Tarasha - Season 4 - Episode 75

4 years ago

Tarasha - Season 4 - Episode 75

April 29, 2017
6:50am
Different thoughts ran through James’ mind as he walked from the garage where his car was parked into the Vice President’s house. He held the file Samantha had given him the last night in his hand and was going in to demand an explanation from his father. Not that he was ready to accept his father’s denial of the allegation and denial of evidences against him but he wanted his father to be aware of his possession of the documents and warn him to begin to thread more carefully. Though he and his father were most times not on the same sides, he didn’t think he would like to see his father labelled as a criminal or sent to prison. He also knew that his father would try to buy justice with money but he didn’t want it to get to that level. If it were several years ago when the level of corruption was higher in their nation, the Vice President would certainly go scot-free after several court hearings but with the low level of corruption in the country presently, it would only take luck for the man to be able to scale through except of course he went through another means of involving in more deadly crimes to absolve himself.

‘Good morning sir,’ one of the Vice President’s security officers greeted him as he stepped into the living room.
‘Good morning, can I see my Dad?’
‘I’ve not seen him this morning, he hasn’t stepped out of his room yet,’ the security man replied.
‘Can you help me check him or preferably get Benson,’ James requested before locating a sofa where he sat comfortably. Benson was one of his father’s closest assistants and James was sure Benson was the right person to get his father to attend to him quickly.

Benson soon arrived. ‘Agent James, good morning.’
‘Good morning Benson,’ James replied, offering him a handshake.
‘I heard you want to see your father,’ Benson enquired.
‘Yes, I want to have a word with him.’
‘Does he know you’re coming?’
‘No, it’s kind of an emergency. I just have to see him this morning,’ James said, displaying the file in his hands.
‘Okay, I’ll try to get him for you. He slept very late last night and I’m not sure he would like to be up this early but I’ll still try.’
‘Thank you Benson,’ James said and returned to his seating position.
It wasn’t until after twenty minutes that Benson left that the Vice President came out to see his son. The man was still dressed in his night gown and held his walking stick as usual, beating the ground playfully with it as he walked.

‘James, it’s a surprise seeing you here this morning. The last time I saw you this early was immediately after your graduation from the university,’ the man said as he walked to him from behind.
‘Good morning sir,’ James rose and greeted with an unsmiling face.
‘Good morning, what brings you here? I can see it’s not something pleasant,’ the man replied, noticing his son’s serious face. He sat on the adjacent sofa close to James.
‘Here,’ James picked the file from the chair arm which he placed it on top and stretched it forth to his father.
Chief Elvis knew what it was at once. It was the same type of file with the one that was given to Vivy and also had the same title on it.
‘What’s this?’ he asked as he collected, feigning ignorance. He didn’t want to give James an impression that he had seen it before.

‘Open it Dad, the message is for you.’
The Vice President opened the file slowly, his heart was beating fast even though he already knew what was there, he pretended to be going through it again.
‘I don’t understand this?’ he spoke after two minutes of total silence.

‘Dad, come on. You’ve just seen the first page out of sixteen, open it and you’ll see that it’s more than just one.’

The man opened the document just like his son had suggested. It was exactly the same with what Vivy brought home.
‘But James, where did you find all these? Who in the world manufactured these kind of false documents and why are they doing it?’ the man asked, feigning an angry tone.

James closed his eyes and took in a deep breath in an attempt to control himself, he didn’t want to find himself in a heated argument with his father.
‘Dad please, I’m not a kid and I know when something is manufactured and when it is real.’

‘So, what are you insinuating? That I did all these things truly?’ the man asked angrily.
‘Sir, I’ve not come to argue with you. The documents are explanatory enough for everyone to see. Your signature is on every letter and deals signed in your name and the photocopy of your fingerprint is on one of the letters.’

‘Everything there can be forged and you know it. In today’s world, people’s signatures are being forged everyday and you can’t tell that the fingerprint there is mine.’
‘Of course, it can be forged but I hope you know that the person who has access to these kind of documents will definitely have access to the or copies where your thumb print can be verified from?’
‘D--n it James! You’re a cursed son,’ the man flared up and rose to his feet. ‘What makes you think I’m scared of them? I’m innocent of all these rubbish, so my mind is at rest.’

‘Dad, I’m not here to point fingers or quarrel with you. I’m here to deliver the file as I was asked by Samantha Osman,’ James said and got up to his feet, ready to leave.
‘Oh! Samantha Osman,’ he turned slowly to face his son. ‘So, you now run errands for her?’ he asked in a more or less of a mocking tone.

‘She brought this to my house yesterday night and asked me to investigate it and also ensure that you get punished if you’re found guilty,’ James replied in a cold tone, giving his father a thin stare as his jaw moved slightly from side to side.
There was silence for some seconds.
‘I advise that you do everything possible to ensure that this doesn’t get to the public, you may have a hard time proving your innocence.’
‘What are you going to do boy? You plan on taking this false document to the public or taking me to court?’ the man asked.
‘No father, I don’t plan to use them for anything nor do I plan to carry out any investigation on them because I’m terribly scared that I may find you truly guilty. But I’m also scared that Samantha Osman would not stop at this, she might release it to the public soon and that’s why I’m advising that you do everything possible not to allow it go public.’
‘And what am I supposed to do not to make it go public?’
‘Father, she’s coming with a blackmail soon, I’m sure of that, that’s why she must have sent this document ahead.’
‘How the hell can she blackmail me with something I’m innocent of? How can she blackmail me with something I know nothing about?’
James took in a deep breath, he could see that his father was still trying to feign innocence. ‘Good day father, I have to get to the office in few minutes.’ James bowed and proceeded to the door.
‘Shi*t!’ Elvis Richards slammed the file on the floor after his son stepped out. He needed to act fast, he needed to stop Samantha from whatever her plan was. He wasn’t ready to stop her from blackmailing him or to give in to her conditions if she eventually did, he had never been at the mercy of anyone and wasn’t going to put himself at hers. He needed to plan a showdown and total disgrace for her. It was an opportunity to show her that he was the boss of the system and she couldn’t intimidate him by bringing up his past, not in his country!

