₦airaland Forum

queenitee:
Wow, all in a circle niyi. I'm not even sure Jerry is really Jerry

Beta Reader to make sense..

germaphobe:
typical divepen1, must you leave us in great suspense nawaooo, abeg come update sharp sharp my blood don d hot. Nice episode up there

Thanks.. Update coming soon.

LightQueen:
Thanks for the update
Thumbs down

Ojoro..

Ann2012:
Thanks for the update

Thanks a lot.. For loving it.

Prudee:
When did the submissions open?

It will open the 31st of this month

Chapter 10
Reunion

Jerry knew he had to start treading gently in his new quest for knowledge. He would start following all the money he had (every one of them) and the best place to start his search was his bank account. How did he get such a huge amount of money? He needed to find that out.
Now that he was beginning to get clues as regarding himself, he would stop at nothing to know more about himself. At that moment, he wished above all things to meet his beautiful thief again, so that he would get to know all he needed from her. She had many questions to answer, a whole lot of them. And from what he had learnt, she has a lot of answers to any of his question.
When he got to his room, his phone rang. Rita was calling him to remind him about the fridge she wanted to buy and that she wanted him to follow her to Agric bus-stop at 2.00pm.
‘Please remember to bring that thing’, she said, ‘I can’t come there to collect it because of time’. He smiled as her high-pitched voice resonated in his eardrum.
Jerry had promised to give her thirty thousand naira out of the amount she said she needed to get a freezer. She wanted to start selling soft drinks at her house. He would have loved to give her everything but he wanted to keep the fact away from everybody that he was two million naira rich, especially now that he needed to find his origin.
‘Should I seek out my past?’ He asked himself as he laid back on the bed, with fear that he himself wouldn’t like what the future might hold, that whatever might have happened in the past was a beginning of his trouble, of a bigger trouble.
***
By 2.30pm, Once had gotten to Agric Area, from Brown Valley. He hated the journey and its stress, especially the traffic jam. He promised himself that any time he saw Jasper he would use the butt of gun to hit his head. Why had the foolish boy not be picking his calls? Once looked around at the place he parked. As he dropped from the car, he was happy that he had done his research about that area well because his search would have made him be at stand-still. He stared at his box of stick sweet and smiled. Chief’s complaint came to him again like before: Jedi Jedi. Bile.
He pondered on where he would start his search. Should he start by going to the police station? No. One of the code of conducts of their organization warned them to avoid the police station at all cost, He looked for a place to park his car, where it would get full protection.
At that time, he wished he had followed a public transport. He drove to the nearest car-wash park, took his tools bag, and left the car for them to wash. Once crossed the road, still pondering on what to do as he crossed the road. Would he walk the whole of Ikorodu, searching for Jasper?
Once had all the details of the place and was preparing to do the job before Chief told him he had given it to someone else. Although he always wanted to be praise, he knew he had to stop deceiving them about being the best before someone discovered how he had remained on top of the game.
‘What did you think about that fridge?’ A lady’s shrill voice said behind him, startling him as he hurriedly left the way for the owner of the voice to overtake him.
