TARASHA Episode 16 Pt 4 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
~~~
Elvis Richards was seated under a neatly fashioned bamboo shed, he had a bottle and a glass of wine in front of him. The excellent lightening in the compound made it so beautiful and bright as it always looked in the day.
Elvis glanced towards the gate as it opened and Ken drove in with Dakolo. He walked out of the shed and began to proceed towards the car park where Ken was driving to. He got there before Ken and Dakolo.
Ken hurriedly parked the car and killed the engine. Dakolo was the first to step out, he turned at once to meet with the Vice President who was standing by the side.
‘Good evening sir,’ Dakolo greeted with a bow. Ken also joined him and greeted in the same manner. There was no response to the greeting from the Vice President, he just stared at them while he tossed his phone from one hand to the other.
‘Why are you guys keeping me in darkness?’ He finally spoke after several seconds of making them feel uncomfortable with his gaze. ‘Why was E.G Henry arrested without my knowledge?’ He faced Dakolo and directed the question to him.
‘Sir…’ Dakolo began hesitatingly, he paused to clear his throat and put on more boldness. ‘We were actually going to tell you when we see, the plan we had was that we report to you at the end of every week not everyday sir.’
Elvis smiled at Dakolo’s boldness, he took his face off the officer’s face and began to look to the ground, using his sandal to rub the grasses.
‘But arresting someone like Henry is different, he’s supposed to be a part of us, he’s supposed to be part of those trying to find the assassin and not a suspect.’ Elvis looked up with a bitter frown, ‘I was surprised today to find the news of his arrest on the internet, I called you to confirm and you didn’t deny.’
‘We took him in for questioning sir, because we found out that he’s been hiding a lot of details from us.’ Dakolo said.
‘Of course you had to do it, I only have a problem with you not informing me immediately. What has he been hiding?’
‘He has a close association with someone who’s suspected to be part of Samantha Osman’s group, there’s about ninety percent probability that the person is even Samantha Osman herself.’
‘How did you find out about that?’
‘We discovered that he attended Chief Jubril’s party with the lady,’ Dakolo answered shortly, willing to stop at that but the man’s eyes demanded for more explanation. ‘The lady he went with to the party is a suspect. Henry also testified that she was nowhere to be found during the time of the assassination. He has not seen or spoken to her since that day.’
‘Interesting,’ Elvis bit his lips, enjoying the release of information. ‘So, when did Henry leave your custody?’
‘Before evening time,’Dakolo’s response was sharp. His phone interrupted with its ringtone, he took it out and checked the caller’s ID, Mr Sylvester. Out of respect for the Vice President, he silenced the call.
‘And what’s the next step now?’
‘We hope to keep Henry in safety, he can provide us with useful information if he lives.’ Dakolo stated, hoping the man’s question would end at that.
‘If he lives?’ Elvis stared at him for more explanation. He began to trek away from the park slowly, Dakolo and Ken followed. Dakolo’s phone rang again. He checked the caller’s ID and silenced it again.
‘Why are you sounding as if he’s in danger?’ Elvis concluded his question.
‘The assassin group may come for his life, now that he’s involved with the police.’
‘And haven’t you made plans against that already?’
‘I have, I have four officers watching him, three officers at his house and one officer following him around, all without his knowledge.’
‘Isn’t that enough? Four officers should be able to ensure he’s safety.’
‘Yes sir, on a normal day when dealing with a different group, four may be enough but with Samantha Osman’s group, I’m afraid four may not do the job.’
‘So what are you planning to do now?’ Elvis stopped and asked.
‘I’ve asked Mr Sylvester to convince him not to stay in his residence for sometime.’
‘Where would he stay?’Elvis raised a brow.
‘In NSCC house, it’s more safer there. No one can easily break in.’
‘And has Sylvester been able to convince him?’
‘I don’t know, he’s the one that called me some seconds ago.’ Dakolo brought out his phone, hoping that the man would allow him return Mr Sylvester’s call.
