(S1) PARTNERS IN CRIME! E2

God knows i have been trying to post this story around 6pm. Where I was, glo network was frustrating. For those waiting, I'm sorry!! 

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Episode 2 title: The Fifth Target.

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“Do you want us to see her now?” Tiwa chipped in to ask nippily. Going home without moving further about the case was irrational. If they couldn’t speak with the daughter of the victim, it would be better to speak with the new target. Although she was hungry but her empty stomach could wait. The food she had eaten in the plane was thrown down into the toilet before they landed.

“Please if it is possible to see her right now, I will appreciate it.” The fretful tone of his thick voice showed he was concerned. There was sweat leaking out from his forehead and dropping down to his face. 

Genevieve arms were crossed on her chest. She was having a second thought. Her family was very important but the case was vital. 

Tiwa waited for her opinion but when no words came out from her mouth, she spoke to her. “I think I should go alone, I will give you the details when I am through.”

“Please wait, let me speak with my husband on the phone.”

“Okay.”

Genevieve scrambled away from them and punched the digits of Quincy’s number. Tiwa collected Modupe Lawson’s cell number and the description of her home address.

Quincy answered. “Baby how are you?”

“I’m fine. What about Freddie?”

“He’s doing okay. Are you coming to the office now?”

“I can…” Genevieve’s soft voice broke into two. “I can’t… there is a new case, I and agent Tiwa are investigating.”

“A new case? You mean Tiwa Bankole? My friend’s girlfriend?”

“Yes.”

“Wonderful.” he said in a bemused voice. “I still don’t get you Genny... why, I mean what is really going on?”

“I will explain better when I am through. Someone that calls himself the contractor is targeting eight people. There is a list and the first target is dead. We are going to see one of the targets.”

“This case is serious and could be dangerous too. We should not speak about this on the phone. Do whatever you think is right, I and Freddie will be fine even though we are missing you…” She smiled widely and told him she missed them too. “Don’t forget to eat lunch.”

“I won’t.” His concern voice melted her heart. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Genevieve ended the call, heaved out a low sigh and walked up to meet Tiwa to inform her they would be going together.

“Thank you so much.” The inspector said and Officer Gabriel was directed to drive them.

******

(Modupe)

I have never killed a chicken before not to talk of a human being so why should my life be threatened when I have done nothing wrong. My mother has been breathing down my neck to confess what I had done in the past and ask for forgiveness. What I did to Jude was absolutely nothing, it was something that he deserved and as his wife, I was entitled to the money.

After years of thinking I was a free woman living abroad, taking care of my kids and having a good time, my immediate brother Tunde informed me Jude was spotted in a market square and after his mother found him, he was taken to a psychiatric hospital and he has been there for a long time. I was shocked. I thought committing suicide would have been better and eased his pain. Who would have known he would lose his mind!

In spite of living lavishly abroad and knowing I was still married to a mentally deranged man made me nauseous. Whenever my kids ask after their father, I told them he was far away and unable to reach them. They are ten years old now and if they found out about him, they might see me as a bad mother. No no! I won’t. Jude deserved whatever he got and I do not feel a pinch of pity for him. In fact, I want him to come back in his right senses, remember my name, slump and go into coma. Nonsense!

He cheated and rubbed my name on mud. Why won’t I pay him back by collecting everything he had? I didn’t do anything wrong!

I came back to make sure Jude sign the divorce papers even in his unbalanced state of mind only for me to check my mail and see a list that sent fright into my bones and then I thought I have never offended anyone, it is the other way around. I had to tell my father and the next thing he did was call his friend the inspector general of police. 

“Modupe!!” I heard my mother screamed my name in panic. “Don’t give me heart attack. I am already old, don’t make matter worse for me. Just tell us who you have wronged and we will settle and pay anything amount of money.”

“You can give me the money and I will sort myself out.” I told her.