‘It’s not worth that amount… At least the guy should have given a better price or try reducing the price’, another voice- a male voice said.
Once knew that voice. He knew that voice. That mustn't be who he thought it was. There must be some resemblance somewhere. He needed to be sure the voice didn’t belong to whom he, Once, thought it belonged to.
Nothing would ruin his precious reputation, the one he had been preserving for five years now, the one many people feared, the one he hid its secret from everyone.
If he was who he thought it was, the person mustn't see him. And if he was the one, Once promised himself, ‘it's final judgement time’.
Even from the physique of this person, Once saw that the owner of the voice looked like who he thought he was. His heartbeat increased as he thought of what that would means for him if the person was truly the one, what that means if Jasper saw him.
After sometimes, he saw that it was who he feared it would be: it was Leech.
As much as he was in a hurry, Once wasn't ready to jeopardize this new mission by doing anything stupid in the public. Leech was supposed to be dead and when they say dead, it could be hidden in a very faraway place or buried. Confused, he brought out a stick of sweet and stuck it in his mouth as he parted the bracelet in his pocket. Racheal had warned him about his attachment to the object but he wasn't ready to heed her warning.
Once followed them via a bike, making sure he kept a safe distance until Leech and the Lady entered a house. All he needed was to be alone with him. So, Leech was still alive? How did he survive that great fall? Thousands of question arose in his mind, he needed answers and Leech must answer them.
Even till now, Leech was still a leech. He was still with the lady he went into the house with, not coming out, and that vexed Once where he sat, waiting. As for the lady, Once was sure he had seen her someone before.
Leech had not stop doing what made everyone in Chief’s house call him ‘Leech’. Once looked at the house, his sweet-stick rolling in his mouth.
At last, Leech came out of the house, making Once’s heart warm up as he quickly took his hand to his bag and brought out a pistol. His gun was always loaded because of emergencies like this. Unlike the other time, when he had trusted the system, he would ensure this killing was clean, sweet and easy. This time he wasn't going to play to chance. He would make sure he watched Leech die.
Despite all, he was ready to offend himself and the one that had always been his help because if any other person knew about this, he was dead. In fact, he would do this and she wouldn’t know anything about it.
He watched the street for any sign of anyone following but there was none there except a haggard beggar. When Leech walked past where he was hiding, Once placed a silencer on the pistol and watched him turn to a corner before he hastily followed him. When he saw Leech cutting another corner, he ran after him and only stopped when he saw where it led to.
He backed away quickly return to the corner, when Leech turned back as if he heard the screeching of Once's face. After hearing the door close, he came out and decided to go in. But some people had pitched a tent beside his house in a bid to celebrate some. So, he decided to wait till the night. As Rachael would always say, ' enjoy your kill, and never procrastinate'.
But this wasn't procrastination. This was enjoying the kill. He chose the night, which had a cloak that would cover Once’s face.
***
Yemi sat transfixed as he watched Grace smiling, and knew the reason she had the big, bright smile on: she wanted to kill every grief and face life squarely, she wanted to let the pain drift away.
‘Your son… What is his name?’
‘Precious’.
