Tarasha - Chapter 81

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Tarasha watched from afar as they lifted the accident

victim, she got out of the van to have a closer view. some

of the people who had stopped to help were already

rolling the remnant of the bike away. Tarasha confirmed

the victim’s face just before he was dropped into the car,

he was still alive but unconscious. She was sure it was

that same man she had an encounter with in the Catholic

Church premises and during the police investigation.

Tarasha’s eyes had met with Jefa’s as the road got clear.

That was the reason for the accident. Jefa could not

concentrate on the bike he was riding again and had

crashed into Don’s car.

She wanted to move closer but stopped as she saw Ken

discussing with someone else. She turned and began to

walk back to the vehicle. She saw a phone, scattered into

parts just beside the tyre at the driver’s side, it was most

likely for the accident victim. She stylishly picked up the

pieces and entered into the car.

Ken handed over a car key to the man he was discussing

with and turned to join the car. The man Ken was

discussing with turned also and Tarasha saw his face, she

recognized him to be Inspector Dakolo, she had seen his

face once on TV after the execution of the Rivers State

Governor.

She watched as he entered into his car and started the

engine, he then engaged himself in a phone conversation.

After using a minute altogether, he zoomed off. Tarasha

felt like following after him to his destination and

probably take him out also. She turned on her car but

turned it off again at another glance towards the accident

scene. It was more important for now to follow the man

who Henry said claimed to be her brother.

The car carrying the victim finally started and drove off

in the opposite direction. Tarasha followed after.

~~~

9am

Dakolo and Ken sat quietly, their moods were not quite

far from sober as they watched Henry lay lifeless on the

hospital bed. His eyes was still wide opened but he wasn’t

seeing anything nor was he making any movement. The

doctor said he was still unconscious and wasn’t sure of it

he’ll bounce back to consciousness or pass on from

there. It’s been two days now and there seemed to be no

improvement in the situation.

It was obvious from investigation that Henry was not a

drug addict but it was still under question if Henry had

placed himself on the drip, nothing around reflected that

he was forced to. He was the only one in the house at

that time and there were no broken doors or windows to

prove that someone broke in. The best conclusion was

that Henry had decided to take his life slowly, maybe to

avoid further embarrassment from the police.

One confusing thing that still bothered Agent Dakolo’s

mind and stopped him from making a conclusion was

their inability to locate where Henry had gotten the

poisonous drip from. They had visited everywhere that

the trailer saw him stop and none of them could be the

place the drip was sold at. Another assumption could be

that Henry had it in his car before that day. But that’ll

mean Henry was already preparing to kill himself, Dakolo

didn’t think that was possible.

‘Agent,’ Mr Sylvester called as he walked into the room

with a Doctor, the one in charge of treating the two

patients that was brought in by the police.

‘Mr Sylvester,’ Dakolo replied, he couldn’t stand the look

in Sylvester’s eyes as it made him feel guilty of Henry’s

plight.

‘So your investigation has finally landed Mr Henry here,’

Sylvester accused.

‘Excuse me sir,’ Ken tried to come in but Dakolo stopped

him by raising up a hand.

‘Mr Sylvester, our job has to be done, regardless of who

it involves. Let’s just hope and pray that Henry recovers

quickly’ Dakolo said.

‘And I pray he recovers,’ Ken quickly chipped in

stubbornly. ‘He’ll have a lot of explanation to make about

his relationship with the assassins.’

‘Gentlemen please,’ the sixty year old Doctor pleaded.

‘Here’s not the place for that, he needs no disturbance.’

The Doctor said and turned to examine Henry, he turned

back after some few minutes and announced, ‘he’ll

regain consciousness very soon, I believe.’

‘Wow! That’s good news!’ Dakolo exclaimed.

‘Yeah, but there might be some complications.’ The

Doctor said in a sad tone, adjusting his thick lenses as he

spoke.

‘What complications?’ Dakolo and Sylvester asked in

unison.

‘I don’t know for now, we’ve extracted samples of the

poison from his body and we’re still performing some

tests on them, we hope to come out with some useful

results soon.’ The Doctor replied without too much of

hope in his voice.

