As we came face to face with them, one of them, a tall and beefy woman with a husky voice, blocked our way and angrily rebuked us. Nomba mulemona ati twakulamilya you monkeys, how can you just look at us like that as if we are toys without proposing love to us; do you think we will eat you? Before we could recover from our shock the night prowlers walked on, hooting with glee.
We heard the other two women congratulating their apparent team leader on her boldness. My police inspector friend noticed that I was piqued by the unfair attack and was about to react, to physically sort out the cheeky hookers. These sex workers are like this whenever there is no business.
As we sat talking, charting the course of action for the next day there was a soft knock on the door of my room. When I opened the door, I found a nervous looking medium height man in a torn T-shirt and a pair of hot pants. The man cautiously walked in but stood still just near the door after I had closed it behind him. I will tell you only what I know.
My friend nodded his head. He disappeared into the darkness. Our spirits were buoyed now, and we spent the next 10 minutes strategising on how to go about our search the next day, now that we had a lead.
We did not deem it fit to officially involve the police at this stage because both of us were trained and experienced police detectives, though I was now a journalist. I did not escort the inspector to his home this time around. He arrived at the guest house around hours and waited for me to dress up. In a few minutes we were leaving the guest house heading into Senama. As we crossed the road that serves as the boundary, I saw a hunched figure walking briskly towards the guest house, about 50 metres away, every now and then looking over his shoulder.