‘Hmmm... Precious Adeoti the son of Bidemi Adeoti. I saw him outside. He’s really grown’, Yemi said absent-mindedly.
Grace got the pregnancy of this boy when she was still an undergraduate and it almost affected her education, but she scaled through especially with the help of Bidemi.
‘Grace, accept my condolences’, Yemi said slowly, trying not to raise any sad emotion in Grace.
‘Oh! Please Officer. The ones that would die would die. I’ve been hoping he would return home for months but I didn’t see anyone. That is a reason enough for me not to think over his death any longer’.
Yemi felt tears swelling in his eyes, so he quickly pinched it away and checked the time- 9:30.
‘I saw a man in Greencity that looked exactly like Bidemi’, Yemi said blankly.’ And, he is connected to a murder case that I am working on now, and that’s why I came to ask questions’.
Grace edged forward in her seat, and looked at Yemi intently as if she hadn't given up on her husband being dead. The chair screeched.
‘Where is his picture? Don’t you have any picture of him? Anything that might make me see him? Even though he is a look-alike’.
‘But I thought…’ Yemi said and changed his mind, 'someone stole the phone that has the picture from me in the bus. And you do not need to bother, since…’
‘I need to see him. What if it is Bidemi?’
‘But…’ Yemi said again and kept quiet, 'he is not the one because this other person does not know me’.
‘What if he is pretending?’
‘Nah…’ Yemi said shaking his head, ‘this one wasn't pretending at all; in fact, the way he looked at me, one would know he had never seen me in his entire life’.
‘So…’ Yemi said as he rose, and dusted off unseen dirt from his body, smoothening his trousers, ‘Grace, I’ll have to return to the station to know what we can make of that murder case’.
Saying that, he turned towards the door but Grace pulled his cloth.
‘Please, Officer Yemi, let me follow you…To clear my mind, for me to truly believe he is dead because I am not sure he is dead. I have a feeling he is still alive’.
She went down on her knees.
‘Please, let me follow you to this person in Green City’.
***
Rachael almost jumped for joy as she got to the concluding part of her final plan.
‘I’m good! I’m their boss! I’m the great schemer’, she whispered as she carried the bags of money into her car. She had been monitoring Chief’s transactions for months now and had been waiting for the biggest one to click, to lay her hands on it.
So, when she got the information about this one, she knew she had to grab it and hold fast to it. Luckily for her, Chief still enjoyed following the primitive ways of collecting money. The people, who brought the money to him, brought it to the house:50 billion naira. She found a way to drug everyone in the house that day since they all trusted her. She had served the family for long and it was time to get out. More so, they saw it as a privilege for Rachael, a whole Rachael, to cook for them and serve them.
However, she couldn't leave without saving her crush, newfound lover and, hopefully the father of her unborn child. She couldn't leave without taking Leech from the place she was forced to put him. The place she was forced to hide him from the evil of this world and Chief's desire to use him.
The moment she got outside the building, she tipped the gateman, and zoomed off. Agric Area straight, she thought. She had rushed down all the way from Greencity to Brown valley when she caught notice of the money. The money was like the flower that blossomed in adversity. It was the rare and beautiful.
Her phone rang: It was Martha. ‘Hello Mat…’
‘Once is here’, she whispered.
Rachael inhaled and became rattled. She glanced at her bottle of coffee and gulped it with a great intensity that could break the bottle.

