My trust is for sale

She is hot

“I do not have much time.” Zina said. I have a little story for you guys. Before I do that, I know layla must have drummed some vital points into your heads. One, obliterate fear. I made a perfect blueprint. Here is the real story: I and Layla both graduated from the same school and same department. We became close since our first year. We also went for our IT at the same place: The Refinery of NNPC. We were in Engineering Department.

Any girl who goes there for IT and survives debauchery is blessed. Those randy men will spend money to lure you to bed. And they were all on us. We made friends with both independent marketers and members of staff, observing the modus operandi, and general settings of the place. We saw money flying all over. I mean cash. Some of these independent marketers were illiterates but drove posh cars and lived luxurious lives. They were spendthrifts and very extravagant.

I have never depended on a man and would never do that. In fact, I hate men. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a lesbian but that animal called man is a jack. I have tried in the past to pally with them but they always ended up being repulsive.

Men are domineering in nature, selfish and untrustworthy . They came all over me, promising Heaven and Earth but I shunned them. I wanted to make my money and not their money. It was while I was watching the house I discovered something.

The cooperation supplied trucks of  PMS and AGO to a certain ministry in Niger Republic. One hundred trucks of PMS and fifty trucks of AGO monthly. Each  of the trucks contains 33,000 l****s. Each truck. A litre os PMS cost fifty naira. Multiply this by thirty-three, that amounts to one million, six hundred and fifty thousand naira. If you multiply this by one hundred trucks, you have one hundred and sixty five million naira.

AGO cost fourty-eight naira per litre. The cost of one truck is one million, five hundred and eighty four thousand naira. Fifty trucks will amount seventy-nine million and two hundred thousand  naira. If you sum up these, both the PMS and AGO will cost two hundred and forty million, eight hundred and fifty thousand naira. What a wonderful amount of money.”

Rabi could not take it any longer. She lit a stick of cigarette to steady her nerves. The sound of millions of naira were doing something to her system.

Sharon felt her fears drifting away and half plunged into reveries. She could picture herself rolling in money. She had all her attention on Zina now even though they did not know how they were going to make the money.

“ My idea is this: I want to hijack the trucks.” Zina said assertively. “ Just a month’s supply.” She turned at Sharon. “Layla promised you one million naira. That was not true. Your cut is forty million naira. I and Layla know how to settle ourselves. I must let you guys know that I am the mastermind and boss of this setup. It is my brainchild and I know what I have gone through to get to this point. Not even Layla know about some of the things I have been through.”

“If I may ask,” Sharon began, “we are just four in number. If I am to judge from what you just told us, there are one hundred and fifty trucks heading to Niger. Each truck will have a driver, maybe with a spare and truck boys. If each truck has at least two men, there will be a minimum of three hundred men. I guess they will be more. How can four girls hijack these turcks?”

“That is a very nice question Sharon.” Zina said. “The Niger agent writes a letter of request of allocation which the Area Manager endorses. It is then transferred to the Depot Manager who in conjunction with the Sales Department give out the goods. The agents do not come with trucks. There are transporters with trucks who are paid to transport them. We are not going to waylay the trucks and attack them. That will be tantamount to will-o-the-wasp. When I said hijack, I meant intellectual hijacking.

If the trucks are hijacked, there will be trouble. There will be a serious investigation. We must get the money and spend it and not rot in jail. It is one thing to get the money, it is another to spend it as free girls. I want it to be as trackless as the sea. This is the part I played alone without even telling Layla.

There was this big fool who called himself Engineer Hassan. He was obsessed with me….”

“Uncle Hassan?” Layla asked.

“Yes. He was madly in love with me. He could go to any length to get me. He claimed to be a member of staff but he was not. He used to fix their machines as a contactor. There was a very rich marketer called Mrs Remmy. She had a lot of cash and could not take her hands off his big body. I heard she loved young ,strong men and Hassan was an epitome of one.

I strategically made her see him and I knew she would fall for him. She was blunt. She told me that she liked my friend. I told her to get him and never let him know that I am aware. She had money and a good body so they became secret lovers. Hassan ignorantly told me she was his Aunty’s childhood friend. I forged a will which looked as if she wrote it. I then hired a fake lawyer who claimed to be her lawyer.

He befriended Hassan and later told him not to part with her because she had willed her oil wing to him and that was a secret. Hassan saw the will and got barmy. A few days later, I called him that I had capitulated to his proposal. I was ready to get married to him. He was hyper and could not control his joy. But I had conditions: I wanted to live in a multi-million naira mansion, have a wedding lunch in a chartered plane, have three posh cars. A sane man would have been skeptical and termed me as a gold digger but he was obsessed and I knew it.

He said I was too expensive for him but he was not going to give up. He told me that his aunty was rich and he was going to inherit her multi-million naira oil company after she dies. I asked him what is she lived to be ninety or hundred? I smugly cajoled him to make it quicker. He agreed and I made him contact a wanna-be hit man called David. David was hired to kill her. I asked Hassan to have a rendezvous with his at a beer pub. I also asked him to award him another contract to kill me claiming I was a witness then take him to an uncompleted building and kill him to obliterate evidence or blackmail.

I had secretly informed the police. I also told them about their meeting. The police had used a waiter to plant a transmitter to listen to their conversation. I knew the police will come for me. While I was with them, I received a fake call from another of my accomplice claiming it was Hassan. I gave the his address. I told Hassan to wait for me at home. I got there before the police and shot the i***t. It was close because the police met me there but I vanished.

I used a back road while the dumb cops guarding me thought I was inside. Now they are investigating. I have lay them on a wild goose chase. The same police are protecting me when I am the one they are looking for. That is bad of me, right?” she chuckled.

