It was a day filled with warmth and clear skies. A perfect day for an outing, said Eleanor. She remembered she was owing her brother Martin a visit after they had settled their long dispute which spanned for about two years. She smiled as she reminisced what led to the malice with Martin. I fought and kept my distance from the only family I had over a man who ended up leaving me and my son, Eleanor thought to herself with a little smirk on her face.

She turned to Oliver, woke him up, and told him that they would be visiting his uncle who lives in the suburb of Londrina. Oliver was only three years old and neither knew that he had any uncle, or a place called Londrina yet, he was so happy he would be going on a trip away from the four walls of their apartment that has become his little prison. So they both set out on their journey to Londrina.

They took a bus, a boat and then walked the remaining distance to Martin’s house. As Eleanor approached the house, she saw Martin coming toward the house with his daughter and they both greeted each other with a smile. Martin tried to maintain a casual face but couldn’t hold back the joy. They hugged each other for a while before Martin even noticed little Oliver. He then carried Oliver on his shoulders as they all entered the house. Martin greeted and introduced his sister to Ivan, his landlord who was living with the rest of his family in the same building and compound.

She has come from afar to see me, said Martin to Ivan who welcomed Eleanor with a smile and asked to be excused as he was on his way out. Martin, with Oliver still on his shoulder, then walked Eleanor to his apartment as they chatted. While Eleanor and Martin were chatting and sharing memories, Oliver kept pipping through the windows to see a girl who was playing by herself just outside the building but within the compound.

As soon as the girl noticed Oliver, she beaconed him to come and he was going to oblige the call with so much enthusiasm when Eleanor stopped him and asked where he was going. Can I go out to play Mummy? Oliver asked waiting to receive a positive reply. Eleanor looked through the window to see the girl outside and then asked Martin who the girl was. She is Mia, the daughter of Ivan, she should be a little older than Oliver and she’s also a very sweet and lovely girl, there is nothing to worry about, Martin responded. Eleanor wasn’t convinced but she knew how much Oliver had wanted lots of space to play and run around rather than the cubicle of an apartment she had, so she reluctantly allowed him to go as she juggled between keeping watch of Oliver and the causerie she was having with Martin.

Oliver was thrilled to be playing in so much space and Mia was cooperative, indulging Oliver in every kind of game he wanted to play. At one point, Oliver wanted a piggyback from Mia and she carried Oliver on her back and went around playing and laughing within the compound.

After a while, the noise faded but Elanor didn’t notice as she was engrossed in the conversation she was having with Martin. After some time, Martin’s daughter went out for fresh air and brought back the pair of rubber shoes worn by Oliver. Eleanor sighted the shoes and remembered she was supposed to keep an eye on Oliver, so she looked through the window to continue to watch over Oliver but couldn’t find him or even Mia. She then stepped out to look for Oliver but could not find him or any trace of where he may have gone. It was a big compound but not big enough for anyone to get lost, Eleanor thought to herself and soon became apprehensive that her son was missing. She immediately raised an alarm and was joined in the search by her brother and his daughter to search all over the compound.

In the course of the search, Martin asked Mia who earlier was playing with Oliver, but Mia said she left Oliver by the doorstep of the building.

When Martin tried to get more detailed information about Oliver’s whereabouts from Mia, her mother quickly intervened by dragging Mia away from the conversation and told Martin in a stern voice that her daughter has said all that she knew. Martin became concerned by the reaction of Mia’s mother as he has always known her to be jovial and amiable. He then advised Eleanor that they involve the local police in the matter. Eleanor agreed and the matter was reported to the police station about five minutes’ walk from the house. After Martin and Eleanor took turns in explaining what had transpired, Leon, one of the only three officers available in the station agreed to follow Martin and Eleanor back to the house to conduct some investigation and Martin was particularly glad that Leon was the officer who decided to follow them because anyone who has lived in the small town long enough knows that Leon has a knack for being feisty and intimidating to get what he wants especially when in uniform.

