DEEP SECRETS
EPISODE 34
4:25 PM, KELVIN’S WORK HOUSE
About ten minutes later, Annabel stirred and woke from unconsciousness. Her jaw was hurting terribly and had swollen. She held it wincing in pain.
“You should not have hit me that hard, Kelvin,” she said through pain.
“You asked for it when you went for my private 0rgan. Even if you were the only woman on earth, I would never have s*x with you. I hope someday you will understand what has been done to you,” Kelvin said with a demeaning look on his face.
“I didn’t ask for it. You were the one who turned me on to show me what happens to that evil calabash when I have s*x. I need to put ice on my jaw, please.”
Kelvin stood up and went downstairs. After a little while he returned with some ice cubes in a piece of cloth. He handed it to Annabel and she put it on her jaw. As the effect of the ice spread through her swollen jaw, she moved uncomfortably on the bed where she sat. That was when she saw her two handguns on the bed. She picked one up with her left hand and it felt empty.
“Why did you empty my weapons Kelvin?” she asked.
Kelvin stood and held up the detachable magazines from her guns.
“Your grandmother, Idara Maxwell has ordered for you to never leave this place alive,” Kelvin said, showing no emotions.
Annabel felt her heart skip a few beats. Her eyes widened in shock. While she looked at Kelvin, his childhood friend unbelievably, two heavily built men came upstairs bearing sharp, short, wide machetes. As soon as they joined Kelvin and Annabel; they looked at Kelvin and he nodded at them. The three of them moved toward Annabel to hack her to bits. Annabel stood to her feet and ran toward the wall. There was no way to escape.
“Kelvin please don’t do this! Please Kelvin! I thought I could trust you! You are my friend! Please don’t kill me! Please Kelvin!”
Annabel pleaded as she backed up against the wall, shaking like a weather beaten bird. When two of the guys reached her, they raised their machetes and Annabel shut her eyes, expecting them to hack her to death. Her cry was heart-melting.
“Wait!” shouted Kelvin.
The two guys who had already been told what to do, held their attacks. Kelvin walked over to where Annabel squatted in a heap against the wall, shaking like an abandoned child. He took her by the hand and raised her to her feet.
“I was not going to kill, Anna. I wanted you to see what it is like facing death. You have a few hours to leave this country. Idara wants you dead, but someone whom I respect a lot wants you alive.”
“Who is that?” Annabel asked amid tears.
“In the next few days you will meet him in Mozambique. Some of my men are going to cargo you down to Mozambique. Idara must believe you are dead. There is a new guy on the block. He wants to take care of all these mess, and that will include killing your grandmother. She thinks I am working for her, but I am not and have never worked for her. There are some things you must know…”
Kelvin paused. Annabel looked at him expectantly. In the background the two machete wielding guys left.
“Mr. Femi did not kill your father,” Kelvin continued.
Annabel was shocked.
“Who did?!” she asked.
“Your mother.”
Annabel felt her head swoon. She put her hands on her head and slowly sat on the floor. Kelvin went over to the wall where she squatted a while ago, when she thought she was going to be killed and picked up the iceberg she had dropped. He did not give it to her, rather he placed it on her swollen jaw and held it there.
“She is back to do what she failed to do many years ago. She loves every one of you. She feels sad… no, she is mad over what have been done to her daughters and sons. The video of you having s*x with your father at Mayo’s fun house was sent to her.”
“Oh my God! She is going to hate me. Kelvin, believe me, I thought the s*x romp in Mayo’s fun house was going to be with strangers and not with my father. I was drugged! I and my father were set up!”
“Your mother knows that and all that have happened so far. When you meet her, you will be surprised by how much she knows.”
His words soothed Annabel. From childhood she had been dreaming along with her siblings to meet their mother someday.
“So you think she won’t see me as an evil child just like my grandmother does?”
“No, she won’t. She knows a lot more than you know right now… there is something more you need to know. Your father, Maxwell, is not the good man you think he was. He was not angry about having s*x with you. He was only angry with someone making a video of it with the intention to make the video public…”
“What are you saying? We were drugged!”
“Do you think you are the only daughter of your father whom he has had s*x with? Why did he not protect you from your grandfather when your mother left? Your father having s*x with you was his last passage rite into a level in the abomination your family worships.”
****************
4:45 PM, MR. NATHAN’S HOUSE
Stanley stepped outside his father in-law’s house and Idara Maxwell’s men crowded him. They had been given orders not to lose him or his wife, Eve.
“I need to go get some ice cream for my wife. It is 4:45 pm, we have only fifteen minutes before you take us back to Idara Maxwell. I can use the fifteen minutes on the road to give my wife my first gift to her since we got married,”
Stanley said and waited for the men to respond. Their leader regarded him for a while and said,
“I love women and I think you have got one of the best of them; because of her, I will let you go buy the ice cream. However, some of my men will go with you.”
“I don’t have to go buy the ice cream and come back. We all can leave now; on the road you will stop for me to buy the ice cream.”
“Do you have any restaurant in mind?”
Stanley could see where he was headed.
“No, I don’t. I can buy the ice cream anywhere you want me to.”
The man smiled and said,
“That’s okay by me.”
“Baby girl! They will let me buy you the ice cream!” Stanley shouted.
Eve who had been watching Stanley and the men by the glass door stepped out with a smile on her face.
“Let’s go boys!” shouted the man leading Idara’s hound dogs.
Eve and Stanley exchanged seductive looks and stopped by their car for a brief passionate k!ss. Their plan to lead Idara’s men away before 5pm, so Eve’s parents could make a run from their house was working just fine. Stanley could guess a lot was going on outside and he wanted his father in-law and his family to move to some safe place before late evening.