“Is something wrong with your head?” My father asked me. I turned to look into his eyes and they were red. I simply glanced in another direction to avoid being spiritually. “Instead of you to be worried and telling us the truth, you are doing nothing!”

I just had to look at him. “But the inspector has assigned two investigators on it.”

“They are coming and you better give them the correct answers to the questions they would ask you. Understood?”

“Understood dad.” I said quietly and stared at my apprehensive mother. “I think you should rest. I will be fine.”

“I can’t rest until they catch whoever is behind it.”

“He calls himself the contractor. I wonder how my name got on the list. I insist I have not offended anyone. I also want to be alone with the detectives when they come.”

My mother eyed me from head to toe and hissed. I stood, walked to get myself a cup of brandy, the look on their faces made me to start thinking the threat was real, and I might be in big trouble.

******
On their way to their destination, Tiwa sent Adebiyi a text message.

‘My love, all is well. I will see you when I am through’

He replied. ‘Good to know. Stay safe sugar’. Her face beamed when she read his reply.

Both of them finally arrived at the residence of Modupe’s father house. They came out from the car, walked together towards the house and met the gateman who lead them inside the beautiful home. Modupe dropped her cup on the glass stool, rose on her feet and introduced herself as the fifth target. The partners sat together and faced Modupe. 

“Can I get you some brandy?” Modupe asked rubbing her laps.

“No, thanks.” Genevieve said.

“Yes please,” Tiwa replied her. Genevieve quickly threw her stunned eyes at her. Tiwa remained focused on Modupe. “But I prefer water.”

Modupe smiled and left them.

“You think I was going for the brandy?” Tiwa whispered to Genevieve.

“The way you sounded at first made me thought you were going to say yes.”

“Well, I wanted to say yes until I noticed you directed your eyes on me.”

Her eyes widened. “For real?”

“Look,” She pointed at the small table. Genevieve eyes sailed to the glass of brandy. “I just wanted to join in her in the moment of her uneasiness. She seems nervous and if I had joined her to drink, maybe it would reduce the tension.”

“That would be unprofessional of you to do that.”

“Your eyes stopped me.”

Genevieve muttered. “Thank God.” Two of them burst out laughing moderately and when they saw Modupe approaching, they stopped. She gave Tiwa the glass of water, moved to carry her own and gulped all the content. She remained standing.

“Am I really going to die?” Modupe asked.

The water almost choked Tiwa. She stopped drinking and coughed lightly.

“You received a threat and we are going to try and stop it.” Genevieve gave an answer.

“But that is not the answer I want. What if you can’t, the contractor is going to kill me.”

“We have not come to a conclusion about why the eight people are on the list. Can you tell us if there were names on the 6^th, 7^th and 8^th numbers?”

She shook her head. “No. Don’t you think I should travel back? Mine is happening in six weeks’ time.”

“I don’t think it will change anything. Can you think of anyone that you might have offended in the past?”

“I would say no but right now the only person I can think of is unstable.”

“What do you mean by unstable?” Tiwa asked her.

“He is mentally ill and he is my ex…my husband.”

“Did you offend him?”

She gave them a brief explanation of her life but removed the part she duped him. She told them he willingly sold his property, borrowed too and gave her the money to open a hotel in her name. She changed her mind about it and asked for a divorce for cheating on her.

“He sold his property and gave you all the money?”

“Yes. He wiped out his bank account too.”

The partners looked at each other and returned their curious expression on her.

“I didn’t put a gun on his head when he did those things for me.” Modupe said innocently. “You can ask him!”

“It’s impossible. You know his condition.”

“Then it is impossible for him to be the one I offended and wants me dead!”

“I think the contractor was paid to eliminate the people on the list.” Genevieve quoted.

Tiwa thought and said, “If it is true, it means the people involved with the contractor have the money to pay. We are looking for rich friends, and even family members of the targets.”

