Finding Love

by C. M. Okonkwo

  “Really? Typical man. He had probably gotten what he wanted and ran off.”

  Samantha bit her lower lip. “I hope not. And I don’t know what to do.”

  Ada looked at her wristwatch real quick. She still had a few minutes to spare. “Don’t do anything for now, so that you don’t look desperate. Give him some time to call you, and if he doesn’t then you can call him.”

  “His phone is now disconnected, so I can’t reach him. And I have a feeling he has lost my number now. So if he wants to reach me, he wouldn’t be able to.”

  Ada rolled her eyes. “Just don’t do anything... I have to go now, I’ll see you later.”

  Ada made for the front door and Samantha followed to see her off when she noticed that Ada had packed a bag.

  “Hmm, travelling?” Samantha asked. “The bag looks big enough for a whole weekend getaway, or even a whole week.”

  Ada laughed. “Like I said before, love, I might be meeting up with a hunk today, and I think he has a lot planned for us.”

  ***

  Samantha got dressed, and even against Ada’s advice, she went to R.Rich Industries to look for Ramsey. She had gone from suspicious, to angry, to worried and now to concerned, as she really wanted to know what was going on and if he was okay. She wore a tight light-grey dress suit and wore high-heels — even though she was just walking to the next building. She didn’t bother carrying her handbag with her, she took only her phone and keys.

  When she walked into the huge building that looked state-of-the-art, the receptionist smiled at her. Samantha also smiled, then walked up to the young woman.

  “Hello, I’m here to see Ramsey Richmond,” Samantha said in a pleasant tone.

  “Excuse me?” The receptionist sounded confused or maybe just shocked that someone could walk up to her out of the blue to ask to see the owner of a very big company.

  “I want to see the owner of this company, Ramsey. You can call his office and tell him that it’s Samantha from next door. He would know who I am.”

  “Okay, but I don’t know any Ramsey, and no Ramsey owns this company.”

  “I don’t understand.” Samantha looked perplexed. “His name is Ramsey Richmond, as in R.Rich, and I met him more than a month ago.”

  The receptionist laughed. “Sorry, but the ‘R’ in R.Rich stands for ‘Resource.’ We do have a CEO though, but his name is neither Ramsey nor Richmond.” She paused for a bit and started to type into her computer. After a few seconds, she looked up. “His name is Alex Ibro. In fact, there’s no one by the name Ramsey and/or Richmond working in the building.”

  Samantha was disappointed. She didn’t want to believe what she was hearing and felt that Ramsey had told the receptionist to say that to her. Without thanking the receptionist, she walked out of the building. At the entrance of the building, she ran into a random young man, whom she believed worked in the building, and asked him for the name of the CEO.

  The random young man said, “Alex Ibro,” and Samantha walked away, defeated.

  ***

  “You did what?” Ada asked. “I told you not to call and you go as far as visiting him at the office?”

  “Well good thing I did, because he doesn’t own the company and doesn’t even work there. I did further research when I got home and found out that it was true. The CEO is truly a man named Alex Ibro and ‘R.Rich’ means ‘Resource Rich.’”

  Ada suppressed a laugh. “Really? That’s crazy. What if he has really bailed on you? I think you should just take a step back and let him go.”

  “And what if he is in trouble?”

  “Samantha, you only did it with this guy once. Is that enough to stalk him and worry for him like you are his daughter, or wife or mother?”

  “No, but I love him. I fell in love with him even before that night, so I can’t rest until I find him and he tells me by himself that he has moved on.”

  “You are one persistent young woman, so what are you going to do to find your man, your mysterious man?”

  “I need some time to think about it.”

  ***

  When Samantha entered the Ikoyi Divisional police station, everyone stared at her. She didn’t know who exactly to talk to, as they all looked fixatedly at her. She looked around and before she could make a choice, a deliciously looking, dashing young man in mufti hurried out of an office and approached her.

