End of days

Chapter 41

Chapter 41

"Lauretha please wait, don't go. I'm very sure Rayford didn't mean any of what he just said to you. Please come back let's talk about this" Dele pleaded with Lauretha. "Mayor, you too, please don't leave. Let's all settle this and find a way forward"

"It's not in your place to say Dele, Rayford is the one who is involved here, and if he thinks we are working with the kidnappers, then we have no use being here" Mayor said to Dele calmly.

"Please, I'm begging you not to leave. Guy you sef apologize na, don't you want Jane to be found? or do you think you can find her all by yourself?" Dele turned to Rayford who was already seated watching them leave.

"I umm, I'm sorry guys. I said what I said out of anger. Please stay" he murmured.

"Well, you can keep your apologies to yourself, because I'm leaving" Lauretha opened the door and walked out. Rayford quickly went after her.

"Lauretha please wait, don't go" he quickly caught up with her before she got to the gate.

" Rayford what do you want?" She turned angrily and faced him. "Haven't you said enough already?"

"Please I'm sorry Lauretha, I said all what I said out there in anger, and I know it was out of place, Please forgive me and come back inside. I beg you"

" Rayford you can't just say things like that, and expect me to just forget about it"

"I'm sorry, please.." Rayford looked really tired and confused. Lauretha immediately took pity on him. "please I need your help, don't leave"

"Fine, but be rest assured that you owe me" she walked back inside, leaving Rayford to stand outside.

"Alright, now that we have settled that little misunderstanding, I think we can now hear what Mayor has to say" Dele spoke, after Rayford had gotten back inside and they were all seated in the living room.

"Yes please Mayor, do tell us why you think my housekeeper is part of Jane's kidnap" Rayford spoke so calmly this time.

"First of all, I would like to say that I'm very disappointed that Rayford would think we are part of his fiancée's kidnap. But we will have to come to that later" Mayor sat up, "Now you remember, your housekeeper didn't know Jane and her friend spent the night here on the day they were kidn*pped?"

"Yes?" Rayford questioned.

"So how come, when she came and saw the gateman lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood, the first people she went to look for was Jane and Amaka and not you her boss?" Mayor had noticed the housekeeper was trying to hide something when she spoke to him.

"I still don't get your point" Rayford said.

"His point is, probably she has been keeping an eye on you guys ever since, for her to know that Jane and Amaka spent the night here on that day" Dele said, concurring to Mayor's finding.

''And also, let's not forget that your CCTV was disconnected few days before the kidnap. And the only persons who have enough access to your house aside Jane and yourself, is your housekeeper and the gateman''

"It still doesn't make any sense, why would she want to kidnap Jane and her friend? Besides, even if she wanted to kidnap Jane, she didn't have to wait until she was here, she could have just gone straight to her house".

"I guess we would have to find the answer to these questions, when we bring her in for more questioning. With my little knowledge in Psychology, I know when someone is hiding something. And I can categorically tell you that, your housekeeper has something she is hiding"

"I still don't believe this" Rayford doubted.

"Do you know where she lives?"

"Yes, why?"

"Because I would like for us to pay her a visit, you never can tell what we might find"

"You sound so sure that she is involved in this, what if you are wrong" Rayford asked.

"And what if I'm right? Mr. Rayford, I believe you would want to see your fiancée released, isn't that it?"

"Yes of course, by all means necessary"

"So I suggest you tell us where your housekeeper lives, so we could go find her and stop wasting time. Every minute counts as it is"

Rayford contemplated for a minute, whether or not to believe Mayor, the short guy's confidence was beginning to annoy him. But then, he wants to find Jane by all means.

"Alright give me a minute, I have it written down somewhere, let me go and get it" Rayford went upstairs to get Martha's address from where he wrote it, and few minutes later, he came back downstairs with it.

"Here it is" he handed it over to Mayor who looked at the address and said; "I think we should go pay her a visit right away"

"What of Amaka? We can't just leave her like that. We need someone to protect her while we are gone" Dele said as they were about to leave.

"You do have a point, I will call the police to bring some of their men to be on guard while we are gone" Rayford took out his phone from his pocket and called the police.

"Oga Rayford, I know it's because of your fiancée's case you are calling, like I already said, we are on top of the matter, and we will leave no stone unturned until we find the preparators of this crime. Don't worry we are doing our absolute best to see that she is found" The D.P.O said in an irritable voice.

"I know D.P.O, and I really appreciate your effort'' Rayford almost bit his tongue for lying, for he didn't see the police putting in any effort at all to rescue Jane. Rather, all they have done is sleep on the case.

''You are welcome, you are welcome'' the D.P.O replied, feeling proud of himself.