Modupe sat down. “I can’t say about the others but my family is not capable of paying someone to kill me. Maybe if it was Jude I wronged, interrogate his mother but she is old and poor.”

“You mentioned your husband borrowed money. Is it possible he took the money from his friends and when he couldn’t pay, some of them got angry and when they found out you went away with his money, someone among them got in contact with the contractor to eliminate you?” 

The word ‘husband’ made Modupe annoyed but she chose to swallow it. “He borrowed money from the bank he worked with. I heard his house was taken from him after he could not pay back the loan.”

“Something just occurred to me.” Genevieve said. They looked at her. “You didn’t get the mail when you were abroad, it’s until you arrived Nigeria. How is it possible that the contractor knew you were coming home?”

“That’s true.” Tiwa said.

“It could be a coincidence.”

“I doubt that, a matter like this, I won’t say it is a coincidence. The person that wants you dead knew you were coming home. I want you to give us a list of the people who knew you were arriving Nigeria. We will question them.”

She glanced at another way. “I can’t.”

Tiwa eyebrow flew up.

Genevieve was surprised. “Why?”

“That’s because you are looking at the wrong people. Interrogate Jude’s mother, his friends and former colleagues.”

“This is not about Jude. This is about you, your safety and your life. Someone close to you wants you dead.”

Modupe’s eyes were getting teary. She faced them. “It might be a coincidence I received the letter when I arrived…” She paused. “My parents and my brothers.”

“Your parents and your brothers?” 

Modupe wanted to act strong. She told herself she was going to be fine, nothing bad would happen. Her nightmare would be over but her heart kept beating fast. The emotion she felt swam all over her. Tears fell from her eyes. She was crying hard. “My parents and my brothers are the ones that knew I was coming, just the four of them.”

“Oh!”

“I am sorry.” Tiwa said.

She cleaned the tears from her face. “Family means a lot to me. They are not capable of hurting me.” 

“But we have to speak with them.”

“You can, just leave my parents out of this. They are really worried about it.”

“We will need the phone numbers and home addresses of your brothers.”

“No problem.” Modupe said, left and came back with a piece of paper. She gave it to Genevieve instead and collected her number. She was still upset Tiwa referred to Jude as her ‘husband’.

“Are your brothers aware about the contractor?” Genevieve asked.

“Not yet, I will let them know immediately you leave.”

“Don’t.”

“Why?”

“We will like to break the news to them first.”

“If that is what you want, no problem.” she said sadly. “I will tell my parents too.”

They thanked her and bid Modupe goodbye. As they drove away, Genevieve called Modupe’s eldest brother, when it rang, she pressed the loudspeaker.

She glanced at her wristwatch and spoke when he answered, “Good afternoon sir. Am I speaking with Mr. Femi Osinbajo?”

“Yes.”

She introduced herself. “My partner and I would like to see you today. Are you free?”

“A detective? I travelled and I will be back tomorrow. Am I in trouble?”

“Not at all, please inform me when you arrive. I am calling with my number.”

“I will definitely call.” Call ended.

She called the other brother, introduced herself and he told her he was in a restaurant. She told him to give her the location, he did, and she gave her description to him. Gabriel drove them there. Genevieve and Tiwa arrived and entered into the eatery. Modupe’s brother Tunde waived at them. A waiter was packing his plates when they got to him and sat down. 

“Thanks for seeing us Mr. Tunde.” Genevieve said.

“Please call me Tunero.” he shook their hands and they introduced themselves again. “Let’s not beat around the bush damsels. I don’t want to believe you are detectives. Both of you are very beautiful women and sexy too. Tell me the main reason you really want to see me. You can handcuff me and take me anywhere you want and do imaginary things to me.” He gave a seductive smile, licked his lower lip and winked at them.

He irritated Genevieve. She lifted her hand to show him her wedding ring.

Tiwa didn’t need to say anything, her eyes told him to back off. He made her very angry. “You are a suspect in a ‘murder’ investigation.”

