TARASHA Episode 15 Pt 8 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
~~~ Henry stopped to think for some seconds. He thought of answering no since he wasn’t an invitee but just accompanied Omotara to the event. No one knew about his attendance, so it was better if he hid it completely. He cleared his throat. ‘I…’ The doorbell interrupted. Henry paused to check who it was on his computer. Frank it was, standing with a laptop in his hands. ‘I thought I told you I was coming to do something urgent and important.’ Frank muttered with so much disgust in his voice. ‘I’m busy Frank,’ he said into the transmitter. ‘Please come back later, or better still, I’ll join you when I’m done.’ He watched Frank leave before turning back to Dakolo. Dakolo’s eyes showed his impatience to receive the response to the question he had asked. Henry cleared his throat as he was about to continue. ‘I…’ Henry tried to continue but couldn’t. Somehow he felt a strange kind of fear surge through his heart. One that told him that he was about to put himself in deep trouble. His head began to ache him severely, he felt as if his head was being used to play football. ‘I’m still waiting,’ Dakolo said impatiently on seeing Henry’s reluctance to talk. ‘I did,’ Henry finally said, releasing a deep breath alongside with it. A bitter frown formed on Dakolo’s face. He felt disappointed in Henry for attending a party organized by Jubril, somehow in his heart, he was hoping that Henry would have proof enough to claim that he wasn’t in the party and that the person seen in the photo was just a lookalike or the camera position had only made their faces resemble. But he was still happy that Henry did not deny the truth, that would have showed that he was guilty. He was also sure that Henry felt remorse for attending the party, the reluctance to answer the question already showed Henry’s disappointment in himself and regret for attending the party. ~+~ ‘Miss Kimberly,’ Sylvester called as he proceeded towards her table. He had given her a space in an open office with four other occupants to stay. She was at the end corner of the office while two other tables were on the same line with hers. The tables were several centimetres away from each other, giving each occupier space and privacy. All eyes followed Sylvester behind as he marched on to Kimberly. The other employees who were sub regional staffs had been surprised when Sylvester introduced her as a special staff who was to share the same office with them. As far as they knew, she had no specific job description or duty, some of them had began to spread rumours that she was Sylvester’s concubine. ‘Kimberly,’ Sylvester called again as he dropped a paper on the table, ‘I want you to confirm if this number was cloned or not, can you do it?’ Kimberly took the paper from the table and looked into it. She took in a deep breath and made her acceptance known with a nod to Sylvester. ‘Yes sir, I can.’ ‘How long would it take you to get back to me?’ Sylvester asked. ‘Before the end of the day.’ She replied. ‘What??’ He opened his eyes widely in shock and folded his arms, staring at her like she was an alien. She stared back at him in surprise. He calmed himself and lowered his voice. ‘Mr Henry asked for three days to work on it.’ Kimberly chuckled. ‘Yes, it’s even possible to use up to a week or more, especially when you have to contact the network providers over there. Why I can use less than a day is because I already have links there, I have links in Canada. If not, I would have needed to use three to four days too.’ ‘Okay, I understand.’ ‘Yes… But sir,’ Kimberly stared into his eyes. ‘I thought you said Mr Henry did it already?’ ‘Yes,’ Sylvester replied with a sigh. He pulled an empty chair and sat on it. ‘He did it when the late Chief Jubril requested for it but now it’s the police that needs it. A senior agent just gave me the job to do now’ Kimberly stared at him, still unsatisfied with his answer. In just two days, she had become so comfortable with him to the extent of questioning him. She had been his lecturer for that two days, explaining to him several things which she did that he didn’t have knowledge of. ‘What about his report?’ She asked. ‘It’s with him,’ Sylvester answered with another sigh. ‘It’s just that we want the investigation to be carried out by another person.’ ‘Okay, but can I still get the report? I Just need to check out some processes that would make the job easier. With that we can even finish the job in less than an hour.’ ‘Mr Henry is busy right now with the Agent in his office, and he is not even aware that we are carrying out a reinvestigation,’ Sylvester explained in a very low voice. ‘The Agent wants me to keep it secret from him, so I can’t go to him.’ ‘It’s okay sir, I’ll do what I can do.’ She replied and began to work immediately on the laptop. ‘Thanks,’ Sylvester said with a smile. ‘We’ll need to discuss tomorrow and conclude on the terms of your job, so that you can start fully.’ ‘Huh?’ Kimberly opened her mouth in surprise, looking elated by the news. ‘Does that mean I’ve gotten a job already.’ ‘Yes,’ Sylvester replied happily too. ‘For the rest of this month, you’ll work with me and I’ll be responsible for you while we try to create a space for you and sort out your responsibilities.’ ‘Thank you sir, I’m grateful.’ Kimberly got up to thank him, covering her mouth with her palms to show her extreme happiness. ‘It’s okay.’ ~+~ Ken and a junior officer sat in front of the computer, the junior officer scrolling through some pictures with the aid of the mouse while Ken paid special attention to the screen. After going through the pictures of Mrs Dakolo’s daughter earlier, they selected the two pictures of the blue suited man who was said to accompany the Canadian business lady to the party. The new pictures that were being examined were pictures taken by the press after the assassination had occurred. The press had come to take pictures and videos of the scene after the news of the man’s death broke out to them. This particular set of report was the one gotten from the desert reporters. They finished viewing the pictures without seeing anything significant and moved on to the videos. After playing two videos, the third and last one was being played. A desert reporter was in front of the camera reporting the sad incident. The advanc scene was videoed was the car park. ‘It’s okay,’ Ken said when the video was about to come to an end without any useful thing seen. ‘Make sure you copy those files completely before returning the flash drive to them, I’ll need to see everything again.’ Ken ordered and got up from his seat, stretching his body. ‘Okay sir,’ the junior officer replied and clicked on the pause icon. ‘Oh!’ Ken exclaimed as his face met the screen again. ‘What’s that?’ He asked pointing at something on the screen. ‘Please play.’ The blue suited man was incidentally captured by the camera, it looked as if he was looking for something at the park. ‘Zoom it,’ Ken ordered in a loud voice. The officer zoomed the video and clicked pause. Henry’s face was shown but not too clear there. Ken couldn’t recognize who it was. ‘Take a screenshot and send it to Femi, let him search for that face and get back to me as soon as possible.’ ~+~ ‘How come you attended the birthday party? I could have never imagined that you’ll ever attend any function organized by Chief Jubril,’ Dakolo said in a painful tone. Dakolo’s stare was piercing through Henry’s heart, making him feel more guilty and regret going that day with Omotara. Henry bowed his head, ashamed of himself, he couldn’t speak also. ‘You were even one of the well dressed males in the event.’ Dakolo continued. ‘What did you go there to do? To have revenge?’ Dakolo began to raise his voice in anger. Henry took a quick glance at Dakolo’s face at the sound of the revenge allegation. ‘No, nothing like that sir, He tried to find his voice. ‘Then explain why you went to the party with Samantha Osman?’ ‘Samantha Osman?’ ‘Yes, that Evelyn was Samantha Osman.’ Dakolo alleged, in a bid to make Henry confess if he ever had any suspicion or was aware if Evelyn was the same as Samantha. ‘Evelyn is not Samantha,’ Henry argued, sure in his heart that he was saying the truth. ‘She is Samantha,’ Dakolo insisted with a strong note. He got up from the seat and picked his device, he unbuttoned the sleeves of his shirt and rolled them up. He got beside the wall and stood directly under the air conditioner. He stared at Henry from where he was. ‘Your Evelyn is the same person as Samantha Osman,’ he stated again. Henry shook his head in disagreement. ‘A man was the one who killed Jubril Lawal, not a lady. So we shouldn’t even be talking about Samantha Osman now in relation to Chief Jubril’s murder. Furthermore, Evelyn could be anything else; she’s not a killer.’ Dakolo gave a chuckle and walked away from the wall back to his seat. He sat down and positioned himself to face Henry. ‘Since everybody is saying that it was a man who killed Chief Jubril, then that man must be you, Samantha sent you.’ ‘No, why would I do such? I can’t ki*ll anyone neither have I come across any Samantha Osman.’ ‘Damn! You did it to take your revenge of course.’ Dakolo hit his hand on the table violently, making Henry more uncomfortable and scared of the situation. ‘The man and his son were your enemies, you killed the both of them on that same day and You didn’t ki*ll them only, you also killed your kidnappers.’ Henry’s mouth was left open in shock. He couldn’t believe that the Dakolo could accuse him of assassination. Dakolo’s phone rang, he took out his phone and stood up on seeing the caller. ‘Officer Ken…’ Dakolo spoke softly, walking slowly to the window area. ‘You… ‘He said in a shocked tone and made a quick turn to Henry, he tried to conceal his surprise. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll do that myself.’ He said and cut the call. Henry was still perplexed by all that was happening, his heart couldn’t accept Dakolo’s allegation that Evelyn was the same person as Samantha Osman. He couldn’t agree that she wasn’t Samantha Osman or an assassin but he was quite sure that she was Omotara Danjuma, a fraudster. He could remember well how she left him at the table that day and never returned, he also remembered that she mysteriously disappeared from the place but his feelings for her had beclouded his sense of reasoning. Dakolo gave Henry the shock of his life when after he ended the call, he took out a key and removed an handcuff from behind as he proceeded towards the table. ‘I’m sorry Henry, this has gone beyond my personal investigation. You’re expected in our station right away.’ END OF EPISODE FIFTEEN.
