I was planning. I told her I'd heard all she said and I changed the topic.

Rotimi came home before dinner was ready and we all ate and resigned to bed. I picked my phone up to log into Facebook and frowned when I saw that Lara had already called me 15 times. I called her immediately and she picked immediately.

"I know why you called. I was with my mum"

"You got the message too?"

"Yeah"

"Can you..."

"Trace it? I've been trying every trick in the book, but nothing's turning up. But I'm certain the person is a girl."

"How do you know that for sure?"

"Intuition. And the way the person types. I just know it."

"If tour's sure it's a girl, then we might as well be fighting a lost course. I think we should just take our hands off it for now. You know, till something comes up."

"Yeah, yeah. I think so too?." She didn't sound convincing, like me, she wasn't satisfied. She also wanted to solve thus mystery.

"Who are we kidding, we'll never be cool till this case is solved." I blurted my thoughts out and she laughed.

"Same here. I just think something isn't right. I know whoever killed up probably did it because of something he did to her."

"We can just say his reputation killed him." I joked.

"He he messed with the Wrong Girl."

"But he didn't have to die. They're a million and one ways to treat his F up than death."

"You have two minutes remaining"

"We'll talk much better, tomorrow. My airtime is running out."

"Yeah, bye." And she ended the call.

I knew I was going to be going against mum's rules of life, but she also thought me to achieve whatever I set my heart on. I know that  wasn't what she had in mind, but I just had to do it.

That night I slept and an horrible dream. The whole evil-4 members were huge, I'm talking giant size huge and they were standing in front of me and laughing loud. I was like a grain of sand compared to them. Suddenly, Aisha stopped laughing picked me up.

She whispered. "I know what you're trying to do. Don't be nosy, Remi. Mind your freaking business or you'll end up like the rest of them" she gestured to the remaining three and I saw that they weren't laughing anymore, in fact, they were crying but they weren't making a single noise. I looked closer and saw that their tongues were cut off. Something told me to look at their fingers and I vomited when I saw that three fingers were missing from their right hands.

"You see that uh? That's what happens to ugly, nosy, people!" She screamed and threw me into her perfectly white mouth.

I woke up sweating profusely. I checked the time and it was 5 in the morning. I didn't care, I picked my phone and dialed Lara's number. She picked after a few rings.

"Hel--"

"I don't have much credit, I just want you to know that I have a suspect in mind."

"Who?"

"Aisha. Aisha is my suspect." And I ended the call.