as he trudged up the stairs. He couldn't wait for the

cursed man to recuperate and give him time to go about

his own business.

He just got to the landing when he heard someone trying

to stop him. He turned back to see a nurse running after

him.

'How may I help you nurse?' He asked impatiently.

'Sir, I've been trying to stop you from the reception. The

patient has left with his sister.' She said, still gasping for

breath.

'He's gone?' Don eyes widened in surprise.

'Yes,' the nurse replied.

'Oh! Thank goodness he left by himself.' Don heaved a

sigh of relief.

'Yeah, but you need to see the Doctor.'

'Of course, is he in his office?'

'Yes, he should be by now. The officers just left him.'

'Thanks, what do I do with this?' Don asked stretching

forth the polythene bag containing food which he

brought.

'Ermm… You can give it to someone else.'

'You can help me do that,' he quickly handed it over to

the nurse and walked away.

He had to see the Doctor immediately and then go on

with his plan for the day. He needed to check Henry's

house for traces, or any material which could lead him to

Samantha Osman.

~~

'Tara, we need to talk.' Jefa repeated again when he got

no response the first time.

Omotara paused and turned back tiredly. 'You can't have

a discussion now, you need to rest.'

'I know I'm feeling sleepy already, I just thought I should

mention it you.'

'It's okay, we'll talk later.' She said she walked out of the

room.

She got to her room and walked straight to the

wardrobe. She took off her top and shorts, leaving her

black bra and pant on. She took off a black strip clothing

material that was fastened to her thigh, it had a knife in it

and also had s.p.a.ce for a pistol. She wanted to draw out a

towel from the hanger but her eyes met with the black

bag which she took to Henry's place. She took it out and

threw it on the bed. It had been unopened since the last

day she used it.

She opened the bag and emptied the contents on the

floor. A pistol, two short knives, an extra drip bag and so

many other medical materials fell off. She separated the

gun and knives and placed them on a stool, then she

drew out a brief case from under the bed and opened it.

She began to arrange the medical materials into it.

After two minutes of carefully arranging all medicals

except the drip bag, there was still a s.p.a.ce left on the

brief case. She paused as she tried to remember what

was supposed to be there. After trying for some seconds

without remembering, she was about to close back the

briefcase before the missing item flashed back into her

mind.

'D--n!' She cursed and stood up immediately. The

ampoule. The tube shaped bottle which she used in

lessening the effects of the tranquilizer she first used on

Henry.

That was another s.h.i.+tty effect of emotions, she had

forgotten to pick the bottle when her eyes met with his

and she saw the disappointment in his face. If there

wasn't any emotion between them, she wouldn't have

reacted the way she did. The bottle may have been seen

by the police where she kept it but she still had to check

if they didn't pick it up, she had to return to his house.

~~

Dakolo was already tired when he returned back to his

office. It had not been so much an hectic day but the

knowledge of Henry's illness and new condition was what

brought about his tiredness.

He had barely settled down when a knock sounded on his

door. He shook his head in frustration and stared at the

door. He didn't feel like answering anybody but it would

be unprofessional of him not to.

'Yes, come in.' He said hesitatingly.

A young female Officer from the forensics department

walked in and closed the door behind. She saluted before

proceeding towards the table with a file.

'Here's the result of the test sir,' she said and handed

over the file to him.

He took it without saying anything and brought out the

papers in the file. He began to go through them. The first

set of the papers were written in science and medical

languages, so he had a hard time getting the meaning of

the doc.u.ment but the last paper had the results written

in layman's terms.

'Thanks, you may leave.' He said to the officer and she

curtsied before turning to walk away.

It was the result of the the small bottle found in Henry's

house close to the sofa where he was receiving the drip.

The one which Tarasha had forgotten to pick up when

her eyes met with Henry's. The result clearly stated that

the mixture was used to ameliorate a previous situation

induced by another mixture.

It was not making sense to him any longer. Doctor Tobi

had said that it was possible that someone had drugged

Henry first before placing him on drip but now the

mixture found in the house was a mixture to reduce the

effect of a mixture. Does it mean that someone drugged

him and then wanted to reduce the effects of the drug

again? Maybe there was someone with him who had to

flee when the police arrived, he thought.

He arranged back the papers into the file, he concluded

that the Doctor would have a better explanation about

the mixture.

A thought suddenly struck his mind. He picked up his

phone and dialed Ken.

'Round up your office work, we're going to visit Henry's

house now to confirm the Doctor's opinion that Henry

could have been placed on drip by someone else. We

need to check thoroughly this time if there's any hidden

entrance in the house and any signs of breaking in.'

~~

Don was the first to get to Henry's house. He stared at the

gate from where his car was parked, trying to come up

with a plan of getting inside. This time, there was n.o.body

watching over the house but he still couldn't enter

through the gate or jump over the fence since it was still

day. And he didn't want to come back at night as he had

gotten information from the vice president and the

inspector General that the house was being watched

during night time.

The only possible way he saw that wouldn't raise

suspicion from pa.s.sers-by and attract the police was

entering into the next compound and jumping over the

separating fence but there was no way he was going to

do that som alone and without hurting those in the

compound. He took out his phone.

'h.e.l.lo Stainless, join me at Ordoz palace road with three

other rigid boys in ten minutes time.' He said into the

phone.

Three guys joined him in ten minutes time like he asked

and they got into the building next to Henry's house.

~~

'We've closed,' a voice shouted from inside the

compound as Tarasha continued to bang on the gate. 'I

said we've closed,' the voice shouted again, this time

coming nearer.

