The Alex Box: A Tale of Loss and Legacy

The Plot

He noticed about two to three officers were in dutiful mode as they care less about anything else but held onto a pen as they buried their faces in a blotter, taking notes attentively. As he related.

"Jude was my friend."

"Just recently though," He clarified.

"But I never knew he bears firearms, and all of his gang members."

"Until recently they were threatening me with it, because I refuse to consent to be an accomplice with their crime organization…"

He continued almost in a strangled voice,

"And they had vowed I am going to get killed if I would not join the operation they would be carrying out on Mallam Kyari's, tonight."

"That would be the subsequent event prior to a failed attempt, as I have learnt."

He meticulously elucidates their plans to hit on Mallam Kyari's household. Trying as much as possible to not implicate himself in any misinformation.

He needed not much to know he had done well to fill them in, as he received a 'good, you've done well', from Sergeant Oswald, and appreciative nods and a benign smile from most, especially those writers.

Even though some, like Detective Herbert, plunged a hard look at him, scrutinizing.

(Why should he?

Am I that absurd?)

Ryker wondered.

Admitted that he grew compulsively obsessed with gambling but then he doesn't have a job to go to.

No passion for a profession has developed to steer him towards the very best, and for a fact, no beneficial involvement has he got.

But, Ryker doesn't strike first, just that he finds fault in almost everything, and takes any mistake or offense against him quite personally.

Just don't tug on his tooth!

"Now, come on."

Sergeant Oswald ushered him to an inner office room with few men present.

There he was asked a couple of questions as they planned all their concepts of advances to apprehend Jude and his boys,

He listened and nodded to their conclusions approvingly as deliberated, anything to redeem himself.

They were busy cooperating with a conceptual approach, as he was busy plotting his sabotage.

Despite not wanting to, he will have to go on the operation with them.

(I am going to twist his plot for my freedom anyway, accompanying him and his members to make them see the accomplice they sought.)

But he told himself with high hopes,

As he had been advised,

it was his prerogative to play along with them and not to show any sign of fright or impatience,

So as not to put them on edge.

Fact is, Jude seems quite an indomitable escapologist, only for the fact that his is not any entertaining but instead, he grieves the community when heard he has escaped another attempt of the police to subdue him.

But not to the extent to which he grieves the wit of the Balltown police department.

Now the time was 7:48 pm.

About to head home and prepare to go through with plans, and act on cooperation as it is not only his main role in the plot but from what he has learnt so far,

Cooperating with Jude might of course, ignite a victorious excitement, and extend the coast of his blindspots subsequently, for the time being.

Vacating the premises with promising hope, he climbed the bike and headed home as he thought about the discussions held back there.

(Oh my--, now I'm conspiring with my bitterest enemy, maybe they weren't after all.)

He said, convincing himself.

The more important thing on his mind now is to pluck his freedom off the palm of an egotistical hedonist, bent on trapping him for more prominence, and hoist my cred'.

He parked the bike, and rushed inside the house, in preparation to yield to the hold Jude had on him as he would stupefy him with a besieging twitch.

"Hey Mom,"

He exclaimed as he stepped into the house and without waiting for a response,

"I'm sorry I had to rush out with your bike unannounced,"

He said, performing a swift easy fling that steered the key to its usual spot.

"Just be careful always"

He heard his mom say from the dining room.

Straight to his room,

He freshened up hastily and have a change of clothes, forcing his legs into a pair of grey slimline joggers and a yellow T-shirt,

He bent down to strapped his foot in a black leather sneakers, and stood up to his height of five foot nine, as he shook his head sideways vigorously.

His wet and dripping sidecut hairstyle was rid of the excess water, and he brushed it with his hand backwards.

Set to head out to Stan's house, Stanley is one of Jude's sworn and savage boys, and the gangs' top rhymer.

Whose parents were divorced and her sister went on to live with her mom, perhaps it was his choice to stay with his itinerant father who reverted home twice or maybe thrice in a year, that stays unclear but the apparent is that, he did buy the emperor's gang secure and clandestine stopovers in the town from inimical movements.