‘No problem, you’ll call him later.’ Elvis replied, disappointing Dakolo.
Dakolo returned his phone back into his pocket, waiting for what else the man has to say but Elvis didn’t speak immediately. He began to take slow steps again.
‘I want you to keep me updated always, I won’t like to be surprised again like I was today.’
‘There’s no problem sir.’ Dakolo voiced impatiently, itching to leave the man’s presence.
Wait!’ The man suddenly turned to them calmly, with a crooked smile. ‘Why are you so much in a hurry?’
‘We don’t want to leave any chance for the assassin group at all, we don’t want to make any mistakes. We want to ensure that Henry is somewhere safe as soon as possible.’
‘But aren’t you taking it a little bit far? You just arrested him today, even the media hasn’t verified his arrest. How do you think they’ll find out? Or are you suspecting there’s a mole working with you?’ Elvis suggested. Ken shrugged in partial agreement.
‘Mole?’ Dakolo and Ken took quick glances at each other. ‘We don’t think there’s a mole sir,’ Dakolo answered. ‘But we think if the information can get to the press which we didn’t give by ourselves, it can also get it to these expert assassins. Henry may have even let out the information himself unknowingly.’
‘It’s okay, you can leave.’ Elvis said and walked away immediately.
Even before the man finished talking, Dakolo and Ken had turned and began to proceed to their car.
`
Elvis entered into the living room to meet the eagerly waiting Don and the Inspector General. Both of them rose up from the sofa immediately they sighted the Vice President.
‘Henry E.G has a close association with a suspect’ Elvis said to Don as he continued walking. ‘I don’t know if that’ll be of help to you.’ He concluded and proceeded up the stairs, leaving Don and the IG.
Don picked his car key from the sofa where he was previously seated and walked out of the place after bowing to say goodbye to the IG.
+++
8.05pm
The gate opened as Henry tapped a button on the remote control in his car, he drove in with speed and stopped in the middle of the compound. He took off his seatbelt before turning off the car engine, he wasn’t ready to park the car in the right place today. He opened the door to the driver’s side but remained inside and relaxed back for about two minutes. He finally got out after taking his phone from the backseat and proceeded to the left side of the fence drunkenly, the reflection of light from the two neighboring compound brightened his way enough. He tapped two buttons on the wall and the compound security light came on. He returned to the car and locked the doors properly before proceeding to the house.
The house was dark as he entered, he closed the door and began to search the wall with his hands for the bulb switch. He tapped the switch but there was no light, he left the particular switch and moved to the wall at the other side, he tapped the button and there was no light also.
Unsuspicious of anything, he believed that something must have gone wrong with the connections in the house or at the main control point. He took out his phone and pressed the power button, he began to find his way with the little light shown as the phone booted. He was able to get to the first sofa on the left and he sank into it tiredly. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, a slight headache began to disturb him.
He opened his eyes suddenly as he heard sounds of some movement. He turned on the flashlight of his phone and pointed it to his front but saw nothing. He wondered what it could be, Rats? Cockroaches? He wondered but none of them could be accommodated in his house due to proper cleaning and fumigation that takes place frequently, at least he had seen the documents of the previous cleanup that had been done before he moved in. The movement must have been heard in his imagination, he concluded.
~~~
8.10pm
It was over two hours now and Jefa had not heard anything else from Henry, his heart was greatly troubled as he couldn’t imagine what kind of trouble Omotara was in. He wasn’t stable enough to go to his business place that day, all efforts made to reach Henry back proved abortive.
His earlier decision was to stay away from Henry and Omotara but with the panic at hand, he couldn’t go by that decision. After several minutes of contemplating, he picked up his phone and dialed Henry’s number again. It was still switched off. He couldn’t take it any longer, he got up from his seat and put on his shirt. He proceeded towards the door and wore his palm sandal placed beside the doormat before hurrying out.
