by Bill O. A
“I understand old friend,” said Azeem. “I will be on my way at first light. You don’t need to worry, I will travel by commercial flight as our man might still be unconscious. My plan is to see him by noon on Wednesday.”
“I think it’s already Wednesday.”
“Yeah, it is twelve nineteen a.m. now,” replied Alhaji. “Have a safe trip my friend.”
“Dad, it is past midnight, will you and Mum please go to bed?”
Kenny came downstairs to have a glass of juice and found his parents going through a slideshow of various pictures of him on the PC in the living room. He drew closer and saw his mother holding a notepad with dates written on them.
“What is going on?” inquired Kenny.
“We just sent a collection of your pictures to the FBI. They need them to narrow down their search for your twin brother. We are hoping to get some positive results before Friday.”
“I see Dad. We are not leaving any stone unturned right?”
“Exactly boy,” replied Mr Williams.
“But what really is interesting is how you have grown over the years,” said Toun. “Memories are what keeps a family going and we will surely make it up for your brother when he finally comes home.”
Kenny decided to sit as it seemed the gist of the night was going to take many dimensions.
“George is settled in his hotel, and he had a lot to say about the north. I just hope he is useful in this expedition. Understanding the terrain is always important in missions like this. You can ask your mum here. I was in the north for close to three years and I had to live up to expectation.”
“Dad, I am sure you did the best, your success is all but legendary.”
The family shared a laugh.
“Boy, just so you know, tomorrow all the dailies will be printing our story and the press will have a field day. You wouldn’t be going to school till this drama is over, which will be soon I assure you. The Colonel is a resourceful man and his friends abroad are also cooperating, so all we need to do is wait.”
“I get the drill Dad, and I am happy Mum is taking things rather calmly.”
“Now that’s my ‘touch’,” replied Bode.
Chapter 37
All Areas, Nigeria
8th July 2015, 9:12 a.m.
“We are so glad you can see us under such short notice,” said Efosa. “You can be sure we wouldn’t waste much of your time.”
The superintendent sat in his office and wondered who these men were. As a top police officer, he normally arrived at work just before ten a.m. but today was different.
He received a call from Louis Edet House, Abuja at five thirty a.m. This was the office of the number one policeman in the country and other top officials of the security agency. The officer waited, he was eager to know what was going on; such high-level authorised meetings were unusual in this part of the country.
“My colleague here and I would like you to reopen the hospital fire case of year 2000.”
The countenance of the officer’s face changed immediately. That was almost fifteen years ago. He remained calm and heard the duo out.
“We have a strong conviction that the fire wasn’t an accident but a deliberate act of arson. One of the victims is still alive, a child born at that time.”
The officer’s face was in shock. He called for a subordinate to set up the records room immediately.
“Gentlemen, if what you are saying is correct, then there is no need to waste any more time. We will proceed to the records and begin the process of re-opening the case. In the year 2000, I was the investigating police officer on the case and when my team got to the site of this tragic incident, we had a thorough look at the place with appreciable assistance from the firemen and related crime departments. Those boys concluded that the fire was an accident as they found the two electrical wires that had made physical contact, hence starting the fire. Although that room was also being used for storage due to lack of space, we blamed the hospital management for keeping flammable chemicals there. It just looked like a mistake gone bad.”
“When professionals commit a crime of this magnitude, they make a perfect plan and cover their tracks accordingly,” said George. “Can we please see the case file now?”
“Certainly, please follow me.”
“My good friend, I thought you said you will see the coordinator around noon?”
Alhaji was speaking to Azeem on his cell phone. He was also using the gents and getting ready for the day. “Why call me now?”
“I am sorry but things have just moved from the frying pan into the fire.”
“Where are you exactly?” asked Alhaji. “Is our man dead? Did he survive the surgery?”
“I am at the Kaduna Airport and yet to see him.”
“So, what is the problem?” inquired Alhaji.
“You remember that hospital fire we blamed those men for starting when we didn’t need those twins anymore?”
“Sure, I do. That period is the beginning of all this.”
“Well, it seems they separated the boys and somehow both twins survived but grew apart with different families. Our men lied to us, they adopted at least one of those boys. It seems their operation kicked in before we could call them off.”
“Holy Moses!” exclaimed Alhaji. His true Christian side got the better of him. “How do you know this?”
“It is in every newspaper. I read the story in the air and called you immediately my flight landed. The whole country now knows what really happened. They will definitely reopen the case. We have to act fast to prevent any repercussions.”
“I need you to wake up the coordinator no matter his health status, get the plan and details and begin to contact each team. We shall begin our operation tomorrow. I will be in Kaduna this evening to handle things myself. In the meantime, change the proposed local ethnic crisis between our kin and the easterners in the selected LGAs to an elaborate sectional religious one. We have to destabilise the country with a more overwhelming crisis between the north and south. This will buy us some time to complete the operation and find a way to end this ghost from the past. By the way, why is the survival of this boy so important?” asked Alhaji.
