The Search

LAGOS, IKEJA.

Lex drove his car slowly past the house where the Ayodeles family had once lived, and died.

The small gate was left ajar, and the LSPD seal blocked the path.

He parked his car three blocks away and started back through the dark, quiet night, carrying the LSPD (The Lagos State Police Department) Detectives' Evidence Report in his hand.

Lex wanted to come alone. Being with someone else in the crime scene would distract him - that was the reason he gave Bob. But he had other personal reason: Lex was not sure how he would behave, he didn't want someone watching over him, watching his every move.

Lex had been to the morgue. At LSUTH. He had been alright seeing the bodies. And the markings on them.

The Ayodeles' mansion was situated directly in front of the main road for Abiodun Shobanjo cresent, opposite Fela Shrine.

Lex stood in front of the house. The small gate ajar, he stood there for a long time looking at the house. He tried to be calm inside. In his mind a small locket swung in the darkness of his soul. He waited for this locket to become immobile before proceeding.

A few passers-by drove, looking at the house and averted their eyes quickly.  Shooking their heads in pity.

Death made the architectural beauty of a home looked ugly.

The neighbours stood outside, staring at the house like someone had betrayed them. The children stared.

6:52PM. It was getting dark.

Lex walked in, crossing the seal. Just then, a chill enveloped him, giving him gooseflesh.

He stopped to listen. The LSPD knew he was here, but the neighbours didn't. They would be observing the house and might get jumpy when they noticed a figure moving around the house.

Lex had to be careful.

He went into the house, and stepped into the ante room. Looking through the window, he could see the gardens, through the small gate left ajar, he could see silhouettes of passers-by.

The scent of old furniture was heavy in the air around him. 

He saw the stairs and started towards it.

He went up the stairs into a small lobby.  A room was sealed with the LSPD's seal. He passed it and went straigh to the upstairs' bar.

He wanted to put on the lights. Wanted to put on his official badge Bob had given him and make some official noises to justify himself to the silent house where these four people had died. But he didn't. He took a bottle of whiskey from the bar shelf and poured some into a glass. He raised it to his lips.

The furniture smelled of polish and oranges.

This place is quiet. He mused.

Too quiet.

A sudden chill enveloped him, a trickle of fear. Lex was used to being afraid. He could manage this one. 

He always hear, see and think better when he was afraid. Sometimes it made him crazy.

There was nobody to be act crazy to. He was all alone.

Madness came into the house through  the front door into this kitchen, moving on a size-forty-two feet. Sitting in the dark, he could sense madness like a bloodhound sniffs a piece of cloth.

Lex looked at the report he was given at the station. Using a flashlight.

He felt dizzy.

The whiskey had set in.

There ere pictures of Godwin Ayodele on the bar-glass. Accompanied with two friends.

Lex looked at his watch. 9:41PM. He had been here for almost four hours. He hadn't started work. He wanted to get familiar with the house. The house where the Ayodeles onced inhabited.

Back to business.

According to the reports, they died a little between 10PM to 11PM three weeks ago.

Then he looked at the pictures. And then the passage way. And then at the pictures again.

His eyes glittered in the dark. And he started for the sealed room where Gloria Ayodele was murdered.

* * *

Inside the room, Lex stepped on something. An evidence bag. The sound irked him. He switched on his flashlight, the coppery smell of blood filled his nose. 

As the lights came on, bloodstains scream at him from the walls, from the bed, to the floor. Even the air seem to have screams smeared on it.

Reading the inscription on the wall, Lex staggered back, dropping the flashlight. Gooseflesh reappearing all over his body again. Every hair on his skin stood. Fear crippled him. As he saw the inscription.

It can't be! This is impossible, Lex mused as he mouthed the words made out of human blood:

HAIL HADES. HAIL THE BRINGER OF LIGHT. HAIL THE THREE-HEADED DOG.

Lex could hear screams in his head. 

•••

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

The locket in Lex's mind went. Swaying in the darkness that was his thoughts. Trying to make the swaying pendulum come to a stop. 

A futile effort.

His senses had gone wild. Mind calculating, massaging his greasy palms, he managed to slow-down the pendulum that is his thoughts, making him a little bit calm.

