The Devil Wears Okrika

Chapter 26

Paul sat down on the couch. He looked defeated. He carried the little girl and bounced her on his laps.
Osi sat down without waiting for an invitation.
"You need to promise me you'll never tell anybody what I'm about to tell you" Paul said.
"Honestly I can't promise you anything but I'd do my best"
Paul sighed. "Okay...when I left Amaife for Lagos three years ago, I spent just six months there before I ran into trouble"
He fell silent and Osi urged him on "what kind of trouble?"
"I got mixed up in the wrong crowd...I allowed a friend of mine talk me into what he called hustling"
"Hmm....what kind of hustling was this?" Osi asked. There were different grades of 'hustling' in a city like Lagos but he was already having a bad feeling about this one.
Paul dodged the question or perhaps he wasn't ready to answer yet and wanted to delay as long as possible.
"The thing is I was carried away by his lavish lifestyle. His cars and riches…he promised to link me up and I couldn't wait, but then he introduced me to his people and I found out they were kidnappers"
“You joined them?” Osi was surprised. That was the last thing he had expected to hear.
Paul was silent. His silence was all Osi needed to hear. It signified guilt.
"So in your quest for riches you began kidnapping people?" Osi couldn't help his voice from rising a bit.
"Yes" Paul nodded solemnly "but the truth is I was never comfortable with it and I never accompanied them for the operations, my job was always to look after the victims in the safe house"
Osi looked at the young girl clapping excitedly as Paul bounced her on his knee.
"So what changed? What happened?"
Paul took a deep breadth and Osi knew what was coming would be difficult to swallow.
"After every pay out, the six of us…we were six in number by the way, two girls and four guys...anyway the six of us would always split up...move to different states or locations till the trail goes cold and we have another possible hit then we'll team up again"
Osi shook his head in dismay but he said nothing.
Paul sighed tiredly. "I always came to this village because I wanted to be closer to Amaife...but there was this girl, she was an only child and she stayed alone as her parents live abroad. She was part of us and her house was mostly used to hold the victims....now I was the one who watched over the victims and we were mostly together all the time and somehow we fell in love and started a relationship and I started having second thoughts about everything"
"Oh...so She is the mother of the child then?"
He nodded painfully. "While she was pregnant, we had already planned to run away and leave the life of crime...we were just waiting for the birth of our child...but the problem was the gang could never just let us leave like that. They planned to kill us if we tried to quit, The day we escaped in the dead of the night...she went into labour...she died but gave birth to her" He stroked the child's head softly.
"I couldn't run home but I needed to be close by so I came here....that was why I took an extra day to arrive at Amaife because I needed to set up someone to be taking care of her in my absence. Chinaza used to come and look after her some days and she kept on telling me to tell my mother, but I just couldn’t bring myself yet….I planned to tell her when I arrived last week but with everything happening in the village I just couldn’t bring myself to do it"
"The woman that answered the gate...who is she? A babysitter"
"Something like that, I pay her monthly and offered a roof over her head in return for her services and to be fair she loves the girl"
A short silence followed but finally Osi cleared his throat. This was crazy. By far one of the craziest stories he had heard, and he had listened to a fair share. "So are you telling me that you plan to raise her on your own...without your family knowing?"
"Pastor...it has been eating me alive....I’m going to tell my mother and sister but I keep on thinking about the gang back in lagos, if they’re after me….I can’t endanger my family”
"Hmmm..." Osi scratched his day old stubble "but I'm convinced you've not done enough…the least you could do is hint the police about everything or at least try to locate the parents they lost their daughter and they don't know they have a grand daugter"
He scoffed "please...her parents never cared about her, they'd hardly noticed her when she was alive and Pastor......all these possibilities would definitely end up with me being locked up. I've been asking Sofiri for help and his opinion hypothetically but I'm yet to tell him the full story and he doesn’t know it’s me"
"Mr. Paul...I'm grateful your conscience is not yet as seared with a hot iron as the bible put it. You still have a heart, no matter how tiny it might be, but you know the law of seed time and harvest, the covenant with Noah...what you sow is what you shall reap…you have to pay for the consequences of your actions"
"You're going to rat me out aren't you...God my mother must not hear this..She’ll just die my father abandoned us right since I was little and she’s had to fend for us all her life. I finally managed to make her proud. I’m not proud with what I did...but I did all these to be able to provide financially for my family. You see right since my childhood my father was-"
Osi interrupted him. A thought had just occurred to him and he was not ready for a history class.
"Wait...did Okudili know of your actions?"
"Okudili?"
"Yes...the one you people call the village drunkard"
"Well he knew I was in the nearby village all along, I recall seeing him on more than one occasion...wait are you thinking I killed Okudili?" His eyes went wide and white from either guilt or disbelief. Osi could wager it was the former.
"Honestly you're a very big suspect. I'd need you to tell me where you were the night Chinaza was murdered and the day Ezinne was killed as well as mama Ozioma"
Paul thought hard. He was suddenly restless and stood up and began pacing. He carried the little girl who had already fallen asleep.
"Honestly I don't know...but I swear I had nothing to do with the murders...I'm innocent!"
"Be that as it may, if I were a cop I'd arrest you immediately" Osi replied and stood up. He was a good foot taller than the man and the result was quite intimidating even though his shoulder was not as broad.

"So what now...you're going to turn me in I suppose" Paul sounded resigned to his fate.
"Not yet...the most important thing is to reunite this girl with her remaining family and secure her safety and the best way to do that is to cooperate with the authorities or at least contact the grand parents"
Paul wasn't convinced "I knew this day would come...I'm so screwed!" But deep down he was glad he had bared his soul. It had been eating him from inside for 3 good years.

.·.·.·.·.·
Joy struggled but to no avail. She was a fighter and very tough but the man was really strong.  His hand muffled her screams as he held her mouth tightly and she couldn't see a thing, every where was pitch dark.
She realized with horror that he was taking her farther from the gate and into the darkness.
She kicked madly, catching his sheen with the back of her heel, but it seemed the devil didn't feel anything.
With his left hand he tried to put a piece of clothe over her eyes and she lost whatever control she still had as the fear intensified. She bit his palm hard and he swore in a voice that was faintly familiar.
He must have been extremely offended with her biting because he pushed her roughly to the trunk of a nearby mango tree. Slamming her face into the tree bark.
An impossible pain shot through her face and she almost lost consciousness as she slid to the floor.

"Little bitch! Have a little fight in you eh?!"  Well good thing he had a sock over his face. He might not blindfold her after all. He would enjoy seeing the terror in her eyes. There was no guilt here, just raw wicked lust.
He unbuckled his belt hurriedly stopping her weak movements with his leg.
He was about to rip her skirt open and dive in...There was nothing as sweet as a Virgin and he hoped he would see blood...blood always threw him in a crazy frenzy.
But then the gate to the compound opened and Dé Nwachukwu stepped outside.
"What's that noise? Amara? Joy? Who's there?!"
He held a torchlight and the devil took off immediately before the beam fell on him.
He cursed and ranted as he ran. This was not over!