Henry had been left to sit alone in the dark room formore than an hour without seeing anyone or hearing
anyone talk. He rested his head on the table and began
to think about the woes he had brought upon himself
by becoming friends with Omotara. He remembered
that she tried to resist their friendship but his accursed
self was the one who continued to push even with the
embarra.s.sment and soldiers hara.s.sment she had
caused him on their first encounter. He didn"t stop
until she gave him her number and agreed to have
lunch with him. Remembering all that now, he
wondered why he still had so much feelings for
someone who had caused him so much pain and who
he had not even spent up to three weeks being friends
with. An annoying thing was that he felt a strange kind
of satisfaction that the police arrested him instead of
her, he didn"t think he would love to see her go
through the rigorous prosecution by the police
especially as she was already involved in the fraud
crime.
He thought of how he was going to escape from the
trouble he was in. He could only see two ways out,
either to spill out all he knew about her or to pretend
not to know her beyond their few days friendship. The
former would be the best option, the latter could even
get him into deeper trouble.
A flash of light came in as the door opened, three
people walked in and the last one closed the door. On
came a fairly bright light hung on the ceiling directly
above where Henry was seated. Henry could now see
the faces of the officers proceeding towards him.
Dakolo sat directly opposite him behind the table while
Ken sat beside Dakolo and the third officer took a
standing position.
"I"m not saying anything until I see my lawyer," Henry
protested without waiting to hear any word from the
officers first.
"Your lawyer is not here yet but don"t worry, you"ll
have enough time to discuss with him. We"ll grant you
bail after these few questions we"ve got for you. "
Dakolo replied in a calm voice.
"I"m still not answering any question," Henry said
stubbornly.
Dakolo smiled. "You want to make things hard for
yourself then, we will have to force you to speak."
"I"ve spoken enough to you already, I want to see my
lawyer first," Henry insisted, trying to feign confidence
even though he was scared of facing their torture
sessions.
"You"ve not spoken enough yet, you"ve not told us all
you know about that girl Evelyn Alexander." Dakolo
said.
"I told you all I know already. She"s a business woman
who came from Canada, we met and became friends.
She invited me to accompany her to Chief Jubril
Lawal"s party and I did, what else am I supposed to tell
you?" Henry began to answer the questions again
unconsciously.
"You said you never left the table at that party but she
left you for several hours and even left the venue
without you, how could a good friend who took you to
to a party do that?" Dakolo played along. "Who was the
man who you said came to pick her."
"I don"t know him nor do I remember his face. All I
know is that they were discussing business and they
went to the exhibition centre." Henry answered,
consciously omitting the first question.
Dakolo paused for a moment and stared at Henry"s
face. "Who stopped the cameras at the event centre
from working?"
"How am I supposed to know that? My job description
in the NSCC does not involve securing cameras for
event centres."
"But you were in the event centre at that time."
"Yes, I was there. Seated and enjoying the show like
other guests." Henry replied in a stern, determined
voice. "Don"t you guys understand, for someone to
have obstructed their system that day, the person
must have gotten into their control room."
Dakolo"s phone rang. He stood up and walked away
from the table before answering the call, he spoke in
low tones for few seconds before he returned.
"We"ve reinvestigated the Canadian number and we"ve
gotten the report," Dakolo continued the session,
planning a trick in his mind.
Luckily for Henry, he was absentminded and didn"t
hear the last statement immediately, it took him
sometime to process what Dakolo said, so the
response he gave was not the "shocked response"
Dakolo was expecting. "Who reinvestigated it?" Henry
asked, acting indifferent.
"You don"t need to know that," Dakolo said in a
threatening voice and got up to sit on the table. "The
important thing is that we"ve discovered who you are,
we discovered that you"re a liar and a criminal."
Henry chuckled, he didn"t fall for the trap. "Agent
Dakolo," he called calmly. "Was that the result of the
reinvestigation? Who I am? I thought it was an
investigation of number you did not an investigation
about me." Henry didn"t believe in his heart that any
reinvestigation had even occurred.