When Eve and Stanley were driven away, a ramshackle Nissan coupe followed them. In it were two men sent by Abel’s friend, Damina. About ten minutes later, a military truck drove into Mr. Nathan’s house. Heavily armed military men, numbering about eight had arrived with the truck. Mr. Nathan and his family made haste, taking what they needed most and climbed into the truck. Twelve minutes after they were driven away from the house.
A squad of armed hoodlums came looking for the Nathan’s family. They met a locked gate. The governors in the videos had sent them when they heard the videos were found in Eve’s parents’ house. On the drive back to Idara’s house, her men stopped for Stanley to buy Eve the ice cream he had mentioned. Stanley and Eve stuck to their roles pretending the ice cream meant much to them. All that mattered to them was that they moved the men out in time so Eve’s family could be taken to safety.
************
5:18 PM, IDARA MAXWELL’S HOUSE
The vehicle conveying Eve and Stanley to Idara’s house pulled into her compound. Eve and Stanley were hurled out of the vehicle like thieves. Idara had called her men on their way back and said something to them which made the otherwise nice attitude of their leader to change. Held like goats to be quickly slaughtered for a prominent African chief, Eve and Stanley were led into the house. Idara was already seated at her dining table with a gun lying in front of her. Eve and Stanley were forcefully pushed into seats opposite Idara.
“I have been looking at the contents of the parcel my son, Jimmy, sent to you. I am shocked to find out that my son, for whom I killed my husband, was busy looking into my private life and unearthing as much dirt as he could. I haven’t got much time to waste. Right now I am in a foul mood and thirsty for blood; I will kill whatever or whoever will try to stop me from finding that b@stard son of mine and torture him to death!”
Idara said with her eyes fixed on Eve.
“Eve Nathan. I have taken my time to look at the things which happened between you and my son in South African when he tried to kill you some years ago. There is something which happened out there which you are hiding or something the two of you are not telling anyone. I want the truth now!” Idara barked.
Stanley took Eve’s hand under the table and squeezed it gently. His other hand rested on the gun which he had taken from Abel, Eve’s younger brother. Idara turned on a tape recorder and pushed it toward Eve.
“I want you to tell me everything you know, Eve. Why would my son who tried to kill you some years ago, send you such a high profile, classified document? You have a minute to start talking or I blow your brains out on the floor.”
Eve was shaken visibly as Idara picked up her gun and pointed it toward Eve’s forehead. She looked at her wristwatch, giving Eve the impression she was counting the seconds. Sweat broke out on Eve’s forehead and her teeth clattered. She looked at Stanley and Stanley nodded at her.
“Your son was paid by people we think now to be Julia Idris and Manga Idris to stop me from concluding a telecommunications deal in South Africa. They had interest in bringing into the country two telecommunications giants from India and China. I and the investment company I represented were to be removed out of the way. When my bosses got a hint of that plan, they played their cards well and set me up for a fall. I was lucky to have survived Jimmy’s attack in South Africa…”
“Rubbish! That is rubbish!! I already know that! What I don’t understand is the reason he would mail this parcel to you. This was a man who wanted to kill you. What game is he playing?!”
Idara yelled as she removed the safety pin on her gun. She was going to shoot Eve, and Eve could see it coming.
“Your son may possibly be working for some foreign secret service agents. He had a name he was called in South African prison. The name suggested he was working for a big powerful organization. After KLT abandoned me to die in South Africa, I had to hire a detective to find out who Jimmy was. The things he found out then were unbelievable, but I was a fool not to have believed them then…”
“What did your detective tell you?”
“That your son was working for a western secret service agency. He told me that Jimmy would be released from the prison shortly after his sentence. From what we have been able to figure out, Jimmy is only using me to hide information he was gathering. Think of it, who would bother to look my way? I am a lady he wanted to kill a few years back. He must have known my mother can sign my signature. Why didn’t he mail it to me? If I knew about the parcel, why didn’t I remove it from my parents’ house when it arrived? Something else is in play here. I think your son is after you for reasons known to him.”
Idara surprised them by dropping her gun on the table. She lowered her head and thought for a moment. Eve and Stanley took a few sigh of relief and exchanged curious looks. Stanley still had his hand on his gun.
“Get out of my house!!” Idara shouted.
Eve and Stanley were shocked. They could not believe she was letting them go just like that. They stood to their feet and hesitated.
“Get out of my house now!” Idara yelled again.
Eve and Stanley could not back her, they did not trust her that much. They feared she might shoot into their backs if they turned to leave, and so they backed away from her and headed toward the exit door with their backs. As soon as they were out of the house, they ran toward the gate. No one bothered them. On the street, Stanley shielded Eve with his body. He was expecting a shooter to snipe at them. Their eyes went in every direction. Stanley held his sweetheart tightly as they used the flowers on the street for a cover. The rickety Nissan coupe, screeched to a halt near them. Eve and Stanley went to the ground in a quick move. Stanley pulled out his gun and pointed it toward the car and squeezed the triggers. Bullets from his gun ricocheted off the car while some burrowed their way in.
A voice in the car shouted, “Stop shooting! Stop shooting at us!!’’ The voice was followed with the deafening sound of a machine gun. Stanley and Eve lay on the ground and raised their hands in surrender. The Nissan car moved a little closer to them and the same voice shouted,
“Bros!! Get in the car! Get in the car now!!”
Stanley scurried to his feet, pulling Eve along. As soon as the two of them got in the car, it sped off. There was really no one after them. Stanley had started shooting at the men Damina sent to follow them in fear; and they had to shoot into the air to stop him from shooting at them.
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