  “I’m Inspector Ike. How can I help you?”

  Samantha didn’t want to get carried away, so she tried not to look into his eyes. “Hi, I’m Samantha. I think my friend is missing and I need to find him.”

  Ike pulled out a jotter that looked more like a notebook, and a pen that he had to force scratch to write with, then looked up at her. “Tell me about him, the last time you saw him and why you think he is missing.”

  After she had given Ike the information, she let him know that Ramsey’s phone number was disconnected, so it definitely meant that he was missing. She also added that he might have been kidnapped and maybe someone would call her to ask for a ransom soon. Ike didn’t react to what she had told him.

  When Ike was done taking notes, he asked Samantha to describe Ramsey, and with the little she gave, an artist was able to get a rough sketch of him, which she approved. With that, they went to do some research and after about an hour, Ike returned to Samantha.

  “We now know who this man is, but his name isn’t Ramsey Richmond, and he doesn’t own any company. His name is Peter Emeh.”

  “What?” Samantha didn’t want to believe it. “So where is he? What does he do?”

  “I don’t know.” Ike shrugged. “Probably at his house or going about his business. He’s a contractor.”

  “What if he is really missing?” Samantha was still not satisfied. “I want to find him.”

  “On what grounds? We can’t just use public funds to go after a man that hasn’t been reported missing by his family or next-of-kin. If anything, he is a criminal for impersonating someone else. Did he steal anything from you?”

  Ramsey had actually spent a lot on her. She only wondered where he had gotten all the money, and the thought of him being a scam artist crossed her mind. “He didn’t steal anything from me. But is there a way we can find him without using public funds?”

  Ike saw the desperation in Samantha’s eyes. “Let me talk to my people in-house. I’m a private investigator. I usually come to give a hand to this Police Division on difficult cases, so I may be able to help you find Peter Emeh, since I don’t have any case at the moment. But you would have to hire me privately.”

  “Anything works for me, and I’ll pay whatever it takes to find him.”

  ***

  Technically, Samantha was still jobless, so she asked Ike if she could join in on the search and investigation. She wanted to look for Ramsey or Peter by herself, and look in his eyes when he confessed the truth to her. Ike didn’t object. Samantha was paying him a lot of money, so whatever she wanted was fine by him as long as she wasn’t asking or willing to go into any type of danger or dangerous situation.

  She called Ada to give her an update on the situation and Ada thought she was taking it too far by hiring a private investigator to look for a man that had lied to her, deceived her, gotten her into bed and left her. Samantha didn’t really care. She had never thought of hiring a private investigator in her life, so the whole adventure seemed thrilling. In fact, she didn’t even know that private investigators existed in Nigeria, so she was ready for the experience.

  Once she had paid Ike his money, fifty percent of the agreed amount and the balance to be paid after the case had been concluded, he got to work immediately. He worked out of his office at the police station. It was just an office with a desk, a chair, an air conditioning system, and a fan, just in case. He brought his own laptop and the Internet modem he used for his research and documentation. He also had databases that he created and maintained for the police station, which they paid him for. Otherwise, he worked out of his room in his o
ne bedroom apartment in Lekki.

  Ike started his investigation by researching on Peter Emeh — his background and his current situation, his family members, his friends and his acquaintances. He went to ask them questions about Peter and they all said the same thing: that Peter was the nicest and most loyal person they had ever known. When they were asked about Peter’s whereabouts, they all wore confused looks. They had no idea that Peter was missing. It was when they each tried to call him that they realised that his phone line had been disconnected. It was also at that moment that they heard about Samantha and her theory that Peter was missing. However, she didn’t want to let them know the story about ‘Ramsey Richmond.’

  ***

  Ike and Samantha had sort of gone on a road trip following information he had gotten off people who had last seen Peter. Ike started by asking around Samantha’s building, since that was the last place he had been when she last saw him. Ike asked the security guards, some shop owners around the building, then some taxi drivers who stayed in a taxi park not too far from the building. From the information he had gotten, Ike was able to piece together Peter’s movement, then they set off on their journey.

