Aaliyah to the World

25 | Treacherous

•Mairo

"I'll have to record the conversation so that we'll use it on that day. I'm already at her house now so goodbye. If I finish early then we'll go today."

Baba Tanko opens the gates for me and I drive in, parking at my favourite spot, beside the generator. Just because, it'll be easier to reverse back out of the spot.

I turn on the voice recorder and position it above all the clustering in my bag so that it's close enough to capture everything that will be said.

I zipped it up and slung it on my left shoulder before exiting the car.

"Mairo sai yau kika ga daman zuwa gidan nan ko? (So it's today you felt like coming to this house?)" She ran towards me with her hands spread wide, "Any luck finding Aaliyah?"

"No. Actually, I saw her some days ago in this house. She came and took some of her things."

I scoffed. "And you let her go?"

"How will I do that? Am I mad? She came in when I went to see Chief Otunba. I just saw her going out through the back when I came back. I was about to drag her back but she ran away, escaping into one car."

"Hmmmm. Do you know who owns the car?"

"How will I know? It's probably one of her boyfriend's or that Alhaji Tanko. I told you she has boyfriend's."

"I still don't think he's her boyfriend. Maybe a close friend drove her here."

"I couldn't see the driver but I doubt it was a woman that could drive that way." She dragged me by the arm, "Sorry. I kept you outside with my baseless gist. Come inside dear."

As usual, we would always stay in her room to talk. So, I turned to the staircase immediately I was inside while she went into the kitchen.

"There's pure heaven, fanta and also five alive. Which would you like?" She asked as she bent forward to drop the tray of drinks and finger food on her bed side table.

"Five alive is fine." I responded as I munched on a money bag.

"Alright. So..." She sat in the middle of the bed cross-legged like a child. "How is everything?"

"Alhamdulillah. Everything is going well."

"Masha Allah. So what have you been up to lately?" I smiled, asking a neutral question so that I wouldn't sound like I knew her plans and also hoping she'll initiate the topic herself.

"Nothing. Just thinking about where to find Aaliyah and using her to get to Alhaji Tukur."

Check.

"How do you plan on going about that?"

"I called Malam Mahamadou to help me out."

"And what did he say?"

"He'll help me find her and he'll give me updates so that I'll be able to find her. He also adviced getting a P.I."

"That's good news. But wait, I thought he was an illiterate. How does he even know what a P.I is?"

"Ehnn, he said he has a HND certificate. He called though and he said she was still in Abuja and that she was living alone. He doesn't know the exact place but she's still here."

"Abuja is big. How will you find her now?"

"The P.I will do that for me. I've already found one and he has started his work." She smiled mischievously.

"Ok. After finding her what happens next?"

"It'll be to charm Alhaji Tukur. But I see it's taking time so I'll just use another method Malam Mahamadou suggested."