Restless – Episode 211

Restless – Episode 211

® 18+ SNVL

© Oluwatosin Oyinloye

Unedited

“We should have never let Evelyn go to that office today,” Paul said, pacing about the place frantically.

He was in the control room of the building with some of the other team members.

“There’s no cause for alarm, Paul. She knows what to do,” Henry replied, walking into the room with a glass of teacup. He took a sip and stopped to talk to Paul. “You need to stop worrying and take a rest.”

“I can’t rest, Carl. I’m not sure if Auston and his father are safe,” Paul stopped pacing to stare back at Henry.

“Your son and grandson are perfectly fine. You don’t have to worry about them anymore because the Red Wolves no longer need them,” Henry said before taking another sip from the tea. “By the way, it’s Henry here, not Carl,” Henry added to correct the man.

Paul sighed and shook his head. “Okay, I’ll try to get that into my head. But is it possible for anyone to visit the hospital and check them out?”

“Yes, it is,” Henry replied and advanced towards Maxwell. Paul followed after him, expecting him to continue speaking. Henry was a metre away from Maxwell when he paused to continue. “You can visit the hospital whenever you wish to.”

“What?” Paul widened his eyes in shock. Henry ignored him and gulped down the remaining content of the cup before he proceeded to Maxwell. Paul followed him. “Come on, you don’t expect me to go there. The FOX or the Wolves could be there waiting for me. I would be walking into a trap.”

“And who do you think wants to walk into the trap you’re avoiding?” Henry raised his brows. Paul’s shoulders dropped as he understood Henry’s point. “You gotta relax man, nothing will happen to your family. The Red Wolves are done with you.”

Paul resigned and turned back to leave.

“What is the progress with your work?” Henry asked Maxwell.

“I’ve gone a bit far,” Maxwell replied. “I’ve replaced the police records with ours. They would only find what we need them to find when they check. I’m about to hack the email servers right now.”

“You need to get that done quickly, Evelyn is most likely facing them already.”

“On it boss. I was just delayed for a while because I didn’t get access to the backend from our source.”

Henry turned to glance at Samantha and Dave who were working quietly on their computers. Then he turned to Maxwell again. “Make sure you give me an update when necessary,” he said and turned to exit the room.

“Boss,” Dave called his attention and he stopped and turned back. “Seen the headlines today?”

Henry squinted at Dave. “Headlines? Of course, everyone knows the trending news today.”

“Don’t you think it still gives the Red Wolves an advantage?”

“Yeah, it does,” Henry shrugged. He paused to think for a few seconds and then proceeded towards Dave. “We weren’t trying to take the advantage away from them. We only saved the Chairman.”

“I know that already,” Dave sighed and turned to his system. “Have a look at this,” he said as he opened his browser and clicked on a link from the history.

PAUL EDWARDS: FORMER CHAIRMAN OF THE FOX DECLARED DANGEROUS BY THE ORGANIZATION

“Seen this before,” Henry replied and then folded his arms across his chest. “Why does it bother you?”

“Don’t you think the Red Wolves are going to take advantage of this to credit more deaths to Paul Edwards?”

“That has always been their plan, Dave,” Henry drew a chair closer to sit. “Even if Paul was killed in the prison last night, they were still going to credit their other crimes to his involvement. Now that he isn’t dead, it’s just going to make their claims stronger. They will hope to blame him for the death of the other executives they are targeting. But that will only happen if we don’t stop them first.”

—–

The FOX Headquarters,

EPA Hill, Bexford.

 

Evelyn stood speechless in the investigation room, staring in surprise at the faces of the men there. It was the investigation for her team and other agents were not supposed to be in there that early.

Steve walked closer to her and stopped in front of her, obstructing her from seeing the other men.

“What’s happening here, Agent Steve?” She squinted at his face.

“An investigation,” he smirked.

“What investigation? And why is it done in our team room?” Evelyn frowned.

“Because you’re no longer a part of the team,” Steve added and stepped aside. “You have lots of questions to answer, Evelyn. I think you should step forward and start answering them.”

Evelyn stepped forward with a confused look on her face. She faced Agent Mensah and squinted at his face. “What’s happening here, Mr Chairman?”

“We know of your involvement with the former Chairman, Evelyn. We also know a little about your recent activities, and how there have been threats to your life. What we don’t understand is why you fail to report these threats to any of your superiors or file a legal complaint to the organization,” Mensah said and then paused for a while. He folded his arms across his chest and stared intently at her face. “Can you tell us why?”

Evelyn took in a deep breath to calm herself. She turned her eyes slowly and stared at Steve for a moment.

Steve stared back, trying his best to hold back an evil smile. He knew he had gotten her at this point like he always wanted to. There was no way she would have something to say to defend herself, he thought. And she wouldn’t even be so stupid to talk about the incident in her apartment because the men would not believe her. They would only think she was making up stories to take the focus away from her. He proceeded forward to stand at the other side where the other agents were.

“I didn’t file a legal complaint because I was asked not to by my superior,” Evelyn turned back to the Chairman and replied.

