The two detectives stood over the body. They had only arrived a few minutes earlier. The other officers attending the scene formed a jagged but reverential circle around them, watching. Detective Tunde Adewale bent down to more closely examine the body.
“Single stab wound to the chest,” he said. “An upward motion and some dragging indicating that the assailant had to use extra force to get the blade in.”
Detective Kunle Adebayo nodded and motioned for a junior officer who was holding an evidence bag.
“Contents of the dead man’s pockets, sir,” said the officer.
Detective Adebayo took the bag and held it to the light.
“A receipt for Mancinni’s, paid cash but no wallet on him,” he said. “An empty money clip, wedding band, a bunch of keys and a phone.”
Detective Adewale, sighed, “Pretty obvious what’s happened here, don’t you think.”
“Indeed,” said Detective Adebayo, “And I think this will give us the smoking gun.”
Detective Adebayo retrieved the victim’s phone from the evidence bag and held it to the dead man’s face. The two detectives stood together as they swiped through the phone. Periodically, they arched eyebrows and nodded before adopting matching resolute expressions. They looked up at the officers surrounding them, shaking their heads, as if in disappointment.
“This is getting boring,” said Detective Adewale.
“I think it’s a bit worrying actually,” said Detective Adebayo. “With clues this obvious, they should be to solve the case without our help.”
“Put us out of our misery then,” said one of the officers at the scene.
“Didn’t you check his phone?” asked Detective Adewale.
“You know we did,” came the response.
Detective Adewale rubbed his temples and Detective Adebayo took a deep breath.
“The victim had a wedding ring,” said Detective Adewale. “But it was in his pocket.”
“A social media post from his friend at 6pm shows the the victim and six friends enjoying drinks,” said Detective Adebayo. “Another post at 9pm shows only the six friends.”
“He messaged his wife that he was going out with ‘the boys’,” said Detective Adewale “But he paid cash for dinner for two at a restaurant.”
“He was having an affair,” said Detective Adebayo.
“The victim’s wife follows the friend who posted the two images,” said Detective Adewale. “It’s likely she put two and two together with other clues, as we have.”
“For example, the victim paid cash but kept the receipt, he may have done so before,” said Detective Adebayo.
“Plus, the victim has two different colours of of hair on his clothing,” said Detective Adewale. “One matches the hair colour of his wife, who we can see in several of his social media images, the other presumably comes from our mystery woman.”
“The angle of the blade and the nature of the force used is consistent with someone the height and build of his wife,” said Detective Adebayo.
“The victim ordered a car via a ride share app, but never took the ride,” said Detective Adewale “But the proximity alert for the car he shares with his wife, indicated that the car was here about an hour ago.”
“It’s all rather obvious when you look at all of the evidence,” said Detective Adebayo.
“Simple deduction,” said Detective Adewale.
“I suggest some of you finish up here, whilst the rest of you go an arrest his wife, their address is in several places on his phone,” said Detective Adebayo as he adjusted his hat.
The two men turned to leave, Detective Adewale turned back to add, “And we’ll head over to Mancini’s, I think we can get there before their breakfast service ends.”
