Chapter 4: THREE
CHAPTER THREE
Five Months earlier
A stunning caramel skinned woman, Laura, in an oversized white t-shirt, was in the kitchen frying pancake. The kitchen was portable and classy. The walls had fanciful wallpapers and red window blinds that gave it an adorable look. Jideofor stood at the kitchen door for a while gawping at her, without her noticing. He was one man that could never get satisfied adoring his wife's beauty. He tiptoed slowly towards the kitchen slab and tried to steal pancake from the trey behind her.
"Don't touch," she said with a sweet voice, and it forced a smile to his lips.
"Why do you always catch me? I am beginning to suspect that you have invisible eyes behind your head," he said smiling broadly and hugged her from behind, and Laura giggled.
"Why should you take my pancake without my permission?" Laura said, still laughing sweetly.
Jideofor ogled at her seductively and remained quiet.
"Good morning, my love, I hope you slept well," Laura said, also ogled at him seductively.
"Yes, I did, my super woman. Now, please, can I have some pancakes now? Do I have your permission?" He said teasingly.
Suddenly, their four years old daughter, Adel walked into the kitchen.
"Daddy, carry me," she said, spreading her hands.
"My princess! You're up already?" He spread out his hands and carried her.
It was a Saturday morning, so no one was rushing out. Jideofor ran a finger on Adel's nose as he fondly did, and she chuckled adorably. Adel enjoyed being carried by her father, and she liked the way he ran a finger on her nose, even when she is upset. It lightened her mood and made her happy.
"My princess, tell your mommy to give you pancake," Jideofor whispered softly in his daughter's ear. Laura was not paying attention to father and daughter and their filial affection. Her eyes were on the frying pan.
"Mom, please, can I have some pancake?" Adel asked.
The tone of her voice was so sweet to refuse her request. Laura turned and looked at her and her father. Jideofor pretended and kept a straight face, he did not want Laura to know that he prompted Adel,
"Okay, you can have this one," Laura said, and stretched out her hand and gave her a small portion of pancake. Somewhere in her heart Laura knew that Jideofor he sent Adel, but she just played along.
As soon as Laura turned to continue with her frying, Adel quickly put a chunk of the pancake in Jideofor's mouth. Laura turned again, as if on cue, to confirm her suspicion and caught them red-handed.
"Adel, I knew that your dad asked you to request for the pancake for him, because I refused to give him," Laura said playfully.
Laura's mouth curved into a smile as she peered at Adel and her father. The corners of Jideofor's mouth turned up when he realised that Laura's eyes were on him as he munched a mouthful of the pancake. They all laughed and Jideofor's phone rang. He quickly dropped Adel and ran to get the phone from the living room. It was his colleague Mike calling.
"Mad Mike, what's up?" He said as he picked the call. Mad Mike was a nickname he gave to his friend because most of the time when he complained about an uncomplimentary experience, he usually say that it got him mad.
"Jide, I am not fine, something just happened that got me mad," he replied.
Jideofor perceived that it was serious, as he sensed pain in Mike's.
"Calm down, Mike, what happened?" Jideofor asked and sat on his couch.
"My neighbour was kidnapped, and he said that the kidnappers don't ask for ransom, and that he doesn't know exactly what they do to their victims. He managed to escape and was doing a video call with me when, suddenly, the kidnappers found him, and the last thing I heard was a gunshot."
Mike was upset, and Jideofor could feel it even on-line. Mike was unable to supress a shudder.
"My neighbour said that didn't see their faces," Mike continued, but that he spotted a silver bracelet on the wrist of one of them. He said that kidnapper had a scar, and an inscription 'fearless,' and that his neighbour mentioned a name before they found him."
Jideofor's curiously rose over what he heard, and he interrupted him, enquiringly.
"What name?"
"Chief Gerald. He said that those kidnapers work for Chief Gerald, who must be a prominent person here in Abuja."
"Gerald…! Did he mention the surname?" Jideofor asked, browsing through his head for a matching identity.
"No, he didn't. I'm so pained that he just died like that," Mike said.
"We must find out who he is," Jideofor said. He threw his eyes to the beautiful art hanging on his wall, he always drew ideas from it.
"What about your wife and daughter?" Mike asked and breathed deep, trying to relieve himself from the pain he was having inside.
"They're doing great," Jideofor replied, looking at the direction of the kitchen. Laura came out with a trey of pancake.
"Baby, is that Mike?" Laura asked.
"Yes, and he sends his greetings," he replied. "Okay bro, we'll talk about this later," Jideofor continued with his telephone conversation with Mike.
"Ok," Mike replied.
"Take it easy and stay safe," Jideofor said.
"Thank you, bro. Ok take care," Mike said at last and hung up.