Dakolo bit his lips and got up from the table angrily. It
was obvious the trick didn"t work for Henry but instead
of Henry"s confidence to show innocence to Dakolo, it
further proved how hardened Henry was. "Release him
to the lawyer after telling him the terms of the bail."
Dakolo said to Ken before storming out of the room.
~~
5pm
"Thanks," Tarasha said as she paid the filling station
attendant and closed the fuel tank. "Hey! Please" she
called back the attendant who was about going to
attend to someone else.
"Yes," the lady replied her impatiently.
"How do I get to Ordoz Palace road from here?" She
asked.
"You"re almost there, just drive straight down and ask
again."
"Oh thanks," Tarasha said and turned to enter into the
van. She put on her seatbelt and drove out of the filling
station. She had been trying to follow the map to
locate Henry"s house for over thirty minutes now and
she was almost getting confused, thinking that she
wasn"t on the right track. She got to the road and
drove straight down as directed. Soon enough, she
needed not to ask any question again as she recognized
the street. She also located his house without stress.
She kept driving several metres away until she got to a
suitable place to park the van. She halted the vehicle
and stepped out. She straightened her black shredded
Jean trousers and her black shirt. She began to walk
back the several metres to Henry"s apartment.
Henry"s apartment was a duplex that was rented for
him by the NSCC when he joined them. The house had
a high fence surrounding it like most of the houses in
the area.
As an observant person that she was, she noticed a guy
taking a stroll down the road like her too. From the
way he was dressed and how he comported himself,
Tarasha was able to decipher that he had been asked to
keep an eye on Henry"s house. She saw him staring at
the gate as she pa.s.sed, she played along too and
strolled by without stopping in front of the house to
raise suspicion. As she pa.s.sed the gate, she noticed two
more persons. That was when she began to think about
tryng to attack Henry in his house, it may not be the
best strategy to use, she would need to make another
plan ready in case this one doesn"t work out.
She took a fifteen minutes walk to no destination and
then returned to her van. Another idea came into her
mind, it was still possible that her first strategy works
fine.
~~~
Henry finally returned to the NSCC office with his
lawyer at exactly fifteen minutes past five. His lawyer
drove them in his car.
"I would have preferred that you go home straight to
rest," the dark skinned, big eyeballed lawyer said for
the umpteenth time.
"I have a job I need to round up," Henry insisted.
"It"s okay," the lawyer finally gave up.
The car was brought to an halt in the same park where
Henry and Tarasha"s car were parked, under the same
shed as Tarasha"s but had two cars separating them
from Tarasha"s car previous position.
Henry quickly stepped out of the car without waiting
for the lawyer to turn off the engine. He proceeded to
where his car was and still met it there but the blue car
he had placed a tracker on had been driven away and
the s.p.a.ce was empty. He felt a bit of joy in his heart as
hopes of finding Omotara again began to rise in his
heart but all his hopes were dashed in few seconds,
after his eyes met with the tracking device on the floor.
He walked towards the parking s.p.a.ce to confirm and it
was really it. He wondered how it got detached from
the car, no one could have noticed it where he hid it
except he was seen while doing it. Or maybe he didn"t
fix it properly. He bent down to pick it up and check, it
was obvious that the tracker did not fall off itself but
someone had detached it.
"What"s that?" His lawyer asked as he appeared at his
back.
"Nothing," he replied and hid the tracker in his palms.
He turned and proceeded to his car. "I"m going home."
"I thought you wanted to work in the office."
"I changed my mind." Henry said, searching his pockets
frantically for his car keys. He then remembered that
he left it on his table in the office.
~~~
6.30pm
Tarasha had driven round the street to check the
position of Henry"s house and how possible it was for
her to get in through the back. Luckily, there was. The
building on another street whose compound backed
Henry"s house was a paper company that already
closed their activities for the day by five pm. Although
the company had provision for two security men to
man the gate overnight, she was sure that it would be
easier to pa.s.s through them than facing the spies that
the police had placed in front of Henry"s house. All she
needed now was for the day to get a little bit darker.
