Tarasha - Chapter 76

~~~

Henry stopped to think for some seconds. He thought of

answering no since he wasn’t an invitee but just

accompanied Omotara to the event. No one knew about

his attendance, so it was better if he hid it completely. He

cleared his throat. ‘I…’

The doorbell interrupted. Henry paused to check who it

was on his computer. Frank it was, standing with a laptop

in his hands.

‘I thought I told you I was coming to do something

urgent and important.’ Frank muttered with so much

disgust in his voice. ‘I’m busy Frank,’ he said into the

transmitter. ‘Please come back later, or better still, I’ll

join you when I’m done.’ He watched Frank leave before

turning back to Dakolo. Dakolo’s eyes showed his

impatience to receive the response to the question he

had asked.

Henry cleared his throat as he was about to continue. ‘I…’

Henry tried to continue but couldn’t. Somehow he felt a

strange kind of fear surge through his heart. One that

told him that he was about to put himself in deep

trouble. His head began to ache him severely, he felt as if

his head was being used to play football.

‘I’m still waiting,’ Dakolo said impatiently on seeing

Henry’s reluctance to talk.

‘I did,’ Henry finally said, releasing a deep breath

alongside with it.

A bitter frown formed on Dakolo’s face. He felt

disappointed in Henry for attending a party organized by

Jubril, somehow in his heart, he was hoping that Henry

would have proof enough to claim that he wasn’t in the

party and that the person seen in the photo was just a

lookalike or the camera position had only made their

faces resemble. But he was still happy that Henry did not

deny the truth, that would have showed that he was

guilty.

He was also sure that Henry felt remorse for attending

the party, the reluctance to answer the question already

showed Henry’s disappointment in himself and regret for

attending the party.

~+~

‘Miss Kimberly,’ Sylvester called as he proceeded towards

her table. He had given her a space in an open office with

four other occupants to stay. She was at the end corner

of the office while two other tables were on the same line

with hers. The tables were several centimetres away from

each other, giving each occupier space and privacy.

All eyes followed Sylvester behind as he marched on to

Kimberly. The other employees who were sub regional

staffs had been surprised when Sylvester introduced her

as a special staff who was to share the same office with

them. As far as they knew, she had no specific job

description or duty, some of them had began to spread

rumours that she was Sylvester’s concubine.

‘Kimberly,’ Sylvester called again as he dropped a paper

on the table, ‘I want you to confirm if this number was

cloned or not, can you do it?’

Kimberly took the paper from the table and looked into

it. She took in a deep breath and made her acceptance

known with a nod to Sylvester. ‘Yes sir, I can.’

‘How long would it take you to get back to me?’ Sylvester

asked.

‘Before the end of the day.’ She replied.

‘What??’ He opened his eyes widely in shock and folded

his arms, staring at her like she was an alien. She stared

back at him in surprise. He calmed himself and lowered

his voice. ‘Mr Henry asked for three days to work on it.’

Kimberly chuckled. ‘Yes, it’s even possible to use up to a

week or more, especially when you have to contact the

network providers over there. Why I can use less than a

day is because I already have links there, I have links in

Canada. If not, I would have needed to use three to four

days too.’

‘Okay, I understand.’

‘Yes… But sir,’ Kimberly stared into his eyes. ‘I thought

you said Mr Henry did it already?’

‘Yes,’ Sylvester replied with a sigh. He pulled an empty

chair and sat on it. ‘He did it when the late Chief Jubril

requested for it but now it’s the police that needs it. A

senior agent just gave me the job to do now’

Kimberly stared at him, still unsatisfied with his answer.

In just two days, she had become so comfortable with

him to the extent of questioning him. She had been his

lecturer for that two days, explaining to him several

things which she did that he didn’t have knowledge of.

‘What about his report?’ She asked.

‘It’s with him,’ Sylvester answered with another sigh. ‘It’s

just that we want the investigation to be carried out by

another person.’

‘Okay, but can I still get the report? I Just need to check

out some processes that would make the job easier. With

that we can even finish the job in less than an hour.’

‘Mr Henry is busy right now with the Agent in his office,

and he is not even aware that we are carrying out a

reinvestigation,’ Sylvester explained in a very low voice.

‘The Agent wants me to keep it secret from him, so I can’t

go to him.’

‘It’s okay sir, I’ll do what I can do.’ She replied and began

to work immediately on the laptop.

‘Thanks,’ Sylvester said with a smile. ‘We’ll need to

discuss tomorrow and conclude on the terms of your

job, so that you can start fully.’

‘Huh?’ Kimberly opened her mouth in surprise, looking

elated by the news. ‘Does that mean I’ve gotten a job

already.’

‘Yes,’ Sylvester replied happily too. ‘For the rest of this

month, you’ll work with me and I’ll be responsible for

you while we try to create a space for you and sort out

your responsibilities.’

‘Thank you sir, I’m grateful.’ Kimberly got up to thank

him, covering her mouth with her palms to show her

extreme happiness.

