Tarasha 2 Chapter 13 Part 10 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
© Oyinloye Oluwatosin Emmanuel
® 18+ SNVL
6:50pm
Dave scrolled back up hurriedly with the mouse after going through the list twice without finding anything tangible. He was on the Umueri International Airport portal and had gone through the lists of passengers that had left for Kwara State through the two airline options available. He checked the passport photographs and names of all the passengers and none seemed to be like Samantha Osman. The most striking thing in his discovery was that no lady was on the list of travellers from Anambra to Ilorin that morning and only three female names were on the flights that took place in the airport that morning. He had also checked the profiles of the three ladies on the citizen’s directory found out that none of them was impersonated, he confirmed each of them’s arrival at their destination states.
All his findings pointed only to one thing- Samantha Osman did not fly to Kwara State that morning, and without going through flight, there was no way she would have gotten there considering the time of her alleged murder of Eze Okafor and the time of Garuba Ahmed’s kidnap and death.
Dave believed that someone other than Samantha Osman was behind Eze Okafor’s death but what he couldn’t connect was Samantha’s involvement in it and the possible reason for the murder of the two victims.
‘Sir, we usually close for the day by 7pm. It’s already five minutes to,’ one of the cyber cafe attendants said to him.
‘Ermm… Just a minute to check one more thing,’ Dave replied without looking at the attendant.
He got out of the place five minutes later, now with doubts in his heart about Samantha Osman’s hand in the death of the recent late friends. He had checked the flight records and everything he saw proved that there was no one on the flight who was Samantha, even the possibility that she flew in a disguised form was ruled out after he confirmed the existence of all other females on the flight. But after having a rethink, especially after considering the fact that her identity cards were found in the car the latest victim’s body was found, he concluded it was possible for Samantha to have followed the flight and cleared her name from the records. Another thing that kept him uncertain was why Samantha Osman would do a neat job in covering traces of her flight to Kwara state and be careless to leave traces in form of the identity cards after killing her victim.
______
Ilorin, Kwara State.
Rex sat meditatively on the chair in the hotel room, his elbow resting on the table and his fingers supporting his chin. A half empty cup of beer and a bottle was on the table. The drink had been left there for close to an hour without being touched.
He was still in ilorin because he needed a clear direction before moving, he didn’t want to leave the state without knowing where Samantha’s next destination was. He had tried to speak with the Vice President and Inspector General on phone but they weren’t answering their calls. He knew it was possibly because they were extremely busy.
Just about the time he thought of trying to reach them again, the Inspector General returned his call. He picked the phone which was on the same table he was resting on and answered the call.
‘Hi Mr Rikau,’ he said into the phone.
‘Rex, Good evening. Where are you and what’s happening?’
‘I’m in a city in Kwara State, still on your job. I need to get my next step from you.’
‘Next step from me?’ Chief Rikau sounded surprised. ‘Did Samantha Osman leave that state immediately after killing Garuba Ahmed?’
‘I killed Garuba Ahmed, you asked me to.’
‘Ermm… Does that mean you got there before her?’
‘I got there several hours after she left, she must have gotten to the place since last night.’
‘That means you met the man dead?’
‘Didn’t you hear me say I killed him?’
‘Ermm… I don’t understand. The police has reports proving that Samantha killed him and not you.’ Rex replied.
‘I did the killing, I only made it look like she did. You told me you were going to have the world believe she killed the men and I decided to help you by planting my own made Identity cards of her known face in the car I dumped the dead body.’
‘Wow! That’s brilliant! You almost got me believing that she killed him too.’
‘There’s no need for a celebration yet, she has the document I came here for already.’ Rex said in an unimpressed tone.
‘I already started thinking about that when I was told about Garuba’s death earlier, I sent a message to the Vice President just before I called you and I’m still waiting for his reply to know the next step.’
‘She’s already ahead of us, we shouldn’t create more gap for her against ourselves. I need information from you guys as soon as possible.’