~~~

‘Hello, who’s here?’ Tarasha shouted around the store. A

woman who was dressed as a cleaner came out from the

shop behind.

‘Good afternoon,’ the Lady greeted, giving Tarasha a

searching look. ‘How may I help you?’

‘I’m Miss Kimberly, an officer of the Nigerian Health

organization.’ Tarasha displayed an ID card for proof, she

returned it into her pocket when she was sure that the

woman had seen it well. ‘I’m here to check this man’s

outlet, we are aware that he sells food and drinks here.’

‘Ermm… Madam,’ the cleaner scratched her hair. ‘Mallam

Jefa has not opened the store for some days now.’

‘Mallam Jefa, is that his name? And he’s not opening

today also?’ Tarasha enquired.

‘Yes, they always call him Jefa. I don’t really know if he’s

opening today, I seriously doubt it.’

‘Okay, does anyone know where he lives?’

‘Yes, there’s someone here that chats well with him.’ She

pointed to a big hairdressing salon nearby, ‘let me get

him for you.’

‘Thanks,’ Tarasha said with a grin.

Her phone rang as she quietly waited for the Lady to

return. Cole. She bit her lips slightly before answering.

‘Hello Boss, we’re about to go in’ Cole’s voice came

anxiously from the other end.

‘Relax your nerves Cole,’ Tarasha replied calmly. ‘Tell the

others too. Relax, discuss your suggestions and plans

with conviction and confidence. Make him see that

you’re capable of organizing the program. Also make him

see reasons why you need to have more meetings, why

you need a more suitable environment to discuss and let

him agree to your own terms.’

‘Okay, thank you boss.’ Cole said and the call ended.

~~

‘Come in Gentlemen,’ Nasiru Attahiru, the Senate

President welcome his guests warmly.

‘Thank you sir,’ Mr Alfred said as he took the hands of the

man in his his.

‘You’re welcome,’ Nasiru smiled cheerfully as he took the

hands of the younger man and then the lady. ‘Have your

seats please,’ he said before settling into his own chair.

‘Thank you sir, it’s nice to meet with you sir.’ Mr Alfred

began with a smile. ‘We’ve actually been looking forward

to this moment.’

‘It’s my pleasure. My mother have spoken a lot about you

and told me how passionate you are to help the less

privileged in this country but…’ Nasiru paused and

stared. ‘I thought it was supposed to be four of you?’

‘Yes, we are four but the fourth person has gone on a

special errand to the business capital of the country,

Lagos. She was sent to visit the slums and ghettos and get

some pictures and interviews which she can send to the

headquarters in Canada. She didn’t go with us to Katsina

also.’

‘Oh! I see,’ Nasiru’s face brightened up.

‘Yes, she’ll be joining us once she’s through.’

‘That’s okay, so let’s get to the main points of the

meeting.’

‘Yes, thank you sir.’ Mr Alfred adjusted himself and

cleared his throat. ‘Our first purpose of coming here has

already been achieved, I’m sure you saw the pictures of

the program and report of what we did.’ He paused to

see Nasiru’s response, Nasiru nodded in affirmation.

Mr Alfred touched his lips with his handkerchief before

he continued. ‘That was our main purpose for coming

but on further study of the country, we noticed that we

have people with enough capabilities to keep these

programs running extensively and we thought of a way

to foster better participation of these people. Now, we’ve

discovered that when calls like these are made, what

most of them do is to send donations without making

their presence well felt.’ He paused again to see if he was

making the desired impact on the man, he was. ‘We’ve

decided to make this happen by organizing conferences

which we’ll disguise to the public as a meeting for the

elites, we’ll use this meeting to inspire the attendees and

give them reasons why they should be passionately

involved.’

‘Hmm… Iget your point but our people here are

stubborn. I’m still thinking of someone who can really

get them to listen quite attentively in a conference. And it

might not also be easy to assemble them together.’

‘Sir, what if we invite someone like Mcklin Daves and Ray

Gates?’ Mr Alfred asked.

‘What?’ Nasiru’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘You can invite

such people?’

