My Christmas On You... A Nine Days of Christmas Inspector Gloria Mystery DAY SEVEN
Day Seven: Street kids and footballers
As Gloria approached the Boakai house she saw her nephew Abu sitting on the porch along with some of his football team alongside two of the street kids, Pascal and Prince, that she had known for a long time. Before she could ask what was going on Lawrence appeared and taking her arm steered her inside.
He put his finger to his lips. ‘Let me speak first for once Gloria. Drink your coffee and just listen.’ He pushed the cup and saucer towards her and sat down opposite.
‘Well, go on then. Speak.’
‘Oh,’ Lawrence looked surprised. ‘I was waiting for you to protest. Right, I started to ask around about that jewellery and there are rumours about some new very expensive pieces of jewellery being sold but no-one knows to who or where they came from. None of the jewellers have made any new pieces in months, no orders these days, so no-one knows where they have come from except...’
‘Hassan, right?’
Lawrence paused. ‘Oh, you already spoke to him, didn’t you?’
‘Yes, he was the one told me about the pieces.’
‘Well, he thinks they could be the missing jewellery he made for the parade committee and he thinks the best place to spot them will be...’
‘At the President’s Ball, right?’ Gloria finished his sentence for him.
Lawrence frowned. ‘Ah, you can’t let me finish...’
‘Never mind that Lawrence, I think that’s the answer. The costumes and all those stories associated with them are just a distraction. It’s the jewellery someone is after. But it seems a very complex way to get them and for what. Hassan said they were expensive but I mean he was talking thousands, not millions of dollars so why all this fuss.’
Lawrence leaned back in his chair and grinned, the way he did when he was going to play his trump card. ‘What’s worth thousands?’
‘The jewellery, the necklaces or whatever he made.’
‘Ah, now Inspector, Hassan didn’t tell you all the details did he? The gold chains and bracelets are worth thousands but what of the stones he put in them.’ Gloria looked at him blankly. ‘He didn’t tell you did he? The strange woman who placed the order also brought with her the precious stones he was to put in them.’
‘Blood diamonds?’
Lawrence nodded. ‘But not just diamonds, other very precious stones which Hassan didn’t want to mention, you being a police inspector and all.’
Gloria banged the table. ‘So, he suspected they were linked to illegal mining, child miners, slavery and all the rest right?’
‘Yes, which is why he didn’t tell you.’ Lawrence looked so pleased with himself that Gloria’s urge to slap him turned to laughter.
‘Hmm, so, very clever of me to get you on the case then Mr. Head of Traffic don’t you think? But really, if he had told me all that it would have made more sense.’
‘Made more sense!’ Lawrence sucked his teeth very loudly. ‘How does any of this make any sense, just a load of loose threads.’
‘No, not loose threads Lawrence, all connected somehow with those costumes and the masque parade. Everything starts there.’
There was a noise at the door and they both turned to see Abu, his football team and the street kids staring at them, mouths open, like a chorus waiting to start singing.
Gloria turned back to Lawrence. ‘And why are they all here? That was going to be my first question.’
‘Well, I think we need them. We need to find those costumes before the Ball and tie some of these threads together eh? And anyway,’ he lifted his palms, ‘them being here is nothing to do with me. They heard we were asking questions and said they wanted to help.’
Ten minutes later they were heading into town in two cars. There was no way Gloria was going to let these children out of her sight, however tough they thought they were, not with so much money and power at stake! They would start in Westpoint where she would leave Abu and his players under the watchful eye of her uncles and cousins and then they would head to the town centre, where all the buzz about the jewellery was. Pascal, Prince and the other street kids could do what they did best – move around, watch and listen without anyone noticing them. All she wanted was for them to listen to what people were saying about the missing costumes, the things people would not say in public but whispered to each other in bars and markets.
Her phone started ringing after an hour and she saw it was Abu calling. She answered just as Prince and Pascal came running back from one direction and the other kids from a different direction. Abu’s voice on the phone, the kids’ voices approaching her on the street all saying the same thing. ‘We know where they are...’
Gloria looked at them expectantly. ‘In the...’ and then a jumble of voices shouting out places ‘... barracks... the fashion shops... in one school in Matadi... behind the Mansion... down by the swamp... the gas station at Old Road.’
The voices died away and then there was silence except for one small boy who had arrived after the others, gasping for breath and dragging a colourful robe and mask behind him. ‘I found them, they’re hidden under Dr Togba’s clinic.