Tarasha - Chapter 77

3pm, Same day

Mr Sylvester finally returned to the office several hours

after he left with no explanation. Those who had seen

him leave said that he left with Henry E.G who had been

handcuffed by a Special police agent and led out of the

building. Rumours began to fly around immediately. Few

minutes after the Agent had led Mr Henry away, a Lady

who was one of the occupants of the office where

Kimberly was had gone out for a short break and heard

the rumour. After spending more than the duration of

her break period, she returned to tell the other

occupants of the office what she had heard. How the

special agent took away Henry in chains with Mr Sylvester

pleading to get an explanation from the Agent. They said

the Agent insisted that Mr Sylvester had to come to the

police office if he wanted to know anything about the

matter.

Different versions of stories were cooked up

immediately, especially as the event occurred few

minutes to most of the worker’s official break time.

Some people said that Henry E.G had used his wide range

of knowledge to defraud the Central Bank, some said he

had hacked into the country’s Treasury system and

redirected some of the monies to his account while some

said that he had stolen money from the NSCC. All these

stories were unconfirmed yet, but still spread around

rapidly because the gossipers needed something to feast

on. Only Mr Sylvester who went to the police office and

Kimberly that Mr Sylvester had mentioned the matter to

had an idea of the real cause of his arrest.

‘Welcome sir,’ Kimberly could hear her colleagues in the

office greet in unison. She raised up her head to see who

they were greeting, it was Mr Sylvester walking towards

her without responding to the greetings from the other

staffs.

‘Sir,’ she said softly as he got to the front of her table.

He sat on the empty seat and let out a deep breath. ‘

Kimberly, how are you?’ He asked in a fatigued tone. His

countenance clearly showed that something was wrong.

‘I’m fine sir, I’ve checked your office and I found out that

you were not around.’ She replied.

‘Yes, I went to the police office with Henry E.G. He was

accused of being an accomplice of Samantha Osman,’

Sylvester said to her in a low voice, he placed his elbow

on the table and buried his face in his palms.

‘Samantha Osman? What’s the basis for their allegation?’

Kimberly asked.

Sylvester raised up his head. ‘He accompanied a lady to

late Chief Jubril Lawal’s party recently, I never saw that

lady but I’m aware that they were friends and most likely

lovers, they both stayed in the corporation’s house for a

couple of days.’

Kimberly took in a deep breath and stared into the air,

she knew the police was closing in on Tarasha already.

She was sure that Henry would confess to knowing her

once he faced the Nigerian police torture. She had learnt

about their method of forcing out truth from their

suspects and she was sure that Henry would not have the

skin for it. She even wondered why Henry had not told

them everything about her already, why did he have to

be arrested by the police. What she thought before was

that he had already told all he knew about her to the

police.

But she was the one who made the fatal error. Henry was

supposed to have been killed already but she left him

alive for some reasons which was inconsistent with her

mode of operation. It would take much more effort now

to clear Henry and the mess he had created and was

going to create.

‘So the police alleged that the lady is Samantha Osman?’

Kimberly questioned.

‘Yes.’

‘Hmm…’ She heaved a sigh and then folded her arms.

After some seconds of silence, she turned the laptop to

Mr Sylvester. ‘Here’s the report for the job you

requested.’

Sylvester looked at the screen immediately and

continued scanning through the report for few seconds,

reading the words under his breath. ‘So, it’s a Canadian

number truly?’ He commented after reading it.

‘Yes.’ She replied and turned back the laptop to herself.

‘That’s means Mr Henry was right about it,’ he said.

‘Please print out the report, it would be of advantage to

us and Mr Henry.’

‘Alright sir,’ Tarasha said and bent to pick up the cord for

the printer. She plugged it in and tapped the shortcut for

print on the keyboard. ‘Sir?’ She called after sending the

document to the printer.

‘Yes,’ he answered, the tone of fatigue still sounding in his

voice.

‘Do you really think that Mr Henry did help the assassin

to murder Chief Jubril?’ She asked in a concerned tone.

‘I don’t even know what to think,’ he sighed and rested

back. ‘I don’t know what to think. I’ve always felt Mr

Henry’s passion to put an end to the assassinations by

our input as the NSCC, so I don’t believe he would help

the assassin but with this strong claim by the police that

one of the assassins was seen with him, I don’t know

what to think anymore?’

‘Hmm…’ Kimberly inhaled deeply as she collected the

printed document from the lady who brought it to them.

She stared into the paper for some seconds before

handing it over to Sylvester. ‘Would he be granted bail?’

‘I’ve contacted a lawyer on his behalf, I’m sure he cannot

sleep over in the police cell tonight. He’ll be granted bail

but the Agent said he’ll be placed under close watch. He

told me to advise him not to play any tricks.’

‘Is it that serious?’ Kimberly widened her gaze and folded

her arms as she rested her back.

‘Yes, something that involves the assassin group

Samantha Osman leads is serious. Another thing the

Agent made mention of is that Henry may be a member

of the assassin team.’

‘Hmm… What a pity!’ She exclaimed in a really pitiful

tone. ‘That means that he would not be free to move

around anymore.’

‘Yes, his movement would be restricted and he’ll be

followed everywhere. Even in his house, he’ll be

monitored.’ Sylvester replied.

‘Yes, so he’s staying in his home tonight?’

‘Yes,’ Sylvester answered with a slight groan as struggled

to stand up from the seat.

