CHAPTER FIFTEEN: The insider

The driver never reached the back door.

David moved like a man half his size. He lunged, grabbed the driver by his collar, and slammed him hard against the wall. The sound echoed through the whole living room. The driver's cheap phone flew out of his hand and skidded across our marble floor, stopping near my feet.

"Emeka! Na Emeka pay me!" He was shouting and crying at the same time, his hands up. "He pay me fifty thousand to cut the wire! He say na just for fifteen minutes! I no know about any picture, sir, I swear!"

Jidenna didn't shout. That was what scared me most. His face went completely quiet. That cold, deadly quiet I had only seen once before.

"Bring Emeka to me," he said to David, his voice low. "Now."

But Mama Nkechi, our cook who has been with us for five years, was already shaking her head, tears running down her face. "He comot, sir. Ten minutes ago. He say him mama dey call am for village. He use kitchen door."

He had run.

Before anyone could move, my phone buzzed again. And Jidenna's phone buzzed. And the detective's phone buzzed.

Same unknown number.

I was still holding the burner phone in the evidence bag. The screen lit up again. A new image was loading.

It was not the morning picture. This one was us. Right now.

Twenty-three staff standing in our living room. Jidenna standing in the middle with his fist clenched. Me sitting on the floor, holding myself. The picture was taken from the hallway. Less than thirty seconds ago.

My blood ran cold.

"Jidenna," I whispered, my voice breaking. "Someone is still inside this house watching us."

The detective understood instantly. He stepped forward and blocked the main entrance. "NOBODY LEAVES THIS ROOM! All phones on the floor! Now! Everybody!"

Twenty-three phones clattered onto the floor. Gardeners, cleaners, drivers, security. All of them.

The detective picked them one by one. Most were old phones, cracked screens. Then he picked up a new Tecno phone, still shiny.

"Who owns this?" he asked.

Silence.

The owner didn't answer.

He opened the gallery. It was empty. He opened the recently deleted folder. There was one video there, deleted two minutes ago.

He pressed play.

The video was shaky, dark. It showed our bedroom door slightly open. A hand was placing a tiny black object inside the flower pot directly opposite our bed. The camera in the flower pot. The one that took our private picture.

And on that hand, there was a silver ring with a lion head.

I know that ring. I have seen it every day for two years.

"Emeka," Jidenna whispered. His voice cracked. "That is Emeka's ring. I gave him that ring for his graduation."

My cousin. My blood. The same cousin who stood as Jidenna's best man at our wedding. The same cousin I gave the side gate code to in January when his mother was sick and he needed to bring her drugs late at night.

The driver on the floor was still crying. "He say he go give me another fifty thousand after the work! He say oga get plenty money, say make we teach am lesson!"

Jidenna knelt and picked the driver up by his shirt. "Teach me lesson for what? What did I do to him?"

The driver was shaking. "He say... he say you collect him land for Lekki. He say you promise to give him contract and you no give am."

Jidenna let go of him like he was dirty. He stood up, breathing hard. "That land? That land was my father's land! I gave him three hundred thousand for his mother's hospital bill when no one else did!"

I held my stomach. I felt like throwing up. Emeka had been coming to our house, eating our food, laughing with us, while planning this.

David returned from the kitchen, angry. "