Dining in Hades Chapter 43&44

Written by @majeedsalako
Chapter 43
My phone rang, it was mum. I sighed, why did he have to involve her in this?

“Hello mum.”

She was frantic and at first I panicked thinking she was calling on an entirely different matter. My mind raced as I wondered what the problem was. I had never heard or seen mum in a state other than calm. She was a bit incoherent and it took a while to piece her words together.

“Mum, this is about Chief Jacob?” I was taken aback by her panic, how bad could this situation be?

“No I am not sleeping with his wife.” I responded to her query.

“I did not snatch his girlfriend mum.” I was getting irritated.

“Just come over to my place now Faruk.”

“Mum…” I took a deep breath clenching my teeth as I did so “I have a very important meeting right now but I’ll be there as soon as I can mum.”

“Faruk” Her voice was laced with steel “cancel that meeting and be at my place in thirty minutes”

“Mum, it’s with the commissioner for housing, I have spent months trying to secure this meeting, I can’t cancel.”

She hung up. I was pissed, very pissed, I had come this far without any help, and farther than they could have envisaged I would without dad’s help. I was in control of my affairs, and I wondered why they couldn’t see this. Why they thought I needed help wiping my butt. Even if I did, why would they think it was them I would come to especially seeing as I hadn’t come to them for help so far?

Yes I was worried about the situation, but after the whole brouhaha put up by both mum and dad, I was more pissed than worried. Thing is I couldn’t see what harm he could really do, most of the jobs I got, I got as a front, rarely did my name appear on documents and even when they did, it was usually in a technical capacity. There was so much he could trace to me. I used to be upset that there wasn’t really a trail that could be used to show my job experience and I kept telling myself that I needed to have more of a presence as regards the contracts and the supply jobs that I performed on. I recently contracted a lawyer to register a proper company in my name so that when the time came, I could build up on it and on the strength of that get jobs. That way I could build my own conglomerate- an even bigger one than dad’s . At this point however, I was glad that things had not been set in motion. There was little or nothing for Chief Jacob to bring down. It was then that a dark thought crossed my mind. What if Chief Jacob having found nothing, decided to get me killed? I dismissed the thought as quickly as it came; it certainly couldn’t be that serious, he was too highly placed to risk everything he had built over a woman; well two women, I told myself, but the thought found a place in the darkest and inner most recesses of my mind and stayed there occasionally rearing its head mostly in the middle of the night. On those nights I would get up and creep around my house, checking to see that all doors were firmly locked.

It took a while but I eventually had to admit that the situation affected me more than I initially thought it would. So I followed the dictates of common sense. I kept a somewhat low profile, avoiding nightlife and any women whom I felt may have the slightest connection with Chief Jacob or any of his associates. I did proper background checks on my marks and avoided any women who hit on me with no prior connections.

Silence . Nothing happened, no one troubled me, none of the contracts I was working on got terminated, no payments were delays. Nothing out of the ordinary happened; Chief Jacob did not take the matter as seriously as mum and dad did apparently. I dropped my guard considerably but I was still careful with the new women I met, I still did my due diligence. It was at about this time that I first saw Frances, at a bank, one of the old generation ones. I had a cheque to cash and I kept telling myself how backward the bank was, how old the tellers were, how the security guards were slouched. I couldn’t wait to get out of the building and then she breezed in. Frances Olanbiwoninu, she wasn’t pretty, neither could she be described as beautiful in the true sense of the word, but she exuded wealth and smelt of money, she also looked like someone who was highly connected. So I tarried in concluding my transaction, making sure I got as close to her as possible, her letter head bore her name and it was my lucky day that one fell out from a sheaf of papers she was holding. I handed it to her and walked out. I had to do a background check first. What I found out surprised yet pleased me. She was definitely moneyed but more importantly she was into younger men.

Truth is, I didn’t get as involved as I thought I would with Frances, yes she was into me, yes she thought I was heaven sent sex wise, yes she threw money my way, but she held back where contacts were concerned. She didn’t want a scandal she said, she was a married woman and irrespective of what went on behind the scenes, she was seen as respectably married and this was not something she was willing to risk losing.

Yvette was another factor, I met her around the same time I met Frances; well seeing as that night at the club was the first time I actually met Frances, I have to say I met them the same day and Yvette even though younger was the one who sprung up the contacts; she was madly in love with me.

