Picking pieces from her past

You really don’t know why men try to dig on a woman’s past. It is one of those foolish endeavours, that even yourself, despite your advanced age are not immune from.

So you wait for Paulo’s investigation on Carol. Ever the disciplined boy, he calls you after 24 hours and in under five minutes, he runs a summary of Carol.

“She was in Kabete with us. She got a scholarship on third year to the UK, where she completed her degree and her masters, before she came back to work for some multinational,” you hum along, but this is not the kind of news you want.

Paulo is not the smartest bulb, and may never know that you want a sexual history of her. You barely listen to the rest of his boring monotone. How does Paulo even live with himself? Such a boring slob. But he comes up with a plan...

“I have asked her close friend out for drinks and she is game, can we meet on Wednesday, come along and I will ask her questions about her and then you can get all the info you want?”

Sounds like a plan.

On Wednesday, you both get to the upmarket bar in good time. Carol’s friend is an absolute beauty, calm and the most collected the person you have ever met.

She orders red wine. You get your whiskey on the rocks. And Paulo, the bore he is, goes for beer. You start the evening by the usual stupid things going on in the country.

You are keen to have her drink all the wine, so as to be as free with information as possible. She doesn’t know that she is being used as a pawn.

You let Paulo control the conversation, joining from time to time, but you really wish you could fast forward to a point where she shares all she knows about Carol.

Two hours later, Paulo starts an interrogation of her friends and how their life panned out. They run a list of about five friends, before they get to Carol.

“She got a scholarship to the UK when we were in third year, finished her bachelors and I think masters there. She came back and worked for some blue chip in Mombasa, but I hear she is back in the city,” she says. That much you know.

“Is she married?”

“Not sure. Carol was too proud, and arrogant, I don’t think marriage is really her thing. But she did move in with some lawyer, not sure if they are still together that was like three years ago...”

Of course when such details start to emerge, you regret why you ever bothered. Paulo goes on with the probing, distracting her with other useless questions, but still sticking with Carol.

“She is very independent, and frankly too selfish. We no longer talk as such. I saw her in December at Lenah’s baby shower, she never even said hi,” she says, trying to paint Carol as a narcissistic misanthrope, but nothing damaging so far.

No child hidden left with parents in the village. A few more questions yield nothing much, at least, not a promiscuous past to worry about.

While this is reassuring, your gut tells you that there is something sinister about Carol that she may not necessarily be privy to.

Maybe you should call Cindy who you have not spoken to since she left, and ask her about Carol. The whiskey is now working. You call her and she picks on the second attempt.

Will she reveal everything she knows?

@nyanchwani

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