Chapter 10.
It’s been eight months now since Mr. James and I began working with the media house which has witnessed a tremendous growth due to our effective hardworking spirit all thanks to our individual efforts. Isadora on her part had been promoted up by two offices while Agnes’ business was booming. She had opened more branches in different locations and they were all doing well. We’ve began preparation for our marriages, the plan was to get married same day with Mr. James since Mr. James had insisted that the best gift I can give him as a friend who he now considers as brother was to marry same day with him. Even though he was supposed to marry first, he later rescheduled so it’d be convenient for all of us. I could see the excitement on his face each time someone asks him about me, who I was to him. “He is my brother”, was always the excited answer from him. His love for me was pure, one beyond friendship. Mr. James was no longer a friend to me but a brother, he was an orphan and had no one else. I was all he had in this big lonely world, I know how much he treasured and valued me. He was the only one who understood me almost one hundred percent. But of recent, I have been observing Mr. James being nosy around, haven known him for a long time, I knew what was going on but couldn’t place my head on what was going on exactly, I figured he will tell me in his own time.
It was in the evening when I heard a car honked outside, I walked over as I saw an uber, Mr. James alighted carrying his laptop bag, at that moment I knew a big show was rallying up.
“Oboy wetin dey burn na?”, I greeted Mr. James the moment he came in.
“Na your mama kitchen dey burn oh”, Mr. James replied sarcastically while I stood for some minutes to look at the ‘idiot’ of a friend.
“Na who start the fire?”, I queried.
“Your papa light cigar come forget to off the lighter”, Mr. James replied.
Although it was code words, I quickly understood him, that something big what was going on. It was code words we use when we want to pass information within ourselves.
“Do make I see the lighter’, I requested while Mr. James passed me his laptop.
Taking a close look at the screen, I saw a moving object in the dark dropping from what looks like a dead or sleeping person’s bed.
“Now remember Agnes’ story?”, Mr. James began while I nodded, “Now let’s pick out the important and most significant details from the story”, Mr. James continued
“Okay…I am following”, I nodded to show him he had my undivided attention.
“First, she gave birth…she didn’t mention that the kid was abnormal after birth or anything of such. But woke up the following day to see a dead child besides her”, Mr. James pondered out while I nodded getting his points but still a bit lost.
“So…”, I found my voice.
“You know the past events traumatized her and asking her about it is like opening an already closed sore. So I took her out, ensured she got pretty drunk, asked her more questions which she subconsciously gave me answers”, Mr. James smiled.
“Jesus Christ! James! Did you know what you did to her is like drugging her?”, I asked Mr. James.
“But I didn’t, besides…it was just four bottles of beer”, Mr. James smiled.
“Guy, you be case walai”, I responded while Mr. James returned back to his default serious mode.
She said she remembered her index finger accidentally scratching her baby behind her ear lobe while covering her up during breast feeding. But there was no such mark on the dead baby. But no one believed her when she said the dead baby wasn’t her baby, not even her ex-husband”, James paused while he accessed my face.
“In a nutshell, your point here is…Agnes’ baby is alive right?”, I responded picking up all the clues bit by bit.
“Yes Agnes’ baby was swapped that night at the maternity ward while she was asleep”, Mr. James snapped his fingers.
“That’s insane, who master minded such act?”, I asked Mr. James who stared at me.
“Blank for now”,. Mr. James crossed his fingers while I fidget with mine.
“How about the video you are showing me?”, I asked Mr. James.
“It’s a CCTV footage, very poor but powerful lead”, Mr. James stood up and paced about for some moment.
“How did you get it and who actually swapped the baby?”, I fired Mr. James two questions in a roll.
“I know it was illegal sha, I paid the CCTV guy to fetch me the footage data on the said date of the incidence which he finally found and sent them over. Then, for the person who carried out the swapping? Names remain unknown but there’s a lead”, Mr. James smiled genuinely.
“Shoot”, I egged him on impatiently.
Years back, there were about three Nurses from this hospital who were kidnapped and killed by some unknown gunmen…a week later, all gang member of a certain cult group were found dead, they were all believed to have been poisoned”, Mr. James paused for his message to sink in.
“Poisoned by who?”, I asked more of curiosity than a question.
“The culprit till date remain unknown”, Mr. James shook his head.
“Then it means one thing…the Nurses who were kidnapped carried the swapping, while the persons who mastermind the swapping poisoned the guys they used in eliminating the Nurses so as to clean their trail”, I responded while Mr. James nodded vigorously.
“Exactly, and the person who did that couldn’t have achieved that without the command of power or influence of money”, I jerked up on getting Mr. James’ point clearly.
“Meaning it’s a very powerful or prominent person in the society that is behind it”, I chirped in suddenly.
“That’s it”, Mr. James bang his fist on the table.
“But the big question now is…”, I began.
“Who?”, Mr. James cut in.
We both sat down, looking at nothing in particular. Silence was the only word going on between us, each man to his own thought when I finally broke the silence.
“Is Agnes aware of these findings of yours?”
“No, she’s not”, Mr. James replied almost immediately as though he had been expecting the question.
“Good, let it remain that way”, I signaled while Mr. James nodded.
“Are you ready for this brother?”, Mr. James called slowly.
This will be the most dangerous mission of our entire journalism career, remember the person we are going against is very powerful”, I reminded him.
“Yes, I am hundred percent aware”, Mr. James replied in a very low tune.
“Also take into consideration our love ones”, I continued but was cut short by Mr. James.
“See Thompson, I have taken into consideration everything as far as this mission is concerned. I knew it the moment I set my hands on the first lead, I am very ready for whatever outcome that might be at the end of this mission”, I smiled at him.
“That’s it, I’m with you…I’m in”, I smiled more while Mr. James stood up and stretch out his hand for a shake.
“Till the end”, Mr. James intoned while I smiled more.
“Brothers…” I took the handshake as I stood up.
“Let’s go kick some asses mate”, Mr. James shut down his laptop as I went into the kitchen for some drink of water.
It’s been two weeks since Mr. James and I began our undercover investigation and we were inching closer and making positive headways each passing day. But something wasn’t going right with Isadora again, she was starting to act funny unlike before that she was very open, first were the constant phone calls she was receiving and at times she kind of hide it from me. I called the attention of Mr. James to it, but he maintained that it might be work and even a classified one like ours, so I disregarded it without worrying myself much about it, but deep down, I felt something wasn’t right, something was terribly wrong but Isadora wasn’t ready to open up.
I was at Isadora’s house one day on a visit when her phone rang. Biggie popped up on her phone screen as the caller’s name and before I could processed what was going on, Isadora had snatched the phone and hurriedly walked to another part of the house to answer the call. It was half an hour later that she came back.
“That nonsense, it’s time it stop”, I spoke angrily without looking at Isadora.
“What nonsense? I don’t understand you or what you are talking about Thompson”, Isadora feign ignorance which sparked up my temper the more.
“Will you shut up?”, I barked angrily while Isadora staggered backwards with shock and fear written over her face.
“Thompson, did you just raised your voice at me?”, Isadora asked to be I was really the one that raised my voice or maybe she was dreaming.
“Now, before I lose my patience, who the hell is Biggie?”, I asked her with my voice boiling with anger.
“Ehn…em…he”, Isadora stammered.
“Cat got your tongue?” I cut her short while Isadora looked down at the floor.
“It’s nothing Darlene, really”, Isadora tried to fake a smile.
“Don’t let me do what we’ll both regret later”, I warned her as I stood up and stormed out of her house.
“Thompson…please…”, I heard Isadora called after me but gave her the middle finger without looking back.