germaphobe:
always as expected

Thanks..


Update on its way

LightQueen:
Lol please go to bed

Thanks..

LightQueen:
Interesting.. so enjoying this

Thanks Divepen1

Still up by 2:44... Wow.. I envy. Saying this with heavy eyes...

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Ann2012:
Interesting, so Rachael even knows Jerry
Thanks for the update

Oh! Yes.. You're welcome..

Chapter 9
Meeting The Great Schemer

The light went off again, without giving Jerry the opportunity to see who it was.
Jerry held his breathe, wishing the person was the beautiful thief, hoping she had come to give him a chance to love her forever.
‘Shhh’, the voice said near him.
He jumped. That was her voice- silky, hair-raising, and tinkling- filtering through his ear. And then, electricity was restored, the old fan reporting to duty as it squeaked continuously.
‘Whoa...You scared me.', he said as he turned to see her frame. Indeed, it was his beautiful night thief. His heart skipped a beat as he saw her. The last time he saw, she was desperate to escape her attackers but today she was not desperate to escape any attacker. Instead, she was at home and that gave her a queenly look. Olivia's beauty be damned. This was pure beauty. The beautiful night thief was wearing a black top and black jean trousers and her hair was packed, giving her a sultry look. ‘Hello, Jerry'.
‘Hello, my night visitor', he said as he stretched his hand to take her handshake.
She giggled when she saw the way he responded to her touch, he himself didn’t know what happened but he felt his body vibrating when she touched him as if her touch was electrifying.
‘Night visitor!’ She said amusingly as she went across the room to the seat he brought back inside the room and sat on it.
Jerry also sat, looking at her intently as he tried to fathom why his body vibrated when their hands met the other time. He imagined how it would be to feel her touch again, to feel her hands on his body, to hear her raspy voice talk to him one more time. His heart warmed at the thought of that.
‘You know you should consider moving to a bigger place, where you can have chairs and the rest', she said as she played with her hair and kept staring at him.
‘So how has it been with you?’ He asked, with the hope of striking a good conversation between them.
She smiled, loosened her hair, and shook her head gently as her hair graciously rested on her shoulders.
‘How has it been? Well, it had been as usual. Living as a fugitive, running from here to there, not being able to stay in one place like Satan. It's hard. Especially these days that people now wonder if the thief they have been chasing was actually a thin boy or a woman. But, I don’t allow the thought of being caught hit my little beating heart. So, I have been here and there and as usual I mistakenly…'She smiled broadly when she said this,' yes... mistakenly stole this phone'. She brought out a phone.
The phone! Jerry's was stunned by the sight of the only phone that connected him to the dead man.
‘Ah...How...How did you get that?' Jerry said, batting his eyes, as he rose from his bed to meet her.
He dragged it out of her hand as she pointed it at him. Quickly, he scrolled to the gallery and saw his picture as he moved backward.
‘Your picture made me save the phone from the eyes of the man that was staring at it', the night visitor continued.’ He kept staring at it like you stared at me that night’.
Jerry mouthed a word and allowed it die.
'Since, the picture was yours, I figured the phone might be yours too, so I stole it, but after I stole it, I discovered that the phone was not yours neither was it the man's, but I felt you need to know about the man that was staring at your picture'.
She brought out another android phone and showed him the picture: a picture of the policeman that came to his place in the afternoon.
‘So, what up between the two of you?’
‘Nothing much’, he said, scowling as he deleted his picture from the phone and sat on the bed, happy with himself, happy that he was free from whatever allegation they might want to hold against him. All he needed to do was to go through the phone for any information that might help him.
‘Or are you people gay?’
‘What?’ Jerry shouted, his voice resounding in the dark cold night. ‘Me… Gay? God forbid…’ He said, shaking his head vigorously. There was nothing worth chasing on the guy's phone.
‘Good’.
Her expertise as a thief had saved him from further investigation of the police. He decided to tell her part of the truth.
‘Someone took my picture and was later found dead. So, they thought I might be involved. Now that you have freed me. How I can repay you?’ Jerry said coming to the edge of the bed.
‘Can’t you keep on living with me? Do you have to continue being a fugitive? I live here alone, no friend or…’ He stopped himself from talking. She shouldn’t be aware of all this information until they have had a good relationship. People play others when they have such information. He didn’t want to be a victim of such.
She laughed heartily, her voice mixing with the swirling, the squeaking and the ‘whee’ sound of the fan.
‘Keep living with you? There is always a new thing in every new place; more so, I will stop moving all about when I’m sure the wind of life will truly come as a breeze and not a storm. I guess we are at par. I've repaid you for the last time. I can’t live with you for many reasons... Now,’ she said as she moved to the door like a model.
Jerry wondered what she was up to as she locked it. She turned to him graciously, removed her t-shirt, took her hand to the zip of her trouser, let it slip off her body gently, switched off the light, and before Jerry could see clearly, she planted a kiss on his lips.
***
When Jerry woke up the next morning, she was gone.
‘Again’, he muttered as he used his head to hit the bed in despair, angry that he had allowed sleep to overcome him again. She must be so good at entering and breaking because of the way she moved. He rolled off the bed the moment he saw a letter on the bed. Like the other day, she had replaced herself with a letter.