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My phone rang, it was pope again, I waited till it rang through and then I dialed Yvette’s number once again. I needed her desperately, the adrenaline rush had still not subsided, it was the first time ever I was getting shot at and if this has not happened to you before, I assure you it’s one of the worst feelings ever and it doesn’t feel any better even if you do not get hit by that bullet. That whole thing about your life flashing before your eyes? Well it didn’t happen to me instead I got this constant buzz in my head and this awareness of being alive that I had never felt before; that’s what I felt. I was very aware of being alive, I really don’t know how to explain it but I’ll try to. I felt every nerve, every heartbeat, every single strand of hair, the hardness of each of my finger nails in its nail bed. It was not a fleeting feeling; it stayed with me for hours. I think the knowledge that the danger I was in was nowhere near gone also kept the adrenalin pumping. The only part of my body I didn’t feel or that I was not completely aware of was my legs. I felt a crippling numbness from wait down, and it was a miracle that I kept driving, I drove till the temperature gauge hit the roof and till I ran out of fuel, what else could I have done. Still I couldn’t reach Yvette, I eventually got out of my car, gingerly testing the ground with my feet; I didn’t trust my legs to support me but thankfully they did. My phone rang again and this time it was Alhaji Bukar, I stared at my phone unsure of whether to pick up or not. I did not pick up and he called right back; I started trying to put two and two together, in less than two hours, I had been shot at, my car had been crashed off the road, everything I had and a hell lot more had been taken from me, the people who owned the “hell lot more” and who would not hesitate to snuff the life out of me were calling me and relenting in with their calls. This was certainly more than a scam or the money would have been moved quietly and I would have been left out to dry but there was certainly more to this. One of the things that occurred to me as I walked away from my car was the possibility that Pope and Alhaji Bukar, were behind this scam, but that made no sense, they stood to benefit greatly from the success of this project. And then I came upon it, it probably took so long to occur to me because it was so long since the occurrence or occurrences that led to my dilemma. I had expected him strike swiftly but he hadn’t and I must have let down my guard a lot more than I realized. But how did he do it? As though on cue, my phone rang and thanks to the true caller app, a name flashed on the screen and it was his “Jacob” I picked up my pace, common sense told me I needed to put as much distance between myself and my car. It most likely had people still tailing it.

I picked up on the fourth ring; “Hello…” I didn’t know what else to say.

“Hello!” his voice boomed, unable to hide the pleasure he felt “This is Jacob, and I just wanted to hear your voice before you die, it’s over for you young man, no one messes with me and I mean no one, much less a nobody like you. I would take your life myself but you’re too inconsequential to be on that roll call I’m however sure you know pope.” He laughed and it sent shivers down my spine, that maniacal laugh. I was not tongue tied anymore but I had nothing to say so I continued listening.

“Oh by the way have you been trying to reach Yvette?” that got me bristling, and I saw red. “If you as much as pull a hair…” he didn’t let me land, I was cut short by that laugh once again and my heart sank. I wondered what they had done to that poor girl. She was not even my girlfriend in the true sense of the word yet she had done so much for me. I realized at that very moment how deeply my feelings for her ran.

“The fool is in love, I thought you did this for a living, it made me doubt the plan would work but I guess you are a bigger fool than I initially thought. Yvette works for me; she is one of my women, and yes by that I mean she is my mistress, she jumps when I say so. You thought she was in love with you? You fool, she does this with whoever I tell her to” This time my heart did not merely sink, the pit of my stomach fell out and the place it used to occupy was taken up by my heart. I couldn’t understand it, Yvette is as classy as they come, she couldn’t have pretended to care as deeply as she did, that was true care that I saw in her eyes when she looked at me, that was true love too. And apart from all of this, what about the money she had transferred to my account? What if I had absconded with it . The meeting with the minister too, how could she have organized that if she wasn’t actually highly connected. Then she came on the phone, “Faruk” I could sense a playful smile playing on her lips and “No hard feelings darling, it’s just business” I couldn’t take anymore, I hung up. I couldn’t believe it, the way she sounded, so at ease and devoid of emotion simply threw me. It was as though she had pushed a knife into my chest and then proceeded to slowly extract it, all the while smiling sweetly at me.

It didn’t make any sense to me, none of this did, why would a man go to such lengths just to get at someone who was sleeping with his mistress and his wife? If sharing his women meant so much to him, why would he still put Yvette out there and “share” her with me? Why risk such an amount of money to get back at me? I had a thousand questions, none of which I was certain would be answered.

Now I was well and truly lost, Yvette had been the one I was relying on to come up with an exit plan, a plan to remedy this situation and I only just found out that she had only been acting a script, that door was firmly shut. It occurred to me to call dad, but I wasn’t sure he could help, he had had a run in with Chief Jacob before and by all indications he had not exactly ended up with him on top.