  In the last couple of days, they had driven out of Lagos and camped for two days in Ogun State. In those two days, Ike looked around and asked questions. With the help of Samantha, who appeared to be very active in the search, they were able to determine that Peter had travelled further east and was possibly already in Ondo State. They left Ogun the next day and before nightfall, they got to Ondo and booked a room in the hotel.

  The whole of Ondo was not really that large, so Ike and Samantha were able to cover the most important areas, where Peter could have been. A man had seen Peter and said that Peter had asked for the nearest airport either in Ekiti State or Edo State, where he could meet someone coming from Lagos, so that they could travel together. The man didn’t know which was the nearest airport or if there was even an airport in either of those States, so Peter left.

  Instead of travelling to both States, Ike decided to search for telephone numbers of the airports and gave them a call directly. No flight from Lagos had gone into Ekiti in the last two weeks, and no flight out of Ekiti was due any time soon. So it definitely had to be Edo, but then again, it could have been an entirely different State. Ike called Edo airport and asked if any Peter Emeh had travelled out of the State in the last two days and if he had been seen with anyone. They obviously didn’t tell him as it was against airport safety and security policy.

  Ike didn’t give up. He called the police station in Benin City, Edo, to ask for help, and while he was waiting for feedback, Samantha also called Ada to update her. When they were both done with their calls, they sat down together in Ike’s hotel room to talk.

  “Who were you on the phone with?” Ike asked, as he pulled out his laptop and fired it up.

  “It was just my flatmate.” Samantha shrugged. “I was updating her on the situation, so that she would know what’s going on and where I am.”

  “Why?”

  “Just in case.”

  “Just in case what happens?” Ike was looking into her eyes and it was making her a bit uncomfortable.

  She looked down at her toes and didn’t say anything. When she looked at Ike, he was smiling at her. His smile was tempting and the way he parted his lips was inviting, but she had to stay focused. She was there, with him, for a reason, and she didn’t want to lose track.

  Ike smiled. He knew what she was thinking and also knew that she was shy. “Just in case I’m dangerous?” he asked.

  She looked at him again, then looked down again and eventually shook her head.

  Ike decided to change topics. “So do you tell her everything?”

  Samantha looked at him, an eyebrow raised.

  “Your friend or flatmate, I mean. Do you tell her everything?”

  Samantha thought the question was inappropriate. “I tell her about everything because we live together. But my personal life is my personal life.”

  “I meant do you tell her everything about this case?”

  “Oh.” Samantha was slightly embarrassed. “Yes, I do. She asked to be updated.”

  “What’s her name?”

  “Ada.”

  “Her surname?”

  Samantha hesitated for a few seconds, then said, “Enyim.”

  “Ada Enyim,” Ike repeated. His eyes were glued to his laptop. He typed into it. “What does she look like?”

  Samantha threw her head back and bit her lower lip, wondering why Ike was asking her such questions. She admitted that he was an investigator, but then again, he didn’t have to interrogate her. When she looked at him, he was looking at her, waiting. So she described exactly how Ada looked. At the same time, he typed into his laptop, and sometimes, he asked specific questions about Ada’s looks.

  “What are you doing?” Samantha asked and went to stand behind him.

  He turned the laptop, so that she could see the screen. There was a program running on the screen and a lot of faces were changing on one part of it. On the other part, she saw a data box, where Ike had typed in all the key information she had given to him, including the words ‘Ada’ and ‘Enyim.’

  “The future of Nigeria’s security,” Ike said. “FaceTrackNg. A facial recognition software built by one young techie I know and yet to be introduced to the metropolis. Only a few Nigerian police officers have access to it and I’m one of the investigators that have been filling in the contents.”

