Working Cases - Episode 20

 

Three weeks later... 
"Nicodemus! Come over here." Amelia's voice rang put across the room full of police officers and government officials. 
I turned to face her, smiling. "What's up?"
"Just come here. There's something I want to show you." she said. 
Moments later, we were standing in my office, away from the rest of the celebrating department. 
"Amelia, what did you want to show me? We're supposed to be out there celebrating. You've earned a break from whatever it is." I said. 
She smirked at me . "What did I say when you showed up at my door three weeks ago begging for forgiveness and trying to convince me to help you with your problem?"
I folded my arms across my chest, grinning wildly. "You're still holding on to that? Seriously?"
"What did I say?" she repeated. 
"Okay. You said you'd get to call the shots."
"Yes. I call the shots until this investigation is over and–––"
"Exactly, the investigation is over. I'm back to being the boss."
She ignored me. "––and we still haven't figured out what Duncan was planning to do with that parcel he was with."
"Can it not wait?"
"But, I have figured it out

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. It took a bit of digging—not nearly as much as it took to put him away—but I know what that parcel is." She smiled, looking up at me expectantly. 
"Well, good job, Sherlock. Good to see someone's doing their job around here. Now, can the rest of us slackers who choose to celebrate rather than continue beating a dead horse get back to our 'pointless' celebration?" I said. 
She frowned. "I never said the celebrations were pointless."
"Ah, but you were thinking it, no? You weren't? Hmm. I must have been misreading between the lines. So, can you tell me why you would want to bring something like this up now if you didn't think the celebrations were pointless?"
The open-mouthed look on her face told me I'd missed the point. "You missed the point! It's important," she said, "I just thought maybe you'd want to have everything done and over with so you know after this celebration there's no old thing to wrap up. Seems I was wrong." She made to leave. 
"Wait, Amelia, I'm sorry. It's okay if it's important. Show me." I said. 
She turned back to me and, pointing to my desk, said "It's over there."
Until now, I hadn't noticed the laptop computer lying open on the desk and the empty wrapper previously containing the package a few inches away. The package, a single USB flash drive, was plugged into the laptop and a message flashed on the screen: Storage Decryption Complete. 
"What is this?" I asked, more to reassure myself than to get any sort of answer.
"I've cracked the encryption on that disk. All of its information is now open to us. I thought you'd want to be here for this."
I dragged a free chair around the table to join Amelia who had already slinked into the chair in front of the computer. 
"Well, don't keep me waiting, open the damn files. Please?" I said. 
She banished the flashing notification from the screen and called up the files in the drive. There were only three of them. One was a text document named "Join To Conquer". The second was an "scratch027.exe" and the third was a photograph. 
"What's in the text?" I asked. 
Amelia opened it, revealing a three page legal document.
"It's been signed already." she said, pointing to three signatures in the document belonging to the two agreeing parties and a mediating lawyer. "This is just a copy. I assume it's Duncan's copy of whatever agreement this is." 
"Look over there." I said, reading out loud, "This document attests to and confirms the legality of the transfer of the listed assets of both Mr. Duncan Ajayi and Miss Ngozi Rosario Achebe amounting to a total of over twenty-five billion dollars, $25,427,789,078.99, to the ownership of the Achebe-Ajayi Corporation, heads of which are Mr. Duncan Ajayi and Miss Ngozi Rosario Achebe. The details of this transfer are as follows."
"Duncan was forming a corporation?" Amelia asked. 
Questions flew through my head. "Who is this Ngozi Achebe? And why are they pouring so much money into this corporation? Duncan's assets will be confiscated by court order, right?"
"Not if they don't belong to him anymore. Anything in this corporation can't be touched by the courts." she said. 
"Dammit! This was a contingency." I said. 
"I dunno... You think Duncan expected to die for real. He looked really shocked."
"Yeah, according to this, all he owns under the corporation now belongs to this woman, Ngozi. Why would he want that."
"It would make sense if he was planning something with this lady. Something big. And he wanted it to go on whether he was there or not. If he was caught or put in prison, she would be able to go on without him." Amelia said. 
"Who is she?"
"Never heard of her."
I sat silently, thinking for a moment. "The photograph. What's in it?"
"Let's find out." She closed the document and clicked open the photograph. It was of a young woman in her twenties standing with Duncan.
"Is that her?" I eyed the photo skeptically. 
"I dunno. She fits the description. The document calls her 'Miss Ngozi', not 'Mrs.'" 
"What about the executable file? Scratch027.exe?"
She responded by closing the photograph and clicking open the program. It flickered to life for a few seconds, then proceeded to wipe the flash drive clean, erasing the photo, text document and triggering a small incendiary device in the drive. 
"Shit!" Amelia cursed immediately, tearing the smoking drive out of the computer. "I should have known, dammit. Don't open unknown executables, I got so carried away, I just opened it without thinking what kind of malware it could contain. I didn't even make a copy. Everything in the drive is gone now!" she said. 
"Don't beat yourself up over that, Amelia," I said, standing, "Duncan's dead. We got him. We fouled his plans. We destroyed his criminal empire. This flash drive means nothing since he's in no position to do anything about it." I offered her my hand, "Now, why don't you come with me, and let's celebrate how it feels to be free. How it feels to see our work, and the work of those who are no longer with us, finally accomplished."
She took the offered hand, smiling, and I raised her to her feet. "Let's start with a proper introduction, shall we? Hi, there! My name is Nicodemus Onojah. I'm a homicide detective with the Nigerian Police Force in the beautiful city of Port Harcourt."
She laughed. "Nice to meet you, Nicodemus. I'm Amelia. Amelia Adegboyega."

................................................................THE END.......................................................................