‘What’s the matter?’ Elvis asked with a raised eyebrow as he noticed Gabriel’s countenance.

‘No, it’s nothing.’ he shook his head. ‘Just continue,’ he made a hand gesture to his friend to keep on speaking and then folded his arms.

‘I recently met this boy whom I knew during his training in the police force some years back, he is now a member of the Boko Haram group…’

‘What?’ Gabriel cut in, spreading his hands out in fear. ‘What do we have to do with Boko Haram?’

‘Are you crazy Gabriel? What’s the matter with you?’ Elvis Richards flared up. ‘I would have loved to do this with Jubril or Nasiru if not for the Chief that insisted we involved someone from the other political party not to make it look partial. I don’t even know who acts more like a woman between you and Onwuli.’
‘It’s okay Elvis, don’t insult me.’ Gabriel cautioned.

‘Then stop acting like a woman. I don’t know if you’re not tired of this whole hanging deal but I am, we need to finish it up quickly. I’ve not been able to enjoy the honour of my chieftaincy since we all received our titles because we’ve been running up and down all through.’ Elvis blared on.
‘Alright Elvis, speak on.’ Gabriel said and folded his arms again.

‘Are you sure you’re ready to listen?’
‘Yea, speak on.’
‘We are all aware that the Chief also works with some of these terrorist guys, so it means there’ll be no problem if we use them too.’
‘But…’ Gabriel’s voice faded out as he tried to cut in. He stared at Elvis’ face for a moment to see if the latter wasn’t angry about the interruption. ‘Don’t you think working with this deadly group is a bad idea? I mean, these guys are killing people in their hundreds and we want to join them.’
Elvis shook his head and hissed. ‘What’s your concern with how many people they’re killing?’ he asked, giving Gabriel a side look. ‘Even Chief that is from the region is not concerned about his people that are dying daily as you are.’

‘Hmm… But you know that Chief is using it for political reasons and we don’t have to become as cruel as he is just because we want to be successful politicians.’
‘Gabriel, open a church if you want to preach , don’t preach to me as if you are a saint.’

‘I’m not a saint but…’
‘What about the bag drugs we bring it?’ Elvis cut in. ‘Does that not kill hundreds of people everyday?’

Gabriel let out a deep breath and shook his head.

‘We’re doing the same thing Gabriel, killing less privileged people to make our money.’ Elvis stated.

Gabriel was silent.
‘Look here, like I said; this young Boko Haram guy is one of their commanders who I know very well. All we need to do is give him the address of their house and he’s going to lead his troops to the area. We will tell him to pay special attention to that particular house and even give him the couple’s pictures. He will have to make sure that they are dead and bring picture proofs to us.’

Gabriel closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. ‘I…’


**Present**
She tried to flip to the next page to continue reading but it was stuck to the previous page. She couldn’t tell if a liquid had poured in between and gummed them together or if it was the quality of ink used that made them stick. She tried to separate the pages carefully but ended up splitting them halfway into two. She let out a breath, wondering what to do, whether to continue from the third page which was already divided into two or try harder to open the middle pages and risk losing all. She decided to read the available page first before going back to the middle but as she began to read, she noticed that it continued from the page she read last, meaning that there was nothing in the pages she was trying to access and that the book had always been like that.

She turned back to the previous page again and read from the last line to ease her understanding, ‘Gabriel did not really agree to the plan and he tried to stop it initially, he held the opinion that since the doctors had fled already, there was no need hunting them again. But that didn’t stop what was to be done, the doctors were killed and the pictures were shown to us before our business continued as usual.’

Tarasha stopped after reading the paragraph and closed her eyes to absorb the pain and anger that was welling up in her. She could feel a cold s£nsat!on spread through her body as it vibrated, that was the only way she could express her anger with the strength she had.
Her eyes popped open as she sensed the entrance of someone else in the living room. Cole’s eyes met with hers. He was standing close to the entrance of the corridor and staring at her with an expressionless face. She took in a breath and her body calmed down on seeing him. He began to walk towards her with the phone she requested for in his hand.

She stretched out her hand even before he got to her, he dropped the phone and turned back without saying any word.
She unlocked the phone as soon as he walked out of the living room and searched for Chief Gab’s number, one of his numbers was the first contact on the call records. She dialed his number and placed the phone close to her ear but ended it as soon as she noticed it was being directed to voicemail. She opened the contact list and searched the Chief’s second Nigerian number but got the same response after dialing. Then she tried his only foreign number on the list and it began to ring.
‘Hello,’ Chief Gab answered after the second ring, he sounded like he had a hard time making the decision of answering the call.

‘Chief Gab, you left the country already?’
‘Tarasha!’ he exclaimed in a loud tone. ‘I was told you were badly injured…’
‘You were asked to provide us a new facility,’ she cut in.
‘Yes Tarasha, but ermm… You see,’ the Chief paused for a while trying to find words to use. ‘You see, I had limited time to use in Nigeria, I told you the last time we spoke, didn’t I?’

‘What about the facility?’ she asked again, ignoring his explanation.
‘Ermm… Are you well and out of danger now?’ the Chief asked, trying to evade answering Tarasha’s question.
‘That isn’t the reply to what I asked you Chief, what about the new facility we need?’
‘Tarasha, I’m still working on it.’ he finally answered.

‘When will it be ready?’
‘Ermm… I’ll call you back to let you know when it is.’

‘Please, we have two days to work on that,’ she said and took a brief pause. ‘Now, I want you to tell me everything you know about the Danjuma’s death.’


