I stood up. “Thank you for the offer, Mr. de Bues. I need to think about it.”
De Bues followed me to the door. “Please, Dr. Cross.” He held out a business card. “At least take my number. We do want to help you.”
“Thanks,” I said and left it at that.
De Bues shook his head as I walked to his door. “You don’t understand, do you? This part of the world is about to explode. And if it does, Africa could go the way of the Middle East. That is the key to your murder case, sir.”
Chapter 103
FRUSTRATED AND CONFUSED more than ever, I took a car service to Adanne’s office. Then we drove to her parents’ house, brainstorming about the case, Unilight’s involvement, and the Tiger’s whereabouts.
My next stop would be to check local records—schools, hospitals, crime reports—any instance of an Abidemi Sowande from 1981 to the present.
Adanne had good suggestions for getting access to state-level information. She wasn’t surprised that the multinationals were frightened and looking for help anywhere they could find it.
“Maybe your murder investigation is heating up,” she said. “It feels like it to me.”
“Yes, to me too.”
Adanne took my hand and that was a distraction I needed. “If you’re good,” she said, “I might even sleep with you again tonight.”
I leaned in and kissed her cheek and wondered how much longer I could be good around Adanne.
“Remember Alex, I know what you’re thinking. I’m probably thinking the same thing.”
It wasn’t until we came around the corner onto her parents’ street that we realized something was wrong.
“Oh, no,” she groaned. “Oh, no, oh, no.”
Adanne stopped her car at the top of the block. At least half a dozen police and fire units were parked at urgent angles to one another in front of her parents’ home. Hose lines snaked from the street through the open gate, and black smoke billowed up from behind the wall.
Adanne clawed at the seat-belt release until the strap flew away. “My God, my God! Oh, my God!”
“Adanne, wait a minute,” I said and tried to grab and hold her back.
But she was already out of the car and running toward her parents’ house. She was screaming in a full voice.
And then I was running too.
Chapter 104
I CAUGHT UP to Adanne just shy of the gate to the house. I grabbed her and picked her up. Her legs kicked off the ground and she struggled against me, reaching toward the gate even as I pulled her away from it.
“Adanne,” I said. “You don’t want to go in there and see. Trust me, please.”
The house was still burning but it was mostly a ghastly, black skeleton of itself. From where we were, Adanne and I could see straight through to the back of the property. The roof was already completely gone.
The driveway and lawn were littered with smoking black debris. Clearly, there had been an explosion. It looked as though it might have been a firebombing.
When I saw two small lumps under sheets on the lawn, I grabbed Adanne tighter and pressed her head into my chest. The bodies had to be the twins, poor little James and Calvin. Adanne knew this too, and she was crying softly in my arms.
A police officer ran by and I caught his attention. “How many were inside?”
He looked me over before answering any questions. “Are you family? Who are you? Why do you want to know?”
“This is her parents’ house. I’m a friend. She’s Adanne Tansi.”
“Three adults, two children,” he said. He looked at Adanne, then back at me, and shook his head no. No survivors.