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I was truly lost. Yvette I realized meant more to me than I had ever admitted, than had ever occurred to me. She was an astute business woman and even though she never tried to control any of the business deals I had handled while she was with me, she would gently nudge me in the direction of smart business decisions and not once did any of her suggestions tank. I had therefore come to trust and respect her deeply without realizing. The money she moved to my account as part of the oil well deal has completely erased whatever distrust I may have harbored but the truth is I did not even distrust her at any point, like I said I have always lived a charmed life, people have always been willing to do things for me and I had had no bitter experiences. It therefore only felt natural that Yvette would do things for me that went beyond the ordinary and without any serious commitment for me. I guess I have always taken these things for granted; taken people for granted and rode on the goodwill of people. It has always been there and I’ve always expected it to be there and now that it was not, I was shattered with no plan in place and no idea where to go.

I flagged down a taxi and hopped in. I must have sat in the taxi for a while, completely lost in thought because the taxi suddenly screeched to a halt and I almost jumped out of my skin as I ducked. Instinct told me I was about to be shot at again but the taxi driver twisted his head around to snap at me impatiently;

“Oga which way?”

“Uhn?” I had no idea where I was headed.

“Where you dey go oga?”

“Ibadan” It was the closest city I could think of and I just felt the need to leave Lagos but that was on impulse and there was still no plan. The cabman looked at me as though I had lost my mind.

“This is Lagos.” He spoke slowly as though I were a really slow human being. I sighed, “How much will it cost to take me to Ibadan?”

“I no fit carry you go Ibadan but I fit carry you go park.”

“Take me to Ibadan, how much do you want?”

He parked properly off the road, and asked me to come down. I think he couldn’t really make me out and he was worried I was some sort of well-dressed psycho. I didn’t help matters by saying “Just keep driving”

He opened his car door, walked around to my side of the car and pulled the door open.

“Oga abeg I no want any wahala, just commot for my car”

I stepped out, I seriously needed to get a grip, needed to come up with a plan. I took several deep breaths and then lost all calm; a text came in from Pope;

“Faruk if you do not pick my next call,

There is nothing else to discuss

You are dead.”

I have sat with Pope in the same room and stared into those soulless eyes. If he said I was dead, then I was dead. I broke out in sweat; I knew all along from the way his call had been persistent that he knew something was amiss but that in itself was not a confirmation. His text was the final nail in the coffin. My palms were sweaty as I loosened a couple more buttons on my shirt.

The phone rang, it was Frances, I engaged the call, I had to keep the line free for Pope’s call. It occurred to me to call him but the truth is I was too scared and in no rush to speak with the man so I would wait for his call. The darned thing rang again, I stared at it as though it was the devil himself on the other end and the truth is Pope is the devil. He name flashed on the screen and I wiped my sweaty palms on my pant seats before taking the call.

I waited for him to speak first but he did not so I was forced to speak “Hello” it came out as a croak so I cleared my throat and tried again this time adding a “sir” for good measure;

“Hello sir…”

Chapter 44

“Hello sir…”

“Faruk, you are dead, and you know what this means.” Chief Jacob really did me in, he had done a thorough job; Pope was still speaking, “You have thirty six hours, I want my money and the proceeds you promised.” He hung up, thirty six hours, not twenty four or forty eight hours, thirty six hours. I might as well have jumped into the ocean after that call, there was no way on earth I was raising that kind of money in thirty six hours hell I couldn’t have even if he had said thirty six months. I knew for the first time the true meaning of being alone. I however acknowledged the fact that even if I had a posse of friends, they would probably be of no use at this point, still it would have been nice to have friends who would pass on the legend of Faruk James after my impending demise. Dad had made his stand clear well before this point and if it took everything he could muster to stop Chief Jacob when they had their run I was certain he wouldn’t want to do it again.

Yvette was the only person I could have counted on if I had envisaged this although I never could have envisaged this in my wildest dreams. This was supposed to be an easy business deal, easy money. The betrayal hurt and the hurt was real bad. Where could I have gone wrong with her? Yes I realized from the phone call that she had been playing a role all along but I must have meant more to her at some point than a mark. The affection she showed me during our brief “relationship” couldn’t have totally been an act, I saw more in her eyes, her actions, the way she was about me, how she loved me irrespective of all the other women, how she turned a blind eye to their presence than pretence. Then it struck me; how much of a fool I had been, it made no sense that a woman, as beautiful, sophisticated, cultured as Yvette with so much business acumen and financial savvy would for any reason be content to hang on to whatever bits of affection a man was willing to throw her way, hoping for the day the man would eventually pick her as the one. Not even if that man was the almighty Faruk, it hurt to admit this but the moment of truth was here and I had to accept it. I had to start telling myself some hard truths, I had to find a rallying point, a place to start recovering from if at all recovery was possible. I walked for a bit, I needed to clear my head, although this was impossible at the moment but I needed to put together a plan or the beginnings of one. The more I walked, the more I realized there was only one place to go. Two days ago, if I had been able to envisage this far-fetched situation, I would have been certain that Yvette would have a way out, not just per advice but also steps to take.

