TARASHA Episode 16 Pt 2 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel

TARASHA Episode 16 Pt 2 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel

4.20pm

Henry had been left to sit alone in the dark room for more than an hour without seeing anyone or hearing anyone talk. He rested his head on the table and began to think about the woes he had brought upon himself by becoming friends with Omotara. He remembered that she tried to resist their friendship but his accursed self was the one who continued to push even with the embarrassment and soldiers harassment she had caused him on their first encounter. He didn’t stop until she gave him her number and agreed to have lunch with him. Remembering all that now, he wondered why he still had so much feelings for someone who had caused him so much pain and who he had not even spent up to three weeks being friends with. An annoying thing was that he felt a strange kind of satisfaction that the police arrested him instead of her, he didn’t think he would love to see her go through the rigorous prosecution by the police especially as she was already involved in the fraud crime.

He thought of how he was going to escape from the trouble he was in. He could only see two ways out, either to spill out all he knew about her or to pretend not to know her beyond their few days friendship. The former would be the best option, the latter could even get him into deeper trouble.

A flash of light came in as the door opened, three people walked in and the last one closed the door. On came a fairly bright light hung on the ceiling directly above where Henry was seated. Henry could now see the faces of the officers proceeding towards him. Dakolo sat directly opposite him behind the table while Ken sat beside Dakolo and the third officer took a standing position.

‘I’m not saying anything until I see my lawyer,’ Henry protested without waiting to hear any word from the officers first.

‘Your lawyer is not here yet but don’t worry, you’ll have enough time to discuss with him. We’ll grant you bail after these few questions we’ve got for you. ‘ Dakolo replied in a calm voice.

‘I’m still not answering any question,’ Henry said stubbornly.

Dakolo smiled. ‘You want to make things hard for yourself then, we will have to force you to speak.’

‘I’ve spoken enough to you already, I want to see my lawyer first,’ Henry insisted, trying to feign confidence even though he was scared of facing their torture sessions.

‘You’ve not spoken enough yet, you’ve not told us all you know about that girl Evelyn Alexander.’ Dakolo said.

‘I told you all I know already. She’s a business woman who came from Canada, we met and became friends. She invited me to accompany her to Chief Jubril Lawal’s party and I did, what else am I supposed to tell you?’ Henry began to answer the questions again unconsciously.

‘You said you never left the table at that party but she left you for several hours and even left the venue without you, how could a good friend who took you to to a party do that?’ Dakolo played along. ‘Who was the man who you said came to pick her.’

‘I don’t know him nor do I remember his face. All I know is that they were discussing business and they went to the exhibition centre.’ Henry answered, consciously omitting the first question.

Dakolo paused for a moment and stared at Henry’s face. ‘Who stopped the cameras at the event centre from working?’

‘How am I supposed to know that? My job description in the NSCC does not involve securing cameras for event centres.’

‘But you were in the event centre at that time.’

‘Yes, I was there. Seated and enjoying the show like other guests.’ Henry replied in a stern, determined voice. ‘Don’t you guys understand, for someone to have obstructed their system that day, the person must have gotten into their control room.’

Dakolo’s phone rang. He stood up and walked away from the table before answering the call, he spoke in low tones for few seconds before he returned.

‘We’ve reinvestigated the Canadian number and we’ve gotten the report,’ Dakolo continued the session, planning a trick in his mind.

Luckily for Henry, he was absentminded and didn’t hear the last statement immediately, it took him sometime to process what Dakolo said, so the response he gave was not the “shocked response” Dakolo was expecting. ‘Who reinvestigated it?’ Henry asked, acting indifferent.

‘You don’t need to know that,’ Dakolo said in a threatening voice and got up to sit on the table. ‘The important thing is that we’ve discovered who you are, we discovered that you’re a liar and a criminal.’

Henry chuckled, he didn’t fall for the trap. ‘Agent Dakolo,’ he called calmly. ‘Was that the result of the reinvestigation? Who I am? I thought it was an investigation of number you did not an investigation about me.’ Henry didn’t believe in his heart that any reinvestigation had even occurred.