The small door hole was opened and Tarasha could see

someone's eyeball there. She s.h.i.+fted back and positioned

herself in a way that the man would see her exposed

cleavage. There was silence for a while, then the gate was

opened.

'Young lady,' the aged security man spoke in a softer

voice. He was one of the men on duty on the day which

Tarasha had entered into Henry's building through the

compound of the paper company. But all the men

attacked that day could remember nothing at all. The

Benryl which she had pa.s.sed into their bodies took every

memory of the encounter away.

'May I come in sir,' Tarasha smiled and posed in a

seductive way.

The security man's body trembled, he feasted his eyes on

her exposed thighs showing below the tip of the mini

gown. 'Come in…' He stammered and opened the gate

for her.

'Audu, na who be that?' Another security man who was

seated at the far end of the compound shouted. They

were two seated together, their s.h.i.+rts were flown open

and they had bottles of beer in front of them. Like the

last time Tarasha had come, none of them had guns by

their sides, they always kept it in the security room since

it was barely used.

'I dey come,' the man with Tarasha shouted back. 'Fine

girl, what do you …' He turned to ask Tarasha but

couldn't complete the question as she stuck a pin into his

neck that moment. He fell to the ground.

The other security picked up their rods and began to

charge towards Tarasha. She motioned towards them

without fear.

The first one made his strike but she dodged it and gave

him a jab in his belly, he groaned and staggered

backwards. .h.i.tting the back of his head against the face of

the other one rus.h.i.+ng forward. Tarasha quickly followed

up with a flying kick to his head. The first man fell to the

ground while the second man staggered backwards.

Tarasha rushed towards him, bounced on the first man's

body and sent her two legs to the other man's face. She

rolled and landed on the right leg while the man still

struggled to keep his feet on the ground. She charged

towards him again. He swiped his rod but it was a lazy

swipe, she dodged it and gave him a heavy punch on his

nose. He staggered like a drunk man and fell on the side

fence, he began to see stars. Tarasha turned back to see

the other man already up and trudging towards the

security post. She raised up her gown and took out a gun,

she fired it and a pin was projected into the man's back.

He fell down immediately. She turned again to the other

man and sent the pin into his neck. He fell to the floor

also.

She returned the gun to where she took it from and

rolled down her gown.

~~

Don and two of his men finally succeeded in getting into

Henry's house first. The other two men were in the

duplex in the next compound, watching over the

inhabitants of the house to keep them in silence.

They broke in through the first door and Don began to

search the whole house while the other guys watched as

they had no knowledge of what he was searching for.

Don left the living room and proceeded to the inner

rooms, he entered into the first room in the corridor. It

was a small library with large windows. He turned on the

light and began to search around the place. His main

prayer in the library was for him to see a diary that

would detail Henry's day to day activities. He hoped that

Henry was someone who kept one.

He was still searching when he began to hear some

strange sounds. He stopped to listen but couldn't make

out what it was. He returned to the living room to see if

the sound was being made by his men.

The men stared at Don questioningly as he fixed his eyes

on them. They were comfortably seated on two different

sofas in living room.

'Are you hearing that?' Don asked in low tones. The

sound was quite low in the living room. The men had to

listen carefully.

'What's that?' One of the men asked.

'Shh…' Don hushed him, raising his hand up. He paused

to listen again. 'It's coming from the back.'

One of the guys got up and walked to where Don was

standing to listen. 'There's a paper company at the back

of this place.' He said to Don.

'So are you saying the sound may be coming from

there?'

'Where else? It doesn't sound like a person or animal's

movement.'

Don felt relaxed for a moment until he checked his

wrist.w.a.tch. 'This is four thirty, aren't firms around here

mandated to close by four o'clock?'

'How many firms would follow that order?' The guy

asked with a loud mocking smile. 'Come on, get back to

work and let's leave this place.' He said and returned to

his seat.

Don stood still for a while to listen again but the sound

had stopped. He walked back towards the library to

continue his search.

~

The door finally gave way and Tarasha walked in

carefully. She didn't bother to close the door but

proceeded forward through the corridor in between the

rooms. The bulb in the corridor was on. It was expected,

since the police had visited the place, they would most

likely leave without remembering to turn off the lights.

She got halfway the corridor and noticed that the door to

the first room was slightly opened. She paused and then

heard a laugh.

's.h.i.+*t!' She cursed silently. The police were around, she

thought. Without turning, she began to step back slowly,

trying her possible best not to make any noise.

She was close to the door when a figure appeared at the

other end of the corridor.

~~~

'Let's try everything we can to confirm if someone else

was in the house that day or not, we have to establish

that fact so that we can move on with our investigation.'

Dakolo said as Ken halted the car in front of the gate.

'Here,' Ken handed over Henry's gate keys to the junior

officer seated at the back. The junior officer stepped out

and proceeded towards the gate to open it. 'How come

his cameras aren't even working?' Ken said aloud after

the junior officer had left. 'If the cameras he planted

inside his house were working, we would have had a

video recording of what transpired. Or did he just place

them there for fun because I wonder how he was

planning to get other cameras to work while his wasn't.'

'I believe those cameras were working,' Dakolo said

thoughtfully. 'Maybe we have to invite an NSCC official to

check what went wrong with it.'

The junior officer opened the small gate and entered into

the compound to open the larger pa.s.sage for their car

but then he came out immediately and closed the gate

gently without making any sound. He hurried back

towards the car.

'Sir, the front door is wide open' he said to Dakolo.

'Looks like someone is inside.'

Dakolo's gaze widened as he heard those words. He took

a glance at Ken. 'Call the office for reinforcement, twenty

more men should be enough.' He ordered Ken before

stepping out of his car. He took out his revolver.