CLAD

4

Chief Badmus had called again.

He wanted us to track his philandering wife Mrs. Gloria Badmus. She was his second wife whom he married barely six months after his first wife died of cervical cancer. They had five children together.

Tabloids called him several names after the rushed marriage was announced and till a few months after it became a reality, he and Gloria were a regular feature.

Gloria was well over twenty years younger than Chief Badmus. People say they met at his fiftieth birthday celebration and had been seeing each other long before his first wife died.

One wonders what someone like her had heard from someone that old to go into a relationship with him because they looked in love when I watched their wedding videos. The relationship had however lost the heat three years down the line.

Gloria had lost every regard for her husband who she so frequently praised on social media in the past. She started seeing men her age and younger.

The media was having a good time feeding off of Chief Badmus' glory causing his company sales to drop drastically till he hired us to keep them silent by settling them. We'd also tailed her and threatened some of her lovers in the past. I loved that part. It made me feel more like I was in a movie.

Mrs. Badmus was returning from her yearly one week overseas vacation which she had in Spain this year. She had told her husband that her flight would touchdown by 8pm but Chief Badmus, who didn't trust her enough to believe her had checked online and learnt that the last flight from Spain to Nigeria was to arrive four full hours before Gloria had stated. Such a terrible liar.

"There she is!" Bode exclaimed as we arrived the airport. Gloria had booked a taxi and was headed for God-knows-where.

"A minute later and we would have lost her!" I said with my palms on my chest, thankful we were not going to face Clara's chiding.

"Well, I've been driving all day and I'm tired. Who's taking over?" I felt Aisha's piercing eyes boring holes in me as I turned to look out the window . There was silence for some five seconds.

"Bisola!" Her shriek shook the whole of me and I turned around to meet her staring at me. Looking me in the eye, she nodded in the direction of the steering wheel. I didn't need any one to explain what that meant. I pointed at Bode and opened my mouth to suggest that he took over but She shook her head no.

I reluctantly opened the door of the car and stepped out to switch positions. I hated driving because it put me in a position where I couldn't take my short naps, play games or surf the internet and worse still we didn't know how far our destination was yet.

As I grabbed the steering wheel, I caught a glimpse of Aisha gleaming with happiness as she stared fast into her phone. Usman! I huffed, tightened my grip on the wheel and stepped on it ever so fiercely that Aisha's phone dropped.

"Hater!" She scoffed

Pleased with myself I smirked and started on our journey of no destination.

***

We tailed Mrs Badmus to Silver Orchid Hotel. It was more like an aspiring hotel and so very affordable. I couldn't quite place a finger on her reason for meeting her lover here of all places when she could afford better. As soon as she alighted, Aisha did same and followed her a good distance. I parked the car in one of the available spaces.

When we got in, Aisha told me to hang around the reception area while she tried to find out what room Mrs Badmus had gone into. She had told the receptionist a story to keep her from looking at us suspiciously. We were not going to just barge into Gloria's hotel room, obviously.