'Jerry,
Sweet. God, you are good. I hope we have the chance to meet again. Did you watch the film I asked you to watch? No. If Yes, I’m not sure you have seen what I wanted you see. The questions you should ask yourself: What is the most essential thing after air, water, and food? What is the word which when the first and the last letter is remove means unity? Someday, this hide and seek period will be gone- Night Visitor.
The last sentence baffled Jerry. He sat up. What is unity?
Accord…Harmony…Consensus…One. One?
What is the essential thing of life except those things she listed below? Jerry shook his head when the thought of shelter crept into his mind, and used his hand to ward off an imaginary object registered in his mind. The light was still on. So, he scrambled out of the bed to plug his laptop and all other gadgets. He decided that he would watch the film, Jack Ryan, again. Then, he settled down to be sure he wasn't missing anything. As he was watching the movie, he got it. He got it. He threw his fists into the air and tumbled on the bed. He got it.
‘Whoa! Oh! My God!’
Quickly, as if he was on fire, Jerry rushed out of the bed and got dressed. Then, he rushed to the landlord’s apartment. The thin man came out after he relayed a message to the landlord’s wife that he wanted to see the landlord.
‘Good morning, Mr. Jerry’, the landlord said with a strong Yoruba accent, extending his hand for a shake.
‘Good morning sir’, Jerry said, taking the landlord’s handshake half-heartedly.
‘I hope all is well?’
‘Yes sir. Please, I want to ask…’ Jerry said, wondering how he would post this question at the landlord. ‘Please sir, I can’t remember, but I’m not sure you have given me any receipt since I got here because I can’t find any in my room’.
‘Oh! I’m sorry, I should have sent Bimpe, that my short beautiful daughter, to you, but I always forget’, the landlord said. 'But, Mr. Jerry, don’t worry I will send someone to you’.
‘Okay sir’, Jerry said as he left for his room, wondering how this was connected to what he watched in the movie. Then, he wondered why he didn’t tell the landlord to give him there, that he wasn't busy, that he could wait for him to write and sign the receipt. So, he turned back and returned to the landlord’s room and as he was about to knock, he heard,
‘Hello! The boy is already asking questions’.
His night thief was right: follow the money and the money will guide your path. Now, he seemed to have a better thing to do than listen to Pastor Matthew's ramble about a coming doom and building an underground road.

***
Yemi James was prepared to meet her, he was already up, but Grace Adeoti asked him to come around 9 0’clock that morning. He searched his pocket for the phone, but he didn’t find it.
‘What?’ He mouthed. Then, he remembered the beautiful lady that was sitting beside him, she nearly fell on him as she was about to get out of the bus.
‘Foolish thieves’, he muttered as soon as the clock struck 8:30, he stood and left for Grace’s place, happy that she trusted him with her life. They were almost family because their lives were almost intertwined. Every year, something brought them together almost.
Her home was at Damola estate, which was a stone throw from the hotel he settled in. When he got there, she entertained him with gladness. He wondered how she still kept her beauty in check; her trimmed curvy beautiful body still in shape; her fair skin still shining; her hair still long; and her face that looked like Angelina Jolie’s still well structured.
‘Thank you. I’m sorry I came to disturb you’.
‘Officer Yemi, disturb me?’ She said with a bright smile as if that was a permanent feature of her face.
‘Thank you’, he said he sipped the drink before him, ‘please, when last did you hear from Bidemi… You know the Bidemi I’m talking about right’.
Grace nodded, her bright smile still lingering on her lips as she looked at him.
‘It’s almost seven months now’.
‘Oh!’ Yemi gasped, and sighed heavily, 'I thought you would help me get in touch with him, because I need to get some information from him. So what happened? Did you people not end up…? You know… Married?’
‘Yes. Yes. We married’, she said, ‘and the foolish boy decided to leave me’.
‘Oh! You divorced?’
‘No. He ran away from home, as if he was trying to divert the attention of something bad. He left me and the next day, his body… No… His headless body was found… Dead, stone cold dead’.

***
Rachael, the beautiful thief, was happy with herself, with her achievement. Although she knew the implication, she loved it. How would it be that the guy she had spent most of her life crushing upon would die without sleeping with her?
She had planned it well and fate helped her. Her plan was simple: she waited for that period when it was most unsafe to have any sexual intercourse with any man and slept with Leech, now known as Jerry. Jasper was the fate that played into the scene. She would have dumped his body into the river but she allowed his body lay beside the river. She followed the policeman until it was safe to steal the phone. Then, she wondered when Leech, her most beloved, would stop being careless.
Racheal gently rubbed her stomach as she hoped her stomach wouldn’t shoot out before her second plan came into play. She hoped Leech understood her letter.

nastynic:
Lovely Update Bruh, More Grace

Thanks boss.. Amemmmm

LightQueen:
Well done Divepen1

Thanks Queen..