~~~
‘Hello Mr Sylvester, sorry I couldn’t answer your calls. I was with the Vice President.’ Dakolo said hurriedly into the phone. ‘Have you been able to reach Henry?’
‘No, he wasn’t answering his calls. His phone is even switched off now.’Sylvester replied.
‘Damn!’ Dakolo muttered. ‘Please keep trying,’ Dakolo said to Sylvester before ending the call.
‘Sir…’ Ken called in a calm voice, wondering why Dakolo was in so much panic, it wasn’t that they were sure that the assassins were coming for Henry that day, so he wondered why Dakolo was acting like he had gotten information that someone was going to ki*ll Henry that night.
‘Yes,’ Dakolo took a brief glance at Ken.
‘I think we should take it more calmly, I believe we have capable people watching him already, they’ll alert us if there’s any problem.’
Dakolo was about to dial another number but he paused to ponder on Ken’s word. Ken had spoken the truth but Dakolo still had the strange feeling to act urgently, he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself if anything happens to Henry.
He went on to dial the number and his call was answered in few seconds.
‘Sir,’ a gruff voice sounded.
‘Officer, where are you now?’ Dakolo asked.
‘In front of Henry’s house, he’s gone inside already. I’m watching with the other officers.’
‘He just drove in?’
‘Yes, few minutes ago.’
‘Can you get into his house for me? I want you to talk to him and try make him believe that he is in danger and shouldn’t sleep in that house tonight, it’s not safe for him.’
‘Where should I tell him to go to?’
‘The NSCC house is safer for him or you can tell him to follow you to my place. I’ll just meet you on the way.’
‘Okay sir, I’ll try go inside the house now.’ The call ended.
Dakolo heaved a sigh, he glanced at Ken who was looking less worried. He unlocked his phone’s screen again and opened the dial pad, he scrolled down to Henry’s number and dialed it, not really too optimistic about it. He relaxed back and put it on loud speaker.
His eyes widened in excitement as the call went through and Henry’s ring back tone began to play. But his excitement was suppressed few seconds later when the call was not answered by Henry. He tried two more times before giving up. As he closed his eyes to relax a bit, his phone rang again.
‘Sir, he’s not responding to the bell.’
Several thoughts ran through Dakolo’s mind at that moment. Maybe Henry was not just answering the bell the same way he wasn’t answering his calls or maybe he wasn’t answering because an enemy was already fighting with him in the house. It was also possible that Henry was planning to do something.
‘Try more, I’ll call you back now.’ Dakolo cut the call as another idea flashed through his mind on how to reach Henry. He clicked on the message icon and began to type in a message.
~~~
Henry felt angry as Dakolo’s call came in the third time, the gate bell was also sounding at the same time. He guessed that the person at the gate was Dakolo so he ignored the both.
The bulbs in the living room suddenly came on as he began to unbutton his shirt. He paused in shock, wondering how it could have happened. He concluded that a wire was not properly connected somewhere and continued with what he was doing.
Few minutes later, he felt so much fear like he had never felt as he lifted up his head and saw the back view of a lady seated on the top of the three seater sofa backrest. The lady got up and turned to face him, Omotara it was.
He felt the greatest shock on his life as he saw the way she was dressed and what she had in her hands. She wore black top and shredded Jean trousers with black hand gloves on her hands. She was holding on her left hand an intravenous fluid bag filled with a liquid he was sure was poisonous, while she had on her right hand a black schoolbag. Her nose was covered with a nose mask.
His eyes were full of shock and utter disappointment. Tears filled his eyes, not in fear of the death that was coming, but in realization of the fact that Omotara was really the deadly assassin, Samantha Osman.
She took out a bottle from the bag and sprayed the contents, Henry slowly passed out as he inhaled the gas. His phone began to ring again and fell off his hand to the floor, it fell with its screen on his toe and stopped ringing.
