B53
The last time I was here, it was to pull Princess out of a break up gunk. If someone had told me then that I'd come back here a second time to solicit Princess' help in proving that her "boyfriend" killed my roommate, I would've given that person a dirty slap.
Seriously, I would.
Seth's knuckles rapped against the wooden barrier, blocking the entrance to Princess' room.
Muffled sounds seeped out, but no one answered the door.
Seth pounded harder, threatening to punch a hole into the wood, and that seemed to have worked because not long after, the door flew open, revealing a goth girl with bed hair. Her make-up was smeared and she wasn't bothered by the fact that she was standing in front of three guys in a very revealing bra and booty shorts.
"What?" She snapped.
Deon's face turned beet red, whilst Seth loudly cleared his throat, trying his best to keep his eyes on her face because her boyfriend was lurking around in the room.
"Hi, uh, sorry," Seth smiled politely. "But we're looking for Princess."
Her eyes flitted from Deon and Seth's faces to mine and Shola's at the back, before she shot us with a bullet of pure disappointment.
"She's not here."
Awkward pause.
"Ok umm... any idea where we can find her?" Shola queried.
"I dunno," the girl snorted. "Probably on the highway to *Kumasi."
"Kumasi?" We all repeated out of surprise and the girl blinked at us like we'd each grown a second head.
"Yeah, Kumasi. She took off this morning. Said she was going home to handle some mental health something something, I wasn't really listening. Anyway, goodluck finding her." She slammed the door in our faces.
All three of my friends turned to me with gaping mouths. I wanted to believe it was from the girl's rude behaviour, but come on... who am I kidding?
Without a word, I stormed down the stairs, back onto the ground floor and out of Princess' hall of residence. A cool late morning breeze whizzed past me, attempting to cool off the heat of anger and frustration, wafting off me.
"I can't believe it!" I rubbed a hand over my face. "I can't believe she just got up and left like that!"
"Well you better do." Seth followed after me. "Cuz I just texted Akweley and she confirmed goth girl's story." He held his phone up, showing me the chat. "Princess sought permission from Coach Sarah to take a mental health break from the team. She's going to be away for two weeks."
I plopped down on an empty bench, covering my face with my hands. Oh God, this cannot be happening...
"Hey, hey." I recognized the voice as Shola's. "Don't let this get the best of you ok? It's not over. There has to be someone else who was with the four of you at the bar that night."
Four. The number made me sit up. We weren't four at the bar that night, we were five. And just like that, the fifth person's face flashed in my eyes. "Nana Kwame."
"Who?" Shola asked.
"Nana Kwame. He was at the bar with us that night."
"Great." Shola stood up. "Then let's go talk to him."
"Oh hell no." Seth shook his head. "I've known that dude for a very long time, and trust me when I tell you that he's as loyal to Ethan as a dog! Even if he knows that Ethan is a hundred percent guilty, he'll not rat him out."
True. I remembered asking him once if Ethan was using drugs during a meet. That guy looked me right in the eye and lied, then tried to guilt-trip me into feeling bad about asking that question. There were also times that Nana Kwame went the extra mile to cover up Ethan's dirty deeds so no one would find out. Seth was beyond right. Even if Nana Kwame knew Ethan was guilty, he wouldn't say anything. I shouldn't even have thought of him in the first place.
"Hey guys!" Deon called out, jogging in our direction. "Have you all seen this? I just saw it in the lobby." He rolled out a copy of The Penfield Daily and my eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets at the sight of the bold headline.
"The finals for the Annual Swimming Competition is coming back on." Seth read out loud. "And it's happening this Friday?"
That last part made my heart jump. "Wait? What?"
"Isn't that too soon?" asked Shola. "I thought the whole reason why the finals were postponed was to allow the police to conduct a thorough investigation of Akunna's case."
"Yeah, that's what management said initially," Deon replied. "But now, it says in the papers that the sponsors of the competition are getting restless. They don't understand why the entire competition has been put on hold when the student who passed away wasn't even a swimmer."
"But the suspect is a swimmer," I blurted out. "Ethan is a swimmer."
"Yeah, I don't think they're considering him as one, Akwasi," Seth said, allowing his eyes to skim through the newspaper article. "Look..." he bent a little to let me see. "It says here that after two days of investigations, no suspects have been identified. So it's either they checked Ethan and found nothing on him, or they did find something, but they're keeping it out of the public's ears, which to me, makes sense."
"How does that make sense?" My eyebrows furrowed.
"Umm, hello, did you forget who Ethan's dad is?" The big guy quipped. "If the public gets to know that the Mayor's son has been labelled as a suspect in a crime that happened on the Mayor's property, how do you think that's going to look for the Mayor himself?"
"So they're choosing to protect the Mayor's public image, instead of seeking justice for an innocent person's death?" My tone flared up. "How can the police be so cruel?"
"You think its cruel, but they'll tell you that they're just doing their job." Seth closed the news piece in his hand. "Whoever said no one is above the law was a complete liar, cuz in Ghana, some people are above the law, and it includes all the family members too."