Ann2012:
Thanks Sweetie
Seat claimed, keep the updates coming OP

Welcome on board..

Chapter 8
Visitors

A good night rest and a sound spirit are the only things needed to make a man whole after a long day of trouble and unexpected event. Jerry woke into the darkness at 11.30pm after sleeping off in the evening, after the great ordeal between Rita and him.
The whole concept of loneliness was so sweet and very good to Jerry. He spent most of his free time surfing the net, reading every news he could lay his hand on with curiosity, and great concentration as if they were his problem. He read about climatic changes, Travels, criminal cases, death, and it was in this wake he delved into the searching for past news; they entertained a man, whose brain has been wiped off, who knows, he might find things about himself.
That night, again like the week the beautiful thief came to his house, there had been another accident, and their power had been disconnected. Due to the harmattan, everywhere was cold and not as hot as that day but he wished the juicy part of that day would repeat itself.
She wouldn’t come, he assured himself. Sleep refused to come and there was no power on his laptop. He had used the little power on it to finish the film the beautiful thief asked him to watch, and he enjoyed the film a lot. But he didn’t see anything extraordinary in the film. Maybe, the message was that he should be careful.
Rita wasn’t bent on knowing anything about his past. All she told him was that she wanted to know him in the present, and, if possible, she wanted to know him more in the future but none of his past. And with that he himself didn’t see reasons to delve more into asking about her past; yet, their conversation went smoothly.
After waiting for the sleep, which wasn't forthcoming, Jerry rose from the bed, picked his plastic chair from a corner, and went outside. The day had had enough event, and he was sure it was safe again to sit outside his room without fear of anything.
The most interesting event of the day was when Rita accused him. At that time, he wished she wasn't good with time, that she was sloppy with things like that. The look on her face proved she was right and that she needed an answer immediately. No excuses were allowed. No lie was wanted.
Jerry dragged her into his room, explained everything, expecting her to either shout or make a fuss about it, but she surprised him.
‘That’s good, but tell me: do you have such a scary past that an unknown guy would call you Leech and even plan to kill you?’ She said, her hand fiddling with his bedsheet. Her shrill voice heightened his breathe.
‘I don’t know… I do not know, maybe I’m a look-alike… Maybe, he is a Psycho or, who knows, one of those people who are bent on making it in life that they can use anything, maybe,’ he shrugged, hoping she would understand him.
’ Maybe…’, he said stuttering.
‘Shhh…’ she said, putting her right index finger on his lips. What did they say about index finger? When you place a ring on it, it shows you are searching for a partner, someone to love.
‘I trust you with all my life that you didn’t kill that man, or whoever they accused you of killing’, Rita said, moved nearer to him, still staring at him.
Their eyes spoke wonders, hungers and desires. She kissed his lips briefly and that little action escalated into something else, something they never expected. The end of it met them on the bed, panting heavily as they communicated only through the smiles of their mouth and the brightness of their eyes. Without reaching a consensus on whether they should go on another round, they went for another round.
Around 11:55pm, Jerry left for his room because the youths of the street had made a proclamation that nobody must be seen outside after 12 in the midnight. So, he closed the door and jumped into his bed.
‘Arg....’ he and someone shouted at the same time. Jerry flew off his bed, and ran for the door. There was no light to fight whoever it was. The person had gotten to his room before him, leaving him unprepared. No matter how fast the person was, he should be faster than the person at getting to the door.
'Stop, my friend', a silky voice said. The light was restored.
***
Once used to be a normal guy that one would pass on the street and would wish to beat up. His melancholic demeanor always made people dot on him. Moreover, he was lanky.
When he noticed this trouble of having a melancholic look, he decided to change his look, and the first thing he did was to start have love for some things that would change his look. He liked cutting his hair to skin, wearing big chains, leaving his beard and moustache, putting on body-hugging clothes to please himself that he was building muscles, and that he was to be feared.
He drummed his fingers on his laps, folded and unfolded them as he waited for Jasper’s girlfriend to give him a positive reply.
‘Hello’, he said hurriedly the moment her, and cautioned himself from letting this lady know that he loved Jasper, ‘What did you F.F.M?’
‘What?’
‘Find for me?’
‘I’ve not been able to reach him’, she said with fear reflecting in her voice.
‘Hey…Take a chill pill, babe. Is it not that foolish boy? He must be doing business somewhere’, he said, with a voice that didn’t reassure him himself. His stick of sweet dangled from his mouth. ‘He would call you, if I get him… Erm… Where was his LKL?’
‘Lk what?’
‘Last known Location’.
‘Agric area’, she said, ‘he told me he was going there. Tell him to call me’.
‘Alright, enjoy yourself. TTYL’.
Agric area, next stop.
‘Let’s go get wicked’, he mumbled.

