The air in the hospital in everyway was disgusting to Don
as he trudged up the stairs. He couldn't wait for the
cursed man to recuperate and give him time to go about
his own business.
He just got to the landing when he heard someone trying
to stop him. He turned back to see a nurse running after
him.
'How may I help you nurse?' He asked impatiently.
'Sir, I've been trying to stop you from the reception. The
patient has left with his sister.' She said, still gasping for
breath.
'He's gone?' Don eyes widened in surprise.
'Yes,' the nurse replied.
'Oh! Thank goodness he left by himself.' Don heaved a
sigh of relief.
'Yeah, but you need to see the Doctor.'
'Of course, is he in his office?'
'Yes, he should be by now. The officers just left him.'
'Thanks, what do I do with this?' Don asked stretching
forth the polythene bag containing food which he
brought.
'Ermm… You can give it to someone else.'
'You can help me do that,' he quickly handed it over to
the nurse and walked away.
He had to see the Doctor immediately and then go on
with his plan for the day. He needed to check Henry's
house for traces, or any material which could lead him to
Samantha Osman.
~~
'Tara, we need to talk.' Jefa repeated again when he got
no response the first time.
Omotara paused and turned back tiredly. 'You can't have
a discussion now, you need to rest.'
'I know I'm feeling sleepy already, I just thought I should
mention it you.'
'It's okay, we'll talk later.' She said she walked out of the
room.
She got to her room and walked straight to the
wardrobe. She took off her top and shorts, leaving her
black bra and pant on. She took off a black strip clothing
material that was fastened to her thigh, it had a knife in it
and also had space for a pistol. She wanted to draw out a
towel from the hanger but her eyes met with the black
bag which she took to Henry's place. She took it out and
threw it on the bed. It had been unopened since the last
day she used it.
She opened the bag and emptied the contents on the
floor. A pistol, two short knives, an extra drip bag and so
many other medical materials fell off. She separated the
gun and knives and placed them on a stool, then she
drew out a brief case from under the bed and opened it.
She began to arrange the medical materials into it.
After two minutes of carefully arranging all medicals
except the drip bag, there was still a space left on the
brief case. She paused as she tried to remember what
was supposed to be there. After trying for some seconds
without remembering, she was about to close back the
briefcase before the missing item flashed back into her
mind.
'D--n!' She cursed and stood up immediately. The
ampoule. The tube shaped bottle which she used in
lessening the effects of the tranquilizer she first used on
Henry.
That was another shitty effect of emotions, she had
forgotten to pick the bottle when her eyes met with his
and she saw the disappointment in his face. If there
wasn't any emotion between them, she wouldn't have
reacted the way she did. The bottle may have been seen
by the police where she kept it but she still had to check
if they didn't pick it up, she had to return to his house.
~~
Dakolo was already tired when he returned back to his
office. It had not been so much an hectic day but the
knowledge of Henry's illness and new condition was what
brought about his tiredness.
He had barely settled down when a knock sounded on his
door. He shook his head in frustration and stared at the
door. He didn't feel like answering anybody but it would
be unprofessional of him not to.
'Yes, come in.' He said hesitatingly.
A young female Officer from the forensics department
walked in and closed the door behind. She saluted before
proceeding towards the table with a file.
'Here's the result of the test sir,' she said and handed
over the file to him.
He took it without saying anything and brought out the
papers in the file. He began to go through them. The first
set of the papers were written in science and medical
languages, so he had a hard time getting the meaning of
the document but the last paper had the results written
in layman's terms.
'Thanks, you may leave.' He said to the officer and she
curtsied before turning to walk away.
It was the result of the the small bottle found in Henry's
house close to the sofa where he was receiving the drip.
The one which Tarasha had forgotten to pick up when
her eyes met with Henry's. The result clearly stated that
the mixture was used to ameliorate a previous situation
induced by another mixture.
It was not making sense to him any longer. Doctor Tobi
had said that it was possible that someone had drugged
Henry first before placing him on drip but now the
mixture found in the house was a mixture to reduce the
effect of a mixture. Does it mean that someone drugged
him and then wanted to reduce the effects of the drug
again? Maybe there was someone with him who had to
flee when the police arrived, he thought.
He arranged back the papers into the file, he concluded
that the Doctor would have a better explanation about
the mixture.
A thought suddenly struck his mind. He picked up his
phone and dialed Ken.
'Round up your office work, we're going to visit Henry's
house now to confirm the Doctor's opinion that Henry
could have been placed on drip by someone else. We
need to check thoroughly this time if there's any hidden
entrance in the house and any signs of breaking in.'
~~
Don was the first to get to Henry's house. He stared at the
gate from where his car was parked, trying to come up
with a plan of getting inside. This time, there was nobody
watching over the house but he still couldn't enter
through the gate or jump over the fence since it was still
day. And he didn't want to come back at night as he had
gotten information from the vice president and the
inspector General that the house was being watched
during night time.
The only possible way he saw that wouldn't raise
suspicion from passers-by and attract the police was
entering into the next compound and jumping over the
separating fence but there was no way he was going to
do that som alone and without hurting those in the
compound. He took out his phone.
'Hello Stainless, join me at Ordoz palace road with three
other rigid boys in ten minutes time.' He said into the
phone.
Three guys joined him in ten minutes time like he asked
and they got into the building next to Henry's house.
~~
'We've closed,' a voice shouted from inside the
compound as Tarasha continued to bang on the gate. 'I
said we've closed,' the voice shouted again, this time
coming nearer.