‘His house…’ Kimberly repeated severally under her

breath. That was all the information she needed to have,

she just wished that Henry wouldn’t have spilled out too

much information before the police grants him bail.

‘I’ll be leaving in fifteen minutes time sir.’ She announced

to Sylvester who was about to turn and take his leave.

‘Oh!’ He turned back slowly and sat back. He stared at her

face and put on a smile. ‘Thank you for your help Miss

Kimberly.’ He said.

She smiled like a child without saying anything. The man

took out his wallet and phone from his pocket. He

dropped the phone on the table and opened the wallet,

he then counted ten thousand naira and took it out. ‘I

learnt that you have a car,’ he said as he returned the

wallet into his pocket.

‘Yes, I do,’ she answered, a little hesitant.

‘Okay, you can get fuel with this,’ he said as he handed

her the money.

‘Oh!’ Her eyes lit up with gratefulness. ‘Thank you sir, ‘

she said as she took the money.

‘You’re welcome.’ He replied with a smile of satisfaction,

glad that she was happy to receive his gift. ‘I have to do

some work now,’ he said as he got up.

‘Alright, till tomorrow sir.’

‘Bye.’

‘Bye sir.’ She said she watched him leave, he had

forgotten his phone on the table. The eyes of the other

people in the office turned to her as Sylvester walked out

of the place. She ignored them and turned back to the

laptop. The smile on her face totally disappeared

immediately.

She closed the laptop after shutting down and

disconnected the power cord. She then picked the phone

which Mr Sylvester had forgotten, it was his most used

phone where he received both business and personal

calls. She swiped it open and opened his call settings

hurriedly. After scrolling through for some minutes, she

minimized the program and opened Xender, an app for

transferring files. She took her own phone and opened

his Xender on it too, she connected the phones and then

transferred into his phone another app. It entered within

few seconds and she installed it immediately and made

the settings to track his phone calls, she then hid the app

and refreshed the phone memory. She straightened her

cloth and got up from her seat, wanting to go to Mr

Sylvester’s office to return his phone but the man walked

back into the office just in time.

~

Fifteen minutes later like she told Mr Sylvester, she was

out of the main building and was proceeding to where

her car was parked. The first thing she spotted when she

got there was Henry’s car, parked at the opposite

direction. He must have seen her car, she was sure. That

was the goal for bringing the car anyway, to make him

suspicious about her presence there and begin to try to

find her, then she would lure him into her a trap. But

with the new turn of events, that strategy would not work

anymore, she needed him to be unaware of her presence

now, she wished she had never brought her car. But she

still had nothing to worry about, there was always a plan

B.

The device in her bag began to beep loudly as she moved

closed to the boot of her car. She gave an evil smile, she

knew that Henry wasn’t going to leave without doing

anything when he sees the car. She brought out her

device and checked the notification, she silenced the

alarm after dismissing the notification. She returned her

device back into her bag before searching around the car

for the tracker that had been placed there.

After five minutes of futile search, she took out her

device again and clicked open the app which notified her

of the tracker’s presence.

‘Basta*d!’ She cursed under her breath as she began to

scan the body of the car with her camera. Scanning the

outer body didn’t yield the result, so she began to scan

under the car. That was when she located the tracker,

installed somewhere close to the tyre. She pulled out the

tiny device and dropped it on the floor. She cursed Henry

in her mind again before proceeding into the car.

As she drove out of the compound, she spotted a police

vehicle entering into the compound. She drove away

hurriedly, something had to be done about Henry that

night. It had to be that night.

~~~~

Sylvester had barely settled in his office when his phone

rang, he checked the screen and the caller ID displayed

was the police office.

‘Hello,’ he answered the call.

‘Mr Sylvester, I’ve sent some boys to your office now and

they are already in the compound. They have a search

warrant with them, I’ll like you to cooperate with them

and lead them to Henry E.G’s office.’ Agent Dakolo’s voice

came through.

‘It’s okay sir.’ Sylvester ended the call with a sigh of

frustration, he buried his face in his palms and let out a

deep breath.

He suddenly remembered something and picked up the

phone again. He dialed the police office.

‘Any problem Mr Sylvester?’ Dakolo answered the call.

‘No problem sir,’ Sylvester replied. ‘Like I told you

before, the result for the reinvestigation of the number

was supposed to be out today. It’s out already, I’ll send to

you the document through your boys.’

‘Okay, but what was the result?’ Dakolo asked.

‘The number is Canadian.’

Dakolo gave a very short but threatening chuckle. ‘Mr

Sylvester,’ he called in a low voice but rigid tone. ‘Don’t

get yourself into trouble trying to help out a suspect,’ he

warned.

‘No,’ Sylvester said with fear in his voice. ‘I’m not trying

to help him out. I wasn’t the one who did the job, I’ve

never done that kind of job. I gave it to a capable person

who doesn’t even know Mr Henry personally.’

‘I hope so, because if I find out that you’re trying to help

him, I’ll make sure you get into trouble with him and I

assure you it won’t be easy to come out of it.’ Dakolo

said, still in a threatening tone.

‘No, nothing of such sir.’

‘If that’s the case, send me the document then.’

‘Okay sir.’ Dakolo said as he ended the call, his doorbell

sounded immediately. He checked his computer screen,

his expected visitors and his secretary were at his office

entrance. He picked up a bunch of keys and a card from

his drawer, he also took the result document and folded

it into an envelope before getting up to join them.