Dakolo bit his lips and got up from the table angrily. It was obvious the trick didn’t work for Henry but instead of Henry’s confidence to show innocence to Dakolo, it further proved how hardened Henry was. ‘Release him to the lawyer after telling him the terms of the bail.’ Dakolo said to Ken before storming out of the room.

~~

5pm

‘Thanks,’ Tarasha said as she paid the filling station attendant and closed the fuel tank. ‘Hey! Please’ she called back the attendant who was about going to attend to someone else.

‘Yes,’ the lady replied her impatiently.

‘How do I get to Ordoz Palace road from here?’ She asked.

‘You’re almost there, just drive straight down and ask again.’

‘Oh thanks,’ Tarasha said and turned to enter into the van. She put on her seatbelt and drove out of the filling station. She had been trying to follow the map to locate Henry’s house for over thirty minutes now and she was almost getting confused, thinking that she wasn’t on the right track. She got to the road and drove straight down as directed. Soon enough, she needed not to ask any question again as she recognized the street. She also located his house without stress. She kept driving several metres away until she got to a suitable place to park the van. She halted the vehicle and stepped out. She straightened her black shredded Jean trousers and her black shirt. She began to walk back the several metres to Henry’s apartment.

Henry’s apartment was a duplex that was rented for him by the NSCC when he joined them. The house had a high fence surrounding it like most of the houses in the area.

As an observant person that she was, she noticed a guy taking a stroll down the road like her too. From the way he was dressed and how he comported himself, Tarasha was able to decipher that he had been asked to keep an eye on Henry’s house. She saw him staring at the gate as she passed, she played along too and strolled by without stopping in front of the house to raise suspicion. As she passed the gate, she noticed two more persons. That was when she began to think about tryng to attack Henry in his house, it may not be the best strategy to use, she would need to make another plan ready in case this one doesn’t work out.

She took a fifteen minutes walk to no destination and then returned to her van. Another idea came into her mind, it was still possible that her first strategy works fine.

~~~

Henry finally returned to the NSCC office with his lawyer at exactly fifteen minutes past five. His lawyer drove them in his car.

‘I would have preferred that you go home straight to rest,’ the dark skinned, big eyeballed lawyer said for the umpteenth time.

‘I have a job I need to round up,’ Henry insisted.

‘It’s okay,’ the lawyer finally gave up.

The car was brought to an halt in the same park where Henry and Tarasha’s car were parked, under the same shed as Tarasha’s but had two cars separating them from Tarasha’s car previous position.

Henry quickly stepped out of the car without waiting for the lawyer to turn off the engine. He proceeded to where his car was and still met it there but the blue car he had placed a tracker on had been driven away and the space was empty. He felt a bit of joy in his heart as hopes of finding Omotara again began to rise in his heart but all his hopes were dashed in few seconds, after his eyes met with the tracking device on the floor. He walked towards the parking space to confirm and it was really it. He wondered how it got detached from the car, no one could have noticed it where he hid it except he was seen while doing it. Or maybe he didn’t fix it properly.  He bent down to pick it up and check, it was obvious that the tracker did not fall off itself but someone had detached it.

‘What’s that?’ His lawyer asked as he appeared at his back.

‘Nothing,’ he replied and hid the tracker in his palms. He turned and proceeded to his car. ‘I’m going home.’

‘I thought you wanted to work in the office.’

‘I changed my mind.’ Henry said, searching his pockets frantically for his car keys. He then remembered that he left it on his table in the office.

~~~

6.30pm

Tarasha had driven round the street to check the position of Henry’s house and how possible it was for her to get in through the back. Luckily, there was. The building on another street whose compound backed Henry’s house was a paper company that already closed their activities for the day by five pm. Although the company had provision for two security men to man the gate overnight, she was sure that it would be easier to pass through them than facing the spies that the police had placed in front of Henry’s house. All she needed now was for the day to get a little bit darker.