She stepped out of her car and sat on the bonnet to
take fresh air. Several people were returning from
work to their houses in their cars and commercial
tricycles while younger people sometimes could be
seen in pairs and larger groups walking leisurely.
Tarasha ran her hand through her hair as the soft
breeze landed on her face. She glanced around the
area where her car was parked, the drivers of other
cars were either in their cars or had left the cars there
but none was seen hanging outside like she did. She
decided it would be better to take a walk than to
remain on the bonnet. Her phone rang as she opened
the car to take it out.
"Hey Cole," she said after answering the call.
"Boss," Cole was half panting. "It all went well today."
"Where are you?" Tarasha asked, ignoring his last
statement on hearing the sounds of him panting.
"At the football pitch," Cole answered.
"This evening? I thought you should be resting." Tarasha
replied, surprised at his boldness to tell her that he was
on the football field.
"No boss, it"s been a long while and I wasn"t sure if I"ll
get the chance to do this soon again."
"Okay, so what"s up?"
"She agreed," Cole said with a note of excitement. "We"ll
be returning to Abuja for a meeting scheduled with the
Vice President on Friday. I just got the email inviting us
seconds ago and I thought I should tell you first."
"Bravo!" Tarasha applauded as she closed the vehicle"s
front door. "Excellent job so far, but hope there was no
complication in anyway."
"No, there wasn"t."
"Good."
"Boss, would you like to read the email? Should I
Forward it to you?"
"No, don"t bother. I"ll read it directly from the
mailbox."
"Okay, boss. That"s all for now."
~~
6.30pm
Jefa was attending to his customers in the shop when
his phone vibrated in his pocket, there was an
incoming call. After serving a particular set of
customers drinks, he took out the phone and checked
the missed calls log. The number that called him was
unsaved in his phone but he recognized it, it was
Henry"s. Thoughts of Omotara raced back into his
heart immediately and he felt a sharp pain in the chest
at the thought of never seeing her again. He considered
calling Henry back but remembered his decision
earlier that day to stay away from Henry and anything
else that could unite him back with Omotara so as to
avoid the disaster that may follow. Henry began to call
again as he wanted to put it in his pocket. He silenced it
and went ahead to pocket the phone. Barely one
minute later, it began to ring again. He silenced it again
by tapping the volume b.u.t.ton without removing it
from his pocket. It rang for the fourth time and he
took it out of his pocket, he couldn"t resist the urge to
answer it anymore.
"h.e.l.lo," he spoke into the phone.
"h.e.l.lo sir, have you heard any word from Omotara?"
Henry"s voice sounded impatient, the car horn and
hoots heard was an evidence that he was on the road.
"No, why do you ask? She doesn"t know me."
"It"s possible she might have tried to contact you
already. I told her about you, so don"t say that she
doesn"t know you."
"Erm…. Anyway I want us to stop searchin…"
"Sir…" Henry cut in. " If she ever tries to contact you, tell
her to stay out of town and remain in hiding for now "
"What do you mean?" Jefa asked in a serious tone.
From the way Henry sounded, it was obvious that
Omotara was in a sort of danger.
The call ended without Henry answering. All attempts
Jefa made to reach him after proved futile as Henry did
not answer his calls until later, Henry sent a text
message that he was driving and would call later.
~~
7.30pm
With the black bag strapped to her back and her hand
gloves on, Tarasha raced towards the high fence
separating the company from Henry"s compound and
climbed it. She rolled into Henry"s compound and
made sure she landed with the lowest possible noise.
She detached the rope hanging around her belt and
dropped it on the floor. It was the remains of what she
had used to tie up the security guards in the paper
company.
