The vehicle finally came to a total halt at the front of Agnes’ eatery; Mr. James hurried down and ran to the nearest drainage to throw up.
“Seems like you guys and a very rough ride”, Biggie teased as he opened the driver’s door.
“Yes, thank to you”, Agnes teased back.
“At least you are all alive”, Biggie teased further.
“But not in a good shape”, Mr. James cut in.
“Ah… sorry sir! You said something about firing me from being your driver”, Biggie asked Mr. James who nodded.
“Yes, not till I realized I didn’t have one few minutes ago”, we all laughed at Mr. James’ response.
“Mr. Thompson, hope all your balls are still intact?”, Biggie called out to me.
Everyone had alighted from the vehicle except me.
“I am still checking to be sure they are all complete, I think they are both traumatized”, I answered Biggie, evoking another round of laughter from everyone.
“Standing here, my eyes keeps spinning, plus I can’t feel my stomach again”, Agnes voiced out as I alighted from the vehicle.
“I feel a bottomless pit in my stomach”, Biggie joined as we all troop into the eatery.
“Two course meals for each of us please?”, Agnes called the attention of the senior waitress who hurried away and returned back with her colleagues, all carrying our orders.
We all sat down and devoured the food hungrily; Agnes even had to ask for more.
“Please put that in the register”, Agnes instructed the senior waitress as we all left the eatery room toward our investigation room.
“Mr. James opened the door and froze in his track. We were all puzzled, so we peeped in to see what the issue was. Lo and behold it was Isadora, sitting majestically on her favorite chair, smiling at us.
“No fucking way”, the four of us screamed at the same time standing before Isadora. How we managed to walk into the room and shut the door was still a mystery to me.
“Welcome back my dears”, Isadora began as she smiled more.
“It’s impossible”, Mr. James moved back.
“I saw your cold dead face”, Agnes shift back.
“And I saw you lowered into the ground in a coffin, covered with sand”, I joined Mr. James and Agnes.
“Just that, the coffin was empty”, Biggie announced as he stepped forward.
“My…my…oh…my…I don’t understand what is going on”, Agnes stammered.
“My only surprise is that you made it, and recovered faster than I imagined you would”, Biggie smiled as he approached Isadora and shook hands with her.
“You mean, Isadora survived?”, Mr. James asked Biggie looking perplexed.
“As a matter of fact, yes she did. But, returned”, Biggie smiled and moved closer to me.
“Returned?”, I asked Biggie who nodded.
“Seems like you are afraid of ghost, go and embrace the love of your life Thompson. Isadora is alive, not dead”, Biggie pushed me playfully toward Isadora.
I took a step at a time, as though counting them. I reluctantly spread my arms and Isadora ran into them sobbing like a child.
“I’ve missed you my Darlene”, Isadora began as she clung onto me.
“I am short of words my love, I honestly don’t know what to say…I am both shocked and happy at the same time”, I muttered as Isadora finally released her grip on me.
She walked round embracing everyone and finally settled down to narrate her tale, with Biggie taking the lead.
“When I left the accident scenario, I had this feeling that she wasn’t totally gone”, Biggie began, “I called a doctor friend of mine who joined the rescue team in disguise and carried her away. He pronounced her dead so as to cut off eyes from her. When you guys visited, she was in comma or more like in between not dead or alive. The coffin she was buried in was an empty one, more reason I made sure it wasn’t opened at the interment site, claiming it was gory to look at”, Biggie paused as he looked at a perplexed me.
“Go on”, I nodded at him.
“A week later, she regained consciousness. It turned out her wind pipe wasn’t crushed by Tony, she only passed out and Mr. Tony thought she was dead”, Biggie stopped as he pointed at Isadora to continue.
“When I woke up, I was so weak… it was in the middle of the night. I felt very hungry and tired; it was the kind doctor that attended to me. I stayed in a elusive quarter of his home, known to only him and Biggie. Most evidences you used against them, I retrieved, detailed and arranged it for you guys. I did all that to avoid rising dusts and eyes. And the reason why I asked Biggie to keep it away from you guys was to protect the credibility of the mission”, Isadora smiled at us.
“Cool”, Agnes smiled as she sat down near Isadora.
“The next move was to get a body part of your ex-husband; I got his hair using the doctor who went to meet him under medical issue, some couple of blood samples was also taken. So concerning the DNA, you have no fear about him knowing you have a daughter”, Isadora faced Agnes who hug her tightly shedding tears of joy.
“Biggie, how did you get hint about what was cooking on our way back from Alhaji Danladi’s residence?”, Mr. James asked Biggie.
“I’ve worked for that woman, so I know her too well. All the while we were staring at each other, I knew she was hatching a plan.
“Bravo, but you almost sent us all to hell…though, I am glad I’m alive”, Mr. James gave Biggie a thumb up.
We arrived at the hospital where Alhaji Danladi had chosen for the DNA test. The samples secured by Isadora were used, and the DNA matched that of Agnes and her ex-husband not Alhaji Danladi and his wife. Alhajia Fatima tried creating a scene but was suppressed by the security guards. She finally pulled a pistol from her hand bag and shot at Agnes, but Biggie was very quick to jump in and push Agnes away. Unfortunately, He was caught by the bullet which pierced through his chest. The doctor tied attending to him but Biggie stopped him.
“It’s no use, my heart is shattered…I can’t feel myself, I am drifting away each passing second. For justice to prevail, a price has to be paid. And in this case, the price is my life. I am glad and happy to pay it, this is the only way I can right all the wrongs I’ve done. Please take good care of my son for me, just as you all promised you would”, those were Biggie’s last words before his eyes shut close, never to open again.
EPILOGUE
With strong evidences, Alhajia Fatima was arrested and arranged before the court of law. She was charged for impersonation, drugs related offences and extra judicial murder. The Judge’s verdict was death by hanging.
Biggie’s son was brought as requested by Agnes, he witnessed the burial of his father and Agnes took him in as her son.
A year later, life return back to normal as we all got married and we had earlier dreamed before all the drama. Agnes ex-husband later died, but not without seeing his daughter and begging Agnes forgiveness for all his wrongs. All his efforts to convince her to allow their daughter answer his name were futile.
Isadora was promoted at work, Mr. James and I received a presidential award and the one for Biggie was passed on to his son, plus Biggie also received a presidential pardon for his crimes.
As for Alhaji Danladi, he gave Biggie’s son scholarship to study from primary level, up to his masters. For his father paid for it with his life, he paid the ultimate price for justice to prevail.
AUTHOR’S CLOSING NOTE:
A letter to Isadora was originally plotted to be just a romance novel, the tragedy involved, as well as crime and detective plot twist came in at the last minute which saw the whole story plot changing.
A story originally birthed and began penning in the year 2019, and continued being written through 2022 with its final part coming into life in 2023. A letter to Isadora and A reply from Isadora taught me patience and commitment, the moment and time spent writing this book had lots of painful memories. Ranging from the death of my maternal grandmother which destabilized my mental health and the death of Tapiwanashe aggravated my condition.
It wasn’t easy I must say, but then I had to learn to be strong for those who believed in me and were patiently waiting for the release of the book.
In conclusion, I would love to thank everyone who stood by me in my tough and hard times, my family, friends and readers.
I believe the release of this work would be worth the wait of 4years.
Cheers!