Funmi was in her one room apartment, laying on her bed, her mind was in the events that happened yesterday. Everything happened so fast, first the party and then Evelyn's death.

A loud knock came suddenly, interrupting her from her thoughts. She jumped up with a start.

"Who is that?" She called out loud as she put on her fluffy princess slippers and hurried towards the entrance door. She opened it to see a young handsome man who she suspects to be in his late twenties. At first, she was taken aback by the beauty of the man in front of her. Alex might have found his match. She kept on staring at the man without realizing it herself.

"Uhmm... Miss?" Chioma asked staring at the young woman who looks frozen by Michael. Every woman happened to be attracted to him, and she had to admit, she was too, till she had to work with him. One day was all it took, he frustrated the life out of her, she would never forget that.

"Hi, you are Miss Funmi Adeniyi right?" Michael asked, bringing out a hand from his pockets and holding it out to Funmi.

Chioma rolled her eyes at the sight of Funmi getting lost in Michael's looks again. He wasn't even that handsome.

"We are from the homicide department, do you mind if we come in, we would like to ask questions concerning Evelyn's death." Chioma told her not bothering to stretch her hand out for a handshake.

"Evelyn? Sure, Uh.. c-come in," She stuttered while stepping aside and opening the door wider.

Chioma and Michael stepped in looking round the apartment. It looked like she had been doing some arrangement earlier.

"Sorry for the mess, my friend, an employee at the firm who had been visiting, just moved back to her home this morning." She walked towards the couch and removed some items that were there. "Please, have a seat, I would be right back." She walked away quickly.

Chioma stared at a picture of Funmi and a woman she suspected was her employee, since they were dressed in an office manner and were in front of what she had come to know as the Edward's firm. Alex took a sit at the two sitter couch and Chioma sat down beside him.

"You know, you smell really nice," He commented, leaning closer towards Chioma and taking a sniff.

"Are you crazy? We are here to investigate and you are taking note of my perfume." She gave him a look of disbelief then proceeded to smacked his head.

"Ow!!! What was that for? I was simply pointing out that-"

"I am sorry if I took time," Funmi said and sat down in the seat which was opposite Chioma and Alex. "So, ask your questions."

"No problem, that didn't take time at all," Michael said drawing Funmi attention to him. "We are just here to ask a few questions and we would be on our way."

"Ok." She ran her hand through her hair and then clasped them together on her knees.

"Can you tell us the last time you spoke to Miss Evelyn Okeke?" Chioma asked bringing out a recorder and pressing the start button.

"That was on the 24th of December, some minutes after nine, I had bumped into her during the party."

"Ok, and what words were exchanged between the both of you?"

"I had congratulated her and we shared a hug. Then she said she wanted to go do something upstairs and she left." She told them, eyes darting from Michael to Chioma and back to Michael again.

"We were told that you were the one that found the body of Evelyn, tell us how that came about," Michael said sitting up straight.

"Uhmn, Well... It's just that... I-I didn't kill her I swear! I am not a murderer! I mean I hated her but I wouldn't kill her," She cried out. "I was jealous ok? But I didn't want her dead," Tears ran down her cheeks, she wiped them away with her fists but they kept on coming.

"Calm down Miss, we didn't say you killed her, we just want answers to some questions," Michael said and brought out a handkerchief from his pockets, he added it over to her. Michael always kept an additional handkerchief in his pocket when coming to question females on cases like this.

"Thank you, *sneeze* I am sorry about that." She turned to the side and blew her nose, after taking deep breaths she continued. "Well, you see, Alex had told me that his and Evelyn's parents had wanted to talk to the both of them. I offered to go call Evelyn. I went upstairs and walked into the room and I found her there, on the bed, dead!" She concluded and dried her tears with the hanky Michael had offered her.

"Miss, can you tell us, when you went upstairs to call Evelyn, did you see anyone, hear footsteps or any strange noise?" Chioma probed.

"No, no one, I didn't hear anything." She stopped to clean her nose. "But, I saw someone, but she wasn't coming from Evelyn room, she was coming from the toilets."

"Who was this?"

"Nneka, she is an employee, I had bumped into her when I was on my way to Evelyn's room," She said, remembering bumping into the "Food Queen" at the party. Nneka was nicknamed "Food Queen" because of how she was always found eating, sometimes she even sneaked bits of food into meetings.

"When you saw this Nneka, did you notice anything in her appearance, anything strange?"

"No, nothing. If there was anything, I didn't notice. Nneka and I don't talk much, so no words were really exchanged between us."

"Ok, thanks for answering our questions, we will be on our way now." Michael stood up and offered Funmi a handshake, she stretched out her hands accepting it.

