Anne cracked a smile at that comment.
“I don’t know how to remove it, o. I’ve tried. Maybe the next time Nonye comes again.”
His eyes strayed to her thighs. What Anne was wearing was a bum short, essentially, if maybe not as tight-fitting as most. And those legs. . .
“Don’t you think you should change into something more. . . ” he gestured vaguely with his hands, knowing she would get the message. She looked at him incredulously.
“And why should I? It’s what I wear every Sunday. It makes me feel comfortable, and besides, you didn’t call to tell me you were coming— Oh yeah, you did. Sorry.”
She stood up and walked to the television. On the floor, a phone was plugged. Anne turned it on and walked back to her chair as it booted. She picked up the remote and resumed the film she was watching.
“Okay, now I know where you got my address. Why are you here, Chuks? Won’t you be in class tomorrow?”
“Leave that one first, make I watch this film,” he replied.
“Okay, so what do I get you now? You didn’t tell me you were coming, and it’s only small indomie I made. And I’ve already eaten it, self.”
“Do you have Hollandia yoghurt?” he asked at once. Anne looked at him, no doubt wondering what sort of question that was. “No problem. If you don’t have, just get me water, please. I don waka today.”
“Okay, let me check and see if I put any one in the fridge.” She stood, put on her slippers and went into the tiny kitchen. She came out bearing a tray with a bottle of water and a glass cup which she set on his lap and resumed her previous place on the chair. The water was cold, and when Chuks drank it, it went down nicely. When he asked which film this was, she answered that it was something in the Harry Potter series. Prisoner of one place. They watched in silence for a while.
“Chuks. Chuks. Chuks!” Chuks started, upsetting cold water on himself. He wiped it away hurriedly. What had happened that made Anne shout like that? Was it something about the fi— He blinked. He wasn’t even watching the tv. He had been staring at her legs. How it happened that his attention drifted away from the television, he had not the slightest idea.
“I think I’ll go and change into something more. . . ” She let the sentence stop there and left the parlour.
Chuks laughed as he wrung water out of his T-shirt. When he had told her to change into something else, she didn’t know why. At least now she did; you didn’t sit in front of a man you didn’t want to turn on and wear something like that. It wasn’t as if he was a eunuch or something.
She was back shortly, and she was wearing a skirt that looked like what reverend sisters would purchase in bulk. It was plain black with no designs whatsoever and reached almost to her shins. It was of a type his father would call ‘bogus’, so the cut didn’t even follow the line of her hips, but it had a zipper at the back, if that was something. He could bet she didn’t feel comfortable in it, but as long as it covered her legs, he was fine.
She sat again, definitely uncomfortable.
“Chuks, this one you’re staring at me like this, don’t forget that I’m your instructor o.”
“Exactly, that’s why I’m here. You remember that first day we were at the range when you took us on a tour, you showed us a rifle that had something called “bio-aim” that could select targets without someone aiming it.”
That was Chuks’ big idea. The moment he mentioned “magnet” at Mrs Durojaiye’s house, his mind had gone to that tour six months ago at Star Ranges, the very day the woman had been killed. “Bio-aim” was the first thing that had popped into his head. If the murderer had made an impossible shot, then perhaps he had made use of that kind of rifle.
That was what he was here to find out.
“Mhmm,” she said, nodding. “I did say that, yes. That was the BU-43.”
“Okay. So that’s basically how it works?”
“Yes, that’s it.”
“Does this rifle still exist? If it does, like how readily available is it?”
“You see, Chuks, this is a very delicate issue. A bio-aim rifle isn’t like a regular firearm. It is fixed in supply, because for some reasons, it can’t be produced anymore.”
“Okay, but can you tell me anything you know about the rifle? Anything at all you know, because if I can remember correctly, we used shotguns, handguns, sniper rifles and assault rifles in out first two classes. Now we’re in Intermediate Expert, and we have already started with the M20 Super Bazooka, but we still haven’t used that bio-aim rifle. So there must be something special about it apart from just being fixed in supply.”