She had injected into their bodies Benryl which will
make them sleep off for several hours and even forget
totally what happened before the sleep but she still had
to tie them up and cover their mouths with tapes in
case she spent more than the time she planned to.
She threw in a gum into her mouth and began to chew
softly, she placed her hands on her waist as she stared
at the building. It was time to execute the other part of
the plan. She took out her phone and dialed Henry"s
number.
Henry"s case must be solved that night.
"Can you zoom it a little?" Dakolo said to the officer
seated in front of the computer. He and Ken were
behind and viewing the screen. "It"s okay," he said and
bent to have a good look. "Alright, next."
"Looking at Henry in the picture, I don"t think he was
involved in the crime. He doesn"t look like someone
who had just murdered the Chief." Ken commented.
"He looks somehow distraught in the video, his eyes
were wandering around like someone who was in
search of something there."
"Maybe he was really there to search for the car that
brought him like he told us."
"But the range Rover was nowhere to be found. How
could his friend that had brought him along to the
party leave without him?"
"Hmm… That"s only explainable by him."
"There"s nothing to explain there," Dakolo said, biting
his lips. "That girl is Samantha Osman and she only
used him to fulfill her aim."
"True but…" Ken paused for a while to think. "There"s
still something fishy about his response to our
questions, I feel like he"s hiding something."
"He"s definitely hiding something," Dakolo agreed. "You
know he may be feeling guilty of the part he played in
the crime and may not want us to find out."
"But why should he still hide it? If he was used, he
should open up to us so that we can all nail the
a.s.sa.s.sins together."
"Hmm…" Dakolo pondered deeply on Ken"s words.
"What is he hiding and why is he still hiding it?" He
muttered to himself. "You know he may be scared of
the consequences that may follow."
The junior officer seated on the chair turned to listen
to the conversation without making his own
contribution, he had been following the details of the
crime from the first day.
"Only G.o.d knows what he could be hiding," Ken said to
himself, but still loud enough for the others to hear.
"Sir…" The junior officer finally joined in, facing Ken. "Is
it not the lady that came in with Henry E.G on the
kidnap case for interrogation that"s the suspect here?"
"Yes," Ken answered, staring at the officer in surprise of
the excitement in his voice.
"I can"t really recall her face, but I remember that the
camera in the interrogation room was on then, we
might have captured her face."
"My goodness!" Ken exclaimed with a gasp. "Do you
have the videos here?"
"Yes, I"ll search the video out in two minutes." The
officer said and turned to the computer. Dakolo and
Ken positioned themselves at his back to look at the
screen. After a minute, Dakolo dragged a chair from
the front of another computer and sat on it. "Here"s it,"
the officer opened a folder of several videos. "These
were all the videos recorded that day."
"Let"s see the exact one," Ken urged the officer.
After three minutes of playing and stopping videos in
search for the exact one, they finally found one. Henry
could be seen walking into the room behind a
uniformed officer who was ushering then, then he was
followed by Evelyn Alexander. She had an unkempt
hair on, some part of her attachment were covering
her face.
"D--n!" Dakolo cursed under his breath. "Why the h.e.l.l
is she looking down?" He threw a question impatiently,
to no one in particular.
As they proceeded to the seats prepared for them,
Evelyn Alexander raised her head up but at the same
time began to rub her palm on her face, like someone
who was just getting up from a deep slumber and
couldn"t remember where she was.
"Wait!" Dakolo shouted. "Rewind," he said, pointing at
the screen. "Pause!"
Her face was lifted towards the camera now, her left
eye was seen partially but the right eye was covered
with her palms and a part of her face, she continued to
scrub her face with her palm as if her eyes were itching
her until they got to the seat where the officer ushered
them to. Henry sat first, but she carried her chair and
turned it to the other side of the table where she could
sit and back the camera. The video showed the officer
trying to ask her why she changed the seat positioning
but she answered by pointing to her eyes and the bulb
in the room. The officers watching could decode that
she was complaining that her eyes couldn"t
accommodate the light.