‘Yes sir,’ Alfred said with a chuckle. ‘They are all partners

with our organization and they’ll be glad to inspire others

to join them in such a good course.’

‘Ermm…’ Nasiru’s excitement reduced suddenly. He

frowned slightly.

‘Any question sir?’ Mr Alfred asked, noticing the frown.

‘No but I’m just thinking of how possible it’ll be for us to

convince them that they are really coming. And how am I

supposed to be sure that you’re not just saying this to get

me involved?’

‘Sir… We actually need your help to bring them down

here, we are not just saying this to get you involved. In

fact, you must be involved to make it work. We need the

government’s support to bring those men down here.

They have to be sure that there is a proper mobilization

of the citizens and only the government of a country can

assure them that, not the body that is in charge of

organizing the conference. Once you’ve approved for us

to go ahead with the planning, we’ll report to our Head

office and they’ll make contact with the proposed guests.

If they agree on coming, then a video showing their

agreement would be sent to us. And they’ll also be

involved in the video promos for the conference.’

Nasiru remained quiet for a while, pondering on all he

heard. To him, the proposal sounded good and it’ll be

welcomed by the government of the country as far as

their organization making the proposal can keep to their

own terms.

After almost two minutes silence, Nasiru took in a deep

breath and began to talk. ‘Your proposal sounds good

and excellent, I’m not surprised though. My mum

already told me about your passion for the less privileged

in Africa and I trust her judgement to be accurate

always.’ He took a brief pause. ‘But I still need to know

more about your organization. You know this proposal

does not involve only the Ata’s Foundation but the

Country as a whole.’

‘That’s no problem sir, we’ll give you any information

you need about us, as much as you enquire.’ Alfred said

with a smile.

‘Thank you,’ Nasiru smiled back. He rested his back on

the swivel and rolled back a little. ‘So where are you

lodging in this town.’

‘Elymax Hotels sir.’

‘Elymax?’

‘Yes’

‘It’s nice but I’ll prefer you guys leave there and come

over to my mansion.’

‘Oh!’ Mr Alfred and his colleagues expressed their

surprise at his offer.

‘Yes, I’ll like you to come today.’

‘Thank you sir, we’ll…’ Mr Alfred was saying when the

younger man cut in.

‘Thank you sir, we are so honoured by your invitation to

your place but we won’t be able to do that on our own.’

He said in a polite way. ‘It’s possible to come pay you

visits but if we want to stay there, we have to let the

office decide for us, since we are on their assignment.’

‘Ok, I understand. No problem, I hope you relay my

message to them and I’ll be expecting you by tomorrow.’

~~~

3pm

Dakolo and Ken hurried up the stairs, proceeding to the

Doctor’s office. They had been called to come urgently as

there was a new development.

Dakolo’s phone rang as the got to the first landing. He slid

it open and answered the call. ‘Mr Sylvester.’

‘Where are you sir? I’m at the hospital and we’re waiting

for you.’

‘We’re on our way to the Doctor’s office,’ Dakolo

answered.

‘Please hurry up.’ The call ended and the journey up the

stairs continued.

In three minutes time, they got to the Doctor’s office.

Dakolo took the empty seat available beside Sylvester

while Ken had to remain standing.

‘Welcome officers,’ the Doctor greeted, he cleared his

throat and adjusted his eyeglasses. ‘The patient is

conscious now.’ He announced.

‘Wow!’ The faces of the three men brightened up at the

news. They all felt relieved, all for different reasons.

Dakolo for the fact that Henry who he had taken like a

brother was still alive, Sylvester because Henry was still

alive and the guilt he felt as a result of him being the one

who invited him to join the NSCC which resulted in his

troubles could now leave. Ken on his own was happy that

a major suspect and eyewitness in Samantha Osman’s

case was alive.

‘But…’ The Doctor said in a flattened tone that caught

their attention. ‘His brain no more functions properly

and he’s partially paralyzed.’

The door suddenly flung open and a nurse barged in

looking troubled.

‘Sir, the accident victim on ward 12B is nowhere to be

found.’

Chapter end