CHAPTER ELEVEN

Gil pulled a blanket over his head. Was she really doing her hair, or she had a different agenda? That remained a question to be answered another time. Only if there would be another time. But…but what if she was after him? He didn’t even know how long he’d been asleep; she could’ve searched him and ran away with incriminating information on him for all he knew. He threw the blanket away with much force and rushed to the drawer and checked his documents. There they were, untouched.

He decided to believe that she’d been fixing her hair, then went back to sleep. If it was the hair she was doing, why did she have to rush out of the room in such a hurry? No. Perhaps he’d almost caught her I the middle of something and she was afraid she’d be questioned. After pondering for a long time, he got up, dressed in shorts, and went to the living room. He switched the television on and sat there thoughtfully.

At half-past one, Maider and Jane caught a taxi to Block 8, which dropped them by Block 8 shopping complex. They called Professor, and the lawyer gave them directions; three minutes later they arrived at his place, a brown town-house located just a few meters away from the shopping complex.

They rang the bell at the gate and a young, good-looking gentleman in shorts, a blue golf T-shirt, and men’s sandals opened the gate for them. They greeted him and introduced themselves; Professor introduced himself to the ladies as Pro, the name most of his work colleagues used. He welcomed them.

“Do come in.” He had an African-American English accent. Perhaps he had studied his law in the States, thought Jane. He ushered them into the house, he pointed to the comfy black leather sofas. He ducked behind one of the doors and came back with a tray set with glasses and a box of juice.

Their eyes toured the living room, Chinese ceramic tiled floors, windows extremely large, with a fireplace in the living room. The ceiling fan was hovering in rotation slowly above them, providing a very conducive environment. The air conditioner was off. The 115cm LG Plasma screen was standing erect on its stand, facing them. A movie was playing in low audio and music filled the whole living room from a powerful LG sound system. His laptop, a DELL model, was blinking on the coffee table. He pushed the PC to the edge of the table and placed the tray next to it.

“Juice?” he poured two glasses and handed them to his two guests. Still impressed by what they were seeing, they appreciated the juice. The house was a wonder to their eyes.

“You said you are Maider?” Maider smiled and nodded.

“This is Jane, Gil’s girlfriend.” He extended his hand to shake their hands.

“Hell! Where did he find you?” He smiled at Jane who grinned.

“You know him?” Jane looked interested. And she hid her face on her palms, the way a lady would blush to a charming gentleman.

“We grew up together, an old friend.” He returned the smile. There was something extraordinary about this young man, he made sure at the end of each statement he smiled, and even before he answered a question he smiled first. The fact that he was so charming and displayed a down-to-earth character appealed to the ladies and hence they found it easy to associate with him. He oozed charisma and they could’ve sworn he could win any girl’s attention.

“Grew up together, where?” Jane asked. Professor stared at her for a while, took the remote, and muted the movie. The conversation needed a calm environment. Of late his friend had been moving around town, in a flashy style. They had once met over a few drinks, though he never divulged some aspects of his life. Something was not right with Gil, he was always so tense and scared, and he kind of avoided folks. Prof often tried to reach out to him, but to no avail. Gil always protested that he was fine, that getting used to the new place was the cause of his constant anxiety.

He’d once asked Professor in a worried and almost muted tone, to tell anyone who asked, that he came from Maun. It puzzled Prof that his friend was so intent on convincing people he came from Maun and not Rakops. When he asked this, the answer had been something he was least expecting but fair enough. He told him he didn’t want to be associated with Rakops because the place had subjected him to all the pain life could throw at a single human. And with tear-filled eyes, he’d added that it reminded him of the traumatic loss of his parents. Prof had sympathized with that and promised he would stick to that story.

“Didn’t he tell you where he is from? That’s not good.” He looked bemused.

“Actually, we recently started dating, I haven’t asked him where he is from, you know when you are in bliss you sometimes forget the most important issues.” She frowned at Maider. Prof stood and came back with a bottle of wine, Maider was the first to fill her glass and the first to empty and refill it.

“What?” Maider asked Jane when she glared at her for drinking so much wine and returned her questioning eyes to Professor.

“When we were starting our standard four, this Black family pitched up, from where I don’t know,” he answered, deliberately not mentioning where they pitched. He was too witty to break the pact he’d made with his friend. What if these ladies were the reason Gil was always caged up and so closed up to himself?

“The guy looks like he is well paid, and when did he buy that flashy car? She closed her eyes and pretended to take a sip from her glass. He leaned forward and closed the laptop.

“Why are you interrogating me about him?” he asked in confusion.

“I am not interrogating you, just curious about my man.” She winked at him, then silence followed. Maider filled her glass. Glass in hand, she stood up and waited for Prof to be done with his talking.

“You have been curious enough, and I have attended to most of your curiosity. He is my friend, and rarely ever discuss my friends with strangers.” His voice was calm, and its calmness managed to conceal the rudeness and coldness in his answer. Jane felt defeated; her only hope to the link she so badly needed was turning cold on her.