Recovering his composure, he picked up the flashlight. Taking a deep breathe before putting the light directly on the message on the wall.

HAIL HADES. BRINGER OF LIGHT. AND THE THREE HEADED DOG.

Lex's mind was working. Joining invisible dots, creating 3D patterns, like a super-computer.

He never liked this part of himself.

As his mind was working like a joining-the-dots puzzle without no numbers, trying to recall where he had seen this text before.

Bingo. A smile painted his face.

Lex had gotten it.

From the files given to him at the station, Lex took out the photographs, lab reports on the individual blood and organic stains in the room and standard comparison plates of blood drop trajectories.

Lex began to match the blood stains to its respective owner, he started projecting each spew of blood. From the wall to the floor. Every single action taken; this was all going on in his head.

He typed the blood on the wall. It belonged to Godwin Ayodele. This was strange, Lex mused, why was his blood used for this?

Lex took out the picture of Godwin Ayodele. His autopsy report. He wasn't cut pretty big. The person that did this is one smart alec.

Lex was really impressed by the killing method. But he still did not understand why the killer marked them with such markings; why the killer had written this message.

Many questions were still unanswered. Lex became more impressed by it all.

Who are you, Mr. Killer. Lex asked. To no one in particular.

Lex started at the message on the wall, trying to understand what this meant. The meaning, he knew. But how each of them are interconnected, he knew not. He thought about every possible way to decipher this message, he tried anagram and couldn't make any sense out of the message until his head ached.

He went to the bathroom in the lobby, the place was immaculate. He took the last two capsules of Panadol he had brought along, scooping water from the faucet in the sink. He raised his hands to his lips and gulped away, spilling water of the white floor.

He felt a little better. 

He looked at the mirror, looked at his face. Then something caught his attention through the mirror, it was behind him. It was probably Mrs. Ayodele's Clear Essence lotion. The sight of it pierced him. Funke used the same lotion.

Lex went down the stairs into the sitting room and sat on a strong wooden chair, raised his legs to the seat, and hugged his knees. 

The sound of cars could be heard from where he was sitting. Lagos was a busy place. It never slept. Lex didn't like it. He missed Benin. The night would be quiet out there. The only that would be heard are the nocturnals and the faint sound of a generator plant from the lodge nearby. Lex thought of Funke and Ayo. He could be watching Movies with them at the moment if he hadn't taken this investigation, if Bob had left me in peace.

Bob.

A little bulb illuminated his thoughts. He brought out his phone and dailed Bob's digits.

Bob picked on the third ring.

"What's up, kiddo! Any luck yet."

He sounded like he has expecting Lex's call.

"Not really. Can I ask you something Bob?"

"Yeah sure, Lex. Shoot!"

"It's about the other family.."

"What about them? I thought you said you'd check that out too when you're done with the Ayodeles?"

"Yes. Was there any message written in blood in any of their bedroom?"

Bob didn't reply immidiately. Lex could hear the rumpling of paper from the other line.

"Yes. It says: Hail-"

"Hades? Hail The Bringer of Light Hail The Three-Headed Dog?"

Lex completed.

"Holy Heavens! How did you know that?!" Bob was anything but shocked. He was terrified.

"It's the same inscription on the wall here too. In Gloria's bedroom. But I saw nothing about it in the reports you gave. You never said anything about this message to me, Bob. And I typed the blood. It's Godwin Ayodele's."

"T-that's the t-t-thing, Lex."

"What?" 

"We never saw anything message of blood when we cleared the house. Even in the woman's bedroom, nothing of such!"

Bob was about to say something else when Lex cut the call.

Bingo. He had gotten a clue.

•••

Tearing a piece of paper, Lex scribbled. Jotting down the words on the white wall with crimson markings.

Now where have I seen this before? He mused.

Just then, he tried to remember the exact place. The answer was on top of his head, but he still couldn't remember. Then he tried to think back. To his childhood days, filled with books. Books he had stumbled on. His father's collection. 

His father. The man whose face he had never known but felt a very strong connection with him. He died when he was a little over two months. He died of an illness that was as shameful as robbery.