Genevieve looked at her astonished. 

“Murder investigation?” Tunde asked in a surprised voice.

“Someone is dead and your…”

Genevieve touched her gently on the arm. She could feel it burning. “Please let me handle it.” 

“Better!” She uttered staring into Tunde’s eyes. He quickly looked at Genevieve’s face.

Genevieve told him about the list.

“How does that have to do with me?”

“Your sister’s name is on it.”

“Modupe?”

“How many sisters do you have?” Tiwa asked angrily.

“One but I had to ask because she is supposed to arrive into the country today.”

“She is back!”

“And she didn’t call me?”

“She had her life to think of than call her brother who happens to be a suspect!”

“What!!” Tunde swiftly lifted on his feet. He glared at Tiwa and raised his voice. “You think I want her dead?!” Eyes travelled to them.

“If you want to create a scene, I will help you with it!” She rose.

“I can’t take this shit!”

“Enough!” Genevieve uttered and rose. She stared at him. “If you have respect for women you won’t have disrespected us.”

“Nonsense!”

Tiwa’s right hand transformed into a fist.

Genevieve added, “Your sister’s life is at stake and if you do not have anything to hide we will need access to your phone records and mails right now.”

“Joke of the century!” he picked up his car keys from the table and said to them. “I don’t think you know who I am in this society. I know the law! If you need such you will need a warrant, and for you to get that you need evidence that I want my sister dead. I am innocent detectives. Goodbye!”

They watched him leave.

Tiwa looked at her. “I think I over reacted.”

“No you did not. He was rude.” They decided to stay back and have lunch, they sat down, and ordered some food. “Do you think he is innocent?”

She sighed. “If a detective told me I wanted my brother dead, first, I will put a blow on the face.”

Genevieve laughed. “Tell me you are joking.”

She smiled a little. “I am but I will be furious because I know I am innocent.”

“Don’t you think he acted that way because he was innocent?”

“Maybe but if he is not guilty, he will come back to his right senses and give us what we want. He will also have to apologize to us. I despise rude men.”

“We will talk to him again but another day.”

“Okay.”

“Have you informed your boss about this case?”

“No, not even Ade.”

“Quincy told me about how you defended a little boy the first day you met Mr. Adebiyi.”

This time, she smiled radiantly. “It’s a day to remember.”

“I admire you. You’re a brave woman.”

“Thank you.”

A waiter served them.

“What are the plans for tomorrow?” Genevieve asked as they ate.

“We will meet with the victim’s daughter first, then see the second target before Mrs. Lawson’s brother.”

“No problem.”

Quincy called and told his wife he was home. After they finished, Tiwa concluded Gabriel should take Genevieve home while she board a taxi. 

*******

(Genevieve)

Working with Agent Tiwa was great. I might not know her entirely but she is a woman with integrity. I respect her for her fearlessly. I never thought I would be comfortable working with another woman like me. She is not my competitor but my new partner and I hope we solve this case.

I returned home to see my babies waiting patiently for me. When Freddie saw me, I could see the excitement in his eyes. I raised him up. “Yay! mummy is back.” He laughed. 

Quincy came over and pecked me on the lips. “I need the full details.”

I put Freddie in his carriage. “I have to take my bath first.”

“I will be waiting.” He kissed me.

I had my bath, dressed simple and motioned to be with Quincy. He was already in the kitchen, bringing out ingredients to cook. 

“Are you bringing out the ingredients for me or you to cook?” I asked.

“We will cook the food together.” He answered and came towards me. He grabbed me, put his left hand around my waist and raised the other hand. He started to dance.

“How can we dance when there is no music.”

“Your voice is my music.” 

Quincy forced me to dance even when there was no music. When I was ready to cook, he released me and gave me listening ears. I narrated everything. 

“You should have allowed Agent Tiwa removed his front teeth. The target’s brother was rude.”

