It was quarter past 10pm when Mr. James pulled over the vehicle at my residence and killed the vehicle’s engine. We sat still observing the vicinity of my residence to be sure we were not walking into a trap. Having satisfied ourselves that we were the only ones present, we alighted from the vehicle with Biggie taking the lead, holding his revolver tightly for any eventuality. Mr. James was at the rear walking slowly and scanning the environment with his eagle eyes. I brought out my key as we arrived at the door, opened it and went in but Biggie stood guard outside. Mr. James and I combed through the house, found no one in except some areas that were ransacked. We came out and joined Biggie outside who took us to a corner where something was hidden in a trampoline. I opened it and Isadora’s car came into view. I opened the driver’s door, went in and found what I was looking for, searched the vehicle again for anything we might have missed out which could be helpful to our investigation, found none and was about leaving when a memory card which fell and was almost covered by the foot mat caught my eyes, I bent down and picked it up without hesitation.
“What is it?”, Mr. James asked as I came down and closed the door gently to avoid drawing attention.
“Let’s get the hell out of this place first, we’ll talk about what he found later”, Biggie cornered Mr. James and immediately we all began retracing our way back to our vehicle. Mr. James took the wheel and drove off toward Agnes’ eatery rout.
“What were those you retrieved?”, Mr. James asked the moment we settled in.
“Please hand me my system”, I instructed Biggie who picked it and handed it over to me.
Agnes came in at the moment with plates and coolers containing food, dropped them and exit the room almost immediately.
“Your silence is killing me here”, Mr. James moaned softly as Agnes returned back with water and some bottles of drinks.
“Here”, I announced as everyone gathered around me.
“Okay, we are waiting”, Mr. James responded impatiently.
“Isadora is not the too careless type, she kind of knew what was coming and bugged her car with two secrete cameras, one inside facing the front and another one at the back of the car. It’d be hard to detect if you are not very observant. It was my idea though, and she bought it. I found a memory card under the foot mat, I want to play the video from the hidden camera first before I’ll check what is on the memory card”, I explained as I connected the hidden camera to my system. Clicked and found what I was looking for.
“Here…take a look at this”, I pointed out as the recordings began playing.
Two men came from the back, moved to the front, one of them went under the car and they both hurried off afterward. I fast forwarded it to the journey back from Buguma. They were returning back, the bus was at the front, the bus later stop to carried two young men with back pack who appeared to be stranded. It resumed on its journey while Isadora followed closely behind. Her car soon lost control due to potholes on the road, she struggled to regain control of the car. The car swerve right, left and finally Isadora skillfully swerved it off the road into the bush avoiding a tree and finally came to a stop, with minor injuries. She came down from the car, walked to the back of the car. By then, the press bus already stopped, its door opened and the two men who joined on the road came down brandishing fire arms. They shot everyone in the bus except Tony. He came down in moved toward Isadora with a jerk knife in his right hand, Isadora saw it and ran to car, hurriedly removed a memory card from her phone and threw it under the foot mat in her car. She then put in another memory card into her phone and ran to the back of the car where the camera captured everything. Tony arrived where she was and gripped her by the neck demanding something, Isadora gave him the phone she was with and he tried to strangle her, she fought him and he finally over powered her by choking her to death. He carried the phone and walked toward the two men who have already hidden their fire arms. A black Toyota Hilux truck with a spy plate number drove into the scene, they all boarded and it drove off.
“Wow…that was well planned and professionally carried out”, Mr. James whistled to convey his message.
“The phone you said you retrieved, let me see it”, I turned toward Biggie who walked over to his desk, opened the locker and returned back with the phone. I collected it, scroll through and saw nothing. Was about to drop it when on impulse, open the voice recorder and found a voice recorded file there. I tapped it, and it began playing.
“So you are the mole working with us?’’, Isadora’s voice came on.
“It’s so unfortunate that you just want to play the heroine…but too bad you are going to die just like the rest”, A voice I couldn’t mistake for anything – Mr. Tony’s voice replied.
“How much did they pay you for this, Tony?”, Isadora asked Tony who laughed.
“Anyway, no need hiding it since you are going to die. Three times what they pay me at the media house”, Tony replied.
“Guy waste her make we dey go, no waste our time, oga dey wait for us like this”, A male voice shouted from the back ground, then began the struggle and soon Isadora went completely silent.
“I can’t believe this, I still fine this hard to believe”, Agnes began.
“That…”, Mr. James asked her.
“That Isadora was betrayed by a colleague she so much trusted and respected”, Agnes completed her statement.
“Who is the ‘oga’ the other voice in the background was referring to?”, I asked Biggie who remained silent for a while before answering.
“The oga is the person bank rolling them. Observe that vehicle’s plate number? It’s a government official escort vehicle”, Biggie answered starring at Mr. James.
“Then why was it use?”, Mr. James fire another question.
“Simple, for easy passage at military and paramilitary posts. Remember they were armed and also dressed as paramilitary escorts…so you get the memo now”, Biggie smiled.
“Why would anyone kill Isadora to get at me?”, I asked no one in particular.
“No one killed Isadora to get at you, Isadora was killed because of what she knew”, Biggie began while Mr. James stood up and paced around for some time before speaking up.
“Whatever Isadora knows, I believe has to do with one of the big fishes”, Agnes chirped in.
“Exactly, and it is now our responsibility to find it out, what she knows”, I intone.
“And whatever it is, it will lead us to Agnes’ girl, I have this strong feeling that they are all connected in one way or the other”, Mr. James spoke soberly looking at Agnes who stood up from where she was sitting.
“I pray justice prevails, Isadora deserves justice. All our corrupt and evil leaders need to be brought to book”, Agnes snapped her fingers.
“We have gotten enough evidence against Mr. Lekan and Captain Umar, now we need more against the chief of staff and the ADC as well as the two government officials, and the two newspaper house heads…as for Mr. Tony, he is already fried. Isadora made sure of that”, I briefed the team as everyone nodded in agreement and settle down to eat, for we had a critical task on our hands to execute.