 “Yvette” the name kept popping up in my head, so did her face, I still found it hard to grasp, to believe she wasn’t truly in love with me. Once I had woken up to see her staring at me, I felt loved, the look in her eyes was half sad half something I couldn’t place but which I determined to be love because it left me feeling warm and happy. There was also the way she deferred to me and when necessary gently nudged me to accept her suggestions. This couldn’t have been total pretense I told myself; no one could fake such an intensely emotional look, no one. But apparently there was someone who could and her name was Yvette. As the minutes crept by, I realized how hurt I was by Yvette’s actions, and not just because I had been taken for a ride; I had to concede that this was more about how I felt about her than the money. I never really thought about how I felt about her before now. Yes I wanted her in my corner but I didn’t think she had become such an important part of my life.

The further I walked and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I had little other choice than to run to dad. I called first and was relieved he had no idea what was going on. I hailed another cab once he assured me he was home, this taxi ride was without incident although I still slumped low in the back seat and kept looking over my shoulder to be sure I wasn’t being followed. Dad listened to my narrative till the end; mouth agape, he interrupted a bit at first but as the story went on he simply stared at me his shock becoming more apparent as the narrative progressed. I left nothing out except the amount involved, I couldn’t bring myself to just spit out that amount in the course of the conversation and he waited till I finally stopped speaking and hung my head between my shoulders. I

was humbled, I was weary, at any other time, I would tell myself this was temporary and I would bounce back but I couldn’t even dare think at this moment of breathing beyond tomorrow. Pope had given me a deadline, this deadline was not a timeline within which I was to refund him capital and profit, it was a timeline as to my impending and certain demise.

“How much is this we are talking about?” Dad’s mouth was finally shut, he sat forward waiting for the figure. It took a while and tons of courage to eventually spit out the figure. I thought he was going to die, he had a near seizure and I panicked.

“You are mad Faruk!” He screamed “…and dead too! What the hell were you thinking? There’s nothing like quick money young man, I kept trying to impress this on you but you wouldn’t listen! What do you expect me to do for you now?” under any other circumstances, I would have walked out on him, our relationship prior to now had depreciated to that level, but not today, I dared not walk out, I had nowhere else to go, no one else to turn to. I sat there with my head still hung between my shoulder blades. I didn’t say a word, didn’t talk back, I was at my humblest; I waited till he stopped for breath, waited till he asked again; “So what do want me to do for you at this point? Even if I closed all my accounts, found willing buyers for all my properties inclusive of shares within the next twenty four hours I couldn’t still come up with that kind of money, and even if I could, why should I ? I have worked too hard and too long to get where I am, I will not use everything I have to right a stupid wrong of yours.” He paused again; I guess he was staring at me. “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked a third time through gritted teeth, I could sense the shock was being replaced by anger. I remained mute and he repeated the question when I refused to say anything- what could I have said, he yelled the same question a fourth time in frustration. “What the hell do you want from me?” I shrugged and mumbled, “I don’t know dad.”

“Get out of here! Get out of my house this minute!” I was incredulous, he was chasing me out of his house, my father did not want to have anything to do with this, it was my mess, all mine. I was truly screwed. I got out of the chair and stumbled. I righted myself and squared my shoulders as best as I could manage before proceeding to walk out of the living room. What else could I have expected I asked myself, I was almost at the gate with no idea in the world as to where I was headed when dad called me back. “Faruk! Get back here”, he was at the main entrance of the main section of the building, I didn’t need a second invitation, I spun round, shooting him a grateful look. He suddenly looked tired but nowhere as tired as I was. I was grateful just to not have to leave home. It was suddenly home to me again, I felt like a lost child dragging so much trouble back home after a wild adventure.

He took the same seat he had been seating in when I left the living room and so I took the one I had just left. He sat there for a while just staring at me, I couldn’t hold his stare so I bowed my head, unable to believe how humble I suddenly was.

“Where is your passport?” he finally asked, “At my place”, I suddenly couldn’t call my apartment home any longer. “You have a valid Visa for the UK?”

“Yes dad.”

