Jamaica

Chapter 19

"Sarah? Sarah?" Gbenga had been calling his assistant to come to his office but wasn't getting any response from her. Calling her over the phone was something he rarely did, because he knew that in her usual habit, she might be on her phone talking to someone. Sarah had the habit of staying long hours on the phone and this bothered him.

He kept wondering how she could stay on the phone for so long and not get tired. Being a man of very few words, he couldn't imagine staying long hours on the phone without getting bored or even tired. He got up and decided to go and see what was keeping her from responding to him.

Sarah was busy on her phone and at the other end of the line was Alex. He had wanted to speak to Gbenga but in his usual habit, always took the time to talk to her first. Each time he called, Sarah was happy as he always had a lot of things to tell her. To keep in contact with him, she had given him her private number.

When Gbenga opened the door of his office, he saw her with the earphone plugged into both ears. She always kept her phone neatly placed under her desk while she worked. And she was typing away on her desktop computer.

"Sarah, don't you get tired of chatting away on your phone?" Sarah immediately got up and quickly removed the earphone from her ears.

"Sorry sir."

"And by the way, who do you always talk to? Because you spend so much time on the phone." Sarah stared at her boss but couldn't tell him it was Alex. She knew he had always warned her not to indulge with any of the clients. We do a very serious job here, so do not mess around with our clients, he had told her. But Sarah in her youthfulness had crossed that line and had started doing the exact opposite.

"Sir, I'm sorry it will not happen again." Gbenga walked up to her and gave her a thorough stare. He had never lost his temper on her but was about to do so now. Then he remembered what he was asked to do by the governor. Miriam had wanted him to find out everything about Jamaica. He knew the governor was up to something. And being familiar with her way of doing things, he knew she could go the extra mile to find Jamaica.

He had to find out what it was before he did the job. He knew Duke too well having assigned him to track the governor's husband. Duke had a secretary whom he had only seen once. When he saw her for the first time, he immediately saw some resemblance to the governor. With the task assigned to him by the governor, he was poised to find out who Agnes Okafor was.

Gbenga was a muscular man of average height in his fifties, who had a very unusual occupation. He was in the business of, as he liked to put it, connecting people with people. Having resigned as a former security officer, he operated a security company which hired out security personnel to both private individuals and government institutions. Over the years he had been able to gather a substantial amount of clients. However, while he did it legally, he also had underground connections which he used upon necessary requests.

One of his prized clients was the governor herself. He and Miriam had known each other back when they were students at the University of Lagos. While they frequented different faculties, they met for the first time at the University library. After that first encounter, they soon developed a steady and solid friendship due to their common interest in politics. They loved discussing and arguing about political issues.

However the friendship between them, never resulted in them dating each other. After graduation they both went their separate ways and met after so many years by accident. They met at the birthday party of a common friend. This friend was Lucy Adebayo, a Lagosian and a former course mate of the governor.

Lucy was owner of the most talked about cosmetics store-Adebayo Cosmetics. She had opened it a few years after graduation and went on to expand it by adding a hair-dressing salon, a barber shop and a small pub where her customers could chill out while waiting for their turn to be served.