Zina falls into trouble
1979 Words
“Zina” Nana called softly, as her eyes rummaged round the room. “Zina it’s me.”
Silence.
Nana could feel her hands shivering. Where was this girl? What on Earth did she get herself into?
“Zina.” She called again.
“May we check round the house?” A man said from behind her. Just a sentence from his husky voice prompted a very loud shriek that pierced into their ear drums. Even though he was a tough cop, he was startled for a fraction of seconds and he removed his .33 Police Automatic Pistol.
Dora, his partner was alert already with her gun too.
“Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! It’s my daughter.” Nana shouted, her eyes bulging out of fear, while she raised both hands in the air.
The detective, a tall slim man wearing a flat-top cut and penciled moustache stood down as he saw the girl that came out of the clothe closet with her hands on her head. She was shivering, perspiring and looked befuddled.
Hacks was destabilized for a few seconds as he saw her beauty. He mentally plotted a graph on the scale range from fat to slim and placed her in the middle. He had never seen a figure which was more round at the middle below a tapered waist and ended with straight legs. Her state of agitation may have increased the size of her eyes and he felt ashamed to admit that she looked most beautiful and irresistible at that stage. The pupils were dark brown; her iris were light brown with pure white sclera. Dark natural long and curved languid eyelashes adorned the eyelids. Her sherbet sweet, oxbow firm lips were well placed beneath her pixie’s nose.
Hacks swore that she was a mulatto probably from a father of Arabian descend. Her cobalt-black shiny hair plunged over her shoulders. Her skin lay in the middle of ruddy and peaches-and-cream. He saw a quintessence of youthfulness in every part of her and that included the chest. She was to him a sheer tantalizer.
“Calm down, miss,” he said with a swagger, “ I am Detective Hacks Akubu. That is my partner, Detective Dora Charles. We are from the CID.”
Zina still looked paranoid, shivering and unbalanced. She glanced at her mother. Nana nodded and she relaxed.
“They wanted to kill me.” Zina said in a low tone but Hacks noticed her honey sweet voice.
“It’s okay, we are here. We would protect you. We just need to talk. You called us, right?”
She nodded.
“I did. I had to.” She was now moved to tears. “I knew her. I knew it was him!”
“Calm down. We need to take this slow. Can we go talk in the living-room?”
Zina still looked doubtful and paranoid. Hacks could understand. She just escaped from an attack.
They all moved to the living-room.
******
Five hours before
His large hand grabbed the champagne flute, raised it to his aggressive mouth and sipped brandy. He looked round the beer pub and felt it was set in an idyllic environment. The zephr that flowed on him
was not like the sirocco he suffered in the Downtown hunky-tonk he used to go. But to enjoy drinks in a joint like this, he needed to step up financially.
He ran his hand over, down his cheek to feel his stubble-face. He knew he had a ruthless expression, cadaverous eyes which gave him that villainous looks he loved. His askew mouth made him look like a victim of giginvitis.
He sipped his brandy, sent his hand to his breast pocket, removed a stick of Benson and Hedges and lit it. As he puffed out a thick cloud of smoke, he smiled at himself. It was a hunky-dory day. His first major hit. He had not just received five hundred thousand naira as advanced payment but had a chance to prove his guts and oomph.
His dreams had always to be a top hired assassin. A professional hit man who lived in the shadows.
He was not aware of a tall, slim man wearing a flat-top hair: Hacks. Hacks sat at a table with a bottle of beer, while he assured himself that there was a description match. He hoped it all went well. He would impress fastidious Superintendent Thoephilus. The crime was committed that day and the suspects would be apprehended the same day.
It was at that time a jumbo bloke came in. He had a thick neck which carried his shaven head. His eyes were protuberant, with a bulbous nose above thick lips. His shoulders were broad, making him look like he was wearing a shoulder pad.
He looked round and saw the hit-man: David. He moved with heavy steps to him and sat opposite him.
“I have been expecting you, Engineer.”
“ I heard you had a smooth pull. It’s on news already. Congratulations.”
David smiled, sipped alcohol and inhaled smoke. He was proud of himself.
“It’s no big deal. Just doing my job.”
“You got another job.” Engineer said calmly. “ It will fetch you one million naira.”
David could hardly believe his luck. He was finally a real hit-man. He could feel his hands itching.
“Tell me about it.” David said with a hard face.