"Mom, I will be back soon."

"I need to attend to something important."

He said, fitting myself properly in a denim leather jacket.

"Really, but dinner is almost ready."

She said with concern.

"I know Mom, won't take too long, okay?"

He declared his hope and haste to meet up before it was past the time.

Off he went under the full moon illuminating his path from the glowy night sky.

....

His gaze darted towards a fully detached cul-de-sac bungalow ahead of him, as he closed the distance, the outdoor bulbs illuminated the compound but though the exterior quietness denied any living organisms in it.

He felt his pockets for his phone, needing to check what time it was, he realized he didn't take it with him.

He hissed, and completed the strides to get to the entrance.

Without a single knock yet, the door opened moments he marched onto the front porch,

There stood Stanley with a silly smirk on his face,

He had on a heavy knitted cardigan with a shawl neck that reveals a white round neck beneath, neat cargo pants and a pair of expensive sandals.

"Yo fam"

Jude hollered with their usual way of greeting, as he moved past Stan and into the unkempt elaborate living room.

He glanced around the room, he has been here like twice, and the tiles always remained besmirched with stains, mostly of mud.

The unpleasant smells of cigarettes, cannabis and beer filled his nostrils.

And his stomach churned.

But he has gotten used to it, he forgets the odor in no time.

"Already thinking you had brushed off the deal."

He brought his gaze to hold Jude's, who had a large wrap of substance emitting smoke between his fingers.

"But now, I don't!" He snapped.

"Yeah! Sure."

He nodded, as he stood up from the luxury chair, straightening his jacket

"This is 8:44 pm, I would assume your fall behind the said time isn't a mere coincidence, is it?"

He approached him with glaring audacity, and stood a few inches away,

"What do you mean bruh?"

Ryker made a confused face,

"Believe it or not, I have to do everything in a rush when I wake up.

I had struggled to sleep since your intrusion, at last I did."

"I woke up quite late, and in the rush to get here I had lost track of time."

"I attempted to check what time it was as I jostled pedestrians on my paths only to be aware that I had left my phone in the very pocket of the trouser I took off."

He paused,

And stepped nearer to his face,

"Did you know I abandoned a family at the table because I skipped dinner to get here?"

He took in his breath and stared dagger right into his face,

"And now all you could do is suspect me? Huh!"

He chided.

Ryker deliberately feigned sentiments and cooked up fabrications to strip him of any possible doubt and suspicion he might have had in him.

Jude studied him from head to toe, and took a few steps backward,

A 'hmph' accompanied by a couple of nods he demonstrated, and finally returned to the fine but unfortunate cushion his buttocks had domiciled.

He sat heavily stretching his hands behind the chair as he rested his arms atop the backrest and smiled,

"Cool bruh, we're good."

"Will you please have a seat?"

He entreated him.

Ryker hissed and hesitated, then dusted a seat nearest, with his hands, before scrupulously settling his bottom.

He looked around the room once more noticing there were seventeen boys thereabout all wore a hooded jacket but different colours and designs, blowing like a rickety vehicle exhaust.

But most of them looking at him, their stares were unarguably of wonderment, and after he scanned the whole room once again, he wondered too.

"Kyle is not here?" He asked no one in particular.

"Yes, he had to ---"

Eddie, one of the boys, was saying when Jude interrupted.

"We will be moving by 10 minutes past 9; why do you care?"

He queried.

"I thought we ---"

He started to say when he cut him off,

"If you were mercilessly pummeled like you did him, I would be left with no other choice than to bade you off till you recover the strength and required fitness; he's too weak to be useful Rye, and as I have told you, I don't take chances."

"Wow!" Ryker said inwardly as he nodded to his face.

"Just so you know, you're doubling for Kyle and yourself. You had better take the initiative to become a three-in-one emperor now."

He proclaimed more like a joke though.