Don't! Look Closer - Episode 13

 

Everything Kike understood about fear came to her the moment she saw that news. She shouldn’t be the one afraid here. She should be the level headed one but her fear, like a wildfire, rocked her whole body and made her wheeze. She couldn’t do much than to text chief to meet her in the room they preserved for their illegal activities.

She hugged the several envelopes containing documents that she had prepared for a day like this. Her world shook under her feet and she needed to stabilize it before everything turned out bad . She had been distilling the process for months through tidbits of information and decisions that will definitely tilt Chief George to her side.

Chief in his pajamas hurriedly opened the door. He looked about and at the envelopes in her hand. Then, he glanced at her laptop and the printer beside it.

“What’s happening?” Chief George asked.

“We have a big problem”, she replied and dropped the envelopes. Then, she brought out her phone. Her mind raced through all the possible outcome of the situation on ground and knew that was the best play.

Chief George stood aright. “Throw it at me.

“Someone uploaded a video of our pants business online”, Kike said weakly.

“Who? How far? How was this exposed?”

“I think it’s Tolu”.

“Let me see the video”.

She remembered the day she got out of law school, she wanted to leave their home but then remembered how much she couldn’t really survive the world unless she returned to them. Some days after her return, Chief invited to the room they were at the moment and told her he had been noticing her behavior ever since she got to the University and that he loved what he saw

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. He pleaded with her for not paying her tuition fee and told how he impressed he was that she struggled through school, still making to Law school. As a means of showing her how sorry he was, he decided to make her his P.A. From the way he had seen her handle her life, career, and some little jobs he had been testing her with, he knew she would do well.

A few weeks into accepting the job, he made her aware of the fact that the statues they sold out and displayed were mostly stolen from their original owners. Moreover, most of the arts in another section of the room were fake. They only used it as a decoy to sell ladies’ pant to boys and people who were ready to use them. The pants were gotten from his wives’ hotel. Some boys had been positioned there to steal pants and they had other miscreants from other sources.

This terrified Kike but the end game played on her mind- making as much money as she can. When Chief saw the video, he yelled and muttered some regrets before pointing at the video. “She came back to beg my daughter and she just left. We should have sent boys after her… Do that now”.

Kike shook her head and dropped her phone on the table. His lack of mental stability had always ruined things and she wouldn’t be a subject of failure at that point in her life. She needed to seize control. “We will deal with that later. But chief it’s over the news and the police are on their way. My contact said they are surrounding our house now”.

“What do we do? You know this internet behavior and law than I do?”

“Yes. I’ve thought up a way to keep the business going and for you to keep the house. Because I can’t imagine how our enemies want to destroy our family”, she said and shook her head despondently. All she desired now was an escape.

Chief George agreed. “They want to destroy everything about us. We will have to run away”.   

“It was my contact at the police that told me they are on they have surrounded us. The only way to escape is to make future plans”, Kike reiterated and felt like punching him in the face for putting her in such a situation.

“Your contact should have called you earlier. What do we do now? We can’t fight them. That will be worse”.

She pretended to think for a while and then stood straight. Her decision had been made even before she texted him. Now, he would have to flow with it.

“How about this? I know you might not like it. But it’s the best. We will hand over every of the business to Ireti. She’s innocent”.

Chief George placed his hands on his head.“Ireti! Ireti! Kike has killed me. You want to hand over everything to Ireti. All this money we’ve made will be squandered in a minute”.

“I’ve printed the contracts. All I have to do is to give it to her. Okay, let’s give me change it to mummy’s own”, she said and turned towards her laptop to type out Mrs George’s name.

“Don’t you think we should run?” Chief George asked and looked out the window into the night and the little light that splashed the area.

“It’s too late. They are only waiting for their leaders. They have surrounded everywhere. Let’s face with what’s on ground, sir”.

He matched about in the large room. As a base of operation, she had witnessed firsthand the things they did there. Their home only served as a transport. Some boys, paid enough money, would mold the pants into the statue and sell it out. She couldn’t report or do anything without implicating herself. Now, she regretted not speaking up in time, many women wouldn’t have had to suffer the cruel punishment meted out to them.

“Ah! See my life”, Chief George lamented. “And I didn’t want to do this. I said it’s a sin. But this Jezebel. She pushed me into it. Look at you that I made to suffer, you’re even helping me”.

“Chief!!!  Calm down!”

“I can’t!!! Don’t you dare ask me to calm down”.

Quickly, she typed to her contact in the police for an update.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m asking for updates!”

“Good! You’re an asset. I wonder what we would have done without you. They would have caught us without plans”.

“What about your wife, mummy?”

Chief George shook his head. “That’s the Jezebel I was talking about”.

“Oh! You mean mummy…”

“Yes. She needs to suffer too”.

“What do we do? You know they will take me too” Asked Kike.

“She’s not wise too. More so, she should be caught for it too. We are in this business together. Remember, the pants are gotten from the big men that use her hotel. And she gives the big men the site to visit. And some of those boys you see coming in here, they got their pants from her. Some of them buy them from her. She’s the intermediary. She is the architect. They even sell at her hotel”.

“There’s no proof”, Kike noted.

“What’s proof?”

“Like evidence”.

“I know the meaning of proof”.

“Evidence”.

He became rattled. “I know the meaning. Mumu! I’m not going down for this alone. I am the proof. I will show the world how bad she is”.

“But I thought she’s your wife. She will be the one to get lawyers and so when we are in prison”.

That aggravated Chief George’s anger and he began to speak rapidly.“God will punish wife. She started the idea. She will suffer for it. Look at this life.

Read " Grabbing The Hot Gate " by the same author ( Akíntayo Akinjide )

. You that she always wanted to take the fall are even ready to go with me but she the original plan maker won’t suffer. Over my dead body!”

“You mean she initiated the idea?”

“Have you not been listening to all I’ve been saying? But can’t you stay back? Let them all follow me”.

“Ireti is innocent”, Kike said and sighed.

“She must follow me. They will only come out when I come out. Ireti will spend all my money. She must follow me! Stay back”.

“Ah! Chief! That’s not good for you”

“I trust you”.

She shook her head. “Trust yourself only!”

“You have the brain. Time is not on our side”.

“We will have to think of something. Like everything will have to be in my name. The paper will be fake of course”.

“Even if it’s not fake, I trust you. You’re always about family”, Chief said, hurried to the door, and hurried back.

“We will record a video to show that we planned it. That one will be a safety measure in case money wants to seduce me”.

“Good idea”.

{)(}