Thirty Five

Chapter Thirty Five

“Remember, you are not going to land at Bahama right away. Due to the issues between our country and yours, the plane you will be boarding soon will drop you at Cryai, from there, you board the plane going home. And don’t worry, all bookings have been done, there should be no issue.” Ben briefed them in the car as they made their way to the airport.

“Cryai. Funny name. It sounds like everyone in that country loves crying.” Silvanus said laughing at his poor attempt of a joke, others staring at him weirdly.

“ What? It is a good joke.” He claimed as they all shook their heads, looking away from him.

“Are we all clear on our plans now?” Mike asked, directing his question to Jennifer, Mark and Silvanus especially.

“Yes, I am pretty sure we are.” `Mark was irritated because it was like the tenth time he was asking that same question.

“Is Jennifer sure she remembers the way to the penthouse you all are supposed to stay at?” Ben looked back at her.

“Of course I do. A part of my memory gone doesn’t mean every other one is slowly evaporating.”

“Hey, I am just making sure.” Ben said cautiously when he noticed the earlier irritation on Mark’s face appearing on hers.

Charlie placed his hand on hers, slightly squeezing it. “It doesn’t seem like you would be getting that memory back, does it?” She shook her head in the negative and sighed out loudly. She did not know why she felt so stuffed. Well, there’s the fact that she was finally going home, but that was not the reason she felt like her insides were being squeezed, causing a bit of discomfort.

“I am going to miss you Jennifer.” Mike said breaking the almost five minutes silence that everyone was enjoying already.

“Well, I am going to miss you to. Take good care of Bruce for me.” She had finally thought out a name for the puppy.

“Definitely. I like the name. It has a Batman ring to it.”

“I wish my parents named me Bruce.” Silvanus said, sounding like he was lost in the deepest of thoughts. Everyone looked his way again, with a questioning look this time. “It was the least they could have done. And it would have suited my personality better.”

“You know you can always name your…”

“Here we are.” Charlie was interrupted by Ben as the entrance of the airport came in sight.

“Alright guys, remember keep the evidences safe. Make it a priority to see the lawyer as soon as possible, I am sure his office address is with you three. And branch the police station while you are at it. That too with your evidence, the video, and a lot of intelligent talks or you will be accused of posing as a dead person so as to exploit people. And we do not want that at all.”

“We would be victorious on this case, I feel it.” Mike continued from where Ben stopped after they had gotten down from the car.

“This is where we say our goodbyes. Jennifer, I am praying you get what is yours back. And Mark, take good care of her okay? Don’t say shit that would make her run away again.” Ben said hugging both of them since Silvanus made it clear about hating hugs.

Jennifer faced Charlie and they gave each other a huge smile.

“Thank you so much Charlie. You made my stay at Hamesia very amazing. I will miss you.”

“I will miss you too. Give me a call to fill me in on everything okay?” She nodded and they both hugged.

“Okay everybody, it is time our plan to take a flight. So, you three, grab your luggage and go. Go and bring us victory!” Ben said dramatically, sounding like some medieval king over drunk on power.

They said goodbyes again and the trio entered the airport building.

‘This is it.’ Jennifer thought as they made their way through the security guards.

‘I am finally going home.’

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Finally arriving at Bahama, Jennifer took a minute to look take the air in for some reason. Nothing had changed, not that she expected it to have. The night was already in when they arrived, so everywhere was bubbly compared to the day when the day would have being so serious. Jennifer had always liked night time in Bahama and she was glad it was the first thing she walked into after a long time.

“Alright, let’s get a taxi and find our way to that penthouse of yours. I am tired.” Mark said, stretching his hand to flag down a taxi.

“Don’t we need to get cash first? That ATM card Ben got for me is with you isn’t it?”

“Yes it is. But I am pretty sure the cab should have like a POS running or preferably, we can always pay online.” Mark said, a cab pulling over in front of them. Mark leaned in through the window of the front passenger.

“Hey. Do you accept online payments?”

“Yeah sure.”

Mark looked back at Jennifer and gave her a ‘I told you so’ face. She scowled at him and handed him the paper where she had written out the address of the penthouse.

“I know you!” A startled voice cried from their side and they all looked towards the middle aged man who seemed to identify Jennifer.

“You are meant to be dead. We were told you were dead.”

Jennifer made to walk towards him and have a word, but the man screamed and ran off.

“So much for a warm welcome.” Jennifer commented looking not bothered, as she faced the three men who were standing by the taxi.

“Shall we leave already?”

The driver helped them put their luggage in the boot and they soon hit the road.

“Are you sure your country’s issue with mine won’t affect transactions?” Jennifer whispered to Mark who rolled his eyeballs at her question.

“It won’t. No matter the magnitude of the feud, they have to keep transactions running.” Silvanus answered her instead and she gave him an appreciative smile, glaring at Mark afterwards.

“You two should just bang already.”

They both glared at Silvanus the latter dismissing them with a wave of his hand as he looked outside to enjoy the view.

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"I am the secretary here, I am afraid you can't enter unless I say so." A rather robust lady with a very awful smirk ( if it could be called that) on her face said with a very unfamiliar accent which would definitely have sounded more pleasant if she wasn’t busy being unnecessarily smug.

Jennifer looked at her, astonishment on her face. She wondered what was wrong with her. She probably choked on too much pride on her way to the office. And who uses a rather robust lady for a secretary? Not that she was body shaming or anything, but it was weird not to see a slimmer, prettier young lady . So weird.