Meanwhile Laura was waiting for the call to end, to ask Jideofor what was amiss. She heard him telling Mike to take it easy and it ignited her curiosity.
"Baby, what happened?" Laura asked.
She came towards Jideofor with his potion of pancakes in a plate.
"Mike's neighbour was kidnapped and killed," Jideofor said.
Jideofor not give Laura the details of the story. She knew that her husband's job was very sensitive, and that he was a versatile journalist. Laura was, however, aware of Jideofor's amazing skills in investigative journalism, and she knew that he could go to any length to get facts to back up his stories. Jideofor did not want to scare Laura with details of what Mike told him because he knew his wife very well. He would beg him not to dig into it.
"Oh my God! What is this country turning into?" Laura said in disgust. She dropped the piece of pancake that she was about to put in her mouth.
"It's terrible," Jideofor said, "But I pray that the people involved in that evil act will be brought to book one day." He took his phone and googled Chief Gerald in Abuja and three profiles popped up. He imagined which of them is the one behind the nefarious acts, and his imagination led him to nowhere, and he got lost in his thought. From that day Jideofor picked interest in the incident and started investigation to get a good story for his media house.
Two weeks later
Jideofor was in his office working on his computer when his boss, Kayode, walked in. Kayode was a dark and chubby man with a shiny bald head, and a portable pot belly. He noticed that Jideofor was very busy working and he adjusted his spectacle which was hanging on his nose, to get a proper look at Jideofor's computer. Jideofor noticed him for the first time and greeted.
"Good morning, Sir."
"Good morning, Jide," Kayode responded and said, The Democratic Congress is having a conference tomorrow by 11.00 a.m. and I need you and your team to represent us there."
Kayode dropped the details on Jideofor's table while still looking at his computer and going through what he was working on.
"Ok sir, I will inform them right away," Jideofor replied, and then he quickly glanced at the details on the paper beside his keyboard.
"Are you done with the Yusuf story?" Kayode asked.
"Almost done, sir," Jideofor replied, and his boss nodded in satisfaction.
"I am impressed with your work, keep it coming," Kayode said at last and left Jideofor's office, and Jideofor got up to go and inform his team about the event.
The next day at the conference, the atmosphere had mixed fragrance of different expensive cologne. It was a five-hundred-seater capacity hall, well decorated with the theme colour of the political party. The hall was full of politicians and other prominent people in gorgeous attires. Jideofor and his team arrived early and started their job. Jideofor interviewed some prominent people before the meeting started, and then he stood at a corner of the hall for effective observation while his team members covered the event.
Suddenly two muscular men walked towards one of the prominent men sitting at the high table and one of them whispered in the man's ears. Jideofor spotted a silver bracelet that matched the description that Mike told him about in the hand of the prominent man as he covered his mouth to whisper, and it aroused his curiosity. Jideofor then kept an eagle eye on the man. Shortly the Master of Ceremony (MC) ran his eyes across the men on the high table and smiled.
"Let us welcome one of our godfathers, Chief Gerald White. He is one of the backbones of Democratic Congress," the MC said adoringly.
The crowd applauded and the man stood up and stepped forward and took the microphone from the MC. He looked dapper in his brown blazer, which blended well with his chocolate skin and his brown hat matched with the blazers. He had full beards of black mixed with dominant grey which gave him the appearance of an academic don. Jideofor's eyes popped, and his thoughts ran wild. He quickly took his phone and pretended to be taking pictures of the event. Of course, no one would question him. He took pictures of Chief Gerald as he made his speech and located the muscular man wearing a silver bracelet that matched the description that Mike gave him. He made sure that he captured the scar on the man's hand. Jideofor zoomed into the man's hand and captured it prominently with his phone camera, very discreetly to avoid any suspicion. Jideofor went back to the corner where he was standing and chatted with Mike on WhatsApp and sent all the pictures to him.
The chat read: 'Does this bracelet look like the one you saw in the video call with your neighbour?' Jude then waited for a while, and then Mike responded.
'Exactly!' the reply came from Mike, 'Where did you get this picture?'
Jideofor read his response and typed.
'I believe that I have found the man that your friend was talking about, his full name is Chief Gerald White. I will keep a close watch on him till I get evidence to back up my story, and then we will bring him to book.'
Jideofor was discreet so that no one would suspect what he was doing. He was pretending as if he was still taking photographs of dignitaries while he was chatting
'Thanks, but be careful, those people are dangerous. They are very deadly. Somehow, I feel bad for telling you about this because I know that you won't rest till you dig deep into the whole thing and get a crazy headline.'
'People like this should be exposed. They are the people causing unrest in this country.' Jide replied, but this time his facial expression betrayed him. It conveyed his feeling in his response.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
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