Chioma glanced around the room, she noticed against the wall a shelf which contained artifacts. As Funmi led them out of the room, Chioma stole a glance at the shelf again. There was a necklace which had purple crystals adorned around it, it was so beautiful and shiny, it caught Chioma's attention.

"Would you like to see?" Funmi asked after she noticed Chioma looking at the shelf, she stared at it entranced.

"Can I?" Chioma asked looking from the box to Funmi.

"Yeah, sure, you're free." Chioma didn't wait for Funmi to finish talking, she walked towards the shelf to get a better look at the necklace.

"That was my Grandmother's. It was passed down to my mother and then me. Amongst other items there, those are my favourite. You can touch it if you want, Angela is the only person that I have allowed to touch this."

"Angela is your friend right?" Michael asked as his eyes followed Chioma's fingers as they moved over the necklace.

"Yes."

"Ok, we should be on our way now." She took her hands off the necklace. They baded Funmi goodbye and walked away.

"Michael, what did Martins, the CSI agent tell us about the suspected weapon?" Chioma asked when they had gotten into the car.

"Uh.. A Sai piercing knife? Yeah, that was what he said," Michael said turning the engine on.

"Well, what if I told you I just saw a knife exactly like that in that house."

"What?"

"Yeah, could it be a coincidence that she happen to have the same type of weapon which is suspected to be the cause of Evelyn's death. And also, it looks clean." Chioma said as she put on her seatbelt.

"It looks clean?"

"Yeah, the artifacts which were on the shelf all looked like they haven't been touched for a long time. In fact the necklace I touched, was a bit dusty. Except the knife, it looked like it had been cleaned recently." She looked back at the apartment. Funmi was standing at the door, watching them with an unreadable expression on her face.

"Well, looks like we have our number one suspect, nice job."

Although Michael pissed her off all the time, she can't deny that she was happy that he was pleased with her findings.

The woman standing by the house watched with a cynical look on her face. The detectives had gotten here before she could get rid of the weapon. She wondered if they had noticed it in the house. If they did, she would have to get rid of them, she wasn't going to jail, not till Alex was hers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chioma walked up to her apartment, tired, thirsty and hungry. Her long hair which she had held in a bun had gotten loose, so that it fell against her back. Her jacket was tied around her waist and her bag hanging off her fingers. She arrived at her door and raised her hand to knock but before she could lay her hands on the door, it had been opened by Kachi from inside.

"There is a problem," Kachi said as Chioma walked in.

"You didn't cook food? Kachi do you want me to die eh? See me, I am all skin and bones." Which was an irony, because she was nothing like that.

"If you would stop thinking about food, I was going to tell you that your Mother is in the parlour," Kachi whispered, turning around to shut the door.

"What?! What is she doing here-"

"Chioma!" She heard the familiar voice of her mother shouting from the living room.

"Mummy!!" She put on a fake smile and entered the living room. On a normal day she would be happy to see her mother, but she knew the reason her mother had come to see her, and it was something she wasn't ready for.

Chika, Chioma's mother stood up. She was a 48 year old woman. One look at her and Chioma and you would see the resemblance. Mrs Jerome was putting on a traditional attire worn mainly by Igbos. She looked stunning and she knew it.

"So if I don't come, you won't come and visit abi?" She stretched her hand wide and beckoned for her daughter to come give her a hug. Chioma threw her bag towards the couch and walked towards her mother with her arms outstretched.

"I was going to come visit next week," Chioma said as she pulled back from the tight hug her mother had trapped her in.

"Eh, that is what you say every time. Anyways, I need to go now, I came to tell you that you should come home on Friday, I would be hosting a dinner party and there is someone I would love for you to meet and-"

"Sorry, who is this someone? Mum I hope this isn't another suitor-"

"So you won't even let your mother talk finish abi? Oya, he is just a friend. I have to go now, I am already late for evening service. I better see you on Friday." She gave Chioma a kiss on the cheeks, carried her bag from the couch.

"Bye bye ma." Kachi greeted escorting Mrs Jerome to the door.

"Thank you my dear, take care of yourself, and make sure she shows her face." She turned around and gave Kachi a side hug before walking out.

"I told you we should move to another state, but no, you wanted to stay close to home, now see the result of it. I am so hungry, I feel like I have betrayed my stomach, it hasn't done anything to me to deserve starvation..."

As Chioma was ranting to Kachi on a painful betrayal, a lady, wearing a black hoodie and dark glasses was standing just outside the house. She watched the woman in the traditional attire get into her car and drive away before approaching the apartment and dropping an item on the front pouch.

"That is your warning missus," She said quietly with a wicked smile on her face before turning around and walking away.

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That's it for this chapter.

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