‘I understand you Rex, but what do you think we should do now that she’s ahead?’
‘We ought to know where she is now or where she’s going next, the Vice President should be able to deduce from the connection between the guy in Anambra and Garuba Ahmed who next she might want to get something else from.’
‘Okay Rex, I’ll get back to you on that. Just make sure you update me on every step you decide to take, so that I can talk to the police commissioners in any of the states you go.’
_______
Abuja
Inspector General Rikau’s Residence.
Rikau took in a deep breath after the call ended. He took some minutes to think about the phone conversation. Samantha Osman had gotten the documents but he and Chief Elvis Richards were also making other plans against her. The Vice President was also working on making a lot of money available by demanding returns from several of the states Governors he had helped to put in power.
Chief Rikau unlocked his phone and opened his messaging app to see if his message to the Vice President had been delivered, it had, but wasn’t marked seen yet. He decided to call the man. He dialed the number and put the phone close to his ear.
‘Good eve…’ he tried to greet but his voice was drowned by Chief Elvis’ voice from the other end.
‘IG, I want you to call Inspector Dakolo right away and instruct him not to question my daughter.’ the Vice President said.
‘Sir? I don’t understand. Why is he questioning your daughter in the first place?’
‘My daughter is in the Police’s custody right now and I was told that Inspector Dakolo is the Inspector responsible.’
‘I don’t still understand sir, I thought she was supposed to be on her flight to the United States.’
‘Yes but I don’t understand what happened yet, I think there was a minor accident.’
‘Oh! But what is Dakolo’s concern with this?’
‘She is in the Police’s hospital, I understand that they helped her get out of trouble. What I don’t want is Dakolo or any officer asking her questions. They may get to ask why she was traveling to the United States when she had several music shows this weekend in Nigeria, I don’t want her to state Samantha Osman’s threat as the reason she’s leaving.’
‘Okay, I will get someone to handle it right away.’
‘No, call right now and stop Dakolo or anyone else from questioning her. My personal assistant already called but Dakolo insisted that the Inspector General remains the only one who can give the orders.’
‘Okay sir, I’ll call him right away.’
‘Please do ‘
The Vice President ended the call without asking for the reason the Inspector General called initially. The Inspector General searched for a number on his phone and called. He started by instructing that the girl should not be asked questions before he asked about what she was doing in the police hospital. He learnt that she and the driver had been attacked on her way to the airport. The driver was injured and left unconscious while Vivian was tranquilized but left without no physical sign of injury.
______
Clinic, Police Headquarters, Abuja.
Dakolo sat quietly at the reception, waiting for the doctor to come out of the ward. The man had asked for some minutes alone with the patient and had only spent five minutes, but Dakolo was impatient. Dakolo knew he had little time before he would be asked to drop the case.
He was on a routine check with some members of his team in town when they drove through a street and noticed some people at the front of a gate gathered around a car and trying to force the doors open. The manner at which the people went about it suggested that something was wrong. Dakolo ordered for their vehicle to halt and he came out with another officer to see what was going on. They discovered on getting closer that two people were locked in the car, appearing totally unconscious. Only after they were successful in breaking the door did Dakolo notice that Vivian was the one in the car, and since then he took more interest. Dakolo waited to get reports from eye witnesses while the other officers took the victims to the hospital. The eyewitnesses only said that they saw a man dressed in a pull over and a hiphop cap coming out from the car.
Dakolo couldn’t wait to question the girl, his interest had increased when he got a call from a man claiming to be the Vice President’s personal assistant not to go ahead to question the girl, then he knew that the attack must be something serious and that it involved the father.
The doctor finally came into the reception with his white coat hung on his arm. Dakolo got up from his seat on seeing him and waited for the man to talk.
‘Inspector, the drugs have washed away the effect of the tranquilizer already, you can see her anytime you want and she’s also free to leave.’ the doctor said.
‘Thank you Doctor,’ Dakolo said she offered the doctor a handshake. ‘I’ll just go in right away.’
