The Hole in The Wall Season 1

Season 4 years ago

The Hole in The Wall Season 1

Who, What, When……how?

The Lady pushed her cart somewhat mechanically. She stopped at a door prepared to knock, but her hand stopped in mid air as she noticed the sign hanging on the doorknob; do not disturb!

She pushed her cart past the door to another and seeing no sign knocked gently.
She knocked again, and hearing no response she used her key card and opened the door. Before she could even push her cart in a voice shouted harshly. “Come back later, let me sleep for God’s sake!”


She withdrew hurriedly and shut the door, and without a word pushed her cart further down the hall. She was used to such petty tantrums from the hotel guest. She didn’t give a poo about them, she just wanted to do her job which was to change the towels and the sheets, clean the room and get out of there.
There was also no reply from the next door and she entered the room announcing her presence as she pushed her cart ahead of her.
“I want to change the sheets please, I’m from drycleaning”

She got no response and noticed the room was empty. She sighed out in relief and began to hum as she headed to the bathroom first. The towels were obvously used and on the floor in a bunch. She wrinkled her nose as a pungent ordour irritated her. She couldnt place the source of the ordour but it was strange and foul and irritated her. She smiled wryly at the irony. Considering the fact that she was a cleaning lady. But apart from the dirty towels on the floor, the toilet was still as she had left it the day before it was still so clean it might have never been used.

She reentered the room rolling her sleeves, looking round, whoever had been in this room must have checked out last night, the bed was exactly as she had made it 24 hours earlier. But what was that odour that forced her nose to wrinkle?

She observed the bed and sniffed the air. Suddenly she dropped the new sheets on the bed, and crawled across it without taking of her slippers. (She was the one who would still wash the sheets after all) she peered at the wall above the headboard.


There was a hole in the wall. A circle, carved perfectly into the wall with smooth curves as if it were part of the architectural plans. She looked at it confused but intrigued, it had definitely not been there before.

She peered into next room from the hole, just with one eye. She could see the bed, and part of someone’s legs. someone was asleep in the other room and another guest had somehow drilled a hole and spied on the other guest. She frowned as she considered this. She could imagine a pervert peering at a female guest while she was Unclad in the next room. But the legs she was seeing was hairy, and definitely masculine. Overcome with curiosity she changed her view, shutting her right eye and staring through her left.

She saw….the bed clearly from this view and she pondered what the sticky thing she was looking at was for a split second then the brain finally clicked with the realization that it was in fact looking at one. One that had been blown apart, the pungent odour attacked her along with the realization and the flashes clicked like shutters beneath her eyelids in her mind..engraving itself forever in her memory…..the blood, pasty and sticky, so red and thick …the whitish pinkish fluid which wasn’t a fluid but solid matter….particles of brain matter..the…the… The scream ripped out of her coming from deep within, the mirror shook, so did the chandelier up above. This was a scream too high to have come from the throat. this kind of scream originated from the soul. It had to be.
She ran out of the room, her hands shaking, her eyes blinking, trying to unsee what it could not. All the while, she didn’t break or gasp for breath but continued screaming.

And the glasses continued to rattle.REX
I waited my turn patiently, tapping my steering wheel to the old school tune coming from the radio. I didn’t know who it was and in fact was tapping my fingers partly to stay awake. I glanced at the dashboard checking the time, it was 10:44am. A normal person should be energetic and would be a little bright eyed no matter how tiring the day was. But when you could hardly boast of 5 hours sleep in the last 72 hours then you were no longer normal.

I leaned hard on my horn although it was fruitless, I was still about four cars from the pump but at least it jerked me fully awake.
The last two years.. 19 months to be precise had been a….I still run out of adjectives to describe what had taken everyone by storm and what was still referred to as the devil’s initiative. Trust the media to at least come up with a provoking if not witty headliner.
I had been at the center of it all, well to be precise, we were a handful of people but I had been at the core of the center, from the moment I had found out that Mr Amunike or Chief Amunike, business tycoon and owner of the “Sunrise Steel” company, (not to mention the now out of favour ammunition alcohol drink) had been trafficking helpless women, mostly widows out of the country, It had become my life’s calling to expose him. The scars still burned, I had lost Fomé, Andy had lost Mona and his unborn child. I worried about my friend. He had lost his wife and unborn child and while I found Olivia by some unbelievable luck, he had no one. He had thrown himself fully into our PI firm, taking on case after case, closing down surveillance, security meetings and had even engaged himself in field work with Bami and Tonye. And trust me, the BROTA agency was engaged in lots of field work. Although it was relatively safe but when I say relatively I mean 60%. We had the backing of the Government, at least the Lagos State Government (I had saved his life after all) and when the clients multiplied and the case load became too much we had to recruit new agents. I fully trusted Bami and Tonye’s capacity when it came to field work and left that aspect in their capable hands. Both had saved my life and I had so many memories to remind me, was it when Tonye’s shot cracked the night when I had been flat on my back expecting the blade from the shadow with 500 scared widows behind me? Or when Bami had-
The blast from the horn jolted me again but this time it was from the car behind me. I started my engine and covered the space that had been freed ahead

I opened my shirt button and dug out the chain I had round my neck. There was a heart shaped pendant at the center and I opened it and stared at the two pictures on either side. No, there was no way I was getting involved in any field work or any case that looked the least bit dangerous.