The small door hole was opened and Tarasha could see
someone's eyeball there. She shifted back and positioned
herself in a way that the man would see her exposed
cleavage. There was silence for a while, then the gate was
opened.
'Young lady,' the aged security man spoke in a softer
voice. He was one of the men on duty on the day which
Tarasha had entered into Henry's building through the
compound of the paper company. But all the men
attacked that day could remember nothing at all. The
Benryl which she had passed into their bodies took every
memory of the encounter away.
'May I come in sir,' Tarasha smiled and posed in a
seductive way.
The security man's body trembled, he feasted his eyes on
her exposed thighs showing below the tip of the mini
gown. 'Come in…' He stammered and opened the gate
for her.
'Audu, na who be that?' Another security man who was
seated at the far end of the compound shouted. They
were two seated together, their shirts were flown open
and they had bottles of beer in front of them. Like the
last time Tarasha had come, none of them had guns by
their sides, they always kept it in the security room since
it was barely used.
'I dey come,' the man with Tarasha shouted back. 'Fine
girl, what do you …' He turned to ask Tarasha but
couldn't complete the question as she stuck a pin into his
neck that moment. He fell to the ground.
The other security picked up their rods and began to
charge towards Tarasha. She motioned towards them
without fear.
The first one made his strike but she dodged it and gave
him a jab in his belly, he groaned and staggered
backwards hitting the back of his head against the face of
the other one rushing forward. Tarasha quickly followed
up with a flying kick to his head. The first man fell to the
ground while the second man staggered backwards.
Tarasha rushed towards him, bounced on the first man's
body and sent her two legs to the other man's face. She
rolled and landed on the right leg while the man still
struggled to keep his feet on the ground. She charged
towards him again. He swiped his rod but it was a lazy
swipe, she dodged it and gave him a heavy punch on his
nose. He staggered like a drunk man and fell on the side
fence, he began to see stars. Tarasha turned back to see
the other man already up and trudging towards the
security post. She raised up her gown and took out a gun,
she fired it and a pin was projected into the man's back.
He fell down immediately. She turned again to the other
man and sent the pin into his neck. He fell to the floor
also.
She returned the gun to where she took it from and
rolled down her gown.
~~
Don and two of his men finally succeeded in getting into
Henry's house first. The other two men were in the
duplex in the next compound, watching over the
inhabitants of the house to keep them in silence.
They broke in through the first door and Don began to
search the whole house while the other guys watched as
they had no knowledge of what he was searching for.
Don left the living room and proceeded to the inner
rooms, he entered into the first room in the corridor. It
was a small library with large windows. He turned on the
light and began to search around the place. His main
prayer in the library was for him to see a diary that
would detail Henry's day to day activities. He hoped that
Henry was someone who kept one.
He was still searching when he began to hear some
strange sounds. He stopped to listen but couldn't make
out what it was. He returned to the living room to see if
the sound was being made by his men.
The men stared at Don questioningly as he fixed his eyes
on them. They were comfortably seated on two different
sofas in living room.
'Are you hearing that?' Don asked in low tones. The
sound was quite low in the living room. The men had to
listen carefully.
'What's that?' One of the men asked.
'Shh…' Don hushed him, raising his hand up. He paused
to listen again. 'It's coming from the back.'
One of the guys got up and walked to where Don was
standing to listen. 'There's a paper company at the back
of this place.' He said to Don.
'So are you saying the sound may be coming from
there?'
'Where else? It doesn't sound like a person or animal's
movement.'
Don felt relaxed for a moment until he checked his
wristwatch. 'This is four thirty, aren't firms around here
mandated to close by four o'clock?'
'How many firms would follow that order?' The guy
asked with a loud mocking smile. 'Come on, get back to
work and let's leave this place.' He said and returned to
his seat.
Don stood still for a while to listen again but the sound
had stopped. He walked back towards the library to
continue his search.
~
The door finally gave way and Tarasha walked in
carefully. She didn't bother to close the door but
proceeded forward through the corridor in between the
rooms. The bulb in the corridor was on. It was expected,
since the police had visited the place, they would most
likely leave without remembering to turn off the lights.
She got halfway the corridor and noticed that the door to
the first room was slightly opened. She paused and then
heard a laugh.
'Shi*t!' She cursed silently. The police were around, she
thought. Without turning, she began to step back slowly,
trying her possible best not to make any noise.
She was close to the door when a figure appeared at the
other end of the corridor.
~~~
'Let's try everything we can to confirm if someone else
was in the house that day or not, we have to establish
that fact so that we can move on with our investigation.'
Dakolo said as Ken halted the car in front of the gate.
'Here,' Ken handed over Henry's gate keys to the junior
officer seated at the back. The junior officer stepped out
and proceeded towards the gate to open it. 'How come
his cameras aren't even working?' Ken said aloud after
the junior officer had left. 'If the cameras he planted
inside his house were working, we would have had a
video recording of what transpired. Or did he just place
them there for fun because I wonder how he was
planning to get other cameras to work while his wasn't.'
'I believe those cameras were working,' Dakolo said
thoughtfully. 'Maybe we have to invite an NSCC official to
check what went wrong with it.'
The junior officer opened the small gate and entered into
the compound to open the larger passage for their car
but then he came out immediately and closed the gate
gently without making any sound. He hurried back
towards the car.
'Sir, the front door is wide open' he said to Dakolo.
'Looks like someone is inside.'
Dakolo's gaze widened as he heard those words. He took
a glance at Ken. 'Call the office for reinforcement, twenty
more men should be enough.' He ordered Ken before
stepping out of his car. He took out his revolver.