‘But he cannot be working here,’ Lizzy said to Dave with a frown on her face. Both of them were at the painting house where Cole had gone to repaint the car.
‘I think he came to repaint his car,’ Dave said as he led the way into the place. ‘Where did you place the tracker?’
‘On the plate number,’ Lizzy replied. ‘I attached it because it had exactly the same colour with the plate.’
‘You placed it in a nice position, it shouldn’t be discovered easily.’
‘Good evening gentleman and lady, we’ve closed already for the day. You can check us tomorrow for any of our services you need,’ a short man with a big face cap on his head said to them.
‘We’re from the SSS,’ Dave displayed his identity card to the man immediately, not wanting to waste time since it was dark already. ‘We need to check something right in here,’ he said and pushed the man gently aside. He noticed the shaken attitude of the man but ignored it.
He proceeded on in the place with Lizzy and entered into the section where vehicles were being painted. They both stopped at the entrance and Dave looked around while Lizzy looked into her device. Dave could see men at different angles washing different tools and some their hands and legs. Two other men approached he and Lizzy to ask them what they wanted but the short man who first questioned them answered his colleagues before Dave could speak.
‘What’s the direction?’ Dave asked Lizzy about the location of the tracker placed on the car which she was monitoring on the device.
‘Right there,’ Lizzy pointed to the wall at the left, where there were no cars.
‘There?’ Dave questioned. He moved closer to her and looked into the device to confirm. ‘It’s really there…’ he agreed in low tones. ‘Let’s check.’


Dave knew at once that the tracker on the car was also discovered and had been removed but he decided to still follow the direction shown to them by the application and retrieve the tracker if possible. Lizzy continued to look around at all the cars parked as they walked to the wall, she wanted to see if tracked car was anywhere around. It wasn’t in sight and heart continued to beat fast as they walked on, she feared that all her troubles the whole day might have been in vain. The three men watching them followed slowly behind them.
They soon got to the wall and realized that the tracker was already in a dustbin, a very dirty one. Dave decided not to bother about retrieving the tracker. He asked Lizzy to put back the device into her bag and they both proceeded out of the place to their car, believing beyond every sense of doubt that the trackers were discovered by Samantha’s man.
It wasn’t until they entered into the car that Dave noticed Lizzy’s gloomy face.
‘Lizzy, what’s the matter?’ he asked, taking off his finger from the start button and turning to her.


‘It was all a waste of time,’ she said in a very sad tone.
‘You did your best Lizzy, you tried.’ Dave said as he faced front and released a breath. ‘Remember we are dealing with Samantha Osman, it won’t be that easy to get her.’

‘But I just made a terrible mistake by allowing her know someone who might not be the police is on her tail. The EasyShoppers office must have called to inform them about what happened, that’s why he changed everything and even came to drop his registration plate on a dustbin here.’
‘I think you did a nice job with the EasyShoppers staffs, they couldn’t have reported their stupidity so easily. Trust me, you did a very nice job, I couldn’t have done better than this. Samantha Osman is a just a very cunning woman,’ Dave said and smiled at her. He took her palms and sq££zed it in his.

________
9:23 pm
Cole took off the shoes and threw them around carelessly in the room, then he sank into the bed tiredly and released a deep breath. Tarasha had declared the next day as a day of rest for all of them and he personally really needed it. After taking the foodstuffs into the house with Henry, he had to test the car in Tarasha’s presence for her to see all it’s features and confirm that he bought the right thing. He felt so tired even though the stress of that day wasn’t up to a sixth of what he goes through on some other days but his feeling at that moment was a result of accumulated tiredness and lack of proper rest for some days.


His mind quickly drifted back to the day’s activities and he remembered Patricia, the EasyShoppers worker. His body shivered again as he could feel her effect just at the thought of her. Maybe she was a goddess of some sort, he thought.

He searched his trouser pocket and brought out two sheets; the only two things he had taken out from the cloth he left at the boutique. The first was the EasyShoppers receipt given to him and the other was Patricia’s mobile number which she had scribbled hastily into the paper for him in case he needed to reach her again.

_____
‘Thank you,’ Dakolo said into the phone and ended the call. He turned off the screen and dropped the phone on the table. He typed some more commands on his laptop before shutting it down. Then he stood up from the desk and turned towards his bed with a loud yawn. It had been four hours of trying to confirm Dave’s identity and he had been informed by the manager of the Dessert Reporters that Dave James was one of their per time journalists.

He sank into the bed and turned off the light. As he closed his eyes, he made a silent wish in his heart that Dave would agree to work with him and then they can both bring down Samantha Osman.