“Can I use your bathroom?” Maider was starting to display signs of tipsiness.

“Yes, through that door…” he gestured “…then turn to the left and open the second door on your right.” She staggered to the bathroom.

“Back to your question, madam…” he paused to ensure Jane was paying attention. “I first met him in town about five months back and he was driving his pretty BMW Z4. I think that has done justice to your curiosity.” He searched in his disc bag and produced a Tom and Jerry disc; he ejected the current disc and inserted the former. Jane laughed, “This is crazy.”

“NO, I love them, and there is nothing crazy about watching them.” He said, in his defense. “Let’s see, I parted with Gil after our last class of primary. Since then I have not heard from or communicated with him. By sheer coincidence, we met at one of the clubs this year. That was the last time I saw him.” When Prof covered the last part of how he met Gil, Jane wasn’t paying any attention to him; she was busy working out the math of when her car was stolen and when Prof met Gil. It was a match. That was not evidence enough though; it might as well have just been a coincidence like any other.

“You said he was driving a new car and that was five months back.” She wanted to ask him that, but she opted out of the question. The initial response before the little information given to her about Gil was enough to scare her from asking more. She poured half a glass of wine. Maider came back, glass empty and her pants not properly zipped up. Jane pointed to the zipper with her eyes, Maider followed her eyes, and she quickly zipped it up.

“You’ve had enough to drink my dear,” Jane warned her.

“No dear, there is more wine, and don’t worry your pretty little head. Prof will drive us home. Won’t you, Prof?” She more commanded than requested that last part. She reached for more wine. Prof smiled and nodded in acquiescence.

Prof smiled and poked Maider. “You said you needed some legal advice, Maider.” He reminded her.

“Legal advice…” she was puzzled. “Oh yes… I was calling for my friend Jane, she will ask you, don’t worry about me.” Jane elbowed her, and she just frowned.

“Okay, Mr. lawyer, as a teacher I happen to teach students about law-related issues and we talk about crime and the law, and I found it in my best interest to get your opinion on the crimes, especially serious ones like murder, robbery, rape, and defilement.” She paused and sipped from her half-empty glass. Professor thought about the question; those were the kind of questions he enjoyed most. He dealt with such cases every day. He rubbed his chin and smiled.

“Well, crime is crime and we should not classify it, but rather weigh it equally because it has aftermath both on individuals and communities. And if it isn’t already obvious because of my profession, I am totally against any form of crime.” He was in his element. Jane took some more wine to kill the unsettling nerves and assessed the answer, which was well said.

She laughed at a scene of the cartoons on tv before she dropped the next question, the one that she was actually there for. She licked her lips and her brow furrowed.

“What would you do if your partner had robbed you before let's say before you knew each other, and in the process, you discover that you’re dating a criminal?” She held her breath; He must not sense you are referring to yourself; after all, he is a trained lawyer. “Your question sounds a bit personal; anyway, I will ignore that part and answer.” Jane almost dropped her glass.

“Phew! that’s a tough one, but it will depend on you as a lover. How you feel about your partner? You can discuss it behind closed doors and decide to keep it in the past and continue with your lives. Or surrender the person to the law, despite your affections for him. It’ll depend on what kind of suffering he/she inflicted on you.

In my professional opinion, crime is crime and it should be reprehended, regardless of the situation you find yourselves in, and if someone is convicted of a crime they should serve the due punishment.” He responded without actually thinking about his answer.

“Thank you, Sir.” She refilled the second glass of wine. Professor traced the conversation to where it had started; it dawned on him that this whole thing had something to do with Gil, and he suspected the information he gave might land his homeboy in trouble. Nevertheless, he decided to keep the information about Gil’s real hometown secret, despite the damage he’d already probably done.

“You said you are teacher, where?” he asked, to verify his suspicion. Jane stared blankly at him before she told him she was a teacher at Rakops. He closed his eyes in a short secret prayer.

“Oh, I know the place, I have a few relatives there.” He said with uneasiness in his voice. He sighed inwardly to the fact that he hadn’t betrayed his homeboy. “So you are doing a project on law or something.” He added one more question.

“Not really, I’m just trying to gather some information for my…my students,” she could feel her cover being blown.

“You did it like I would. Where did you learn your investigative skills?” He was keen to know.

“At school,” she informed him. After an hour, he dropped them off at their house. The fact that he’d almost had his long-time friend busted gave him an unsettled feeling. He stopped for a drink on his way back home. Jane immediately called Gil and told him she would be leaving on Sunday afternoon, he demanded she came over to his place, and a harsh, “No” was the answer he got. Gil sensed something was wrong but was unable to figure out what, maybe Maider told her some nasty stories about him and she was pissed off. He brushed the thought aside since he did not want to dwell much on it.