‘It’s okay.’

~+~

Ken and a junior officer sat in front of the computer, the

junior officer scrolling through some pictures with the

aid of the mouse while Ken paid special attention to the

screen. After going through the pictures of Mrs Dakolo’s

daughter earlier, they selected the two pictures of the

blue suited man who was said to accompany the

Canadian business lady to the party. The new pictures

that were being examined were pictures taken by the

press after the assassination had occurred. The press had

come to take pictures and videos of the scene after the

news of the man’s death broke out to them. This

particular set of report was the one gotten from the

desert reporters.

They finished viewing the pictures without seeing

anything significant and moved on to the videos. After

playing two videos, the third and last one was being

played. A desert reporter was in front of the camera

reporting the sad incident. The advanc scene was videoed

was the car park.

‘It’s okay,’ Ken said when the video was about to come to

an end without any useful thing seen. ‘Make sure you

copy those files completely before returning the flash

drive to them, I’ll need to see everything again.’ Ken

ordered and got up from his seat, stretching his body.

‘Okay sir,’ the junior officer replied and clicked on the

pause icon.

‘Oh!’ Ken exclaimed as his face met the screen again.

‘What’s that?’ He asked pointing at something on the

screen. ‘Please play.’

The blue suited man was incidentally captured by the

camera, it looked as if he was looking for something at

the park.

‘Zoom it,’ Ken ordered in a loud voice. The officer

zoomed the video and clicked pause. Henry’s face was

shown but not too clear there. Ken couldn’t recognize

who it was. ‘Take a screenshot and send it to Femi, let

him search for that face and get back to me as soon as

possible.’

~+~

‘How come you attended the birthday party? I could

have never imagined that you’ll ever attend any function

organized by Chief Jubril,’ Dakolo said in a painful tone.

Dakolo’s stare was piercing through Henry’s heart,

making him feel more guilty and regret going that day

with Omotara. Henry bowed his head, ashamed of

himself, he couldn’t speak also.

‘You were even one of the well dressed males in the

event.’ Dakolo continued. ‘What did you go there to do?

To have revenge?’ Dakolo began to raise his voice in

anger.

Henry took a quick glance at Dakolo’s face at the sound

of the revenge allegation. ‘No, nothing like that sir, He

tried to find his voice.

‘Then explain why you went to the party with Samantha

Osman?’

‘Samantha Osman?’

‘Yes, that Evelyn was Samantha Osman.’ Dakolo alleged,

in a bid to make Henry confess if he ever had any

suspicion or was aware if Evelyn was the same as

Samantha.

‘Evelyn is not Samantha,’ Henry argued, sure in his heart

that he was saying the truth.

‘She is Samantha,’ Dakolo insisted with a strong note. He

got up from the seat and picked his device, he

unbuttoned the sleeves of his shirt and rolled them up.

He got beside the wall and stood directly under the air

conditioner. He stared at Henry from where he was.

‘Your Evelyn is the same person as Samantha Osman,’ he

stated again.

Henry shook his head in disagreement. ‘A man was the

one who killed Jubril Lawal, not a lady. So we shouldn’t

even be talking about Samantha Osman now in relation

to Chief Jubril’s murder. Furthermore, Evelyn could be

anything else; she’s not a killer.’

Dakolo gave a chuckle and walked away from the wall

back to his seat. He sat down and positioned himself to

face Henry. ‘Since everybody is saying that it was a man

who killed Chief Jubril, then that man must be you,

Samantha sent you.’

‘No, why would I do such? I can’t kill anyone neither

have I come across any Samantha Osman.’

‘D–n! You did it to take your revenge of course.’ Dakolo

hit his hand on the table violently, making Henry more

uncomfortable and scared of the situation. ‘The man and

his son were your enemies, you killed the both of them

on that same day and You didn’t kill them only, you also

killed your kidnappers.’

Henry’s mouth was left open in shock. He couldn’t

believe that the Dakolo could accuse him of

assassination. Dakolo’s phone rang, he took out his

phone and stood up on seeing the caller.

‘Officer Ken…’ Dakolo spoke softly, walking slowly to the

window area. ‘You… ‘He said in a shocked tone and made

a quick turn to Henry, he tried to conceal his surprise.

‘Don’t worry, I’ll do that myself.’ He said and cut the call.

Henry was still perplexed by all that was happening, his

heart couldn’t accept Dakolo’s allegation that Evelyn was

the same person as Samantha Osman. He couldn’t agree

that she wasn’t Samantha Osman or an assassin but he

was quite sure that she was Omotara Danjuma, a

fraudster.

He could remember well how she left him at the table

that day and never returned, he also remembered that

she mysteriously disappeared from the place but his

feelings for her had beclouded his sense of reasoning.

Dakolo gave Henry the shock of his life when after he

ended the call, he took out a key and removed an

handcuff from behind as he proceeded towards the

table.

‘I’m sorry Henry, this has gone beyond my personal

investigation. You’re expected in our station right away.’

Chapter end