‘Inspector, you’re going no where!’ a familiar voice said from behind.
Dakolo halted and sighed, he turned back slowly to see Agent Tim.
‘You’ve become so rebellious lately, I don’t know what you think about yourself.’ Agent Tim continued as he approached them. The doctor stood watching the drama without understanding any part of it. ‘Why did you refuse the Vice President’s order?’
Dakolo sighed again. He wasn’t in the mood for questions and answers. He knew he had lost the opportunity to find out what really happened to Vivian but being forced to answer silly questions would make the day worse for him.
‘Sir, I only told him to go through the right order. I told him I couldn’t do what he wanted me to do if the order did not come from one of my superiors.’ Dakolo explained.
‘You lie Inspector, you lie!’ Agent Tim barked while Dakolo remained silent. ‘You told him you won’t obey except the Inspector General speaks with you directly.’
Dakolo remained quiet.
Agent Tim stopped right in front of Dakolo and stared at his face meanly for a moment. Dakolo looked blankly.
‘Just get away from here,’ agent Tim said and turned to the doctor. ‘Sir, lead us to the girl.’
Dakolo stood there for some more seconds after they walked away, he turned and stared towards the path they took before proceeding out of the hospital.
_______
Chez Victor, Maitama Abuja
8:21pm
Victor walked into the restaurant majestically with Patricia’s hands in his. He was dressed in a simple cream coloured shirt tucked into a plain black trouser, he looked good and a bit official in the dress but he felt it wonderful to look different for the night. Patricia was dressed in a long gown extending to her feet and split from down to her knee at the left side.
They got to the table and he pulled out a chair for her to seat before taking his own seat.
‘This place is beautiful!’ Patricia exclaimed as she took a look around.
‘Yea, I know you would like it.’ Cole replied with a smile.
‘Yea, I like it but I would have still preferred us having dinner at your place.’ she said.
‘Don’t let’s go over that again, I know how good you can cook already and I can’t wait to be having your meals daily but I just didn’t want today’s own to be stressful.’
‘Hmm… Really?’ Patricia shone her eyes widely.
‘Yea, I’m serious.’
A waiter arrived with a tray of food and courtesied before she began to serve the food gently on the table. Patricia stared in surprise, wondering why they were being served when they had not made an order yet. Victor did not appear surprised but instead he helped the waiter to make the serving faster.
‘Do you remember I asked you two days ago what your favourite French food was?’ he asked with a smile as the waiter left the table to get something else.
‘Yes… I do,’ she replied, still looking surprised and wondering what he was driving at.
‘So, this is just a part of it, I actually asked them to reserve this table for us and make that special dish for us.’
Patricia’s mouth opened widely and her eyes shone in pleasant surprise. ‘Oh My God!’ she exclaimed, covering her mouth with her palm. ‘It must cost a fortune to make that kind of order here.’
‘Doesn’t cost much,’ Victor chuckled. The waiter returned and served the remaining dishes on the table. Patricia stared unbelievably as the dishes were being served, to her surprise it was exactly what she told him she killed.
‘Oh! Thank you so much for this.’
The waiter left and they began to eat in silence, exchanging pleasant chuckles and gazes at each other.
_______
Aguda House, Aso Rock.
Chief Elvis Richards rushed to the window immediately he saw an incoming call from Agent Tim, he knew it meant that they had arrived with his daughter. He pulled the curtains and stared out, a car was driving into the garage just like he expected. He closed the curtains and returned to his seat but was unable to sit for long, he picked up his walking stick and began to pace around as he waited for their entrance.
Soon, their entrance was announced by the sound of Vivian’s sobbing. Chief Elvis whose back was turned to the door before turned to see Vivian crying as she approached him.
‘My dear, hope you aren’t hurt?’ he said as he spread his hands widely to embrace her.
She rushed into his arms and continued to sob on his chest.
‘Good evening sir,’ Agent Tim greeted from behind.