''But that is not the reason for this call"

"Why did you call then?"

"I will need you to please send some of your men to my place"

"Why, what for?"

"My fiancée's girlfriend escaped from the kidnappers, and we would need some of your men to watch over her for the mean time"

"You see what I told you? We are working on it. Now one of them has been released. Thanks to us who have been working tirelessly on the case''

Rayford was amazed at how the D.P.O was taking the glory for something he didn't do. But, he chose not to say something about it.

''I'm sending two of my men over to your place now, you know the Nigerian police is your friend? But you will have to find something for the boys o" the D.P.O said, after gloating over Amaka's release.

"That's no problem at all, thank you so much D.P.O"

Thirty minutes later, two police officers were at Rayford's place to keep watch on Amaka while they were gone.

"Wait a minute, I hope you guys remember Amaka said one of the kidnappers were angry because Rayford broke her heart? You don't think that person is his housekeeper now, do you?" Dele asked as Rayford drove four of them to Martha's address.

"We will be able to put the pieces together in due time" Mayor assured him.

When they arrived at the address written, it was a block of flats with different tenants occupying them. They knocked on the flat number that was supposed to be Martha's, but no one answered the door. They kept knocking until a young man in the next flat, came out.

"Are you people looking for madam Martha?" The young man asked.

"Yes please, do you know if she is inside?" Mayor asked the young man.

"No she's not, she just left some few minutes ago"

"Did she tell you where she was headed?"

"No she didn't, but she looked like she was traveling, because she was carrying a traveling bag"

Rayford immediately started dialing her number, but she kept ending his call, and after a while her number stopped going through.

"She is not picking up, why won't she pick up?" Rayford kept redialing Martha's number, and after sometime, it stopped connecting.

"What the hell! She switched off her phone. It says switched off!" Rayford was beginning to panic.

"You said she left not quite long, right?" Mayor asked Martha's neighbor.

"Yes, it's not been too long she left, when you guys drove in"

"Then I think we should go in search of her, we might be able to catch up with her" Lauretha said.

"Which direction did she go?" Dele asked.

"I don't know, but my guess would be the bus stop. Is there a problem?"

"Not at all, she works for me and I would be needing her to do something urgent for me" Rayford assured the young man.

"Could you please point us in the direction of the bus stop?" Asked Mayor.

"It's at the junction, I'm sure you must have passed it while driving into this street"

"Alright, thank you so much" Mayor thanked him, and they all got into the car. Rayford was visibly confused, and couldn't drive. Dele had to take the keys from him.

Martha has been waiting at the bus stop for close to twenty minutes now, she needed to leave before Rayford and his friends caught up with her. She was lucky enough to have been the first to see them while they were coming, and she quickly hid herself in someone's shop, waited until they had passed. She knew they were going to her apartment to look for her. That was why she quickly packed up her things and left.

They were not going to see her ever again. She needed to quickly alert her people, so they could hasten things up.

She had told them to use the girl in getting money from Rayford before killing her, but that man had refused saying he would give them the money they needed. Then why wouldn't he just kill the girl already? The longer she is being kept alive, the higher the risk of them being caught.

There was still no bus in sight, trust these stupid bus drivers to disappoint you when you need them most. If only she knew how to use a smart phone, then she would have ordered for an Uber ride. Several times, she has been taught, but she can't seem to ever understand how that complicated thing works.

Rayford and his friends would be here any minute, she can't risk being seen by them. She decided to start walking, hopefully she would catch a bus in front.

"Everyone, please watch carefully, in case you spot her. It will be at our advantage if we see her before she does us" Mayor told them as they drove slowly searching for Martha at the bus stop.

There were a lot of people waiting to catch the bus at the bus stop, so they had to drive slowly trying to spot her out from the crowd.

"We might never find her like this, the crowd at the bus stop is much. Rayford do you have her picture in your phone or something?" Mayor asked.

"No, I rarely take pictures of myself not to talk about that of my housekeeper"

"Why not just go through your pictures first? Ha, ha, what about that day we organized a surprise birthday party for you? She was there too. And I remember we all snapped a group photo together" Dele reminded Rayford.

"Okay, let me check" Rayford had to scroll through several pictures, and the ones he kept seeing, were those of Jane, the ones they took at their recent vacation, others she randomly snapped with his phone when they were together.

Finally, he found one of him and Martha on his birthday, he remembers asking her to join in the picture when it was being taken.

"Here is one" Rayford showed the picture to Mayor.

"Nice, people should be able to recognize her with this" Mayor took the phone from Rayford and came down from the car.

"Where are you going?" Lauretha asked him.