“He insulted me before my officers,” he said.
“He accused us of attempted murder because of a dream.”
The investigator corrected him.
“Did he say you poisoned the food?”
Charles hesitated.
“He implied it.”
“Did he ask you to eat it?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Charles leaned back.
“Because I was angry.”
“Why didn’t any other officer eat it?”
“Ask them.”
“What did you do with the food?”
Charles’ expression changed slightly.
“I threw it away.”
“Where?”
He gave an answer.
The location was checked.
Nothing useful was recovered.
Charles believed that helped him.
Instead, it created another question.
If the celebration had been innocent, why had the central evidence disappeared so quickly?
The investigation widened.
The officers who went to Ibe’s house were questioned about the conversation in Charles’ office.
At first, they protected him.
Then one officer was confronted with the others’ conflicting statements.
He realized he might carry the entire blame for a plan created by his superior.
His loyalty collapsed.
He described Charles saying that Ibe appeared to know about the poison.
He described Charles talking about sending men to Ibe’s house.
He repeated the words that had frightened even some of the conspirators: I don’t want him to see the next day.
Charles denied everything.
He accused the officer of lying to save himself.
But the denial came too late.
Another man confirmed part of the meeting.
Then another admitted that the celebration had not been arranged merely to honor Ibe.
The atmosphere that had once protected Charles began turning against him.
The same rank that had made junior officers afraid to challenge him now made investigators ask why multiple subordinates were describing plans connected to him.
Charles became angry again.
It had worked once, at the party, when anger gave him an excuse to remove the poisoned food.
Now it only made him appear desperate.
“This entire thing started because of a dream,” he protested.
“Are we investigating dreams now?”
“No,” the senior officer replied.
“We are investigating what people did after Officer Ibe refused to eat.”
That distinction destroyed Charles’ strongest defense.
Nobody needed to prove that Ibe’s dream was supernatural.
The dream had merely caused him to ask a question.
The conspirators’ own behavior supplied everything that followed.
Ibe’s faith had told him to be careful.
His discipline had prevented him from becoming reckless.
Instead of making wild accusations, he asked the people offering him food to share it with him.
When they refused, he observed.
When they became angry, he remembered.
When Charles removed the food, he documented it.