When they got to the house, Leon wasted no time in making his appearance felt as he went straight to Ivan and asked where the boy was and as Ivan was about to answer, Leon slapped Ivan and accompanied that with a kick to his back. He then started to beat Ivan mercilessly and when Ivan’s wife couldn’t take it any longer, she screamed in anguish ‘Please stop! Search the backyard again please stop.’

Another search was immediately conducted, this time with Leon and Ivan. As they kept searching for Oliver, Eleanor kept weeping knowing something terrible must have happened. Leon then noticed an old abandoned well at the far end of the compound closed to the wall and went ahead to check the well. The well wasn’t entirely dry and the water wasn’t clean too, but that didn’t hinder Leon from discovering a figure resting beneath the well. As soon as Leon saw the figure, he radioed for backup and medical assistance. Eleanor turned towards the direction of Leon and on hearing the words he spoke to his radio transceiver,

she fainted. The medics arrived and were able to recover the body of Oliver from the well. Thereafter, a post-mortem examination of the body of the deceased child revealed that the cause of death was due to acute respiratory failure because of suffocation but also noted that he had a bruise on the head, possibly from the fall.

At the police station, both Ivan and his wife who were in custody were being interrogated separately and after several hours with Leon and Officer Enzo from another precinct, Ivan confessed to killing Oliver but claimed it was a mistake, that when he got back to the house after been out for about an hour, he heard the voice of a child from the backyard just before he opened his door and decided to enquire. So, when he got to the backyard, he saw a boy playing by himself with a toy very close to the well and out of care for the child, he carried the boy but slipped from stepping on the toy and would have also fallen into the well but for his body size that acted as a lever to obstruct the fall.

Ivan then pointed to his stained shirt and trousers as evidence of his fall. Leon angrily responded; ‘I knew you were up to no good, you killed the boy’ but Officer Enzo wasn’t convinced by the story of Ivan, not because he shared the same opinion with Leon but just didn’t believe Ivan’s story.

Afterward, Leon agreed to do the paperwork while Enzo opted to inform the family of Oliver about the confession of Ivan. The next day, Enzo got to Martin’s house and met Martin, his daughter, and Eleanor who was still in an inconsolable mood. He informed them of the progress in the matter and that Ivan had confessed to killing Oliver but only by mistake. And as expected, the news did little to offer Eleanor any reprieve.

After some moments of trying to comfort everyone, Enzo decided to take his leave and as he stepped outside, he went straight to the backyard, to the scene of the crime.

He stood by the well trying to make sense of Ivan’s story and after a while, as he was about to leave, he noticed a purple button just by the well but almost buried under the mud. He hurriedly wore his gloves, picked up the button, put it in a small evidence bag, and rushed to the door of Ivan’s apartment. When he got there, he banged on the door and as soon as the door was opened, he flashed his badge and an expired search warrant to Ivan’s wife claiming that he has a warrant to search the apartment. He entered, asked for the room of Ivan’s daughter, and walked straight to the room without showing interest in any other room. After ransacking the entire room, he found a worn-out purple dress with buttons matching the one he found at the side of the well. He looked through the cloth and found it stained with dry mud and that it was missing a button. Enzo then concluded that Ivan’s daughter must have been playing with Oliver which led to a tussle over a toy and Oliver while holding onto the cloth of Ivan’s daughter was pushed into the well.

Immediately after concluding his findings, Enzo became confounded as to whether to forgo his findings and maintain Ivan’s story or report Ivan’s daughter who is just a child whether the incident was done on purpose or not.

As soon as Enzo got out of the room with the purple dress in his hands, he saw Ivan’s wife and daughter weeping by the corner of the hallway. He approached them, gave the dress and the button to Ivan’s wife, and said, Ivan has chosen to take the fall, now it is your sole responsibility to raise your daughter well. Officer Enzo then closed the door and walked away.