Man In Black - Season 1 - Episode 101

Episode 4 years ago

Man In Black - Season 1 - Episode 101

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“Who? Right about what?” Tobi asked, perking up at the prospect of yet another new discovery.

Still shaking his head gravely, Mr Clyde replaced the bullet in the bag and took off the white gloves.

“He said it was illogical the way the bullet angled off the wall. But if this is what I think it is, then it makes sense.”

Tobi knew he was talking about Chukwudi, because Kunle had told him what the guy said.
“I still don’t get you,” Tobi said.
“I’m afraid the police identified the bullet wrongly. This is no ordinary bullet, detective, and neither from an ordinary rifle.”
“But shebi you just said the bullet measurement matches that of an M21?” Didn’t that mean Mr Clyde himself was identifying the bullet wrongly?
“It does. But it is not from an M21. This bullet,” he held up the bag, “is called a bio-aim bullet, able to be drawn to human blood like iron to a magnet. You know how a magnet works, yes?”

Tobi nodded, rather impatient now. He didn’t think magnets were part of the issue now.

“So you mean this is a magic bullet?” He scoffed. “I’m a detective, sir, not a child.”
“This is not a “magic bullet”, detective,” Mr Clyde said, sounding impatient himself. “Bio-aim, it is called. Chuck said the angle at which this bullet struck the wall makes it impossible for it to have ricocheted. It would be impossible, oui. But not for a bullet fired from a bio-aim rifle. This would have just returned to the closest source of human blood in the room. Magnet to iron.”

“You’re serious,” Tobi said as the realization dawned on him.

“Of course, detective. When I discovered about this bullet, my contact informed me that they are made in the guise of other kinds, but I found out the difference. You see, this bullet is produced with a kind of gaseous substance and is made with lightweight metal, and so I knew that if it had to pass through bone, it would be completely destroyed. It looks to me that I have been right.”

“Which means this person can just shoot at random and kill anybody in the department.”
Especially even you, was the hidden meaning, but Tobi didn’t say it. The thought of such a weapon as this being in existence unsettled him. Even if it did, why didn’t the government get it for the police? Why did it have to be in the hands of a criminal? A criminal that could use it to kill Mr Clyde and effortlessly cripple this investigation permanently.

“Non, do not fear that. I’m sure he didn’t even purchase more than one of this thing, you know why? Because rifle and bullet are very expensive. Obscenely expensive. I do wonder how he was able to afford it.”
Tobi wheeled himself out from behind his table. “I say let’s go down and tell the Chief about this. He’ll want us to keep him posted. And to think that we have been in this kind of danger for six months and I’m just knowing of this now.”

“Yes, I agree I was sent for late, but what is it you say in English? ‘Better late than never.’ ”

Mr Clyde followed him into the corridor. They went into the elevator and came out on the ground floor. Tobi looked at the young officers working away in their cubicles as they went through the aisle, and he shook his head. If only they knew how their superiors were making a blunder of their career. Maybe they wouldn’t work this hard if they did.

Isn’t this inspiring, how they keep on working everyday?

Tobi stopped dead with his hands on the wheels of his wheelchair. He reached for the holster nailed under the seat, drawing out his service pistol and spinning the wheelchair to face direction of the front entrance. Seeing no one past Mr Cyde, he turned around and drew the weapon in a slow arc around the aisle. Where had the voice come from?

The officers looked at his gun in confusion.Didn’t they hear it?Or was Tobi now going mad? Mr Clyde’s hand went into his pocket. He cocked his head to one side, listening.

Around the same time, Kunle burst into the aisle through one of the cubicles, breathless and with one hand on the gun on his belt. At least he wasn’t the only one that had heard it.

“Detective Akano, sir! Upstairs, the voice of the. . . Wait, you people heard it here too?” he gasped as he saw the two of them. Mr Clyde’s posture relaxed.

“A recorded message. There is no problem, detective, he is not in the building.”

You have worked for years before I showed myself, and six months after I struck twice you are still working. I could walk in here and lay waste to this place and you would be powerless to stop it. The police. . .such a terrible illusion.

There it was again, the exact same voice Tobi had heard when he collected the telephone operator’s table phone, like the voice of a machine talking, reverberating and echoing like the voice of god. The voice of the person who claimed to have killed Mrs Durojaiye Felicia, promised to kill the Minister of Defense and then killed him.

The voice of the Eel.

Except that this time, instead of sounding only through the speaker of a telephone, the voice seemed to come from everywhere at once.
Tobi dropped his weapon into his lap.
“Kunle, go upstairs and rally everyone on the upper floors. Tell them I said they should trace where the voice is coming from.”
Kunle ran back upstairs to do as he was bid. Farther down at the end of the aisle, Chief Rikau came out of his office to scowl at Tobi.
“What’s going on?” he growled. “I can hear the voice of the man that killed the former Defense Minister. Am I imagining it or not?”

As if in answer, the voice came again.

I have decided I have been too lazy of late. I have decided to strike again.

“Tobi, did you hear that? He said he will. . . ”
“There’s no time for that now, Chief. You, you,” he said to two uniformed officers. “Go outside, within the premises or outside, anyone loitering about that doesn’t work here, bring them in here.”

“Yes, sir.” They saluted him and ran out of the aisle.