Chapter 7
The Titans Are Rising

'I'm still alive', Jerry kept repeating as he glanced over his shoulders for the umpteenth time that day, scanning the environment for any sign of anyone following him as he returned home from church. But all he could see was the old haggard woman crunched at a corner of the street. It was two days to Christmas and many days from the day he escaped; yet, the fear of the event still held him bound.
Thunder rumbled in distance. Despite being the 8th week after his near-death experience, he couldn't shake off the fear that something big was coming for him. And he relayed these fears to Pastor Matthew, who kept supporting him morally.
'This sweet strawberry', he muttered as he inhaled mixed fragrance of harmattan and the air freshener in his room, which Rita had placed there two days ago when she came to visit him.
He and Rita had become an item and her dressing style was going through its pruning sessions. Just when he thought he was hidden in the safety of his room, someone knocked the door, jolting Jerry out of his thought about the horrible harmattan. Jerry opened his mouth, held his breathe, and closed it again. The knock came again.
Jerry quickly scanned the room and allowed his eyes to ransack it as he sought for a good, strong, long, harmful object. He rushed to the stick he had started keeping in his room since his encounter with his dead assailant.
‘Yes?’ He said with a voice that would have made any chicken-hearted fellow cow away from his door.
‘Good afternoon’, a cool throaty reply came from outside the room, as if the owner was used to such threat.
Jerry looked through a hole to be prepared for any eventualities. The face was unfavorably unfamiliar and that gave him a better reason to tighten his grip on the stick. His breathe steadied to prevent him from overacting as he poised himself for retaliation in case there was a need for it.
Jerry opened the door and quickly surveyed the man before him. The man was short, fair, and slim, and had shrewd eyes. his nose pointed forward as if it could even smell the thought of men’s heart.
He looked up and smiled warily, giving Jerry an opportunity to calculate where he would hit the man if he tried anything foolish, or if he made any unwanted move.
‘Yes?’ Jerry said, scowling at the man, squinting his face as the cold white breeze of harmattan rushed to his eyes and nose.
‘Good afternoon sir…’, the policeman said and stared at him, opened his mouth, and changed what he wanted to say, swallowed hard, squinted his eyes, widened his long nose, cocked his head to a side as if he was searching for something from Jerry’s eyes. Then, he straightened when he seemed not to find what he was looking for in Jerry, ’we saw this phone on a dead man and would like to …’
‘Who are you? Who is the ‘we’ ‘, Jerry cut-in, and his beat increasing as he prepared himself for anything. Can it be that his life was more complicated than he thought? Should he worry about his past? He opened his mouth halfway in expectation of a bad news.
‘Oh! I’m sorry’, the short man said as he brought out a neat ID card out of his front pocket and pointed it at Jerry, who drew nearer to be sure he was seeing right,’ I’m Inspector Yemi…’
‘Good…’ He said as he gently released the stick he was holding on the wall, making sure that it didn’t fall so that the policeman wouldn’t think otherwise. Then, it occurred to him that the police would be investigating the death of his assailant.
‘As I was saying the other time, we saw this phone on a dead man, and we were surprised to see your picture in it’.
‘My picture?’ Jerry said as he edged forward to see the picture, which the policeman pointed at him. It was the picture of the cloth he was putting on the day of the death of his assailant. The picture was taken when Jerry was coming out of the room. He had to ward off this police. He quickly changed his look of fear to a quizzical look.
‘That’s me of course’, he proclaimed.
‘We know… Have you ever seen this man?’ The police said, raising his own phone to show Jerry the picture of the dead man.
