I went to see Talatu the next day.I went in the Rav 4 I had bought for her and with the two-million-naira cash.She came to the door as soon as I parked the car.I walked to the door and stood in front of her. She did not make a way or invited me to come inside.“What do you want?” she said.“I came to see you,” I said. “Can we talk in the car?”“I am not going to take your bribe; don’t waste your time.”“I am not here to bribe you. But I want us to make peace. We have come a long way and there is no need for us to become enemies.”She looked at me the way a rat would look at a cat.“So, what are you proposing?”I smiled. What is it with women anyway? That you can’t stay with them without hearing the word proposal?“I want us to make peace,” I said. “Let’s forget the past and start afresh. No need for us to be enemies anymore.”“And so that you can go back to your white girlfriend, right?” she asked.“Well, on that there is nothing I can do about it. She is the only one I can ever ha
I asked Isaac, my bodyguard, to get a travelling agent to take care of my travelling details and schedules. This was two weeks after Esther left the hospital. She was fully on her feet now, haven’t recovered completely.She now looked taller, probably because she shaded some weight. I liked her new looks, and she looked as beautiful as a Vogue cover girl.Talatu had not gotten in touch with me, and I was as happy as a kite flying on a gentle wind.Isaac came back after an hour.“Found a travelling agency in Joseph Gom House. I think they are very good.” He looked at me. “Are you travelling?”I nodded.“Where, boss?” he asked.I turned to him, curious at his questions.“Why do you ask?”He looked away.“What?” I asked, bemused at his uneasiness.He looked at the floor and then he looked into my eyes.“All my life, I have never left the shores of this country,” he said.I looked at him again, really, really bemused now.“So?” I asked.“What do you mean, ‘so?’ I have never been out of th
The knock on the door was persistent.I looked at phone.The time was 2:55 A.M.Who was it? Who could be coming to knock on my door by this time?I thought about Esther and Jasper. But I knew they couldn’t be the ones at the door. They have my number and would have called even it was an emergency.I pulled my trouser from the chair beside the bed and wore it quickly.I thought about Isaac, and knew automatically that he couldn’t be the one either. He had been warned not to wake me in the morning. He couldn’t have been the one coming at this ungodly hour to wake me. He wouldn’t risk that at the expense of his life changing salary.I reached the door and button up my shirt.“Who is it?” I asked.“EFCC,” a male voice answered from the other side of the door.EFFC? I thought. Who goes by the name EFCC?I tried to the remember what the acronym stands for, but the sleep was still keeping me from reaching the inner part of my brain.“What do you want?” I asked.“Open up,” the voice said. “We
Jasper and Isaac came in the evening of the following day to see me. They found me in an empty room, with a table and a long benched, a room used for questioning.They brought food, but were asked to eat a portion of it before they could give it to me. The officers had asked me questions throughout that afternoon, and did not give me any food or water to drink.They asked about the messages between Mr. Potter and I. They went through all my details, both on the phone and on the laptop.I wondered what they were looking for that they had not found, and why they had not charged me and taken me to court with any crime.I thought about hiring a lawyer but Officer Michael laughed and asked how I was going to hire a lawyer when I had no money to pay for one.Isaac came to the room in the hotel in the morning before he discovered what happened. He had contacted Jasper, and they had searched for me without knowing where I was taken to.It was this evening that they got the information about m
The lawyer placed the briefcase in his hand on the table and sat on the bench. He was careful to sit in the middle of the bench.“The two of you can seat as well,” he said. “This might and might not take long depending on what your response would be.”I saw the reason why he was charging us so high. I guessed what he eats alone in a month would take one third of the money we are paying him.I sat down on the bench and shifted close to him so that Esther could seat beside me. His size had enveloped half of the bench.“Here is the summary,” he said, and looking into my eyes. “They will drop all charges and you can walk out of this place right now if you agree to forfeit the rest of the money to them. That’s the deal they offering.”He looked at me, and I looked at Esther.“The alternative is for you to disagree and they will charge you to court,” he said. “So, what do you say?”I got up from the bench and walked around the room. I now understood why a lot of our politicians steal from t
I got bail that evening, and I had to admit that the Barrister Edet was probably worth his pay. Of course, I had to bring two highly placed people in the society as my sureties, and they had my passport in case I had to make a bolt for Dubai.Fortunately, my lawyer brought the people to stand as my sureties and they stood in for me.But EFCC held unto my bank account, my cars and the house and my phone.I got to the hotel after leaving the EFFC facility but was told the penthouse wasn’t available for me anymore.“Can I see the manager?” I asked the receptionist.“He is busy,” she said. “Maybe you can come in the morning when he will be less busy.”I smiled.Within two days I had been turned into a liability, into a bad business. It’s the norm that no respectable hotel will want to do business with a man accused of scamming others.“Okay,” I said. “But where is his office so I can see him when I come.”She looked at me with eyes that were unsure.I waited.“It’s the first room by the c
The judge looked like judges do and he had the voice of a judge. He heard all the arguments my lawyer and the EFCC lawyer made patiently until they were done.He turned to me.“Who did you say gave you the money?” he asked.“Mr. potter,” I said.“And you say he was in this country before?”“Yes, sir,” I answered.“How did you meet?”“Through a friend of mine.”“Where is this friend of yours?”“He died, your honor. He was travelling to Europe through the desert and he died on the way.”“Going for greener pasture, right?”“Yes, your honor.”“So, you did not swindle the white man out of his money? This Mr. Potter you talked about?”“No, your honor,” I said. “He contacted me and send the money to me.”“Why didn’t he send it to your friend?”“My friend was already dead by this time, your honor,” I said.“And he gave you two million pounds without string attached?”“I think he had pity on me,” I said. “He had cancer and he probably thought given someone without a job the money was the best
“What are you going to do?” Jasper asked. “You will have to find a way to pay him or convince him that you would pay after the restriction is lifted from the account.”We had gotten back to the house and mom had gone to see her friend in the neighborhood.“I am doing nothing of such,” I said.“What would you do?” he asked.“I don’t know yet,” I said. “But I am not going to give him one third of my money. No one is going to get a dime from me.”Jasper was silent.I thought about how get out of the judge’s trap, but nothing seemed to lead to a positive end. I know if I don’t do what he wants, he will really mess me up; but what was I to do?I know I don’t want him to get a dime from that money—and he is not going to get a dime—but what do I have to do to get out of the trap?I considered making it public, but I knew at the end it would be his word against mine, just the way he had said it.“The problem is that he wants the money now. He is not even giving me the chance to get the money