I smiled at Olivia feeling a love so intense my chest burned, but then I glanced at the second picture. At the clear eyes so much like mine, the curly hair, sweet dimples buried in her fat cheeks and the heat became warm immediately. Emma, my Emma, my daughter. She was a year and two months…two weeks, 3 days and a couple hours old (heey…I was once a banker) anyway I had a different kind of responsibility now and I couldn’t afford the kind of heroic charge that once burst through my veins and brought me a whisker from death on too many occasions to run free.

Which was why the past couple of days had been hectic, troubling, stressful with all manner of thoughts going through my mind.
The hunt for the last shadow had kicked of quite expectantly. The media had branded us the golden detectives, the Governor along with a senator had gifted us a golden budget to bring the bastard Chief Security Officer of Sunrise Steel and the head and last remaining member of the sunset shadows. For the first time I had access to the kind of intelligence I watched on the big screen so many times. Tonye and Bamy were ex DSS agents with reliable sources, the Government backing had linked us with different agents from different agencies and I come across fancy gadgets and fancy strategies but Mr Kehinde continued to elude us. He remained the last shadow, always disappearing into thin air without a trace. One day he was in Australia, the next day Japan, the next he had been sighted from a satellite image and was definitely in the Caribbean. He remained elusve and it had been a blind chase from one country to another.

At least we had traveled the world. But then time went by, Olivia’s stomach started to get bigger and my priorities started to realign.
The moment the nurse had placed Emma in my hands and she had looked up at me with big black eyes I knew I had to kiss my short detective career goodbye.

I started my engine again when the car moved and crawled forward while I remembered the conversation I had with Bami in the hospital corridor the night of Emma’s birth;
“Bami…its over, I’m done, I can’t risk my family again man…I’d take my old job back. Ariyo would take me back at the bank” even as the words left my mouth I knew it was folly.
Bami had looked at me strangely (with his strange eyes)
“That’s crazy…you can’t expect things to be the same as before…things changed and you know it but you’re still Rex Obasi…you’re the R in BROTA…you’re my brother….you’re Andy’s brother!”

The guilt had been amazing and I felt very selfish then but then we talked, really talked and he could understand my fears. I had been trained by the best teacher which was experience and a good teacher didn’t need to repeat himself twice.

Finally I found the perfect compromise agreed to take over Olivia’s old job, running the desk at the agency was relatively safe and Olivia had gladly taken indefinite leave so to be frank I was the new receptionist/secretary. And whenever I stamped a case file or read a confidential detective report, I felt the longing deep deep deep down. But that’s all it can ever be. I was going to be 31 in three months and I planned to remain a loving father and husband for the rest of my life and I wanted it to be a long one.

Which was why I was worried sick since the last three days. It all started with an anonymous mail and it brought back hunting memories.

The moment I saw the address I had felt a cold chill inside of me.
@therealshadow.

The message had been chilling.
“Your sun has been bright and overhead for a long time. Hope you enjoyed it but now sunset is here and you know what that means…”
I immediately remembered the messages the crazy shadow killer used to send me and how he had almost killed Andy the night at the wharf.
I knew better than to tell Olivia and it had taken me just a second reading of the threat to know what I had to do.

First I convinced her to spend the weekend with my parents who always called to speak to and ask about their granddaughter daughter almost every night. Then I arranged with Bami to have two of the best agents arrange shadow security…which ironically meant Olivia had no idea she was under security watch.
72 hours of running around in circles with no lead, no reply to my bold(who the hell are you?)enquiry and no meaningful clues from anywhere to go on. This could only mean Mr Kehinde was back and he was coming after me. God. Why me?

So here I was thinking about thinking, sitting in a fuel station just a car away from the pump.
I finally bought fuel, filling my tank cause of the scarcity rumours that had been flying about lately.

As I drove home my phone rang. I checked the caller ID. It was Sam, aka S.s (Short Sam)
Sam was my buddy from the university and a brilliant hacker. He had helped me hack into the widows initiative website two years ago and still helped me out frequently. My phone was connected to my car’s Bluetooth and since the window was up and I was the only one in the car, I answered the call.
“Ss….any development?”
He sounded tired “men its a dead end….whoever this real shadow that sent you the mail is, he knows what he’s doing”
“So you couldn’t trace the ip or something”
“There’s just so little to go by, the address was created a week ago, and the IP placed the location at Sweden”
“Sweden?” I was baffled
“Then Russia, then Ukraine, then Croatia….the list is long not to talk of the firewalls”
I scratched the back of my neck tiredly “typical of a shadow”
“I’d keep trying, if anything comes out I’d let you know”
“Thanks Sam…I appreciate this”
“Hey, its all for a good course, finally my conscience is clear and I’m doing what I love”

I ended the call and tried Olivia’s call through voice command.

