***Twenty minutes later, with the receptionist, in
the junior Pharmacist's office***
'Do you recall any student that visited Dr.
Hammed last week?' James began the
questioning section.
'Student? Dr. Hammed rarely has visitors' the
receptionist replied, narrowing her eyes, she
struggled to remember those who visited the
past week
'But a student visitor was with him in his office
last week' James pressed on. 'Precisely on
Monday'
'Yeah! That's true!' She exclaimed, remembering
a certain pharmacy student who visited. 'There
was a Unilag girl who was here to see him last
week'
'Who's she? Was that the first time you saw her
here? Do you know what she came for?'
'No, I saw her for the first time on Thursday the
previous week, she came asking about Dr.
Daniel Umaru and I told her that he doesn't have
her time'
'So?'
'She was making trouble with me when Dr.
Hammed saw us, he then asked her to come
back on Friday to see him'
'What did she want to see want to see Dr.
Umaru for?'
'About the conference and I told her to check
our website for more information but she
insisted on seeing the Doctor'
'Hmmm, the conference' James glanced at
Segun who nodded; it seemed they were making
progress already. 'Did you suspect anything
unusual about her?'
'No, she was just a stubborn University student'
'Nothing unusual happened when she was here?'
'No except on Friday when Dr. Hammed slept
off during work hours, that was very unusual of
him'
'He slept off after meeting with her?'
'Yes, he slept off after she left his office and…'
she paused, she narrowed her gaze. 'We had to
remind him about a lot of things when he woke
up'
'How did you know that he forgot a lot of things'
'I know' she sounded confident. 'For example,
he came to ask if some of our clients which he
was expecting to visit him came that day,
whereas they met him when he came, he even
followed them out to the reception when they
were leaving'
'You saw him come down with them?'
'Yes, he came down with them and went back to
his office with Tarasha' she affirmed. 'I was
surprised when he came down several hours
time to ask if I had seen any of the clients or if
they had call to inform us that they were not
coming anymore'
'Interesting' James nodded slowly, thinking
deeply about all he heard and trying to draw a
conclusion from it.
'You said she is a student of Unilag, what's her
name and what course does she study?'
'She didn't tell me' the receptionist lied, not
remembering if the Unilag girl mentioned her
name. 'But she's a student of pharmacy'
'Okay, thank you very much. We'll get back to
you if we need more information and please,
don't hesitate to provide us with any you
remember' James concluded.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++
**5pm**
Benny grouched within himself as they drove
past the developed areas of Orugbum, he
glanced at the compass application on
Tarasha's device; they were still on track, now
very close to their new lodge. He wondered
what kind of job they came to do, which
required a desolate place like this to work from.
At five pm, they finally got to the place which
the compass was indicating; it was a large
bushy compound, with a hold rickety house in
the middle. A water well with several green
plants grown on it was at the left side of the
house. They drove in through the widely opened
rusted black gate.
Cole and Aisha also drove into the compound in
a Benz after Benny brought the truck to a halt
at a far distance from the house. The vehicles
couldn't go close any further because of the
thick bushes that had grown in front of the
house.
Tarasha was the first to jump down from the
truck, she placed her both hands on her waist,
turning round as she surveyed the place with
her eyes. She walked to Cole and Aisha,
demanding that the boot of their car be opened.
Her request was granted immediately, Cole
came out of the car to join her, Benny was also
trudging towards them.
Tarasha brought out three tools bags from
booth, dropping them on the floor. She opened
one which contained machetes and some other
clearing equipments.
'I believe you know the reason we need this
now' she said smiling, motioning Cole and Benny
to grab their tools. 'Make a clear path to the
entrance of the house
Benny and Cole obeyed the order while Tarasha
opened another bag, a bigger one. She brought
out some satellite devices and scattered them
on the floor, carefully selecting the ones she
needed . Aisha came to join her.
'We've got no foodstuffs here, start making a
list of everything we need. Someone would go
to the town with you to get them' Tarasha said
to Aisha. She picked up another machete and
put some of the devices in an empty bag, then
she proceeded to the various sections of the
compound she had already selected to install
the GPS and network devices, clearing the way
with the machete as she walked.
They all converge where there vehicles were
parked after completing their tasks. All looked
dirty except for Aisha, who as a result lost
confidence to talk them about eating seeing
their condition.
'We need water ' Tarasha stated an obvious
fact.
'I have only little water here' Aisha said, she
opened the car and brought out a 100cl bottle
of water
'We need more' Cole said sharply after taking a
glance at the bottle.
'There's a well over there' Benny joined, pointing
to the left side where the well was.
'What do we use to fetch from it?' Cole
questioned.
'Let's check the house' Benny replied him, 'we
may be lucky to find something to use'
With that, the group proceeded into the house
except for Cole who went to first inspect the
well.
The entrance door gave way easily to a soft kick
from Tarasha. The sitting room had been taken
over by cobwebs, dusts and several other
impure particles. The black turned grey old
fashioned sofas had already become a habitat
for little flying insects. Red headed lizards,
cockroaches, ants and rats of various sizes
were also seen sprinting in different directions
for safety as the group walked in.
A look of disgust appeared on Benny and
Aisha's faces while Tarasha remained
indifferent. The chaotic condition of the house
was little compared to several other situations
she had experienced during her training, so it
didn't mean much to her.
'The water in the well is so dirty, I don't think…
' Cole was saying as he walked in through the
entrance, he stopped abruptly on noticing the
condition in which the house was. He gave a
prolonged whistle and stood dumbfounded,
forgetting temporarily about the need for water.
'Huh? What tha hell is wrong?' Tarasha slammed
glancing at their faces one after the other, she
turned to Aisha. 'Where's the list I asked you to
make?'
'Here is it' Aisha handed a piece of paper to
her.
After scanning through the list, she spoke out,
'by now you guys should understand why I
asked us to bring a lot of things you thought
are going to be useless. I'm going to town it
some of the things we need, you guys should
clean up this place for us to sleep tonight'
'I thought you said I'll go with someone' Aisha
cried as Tarasha folded the paper and tucked it
in her pocket.
'Yea, I changed my mind. I'm going now, you
stay with Cole and Benny and help them clean
this place' Tarasha smirked, she stretched out
her palm to Cole, demanding for something.
Cole understood and handed her the car keys
before she could voice out her demand, 'are you
going like this, you look dirty?'
'I can clean up with the water Aisha has' she
answered. 'I'll get more water for everyone's
use tonight'
'Tonight?' Benny stressed, 'you're talking about
tonight only, does that mean we're leaving here
tomorrow? Won't we use water for the rest of
our stay here?'
'We'll have to dig out a new source of water
tomorrow or better still clean up that old well'
She replied calmly, smiling as she looked at
their faces.