Jamaica

Chapter 48

It was close to 4pm in the afternoon at the annual women's conference. The governor had just finished giving a memorable speech. It was one of those speeches that had as it's focal point, the empowerment of women from all spheres of life and social standing. Her speech garnered the applause of all the women participants. They stood up to cheer and clap their hands in praise of her bold and empowering words.

After the speech, the governor went to sit down. But the minute she sat down, she received a message that alarmed her. It was one of those messages that could spoil anyone's mood, especially after giving a memorable speech.

 It was quite an alarming message, one that gave her goose bumps. She felt entitled to some relief for giving a speech that resonated with everyone. It was a job well done. But the message took that away.

'It has just been confirmed that Mr. Shehu is no longer with us anymore. He was found dead in his office.'

The governor gasped for breath and  coughed after reading the message. Earlier in the day, she and Mr. Shehu had talked over the phone. As she coughed, her coughing became loud enough to distract the current speaker, who being interrupted, looked in the direction of the governor. As she looked, everyone else turned their gaze towards the governor.

"Please, somebody get your excellency water." Exclaimed the speaker, repeatedly. Immediately, one of the governor's security came forward with a bottle of water and quickly handed it over to her. She felt relief after drinking the water, and nodded at the speaker to continue.

"Sorry for the interruption. You may continue with your speech."

"Thank you, your excellency." Said the speaker mildly. When the meeting ended, and the governor got into her official car, she was quite agitated. A feeling of guilt hung over her head as she kept thinking about the message. A lot of things were happening, but she least expected to hear of the demise of Mr. Shehu.

This complicated things for her because Mr. Shehu was the man who passed her information Gbenga couldn't give her. After she had given out the order for Gbenga to be dealt with ruthlessly, his office was also destroyed.  Mr. Shehu had given her that information and she had him send someone to seal off the office.

To her, it was necessary to seal Gbenga's office off because she felt that there were so many compromising documents. These were files she had to quickly get hold of and destroy. She didn't want any information about her dealings, which she had secretly entrusted to Gbenga, to fall into the wrong hands and leaked to the press.

The guilt she felt after hearing about Mr. Shehu's death had more to do with how the press would paint her if any of the information in Gbenga's possession was leaked. And so the drive down to government house was a quiet one in which she kept contemplating on what to do to prevent any possible scandal.

She thought about making amends with Gbenga by apologizing to him. But at the back of her mind she knew he would never accept her apologies, due to the brutal way she had treated him. And so she ruled out any kind of apology but instead,  thought about what he could possibly do with the information in his possession.

This was one thing that really bothered her. Mr. Shehu had briefed her on what had happened and how Gbenga's house was set on fire. But he left out the one detail that kept bothering her. How did Gbenga get out of the house alive and end up in the hospital? She wanted that detail and immediately called Mr. Silas, the man she had sent to retrieve the information on Jamaica from Gbenga.

"Hello, Mr. Silas,"
"Hello your excellency how may I help you?"

Mr. Silas hadn't expected to receive the governor's phone call. But he knew that anytime she called, it was to send him on one of his usual missions. When she wanted to get anything in the blink of an eye, she would turn to him to get the job done. This was the only job he did for her, as he was a retired government civil servant.