“Paul Edwards asked you not to file a complaint?” Mensah questioned.

“No, Agent Steve told me not to,” Evelyn replied, staring directly at Steve’s face.

“What?” Steve muttered under his breath in shock. He didn’t expect a response from her.

“Why would Agent Steve asked you not to complain about a threat to your life?” Mensah queried. It was obvious from the look on his eyes and that of the other agents that they did not believe her.

“It was friendly advice from him,” Evelyn replied, shocking Steve the more. “Making a report could have earned me suspension because I got involved with some bad guys but I never committed a crime.”

Now, Steve was becoming jittery as the situation was taking a new twist. He never expected her to give the responses she was.

“These are serious allegations, Agent Steve,” Mensah remarked, turning to Steve with raised brows. “Are they true?”

“Of course, they aren’t true,” Steve answered. “She’s just making up stories.”

“They’re true, sir,” Evelyn continued. “Agent Steve was my friend and he even wanted to become closer to me. He requested to visit me at home a few times but I declined. I believed he gave me that advice because he wanted us to be closer.”

“What the heck!” Steve scoffed. “I never advised you not to file a complaint. You never even told me about the attack.”

“Was there any personal relationship between you two?” Tom questioned on noticing that Steve did not deny the part of requesting a visit to her house.

“No,” Steve denied vehemently.

Tom turned to Evelyn.

“We didn’t have a personal relationship yet but he wanted it. It didn’t happen because I didn’t let him come so close to me. At a time, he sent me a gift for my little sister’s birthday.”

Steve groaned and clenched his fists in frustration. When Evelyn had gotten in, he had thought she would be put behind bars that morning. But now, it was becoming a case of confusion.

“Is that true, Agent Steve?” Mensah queried.

Steve nodded reluctantly.

The senior agents sighed and glanced at each other in disappointment. Evelyn had been able to paint a picture that there was some form of bad blood between her and Steve. Hence, it was difficult for them to believe Steve’s accusations against her as it could be self-motivated.

Nevertheless, Steve had earlier stated some accusations which were still valid and they needed to confirm.

“Was the Chairman aware of the attack?” Mensah asked.

“Yes,” Evelyn affirmed. “But I told him that Agent Steve was handling it.”

Steve’s jaw dropped as he was shocked again by her response.

“Agent Evelyn,” Tom stepped closer to her. “Your boyfriend, Dave has been connected to a late man in the Red Wolves case. Do you know about that?”

“I don’t have a boyfriend,” Evelyn stated blankly.

Now, Steve could no longer hold himself. He was tired of watching Evelyn dish out the lies conveniently.

“You’re a f***ing liar, Evelyn. Dave is your boyfriend.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Agent Steve,” Evelyn insisted.

Now, the confusion in the room had increased. Only Maria knew Steve was saying the truth but she decided to remain quiet not to attract questions to herself.

“Okay, Evelyn. I agree that you don’t have a boyfriend but do you know any Dave?” Tom asked.

Evelyn gathered her eyebrows together. “I’m not sure I know of anyone called Dave right now.”

Tom then turned to Maria. “Can you show us his picture?”

In a few minutes, Maria had the photo on the screen.

“Do you know this man?” Tom questioned.

“Of course, I know him,” Evelyn answered after taking a look at the screen.

Steve heaved a sigh of relief on hearing her admit she knew Dave. But he didn’t know what was about to follow.

“During our investigations, Agent Steve was able to connect this man named Dave to a dead victim. The dead victim was the same one we found on the day former Agent Hannah died. It was also at that time an unknown woman visited the forensics lab and wiped the materials we picked from the crime scenes,” Evelyn continued to explain boldly, putting in more confusion in the hearts of the men.

Mensah and Tom glanced at each other now at the moment she mentioned the evidence tampering case that happened at the forensics lab. It was unlikely for a guilty person to mention a case that could incriminate them.

“Agent Steve had taken the responsibility to profile the new suspect, Dave and the dead man, Cole. He told me a few days ago that Maria had fetched their profiles already. He even sent me a copy of the profiles.”

“Huh?” Steve glared at her. “I didn’t send you anything.”

Evelyn took out her device from her suit jacket and tapped it on. “I’ll show you the email in a minute.”

Steve stared at Evelyn with unbelief in his eyes. He wondered why she was so serious with the device as if she truly had a mail to show them. And even if she had a mail, he didn’t send her anything, so he was certain she wouldn’t be able to prove anything.

Evelyn reloaded her inbox for the fourth time in a row and she couldn’t still locate the mail. She began to sweat inwardly immediately. Her game was about to come to an end and the men would not believe her anymore. Maxwell and Henry had assured her that the mail was going to be available in due time. Henry’s master plan to help her confuse the FOX executives seemed to be failing.

“Where’s the mail, Agent Evelyn?” Mensah’s cold voice jerked her out of her reverie.

She realized she was about to mess herself up.

“She’s lying, sir. I didn’t send her a mail and she has nothing to show you,” Steve spoke out, adding to Evelyn’s dilemma.