_______
BASE B
‘You’d be live in ten seconds, are you ready?’ Tarasha asked with her fingers on the mouse. She was standing by the side of the table where the laptop was while Dr Martin Ekwueme was sitting some distance in front of the table. The man nodded in response to her question and she tapped the mouse with her fingers and moved away. A video chat began.

‘Martin,’ The doctor said as a video of his ex-wife’s house in Anambra showed, the expensive ceiling decoration was the only thing that could be seen on the screen, making it obvious that the device that was connected to was placed on a flat surface with it’s camera facing upwards. ‘Martin,’ the man called again, hoping that his son was close to the device and would be able to speak with him before his time elapsed.

A female face showed some seconds later, she looked into the camera and seemed to be wondering what was going on the device screen.

‘Uncle Martin,’ the doctor could hear the girl call. He recognized her, she was his ex-wife’s niece. ‘Were you playing music on your phone?’ Dr Martin heard her ask.
He heard nothing else until after ten seconds. ‘No of course, I’ve not touched the phone for close to an hour now.’ he heard his son Martin speak but it took sometime for Martin to show in the video
‘Martin!’ Dr Ekwueme called as his son picked the phone and stared at the screen.
The son turned to someone at the side, he could tell it was his niece who looked into the phone’s camera earlier. ‘Are you playing a video with my phone?’ Martin junior asked the person in the living room with him.
‘Look here son, I’m talking to you live.’ Dr Ekwueme said before Martin could get a response. The niece still answered with a loud voice but the doctor didn’t hear what she said.

‘Dad, you?’ Martin asked, with a surprised tone with his gaze now fixed on the device screen.

‘Yes, Martin. How are you?’
‘Dad, where are you?’ Martin ignored his question and asked his, with his voice full of concern.

‘I told you before that I only decided to take a break,’ Dr Ekwueme replied.
‘Take a break? By putting everyone in panic?’

‘No son, I didn’t mean it to be like that…’
‘Call mum…’ Martin said as he took a quick glance to the side.
‘Son, no need to involve your mum in this. I wouldn’t like for her to even make me feel worse than I feel now.’

‘She needs to hear about this Dad, everyone has been worried about you.’
‘Look son, I have very limited time to talk to you. I just want you to assure everyone that I’m fine and I’ll return home at the due time.’
‘Dad, where exactly are you?’ Martin asked.

‘Sorry boy, I have to go now. My five minutes is up. Tell your siblings and everyone not to worry about me, I love you all.’
The laptop’s screen went blank just after he finished speaking. Tarasha stepped forward to the laptop and tapped the escape key on the keyboard. She looked at the doctor, he was wiping off tears from his eyes.
‘Don’t worry Doc, very soon you’ll be with your family again.’ she said as she proceeded towards him. She dragged a chair closer to him and sat on it facing him directly. ‘So, were you able to do your assignment while I was away?’

The man wiped his eyes with the back of his palm and sniffed in gently. ‘I made my research and studied those documents,’ he said and paused to look at Tarasha’s face. ‘There’s a sealed document which contains the original copies, both hard and soft where Elvis Richards’ signature and thumb were printed.’

‘Ermm…’ Tarasha put on a frown. ‘How do we get these sealed document? And what do you really mean by “sealed”?’
‘I don’t know what being sealed means, that’s the term I found in the documents you gave me.’

Tarasha stopped to think for a moment. The man was talking about the documents she had gotten from Chief Gab which she gave him to go through and draw out meanings from. She had read through it herself and couldn’t make any meanings from it as she couldn’t relate to the terms used and history behind the documents. Even the man who had given her claimed he knew so little about them because he wasn’t involved in the deals as most of them were done secretly by Elvis Richards.

‘But these sealed documents, is there anyway we can unseal them? And how and where can we get the documents from?’
‘I don’t have an answer to any of those questions but there’s one man I know who can have the answers,’ he said and took in a deep breath. He turned his face to the wall.
‘Who’s the man?’

‘Eze Okafor, he was the Minister of health during those days and he’s also the elder brother of the late Nnamdi Okafor.’
‘Where can I find him?’

‘He stays in Anambra State.’
‘Oh shi*t!’ Tarasha clenched her fists gently. She thought of discarding the need for the sealed document. She hadn’t planned for it before as she had no idea that there was a sealed document anywhere. It was after her return to Abuja the doctor had told her that there was something they could get that would make the Vice President not to be able to defend himself at all.

‘I think acquiring the sealed document will help us in nailing Chief Elvis Richards quicker, he won’t be able to prove himself not guilty.’ the doctor said.