‘Are your parents at home? I don’t mind hopping in to see them when I drop you off at home,’ Victor said as the both of them stepped out of the house already dressed.
Patricia stepped down the balcony while Victor was still locking the door. She stopped on the ground below the stairs and turned to answer his question. ‘Yes, they are but I won’t be going straight home, I need to get to the grocery store first. We can go home together from there.’
‘Oh! Sorry dear, I won’t be able to do the shopping with you,’ Victor said in a sad tone as he stepped down the balcony.
‘I’m not buying so many things, just few foodstuffs,’ Patricia said in a pleading tone.
‘I’m sorry babe, I already explained to you how I’m already late,’ Victor replied. He stood in front of her and stared directly into her eyes with a sorry face. ‘I was just thinking it will be odd for me to drop you off at home without entering the house to greet your parents if they are at home.’
‘It’s okay, you can just drop me off at the junction, I’ll find my way from there.’ Patricia said as she entered into the car and closed the door.
Victor sighed. He turned to the other side of the car and got into the driver’s seat.
____
Just as she found a good blood vessel to insert the needle, a sound distracted her. She turned and looked up, the sound of the ringing phone was coming from the table. She glanced at him one more time before she got up to her feet and proceeded to the table. She picked the phone and stared at the screen, Elizabeth was the name displayed as the caller ID. She swiped the green icon to the right to answer the call and placed it close to her ears without saying anything.
She sat on the chair behind the table and tapped the laptop on as she listened to the caller.
‘Dave, what’s up? I just left Victor now and I placed a tracker on his car, should I provide the tracking info to the Agency?’ the female voice said.
Tarasha let out a breath and put the phone down, what she heard had nothing to do with her and wasn’t useful to her. She put her finger on the top arrow of the laptop keyboard and scrolled up the webpage opened in the browser. The title of the scheduled post got her attention. She read quickly through the whole post content. It got her a bit confused and she turned to stare at Dave for a moment. She knew it wasn’t possible for Dave to truly think that Dr Ekwueme was kidnapped by the Vice President after their encounter at the hospital. She scrolled up again to check the time the scheduled post was created and the last time it was edited. She discovered they happened only few minutes ago.
She paused to think. What could Dave be trying to achieve with the news article? She asked herself. She couldn’t get any answer in her mind. She stared at Dave again for a while. Then she got up from the seat and began to check around the room. She got to the wardrobe and located Dave’s traveling box. It wasn’t locked and it looked like clothes had just been taken from it. She found a part of the bag where some documents were kept, she took out all the documents and placed them on the bed.
She sat at the corner edge of the bed and began to open the documents one after the other. There, she discovered all the missing documents that Stephanie needed to prove the Vice President’s guilt of the crime. Stephanie had told her that they had been burnt up by Madam Henrietta and even the elderly woman had confirmed that they were truly burnt. So she wondered how Dave got a hold of the documents.
She stared back at him again, wishing she could ask him questions but the effects of the gas he inhaled would remain for more than six hours.
She got up and checked the bag in the wardrobe for more useful materials. After searching for about a minute, she closed back the wardrobe and proceeded back to the table with the documents. She sat back on the seat behind the laptop and tapped it on. She navigated to the browser’s history but found nothing there except for the current page. She hibernated the laptop and closed it up, then she placed her documents on it and carried it with her to where Dave was lying.
She stared at Dave for a moment. He was looking back at her but was motionless and unable to talk.
__
In the hotel room.
Stephanie sat in the room, patiently waiting for the arrival of Samantha Osman. She could not but pray silently from time to time for Dave’s life to be pardoned. She had seen the anger in Samantha’s eyes when she beat up Dave at the hospital restaurant, it was furious and it scared her but it was quite different from what she the anger she saw in her eyes when she beat up and killed the cultist that tried to rape her. The anger she saw that day was deadly and determined. That gave her a little bit of assurance that Dave’s life might be saved.
Her phone rang and it caught her attention immediately, she quickly rushed to pick it up. Her face brightened a bit when she saw that Samantha Osman was the caller. She answered it fearfully, not knowing what to expect.
‘Stephanie, I want you to drive the ambulance to the junction before Ngozika estate and wait there for me.’
____
ABUJA
‘He arrived in town this morning and the Inspector General was also kidnapped this morning, I believe he has everything to do with it.’ A lady’s voice sounded in the dark room.
‘Is there any way we can get him?’ a male voice responded.
‘Yes, a tracker was attached to his car and he has no idea,’ the lady replied.
‘Do you know if Agent Dave James knows about this?’
‘I’m not sure about that.’
‘We need to do something real quick.’
___
‘Thank God you’re finally back,’ Henry said with a gasp as Cole entered into the living room.
‘Did I stay that long?’ Cole asked amusingly, glancing at his wristwatch.
‘Yes, can’t you see it’s late already.’ Henry answered with a frown.
‘I’m sorry,’ Cole apologized, seeing that Henry wasn’t happy about the situation.
‘I still need to go out, I hacked into the police records and I’m very sure my mum is still in this town.’ Henry said and got up from his seat.
‘You have to be very careful,’ Cole cautioned.
‘Yea, I know, thanks.’ Henry replied nonchalantly, still angry with Cole for returning late.
