Chapter 78

"Why are you here all alone?" Stephen asked. "Where is Eric? Why didn't you come with him?"

"Bro, I went to the hotel quite alright to look for him, but the receptionist told me that, they saw him leave the hotel with Grace last night, and ever since then, he hasn't returned." Emmanuel replied. “I asked to check his room to see if he left the hotel without checking out but his stuff is still there, so I don’t get it.”

"What!” Grave exclaimed. “Yes, I admit that Eric was with me last night but he only walked me out to my Uber! How's that possible that he didn't return to the hotel?! I mean he was standing right there in front of the hotel when my Uber drove away. He wouldn’t have left just like that; not without telling me." Grace sounded very worried now.

"Something is fishy, man, and we need to act fast." Jerry said to Stephen.

“Do you guys think that these two disappearances are connected?” Doris asked. “I mean, Violet and Eric wouldn’t just vanish into thin air.”

“Well, I wish I know what to think.” Stephen answered. So many questions were running through his mind. He was trying to stay calm but he knew he would lose it soon if Violet was not found. What if she was in danger?

"Do you think Violet ran away? Probably developed cold feet." Anne asked 

"No, Violet will never do that. I spoke to her last night and she was fine." Stephen said. “She was as eager as I was for today to come. She wouldn’t just up and vanish on me when I need her the most.”

“Yes, I quite agree with him.” Doris chipped in. “Violet can be many things but a coward isn’t one of them.”

"Well, you two are right. No, she wouldn't have fled, not without taking any of her stuff from the house. Her purse containing her ATM cards was still on the dresser table. It’s the same thing with Eric. If his stuff is still at the hotel, then I think something must have happened to both of them. The problem is that I don’t know how to connect the dots to see how these two disappearances are connected." Grace noted. 

"Hold on, is her phone still going through?" Emmanuel suddenly asked.

"Yes." Stephen answered, puzzled.

"We can trace her location on google through her IMEI number or her phone number. Let's borrow the priest's laptop or we can do it on your phone!" Emmanuel suggested.

"But does anyone have her IMEI number?" Jerry asked.

"She bought that phone while living with me in the barrack which means that the pack must still be in my apartment." Stephen said.

"Is tracking of phones meant for the police?" Doris asked.

"The police will take an awfully long time and we don't have the time for that; we have a wedding and hundreds of guests waiting." Jerry replied.

"Rufus, Doris, please stay with my parents and only inform my dad about what is going on! No matter what you do, please do not let my mum know or she'll freak out... Jerry, Anne, Emmanuel, come with me!" Stephen said.

"Wait, what about Eric?" Grace asked, turning to watch them hurry to the car.

"Keep calling his line! We could just rush to a computer geek friend of ours and he'll be able to trace them both through their phone numbers!" Jerry answered. They all got into the car and Stephen quickly drove out of the church.

                                                                                      ★★★

Hours passed and Violet kept pacing around the room. It was morning and the light of the sky was bright through the window. She had been thinking of what to do or how to escape and she had finally settled for one. When she heard the key slip into the keyhole, she quickly hurried to the bed and lay on her back. Nosa opened the door, stepped into the room and placed the key on the table.

"The men are gone and we are all alone, so ready or not, here I come." Nosa said as he placed his handgun on the table and took his t-shirt over his head. As he began to undo his belt, he leered at her, a bit surprised at her lack of will to resist. "What? Not in the mood to scream or fight back?" He asked as he took off his pants.

"What's the use when there's no way out of here?" Violet asked, wondering why he was taking off his pants but deep down, she had a good guess even though she dreaded it. Nosa had always been looking for an opportunity to have his way with her and now that she was at the mercy, she was sure that he was about to do just that. The prick!

"Good girl." Nosa smiled. "You learn fast." He took off his boxers.

Violet swallowed hard when she saw his bouncing erection and she quickly averted her gaze to the ceiling. She tried to remain composed as Nosa approached the bed now, gently stroking himself. He got on the foot of the bed on his knees and began to caress her legs. When she only squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to whimper, he sultrily said to her. "I like this compliant you very much. It means if you continue like this, things might just work fine between us." He pushed his hands under her nightgown and was soon pulling her panty down her legs and she didn't try to stop him either.

When he pushed her knees up and apart, he laid over her and just when he was about guiding himself into her, she suddenly wrapped her legs around his waist, locking him in a position that his manhood had no chance of going close to her vagina. When he lifted his head to stare at her in a flustered manner, she smirked now, "You forgot one thing, Nosa, I'm good with my legs." Then she tightened her legs around his waist and ribs, squeezing them and making him wince in pain. When he tried to break free by wriggling out of her hold, she told him. "Don't, it will only make it worse. I've got such a tight grip in my thighs that I'm pretending right now that you are a pole. But the only difference right now is that you are a pole I wanna break."

"You bitch!" Nosa hissed now, still wincing in pain as she added more pressure with her thighs. "I should have known that your being compliant wasn't a good sign." He managed to grate through clenched teeth. When he tried to use his arms to pull himself free, she suddenly jammed the blade of her right hand into his throat and he began to gag and retch, holding a hand to his throat as his eyes turned red and teary. She didn't even let him recover before she pulled his head down and butted him with her forehead and he slumped. "That's why I have a forehead this big." She said as she pushed him off her body and he continued to gag and retch in intense pain.

As she quickly got off the bed, snatched up the bunch of keys and was about to slip it into the keyhole, he lunged at her and pulled her by her wedding-made hair. She screamed and swung her elbow backward, catching him in the left eye and he howled in pain but didn't let go. Swinging her other elbow, she caught him on the ear and he fell back and unknown to her hit his head on the edge of the small stool in front of the dresser before slipping to the floor. Opening the door, she ran into the empty hallway, calling Eric's name. When she heard him answer, she hurried to the door and unlocked it and when he came out, he suddenly seized her in a tight hug.

