His mistaken Identity

Chapter 7

One month later.

The muffled buzz of noise outside filled the room, cutting through the silence and reminding Jane that there was life out there. She sat on the bed with her legs crossed, breastfeeding Tony. Her son stared up at her as he fed, but her mind was miles away. Too far to notice the handsome little face looking at her with unconditional love and trust. The kind of trust only an innocent child could have.

It had been a month since she escaped the men that had threatened to end their lives for Enock’s greedy crimes. Thirty long days of hiding and moving from one cheap, dirty motel to another. But regardless of how she tried to make it last, the money she had stolen at the mall had run out days ago.

She was surviving on the very last fumes. The idea of heading out and stealing again was not comforting. Not only was there a risk of getting caught by whoever she stole from, but there was also the threat of the men that had abducted her in the first place. Nothing guaranteed her they weren’t still looking for her. And when she put all those risks aside, there was just the fact that she did not want to make stealing a lifestyle choice.

Jane had hoped she would have found Enock by now. But it seemed she had underestimated how difficult it was to look for a man that didn’t want to be found. Especially when she couldn’t search for him freely.

She also did not know what name Enock was now using. The dangerous men had mentioned her supposed dead boyfriend had changed his name, but she never heard it. Besides, Jane imagined he would have changed it again when he was almost found a month ago. So that was a dead end either way.

Apart from a picture of him and a mention of a girlfriend, Jane hadn’t gotten any other information from the kidnappers. She didn’t know where he lived or even where he frequented. Jane had no idea where the men had even taken the picture. She couldn’t remember anything distinct from the picture she had seen.

That had started her search on a very pathetic step. The few old friends she had called for help first all thought she was mad to look for a dead man. Then they just pitied her and told her to take it easy.

If she kept pushing, it was more likely for people to voluntarily take her to Chainama Mental institution, then believe there was a possibility Enock was alive and help her find him. That was a risk she couldn’t take.

Tired of thinking in circles with no solution in sight, Jane finally looked down at Tony. Thankfully, he had fallen asleep during his feeding. A sigh of relief left her on an exhale. She really didn’t want to subject her son to all her negative emotions flooding her. Gently, she tucked her breast back into her bra and then put him down on the bed so he could continue his nap more comfortably.

Jane then leaned against the paint-peeling wall and turned on the television that looked more than a decade old. The old type with enormous backs and weighed a ton. As though that was not enough to ensure the damn thing couldn’t be stolen, the motel owner had also placed the television in a cage high against the wall with a huge chain and lock wrapped around the bars. Talk about overkill. But Jane didn’t care. She didn’t even care that the picture quality looked grainy. Or that the room smelled of mold and bleached. She just wanted a distraction. Jane knew she wouldn’t find any sleep anytime soon with everything that was going through her mind.

Since luck wasn’t really on her side, the old television in the cheap motel room only had one channel to offer. The national broadcaster, ZNBC. It was better than nothing; she mused. And Jane was just in time for the main evening news at seven.

She moved until she leaned her back against the creaking headboard instead of the cold, peeling wall and watched the images on the television distantly.

Jane barely heard anything that the newscaster was saying. It wasn’t like she was actually interested in catching up with the current national affairs of the nation or beyond its borders. That was until she saw a particular image appear on the screen. She swallowed too quickly and choked on her own saliva. A coughing fit caught her as her lungs tried to clear themselves. Tears gathered at the corner of her eyes, but they didn’t stop her from seeing what was in front of her. She was looking at a picture of Enock on the main news.

Jane hastily wiped at her moist eyes. Just like the picture the kidnappers had shown her, the picture on the television was of a very well-dressed Enock. He wore a white dress shirt open at the neck and had his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. The soft black hair Enock had usually kept in a ponytail was shorter and styled expensively.

Jane could hardly breathe, even though she was no longer coughing. After the failed attempts to find him, she had almost begun to believe maybe the kidnappers had made it up. Photoshop or something. She had almost started to convince herself it was all a lie.

But now she stared at the father of her child on national television. In the picture, he was smiling as he stood in front of a building with a pair of scissors ready to cut a ribbon. It was some sort of opening ceremony.