She began to pray in her heart, wondering what next to do now that she couldn’t go on with Henry’s master plan. One certain thing, however, was that she couldn’t deny all the things she had already said. She had to find a way to support her points. If she failed to do so, there was no way she would escape being kept behind bars that day. But how was she going to do so with the email not showing up?

“You’re trying to play pranks on our mind?” Mensah glared at her. “I’m gonna make sure you do not escape punishment for this.”

Evelyn decided to try the last time before giving up. She reloaded the email app and watched it process for some seconds. There was still no new email. But just as she clicked on the lock screen button, she noticed something and quickly opened it back. Her face lit up as the email was in.

“Here sir,” she moved closer to Agent Tom to hand him the phone. “I’m sorry for the delay, my device seems to be malfunctioning.”

Tom kept a suspicious look on her face as he took the phone from her. He looked at the screen reluctantly and saw a message sent from Steve’s email address to Evelyn’s. It contained a few words and some attachments. He opened one of the attachments to check. It was exactly Dave’s profile which had been shown to them by Maria. He checked the second one and found late Cole’s profile too.

Tom heaved a sigh of frustration as he handed the phone to Mensah to check.

“She has the profiles of the men, Steve. And you sent them to her,” Mensah remarked thirty seconds after looking at the screen.

Steve glowered at the man as he stepped closer to take the phone.

Maria sighed on realizing what was happening. It was further proof to her that the man who visited her that night was Evelyn’s boyfriend. She knew that Dave had gotten the profiles from Agent Michael’s phone when he was kidnapped.

But even though Agent Michael had told her she should assist FOX to arrest Evelyn, there was no way she could tell them the truth about what she knew. She would have more questions to answer if she did.

Steve stared at the screen in unbelief. The message was really from his email address but he hadn’t sent it. He knew there was just something fishy.

“I didn’t send this, Chairman. I didn’t. She’s trying to frame me,” Steve denied.

Mensah shook his head and sighed. It was just about two hours at work that morning and he was already feeling so tired. He already hated the Chairman role.

“I didn’t send her the mail,” Steve insisted on seeing that the executives did not believe him. “She could have used another mailing system and included my email address as the sender.”

“Can we have a look at your emailing app?” Mensah requested.

“Oh no, he could have deleted the sent mail from the folder,” Agent Tom did not agree with the Chairman’s request.

“But it’s also possible that she used an emailing tool to include his address,” Mensah opined.

Steve took out his phone eagerly and handed it to Agent Mensah after opening the email app.

The man navigated to his sent folder straightaway. He scrolled through, checking the recent emails but didn’t find it.

“It’s not here,” Mensah remarked.

“Have you checked his trash folder?” Tom asked.

“No,” Mensah frowned. “I don’t think he’s stupid enough to have deleted the mail from the sent box and forget it in the trash.”

“We can’t tell except you check,” Tom insisted.

Mensah eventually navigated to the trash folder and the first mail there was the exact message sent to Evelyn.

The chairman sighed and handed the phone to Tom. “I guess he’s quite stupid then. He deleted it immediately after sending it but forgot it was in the trash.”

Steve widened his eyes in surprise and moved closer to Tom to check his phone. The senior agent handed the phone to him after checking.

He stared at his phone in disbelief. The message was indeed there, in his trash folder. His knees buckled and his whole body felt weak. How Evelyn had been able to frame him this well was unclear to him. He had thought her best line of defence would be to use his unintentional murder against him. But she had surprised him totally by coming out at an angle he never expected.

Now, he knew he was in some trouble with the executives. But he was even surer that Evelyn was dangerous and had something to do with the terrorists. He was also quite certain that she was involved in kidnapping Paul Edwards from the FOX. Her moves proved that she was prepared for what just happened.

The executives, on the other hand, were confused. Just when they thought they were beginning to make some progress, then they discovered that Steve was not trustworthy.

“I don’t still understand what’s going on here,” Evelyn spoke up after a few seconds of silence. “I read the news today about Mr Paul Edwards and I was coming here to question Agent Steve about it. But I’m surprised that questions were waiting for me instead.”

Tom and Mensah glanced at each other. They had taken enough confusing information for that morning and couldn’t cope with more.

Generally, Evelyn and Steve were supposed to be suspended immediately. But the two of them, especially Steve were at the forefront of the investigation. Suspending Steve at that time would likely cease any progress they’ve been having on the case. And it would be unfair to suspend Evelyn without doing the same to Steve. The executives were in a dilemma.

“We need to take a break now,” Mensah finally spoke up. “You two should return to your offices right now and don’t leave there until I call for you.”

“But sir…” Steve tried to speak but was interrupted.

“Get out now!” Mensah fired.

Both Steve and Evelyn turned quietly and proceeded towards the door. Evelyn got to the door first and stepped out. Steve deliberately followed slowly not to level up with her.

She took out her phone and opened a secure chat app as she walked to her office.

“You nearly killed in there, Henry. The email came so f***ng late,” she typed and sent.