₦airaland Forum

sigmundfreud: Good job as expected!
Are you done? Or u still gonna update later?
Lemme know so i can start...
Will post my critique when am done.

I'm done sir.

He touched it.
Hope gets arrested at the end o

Critique time... Blessing time! Each time I read it, there is always something to correct. I know there are more. Please help...

Rap maestro: Hurray! Hurray!! Hurray!!! Oahray

lol

Cuddlemii: And you almost didn't include Oahray at first.

But, I disagreed, there is nothing like good writers. The idea is variety and spice.

I knew he was talented right from the game thread.

Nice work, Oahray!

I'm so gonna frame this and hang it on my wall
Thanks.

[quote author=Efemena_xy]Nice, impressive stuff Oahray!

Well done!

This story is really going places & at this rate, I'm gonna be wayyyyyyyy outta ma depth!

@ Larry: Permission to fall out? T'is better to quit while ahead... [/quote]lol... Thanks. You are being too modest with your prowess methinks.

[quote author=Larry-Sun]I so much like the direction this story is taking, love it immensely. Everyone is doing a spectacular job. Oahray, I'm glad I added you among the members. You delight me so! Can I have a hug? [/quote]hehehehe... *hugzzzzzz*

Please remind me not to update with my phone next time. Damn stressful

Lucan shifted uncomfortably. It was 8:30pm and he had been sitting on the bare floor of his cell for hours. The hardness of the cold concrete floor was beginning to hurt.

He had met his lawyer for the first time that morning. She had promised to try her best to clear his name. That was not what he wanted.

He knew one thing. If he was going to be convicted, it was only going to be for something he was truly guilty of. He knew what he had to do. He walked to the metal protector sealing his cell and called the jailer. The jailer was on a solo shift in Lucan's section of the prison that night.

"Wetin?" the jailer asked with a scowl as he walked towards Lucan.

"Please I need to drink water"

"See this one o. I resemble your servant, or are you a learner? Shey them put you for cell make you dey drink water?" He hissed and turned to walk away.

In a split second Lucan grabbed him through the protector and before the jailer could react, dealt a blow to the back of his head with the edge of his open hand. Lucan knew the exact spot to hit. He had learned how to knockout an opponent by hitting him, not hard enough to cause death, just below the Occipital ridge at the back of the head.

The guard collapsed on the floor near the protector without as much as a scream. Lucan found the keys attached to his belt, opened the gate and pulled the unconscious body in.

Five minutes later, Lucan stepped out of his cell wearing the jailer's outfit. He locked the gate but left the key in the keyhole so the unconscious man could free himself when he regained consciousness.

It was easy to walk to the prison's main entrance without any suspicion. They all thought he was a jailer and responded to his greetings.

Rage possessed his thoughts. He had only one plan. He was going to find Tracy's killer and kill him too, then turn himself in to be arrested and tried. He would plead guilty and after getting hanged, he would find and beat Chief Koko to a pulp wherever he was in the spirit world, if it truly existed.

With eyes bloodshot, Lucan walked calmly into the darkness outside.

There was a fifth post, the one that had just entered. She had never seen this member write anything before. Asking questions about the member was strictly forbidden by Madam K. It was an unwritten rule, this member was always the first to thumb up a post. If not, no one else dared to, not even Madam K. Confused, Enoh looked at the post again.

"Chasing shadows is the sound of one hand clapping." -Him.

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Sharon took off her sunglasses and walked into the mortuary building. She was glad she was finally leaving the fiery glare of the sun. It was just a few minutes after 10am, yet the sun had no mercy. She wondered why the weather had been excessively hot of recent. She knew March was usually the hottest month of the year, but this was November. Global warming perhaps?

Her mind wandered some hours back, to Lucan. She had visited Lucan with David that morning. Just a few days in prison and he looked a far cry from the man that had impressed her with his testimony in a court case.

She knew he was not guilty, she was sure of it. However, his was a complicated case. She had seen the hurt in his eyes, and felt the pain in his voice when he talked about Tracy. It had made her determined to do her best for justice sake, and well, her job too.

Something about Lucan bothered her though. His words... "I owe it to Tracy... I owe it to her to get convicted, but for a commited crime."

"Come off it man." David had rebuked him. "It was not your fault and you know it."

Maybe David did not read anything into his words, or maybe there was nothing to read into it. It just made Sharon uneasy and she had no idea why.

Sharon sighed her relief at seeing someone. The mortuary premises looked deserted, she had noticed. Well it was understandable, a mortuary wasn't exactly the coolest place to hang out.

"Good morning sir." she greeted. He looked younger than she was, but it did not matter. Her polite mode was fully active as it always was in times like this.

"Good morning..." he looked up and added "ma'am".

She scanned him quickly, he had a badge on, she could see he was an intern not a full staff.

"I'd like to see Dr Suleman. He's the mortician here, right?"

