de-ep_SECRETS
Episode 16
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3:40 pm, Eden Crest Suites
Mayo arrived in a cab, and sat in
it for some minutes, observing
faces and people movinfaces and people moving
around in the hotel. He wanted
to be sure Annabel’s invitation
was not a set-up. Left to him he
would have preferred not to
honour the invitation, or at least
made adequate plans for his
safety before arriving at the
hotel. Having paid the driver
well, there was no nee-d for him
to hurry. When the thirty
minutes’ time lap Annabel gave
him had elap-sed with fifteen
more minutes, his phone rang.
It was Annabel. He picked and
listened to know what she
would say. “Hello Mayo, it is long
past thirty minutes. Where are
you? Is Emilia still holding you
down on her bed? Please, you
have to show up now. I haven’t
got much time to do this.”
“Relax Annabel, I am close by.
What’s your room number?”
“65. I have told the receptionist
to walk you straight to my room
as soon as you arrive.” “Okay, I
will be with you shortly.” Mayo
sat still at the back of the taxi
and thought ha-rd about
Annabel and how desperate she
was to see him. Besides the
nu-de pa-rties in his fun house,
they had much to do together.
Mayo could hazard a guess that
she had something to tell him
about the videos.
br@ving up for the worst, he
stepped out of the taxi and
headed into the hotel lobby.
Casually he let his right hand
rest on the gun stuck to his
wa-ist. In fractions of seconds,
his eyes darted around the
lobby looking for anything
suspicious. “The receptionist
took to him the moment he
walked into the lobby. She
probably smiled at him fifty
times in one second trying to
gain his attention. Mayo could
see that, but he had no time to
fli-rt. “I am here to see Annabel
Maxwell; I un-derstand she has
left order for me to be taken to
her room as soon as I arrive,”
Mayo said. “Yes sir, she did.
Please come with me.” While
they were in the elevator, the
receptionist br@zenly ran her
eyes all over Mayo’s well-built
body. Deliberately, she dropped
her hand on his shoulder and
then removed it and tou-ched
her face. “I am sorry, the
elevator makes me feel giddy,”
she pretentiously apologized for
touching him. Mayo still did not
take her bait. If only she knew
how fast Mayo’s heart was
beating and how scared he was
about going to see Annabel, she
would have taken her fli-rting to
somewhere else.
By the time they stepped out of
the elevator, the receptionist
figured out the hunk she was
leading to room 65, had other
things on his mind. When they
reached the door, the
receptionist pointed at it and
said, “This is room 65.” “Thanks
for your @$$istance, I will take it
from here,” Mayo responded,
carefully getting rid of the lady.
As soon as the receptionist
disappeared into the elevator,
Mayo put his ear on the door
and listened to see if he might
hear conversations which could
suggest to him what he was
walking into. There wasn’t a
sound from the room and so he
knocked and waited. It took a
little while before the door
creaked open and Annabel
popped her pretty face out.
Mayo could tell that she was
afraid and was holding a
weapon because of the way she
handled the door. “Where you
followed to this place?” she
asked. “No, I wasn’t.” “Are you
sure of it?” “I am certain of it,
Annabel. Aren’t you going to let
me in?” Annabel stepped aside
and opened the door wider for
him to come in.
Mayo went in and she quickly
locked it. Mayo was right,
Annabel was holding a gun. The
way she held it gave the
impression she knew how to
use it. She paced around the
room breathlessly and said, “I
was brou-ght here in the trunk
of a car. No one knows I am
here except you,” she said, still
swinging her gun. For a
moment Mayo thought she was
going to shoot him point blank.
“Eve and Stanley are innocent
and you know it, Mayo.” Mayo
said nothing. “Please don’t lie to
me, you know they are
innocent. Don’t you?” she
demanded. “They are innocent.”
“So why were they singled out
and shot?” Before Mayo could
answer her, she said, “They
were shot because those who
made the videos wanted us to
look in the wrong directilook in the wrong direction.
That is what I have found out.”
“So who made the videos,
Annabel?” “Mayo, I should be
the one asking that question
and not you. The videos were
made in your fun house. You tell
me who made it!” She pointed
her gun at Mayo, giving the
impression she was going to
shoot him. May made to
reached for his gun and
Annabel yelled at him, “Don’t
even think of it! I know you are
carrying a gun. I knew when I
saw you at the door.” She
lowered her gun and continued.
“I and my father were drugged
in your house with a lethal
aphrodisiac and were taken to
a room to have se-x together
and you want me to believe you
don’t know about it!”
“I knew the pa-rty and the se-x
which went with it were going
to be recorded for our
entertainment. We have been
doing this long before any of
you joined us. However, the
recording was going to be
done with phone cameras and
deleted after the pa-rty. What I
didn’t know was that my fun
house was going to be wired
with high definition cameras
and that someone was working
behind us all to send the videos
out. After the pa-rty I made sure
that all the se-x scenes recordthat all the se-x scenes recorded
with phone cameras were
deleted, including the ones in
your phone. Someone fooled us
all and made Eve and Stanley to
take the fall. Believe me, I am
innocent of both the videos and
your being drugged.”
Annabel walked over to the
table in the room and opened a
file on it. “Come see this.” Mayo
went over to the table. “This is a
list of all the people who
attended the nu-de pa-rties. Here
is the list of persons on the
invitation letter which was sent
to my father, Maxwell and here
is the list of names on the
invitation letter sent to me. Can
you see the difference?”