The three girls were dumbfounded. Zina was an enigma.

“ I am speechless.” Rabi said. “You are something else.”

“That is not all. From the fake evidences I planted  in Hassan’s house secretly, they would be looking for Hassan’s non-existing boss. He was the one eho killed Hassan and not me, right?”

“You were in Jupiter when  it happened. “Layla said and they laughed.

“The non-existing boss will be the man behind the missing trucks.  Mrs Remmy and Hassan would be part of the heist but got double-crossed. Leave that part to me.” She got on her feet. “The agent comes on the 15th of every month and leaves on the 20th . He is called Jibril. He has to be impersonated. It would be our man that would represent him. By man, I mean one of you ladies. Rabi, you are from the Sokoto. That is close to Niger. It will be your call. I will give you details later. The plans are more complicated than you anticipate. We can’t digest them all today. I just gave you a general hint. Let me warn you girls…”

“They know, “Layla said. “ Bitches who fuc* up die like chickens!”

 ******

Dora stood leaning on the wall as she watched Hassan’s body being taken away by interns. She marked the date: 27th of March. What a day! Three murders within twenty four hours. And they were so close they thought they were going to apprehend the culprits. She moved away from the bustling policemen and got back into Hassan’s bedroom.

She began to search the room professionally. There was nothing out of the ordinary in the room. She went through the bookshelf with big books that got her brain squealing. She hated science courses. She had settled for Criminology and saved herself from D-Y, D-X. She opened a drawer and found piles of letters. She spent some time going through them before she felt a heart bang…. She saw a letter that looked sticky.

H2 , Madam Remmy is not in compliance with the demand. Keep trying her. If she proves obstinate, then we have to do the needful and make it clean. I know that is what you want. Be careful with that girl, Zeeman or Zina. I don’t trust her. You must avoid her. She looks so prim. If she finds anything, do the needful and do not let love destroy your dreams. Women are supplus. Just get the money, you get the women.

H3

She carefully folded the note and out it her pocket. She had guessed Hassan had someone he was working for. Who was H3?

Hacks came in and smiled.

“What we thought was a quick catch happens to be a mirage.” He said. “ We have a day dear.” He lit a cigarette.

“Look at this.” She gave him the note. He read it.

“H3…who the hell is he?”

“I remember Zina mention a name….Harry Henry Hillary.”

“I know him.” Hacks said. “ He owns H-Oil.”

“Does he have a bad record?”

“I do not know about that. He has been known to be clean.”

“Let me call Zina.” Dora said and put the call through. She asked her about him.

“I don’t know much about him. I do hear Hassan saym he was going to see him. He said he fixed machines for him. I don’t think he is a criminal.”

After the call, Zina smiled. They had seen the note. Now they would start watching H3 who happened to be a clean man. They will just be wasting their time and getting more confused.

She had it well fixed. She had always known that Mrs. Remmy was a threat. She was Alhaji Babawo’s mistress. Alhaji Babawo was one of the richest independent marketers. He was the man she intended to sell the oil to.

It was at that time she heard voices outside. She could hear one of the policemen talking.

She heard a man say, “I am their neighbor. I only want to talk to them.”

“Who?” Asked a policeman.

“Anybody who lives in the house. I don’t know any of them. They just moved in.”

Zina peeped and saw him.

He was around twenty-four years old. He was tall, sturdy and looked athletic. His hair was worn in an afro-style. Thin side burns rode down his cheeks to meet a goatee. He skin was light brown, and his eyes radiated brio, and something about him made her feel uncomfortable.

He wore Chicago Bulls jersey over baggy combat shorts. His legs were slid in flip-flops.

Zina opened the door and went out.

“What do you want?” She asked curtly.

He turned and was immediately hit by her stunning beauty. She looked cool, innocent and mild. What a girl! How come he had never seen her. He has such a beautiful neighbor and he never knew? That was a crime against boys code.

“Good evening.” He said.

“Who are you?”

Noe he noticed her taciturnity behind the cool nature.

“I live next door. You guys came in while I traveled.”

“That is nice. What do you want.”

“Courtesy call. Trying to know my neighbors. It is good I know you guys. If my last food falls off my hand and I scream, it is you guys that would be the first to come to my aid, and serve me another food. Neighbors are important.”

“Are you okay?” She asked. “ I have been hearing movements from the next compound for days now and you just come today and claim courtesy call?”

“Emmm, okay it’s a courtesy call plus ball-retrieve.”

“Ball-retrieve?”

“Okay, I have a mini basketball court in my compound and it is my bad luck to be addicted to B-ball. I was I was training, my ball disobeyed me and got into your compound without permission.”

She crossed her chest with her hands and twitched her lips.

“Excuse me.” She said and went inside. She came back with a ball.

“You should have just said you came for your ball and stop claiming courtesy call.”

“Thank you. I am Devon. I love my neighbor as I love myself. That means I love you.”

She forced a smile.

“Thank you for loving me. If you really love me, then make sure your ball does not fall into my house again, neighbor.”

She turned and walked back.

“I said I am Devon. Nice to meet you.”

She ignored him and shut the door behind her.

Devon turned at the police men.

“I introduced myself to her. Did she tell me her name?”

“Guy, just make sure your ball does not fall into her house again. If she wanted you to know her name, she would have told you.”

“Damn!” He looked at the door and then at the cops. “ It seems she is the IG’s daughter. I will watch my steps. “ He began to walk away while he bounced the ball. “ I got me a real tough neighbor.” He said . “ That pretty dame is harsh yet she is so hot. Gotta to watch my ball.  Geez