“If I had allowed her, he could sue her for assault and you know what it means. It would surely affect the ongoing investigation.”

“He’s lucky I was not there.” He said. “Anyways, about the case, I won’t tell you to stop but be very careful."

“I will.”

“But don’t forget to put myself and Freddie first.”

“Of course.” I said and smiled. He joined me to cook.

*******

(Tiwa)

I have never thought of having a partner. In the past, my dad did everything he could for me to work with another agent and I stubbornly rejected the offer. I loved working alone. Linking up with detective Genevieve was terrific. She turned out to be a good woman with a beautiful soul. 

I arrived at Adebiyi’s home quite late. There was traffic. He was already waiting for me at the doorstep. He grabbed me, lifted me and turned me around like a kid. 

“Are you just seeing me?” I asked in the joyful moment.

He rubbed my hair and dropped me down. “I miss you.”

“I miss you more.” I moved my lips to his, and kissed him deeply. We went inside and the fresh aroma of barbecued fish crushed my breath. 

I stared at him. “You ordered some food for me?”

Adebiyi gave me a ravishing smile that tickled me. While you were away, I learned how to cook. I have to cook for my woman.”

I glanced at the surroundings of the living room. The place looked like how I left it. Beautiful, neat, organized and cold. The difference was the silence.

“Where is Mr. Popoola?”

“Things have changed. He no longer lives with me. He has his place now. One of his sons is around.”

“And Donald?”

“He still works here but lives with Mimi. She’s heavily pregnant.”

“Wow! I will definitely see them.”

“Of course, they always ask after you and they will be thrilled to see you too.”

“But are you going to be living alone in this house?”

“You have joined me. We are two now.”

He took my hand and led me to the dinning. We started to eat the fish, salad with fruit wine. I told him about the case and chose not to talk about Mr. Tunde's mannerless behavior. I joked about joining the fourth target to drink alcohol.

"I am glad detective Genevieve's eyes stopped you. What were you thinking!" He laughed.

"I'm glad she did."

He wore a straight face. “People’s lives are at risk and the case is dangerous too. Babe, be very careful how you go about it, I know you. If you need assistance, help or anything, just let me know.”

“I am not supposed to discuss it with you.”

He dropped his fork. “Crap! I will assist you and detective Genevieve. I can’t believe both of you are working together.”

“Me too.” 

After dinner, I helped wash the plates and tidy the messed up kitchen. He went to his office, while I motioned to his bedroom. What changed was the shape of his bed. It was a new one with a clean and fresh bed sheet. I offloaded my baggage and took out my phone to turn on. I removed my clothes and entered into the bathroom. 

I came to find him in the room. He was removing his cloths. He went in to have his bath while I wore my nightie, still on my feet, reading a sport magazine I saw on the shelf. Genevieve called to find out if I had gotten home.

Few minutes later, I heard Adebiyi enter but I didn’t turn around.

“Tiwa what do you think you are doing?” He asked me in a serious tone.

“What does it look like?” I was still reading.

“Take it off! You and I will sleep naked!”

I acted astonished. I turned to face him and his eyes and erected cock gazed at me. I removed my nightie, and moved closer to touch his body. I missed him so much. I pushed my lips into his, and we kissed hungrily and passionately. We just did not want to let go. He carried me and put me on the bed. He wetted every part of my body with tongue. I shivered under him and when he penetrated my wetness, our lovemaking was passionate and electrifying.

******

2:15 am

Tiwa and Adebiyi had just finished their third rounds of sex when her phone rang. She was surprised and checked for it on the lamp table beside her. Her eyebrows moved upwards when she saw the caller’s name.

She answered the call. “Detective Genevieve! Any problem?” Adebiyi stared at her.

“I am sorry to disturb you by this time. Mrs. Modupe called me. Her brother assaulted her. She fought back and they ended up in the hospital.”

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To be continued…..