The call with the Chief Commander of the NBI was short and precise. Elvis had thought it would be a questioning conversation but rather, the chief commander commended him for his salient and astounding feat with the bomb. He asked about his man, Elvis broke the unfortunate news about his death to him, luckily for him, the Chief didn’t enquire about the manner of his death. He fixed a meeting with Elvis to give him the brief of the compilations the late Cedrick accumulated against MSN. Elvis thanked him and dropped the call.
His fury has abated a bit during the course of the call but it all came rushing to the fore after the call. He walked furiously towards Timi’s cubicle; he met Timi at his desk typing dutifully on his keyboard, eyes glued to the screen, his pair of glasses sitting grimly on his nose which gave him the look of an Harvard archaeologist professor looking intently at a piece of rock. The innocent look Timi’s face went a long way in easing the anger brewing in Elvis as Elvis looked raptly at Timi from a distance. The thought of the presence of privy conspiracy and deceptiveness behind the timid eyes of Timi almost brought out the venomous vehement outburst and possible assault on Timi.
He remembered his dad’s numerous bits of advices and how much his dad wants him to be a civil man, his dad always wants him to tame his anger and be a emotional strong am. A man who tests everything before getting a conclusion, a man who always use the weakness of his enemies against him, a man who doesn’t make rash decision and not jumping to conclusions. He remembered all Timi has done in the past few weeks, his new death escape from the bomb, and his adventure at the Emeralds.
He decided not to be driven by anger; he had to test Timi first, to prove his credibility and loyalty. He would have given him a good beating if he were to follow the precedence of the rage he’s struggling to bottle up in himself. He’ll test Timi but he knows he can never forgive Timi if he were the mole giving out their information to MSN. He has an edge over Timi, Timi doesn’t know his secret identity has been revealed, Elvis has to use his advantage to the fullest. But firstly he had to test Timi, with what?.
He saw Timi looking at him from his desk with a pair of inquiring eyes. He knows he can’t go to Timi now, not while he’s still angry, moreover asking questions about the tape might raise Timi’s suspicions, he had to do something else; he had to tell the IG the truth. His decision to go to the IG has two reasons, firstly to avoid any worsening development, it won’t be ethical if MSN make good of his promise and leak the audio to the press with a well written derogatory article; secondly he needs the tongue-lashing from the IG, it will surely help him to think straight. He turned and walked towards the IG’s office, luckily the IG’s in.
After tergiversating for several minutes, perambulating on unnecessary and unrelated topics, he tried fruitlessly to bring up the motive of his presence in the IG’s office. The IG sensed the recklessness and edginess in him, he knows something is wrong. He inquired about what’s wrong to which Elvis gave a negative answer unconvincingly. The IG pressed presumptuously to which Elvis showed him the message reluctantly. The IG listened with rapt attention to the audio which lasted for only a few seconds, he read the caption too but couldn’t get a grip on what it really meant.
Elvis explained everything to the IG, explaining what had really transpired in the old facility to the call of MSN in the last few minutes. The IG was already walking menacingly round his office by the time Elvis was through with his elaborate explanation; his right hand supporting his jaw with his pointing finger beating his jaw of its own accord, his eyes looked faraway as they stared around the office. His countenance is that of a man in a deep thought. Elvis knows he’s in for trouble.
“Why did you give a different report?” the IG asked after some minutes of silence.
“I was scared sir, I haven’t killed before, he made for his pocket, thought he was going for a gun, that’s why I shot him sir, I didn’t know he was an agent sir, I learnt after his death sir.” Elvis poured out humbly.
“You didn’t answer my question, why did you lie in your report?” the IG asked again firmly
“I was frightened I might be charged with manslaughter or worse for killing an agent of the law”
“Do you know what you did can end your career and land you in jail; giving false statements?” the IG asked to which Elvis bent his head in shame “Had it been you weren’t threatened by MSN, I won’t learn the truth would I?” the IG continued, Elvis’s head is still bent.
The IG made for his seat and sat straight.
“You did something very wrong but I’ll have to think of your punishment, maybe I’ll throw you off the case, but that will be later, we have more pressing matter now. You have to make a press conference giving a vague explanation of what really happened in the facility withholding information on the identity and jurisdiction of the dead agent, the press conference will hold off MSN for some time, I’ll speak with the Chief Commander of the NBI and tell you what next to do.”
Elvis detests press conferences but he has to succumb to this, not like he had any choice, he dragged himself into this, he had to face the brunt alone. He replied in the affirmative mildly to the IG.
“You can go now.” The IG said.
Elvis got up and made for the door.
“How did MSN get the tape?” the IG asked.
“I don’t know sir, there is a mole in my team, I’m working on it sir, I’l let you know if I’ve gotten the identity of the mole sir” Elvis replied, gave a bowing gesture before exiting the room.
He could be thrown off the case, worse still he might go to jail, his feminine cowardice had led him into this, pending the time his punishment is dished out to him, he had to do something. He must test Timi. Seeing Ben hurrying towards him makes his devise a plan.
Ben got to him and narrated his discovery which was no different to what he had thought himself. The identity of the real bomber is unknown, the fingerprints of Cedrick was found all over the real bomber, Elvis’ fingerprint was found on Cedrick and the bullet from Elvis’ gun was found lodged in Cedrick’s chest. The only piece of discovery found that Elvis doesn’t know about was the streak of tarsand found in the sole of his rain boot. The interesting piece of discovery was that his coat has traces of tar smearing on them.
The tar….tarsand feels familiar to Elvis, he had seen the tar somewhere before. Not from highways but somewhere else. He tried to mull over his thoughts and recollect where he had seen it before; he racked his brain before he could catch a glimpse of the recollection. He remembered when he found Ben underneath the Emeralds, Ben was lying down, he remembered when he tried to pull him up, his hand has smeared something on the ground, it was the streak of mud brought by the tires of the truck he knows must have been transporting the stacks of boxes he had found earlier. He had brushed it off then but now the tar discovery has made it all rushing back. The mud smear had tar on it too; the truck and the bomber must come from the same location. He finalized in his thought. He had gotten a lead and also a test for Timi too.
He surged towards Timi’s cubicle, surprised to see Timi resting with abandon on his chair.
“Get me the locations of the tar or tarsand warehouses around Lagos” Elvis said abruptly making Timi jerk before he set to work. Elvis waited for some leisurely while waiting for Timi to bring up his findings.
“Sir, there are about ten tar or tarsand warehouses around Lagos sir and they are each at the outskirts of the state” Timi replied raising his head from the system.
That is too much for him to look into; there must be some way to narrow his search down.
“What about abandoned tar warehouses?” Elvis said.
“There are only two, sir” Timi replied.
“Get me the location of the two” Elvis replied meanwhile watching the appearance conveyed by Timi’s face, he was disappointed to discover that his countenance for once didn’t defect from the serious sincere look it always house. Timi must be an expert at masking his facial expressions and his feelings too.
Timi had given him the location of the two abandoned warehouses, one is on the far side of the state, the other is much nearer. One doesn’t need to be told, he’ll check the nearer warehouse first. He called his team members together and told them about his discovery; they are to probe the two warehouses tomorrow, starting from the closer one.
He had a lot to do, meeting the ex-governor and the NBI Commander, he had planned to meet the ex-governor today but right now he had other plans. He would probe the two warehouses today, alone. He doesn’t know who to trust and he’s decided to catch the ‘warehouse discovery’ unawares, at least the informant would have passed them the information of their impending probe tomorrow. The best is to catch them unawares today.
He entered his car and zoomed off towards the location of the first and nearer warehouse, the sun is just setting giving way to the birth of the night; twilight.
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