"Em... Yes, actually more of a pathologist or coroner. Anything the matter?"

"Oh no, not at all. I am a lawyer working on a case and I might need the help of an expert."

He looked at her again and wished he could help her. He had a thing for pretty ladies.

A man walked out with a limp from inside where he had been waiting. His eyes looked teary. The intern saw him but ignored him.

"I'm not sure he'd be coming today, but if it's rather urgent and the help you need doesn't require official endorsement, I'd be glad to help. I'm an intern here."

"You are far too kind sir. I think I should check back later." She said turning to leave.

"Alright then, have a nice day." he smiled before turning to face the man who had been asking to search for his missing sister.

"I'm sorry sir, I am not allowed to show you any body. You'd have to wait till the doctor comes or come back later." the young intern said dryly. This was no lady and he was not interested in being nice to him.

"Please sir this is urgent. She has been missing for some days now." the man pleaded in a voice laced with thick yoruba accent.

"Sorry, I can't help you sir." the intern was firm.

"Okay, I will come back later."

The man walked out through the gate. With no one outside, his limp was gone. He knew his stuff. Little wonder he was reserved for more complicated tasks and Ayodele sent on minor ones that did not require publicity. He put on a pair of sunglasses and reached for his mobile phone. When the person on the other end picked up, he cleared his throat and with a voice devoid of any accent, uttered just two words.

"Rain check."

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"I see. Tracy was a journalist working on the murder of Chief Koko in which her lover was fíngered. If Lucan is guilty of the Senator's murder, it makes sense that he would want to silence her and pass it off as an overdose of sleeping pills. A strong motive, David" she submitted.

"I know, but besides the fact that Lucan was with me at the time of her death, there's something fishy." David explained as he brought out Lucan's case file.
"I'd be in trouble if I'm caught with these. You see these two reports? They are different autopsy reports of the same death. This one was released first" He continued as he pointed to a sheet of paper.
"The clear difference shows that Lucan is being framed"

"We'd go see Lucan tomorrow. I think the Avenger part of the story does not have any strong backing. It could as well be a harmless forum, with her coincidental death fueling your conviction. I'm not saying you are wrong, but in the absence of evidence supporting your suspicions, we'd work on Mr Ibe and the mortician as main suspects, okay?"

"Alright, until I get proof, that is." David agreed.

"Wait..." Sharon was staring thoughfully at the notes she had scribbled.

"What?" David asked.

"I think there is one person we overlooked"

"Who?"

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The wall clock chimed 5 o'clock when Jack opened the door to his home and stepped in.

"Sweetheart I'm home."

There was no answer.

He could hear the sound of his wife singing in the shower.

"Sweetheart..."

"Yes" came the curt reply. She had been giving him the cold treatment for some days now, and with guilt stabbing at him, he wondered if she was beginning to suspect him.

"I'm back sugar, how would you like a back scrub from a professional?" He asked in the naughtiest voice he could muster.

"No, I'd soon be out!"

Strange, he thought to himself as he walked into their bedroom and collapsed on the bed with his suit still on. Enoh had never rejected a back scrub offer before. On every such occassion, they had ended up making love in the bathtub. On a good day, thinking about it alone was enough to send blood racing down towards his 'nature's gift to women' as he often tagged it. Not today. Too many thoughts chased each other on his mind.

Could it be she had found out somehow?

Lucan...

He knew Lucan couldn't have killed Tracy, he loved her too much. To think it was on the same day he had used Lucan's apartment for his 'away match'. He let his mind wander some days back.

Lucan had agreed to let him use his apartment for his rendezvous. Knowing how untidy Lucan could let his apartment be at times, Jack had decided to go clean it up before bringing his new catch.

It was some ten minutes after 9am when he got to Lucan's apartment. As he got out of his car, he saw a boy about to throw something into the waste bin.

He liked the image his imagination created -the nonchalance in humans, beautifully captured by this smiling passer-by leaving the road to toss waste in another person's bin without a care in the world. He was going to make a portrait drawing of it later. He would have no problem recreating the face accurately from his memory. He was that good. However, he had a problem remembering clothes.

He had quickly brought out his mobile phone and taken a shot just before the boy covered his face with his jacket's hood and walked away. With his 41megapixel Nokia 808 PureView camera, capturing images from a distance was not a problem. It's camera quality was the sole reason he had bought it. The rest of the day had gone fine and his lady had blown his mind with her expert moves. He knew he would want a repeat performance later.

His mind wandered back to the present. Lucan in jail... What if the detectives managed to link him to the murder with his presence in Lucan's apartment? In a bid to extricate himself from the mess, he would have to expose his serial infidelity. He shuddered.

He took off his clothes, wrapped his towel around himself and headed for the bathroom. He met Enoh just coming out.

"Baby, we need to talk." he told her.

