The Voice - Episode 22

 

LOCATION: Isolo , Lagos state.

12:05pm.

Emily alighted from a commercial hired cab.

Read " The Atheist " by the same author ( Tz Jay )

. She straightened her red gown and stepped into the compound as the gate was opened by the gatekeeper. She long pressed the doorbell and it rang for a couple of times before someone opened the door.
A head popped out of the door first, then the body . It was a boy of about seven years old clad in white shorts and singlet.

“Aunty Emily” the boy shouted immediately he saw her.

He ran and jumped into Emily’s waiting hands in a brief hug.
Emily let the boy down with a nourishing smile emitting from her face.

“How you Jacob?” Emily asked as they strode into the spacious living room.

“I’m fine aunty” the boy replied smiling gleefully.

“Were’s your mother?” Emily asked as she sat on a couch.

“She’s inside the kitchen”

“Oh! Please fetch her for me” Emily said pleadingly.

“Aunty, you didn’t buy anything for me abi”

“Oh! I almost forgot, but I bought you this” Emily hurriedly brought out a wrapped parcel from her hand bag and handed it to the boy.
The boy happily collected it and unwrapped it immediately.

“Wow!” The boy exclaimed as he saw what was in it. It was a big toy Jeep.

“Hope you like it?”

“No aunty, I don’t like it

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/the-voice

. I love it” the boy grinned showing his missing tooth.

“Oh! Emily is this really you?”
A voice called and Emily looked up to see her cousin walking towards them with outstretched arms.

Emily stood up and embraced her tightly, she let go afterwards.

“You never told me you were coming, I would have prepared your favorite”

“No aunty, I just want to pay you a surprise visit”

“oh! So how you doing Emily?” she asked as she also settled down on a couch adjacent to Emily.

“Just trying to be fine aunty” Emily replied wearing a forlorn look.

“Trying to be fine? What’s the problem Emily?”

“Its a long story aunty”

Emily sat back resting her head on the armrest of the couch.
What other problem does she have if not Ben.
She had decided to visit her cousin all the way from
River state to Isolo where she resides just to advise her on what to do even though, she herself was yet to meet Ben.

“Let me quickly call my husband, he has been wanting to meet you”, Jacob’s mother said as she stood up.

Emily nodded, “Have been wanting to meet him too. You know he’s always not around whenever i come here_”

“Lucky you, he’s around today”

Emily smiled, lucky indeed.

“Honey … honey…” Jacob’s mother called as she walked out of the sitting room.

“Yes baby” a faint gruffy voice answered from inside.
“My cousin Emily is here” She shouted and strode back to her seat.

“How’s life in Rivers state?”

Emily was about to answer the question when her eyes darted to the door leading to the sitting room.
Her face suddenly formed to a shock demeanor as her mouth flung wide open surprised.
Ben stepped into the sitting room oblivious of Emily who had already seen him..

“Baby .. I …” the word hanged in his mouth as he saw Emily. His legs became rooted to the spot and he couldn’t move an inch.

Jacob’s mother on the other hand was all smiles.
That’s before she noticed the weird and intense silence from both party.
She followed Emily’s shocked gaze and saw Richard which was the supposed Ben also shocked.
Her instinct immediately told her that something was really amiss.

~

CIB TOWER

~

“What did you do to me!” Cole asked agitated fuming with rage, obviously in a loud pitched voice.
He was once seated on a swivel chair in his office but stood up immediately Agent bola entered his
office.
Cole was irked by her presence and aggravated with the fact that she didn’t knock before she entered.

“keep your voice down Cole” Agent bola said in a rather cool voice.
Cole surprisingly suppressed his anger as his anger
diminished at the thought of being in the office and at work.

“Why did you do this to me? .. bola why?” Cole bursted into fresh tears, the tears subsided and turned to sobs. He couldn’t imagine betraying Nora, worst of it, she was missing and the best he could do was to sleep with some slut.
Tears streamed down his face as pangs of conscience pricked him.

What had he gotten himself into?

Agent bola on the other hand showed no remorse for what happened. instead, she felt elated as it was now a part of her achievements.

“You don’t seem to care, do you?” Cole asked amidst sobs.

“No I don’t, you wanted me to fix you and I did just that, so why should I care?”
Cole swallowed hard, it was all his fault.

He was damn fucking stupid!

He sat down slowly uttering incoherent words to himself like he was going crazy.

He was really going crazy.

A knock sounded on the door, Cole immediately comported himself as he sniffed and cleaned the tears and mucus that had gathered on his face with the back of his hand.
Agent bola opened the door and left without saying a word.

A young man stepped into the office after a thorough scrutinization on Agent Bola.

“Good afternoon sir” he greeted.
he was dressed in the CIB uniform and his tag indicated that he was from the cyber security unit.

“How may I help you?” Cole asked in a gruffy voice which suggested that he wasn’t happy.

“Sir, I have found the location of the killer”
Cole’s face lit up as he heard the frolic news.

“Are you kidding me?”

“No sir, am not”

“Then how did you know it’s the killer location?” Cole asked.
“I have been working on this tirelessly, day and night trying to breach the killer’s security wall and today, it came as a success.” David said showing him the device which displayed the location.

“We need to move immediately” Cole voiced out after minutes of consideration.