TARASHA Episode 17 Pt 3 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
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.
‘Damn!’ 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.
