By Wednesday morning, the weather had begun leaning on the cooler side with strong winds. Phil sat on his desk in his office reading his correspondence. He saw a note "See me" next to a new blue folder. Passing only a cursory glance at the note, Phil opened the folder and began to read its contents.
It was the autopsy report for the murder of Jane. Phil read slowly. He put his finger onto his tongue to wet it a little. He then used the wet finger to turn the pages more easily. At last he picked the phone and dialed Ray's number. After a few rings he changed his mind.
Phil put the receiver back onto its cradle. He closed the folder and then walked out of his office. In two minutes he was at Commanding Officer Mwenda's office. He caught the secretary staring at her own face in a hand mirror. She saw him and smiled shyly.
"You may enter, he is expecting you," she said to Phil. Phil did as he was told. He found Mwenda reclining in his chair with a glass of orange drink in his hand.
"Please sit down," he said. Phil sat down opposite him.
"Today is my last day just like I told you last week. I am proceeding on vacation until May 29th. I am leaving you in charge, as acting Commanding Officer for CID."
"Thank you sir," said Phil, beaming with a smile.
"I have prepared hand over notes for you. I want you to read them and ask any questions that you have. By the way, where are we on the murder at the university?" Mwenda inquired.
"You are aware sir that we have identified the dead woman as Molly Tembo of Woodlands. She was the executive director of Women Empowerment Zambia. It is clear that there was a problem at her work place, something to do with Jane- recently deceased. We followed up on this at their work place. And then we followed it up with an interview with Jane. We have established that Molly had discovered an illegal recruitment of women into some modelling agency. We do not know what she found out or why it infuriated her that much. Whatever the case, we believe that the same agency murdered her and dumped her body at campus. The agency felt that they had solved their issue until they realized that Jane was speaking with the police."
"How could the agency know that Jane was cooperating with us?"
"We suspect that Kabongo alerted them. I say Kabongo because it was he who saw us earlier at Jane's house."
Mwenda rubbed his palms together and then said, "I am not implying anything Phil but has it occurred to you that maybe there is an informant from within the police service who could be alerting these criminals on our every move? What do you think?"
"We considered that possibility sir but we ruled it out."
"Why?"
"Because apart from Mercy, Nawa and myself there is no one else on the case. No one knows the details."
Mwenda nodded. Then he said, "Please proceed with the briefing."
Phil cleared his throat and then said, "So after Jane's murder, we stormed the agency premises at night but unfortunately we drew a blank."
"And you still insist that even on this occasion, it was Kabongo who alerted them of our surprise visit?"
"It could have been. But the truth could also be simply that the criminals weren't just scheduled to meet that night."
"Who owns the premises?"
"A businessman called Chileshe."
"Have you talked to him?"
"Not yet but we have put out a stakeout for him."
"OK. It looks like you are on top of things. Like I said earlier, you shall have my authority from tomorrow until I return from my leave. Here are my handover notes."
Mwenda handed a folder to Phil. Phil said thank you and then left the office. He closed the door behind him and walked past the secretary who was still looking into her hand mirror.
He reached his office thinking of what the next course of action would be. He opened the door and found himself staring at two women, one of whom seemed familiar though he couldn't place her properly. Even the perfume she was wearing was vaguely familiar to him. She was tall and slim and had a brown wig on. She was in a brown jacket and a short brown skirt that exposed her fleshy thighs and legs. She was wearing fitting brown shoes. Phil quickly moved his gaze towards her face and found himself facing a broad smile. He didn't even notice her hand which was extended for a hand shake.
"Hello," she offered.
"Hello madam," said Phil still struggling to remember her.
"Claire," she said at last.
"Claire?" Phil repeated.
"We talked last week. You came home in Northmead. I am- was- Molly's best friend."
"Of course!" Phil responded with a broad smile. "And how nice of you to have thought of visiting us! Please sit down, both of you."
As the two women sat Phil went round and then also took his usual seat.
"And by the way this is Rute," said Claire.
"Nice to meet you too, madam Rute. Please feel free."
"Thank you," said Rute. Phil regarded her full bosom, with her breasts resting well within her light green outfit. She too was slim with big hips. Turning his attention back to Claire, he asked, "So how are you coping?"
"It’s been hard. Really hard."
"And how about her aunt Jacqueline?"
"She cries every day. We all cry all the time," she said as tears began to form in her eyes. Phil looked at his fingernails.
"I suppose you came to get an update on our investigations?" he asked at last.
"Yes. If it is alright with you."
"Of course it is. There are certain details that as police we obviously cannot divulge as these at times may interfere with our investigations. But in line with Molly's case we have questioned some people and have arrested two."
"Are those the murderers?"
"No, not murderers. We hope they shall lead us to the murderers though. But both are linked and it’s a matter of time," Phil explained.
"Anyway," said Claire. "I brought this young lady with me. Her name is Rute. She says she knows Jane from Women Empowerment also."
Phil looked up at Rute and then said, "Good, good, thanks for coming. Tell me what you have."
Rute hesitated and then shifted in her seat.
"I knew Jane five years ago. We were both working on the streets at night those days," she told Phil.
"When you say working on the streets, do you mean as sex workers or as recruiters for Women Empowerment?" Phil asked.
"We were sex workers. One day madam Molly came out at night with a white priest. That is how they gave us their cards and asked us to join them. We went the following day and they enrolled us into their school."
"What were you doing there?"
"I was learning poultry. And the NGO would bring people to talk to us on life and business. Sometimes priests would come to pray for us."
"Please continue."
"So I graduated and they gave me money to start my business. I started but my business failed. I went back to Jane and she told me that there was another business I could try. So she introduced me to Kabongo, a Congolese businessman. He in turn also introduced me to a modelling agency in Rhodes Park. There I was introduced to the boss."
"Can you remember his name?"
"He didn't tell me. But he is a bit tall and fat. He is of mixed race, a colored."
"What happened next?"
"They enrolled me for another program to train as a beauty model. But the training was not good."
"Why?"
"We were staying at a lodge outside Lusaka and were eating once a day to remain slim. But it got worse when after a week they started adding drugs to our drinks and then men would come to our rooms to have sex with us."
"The agency runs a brothel as well?"
"Yes."
Phil shook his head.
"But the worst part was that the sex was never consensual. At times two men would sleep with you at once," she added.
"Two men? At once? Sorry, but how?" Phil asked waving his fingers. Claire looked down.
"The girl is on her knees and bends like a dog. One man does sex from beh
ind and the other comes in front and the girl sucks his penis."
Phil scratched his head. Claire continued looking down at her brown shoes.
"Do you have more to add to this information?" he asked uneasily.
"Sometimes they would bring a dog and make the girl do sex with it. Then someone would video tape."
"Really?"
"I ended up running away from the lodge. I paid a guard to run away."
"How much did you pay the guard?"
"Sex. Three rounds."
Claire started to rub her eyes.
"What is the name of this lodge?" Phil asked.
"It’s called Red Pepper lodge. It’s in Chilanga just after Mundawanga."
"And so," interrupted Claire. "I thought of letting you know about this issue. It may not help Molly but it may save some girls being held hostage."
Phil nodded his head vigorously and then said, "Both of you have no idea how much this information will help us. Please keep it between yourselves."
He then stood up and the two women did the same. Then he said, "Claire I need a very big favor from you. Please listen to me."