"Okay." she replied as she walked past him into their room.

As Enoh creamed up, she heard the familiar alert from her laptop and reached for it. On the screen were the words:

"When a puppet fails to serve it's purpose well, it is soon discarded" -Mrs Susanna Ibe.

"Beauty is skin deep, but deadly secrets are sealed up in the bones" -Miss Amina Dasuntu.

"When hatred begins a countdown to 6ft below, nothing else counts" -Mrs Enoh Etim.

"Escaping what must be is the picture of a dog chasing its tail" -The One, Madam K.

She had seen them before and they all had 4 smileys and thumbs-up emoticons.

CHAPTER SIX

THE SOUND OF ONE HAND

SUBMITTED BY OAHRAY


Sharon took a final sip of her malta guinness drink and tossed the empty can towards the waste bin that stood open about five metres away, just by the door to her chambers.

"Bullseye!" she exclaimed as the can landed inside it, settling comfortably among the pieces of crumpled paper. Hitting the target was not unusual but she congratulated herself with some applause anyway. Even in her tightest of schedules, she never missed her daily malt drink or the can-tossing ritual that followed it if a waste bin was nearby.

This time, she was far from being busy. Infact, she was bored already. She had not planned to come today but for the call from David earlier in the day.

She had met David for the first time when she was working on one of her cases. He had been of immense help to her more than she had expected. She was grateful. That was almost two years ago. They had, since then, moved on from acquaintance zone but never really crossing into something more than just friendship.

She liked his wizardry in technology especially his expertise with computers and the ease with which he manipulated them to get whatever he wanted. In turn, he was impressed with her vast knowledge of facts and figures. It was not unconnected to the fact that she had an eye for details. That was where it ended. They were just friends.

Her eyes reverted for the upteenth time back to the front page of the national daily she had bought on her way to her office.

[size=24pt]WHO KILLED CHIEF KOKO?[/size]

•"WE ARE ON TOP OF IT" -Police.

•DOUBLE TROUBLE! Lover found dead in suspect's home:
"She was murdered" -Police

Sharon had not taken much interest in the Chief Koko case until the call from David. He wanted her to represent his friend in court. He had recently found some evidence about which he could not talk on phone and they had arranged to meet at her office.

She skimmed through as if searching for something.
Lucan... She remembered him well from the murder case of the 12year old girl. She had followed that case with keen interest because the victim was a child. When Lucan got cross-examined, she had marveled at the thoroughness of his investigation. With everything he had uncovered, the defendant's guilt was no longer in doubt. Victory for justice, she thought. The Nigerian Police Force had some credibility afterall.

"She's young and pretty." Sharon thought to herself as she studied the picture of the latest victim, Miss Tracy Oluwami.

Just as she set to reading again the story under Tracy's picture, there was a knock on the door and someone said "hello". It was David's voice. She glanced at her watch, it read 4:55pm.

"Come in" she said softly. She looked at the figure that walked in. He had not changed at all since she last set her eyes on him some months ago. He looked smart in his black t-shirt and dark-blue denim trousers.

"David Akporodia the great!" she hailed, beaming with smiles and extending her right hand for a shake.

"Sharon Ojemen of facts and figures! Oh, sorry, Barrister Sharon Ojemen." He paused and shook the offered hand, eyeing her slim figure in the grey trouser suit. "You look great".

"Oh, thank you sir, you are far too kind. You do not look bad yourself. Have your seat"

They spent the next thirty minutes talking about the Chief Koko case, with David telling him everything Lucan had told him, from his dream to his suspension from the police force.

"He's innocent." David concluded his narration.

"I know." she assured him with a sweet smile.

"How would you know that?"

"Becaaaause... I am his lawyer." she replied, tongue in cheek. "Alright, this is a very complicated case with more questions than answers. His dream is weird enough, but even worse is the strange number. How could the late Chief have called him with a non-existent number?"

"That's easy" David cut in. "It is called 'call-spoofing'. Anyone with knowledge of telecoms should be able to pull it off with an internet connection or specially designed gadgets and apps."

"Hmmm... Why would a person who knows he is about to be murdered and needs urgent help spend his time trying to veil his caller identity?" she asked after some thought.

"Ok, I considered that too and here's what I think. In the face of imminent death, Chief Koko could not have made a spoofed call. Whoever called Lucan as the Senator is the same person as the killer who wrote Lucan's name and number on the paper found on his corpse."

She nodded her understanding and asked about Tracy's death. As David narrated his adventure with Lucan the evening Tracy died, Sharon scribbled furiously on her legal pad.

Now it's my turn, dem wan turn am to chat thread

In other news, I think any time saved from early updates should NOT be added to that of the next writer. That way, the total time it would take to complete the story would reduced.

[quote author=Larry-Sun]I know you're going to deliver a blow to our solar plexus. [/quote]I pray o

Yeah... Good point.