"We have to get out of here!" She said and barefooted, she ran with him out of the house and into a deserted street. They glanced to the left which was a dead end and then to the right which was a semi-busy road. Together, they ran down the dusty untarred road to the main road where they quickly stopped an auto-rickshaw and told him to take her to the barrack. She hurriedly told the rider to move as she anxiously glanced towards the gate of the house, dreading that Nosa would emerge any moment.

While the rider quickly rode off, Stephen was already on his way to the house. He was on a phone call while the others whom he had left behind gave him directions of where to go. However, he stopped two bus stops away from that of the house, got down the car and started to ask some people in the bus stop for the address the phone's location had given away. 

As the rider approached the bus stop, Violet sighted Stephen in the midst of several men who looked like roadside sellers and she saw one of them pointing down the way she had come from. "That's Stephen!" She suddenly exclaimed in surprise to Eric then tapped the rider's shoulder. "Please take me to that man over there!" She said in excitement.

"Which one?" The rider asked, a bit confused since there were almost four men standing in the spot she had pointed.

"The man in uniform!" She stated and the rider complied. The auto-rickshaw had hardly come to a stop when she leaped out of it and yelled, "STEPHEN!"

Stephen turned in her direction and stared at her in surprise. "Violet?"

Barefooted and still clad in her nightgown, she ran into his arms and threw her arms around his neck.

                                                                                      ★★★

Meanwhile, Nosa had managed to dial the Colonel's number, managing to speak, asking for help. When Colonel Anthony arrived at the house, he found Nosa lying on the floor close to the open door with a pool of blood surrounding his head and he also didn't fail to notice that he was naked. Squatting beside Nosa after glancing around the room and noticing how scattered it was due to the struggling that must have occurred in it, he asked, "Where's the girl?"

"S...she... e...sca...ped..." He managed to say in a stutter.

"I see..." Col. Anthony said in a displeased tone. "You had just one job and screwed it up... Why the hell are you naked, anyway? You were trying to sleep with her? You were going to rape my woman?!" He furiously asked.

"I...I'm... so...orry...bos...s..." Nosa said in a weak hoarse voice.

"Yeah, you'll be." Col. Anthony stood up now, crossed him and moved towards the bed. "Now, you have fucked things up for me with your foolishness! First, she knows who you are and if she knows who you are, it means that she can link this up to me when our superiors come for your ass and I'll not take this fall with you because it was your own doing." He appeared by Nosa's side, holding a pillow in both hands and when Nosa saw the pillow, his eyes widened and he began to panic in trepidation. "Secondly, the police will storm this house soon and I cannot afford for them to find you alive. You cannot destroy everything that I've worked for all these years simply because you couldn't control your dick! So adios, you little, conniving bastard!" Getting on a knee, Colonel Anthony pressed the pillow over his face, depriving him of oxygen. 

Nosa helplessly struggled and tried to scream but his screams were muffled by the pillow. Col. Anthony pressed the pillow harder on his face until Nosa stopped struggling and his arms fell limply by his sides. When he was sure that Nosa was dead from asphyxiation, Col. Anthony pulled the pillow away, got up and tossed it on the bed. Picking up Nosa's phone which was on the floor, he slipped it into his pocket and after glancing around to be sure that he left no sign of his presence behind, he quickly left the house.

After hurriedly dressing up, the wedding was held, and after the wedding, Eric with the help of the others led a police team to the house where Nosa was found dead. Even though Violet gave her statement, Col. Anthony vehemently denied being involved in the kidnapping and lied that he was not even aware of such happening and since there was not enough evidence to prove her claim, Col. Anthony was let off the hook. However, he was not completely free because Mrs. Eweala began to blackmail him to return her money, lest he risked being exposed by her. She was angry that all her plans had fallen through and had blamed Col. Anthony for incompetence. She gave him an ultimatum to return her money because she intended to travel back to Amsterdam soon.

                                                                         ★★★

One hot afternoon, three days to the end of the given ultimatum, after shopping in a supermarket, as Mrs. Eweala was about to cross the road to her car which was parked on the other lane a, car which had been stalking her for days and had been patiently waiting for her to leave the supermarket, slowly pulled away from the curb. And as she started to cross the road, the driver accelerated and before Mrs. Eweala could notice it coming, the car hit her so hard that she was tossed into the air and flung hard to the ground like a rag doll. 

Her shopping bags and handbag flew out of her hands and the contents scattered all over the road while some rolled into a nearby gutter. As people began to rush the scene in shock and empathy, the driver of the car quickly drove around her and sped off before anyone could stop the car and apprehend him. Mrs. Eweala laid unconscious on the hot road, blood seeping from her nostrils, mouth and her ears, while a small pool gathered at the back of her head. Her legs were twisted in weird angles and one was so crushed that the bone jutted out through her flesh.

Colonel Anthony who had been the hit-and-run driver, slowly drove into a mechanic's yard where he had borrowed it and parked the car. He was dressed in casual clothes to avoid recognition, and when he got down the car, he pulled his baseball hat lower over his face and glanced down the road he had come from to be sure that he had not been followed. 

Then he walked to where he had parked his own car in the shed, got in, reversed and drove off. He had decided to annihilate Mrs. Eweala because he didn't trust her to keep her mouth shut now that their plans had gone wrong. The bitch had had the guts to threaten him and he was not ready to return the money. 

There was no way he would have his reputation ruined nor have himself demoted or court-martialed for involving in such a serious crime as kidnapping, so he decided that it was best to silence her the way he had done Nosa. He however knew that the other soldiers who were involved wouldn't be a problem so he decided to let them be in order not to draw suspicion to himself and most especially because Violet and Eric did not know their identities.