“His father has placed a reward of a hundred million naira on whoever can find him,” replied Azeem. “Everyone is talking about the incident and of course, the security forces are interested in the obvious reality of things, which is the loss of unnecessary lives to hide a kidnap.”
“Who is this man and how is he sure his lost son is alive?”
“I was waiting for you to ask this question,” said Azeem. “He is one of your vendors, the man who supplies manpower to your FPSO.”
“Which of my FPSOs?” inquired Alhaji.
“The second one you launched in 2011.”
“Oh my God, Bode Williams,” exclaimed the dual religion man.
“Mum, I am a star! All my friends are talking about our story online. Some are even using my picture as their display picture with the hash tag #reunitethetwins.”
“I am sure this uprising will reveal a lot and bring back your brother,” replied Toun.
“Did Dad actually go to the office today of all days?”
“No, he didn’t. Some officers called him to tie up some loose ends in their investigation. It seems the matter has got some attention at the federal level.”
“Whoa, this is beyond luck. This is favour from on high.”
“You can say that again son.”
“I will just be in my room entertaining myself with all these developments. As you can see,” said Kenny as he raised his Ipad. “I have 935 friend requests on Facebook. I am off sorting Mum, see you later.”
“From what I see, you guys really did a thorough job,” said George. “The two bare wires could have been caused by anything. You were right to have assumed that it was an accident.”
“This is professional crime at its best,” said Efosa.
“I guess it is a wrap here,” replied the pro
fessor.
“Yeah you right,” replied both the superintendent and the private detective.
The officer began to close the paper box that had all the items of the investigation when George noticed a sealed A3 envelope.
“What’s in there?” he asked.
“Ah, it belongs to a photographer who was hired by a family to take pictures of their grandpa who was leaving the hospital that day. The man started taking pictures immediately they noticed the fire. There wasn’t anything wrong at the time, but we didn’t want families of patients to see gory and scary pictures before we reached them, so we just held on to the film and asked the man to come back six months later. He never did. So we just left it here as part of items from that day. It has nothing to do with the investigation, more or less a control measure to the spread of bad news.”
George stared for a while then spoke. “Can I have a look?”
“Sure, you can,” replied the superintendent. “But you can only look at the pictures we printed and not the film itself, as the material it is made from is no longer firm.”
“That is fine,” said George. “A lot of pictures for a welcome home party.”
“Yeah, it seems they were very excited the old man made it through surgery,” replied the senior police officer. “Heart conditions were hard to manage back then.”
“Efosa, do your countrymen just start taking pictures at different angles for the fun of it?”
“You need to experience a come-back-from-the-dead situation, then you will understand.”
“Gentlemen, can you explain to me why this black van has a different plate number from other vehicles in this almost sixty-picture collection? It reads here ‘Borno’.”
“Let me have a look,” replied the superintendent.
The officer had a look and his mind went to work that instance. His long hard look at the picture meant there was more to it than his guest could fathom.
“What is it?” the private detective inquired.
“It is all adding up now,” replied the superintendent.
“Can you please say something?” asked George.
“We had another case that day of an abduction of twin girls from a primary school. They went missing.”
“What!” exclaimed Efosa.
George looked on with undivided attention.
“My colleague handled that case. The only lead he had was that the men who took the girls went away in a black van with Borno plates. They pretended to be social workers sent by the parents to pick up the twin girls for a surprise picnic. Nothing was heard from them again. I am beginning to believe there is a correlation between the hospital fire and the primary school kidnap.”
Efosa brought out his cell phone and began to call the lieutenant colonel; a more comprehensive investigation had to be initiated where the two cases would be treated as one. While Efosa was busy trying to reach Lagos in the south-west of the country, George decided to talk some more and see how he could pinpoint activities that would lead to finding Taiye.
Chapter 38
All Areas, Nigeria
8th July 2015, 1:22 p.m.
“What do you have for me now, my good friend?”
Alhaji was pacing in his office in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital’s city. He was on the phone with Azeem, and becoming tense. He had been thinking of how he would call Bode and reach a compromise using the northern elders as a guise. As long as his son was alive, no real harm had been done; a juicy contract with a potential profit of about ten billion naira should keep that man quiet and cooperating. Money always buys everything.
Alhaji kept on thinking as he paced around the office. The Bodo-Bonny road project hasn’t been approved yet, I am sure I can put him in as the main supplier of materials. His pedigree for meeting quality and deadlines are becoming exemplary. He should be able to get it if the elders concur; after all they owe him a lot for what he has done in the northern region.