‘Agent, thank you so much.’ the Vice President replied him.
‘You’re welcome sir, ‘ Agent Tim replied. ‘The doctor has confirmed that she’s perfectly fine, she only needs to take a lot of rest.’
‘Alright Agent, thank you.’ Chief Elvis replied, still patting his girl at the back.
‘You’re welcome sir, I’d like to take my leave immediately.’
‘Oh sure, you’re free. I’ll see you later.’ the Vice President stretched out his hand to the man.
‘Goodnight sir,’ Agent Tim bowed as he took the man’s handshake.
‘Come, Vivian, let’s sit.’ Chief Elvis said to his daughter as he pulled her to a sofa. ‘Tell me how it happened.’
She wiped her tears after sitting on the sofa, her Dad sat on the arm of the chair.
‘Talk to me, what happened?’ Chief Elvis asked again, placing his hands by her shoulders encouragingly.
‘It was the same man that brought the file,’ she said as she sniffed in.
‘The same man from Samantha Osman?’ he asked, shocked as he withdrew his hands from her body.
‘Yes, he was the one. He told me that I can’t leave the country until I make you do the right thing.’ she said and looked at her father’s face.
He picked his walking stick as he rose up slowly from the seat. His face was expressionless. He had booked her flight secretly, so he wondered how Samantha got to know about it.
‘Did you tell anyone else about your flight?’ he turned to her and asked.
‘No, I didn’t. Only the driver knew I was going to the airport and I only told him that evening.’
‘But what else did he say to you?’
‘He told me to tell you to act fast in reporting yourself or things would go in a way that you do not like.’
Chief Elvis took in a deep breath and turned away. He was already making other plans to tackle Samantha but he wasn’t expecting that she would keep tabs on his daughter. He needed to act fast like her messenger told his daughter, but not fast in reporting himself, fast in reporting her.
‘Vivian, you have to stay here henceforth. It’s dangerous for you to stay elsewhere for now, do you understand?’
_______
8:53pm
TARASHA’S RESIDENCE
‘It’s almost time for the network news, ‘ Tarasha announced as she walked into the living room.
Tomi was sitting in one of the sofas with her earphone plugged into her ears while Henry was sitting in front of the television playing video games. He stopped the game and disconnected the gadget after hearing Tarasha’s announcement.
All of them had television sets in their rooms and could watch the news from there but Tarasha had made it mandatory for everyone to watch the news at nine together in the living room.
Henry switched to the news station with the remote control and changed his seat. They all waited for the news to begin and listened attentively immediately it started.
The newscaster ran through the news headlines and Samantha Osman’s name was in one of the headlines as usual. They listened attentively until it got to the details of the news about Samantha Osman. The newscaster read;
‘Female assasin Samantha Osman and her gang appears to be getting bolder as the day goes by. Earlier today at midnight, she killed former Health Minister Eze Okafor and by noon, she murdered serving senator in Kwara State, Garuba Ahmed. Garuba Ahmed was abducted forcefully by one of Samantha Osman’s men from Friendz restaurant at Ajase Ipo Road, Ilorin, leaving not less than five people dead and six injured. The man’s body was later found in a car abandoned along unity road. Passers-by and sellers at the area confirmed that a lady drove the car there and abandoned it. Several national indentity cards with different names but the same picture of Samantha Osman were also found in the car. It is believe that she must have forgotten the pack of identity cards while rushing to leave the place. Investigations are still on by the police and more details are to be revealed later.’
The part of the news about her ended with that and another news item was being casted in details. Thoughts filled Tarasha’s mind and the minds of all that she listened to the news with. Tomi didn’t know what to say, she couldn’t tell if it was true or not and she was even still in the moody state that the discovery of Patricia had put her in. Henry who had been following her activities closely knew that the news was false. He wondered why she was being framed up by the police and the media.
‘I know what to do,’ Tarasha suddenly said and got up to her feet. ‘I’m sure Rex has been following us, we need to get him off our back.’