Annabel asked. Mayo studied
the lists but could not sp-ot the
difference. “Help me, I can’t see
the difference,” Mayo requested.
“On my invitation letter, my
father’s name is missing and on
his invitation letter my name is
missing. Believe me when I say
this, I knew there was going to
be crazy se-x and drugs at the
pa-rties. However, I wanted to
enjoy them with strangers and
not with my father! If I knew
my father was going to be there
I would not have accepted the
invitation. I think that would
have been the same with my
father. Someone wanted the
both of us in those pa-rties,
especially the last night.” “Who
sent you the invitation?” Mayo
asked. “His name is Silas.”
“Where is he now?” “Dead, he
was shot dead in a night club
two days ago.” Mayo was
shocked, Silas must be the same
guy who gave Emilia
information about the governor
who is hunting us down, he
thought. “How well do you
know this guy? Why did you
accept invitation?”
“The guy had been around my
clique and my friends and their
friends for some time. Besides
almost every big shot wanted to
be in your nu-de pa-rties. We
heard the tales, Mayo; we did.”
“Who sent your father his
invitation?” “Bimpe did. Of
course my father had no reason
to reject her invitation. They had
been sleeping with each other
for years now. You know as
well as I do that my father spent
more time with Bimpe that
night than any other lady.” “So
who is behind the frame-up,
Annabel?” Mayo asked coldly, he
had just been stunned with
what he heard. “I think Emilia is
the one behind the videos. Silas
was going to tell my father
something about her before he
was found dead.” “You nee-d to
read these messages,” Mayo
said as he began to fiddle with
his phone. “Here it is,” Mayo
continued as he p@$$ed his
phone to Annabel. The message
read, “Hello Mayo, Emilia paid
someone to make the videos.
Check the house you use for
your abominable se-xual orgies
and you will see lots of hidden
cameras. Are you aware that
she worked as a hooker for
seven years in Atlanta before
she returned to Nigeria? Don’t
believe what she tells you. She
doesn’t want the videos found.
If you don’t believe me, you
know where to look.” Annabel
was shocked when she read
the message. “That is not all,
there is one which was sent to
me earlier. I believe someone is
playing us all. That person,
whoever he or she is, made the
videos. Read this.” Mayo said
showing her another text
message. Annabel took the
phone and read the following
message quickly, “Mayo is going
to kill you all. He has just found
out from Emilia that there is a
tape about the se-xual orgies
you all often have together. He
knows why Eve and Stanley
were shot.”
5:12 pm, Outskirts of the city
Eve, Stanley, the helmsman and
two guards were in a bush. Eve
was being drilled in a shooting
session. There were a range of
shooting targets away from
them. Stanley stood by and
watched his wife trying ha-rd to
hit the targets ahead of her. The
day he took her to the altar, he
had no clue that the events
which would follow after,
would lead them to a situation
where she would be learning
how to kill a fellow human
being. He had a notepad in his
hands, in-between his sad
thoughts he would write names
down. He was tasking his mind
to solve the riddles arounto solve the riddles around the
videos, and who had him and
his wife shot. The thought of
Maxwell’s half-brother would
often come to his mind and
shake up his concentration a
bit.
“Eve, you are not going to be
able to hit a tree trunk even at a
close range, if you continue like
this. Who do you want dead
most?” the helmsman asked.
“The man who shot Stanley and
I,” she replied. “I want you to
think of the targets as the man,
then steady your hands and
squee-zethe trigger with that
anger in you. Can you do that?”
Eve nodded. She aimed at the
targets, held her breath and
then shut her eyes. As her
imagination was filled with the
image of the man who shot her
and Stanley, she sque-ezed the
trigger. The result was
stunning. The helmsman,
Stanley and the two guards
were swept off their feet by
how Eve blew the targets wide
apa-rt. With his mouth hanging
open, Stanley looked from Eve to
the helmsman and back to Eve.
Eve still had her eyes shut, from
their corners, tears flowed. She
opened her mouth wide and
exhaled a hot breath. She had
made her first attempt at killing
the man who shot her and her
husband on their wedding
night.
7:14 pm, Bathroom, Hotel
Apa-rtment
Bimpe was lying nu-de in a
Jacuzzi. Tied around her head
was a thick white towel. While
she let her skin soak, she
pondered if Emilia had told her
the truth. For some reason she
no longer trusted her. Perhaps I
allowed her play me. How come
no one is after her? Why is her
equally, extremely filthy lifestyle
not making rounds out there?
she thought. Though she had
been told that some governor in
the video was after them, she
still felt Emilia might have
something to do with the
governor. Then her phone rang,
it was her husband. For a
moment she wondered if she
should pick his call. Against her
fear she did, “Hello,” she said. “I
am supposed to have four
children with you; amongst the
four of them, is there any which
you can say is mine?” Bimpe’s
husband asked. Bimpe was not
sure how to answer him. She
wanted to tell him the truth but
was afraid. “Is any of our four
children mine?!” her husband
yelled. Bimpe shook like a child
and said, “No. None of them is
yours.” “Who is the father of
our last child?” Bimpe sque-ezed
her eyes shut and answered
with a painful mo-an , “Maxwell!”
There was a long silence over
the telephone line.
Story continues…