“There is a girl called Zina. She is a final year student…..no, she just graduated from Uni-Lag. She knows too much. It did not occur to me until this morning. She is the only threat I have now. I don’t want her to talk..”
“ What do you want?”
Engineer lit a cigar. “Kill her.”
David felt excitement erupting inside him. He was going to buy a gun and learn how to use it. He needed killing paraphernalia and he just got the capital.
“I need details and she is dead.”
“sure you will have that. She had worked with me before. That was during her IT. She knew about the setup and after the death of Mrs Remmy, she called me and said I just heard and I know it’s you. She is a fool, huh? She should have shut her big mouth up. Now she got herself in trouble. We have a rendezvous tomorrow. I will drop the details on your lap. I need to attend to some things. Keep your mouth sealed.”
“Do you take me for a fool? I am a professional.”
“I know right. Just trying to tread on the safest lane. There are nagging cops in this zone who don’t mind their business.”
“ Just have a sound sleep. I am stealthy and smooth.”
“I love the confidence you display. I see better days ahead. Do you need a ride?”
David nodded.
He gulped the remaining brandy and got to his feet. Immediately both men went out of the beer pub, Hacks said into a transmitter, “watch out, they are coming out. They may be armed.”
Hacks moved quickly to the table David and Engineer had sat. Most of the men drinking were oblivious to what he was doing. He put his hand under the table and removed a small sound transmitter. He heard and recorded their conversation. He quickly moved out and saw Dora waiting anxiously in the car. She was of moderate height, swarthy, chubby and attractive.
“Hurry!” she said and started the car engine.
Hacks rushed into the Wagon before she sent the car in motion. She was trailing engineer’s Honda Accord.
“Did you hear anything sticky?” Dora asked with her eyes fixed on the road.
“Everything I heard was sticky.” Hacks said. “All we need to do is pick them. We have enough to nail them.”
“Phew! Happened today, nailed them today, are we not hot?”
“The hottest.” Hacks chuckled. “I will like to see the old man’s face whe it happens.”
“I won’t lose them for anything. “ Dora said and set her eyes on the car ahead.
“ I will like to call at a friend’s place. It won’t take five minutes.” Engineer said and swung the car onto a boulevard.
“No problem. “David said. He had enough time before he would go to GGT market to get himself a gun. He could not wait to let his foes know that he made it.
Engineer pulled up the car before a bronze gate.
The cops watched them alight from the car and go inside the bungalow.
“Don’t stop the car here.” Hacks said, “Take a bend so I can alight. Let’s see what they are up to.”
Hacks touched the butt of his .33. “I will go check them out.”
“don’t you think we need a backup? We don’t know what they have got in there.”
“You can call them but I won’t wait. There may be no time.” He alighted, made sure his .33 was set. He walked towards the building. He stood by the end of the fence for a few minutes. They did not come out.
“I am going in, over.”
“Copy that.”
He moved to the back of the building. He was determined but a part of him warned him against the move. He did not know what he was going to meet inside. He hesitated before making up his mind. He had always being a risk taker. He made a swift jump and grabbed the edge of the fence, pulled himself up and vaulted over. He landed stealthily and removed his .33.
Dora heard nothing from him after twenty minutes and she became worried.
“Hacks..” She called but he did not reply.
She opened the car door and came out of it. She moved to the Engineer’s car, removed a dagger from her pocket and slashed it into two of the tyres. She heard the sound of air escaping as the tyres deflated. That was to prevent a quick runaway.
She also went and vaulted over the fence. The way she carried her big body was amusing. Immediately she dropped, she realized that it was an uncompleted building. What was going on? What where they doing here? Why was Hacks silent?
She removed her gun, her eyes travelling round, observing the slightest detail, harkening to the slightest sound.
She felt a cold metal touch her neck and she knew it was a gun.
“It’s me.” Hacks said. “Those guys vanished into thin air.”
“How?”
He shrugged.
“I can’t find them.”
“You should have replied me.”
“I did not want to talk. I had to be quiet.”
“Let’s us check the building. His car is still outside. I burst the tyres.”
As she walked ahead of him, he quickly took off his eyes from her back. They came to an abrupt stop as they saw the body lying on the floor. The cops moved closer, guns in hand, watching everywhere .
The man was lying on his back. Hacks bent over him and touched him. Someone had shot him on the forehead. His face was covered with blood. David was dead. Where was Engineer and who was he?
- Writer
