(Episode 4) Destiny Mismatch … A Compelling Story!

Maya stood under the sun for more than fifteen minutes waiting for her parents and her sister to pick her, it was a hot day and she was getting tired. She thought of calling back but she decided to exercise more patience since she was sure that her father would not intentionally keep her waiting. She raised her gaze and saw a silver colored Honda car pull up beside her. A man, dressed in a clean polo shirt and trouser and face cap walked up to her.

Man: “You are miss Maya, your father sent me to pick you, he was on his way here to pick you when he had a flat tire, he said I will see you standing here exactly the way you are dressed and carrying this bag. He told me to hurry up that you just arrived from London and must be very tired”. He took her box.

Maya: “Okay, I am so tired of standing here. When did my dad tell you this and who are you to him?”

Man: “A while ago. He told me that you called him to say you are stranded here and that he promised to come and pick you with your mum and Naya but for the flat tire they had. We will go and meet them up at home. I am the new driver”.

Maya: “Dad got a new driver without informing me? Anyway, I have been busy with my final exams and project, I guess that is why he didn’t want to disturb me with news of happenings at home. Let us go”.

Not up to five minutes after they drove off, Mr Lanre and his wife and daughter and Florence arrived. They drove to the front of the fuel station and they discovered that Maya was not there. Her father tried to call her but it was still switched off. “I thought she said she was standing at the front of this fuel station? Where is she again?”

Mrs Lanre: “Let us check very well, maybe she has gone to sit down under a shade because of this scorching sun”.

They got down and began to walk around checking for her all to no avail.

Naya: “But why won’t she just stay here and wait for us? This Maya will kill somebody with hypertension today”, she was getting worried and her parents could see the anxiety in her. There was a connection between the two twins such that if one was in trouble, another would begin to feel uncomfortable. Her parents had noticed this about them right from their infant days but they could not fathom what it was that bound them so closely together.

While they were walking about searching for Maya, one of those walking with them sent a text to the mysterious number. the message read: “Call him now and demand for ten million naira”.

Few minutes later, Mr Lanre’s phone began to ring. He brought out his phone and checked the screen, it was an unknown number calling. His wife quickly grabbed the phone from him when she heard it ring. When she heard that it was a man’s voice, she gave it back to her husband.

Mr Lanre: “Who is it?”

Man: “We have your beloved twin, Maya here with us. If you ever want to see her alive, make ready the sum of ten million naira in its dollar equivalent. We will tell you where to keep it. Contact us once the money is ready and if you ever talk to security operatives about this, we will kill her, cut her and serve you the mutilated body in a parcel, a word is enough for the wise”. The phone went off.

Mr Lanre: “Hello, who is there? Who are you and how am I sure that you have my daughter with you?” he discovered that the call had been dropped from the other end.

His wife, Naya, the driver and Florence all came around him when he was making the call. They knew from his tone that whatever the call was about had to do with Maya and they were worried because the expression on the face of Mr Lanre was not pleasant.

Mrs Lanre: “What is it? Who is the caller and what did he say?”

Naya: “daddy, where is my twinny? What did they say happened to her? I will kill myself if anything happens to her”.

“Sir, is Maya fine?” Florence and the driver asked simultaneously.

Mr Lanre: “Let us all get into the car, we will talk about this when we get home, Maya is at home already”. He lied to steady the nerves of his wife and Naya who were at the verge of going hysterical. His years in the military had taught him that in cases like this, it was not advisable to divulge sensitive information to everyone. All through the drive home, he tried to call back the number that had called him earlier but the number was switched off.

As soon as they got home, Naya ran upstairs to their room and there was no sign of her sister. She opened the rest room door and it was as she had left it when they left the house. She ran up to her parents who went to their room as soon as they got to the house.

“daddy, you said…”

He father ran up to her and held her tight. “Shhhhh, all will be well”.

Naya: “daddy, what are you hiding from me, it is my twin sister we are talking about here”.

Mr Lanre: “I need you and my mother to be very strong okay. I promise that we would pull through this together”.

Mrs Lanre: “My dear, you have been saying this since we got into the house. Please tell me what has happened to my daughter, I am her mother, don’t I deserve to know?” turning to Naya, she said. “My dear, please tell your father to tell us what has happened to your sister. This suspense is killing us”.

Naya: “daddy, if you don’t tell me where my sister is right now, I am going down there to kill myself”.

Mr Lanre: “Okay, please be calm and nobody except those of us in this room must hear anything about this. Maya has been kidnapped and her abductors are asking for ten million naira”.

Naya: “Goodness me! I am finished!”

Mrs Lanre: “Jesu omo Oluwa! Mo gbe, moku, mo darun. Why me, Lord? I go to Church always, I pay my tithes, I help the poor so why me?”

Mr Lanre: “You all need to calm down, that is why I didn’t want to talk to you initially”.

Mrs Lanre: “Don’t tell me to calm down o, do you think I am you who is a former military man? I can’t believe that you heard that our daughter was kidnapped and yet you had to nerves to hold on until we got home”.

Naya: “daddy, I can’t understand this, she called to tell us that she was at the park in Zuba, so when and where was she kidnapped?”

Mr Lanre: “I am as confused as you are but we shall get to the bottom of this. I have been trying to call back the number but it was switched off”.

Mrs Lanre: “How do you intend to get to the bottom of this? The way kidnappers operate, they may kill her if we contact the police”.

Mr Lanre: “I am still thinking it through but one thing I am certain of is that I will get my daughter out of that place. I need you to keep this information to yourselves, let’s just pretend that our daughter is fine, who knows, the kidnappers may have an informant in the house”.

He dismissed them and went into the bathroom to freshen up, he was going to have a cold water bath, being under the shower with cold water running over his head had a way of making him feel better and think clearer.

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Florence ran up to Naya as soon as she got into the room.

Florence: “Babe, I saw the way you ran up to your father’s room when we got here. Is anything the problem?”

Naya: “erm yes, I mean no. there is no problem. I went to tell him something that I had forgotten to tell him earlier in the day”.

Florence: “What about Maya? She is supposed to be here already”.

Naya: “Oh that, she is fine, she arrived already”.

Florence: “Why is she not here then?”

Naya: “She would soon be here”, she tried to conceal the tears that was forming in her eyes and went into the bathroom to turn on the shower and cry under it.

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As soon as they drove a few distance away, a man jumped out of the booth and blind folded Maya. She was driven to a secluded part of the city and pushed into an uncompleted hut in the middle of a forest. Her abductor brought out his phone to dial her parents for further instruction and to intimate his informant in the house where they were keeping her hostage. Unknown to them, Maya had a tracking device in her handbag, it was one of the things that were provided by the university when she won an award for academic excellence and they were encouraged to take it up with them anywhere they go.  All she needed to do was turn it on and type her father’s number on it, the tracker would automatically send a message to her father’s number disclosing her address. She tried to move from the chair she was tied on but it was difficult, she knew that she had to reach out for her bag across the room but yet she had to be very careful without risking being caught.

Question: Will Mr Lanre be able to get his daughter out without paying the ransom? Will she be able to turn on the tracking device before she gets caught?