Forgive the Godfather

16: Luke Dew begins investigation

By the time Luke walked into his cozy little apartment on the top floor of a two-story semi detached bungalow, the figures on the digital clock had blinked past the hour of ten o'clock. He felt tired and in need of a rest.

Luke lived alone among other tenants. Same as the woman living directly below his apartment. The woman, a senior bank executive, also lived alone. The ground floor was being used as an office by a law firm.

The cleaning woman dropped in twice a week to clean up Luke's place and set in order. Once in a while he ran into a lady who didn't mind sharing his bed, although women were not particularly in his agenda. His work kept him very busy, and he had little time for anything else, except perhaps sometimes a workout at the gym.

He put a call through to Kris. When the Director of SSS came on the line, he said, "The kite is flying. I have begun the preliminaries. I hope to put in my best tomorrow and see what turns up."

"That's alright," Kris said. "Keep me posted, and good luck." He hung up.

A man of few words, Luke mused as he undressed and stepped into the shower stall. He let the fine spray splash over his body, savoring the cool water.

He turned off the tap, threw on a dressing gown and went into the kitchen to warm some food, which he carried over to the small oval-shaped dining table and fed himself a light meal.

When he had finished eating he put the plates in the kitchen sink and sat in his comfortable cushion chair, stretched out his legs.

He switched on the curved smart TV and scanned through the various channels, paused on CNN, watched the news for a few minutes and then turned off the TV. He went into his bedroom and stretched on the bed and, moments later, he was fast asleep.

The alarm in his head woke him up at 6 am. He opened his eyes and rolled out of bed.

He quickly brushed his teeth and took a shower. He put the kettle on the gas cooker and began to dress up for the day's work. By the he'd finished dressing, the water was boiling. He made himself a cup of strong coffee.

A few minutes later, he was driving into town. He went first to his office. Rita was already at her desk and she raised her eyebrows.

"Good morning, boss," she said and followed him into his office. "I waited up for you yesterday. I thought you were busy so I left."

Luke grunted.

"About the blue van, and the police sirens yesterday," Rita reported. "There was no news about a blue van. But a bank robbery was reported about ten o'clock in the morning. The police arrived late. The robbers had escaped."
Luke nodded absent mindedly.

"Did you land the job?" Rita asked, coming to stand before his desk.

Luke grinned at her. "We landed a big fish alright," he said. "Labo Yowa, governorship aspirant, with a special recommendation from, guess who?"

Rita shook her head. "Tell me."

"Kris, Director General of the Department of State

Security Service. Can you beat that?"

Rita laughed. "You are the best, boss. Those who matter know it."

"You haven't heard half of it," Luke said excitedly. "Linda, that's Labo's twenty-four year old daughter, was kidnapped yesterday."

"Oh no!" Rita exclaimed. "By whom?"

"That's what Labo is hiring our Xclusive Services to find out."

"Have they made ransom demand yet?" Rita inquired.

Luke grinned mischievously. "They have. Five hundred million."

Rita covered her mouth with her hand, eyes wide. "What? Are you sure he's going to dole out that money?"

"Labo is laying an egg," Luke said. "Why not? To get back his daughter, he could part with such a sum. Problem is, Labo hasn't got the dough. That's where we come in."

"So, what are you going to do?" Rita asked. "Locate the girl, snatch her away and return her safely to her father."

"Give yourself an applause, Rita," Luke said. "That is precisely what I intend to do. If we can save Labo five hundred million grand, guess what our ten percent cut would amount to."

Luke could hear Rita's brain creaking with the arithmetic. "That's fifty million naira!"

Luke grinned. "With that kind of cash, we'll shut down and take a vacation to the Bahamas. Sun and
beaches. How'd you like that?"

Rita's eye grew wide. "Wao! I would love it!" Then Luke's face became very serious. "But first, we have to earn it," he said, getting to his feet.

From inside his coat pocket, Luke produced the piece of paper on which he'd made some notes while talking with Labo last night.

He handed it to Rita. "Take down these notes, turn the bullet points into prose. Create a new file, save it.

When you are done, shred the paper."

"I will do that, sir," Rita took the piece of paper and glanced briefly the scanty writing.

"I need to nose around the Cida Plaza." Luke said.

"That's probably where she was taken yesterday."

"Do the police know about it?" Rita asked.

"No. They warned him not to. I advised him to try and negotiate with them, to buy us time to track them down. When I've found out where they are holding her, I'll invite the cops, but not before."

Luke walked briskly from the office.

"Good luck boss," Rita said to his back.