TARASHA Episode 15 Pt 4 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
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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.