When Jerry saw the picture of the dead man, he almost shouted that that was the man, who wanted to kill him some days before, whom death saved Jerry from.
‘No. I’ve never seen him…But what was he doing with my picture? That was me last month, on my way to meet one of the teachers of the school I work in’.
‘Does this teacher live around here? Can I talk to her?’
‘Yes… Yes…’ Jerry said, happy to have an alibi who would readily, happily and surely vindicate him, making sure that she didn’t say anything that would spoil what he said before, ‘excuse me, let me get my phone’.
Jerry rushed to the room to pick his phone and called Rita in the presence of the police, and she came to testify that she saw him, even when the police asked her if she could remember the time he got to her, she told him he got to her around 5.00pm, which would have been true because the picture was taken 4.51pm of that same day.
When the police left, Jerry smiled with relief and longed to hug Rita, to kiss her for saving him, but he restrained himself with the hope he would get his opportunity soon. He turned to face her, only to see her eyes running on him intently. Her expression poised.
‘Where were you from 4:51- 5:50?’
Unluckily for him, Rita was a time-freak, who believed humans couldn't tie the day down with a rope. She kept track of every of her movement, and kept track time of all the things she did. Therefore, when she said it’s 5.50pm, it was truly 5.50pm.
***
Officer Yemi was surprised at what he saw. He still couldn’t believe his eyes. The young man he saw was Bidemi Bennett Adeoti and he was supposed to know him. In fact, he knew him very well. Their path had crossed many times especially on the occasion of people's death. And unfortunately this time, on the occasion of another person’s death.
Though he knew that Bidemi wasn't a member of any bad group or cult because he had followed him when they were in the University, Yemi did know that evil occurrences lurked around Bidemi, and that people liked to pass blame on Bidemi, making the world believe he did what he didn’t do.
Yemi knew and have heard enough about Bidemi to know that ladies talked about him when he was in the University as if he was their god. Their eyes sparkled whenever they saw him. They giggled behind him, always avoiding his eyes whenever he mistakenly felt their eyes on himself. They scribbled his name whenever they were daydreaming. All of these to Yemi’s chagrin because all his life he had wanted such attention but had gotten them from only his wife, a very beautiful lady, Rose, whose only problem was jealousy.
Bidemi acted as if he didn’t know him; in fact, as if their path had never crossed. Maybe he was indeed a look-alike. Whatever the case was, Yemi needed to find out from someone, who would know every bit of information about Bidemi. The strong feeling in his guts was never wrong. Not for once.
***
Once had expected Jasper back for days now. Even though he knew Jasper was always rude to him and disliked some of his actions, he saw Jasper as his protégé and valued him like a little brother. He hadn’t seen him for some days, which was unlike Jasper, who liked being around, letting everyone know he was around, hale, hearty, and ready for any job.
Once called his phone number, it wasn't ringing- switched off, which wasn't a good sign. Once rolled the stick of sweet in his mouth and knew what must be done. He needed to find Jasper immediately.

samwobi:
Wonderful Story. I'm Amazed

Thanks..

Fazemood:
My apology for reporting to duty late, I hope I get pardoned.

Oga Divepen1 it is a nice story you've got here for us.

Was Jerry really an assassin name Leech before he woke up with a blank memory?

Better late than never.
Further info will tell...

Odoogu:
Thanks for the update.. Still following.✌✌

You're welcome. Good to know you're still following.

izaray:
Hope those pictures won't put Jerry into another wahala

Thanks for the update Op

One hopes. You're welcome. And thanks for the comments..

Working on the other parts.