“Good, we have to find a way to hide you while we quickly make arrangements for you to leave the country. It’s the only way for now, at least until we find a more lasting solution.” He paused and then continued “How the hell did you get mixed up with Pope Faruk? That man is a lunatic, anyone who does business in this country will tell you that for free.” It was the first time he was acknowledging that he knew who Pope was and I shot him a look of surprise. He didn’t acknowledge my surprised look. “Pope right now is the biggest problem on our hands. I am sure he already has eyes on you and he will until you either come up with the money or he kills you. We need to find a way to keep you hidden from him and then get you to the airport. I need to make some calls, excuse me.” He stepped out of the room, I wondered who he was going to call, and if he also had any shady business contacts. He eventually came back with a paper napkin that had a hurriedly scribbled address on it, below the address was a phone number. “Take a shower before you leave” he said “You look like shit. When you get to that address, you call that number, do not ask who you are speaking with, just tell him you are from me, he’ll handle the rest.” I got out of the chair and thanked him. He brushed off my thanks and said “You need to pick up your passport on the way to him.” I nodded my understanding, he continued “Faruk, do exactly as he says if you want to live.” I nodded once again and left his presence.

My passport was nowhere to be found when I finally made it to my apartment, they thought about everything didn’t they? I never stood a chance from the get go did i? Even though I knew exactly where I had left it, I searched the entire apartment; I searched until dad called me, I relayed this new development to him on the phone and waited while he processed the information. He eventually told me to stay put until I got another call from him and then he hung up. When he eventually called back, he told me to proceed to the address he had earlier given me and to only call when I was two buildings away from the address. I was to follow all instructions without deviation he reiterated; “If you have any desire to live beyond tomorrow.”

I changed cabs more than once on my way to the address dad had given me, I was tempted to call ahead and tell whoever was on the end that I was on my way but common sense and survival instinct prevailed and I followed dad’s instructions. Finally I was in the neighbourhood and as a final precaution, I alighted intending to make the rest of the journey on foot I kept staring over my shoulder and took a detour when I saw a shady looking character following me. Maybe he was just going in the same direction as I was but I was unwilling to take any chances, I followed my gut instinct and detoured, he followed, I kept glancing over my shoulder, the fellow, a really tall guy with huge biceps continued following unperturbed. I couldn’t make out his face as he had a baseball had drawn over most of his face and it was already dark. After I made a couple more turns, I became certain he was following me. I had no idea what to do and I was also uncertain of how to make it back to the address from my present location as I was not familiar with the neighbourhood. I kept walking looking for the perfect opportunity to break into a run and ditch my man Friday. The opportunity did not present itself, at least not until I got the text message. I wasn’t expecting it and it threw an already confusing situation into an even more confusing state. I had no idea what to make of this, it was too suspect considering all that I had been through in the past few hours. It was straight to the point;

“Babe I have your passport and I’ve bought tickets
I had to go through with the plan or we’d both have been
killed. I’ll explain it when I see you and you’ll understand.
I need you to get to this address as soon as possible…

Be careful babe, you’ve got eyes on you.”

It was Yvette, I didn’t think twice about going to meet her, I had a rough idea of where this new address was, I needed a cab, I ducked around the corner of the next street and crawled under the slabs of the drainage in front of the first building I saw; fortunately the drainage was dry, I was fast enough to get in there before Man Friday could turn into the street. I waited for what seemed like an eternity before I clambered out of the gutter. I made a run for the main road which fortunately was close by and hailed a cab. It was while seating in the cab and after the pounding in my ears had subsided that I began to question the sanity of my move. This woman had betrayed my once in the greatest way possible, what was to stop her from doing it again? How could I tell she wasn’t doing it again, how could I know for sure she wasn’t ushering right into the arms of Chief Jacob and his goons, maybe Pope even. I pulled out my phone and punched in her number, the phone was dead. I needed to talk to her to get assurance from her that she was on my side once again, to get an explanation for what was going on. I needed her to tell me that there was a plan B, that she was actually fooling Chief Jacob and not me. I realized that this was a farfetched hope but I still hoped nonetheless. Then I panicked at the thought of getting killed by my own stupidity. I was supposed to be getting as far away from this people as possible yet here I was getting driven voluntarily towards the very woman they had used to get me into this mess.

I almost asked the cab to turn round twice but I didn’t and when my dad called, I didn’t pick up. He kept calling and when I realized that he wasn’t going to stop calling, I sent him a text.

“Dad, not to worry, I’m sorting it out.

I’ll call you soon.”

His reply was almost instant;

“You fool, pick up the phone and do not deviate from the plan.”

I didn’t pick up, and even though something told me that I was driving towards certain death, I didn’t ask the cab to turn around