Evelyn Alexander sat backing the camera all through
the interrogation.
"Take it back again," Dakolo ordered. The video was
rewound again to the point where her face was lifted
towards the camera. "Pause," Dakolo said. "Can you see
where she"s looking to?" He asked Ken.
"Yes, she"s facing the camera directly." Ken answered.
"Look at her pocket," Dakolo continued, pointing to the
screen. There was a blinking red light seen on her
pocket. "I"ve heard of camera detectors, I"ve never
seen one but I believe that that must be one in her
pocket."
"It is," Ken affirmed, keeping a serious look on his face.
"That"s how it works."
"Take it back a little," Dakolo ordered the junior officer
again. "Pause… Play."
Dakolo stared at Ken"s face and gave him a "I told you
look". She started rubbing her face immediately the
blinking started, she then took a glance at her pocket
and traced where the light was pointing to."
Ken shook his head in agreement. They were now
more certain that the lady was Samantha Osman or
another lady who was part of the a.s.sa.s.sin group.
"Did you see her face that day?" Dakolo turned away
from the video to Ken who was still trying to watch the
video.
"Yes sir…I can"t picture how she looks like but I"m sure
I can identify her when I see her."
"Are you sure? With the way she was unkempt?"
"Ermm… Not too sure sir," Ken scratched his head. "But
she wasn"t really unkempt except for her hair, the
excuse she gave that day was that she had to hurry out
of the house and couldn"t comb it properly."
Dakolo took in a deep breath and rested his forehead
on his palm tiredly. He glanced at his wrist.w.a.tch, it was
7.35pm. They were supposed to have left for their
various homes by that time. He got up and started
pacing around.
"That girl used Henry, she"s one of the a.s.sa.s.sins." He
said in a thoughtful manner, though loudly.
"It"s very obvious that he was used sir," Ken added.
"That means we may have to change our way of
investigating and interrogating Henry. He"s very
important to us, now that we know he had a close
relationship with one of the a.s.sa.s.sins."
"Yes sir, I agree." Ken said. He placed a finger on his lips
as he thought deeply, silence took over the
atmosphere for some minutes.
Dakolo and Ken suddenly glanced at each other as the
same thought struck their minds.
"D--n! I hope we"ve not made a costly mistake
already," Dakolo spoke first, half shouting.
"Are you thinking the same thing with me sir?" Ken
eyes, his eyes widened in anxiety.
"We"ve made a huge mistake by letting Henry go. We
might have put him in danger that way." Dakolo said
before sinking into his seat again.
"Yes, now that he has been invited for interrogation in
our office, the a.s.sa.s.sins may be after his life so that he
doesn"t spill out any information that would implicate
them."
"D--n! I have to warn him now." Dakolo hurriedly took
out his phone, he was about to dial a number when a
call came in, from the Vice President.
"Good evening your Excellency," he answered the call
after a little hesitation.
"Good evening Agent Dakolo," Elvis Richard"s voice
came through. "Where are you?"
"I"m still at the office sir," Dakolo replied impatiently,
hoping that the man would rush all he had to say.
"I want you and Inspector Ken to come and see me
now." Elvis Richards said in an ordering tone.
"Sir, we have…"
"Shhh… I"m supposed to work along with you guys but
you made an arrest today without telling me until I
found out by myself."
"Sir, it"s not…"
"Just come over with Ken and explain yourself, I"ll be
expecting you in ten minutes. It takes less than eight
minutes to drive from your office to my residence. I"ll
be waiting for you." With that the call ended and
Dakolo stared at Ken, frustration clearly written on his
face.
~~
After speaking with Jefa over an hour ago, Henry had
still not gone home. He was seated in a restaurant
where he had just taken his dinner. He refused to get
up from his seat after he finished the meal but was
staring at the television set absent-mindedly. The
temptation at first was to go into a beer parlour and
try some alcohol. He had heard about how alcohol
could help people get rid of their worries temporarily,
he was also willing to get his worries off his mind. But
he was able to resist the temptation after coming to
the conclusion that what he needed was a permanent
solution and not a temporary one.