"I will ask again. Can we see your boss?" Mark sternly asked.

The lady was clearly about to give a sassy answer when the door to her left opened.

"Ms Whites, what on earth are you doing on Clara's seat? And I thought I fired you."

She was up on her feet in a second, plead in her eyes.

"Please sir, I have six kids to care for. Help me on this one sir. I need this job badly."

"Whites, don't provoke me. Now leave before I call security on you." The average height man said firmly.

She grabbed her white bag and walked out lazily, but making sure to give Jennifer a hard glare before she left, for no particular reason. ‘Extra weird.’ Jennifer said in her mind as she watched her leave.

"I am so sorry about all that. Sometimes people can be crazy. I am Roberts, nice to meet you. Ben has filled me in on most of the issue at hand and he told me… What are we doing standing? Please lets go have a seat."

They all entered through the brown door into a fairly large office with an inviting coffee smell. There was also had a bit of cigarette scent mixed with it. They all took their seats, Jennifer scanning through the simplicity of the office.

“As I was saying he told me you would be bringing copies of the evidences with you. "

“Yes here they are. We are still working on getting the others as we speak.” Mark dropped a brown envelope on the table before them. The lawyer opened it to check.

“The video is that of your husband confessing to the murder right, Ms Lewis?”

“You recognize me?” Jennifer re-sat, interest in her voice.

“Why not? Your obituary was all over the city. It is a shame though that your husband is behind all these, he appeared devastated about your death. You should hear the tale he had to tell about your tragic death. Though him re-marrying was just absurd to me. It was crazy.”

“It is weird that I am being told that I am dead. That I died a tragic death. Extremely weird.” Jennifer monotonously said, the two men looking her way in concern.

“Do you have any idea who she is? The wife?” Mark asked after they had made sure she was okay.

“No, she hardly comes out. Anyway, these are very solid evidences you have come with and they would increase your chances of winning this case, but you have to go to the police station right away with your evidence, they will take up the case from there. Then we can file for this case to be taken to the High Court as soon as possible.”

“Thank you very much sir.”

“You are most welcome. I am very happy to be of help.” They paid pleasantries after which they left the lawyer’s office.

“I guess we head for the police station then. Thank God we made a deal with that taxi man, walking wouldn’t be a lovely choice for me and neither you, I guess.” Mark said, throwing her a smile for some reason.

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They entered the station and the first person they met at the entrance on seeing Jennifer, screamed and ran out.

"Great another screaming person. You know right now, I wish I were the ghost they think me to be, I would love nothing more than to teleport somewhere else till their scream id done." Mark looked back at her and gave her a huge grin. Jennifer wanted to laugh at how comical his face looked, but she just gave a short smile that felt abnormal and maybe looked like it.

"Let's just find someone a bit sane to talk to."

While they tried looking for a office that maybe had a more reasonable cop in it, the uniformed guy they met came back inside screaming ghost like a deprived soul, some of his colleagues rushing to hold him down.

"Yes, who are you and what do you want?" They heard a voice behind them and turned.

The uniformed, black haired, sort of dark eyed woman gulped.

"Now I see what caused the scream. Jennifer?"

"In flesh." Jennifer spread her arms, bent her knees a bit, for emphasis.

"Whoa. How? I thought... How, really?"

"Well, turns out I was dumped into the ocean by a certain somebody who happens to be a he. But ta-da! I am still alive."

"He? He who?" The lady asked interested.

Mark snorted in laughter. "He who."

Jennifer rolled her eyeballs at him."He Francis."

She sounded very silly.

"He who, is Francis? Now the woman was going with the silly flow which made it a bit more silly.

"Yes Sherlock ma'am." Mark answered her, gaining a light nudge in his ribs. Jennifer was already enjoying herself.

"Wow. But... He said..."

"Said what? " All of a sudden Jennifer realized she never knew what story Francis had cooked for the citizens.

"I would rather not say." The cop said with her lips pressed into a thin line as if making a literal point.

Jennifer walked closer to her.

"Listen..." She checked the tag on the upper part of her uniform.

"Listen, Miss Sanders, I am here to take Francis down , get him to pay for he did to me. I mean, he tried to kill me. Don't you think I deserve to know what story he made up? I mean, I could even rub the story in his face when I meet him or in the court."

Sanders licked her lips. "Okay. He told us you guys went honeymooning at some resort. You were at the cinema and you needed to pee. When you were gone for a very long time, he got worried and went looking for you. But he didn't find you at all. Until two days later that he found your body eaten up by fishes.”

Jennifer huffed. “He wishes.”

“He claimed to have buried your over mutilated body over there because you weren’t a good sight to the eyes when we had asked for your… the corpse.”

"The bastard, he really made up that story to be a hell lot believable." She made a brief eye contact with Mark before facing Sanders.

“Okay, we want to show you a video first, so what I will be telling you about what Francis really did will be believable.”

Jennifer was about to collect the flash drive from Mark when the front door opened accompanied by a loud thud.

"Sanders!"

"I really tried to stop him, I did." Some frail looking guy ran after the man whose voice just threatened the hustle of the entire building. .

Jennifer turned immediately at the familiar voice, her blood boiling, her teeth gritted.

"Francis." Now she knew why she was feeling stuffed earlier.