She picked on the second ring.
“Hello darling…how are you?”
I could hear the ruckus in the background. The shouting of kids playing and having fun and I smiled. I also lied “I’m doing good….I’ve just been working out although the house has been quite lonely and I miss you like crazy” (at least that wasn’t a lie)
“Awwww….well here has been the total opposite of lonely…Utebo is here with the twins and Emma and Soma have been playing all weekend.” I thought her voice sounded strained. Soma was my immediate elder sister’s daughter and just ten months older than Emma.

“How’s mom and dad…is any of them there?”

“Dad just went out not long. But mama is is in her shop outside. Do you want to speak to her?”

“No I’d call her later…and I’d call you later, I’m almost home…give Emma a big kiss for me”

I could hear the smile in her voice. “I would, I’d collect mine when I come home”
“Okay bye I love you” I rushed and cut the call. I didn’t want them home yet. Not until this last shadow threat was nullified.
I entered my garage and my phone rang again this time it was Andy.
He didn’t waste any time for greetings.
“There’s been a murder”
“Have you reached Bami….you know what I have on my hands won’t give me time for-”
He interrupted me. “Oba, believe me you’re going to need to see this one”


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Olivia
The moment Olivia got off the phone with Rex she dialled Tonye.
Her friend answered on the first ring or before the first ring if it were possible.
“Any developments Tonye?”
“Still nothing yet..but its just a matter of time before we trace him”
“OK…Rex called me now and I could tell he was really stressed out”
“You know Rex, anything about family, he drives himself past the limit.”
“Please keep an eye on him…I’m worried and he keeps dodging my statement about coming back home”
“I know, don’t worry”
“Listen Tonye, thanks for telling me about the email threat”
“Don’t mention. We sisters have to look out for ourselves”
Olivia walked to the window and parted the blinds. She could make out the dark sedan in the distance and knew the agents sitting in the car, tasked with protecting her. Clyde and Kevwe. She had been the one to type out their employment letters.

She closed the blind and wandered back to the parlour. Where her daughter sat with her cousin and best friend. Both of them staring at the animated movie: ‘m0ana’

And just like Rex earlier, the love warmed her and a fierce protective feeling made her eyes harden a bit. No one was going to touch her daughter. She would die to make sure of it.
She left the children alone, shaking her head as the twin boys ran around shouting and shooting each other with their thumbs.

They were 7 and their father had just been recently promoted to lieutenant colonel. The twins would always tell her any chance they get ‘I want to be a soldier like my dad’ causing her lips to turn upward in a smile every time
She left the children and went outside, opening the door that led directly to her mother’s shop. Her husband’s mother was her mother, not her mother in law. They had gone through so much together and they loved each other dearly like mother and daughter.

Her sister in law(Utebo) who was more like her sister was sitting on a stool talking to her mother and she smiled when she saw Olivia.
“They’re still watching that cartoon shey?”
“Third time in a row. They are even singing the songs already” they all laughed and Olivia settled on an upturned empty crate. She was with her family, the type of family she had always wanted and she cherished moments like this.

“So when is Papa’s semifinal ram fight?” she asked.

Mama Obasi smiled with a mischievous glint in her eye and in a conspirator’s whisper said “Rambo was certainly delicious, but this his new ram isn’t half as tough as Rambo was. Even Al told me himself he knew the ram wouldn’t make it past this stage”
“Well if he isn’t half as strong as Rambo we’d have to find out if he is atleast half as delicious for fairness sake” Utebo said as she got up to attend to a customer. Mama and Olivia couldn’t help it, they burst out laughing.


°•°°•°

BAMI
The moment the call came in, Bami crept out of bed careful not to wake his wife and left the house without having his bathe. He arrived the hotel few minutes before ten, barely an hour after the body had been discovered. He had seen the body, standing to the side while the coroner took pictures and his strange eyes widened in disbelief.

“How soon can a DNA test be done to confirm his identity?” He asked the woman detective who was looking round the apartment with a crime scene technician careful not to disturb the coroner who was jotting down his findings and taking pictures of the unrecognizable head and the tennis sized ball(also known as alarm ball and it was quite alarming indeed) hole in the head. Bami couldn’t believe his eyes, he had stared at the picture too many times this past two years and knew whose corpse he was looking at but he still needed to be sure.
“Okay I’m done here…they can take the body to the morgue I still have some tests to run…maybe an autopsy” the coroner finally announced as he jotted down his findings.
“I need you to confirm his ID for me asap…please its urgent” Bami said to the coroner as he passed him.

The man glanced at the badge clipped on his belt, it wasn’t difficult to notice. “You’ll have to come with me to the lab then…if its that important”
“Okay, sure let me make a quick call” he was already dialing Rex but he frowned in thought and cut the call. He speed dialled another number.

Andy picked the second time he called.
“Where are you?”
“I was having a shower”
Bami remembered he hadn’t had his “you need to hurry to this crime scene, immediately…” He rattled of the address
“Okay…have you told Rex yet?”
“No…not yet…I want the body to be confirmed first”,
“Confirmed….confirmed as who?”
“Mister Kehinde…the leader and last of the sunset shadows”
Andy whistled “I’m on my way”


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