Taduno laughed to himself. ‘Oh yes, you may help me. But before you help me, I think you should know that I want to help you too. And in the end you’ll be helping me to help you.’
The Sergeant looked quite impressed by the response of the well-dressed man standing before him – no doubt, a respectable gentleman wise in the ways of the police. He nodded vigorously, a look of satisfaction on his round oily face.
‘I agree with you. How may we proceed?’
The smile remained on Taduno’s face. ‘Before we proceed you may want to pick up your corn. I think it must be somewhere under your desk.’
‘True!’ The Sergeant bent down and retrieved his corn. He blew on it, then he kept it away on the far end of his desk, to be dealt with later. He turned his attention back to Taduno. ‘Yes, we may proceed.’ He had a business-like air about him now.
Leaning against the counter, Taduno cleared his throat quietly. ‘As I was saying, I need you to help me help you. And after you have helped me I will help you.’
‘That makes a lot of sense to me,’ the Sergeant beamed, rubbing his hands together. ‘Please continue.’
Taduno hesitated for a moment then cleared his throat again. ‘I’d like to know what happened to a certain Miss Lela Olaro. She was arrested a couple of weeks ago by government agents.’
Sergeant Bello scratched his head and pretended to think for several moments. Then he nodded his head slowly, as if it was all coming back to him in a trickle.
‘You remember?’ Taduno asked eagerly.
‘Hmm,’ the Sergeant grunted. ‘Actually, I’m trying to remember. It is not so easy to remember, you know.’
‘Yes, yes, I know. That’s why I need you to help me help you. After you have helped me I will help you. Can you tell me what happened to her, please?’
Sergeant Bello scratched his head some more. ‘Was she arrested or kidnapped?’ he demanded gruffly.
The question caught Taduno by surprise. He thought very quickly, then he asked: ‘You tell me, was she arrested or kidnapped?’
Sergeant Bello hesitated.
Taduno pressed. ‘I’m only asking so that you’ll help me to help you, nothing more.’ He turned on a foolish smile.
‘True, true, I understand, my brother. I need plenty of help actually. Things are very difficult at home.’
‘So?’
‘She was kidnapped by the government,’ the Sergeant said in a whisper, looking furtively around to make sure none of his colleagues was approaching. ‘They only tried to make it look like an arrest.’
Taduno did not show his surprise. ‘I would think that government agents arrest people, not kidnap them?’
‘You’d be surprised,’ the Sergeant chuckled.
‘Where was she taken? Why was she kidnapped?’
The Sergeant’s face hardened. ‘I’ve helped you enough to help me!’ he hissed.
Taduno slipped a 500-naira note across the counter and left the station quietly.
*
Rather than take a taxi, he decided to walk home. He covered the six-kilometre distance in two hours without paying any attention to the bustling city life that raced past him. He arrived home tired and consumed by fear for the woman he loved.
Aroli was sitting on his doorstep waiting for him, glancing through an old paper in a distracted manner. He rose to his feet when he saw Taduno approaching.
None of his other neighbours paid him any attention. They busied themselves with their evening chores, their curiosity about him having died since he re-emerged into the world. As far as they were concerned, he was now one of them, having shown that he could survive seven whole days without seeing sunlight and without running mad or hurting himself.
‘I haven’t seen you around all day,’ Aroli said, after they had exchanged greetings.
‘I went out to attend to an urgent matter.’
‘I see.’ Aroli sounded curious.
Taduno fiddled in his pocket for his keys and opened the door. ‘Please come in.’ Somehow he managed not to show just how troubled he was.
‘Wow!’ Aroli exclaimed the moment he stepped into the house. ‘Looks like you’ve been doing a lot of cleaning. The place is spotless!’
‘It took me seven days to achieve,’ Taduno said.
‘Was that why you locked yourself away?’
‘Not really. Yes, I did a lot of cleaning, but it was more a time of soul-searching for me.’
‘I see.’
‘Take a seat, please.’
They sat opposite each other.
‘You said you went out to attend to an urgent matter?’
‘Yes, I have been trying to follow Lela’s trail.’
Aroli sat up. ‘What have you discovered?’
Taduno hesitated.
‘You can trust me,’ Aroli assured him.
‘Lela was not arrested. She was kidnapped.’
‘Kidnapped by who?’ Aroli asked, a frown on his face.
‘By the government.’
Aroli’s jaw dropped. ‘Where did you get that information?’
‘From a certain sergeant in a certain police station,’ he replied, not keen to reveal his source.
‘I don’t understand. Why would the government kidnap Lela?’ Aroli scratched his head.
‘I asked myself the same question, and the answer is not so pleasant.’
‘Which is?’
‘Security agents arrest you if you are believed to have committed an offence. But if the government sees you as a threat, they kidnap you.’
Aroli scratched his head some more, slowly, his brain ticking loudly. ‘That means Lela must be in grave danger.’
‘You get the picture.’
They fell into silence.
‘What are you going to do?’ Aroli asked, at last.
‘I intend to find her.’ Taduno’s voice was grim with determination.
Aroli shut his eyes tightly, as if trying to erase a bad memory, perhaps a reality too difficult to accept. ‘I don’t know how to put this,’ he began, uncertainly.
‘Put what?’ Taduno raised his brows in question.
‘You showed up claiming to be somebody we know. We all see you as a man who has lost his identity – in fact, a man who has lost his mind. But I have been worried since that first morning, and my mind tells me something is not quite right.’
Taduno remained silent.
Aroli continued. ‘You know too much about us to be a stranger, too much to be a man who has lost his mind.’
‘What are you driving at?’
‘I’m