——_———————————————————

…………………………………………………………………………
‘All I know about the Danjuma’s death?’ Chief Gab repeated the question, the surprise he felt could be heard in his voice.
Yes, I mean your involvement in their death.’ Tarasha replied.

‘But ermm… Tarasha, what do you need that for?’ Chief Gab asked, making it clear he was unwilling to talk about it.
‘I work to kill people for you and you should expect me to discover along the line how the victims are connected to you.’ Tarasha explained.

‘But Tarasha, I explained to you on the first day we met physically.’ the man argued. ‘I told you how we were all connected together and how they cheated and killed my family and friend, Onwuli. Did you think I was lying then?’

‘No, I didn’t think you were lying neither do I think you are now, but I just need you to give me a honest reply to my request. I do need the information and will need some others soon to be able to hunt and pull your enemy down, I’m changing the strategy I planned on using and I require more information that can bring him down.’
There was silence at the other end for a couple of seconds, then a release of breath was heard before the voice. ‘Danjuma and his wife Lydia were doctors. They got involved with us when the wife Lydia had a patient who died after taking a drug, it happened that the drug was being distributed in the country by us under the shadow of the registered company of Nnamdi Okafor, the health Minister who was the first person I sent you to. The Doctors had to help us cover up and verify the drug but they refused to. They had to leave Lagos after the troubles got too much but then they move to Borno where they were killed by the Boko Haram insurgents.’
There was a brief moment of silence after Chief Gab finished talking.
‘Are you sure that’s all?’
‘Yes or what else do you want to know?’
‘I want to know the whole truth, tell me the truth about their death.’ Tarasha said in a serious tone which sounded like a threat to Chief Gab.
‘Hmm…’ the Chief let out a deep breath. ‘The Boko Haram guys actually killed them but it was set up by us.’

‘You and who?’
‘Me? Not me,’ Chief Gab denied. ‘Actually a larger number of people in the group agreed to the plan since they posed a threat to us.’

‘And so, who gave the contracts to the killers?’ Tarasha asked.
There was another long silence.
‘Chief Elvis did, he knew someone in the Boko Haram camp.’
‘And who was that person he knew?’ Tarasha asked immediately, not giving the man any second to rest.
‘Tarasha!’
‘Yes, answer the question.’
‘This is not what I sent you.’
‘Don’t you think leaving that Boko Haram guy alive could cause problems for you later?’

‘Hmm…’ there was a short hiss. ‘The man is Inspector General Rikau. Were you the one that tried to kill him yesterday?’
‘Thank you for your answers Chief Gab, we will talk more later,’ she said and ended the call without giving him a chance to speak again.

‘Omotara, did you order for something online?’ Henry walked in asking as soon as she ended her call.
She narrowed her eyes at him, ‘Order for something online?’
‘Yes.’
‘No, I did not.’ she shook her head.
‘But there’s a lady from an online food store and their car waiting outside for us at the house on the other end.’
‘Oh!’ Tarasha let out breath from her mouth as she remembered that it was the day for the online shopping store to deliver the foodstuffs they get monthly to the house. ‘Just ignore them, I’ll change the address of the delivery soon.’

***
They watched from their car as the lady flipped her hair backwards, shading her eyes from the sun with the other hand. She had been at the gate for close to ten minutes now and had used the gate bell several times without getting any response from inside. She was also seen using her phone and trying to call someone but never seemed to connect successfully.

Five minutes later, she turned back and entered into the car that brought her, they stayed for five minutes more watching the gate before driving off.
Fabian started the car engine and put on his seatbelt, he turned the rearview mirror to check if the makeup Esther had done to his face was still intact. She had done it so well that no one will suspect that he was makeups, it was a perfect one for his face and skin colour. Esther was sittng right by his side in the car and also had her face made up, which wasn’t too much or strange for a lady. Fabian flashed a smile at Esther and sped onto the road like a crazy person, leaving her surprised and staring at him with her mouth agape.
‘Don’t tell me you’re going after that EasyShoppers car,’ she stared at him with her eyes opened widely.
‘What else would I be doing? That’s our best bet to get access to those guys right now,’ Fabian replied her as he turned on the trafficator.
‘Are you sure it’s the right thing to do now?’
‘Yes, it is.’ he replied firmly.
‘But then reduce your speed, you don’t have to get both of us killed because you want to catch up with them, we can always go to their stores any other time.’
‘I don’t want us to go to another branch of their office but this particular one they receive supply from.’


______
**NSCC Headquarters**
‘Good morning Agent Dakolo,’ Mr Sylvester said in reply to Dakolo’s greeting and gestured for him to have his seat.
‘Thank you Mr Sylvester, I’ll go straight to my reason for visiting which you already know. I’ll like to find out every detail about this Dave of a guy and how he was employed here.’

‘Sir…’ Mr Sylvester began in low tones. ‘Dave applied for employment some days after Kimberly Alexander mysteriously disappeared. And we employed him immediately since he had the necessary qualifications to fill in the gap. And he has been working with us since then until some days ago when he suddenly stopped coming without leaving any message to explain or notify us of his absence.’
‘Okay, you said you have tried to reach him and you couldn’t.’
‘Yes.’

‘Does he not have a guarantor or a referee?’

Mr Sylvester paused for a moment. ‘Yes, he does. I’ll have to check it right away.’ He opened his drawer and began to search for something. He brought out a key and a phone from the drawer and closed it back. ‘I’ll have to call for it to be searched out for me.’
‘It’s okay but before you do that, I want you to also help me with details of his last days here. What his activities were before he left and the exact date he stopped coming.’
______