It was until one of the attendants came to his table that
he realized he was the only customer left in the place,
the restaurant was already being locked up by the
workers.
"Sir, you have to leave now." The lady said, rapping her
knuckles on the table.
"Oh Thanks!" Henry said and took his car keys from the
table. He searched his pocket for his phone, it wasn"t
there, be remembered he had left it in the car. He
immediately proceeded out of the building and got
into his car, he drove off few seconds later.
~~
"Why the h.e.l.l isn"t he answering his calls?" Dakolo
murmured on their way to the Vice President house in
a car, Ken was driving.
Dakolo ended the call and dialed another number. It
didn"t take so much time before the officer answered.
"h.e.l.lo sir."
"Officer, where is he now?" Dakolo asked.
"He just left a restaurant and I believe that"s he"s on his
way home now."
"Where are you?"
"Following him behind, but not too close so that he
doesn"t notice."
"Make sure you don"t take your eyes off him, he may
be in serious danger."
"Okay sir."
"I"ll call you very soon again, you may need to reveal
yourself to him and stop him from going home."
Dakolo added few other things before ending the call.
"It won"t be easy for the officer to stop him from going
home." Ken spoke, few seconds after Dakolo ended the
call.
"Yes, that"s why I want to reach Henry first." Dakolo
replied, dialing Henry"s number again. "He"s still not
answering."
"Maybe you should try someone else who can reach
him," Ken suggested. Their movement was slowed as
there was a little obstruction on the road by a faulty
tanker.
Dakolo quickly took the suggestion and dialed
Sylvester"s number.
"Agent," Sylvester voice came up tiredly.
"Mr. Sylvester, you have to reach Henry for me
immediately. Try to convince him not to go to his
house, he can go to the NSCC staff house or
somewhere else where there is better security."
"Okay, I"ll try and get back to you sir." The call ended
and Dakolo let out a deep breath hopefully.
"Sir…" Ken called, "what if Henry is close to his house
already?"
The road became clear at the moment, Ken took a
glance at his wrist.w.a.tch before speeding off.
"That"s true, I should have asked their location from
the officer." Dakolo said thoughtfully. "Maybe I should
just tell the officer to stop him right away," Dakolo took
out his phone. He sighed as a call came in.
"It"s past fifteen minutes now, where are you?" Elvis
Richards barked.
~~~
Tarasha covered her nose as sparks of dust were
emitted as she drilled in the screwdriver-like metal into
the keyhole of Henry"s backdoor. The door gave way
and she returned her instrument into the bag. Her
phone beeped as she was about to enter into the
house. She took it out and put it on loud speaker.
"Agent," she heard Sylvester"s voice.
"Mr. Sylvester, you have to reach Henry for me
immediately. Try to convince him not to go to his
house, he can go to the NSCC staff house or
somewhere else where there is better security."
Another voice which Tarasha guessed to be the agent"s
voice sounded.
"Okay, I"ll try and get back to you sir." With that the call
ended.
Tarasha kept her phone back into her pocket. The
information didn"t stop her from proceeding inside.
She took a small torchlight from the side of her bag
and used it to brighten her path as she walked into the
darkness in the house.
After walking for some minutes, she was able to locate
a living room, she sat on a stool and took out an
Android device from her bag. She unlocked the screen
and opened an app. A map displayed, she smiled.
Henry was still coming in the direction of the house.
But even if he changed direction, it wouldn"t stop her
from going after him anywhere he changed direction
to, he had to be taken care of that day, no
postponement.
She got up and began to walk deeper into the house,
searching the walls with her torchlight.
~~
Henry"s was just few metres to his gate when his phone
began to ring again. He glanced at the screen, Mr
Sylvester"s ID was displayed. He took his left hand off
the steering and picked the phone, he switched it off
and threw it to the backseat.
…