“It was tough but we got him partially awake. The right bribe and the doctor went shooting away; an injection of methylphenidate from his doctor and we had him. He will survive. At least that is what his doctors are saying.”
“Enough of that and get to the point. Do we have what we need?” asked Alhaji.
“Well we have his ID and the password to his laptop as well as the file’s name. We are good, old friend.”
“Don’t give me that,” said Alhaji. “Go to his house, access the device and send the file to me with you in copy. Do not spend more than ten minutes in his building. We are already exposing ourselves, and by the way, do you have men with you?”
“Of course, I have picked a team of three from our debt-collecting fellow customer. They don’t come cheap under such short notice but we can feel compensated for their discreteness.”
“That is very good. Do the rest as expected and make sure the fundamentalists are paid today to start the religious crisis tomorrow. An offer of a hundred million is no joke for an impoverished area where we suspect this boy might be. I need to land in Kaduna hearing chants of riots songs tomorrow.”
“You will not be disappointed,” replied Azeem.
“I thought you wouldn’t come downstairs again, your mum says you are now glued to that PC of yours.”
“Yeah, good to see you too Dad,” replied Kenny.
“Your future father-in-law just called, he sends his greetings.”
“Yeah Dad, or you mean he asked if my twin brother has been found so that the birthday girl can have her ‘handshake’?”
“You have to be optimistic that your brother would be found and you have to be prepared to bond with him and make his integration to the family easy.”
“I know Dad, it is just that he might never feel like part of us, not growing up in the house or with family. It is kind of weird, you know.”
“Don’t worry boy, time heals everything,” replied Bode. “So when last did you speak to Sandra? Don’t tell me you have been carried away with your new celebrity status.”
“Whatsapp is real between the both of us. Nothing material or significant has changed, just the distance.”
“Make good grades and you are off to UCB in three years’ time, then you will be older and wiser to make a concrete decision. Or what do you think, honey?”
Bode was bringing his wife into the conversation with his son.
“I think both of you should handle this. I will excuse you two now.” She rose and began to leave when Bode’s mobile phone rang.
“Ah, Colonel, always good to hear from you. Please what do you have for us?”
“There has been a major revelation,” replied Chuka.
“And what might that be?” inquired the businessman.
“There was another kidnap that day, twin girls, they were never found.”
“Jesus Christ,” exhaled Bode. “So what does this mean?” inquired the troubled man.
“We have been able to get the company that owns the two vans. The entity popped up on our list of Boko Haram sponsors. It seems we are dealing with a career criminal here, but the thing is they are a briefcase company. No known or established address.”
“So have we hit a brick wall?” inquired Bode.
“No, we haven’t. The north-east is very volatile with unpredictable bombings, and we are not sure if these vehicles are still running the streets. Nevertheless, all security agents in the State have been put on red alert, at least one of those vans should be identified soon.”
“Okay, we will keep our fingers crossed,” replied Bode.
“Soldier, can you please continue driving to the Garkuma Specialist Hospital?”
George wasn’t even feeling the heat of the day.
“Where do you think you are going?” inquired Efosa. “We have been able to solve a fifteen-year-old puzzle in less than three hours. The lieutenant colonel and his team will take over the case nationwide from here. We just need to wait for their cue.”
“Please let us go the hotel for a real show down. These four
, armed soldiers can’t really hold a determined offensive. You are like a goldmine in this part of the country. The mere thought of ransom from these idle youngsters is all the incentive they need to strike without a second thought.”
“Thank you for your genuine concern but I understand the risk,” replied George. “I am up to something, and it will become common knowledge when the time is right. Please don’t distract these men from taking us to the hospital, I must finish my enquiries.”
“Do you really think we will find someone there who knows about the incident, better still someone who will remember a black van with Borno plates? We struck gold in the State Criminal Investigation Department. I don’t think we will be lucky a second time with the hospital. At least let us go tomorrow morning when staff presence is at its peak.”
“I am sorry my friend but I need to get to the hospital,” replied George.
“All right, suit yourself,” sighed Efosa.
“Damn it! I didn’t expect to see a police presence here,” said Azeem. The architect cum ritualist looked out from his Land Cruiser’s tinted windows.
“Sir, I think they have sealed the house,” suggested one of the hired hitmen. “The investigation of the stabbing might still be on going on.”
“Yeah you are right, but the woman’s husband is still alive,” replied Azeem. “Once he is discharged the case will die a sudden death.”
“But what is more important is how we get in now,” said Azeem. “I need to access that laptop.”
“Sir did it occur to you that we could just steal the entire device and save us some organising time? Whenever your man leaves the hospital, he can collect his item from you.”
“Wonderful,” replied Azeem. “How do you plan to get it out?”
The three thugs in the large luxury 2015 SUV smiled at the question. The man in the passenger’s seat got out and began his walk to the front of the house where some cops were doing their routine stuff.