The inspector leaned back. ‘And what did your observing eye tell you in this matter?’ I thought I detected sarcasm.
If Aunt Deline heard it too, she ignored it. ‘First, I observed many lapses in the news report. Our journalists are getting lazier and lazier. In my days, the report would have included all the details concerning the matter rather than the hazy sketches we were given. I determined therefore to fill in the gaps myself. I got to the secretariat at half past eight, early enough to find workers on their seats. You know yourself most of them don’t get to their work places on time, especially those higher up.
‘The block itself, one of several similar ones, was about five stories tall, once-upon-a-time cream coloured but now somewhere in between rain-washed grey and dust-inspired brown. Did you know that the buildings that make up the secretariat are lined up, one after the other, in a slanting fashion like people slanting sideways to take a photograph?’
‘Everyone knows that. Tell me something I don’t know because I have been there myself on this matter,’ replied the inspector testily.
‘Well,’ replied Aunt Deline equally testily, ‘if you’re patient, you will eat the fat of the land. When I climbed to the fourth floor, I came out of the staircase and found myself on a balcony looking directly down on the street below. The first office I turned to was quite wide, bare-floored with many spaces where the flooring had given way to the sand used for the construction. Ugh! Come and see sand everywhere! Imagine, in a government building. No standards anymore.
‘Anyway, about four tables were placed in the room, not arranged in any particular order, if you don’t count someone’s whim not to face the sun or to back an incoming visitor. The tables were all occupied by some buxom ladies in various stages of weight wear, plying their figures with more food from plastic food flasks. I give you all these details so that you can have an idea of what I observed.
‘They all said I should come and eat. I told them no thanks, I did not really like what they were eating. I preferred something lighter.’
‘What were they eating?’ I asked.
‘Rice, beans and dodo; so early in the morning too. Strangely though, when I asked to be directed to the office of the permanent secretary of the education ministry, they looked at each other before one of them replied. “It’s the last office on the top floor.”
‘But I heard them laughing as I went out of earshot. I distinctly heard one of them say: “Did she think we were really asking her to come and eat, when it’s not government food? Some people think everything in the government building is for the general public to eat.” I said nothing to them however.
‘When I entered the office I had been directed to, I found the room empty. It was furnished rather sparingly, even though it was a large room. There was a large desk looking directly at the door from the right corner adjacent to a door that obviously opened to another room inside. I decided that that must be the permanent secretary’s office.
‘There was a smaller table at the far corner of the room, with several chairs arranged in front and behind it. I took the chair nearest the door, and sat down to wait.
‘Five minutes later, a big, dark-complexioned woman came in hurriedly. Running behind the large desk, she quickly removed a large, brown envelop from her bag, pushed it to the back of the top drawer, before she made to stow the bag inside a drawer.
‘That was when I spoke. I said ‘Excuse me …
‘The way she jumped had me suspecting something. She had not known anyone was in the room with her. Her face looked cross as she looked first at the door before finding the source of the sound. As a matter of fact, the face seemed to be hiding some pain. Her eyes were a slit, even though the entire face and mouth were wide, yet you could see sadness and hopelessness lurking around the eyes that she vainly tried to hide in haughtiness… She looked at me and spoke roughly.
‘ “What do you want early this morning?”, she snapped. “Are you here to beg for a contract?”
‘I thought this was rather rude but I did not say so.
‘No’, I replied instead. ‘I’m here to see the permanent secretary’.
“For money?” she asked.
‘No’, I coolly replied. I decided to try a shocker of my own. ‘I woke up this morning and found I had no husband, so I’ve come to see if he will fit into the role.’
‘Auntie!’, I exclaimed. She was not contrite. ‘It’s true; you have to really give Nigerians what they deserve before you can get anything out of them.’
‘Anyway,’ she continued, ‘the woman relaxed a bit before saying “He’s not here yet, he’s attending a meeting this morning at the government house.”
‘When can I meet with him then?’, I asked her. “Maybe you can come back in the afternoon. Maybe he would have come back by then” she replied.
‘When I got up to leave, I said to her: ‘Maybe I don’t want to see your boss yet. Maybe by afternoon, I will feel like it. In the meantime, when he wakes up and calls you in, tell him that Dr. Berah was here to see him and will return at two o’clock. By the way, I told her, you also need to get some sleep.
‘As I went out of the door, I had the satisfaction of seeing her wide mouth open wider. As I left, I heard the bell ring from inside the room and I saw her jump again before she went in.’
The inspector was impatient. I was too. ‘So, where are the papers?’
‘There, in the office. I intend to go back first thing in the morning to retrieve them.’
‘Oh yes, the one the secretary was holding. I’m coming with you,’ the inspector declared.
‘So am I,’ I said.
‘Suit yourselves, although I’m not sure it’s that envelope exactly. But we can find out tomorrow’, Aunt Deline said. Then she leaned back in her chair and began to talk about other things.
Next morning, which was a Friday, we were shown into the office of the permanent secretary by his secretary. Aunt Deline was right; the woman’s face was a little long and the mouth was firmly shut. Her eyes looked sad and it was clear that she was harbouring some pain.
It was also clear that the man himself had had a rough night. Much as his office was comfortable, I didn’t think it had been designed for sleeping in. The couch looked big all right, black, fully upholstered, leather-clothed and all (false leather yes, but comfortable). Judging by his uncombed hair, half-closed eyes, tightly held lips, it was obvious the rough night was spent on the couch. I could swear his print was still visible on it.
He welcomed us solemnly and shook hands with the inspector languidly. We took our seats on the same couch. He paid us a distracted attention, constantly flipping over papers on his desk, obviously still searching for his papers. But Aunt Deline jolted him into paying us full attention.
‘We have come about the missing papers.’
You could almost hear him snap to. I really pitied him. ‘Do you know where they are?’, he asked suddenly and quietly.
‘I do, but first, you have to tell us the whole story.’
