Jeffery who was too busy to witness the incident concluded his conversation with the receptionist.
'What did she say?' Helen asked as they were both walking out of the hotel.
'Nothing meaningful' he replied.
When they got out, Jeffery saw a friend of his.
'Hey Jeff what's up?' Dave greeted.
'Am good, Dave have you seen Malik since last night?'
'No, what happened? Is he missing?' Dave asked.
'We haven't seen him since last night' Helen replied
'I only saw him at the club yesterday. Have you asked from Peter?'
'No we haven't but did Peter come to the club last night?'
'Yes but he stayed outside. I heard him called Malik on phone to come see him outside' Dave explained.
'Are you sure?' Jeff asked.
'Of course I am' Dave answered.
* * * * * * * * * *
Malik's tormentor, the fierce looking guy left the room and came back with a burning furnace and a knife in it.
'For the last time, where are my diamonds?' Charles barked angrily.
'I don't know where it is' Malik answered.
The fierce man pulled out the hot red knife from the furnace and placed it on Malik's bare chest. Malik screamed in horror before he finally let go of his breath.
Jeffery and Helen were inside the car heading to Peter's house.
'Who is this guy called Peter?' Helen asked.
'Peter was our ex employee who Malik fired after the case with that custom man' Jeff answered.
'Do you think he might know where Malik is?' Helen questioned again.
'I don't know but am a little bit worried because he isn't picking my call. That got me feeling a little bit suspicious of him'
In no time, they arrived at Peter's residence that was a 'face-me-I-face-you' house, at the slum part of the town. They got down from the car and asked for his apartment from a young girl they met at the front of the house. She pointed them to where Peter's apartment was located.
Jeffery banged the door several times before a lady with only a wrapper on her opened it.
'Who are you? What do you want?' the lady asked rudely.
'We are looking for Peter, is he in?' Malik asked.
'That miserable husband, left home since yesterday evening without dropping any money for my feeding and that of his daughter' the lady answered.
'Oh God and we need him desperately to help us on a job. Please do you know where we can find him?' Helen asked.
'How would I know? When he has told me nothing' the lady said.
Helen brought out a sum of five thousand naira and gave it to her.
'Thank you ma, may God bless you. If you see that bastard, tell him there would be a royal rumble match in the house' she said.
They left the house.
As they were driving, around the area, a man who saw their car coming from afar ran toward it shouting. Jeffery slowed down when he saw him.
'Hey my chairman, Mr. Jeff' he hailed.
Jeff gazed at the guy, he recognized him as one of the guys Peter brought to help them unload their consignment at the dock the other day.
'Hello, how are you doing?' Jeff greeted.
'Haa Mr Jeff, I dey fine' he replied.
Jeffery suddenly saw Malik's wrist watch on the guy's hand but he kept quiet.
'Am looking for your friend Peter, an urgent job came up' Malik said.
'Haa Peter isn't around, I haven't seen him since morning but I know where you can find him' the guy replied.
'Where is that?'
'He must be having a nice time at his mistress' house ' the guy answered.
Jeff got the address from him and gave him some money before they proceeded on their quest.
Malik opened his eyes to find himself still in captive but alone in the room. He felt an intense pain at the spot where the hot knife had scraped his skin and rained curses on the guy responsible for it.
Suddenly his eyes went to the table where the furnace was placed, the hot knife was still in the furnace. An idea came to his mind; he turned his chair around and started shifting backward, toward the table. After much struggling, he was able to move his chair to reach his destination. He grabbed the hot knife with his hand which was tied to his back and use it to cut the rope on his hand. He cried as the hot knife touched his hand while doing the cutting but he didn't let go of the knife until his hands were free. He then freed himself from the chair also.
He went to the door and pulled the knob gently, fortunately it opened. Malik peered at the passage to see if anyone was around but no one was there.
He tiptoed out of the room and walked a little further. He saw an armed guard sleeping on the chair he sat on. Malik slipped quietly pass him and found himself outside the building. He saw another two guards at the gate but they were too engrossed by their talk to notice him. He took cover beside a flower as he crawl to the other side of the building where he planned to jump
over the fence. He checked to see if anyone was looking and he saw that he was cleared, he made for the fence and took a leap but unfortunately he was spotted by a patrolling guy who raised the alarm.
'Stop there' the guard shouted but Malik wasn't obeying, he was trying to jump over the fence.
Seeing that their prisoner is a few seconds away from escaping, the guard brought out his gun and shot Malik's leg. Malik screamed as he fell down from the fence.
Written by Oluwafunminiyi Komolafe
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