  Samantha didn’t say anything. She was amazed at what she was seeing. She glanced at Ike and he was looking at her, in her eyes, then at her lips. She turned her head completely towards him and felt goose bumps all over her body. They were so close to each other that if Ike stretched his neck, their noses would touch. The last few days they had spent together working, eating, talking and resting had obviously brought them closer to an extent.

  Ike looked at her lips again and she looked at his. They brought their heads together to kiss when Ike’s cell phone rang. He looked at the screen and it had ‘P.I. Jackson’ calling. Ike excused himself and went to take the call. When he stepped away, Samantha sat on the chair looking at the laptop screen and smiling. It wasn’t because she was still astonished at the new software, but because she had almost kissed Ike. Her smile was cut short when he returned. She got up from the chair and he sat in it.

  “Peter is in Abuja,” Ike said.

  “Was that what P.I. Jackson said?” Samantha asked.

  Ike looked at her immediately, surprised she had said that, since he didn’t know that she had seen his phone screen. She smiled at him, and he smiled back at her, then nodded. He looked at her lips again and moved to kiss her, and this time, it was successful. They shared a long kiss that was interrupted by a beeping sound that came from the laptop. They took their time to withdraw from each other, smiling mischievously, then looked at the screen together.

  “What?” Samantha exclaimed, with her eyes glued to the screen.

  The facial recognition program had finished running and it had found Ada’s face with the description she had given, but all the information didn’t match. Firstly, her name wasn’t Ada Enyim. It was Lola James. Secondly, she was almost ten years older than she claimed, and not a recent graduate. And finally, a whole lot of other information didn’t add up — her background history, her personal details and so on.

  Ike looked at Samantha, then predicted her next move. “Don’t say anything to her.”

  It was too late. Samantha had already gone to the bed, picked up her handbag and was searching fervently for her cell phone. Ike walked up to her and tried to calm her down, but she pushed him away. She took out her phone and started to dial with shaky hands. She didn’t know when the tears rolled out of her eyes and before she could control it, Ada picked up the call at the other end, and said, “Hello Samantha.”

  ***

  Samantha was sitting right next to Ike on a plane in Benin City and they were flyi
ng to Cross River State. She had taken the window seat, so she was looking out of the window, lost in thoughts. Ike held her hand and brought her back to reality. She turned and looked at him, then smiled briefly before turning back to look out of the window. She wanted to think about what she was getting herself into.

  She had called Ada after she found out that her real name was Lola James and that her profile said she had been involved in a lot of fraud, money laundering and theft, targeting rich young girls and posing as their friends, then stealing from them and their families. She didn’t want to believe any of it at first, but then, she remembered her father and how he had lost a lot of money, and almost had a heart attack.

  After she had called Lola and before she could speak, Ike snatched the phone out of her hand, ended the call and asked her to calm down. He felt that calling Lola wasn’t the way to go about it, as Lola could easily get scared and run away. He also said it wasn’t the time to deal with Lola. They were already on one case and he wanted to finish it first before moving to another case. Samantha refused. She didn’t call Lola back, but she was prepared to put the mission at hand on hold and take care of Lola’s case immediately. She was also willing to pay any extra amount if Ike wanted.

  Ike wanted to argue with her, but he knew that it was a lost battle, so he tracked down Lola’s location with her cell phone to Cross River. They then packed up their things and drove down to Benin City that same day. They got to Benin City quite late and got a room there, which they shared because he wanted to keep an eye on her. So the next morning, they parked their car at the airport, then boarded the first flight to Calabar, in Cross River.

  About three hours later, they landed at Margaret Ekpo International Airport, making a stop in Abuja. The flights were not direct and the only other option was a stop in Lagos, so they opted for Abuja just to have a different itinerary. They hired a car at the airport and went straight to the hotel where Lola was staying. Ike had suggested they get a room first, rest and eat, but Samantha didn’t want that. She wanted to confront Lola immediately, then threaten her and get her arrested if necessary, and with Ike’s help of course. The only problem was that Ike wasn’t aware of her plan.