Jane finally snapped out of her shock to listen to the last part of the report on that particular story.

“… the owner Mr. Christopher Baker earlier today sighed the multi-million dollar deal at the new headquarters in Lusaka. It is a large investment guaranteed to create hundreds of jobs and change the face of finance in the country. On that item, we wrap up the news… we take a look at our headlines once again…”

Jane tuned out the rest of the words, her mind already going into overdrive. She finally had a name: Christopher Baker.

***

“s**t!” Christopher cursed as he threw the remote control all the way across the room in a sudden burst of anger.

Less than a minute later, his phone rang. He reached for it and answered without bothering to check who the caller was. He could already guess who it was, and he had an idea of what Thomas was about to say, too.

“Are you f*****g serious?” Thomas bellowed on the line without bothering with a greeting first.

Christopher pulled the phone away from his ear and waited for his friend to stop cursing before he pressed it back and responded, “I refused to give a statement or interview. I didn’t think the journalist would still make a story out of it. Let alone find a picture to paste all over the television,” he defended himself.

He heard Thomas give a very dry laugh. “You didn’t think? I keep telling you… Christopher, money talks better than polite requests.”

“Thomas…”

“No!” Thomas interrupted angrily. “Don’t Thomas me in that tone… It’s been a month! Just thirty days since that creepy s**t started. You have had to change homes, your car, and the location of your business. f**k, Chris, you even had to change the name of your business. All just to stay under the radar. And with a two-minute news item… all that effort and headache have just been blown out of the water!”

Christopher sighed. Has Thomas ever heard the term ‘preaching to the choir?’ He thought. The man wasn’t saying anything he didn’t already know. It had all crossed his mind the instant he saw himself on the flat-screen television in his living room. “You are not telling me something I don’t know.”

“Are you sure you know? Because I am even wondering if you are aware how much headache it has been these past four weeks.”

“You were not obligated to help me, Thomas,” Christopher replied with irritation. He had enough on his mind and didn’t need his own friend tearing him a new one over his own life.

Unfortunately, Thomas was on the roll. He didn’t miss a beat. “No, I was not obligated, but I did it. I did it because you are my friend and because I know my country better than you. And I did it because I realized the damn s**t had not been a joke!”

It had taken a second letter to reach Christopher’s office for Thomas to be convinced the letters were a genuine threat. The second letter had been more chilling with the threat of sending the baby’s lifeless body to him in the mail.

Christopher had immediately taken the matter to the police. But just as Thomas had predicted, after a very long unnecessary interrogation, he had been reassured they would look into the matter and that was the last he heard of the matter.

It had been a frustrating month, but there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t find the woman and her child. He did not know who was behind the whole thing. The letters never contained any return address or contact details. It was as though the people responsible just expected him to know exactly who they were and to just pay.

Out of options and fearing for his own life, Christopher had sold his car, moved his business, and changed its name. He had even gone as far as to shut down any social media accounts he held.

But life had to continue, and he had to make a living for himself.

A deal he had been negotiating for months had finally gone through, and it looked like it could be the loose thread that would undo his whole life.

Thomas had the right to be upset. His friend had been with Christopher through every stressful process to change everything. He had been a good friend. He owed his friend a lot of gratitude. More than a mere thank you, that was for sure.

Christopher sighed and exhaled his breath softly. “I’m sorry, man. Didn’t mean to sound ungrateful.”

The line was quiet for a long while. He almost wondered if his friend had hung up. Then he heard Thomas sigh on the other end of the line. Long enough for Christopher to catch the resignation in it.

“Let’s just hope they don’t watch television. Or better yet, they have moved on to another target.”

Christopher doubted men who went to the trouble of k********g a mother and child, easily moved on from a target. But he kept his opinion to himself. He still thought about that woman and her baby every day. He wondered if they were still alive and who they were.

Most nights, he couldn’t sleep when he thought that he might have signed their death sentence by going under the radar. But he had little choice in the matter. He couldn’t have continued to expose himself to God knows who and expect to live to see his twenty-ninth birthday.

He hoped that if the woman and her son were alive that he would one day get the opportunity to meet them and maybe find out what the hell it had all been about.