Investigative aid.
The harmattan breeze was penetrating her skin beyond considering the option of bathing with water at the current room temperature. She put on the gas and put water on the fire. The situation was made worse due to power outages being experienced for days.
"Darling, please help me prepare my tea" She said to her husband, Mike, before taking some of the water to take her bath in the bathroom.
Mike was surprised that waking up at that hour is unusual for Jane. "You are late already dear, hope you are fine?"
"Honey, you should know the reason for this. Are there sleeping pills in the chocolate?"
"Ooooh, I understand the genesis of your trouble. You slept just at 1am this morning. You can't cheat nature."
"I was carried away with the nice taste of the chocolate."
Jane spent a few minutes in the bathroom before rushing to her room to dress up. She sat in front of the mirror to apply light make-up when she saw her phone ringing.
"Ooooh my God, my colleague is already waiting for me at the junction. Darling, is the tea ready?" She called on her husband before picking the phone to answer the call.
"Where are you?" Grace asked over the phone.
"Just give me five minutes," I will join you.
Jane rushed up everything and dashed out to the kitchen to take her tea already served by Mike.
"Aren't we going to have our morning devotion?" Mike asked with a Bible in his hands.
"Dear, may God bless our days, I don't have that luxury of time. It's been more than five minutes since Grace called to inform me that she's at the junction. I need to go." Jane sipped her tea, picked her bag and made her way out.
She barely walked 10 meters from home when she remembered that she had left the carton of chocolate that she was taking to work to market to her colleagues.
She turned back to get it and as she opened the door, she nearly had a collision with Mike who was holding the carton making his way out to give her the carton.
"Thanks darling" She grabbed the carton and left. The ringing tone of her phone had become a music put on continuous repeat arising from Grace's calls.
Grace had started her car and was just counting seconds to go when she viewed the coming of Jane through her car's side mirror.
"I am sorry, I woke up very late." Jane began to apologize a few meters away from the car.
"That's expected, Oga just came back from overseas. You were enjoying the goodies he brought, forgetting that there is work today. I know it was a night vigil including behind the closed doors." Grace replied
"You are not serious. That's not my priority. My husband is planning to bring a consignment of chocolate into the country. He brought some samples of the brand to have the knowledge of its acceptance before importing the bulk. You may like it." Jane brought out a pack and handed it over to Grace.
"Something is wrong with this car." She couldn't finish talking about what she was noticing going wrong about her car when the car went off the road and only stopped at the point of ramming into a tree by the roadside.
"The car shaft is damaged."
"What an odd place and hour for this to happen. You need to call your mechanic immediately." Jane suggested.
Grace reached out to her handkerchief first to wipe away sweat from her face. She had spent some fortune on maintaining the car a few weeks earlier.
"I may soon park this car and begin to use taxis to work." She lamented.
She dialed his Mechanic's phone number but it rang out without picking. Hitting her fist on the steering, he checked her watch and realized that the morning is far spent.
"You need to join a taxi and go to work while I find a way to get my vehicle away from here before coming." Grace suggested to Jane.
Considering that they both work in the same unit and the absence of both of them may affect the organization, Jane decided to do what Grace suggested by boarding a taxi to work.
"Let me leave my chocolate in your car. I will pick it when you come later."
"I think it's better you just go with it. We are not certain of when I will be able to get someone to fix this car. What if I ended up not making it to work?" Grace replied.
Jane picked her chocolate and boarded the taxi.
In the vehicle were the driver and three other passengers, two at the backseat and one beside the driver.
Jane boarded the vehicle and made it third at the backseat.
"Good afternoon." She greeted them as she entered the car.
The two hefty men nodded their heads in reply. One was wearing sunglasses while the other had many scars of recognizable matchet cuts.
Whenever she made eye contact with any of them, she withdrew her eyes to other directions immediately.
The man at the front seat removed a small container from the car safe from which he sniffed some substances before turning back with reddish eyeballs to initiate a conversation with Jane.
"Madam, where did you say you were going?"
"I am stopping at the Ojuelegba bus stop." She replied.
"What's that in your box?" He queried further.
Jane was silent to the question wondering what concerned a passenger like her with her luggage.
"Capon, carry her along." The man signaled one of the two guys sitting with Jane. He laughed scornfully as he turned his face.
"Madam, what is this?" Capon asked Jane.
At the look of his hand, she saw a pistol. Jane immediately took her eyes off the gun and began to shiver.
"Boss, she's in the picture of everything now." Capon reported back to his commander sitting in the front.
At this point, the driver locked the door centrally. He was smoking a substance while matching the accelerator in a manner that depicts them as being immune to crash.
Jane got to the Ojuelegba bus stop and told the driver to drop her.
"Madam, cooperate with us to leave in peace or frustrate us and leave in pieces." Capon held his pistol to her head and threatened.
"Please don't kill me. I'll cooperate."
Jane's phone rang and Capon saw "Darling" as the caller.
"Lover bird, is that your husband?" He asked.
"Yes Sir" Jane replied quickly.
"Mr Man, your wife is with us, bring 10 million naira to a location to be sent to you later and secure the safety of your wife. If you do otherwise, you lose her." Capon ended the call.
They blindfolded Jane and drove her for another 30 minutes, followed by about an hour of trekking before removing the blindfold and finding herself in a house where other three kidnapped victims were kept.
"What's this?" Capon asked as he pointed to the box?
"It's a new brand of chocolate that I was taking to the office to market."
"How much do you sell each pack and how many packs are inside?"
"It's an expensive foreign chocolate, there are 100 packs in the box." Jane explained.
She was ready to give maximum cooperation to secure her freedom.
They saw this as an additional money making opportunity. They took the box to town and sold it to a supermarket, claiming to be importers trying to test the acceptability of the product - perhaps Jane revealed her husband's dealings regarding the chocolate to them.
Back home, the police had detained Grace, being the last known person with Jane. She was being investigated for an alleged complicit. Capon had claimed during a call session with Mike that her female colleague sold her out to them. No other prime suspect than Grace.
At the course of the kidnap saga, Mike was returning from the police commissioner's office when he branched a shop to buy groceries.
After selecting about two items, he got to the chocolate section and saw the brand that he imported on the shelf.
"Who sold this to you?" Mike asked the storekeeper.
The storekeeper refused to divulge such information.
Convinced that the chocolate brand hadn't been brought to the country before, he went back to the police to report his latest discovery.
The police swung into action and Capon, who came to sell the chocolate was arrested by luring him to the shop using the storekeeper.
Capon gave further information that enabled police to close in on the criminals and rescue the four victims including Jane. Grace was released and Mike tendered an apology to her. The kidnappers were charged to court to answer for their crimes.
Hi @lightpen, could you please replace the image you used with something else?
I'm sure you can find something more suitable for the story that goes along the lines of a gang and ransoms other than that one.
Thank you for your understanding!
Thank you. I will do that.
Done.
Thank goodness that Mike was able to trace the chocolate and save Grace! This is a nice story, however it would be even better if you established a more balanced story arc by detailing the plot points in action. We recommend reading the article Action, Dialog and Narrative: The Dynamic Trio for tips on how to do this. Thank you for sharing your story with us, and for your engagement with other members of the community.
Thank you @theinkwell. I will check it out.