In Murky Waters – Episode 4
In Murky Waters – Episode 4
© 2018 Kayode Odusanya
It was a hot Monday afternoon; his first time seeing her since the attempted robbery incidence three weeks ago. She came directly to his house in a cab. They had kept in touch on the phone and gotten closer over the weeks. He didn’t know if he was falling in love or lust, all he knew was that seeing her made him feel great. It definitely wasn’t just sex, because they hadn’t even had sex that day. They had been in bed talking, till she fell asleep in his arms.
Work with Fatai Lion had started already, and he had started going to radio stations to enlighten people on the upcoming grant program by the Fatai Mohammed foundation in Lagos. He had spoken at three radio stations so far, and the man had been with him during all the interviews.
Ademola, Frank’s agent had made sure he got paid six months in advance because he wanted his own ten percent share to come in a lump sum. The man had no problem paying up, and Frank’s share was two million, seven hundred thousand Naira. It was a like the beginning of a new life for him.
He didn’t have to use his car during the radio runs; Fatai Lion designated one of his Volvo SUV’s to pick him up and drop him off every time they had appointments. They moved around Lagos in a three car convoy; three black Volvo XC90. Everything was random with Fatai Lion; sometimes he would be in the middle car in the convoy, sometimes, he would be in the one at the back. Sometimes he would ride with Frank in the SUV assigned to him, and sometimes, he would ride in the one designated for his bodyguards. He kept switching at last minute, and Frank felt the man was being paranoid. This wasn’t the movies, and they weren’t in Columbia where drug kingpins took out rival cartel heads to get their territory.
On one of their trips to a radio station, in the crazy Lagos traffic, Fatai Lion had opened up to Frank about where majority of his wealth came from. He had a real estate company, a plastic making company, a bottle water company, and various poultry farms around western pats of country, but the business that brought him his most income was his marijuana sale business. He had a 20 acre Marijuana farm somewhere in Eruwa, Oyo state. And he exported hundreds of kilos of marijuana out of the country twice a month. He was able to do this without hassle with help from his friends in high places. Of course every one of those friends got a cut of his profit, but he was still raking in $3 million monthly income. In Naira, that was close to a billion a month. Frank couldn’t wrap his head around that kind of money.
From the farms, the weed was compressed to the size of a Bible, which measured a kilogram of weed. The kilos were then packed in boxes, and then loaded into trucks, which would transport the products to the rail station in Ibadan. Fatai Lion had his own train coaches that usually transported the goods down to Iju station in Lagos, and from there, he had boys who would drive the cargos across Seme border, into Benin republic. From this point, his distributors in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Liberia picked up their packages, and wired him payment within 24 hours. “Frank, Marijuana is a naturally growing plant. I don’t sell drugs.” He had told Frank during their long discussion.
“What’s on your mind?” Kiki said, distorting his train of thought. They had been laying in the spooning position and he had thought she had fallen asleep.
“I was about to ask you the same thing. You’ve been awfully quiet.” Frank said and held on to her tight. “You can tell me whatever is on your mind.”
“Oh, so you can write a book about me?” She said and he laughed lightly. The room went quiet again for a while before she finally said, “I need to tell you something Frank, but promise you won’t freak out.”
“Try me.”
“Okay. I…” She was saying and got distracted by a ringing phone. Frank rolled over in bed to get the phone on the bedside stool by his side. He looked at the phone screen for a while before picking up. The conversation lasted just a couple of seconds and he jumped off the bed afterwards.
“I’m sorry Kiki, I have to go somewhere.”
“Right now?”
“Yes. They are already outside waiting. I have a radio interview today that I totally forgot about.”He said as he combed through his wardrobe for what to wear.
“How long will you be gone?”
“Umm! I’m not sure; maybe a couple of hours; maybe like 3 hours.” He said and she buried her head in the pillow. “I’m so sorry. I totally forgot.”
“And I really made plans to be with you throughout the day.”
“I’ll be back before you know it. Just watch Zee World or something.” He said and she rolled her eyes at him. He was fully dressed now and he leaned in to give her a quick kiss. He was about to make a dash for the door, but she pulled him back and gave him a deep kiss. When he pulled away, she had her signature smile on her face. “I have to go Kiki.” He said and started walking backwards out of the room, and then he stopped like he just remembered something. “You wanted to tell me something, right?”
“I’ll tell you when you get back.”
“Okay. See you in a few hours.”
____
The radio interview didn’t take more than fifteen minutes, and on their way back they had stopped at a filling station to refill the vehicles. The SUV Frank was in was the first to get fueled and they were parked just at the exit of the filling station, waiting for the rest. He was the only passenger in the Volvo SUV, and he felt lonely sitting at the back of the luxurious three row SUV. The radio station they had gone to was on the outskirts of the city; about a 30 minute drive back to main Lagos. He wished he had someone to talk to on the drive back.
Frank had stayed in touch with Kiki via Whatsapp so far, but it appeared she had fallen asleep as she hadn’t been responding to his messages for the last 15 minutes. He had tried to discuss how much he would have to pay her, but she replied with an angry face emoji. He understood she was really into him, and this was no longer business, but he had gone so many years paying for sex that it had become second nature to him.
Frank heard a knock on the car window and looked to the side to see Fatai Lion smiling at him. He had taken off his suit jacket and had rolled up the sleeves of the white shirt he had on. The man still gave him the creeps even though they had been working closely for almost a month now. He just couldn’t shake off the stories he had heard about him. “I want to discuss something with you.” He said after Frank rolled down the SUV window.
“Oh. Okay.” Frank said as he opened the door and moved to the side for him to get in. The man got in, shut the door and asked the driver to head out.
“Everything has been good so far, right?” Fatai Lion said as they joined the expressway.
“Yes; so far so good. The articles about you are getting positive response, and the radio awareness interviews have been great so far.”
“That’s great. Umm! Concerning what I wanted to talk to you about.” He said and took a breather before continuing with, “My wife handles a program for me where we rehabilitate pickpockets, street thugs, and junkies.”
“Oh. That’s great.” Frank responded enthusiastically.
“Yea, it hasn’t been easy, but it is one of my favorite charity moves.” The man said with a smile on his face.
“I can see why that would be.”
“I want to ask you what you feel is the best way to get to more people with this program.” He was saying then stopped to pull out his phone. “Let me show you some of the pictures from the last reach out we had in Bariga.” He added as he went through his gallery. Frank looked away. He didn’t want to see what his eyes weren’t meant to see. “Check this out; that’s my wife in blue.” The man finally said, showing a picture of a lady in a blue skirt suit, talking to street thugs. Frank almost had a heart attack when he saw who the person in the picture was. The man kept scrolling through a series of pictures, and talking. He noticed Frank was no longer paying attention and looked at Frank with a quizzical look on his face before asking, “You know my wife?” As Frank thought of what to say, two bikes pulled up in front of them and the driver pressed the break hard, making them almost fall out of their seats.
Fatai Lion started cursing out the driver, but his voice slowly trailed off when he saw what was in front of them. The passengers on the motorcycles were seating backward on them with AK 47 rifles pointed at the SUV. “Shiit!!?” Frank cursed under his breath seconds before the men opened fire on the SUV. BRATATATATA!!!
To be continued
