Henry took a glance at the clock after waving at the
security men as he drove in through the gate, it was
twenty minutes past nine am. He had overslept and
ignored the alarm when it rang, waking up later by eight
o'clock, the exact time he was supposed to resume work.
He decided not to rush as he was late already by the time
he woke. It would be his first time of getting late to the
office, and it wasn't that he was going to be chastised by
anyone.
His eyes met something in the rearview mirror as he
killed the engine. It took sometime for the picture to
finish processing in his brain. He opened the door and
turned to look at it, there was a blue Camry parked at the
parking space at the opposite side. The car park was
constructed to have spaces for cars at the left and right
side and a space in the middle through which vehicles
drive in and out.
The blue car could have been for anybody else but the
plate number was what looked familiar. He got out of his
car and banged the door unconsciously. Locking it again
with the control in his hand. He almost ran into another
vehicle that was trying to occupy the space beside his
car. He apologized to the driver and crossed to the other
side, to inspect the car that got his attention. It was the
same car he thought he hallucinated about the day
before.
He turned to the front of the car to check for the mark
on the bonnet. He couldn't find it but there were signs of
repainting at the exact spot the mark was supposed to
be. He scratched his head and heaved a sigh. His heart
began to beat fast as he circled the car. Was Omotara
really in the same compound with him? He asked
himself.
He began to walk slowly away, rolling his car keys in his
hand. He decided to take a last look when he got behind
the car. 'AA689-GGQ' he read the plate number to
himself again. He moved closer and squatted behind the
car, touching the letters and numbers on the plate, just
to assure himself that the number he was seeing was real
and not a part of his hallucinations.
He got up and walked slowly to the front of the car again,
taking a peep inside. He could see football magazines and
newspapers at the backseats. That got him a little bit
confused. He was a hundred percent sure that Omotara
wasn't a lover of football, so maybe she wasn't in the
compound as he thought or maybe the car was brought
in by one of her male accomplices.
He paused and let out a deep breath, thinking of what he
could possibly do to find out who brought in the car. He
took a glance at the security post, he thought of going
there to ask but that would look strange and may raise
unnecessary security scare. A better idea came to his
mind, he turned back and walked to his car.
++++
**Katsina, Katsina State**
Benny and Aisha waited patiently for Cole in the car as
they were set to embark on their first visit to the Ata's
Foundation. Benny had grown miraculously old
overnight, he had his hair cut lowly, his slightly greyed
hair made him look like a man in his late fifties or early
sixties. His beards were also grey and sturdy. He had a
dark pair of eyeglasses on his face. Aisha who was looking
different already only added some makeups to make her
face lighter than it was. There were both dressed in black
suits.
Soon, Cole appeared and opened the door to the driver's
side. He was also dressed in a black suit and had grown a
miraculous moustache too. He was made to look older
than his age but not as old as Benny was, he looked like a
man in his late thirties.
His phone began to ring as soon as he settled in the car.
'Hello boss' he answered the call.
'Are you set?' Tarasha's voice sounded at the other side.
'Yes, we are about to drive off'
'Disguised?'
'Yes, but not from the house like we planned'
'Good, make it go smoothly and keep me connected
always. I want to listen live to all of the discussion.'
'Got you boss' Cole replied and the call ended. He
dropped the phone and took out a tiny recording device
which he clipped behind his tie.
'Let's go' he said and took a glance at Benny by side and
Aisha at the back before starting the car engine.
+++
Dakolo stared at the man dressed in a blue suit in the
picture, lines of disappointment began to show on his
face as he recognized the person in it. Henry E.G. Dakolo
could still recognize him even though his head was
bowed in the picture. He was seated alone, pouring wine
into the cup.A female bag and another bottle and cup of
wine was at the other side of the table.
'He looks like someone I know' Debo said, contorting his
face like someone who just swallowed a bitter pill. Ken
got up from his seat to join them.
'Okay' Dakolo said and swiped to the next picture as he
saw Ken approaching. Three other pictures which
contained Henry's image showed up as Ken joined the
view but luckily, Henry's face was not shown at all in the
new pictures. It was obvious that the photographer was
more interested in the cloth he was putting on than his
face.
'Well…' Debo began after pausing to recollect some
information from his memory. 'I remember seeing this
man closely that day. I saw him when I went to discuss
something with someone sitting close to his table. He was
sitting alone then too.'
'So, you saw him very well?' Ken asked.
'No, not very well. I was seated at his back'
Dakolo felt a need to hide Henry's identity for the time
being. He didn't want to believe what his detective mind
was suggesting to him, that Henry could be one of the
assassins. After scrolling through all the pictures, Dakolo
and Ken returned to their seat with the device.
'I visited the NSCC's office like we planned the last time'
Dakolo began after a brief moment of quietness. 'I spoke
with Henry and he told me that the number was really
Canadian'
Debo shrugged. 'I don't really need that information
anymore. I don't know how Mrs Jubril intend to run the
organization'
'Do you still have the number?' Dakolo asked.
'Yes, but in the office'
'We'll need to get it as soon s possible, please' Dakolo
said and paused to type in something into his device.
After asking some more questions, they left Debo's
residence and headed back to the office. In the car,
Dakolo was unusually quiet. He kept thinking of the
possibility of Henry being a member of the Samantha
Osman's group. Maybe he was even the one in charge of
disrupting the cameras system for the gang operations. It
had to be. That was why no solution to the problem had
been found with all the efforts of the other people in the
NSCC. Or how could you explain how Henry was the man
who accompanied the suspected Alexander Evelyn to the
party? The same Evelyn who was suspected to be
Samantha Osman. But he had thought Henry was a
patriotic citizen, committed to nation building and
development. It was hard to believe that Henry is actually
a part of the assassin group.