She stepped out of her car and sat on the bonnet to take fresh air. Several people were returning from work to their houses in their cars and commercial tricycles while younger people sometimes could be seen in pairs and larger groups walking leisurely.

Tarasha ran her hand through her hair as the soft breeze landed on her face. She glanced around the area where her car was parked, the drivers of other cars were either in their cars or had left the cars there but none was seen hanging outside like she did. She decided it would be better to take a walk than to remain on the bonnet. Her phone rang as she opened the car to take it out.

‘Hey Cole,’ she said after answering the call.

‘Boss,’ Cole was half panting. ‘It all went well today.’

‘Where are you?’ Tarasha asked, ignoring his last statement on hearing the sounds of him panting.

‘At the football pitch,’ Cole answered.

‘This evening? I thought you should be resting.’ Tarasha replied, surprised at his boldness to tell her that he was on the football field.

‘No boss, it’s been a long while and I wasn’t sure if I’ll get the chance to do this soon again.’

‘Okay, so what’s up?’

‘She agreed,’ Cole said with a note of excitement. ‘We’ll be returning to Abuja for a meeting scheduled with the Vice President on Friday. I just got the email inviting us seconds ago and I thought I should tell you first.’

‘Bravo!’ Tarasha applauded as she closed the vehicle’s front door. ‘Excellent job so far, but hope there was no complication in anyway.’

‘No, there wasn’t.’

‘Good.’

‘Boss, would you like to read the email? Should I Forward it to you?’

‘No, don’t bother. I’ll read it directly from the mailbox.’

‘Okay, boss. That’s all for now.’

~~

6.30pm

Jefa was attending to his customers in the shop when his phone vibrated in his pocket, there was an incoming call. After serving a particular set of customers drinks, he took out the phone and checked the missed calls log. The number that called him was unsaved in his phone but he recognized it, it was Henry’s. Thoughts of Omotara raced back into his heart immediately and he felt a sharp pain in the chest at the thought of never seeing her again. He considered calling Henry back but remembered his decision earlier that day to stay away from Henry and anything else that could unite him back with Omotara so as to avoid the disaster that may follow. Henry began to call again as he wanted to put it in his pocket. He silenced it and went ahead to pocket the phone. Barely one minute later, it began to ring again. He silenced it again by tapping the volume button without removing it from his pocket. It rang for the fourth time and he took it out of his pocket, he couldn’t resist the urge to answer it anymore.

‘Hello,’ he spoke into the phone.

‘Hello sir, have you heard any word from Omotara?’ Henry’s voice sounded impatient, the car horn and hoots heard was an evidence that he was on the road.

‘No, why do you ask? She doesn’t know me.”

‘It’s possible she might have tried to contact you already. I told her about you, so don’t say that she doesn’t know you.’

‘Erm…. Anyway I want us to stop searchin…’

‘Sir…’ Henry cut in. ‘ If she ever tries to contact you, tell her to stay out of town and remain in hiding for now ‘

‘What do you mean?’ Jefa asked in a serious tone. From the way Henry sounded, it was obvious that Omotara was in a sort of danger.

The call ended without Henry answering. All attempts Jefa made to reach him after proved futile as Henry did not answer his calls until later, Henry sent a text message that he was driving and would call later.

~~

7.30pm

With the black bag strapped to her back and her hand gloves on, Tarasha raced towards the high fence separating the company from Henry’s compound and climbed it. She rolled into Henry’s compound and made sure she landed with the lowest possible noise.

She detached the rope hanging around her belt and dropped it on the floor. It was the remains of what she had used to tie up the security guards in the paper company.

She had injected into their bodies Benryl which will make them sleep off for several hours and even forget totally what happened before the sleep but she still had to tie them up and cover their mouths with tapes in case she spent more than the time she planned to.

She threw in a gum into her mouth and began to chew softly, she placed her hands on her waist as she stared at the building. It was time to execute the other part of the plan. She took out her phone and dialed Henry’s number.

Henry’s case must be solved that night.

…to be continued

… What do you think Tarasha would do to Henry? Would she ki*ll him?

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