Tolu came around eleven that morning and the three of us went over the plan again. Eric and Tolu thought the plan was flawless and they both gave me a hi-five at the end of my presentation. But a nagging unease lingered in my mind; I couldn’t place my hand on what was wrong, but it was there—teasing me, warning me.‘Dominic James is your scammer name?’ I asked Tolu. ‘I saw it in the email.’He smiled. ‘Yeah; that’s the name Mr. Potter knows me with. Don’t call me Tolu in his presence or he will know we are up to something.’I nodded. ‘Is that the name you use in all your scams?’‘No!’ he said. ‘You use a different name and email for every scam. That way no one can keep track of you.’ He smiled and looked fifty times more handsome. ‘Once you are done, dump the name and the email.’‘How do you keep track of all the names?’ Eric asked.‘That’s easy,’ Tolu said. ‘You read the previous conversations so you can remember what your name was.’Eric smacked his hands together. ‘You guys are sma
Two events came up that evening and complicated our plans and threw it in jeopardy. Eric’s phone rang at about eleven that night.‘Tolu,’ Eric said into the phone. ‘What’s up?’He listened.My heart began to beat faster and I felt something had gone wrong. Did Tolu have an accident? Was his uncle taking the car from him and it won’t be available tomorrow?‘What are you saying, Tolu?’ Eric said, his voice rising. ‘Are you saying you won’t be able to come?’I swallowed. My heart galloped faster and I sat on the bed.Eric listened to Tolu’s reply and I waited for him to make a reply to give me a clue on what’s going on. ‘Tolu, don’t kill this plan,’ Eric said. ‘Did you hear me? Don’t kill this plan! The target is coming tomorrow, what do you want us to do now that you are coming up with this? What in the world—’He listened some more and my heart ran faster.‘Tolu,’ Eric said at last. ‘This is unacceptable. Find another malarial drug and take. Take ten tablets if you have to, but get we
‘Don’t come to my house without telling me,’ Eric said, taking a space on the settee.‘Oh, stop it, Erico,’ Maria said. Her voice was like a thunder in the quiet night and I had a feeling she was waiting for Eric to open his mouth. ‘Do you think I wanted to come and stay in this stuffy room if my uncle was in town?’‘Don’t shout in my house,’ Eric retorted. ‘I am a responsible person; don’t make my neighbors think I am not.’Maria laughed, waved her phone at Eric as if he was a clown whose act had backfired. ‘This is not a house; this is a room. A room; a stuffy, little, poor man’s room; that’s all it is.’Eric got up and walked to the edge of the bed. ‘Get out of my house...my room. Get out or I will throw you out.’‘Eric,’ I said. ‘Take it easy. Take it easy.’Eric turned to me, eyes blazing with naked fury. ‘Stay out of this, Paul. You don’t know her; she is a trouble maker. She is the devil’s sister, that’s who she is.’Maria tilted her head and gave a loud, unperturbed laugh. ‘Yo
Eric snatched the sheet out of Maria’s hand.‘What are you doing?’ he asked. ‘Keep your claws away from my things if you want to sleep in this room.’Maria stood up. ‘Erico, who’s the target? Who are you picking up tomorrow at the airport by four P.M? And where are you getting a hundred thousand pounds from?’Cold shivers avalanched from my head and spread down to my toes. Eric had, in his excitement, written the figure of the ransom on the top of the sheet the previous day. He said it will keep us focus and enthusiastic, and it did. Just seeing the bold figures and calculating it in naira equivalent sent one’s heart running. Not even a long-sighted person could have missed it and it was clear Maria wasn’t long sighted.‘It’s none of your business,’ Eric retorted, glaring down at her. ‘And shut your trap before I shut it up for you. Keep your hand from my things.’He stood over her like Goliath over David, but she faced him equally, unafraid.‘Erico,’ she said, her voice low but fier
We took the bus by around ten the next morning from Alpha Beach junction to Ojota where Tolu stays. We dropped at the bus stop and trekked the remaining distance to the house. Maria walked beside me with a flutter of excitement in her steps as if she had forgotten the quarrel she had with Eric before we left the house. Eric had suggested she wait in the house while we see Tolu to decide what to do next. Maria had refused this suggestion and had threatened to go to the police station right away if she was not allowed to come along. She pointed out, rather wisely, that it will be better to get to the airport from Tolu’s house instead of going back to the Island to pick her up.‘Besides,’ she had argued. ‘It’s not that I am bedridden or something. I can walk to Tolu’s house if that’s what it takes. But for sure I am not staying here. I intend to earn my keep and no one can stop me except they want to know how the inside of a police station is.’They had argued further, going back and fo
We drove toward Ketu, took the bridge and turned toward Apapa expressway. We drove in silence, everyone, I was sure, was thinking about what we were about to do. The road was half empty by this time and Tolu stepped on the gas pedal and the car blasted toward Maryland. We took a left turn from the expressway and went over the Oshodi Bridge, and zoomed toward the airport.We reached Murtala Mohammed International Airport gates by 12:04 noon. Eric paid the toll and we drove in. We drove into the parking space and cruised around the lines of parked cars until we found a space at the extreme end of the park and Tolu brought the car to rest between the two white lines drawn on the floor. We sat for another minute in silence, hearing the humming and shrill of plane engines and the intermittent muffled loud speaker sounds associated with airports.Maria rummaged through the big bag on her lap and brought out a powder case, opened it and dapped at the surface with the brown handkerchief in he
By three thirty P.M, we succumbed to Maria’s cry for food. Eric walked to the boot and picked out three bottles of Fanta and three Gala sausages. He entered the car, dumping the drinks and the sausages on Tolu’s lap. He closed the door and picked a sausage and a bottle of Fanta and stretched them to Tolu. Tolu took them, a sly look covering his eyes. Eric picked the second sausage and the drink and handed them over to me with a deliberate, easy movement. I took the bottle and the sausage and glanced at Maria. Her eyes stretched wide in an expression of wonder.‘I thought ladies are supposed to be first?’ she asked.Eric turned to her. ‘If you make another sound, you will not eat. Do you understand?’Maria glared at him. Eric held the bottle of Fanta in one hand and the sausage in the other. ‘I dare you to make another sound.’Maria said nothing and Eric remained with the drink and the sausage in his hands—just out of her reach. Several seconds crawled by before his hands moved forward
I checked my phone and the time was four forty-two.Where is Eric and Tolu? I thought. Has the target arrived? Or has he changed his mind about coming? Did he turn around and scam us?I stared across the road dividing the parking lot and the route leading into the airport. People moved in droves, like migrating ants, but Eric and Tolu weren’t among them. Maria stood beside me, disturbing her phone and glancing across the road occasionally. She looked as unperturbed as a fed lioness walking among zebras.Four mobile policemen stood beside an armored vehicle parked adjacent to our position and they stood with their guns at the ready. If anything goes wrong, I don’t see how we will be able to escape from them. I returned my eyes to the airport’s entrance and tried to keep them at the back of my mind.What’s keeping them? I thought again. It’s five P.M. They have stayed for an hour; has something gone wrong?‘What’s keeping them so long?’ I said out loud. ‘Do you think everything is okay?