A thought came to his mind on remembering Henry's
past association with Dare. He also recalled that the
reason for all the recent killings were still unknown.
Could it be possible that it was no political killing? That
the assassins were embarking on a personal vendetta? It
could be. And it could also be possible that Henry may
have found out that Evelyn Alexander was an assassin
and only decided to help her because Chief Jubril and
Dare were his enemies.
There were two options in Dakolo's heart now. It was
either Henry was part of the Samantha Osman's gang or
he helped the gang in carrying out Chief Jubril and Dare's
assassinations.
Somehow, Dakolo still felt the need the need to dig
further personally. A third and strong option was
developing in his mind. He had a soft spot for Henry
which grew ever since the time the grave injustice was
done to Henry's family. He decided to hide the picture
which showed Henry's face for sometime.
He took the tablet device from the backseat. He swiped it
open and clicked the gallery option. He pretended like he
was just taking another look at the pictures while be
transferred it to his own personal device. He deleted the
picture from the device afterwards and spent some more
time with it before returning it back.
+++
'You've not still told me the program you used to
elongate the monitoring time of the system yesterday'
Sylvester said to his new volunteer staff. She was sitting
behind his table with the laptop he had given her to use.
'Sir, I didn't use any special program, I only changed the
settings of the same program you were running with'
shereplied him.
'But how come I never saw that option in the settings
area?' he got up from his seat and began to make a turn.
Tarasha answered with a shrug. He stood still when he
got beside her and bent to look into the laptop. 'Can you
show me where it is?'
'Sure.' She clicked open the software and waited some
minutes for it to load.
A knock sounded on the door. 'Come in' Sylvester picked
up the door control and turned to the door to click
unlock. Someone pushed open the door and walked in.
'Good morning Mr Sylvester' Dayo walked in briskly.
'Good morning Mr Dayo' Sylvester turned back to receive
him. 'How are you doing today?'
'Fine sir' Dayo said, taking special interest in the lady who
had Mr Sylvester bending over to look into her laptop
while she was comfortable seated. He thought it was one
of their junior staffs who had such effrontery.
'Alright, how may I help you?'
'Sir' Dayo turned his look back to Sylvester. 'I noticed
that you made some changes to the system yesterday. It
shows that you can actually be receiving notifications
offline for over twelve hours now'
'Sixteen hours precisely' Sylvester corrected with a bold
smile. 'And I'm not just receiving notifications, the signal
would still be strong for the sixteen hours offline
duration'
'Interesting' Dayo's eyes lit up. 'That's what we're talking
about, bright innovation' Dayo commended.
'Yeah' Sylvester flashed his teeth brightly, resting his bum
on the table.
'I actually came to see if I could learn the new method
from you, I may need to combine something of such in
my new project' Dayo presented his real reason of
coming.
'Ermm… 'Sylvester's smile diminished, now he knew the
reason for Dayo's commendation. He had wanted to take
the credit for Tarasha's work, that's was part of the
reason he wanted to learn how Tarasha did the job.
'I didn't really do it myself' he finally confessed, after
realizing he had no choice.
'Oh!' Dayo gave him a naughty kind of look. Sylvester
could interpret the look as a silent way of saying "I
thought as much, I knew you weren't so intelligent".
'Who did it?' Dayo asked when Sylvester remained
speechless.
'She did… We did it together' he replied, pointing to
himself and Kimberly.
'Wow!' Dayo exclaimed, trying to take a peep at the lady's
face but she would not still look back.
'She's my new personal staff, Kimberly' Sylvester
introduced. That was when Kimberly finally turned back,
she got up from her seat and smiled at Dayo. 'This is
Dayo, he works with Henry E.G'
'Nice to meet you sir' Kimberly said cheerfully as they
shook hands.
'My pleasure' Dayo replied, still holding her hand in his.
He wondered silently why she wasn't looking back until
Sylvester introduced her. 'So how did you do it?'
'I was about to show him when you came in' Tarasha
replied and sat back on the seat.
'Okay' Dayo said and joined Sylvester as they both looked
into the laptop to learn grim Kimberly.
+++
2pm, same day.
'Afolabi David, Audu Noah, Sunny Nkem, Nwakolo
Ezekiel' Ken read aloud, looking into the computer
screen. 'All found dead, in the same event centre'
'And these guys are also the suspected kidnappers of
Henry George?' Dakolo asked, taking a glance at Ken.
'Yes, Afolabi David is the head of their gang' Ken
answered.
'Where were their bodies found?'
'Their bodies were found in the security department, the
same place Dare's body was found. The same type of
bullets were found in their bodies' Ken expatiated,
pausing from time to time to look at the screen..
'According to the report we got from the investigation,
these guys were part of the security officials provided by
the Jubrils for the event'
'Hmm… How do we connect this?' Dakolo muttered.
'Henry E.G stated that Dare was the only person he
suspected. I think Henry was contending for something
with Dare and he got threatened' Ken said.
'With this, it's highly possible that Dare was behind the
kidnap'
'Well, sir. One case solved already' Ken said with a smile
on his face. 'The kidnappers have been discovered. It's a
pity that they are late already.'
'Yes, but there's still a lot more to this' Dakolo said
thoughtfully.
Henry's face popped up in his mind again, he took a deep
breath. Now it has been discovered that not only was it
Henry's long time enemies that were killed, even his
recent kidnappers were also killed. Henry was looking
more dangerous to him. Very soon, he'll have no choice
than to spill it out to Ken. He already had a strategy in
mind to use once he fully verifies Henry's personal
involvement in the assassinations. Although, Henry's
involvement have been verified enough according to
police standards, he still needed to do more verifications
because of his long time emotional attachment to Henry.