THE CAPO: Cobby Grant: EPISODE 5

Yoofi Baiden really had no idea why he was going through all the trouble in doing things for Rose and her sister.  It seemed as if he wanted to impress them. For him not to be disappointed, he did a little background check on them and found out that they lost their parents under mysterious circumstances and the house they used to live in had been the only thing of value they owned.

The calm look on her face challenged him greatly and he was resolved to endeavour to put smiles on their faces.  He wanted to see her face light up with pure joy. He knew she carried a huge weight on those delicate shoulders of hers despite the calm exterior she always portrayed and the fact that she felt accountable for her younger sister placed her in a position that made her seek Pam’s happiness to the detriment of hers.

”I’ll make sure that she’s not alone in looking after Pam. She is also my responsibility now,” he thought and wondered why he thought so.

He had a busy day, scuttling from one end of the city to the other in his attempts to ensure that everything went well. He forgot his phone at home in his haste to get things done and saw that he had several missed calls when he went back home to prepare for his meet with the amazing siblings.

Six of the missed calls were from Kofi,  one from Ursula and an SMS message from a strange number that read ‘fire will burn you but first you must pay me for the efforts’.

He smiled wickedly in a way that boded no good for anyone bent on a collision course with him and left for his rendezvous with the girls.

He was one hour late and found them huddled together on the sofa, the flickering TV, ignored.

They both jumped to their feet at the sound of his approaching footsteps but relaxed when he called from behind the locked door.

”Shall we?” he said, having already called to invite them out.

They got to the car. He was very courteous to them and made sure they were comfortable, and their seat belts secured.  He drove leisurely and secretly checked his rearview mirror to see whether they were being tailed.

Even though the destination he was taking them was just a five minutes drive from the hotel, he drove until he established that they weren’t being followed by anyone before he drove through the security gates of walled-in estates that had armed security guards protecting residents.

They were allowed entrance and his passengers kept a respectful silence until they arrived at their destination.  The admiration on their faces due to the sheer beauty and flamboyance of the whole place was worth all the efforts he put in.

”Wow, wow, wow,” Pam gushed, her eyes seeming to pop out as she admired her surroundings.

As for Rose, all she did was look at him questioningly as if she was suspicious of him. He parked the car and led the way to the plush duplex he secretly furnished for them. He led the way in, closely followed by Pam who much to Rose’s annoyance dragged her in. The sheer opulence of the two-bedroom house got them to stop and stare in admiration.  They saw that it was well furnished with all the best electronic and electrical accessories one could think of. And the beds. They looked so comfortable that Pam jumped up and down on them like a kid with a new toy.

The closets were filled with casual wear. There were two expensive-looking laptops for each of them. Everything was top-notch: the huge HD TV and the fully stuffed double-door fridge completed the state-of-the-art kitchen.

 ”Yoofi, can I please talk to you for a moment?” Rose, who had sort of distanced herself from the tour of the house asked him in that typical neutral voice of hers.

”Sure, why not” he led her to the porch that had a fairly large expanse of carpet grass in the front.

”Bro Yoofi. What’s this? I don’t think I can live here. I can’t accept this. I have some savings and can rent a house of my own. Furthermore, the house was insured and I can rebuild it with the payout. What’s in it for you for providing all these,” she questioned, mincing no words.

He was surprised at her reaction.  He sat down on a lawn chair nearby and entreated her to sit too. Then, he looked at her for a long while and spoke in all seriousness.

”I haven’t always been as rich as I am now but I had the benefit of being very business conscious very early in life and invested wisely in the real estate business, made the right decisions devoid of extravagant lifestyles and that made me what I am today. I can also say that I am human and hate to see anyone being bullied because he or she can’t fight back,” he said.

”Do you remember the day I first saw you? I was feeling a bit down and needed someone to talk to and you were the one I wanted to talk with of all the people at that spot so when you shunned my company, I really didn’t feel bad but when I saw those men spying on you,  especially when I saw them drive after you, I decided to also follow them and I’m glad I did. I am only here to help so please don’t reject my helping hand. Everyone needs help at one time or another,” he added.

She remained silent.  She felt she had disrespected and wrongfully misjudged him even after all he had done for them. She was ashamed but didn’t know how to go about it.

They remained silent, each with his or her own thoughts.

Pam as usual broke the ice.

”Yoofi,” she called,  poking her head in the doorway. ”I can’t get the TV and the HiFi to play. I think this remote control needs a password to get them to play.”

Yoofi laughed. It was a disarming sort of laughter and the uneasy atmosphere between them dissipated.

”The TV and the HiFi are all controlled by the same remote and with the same password and it takes the imputing of someone’s name to get them operational,” he said with a cunning look on his face.

She gave him a knowing smile and spelt ROSE on it but it didn’t work.

”Rose isn’t the only lady here, you know,” he said casually.

She quickly imputed PAM but nothing happened until she caught on and typed PAMELA and the system reacted well. She whooped with joyous abandon. The speakers boomed into action.

Both Yoofi and Rose rushed in to behold the comical sight of  Pam dancing to Crazy Balheads by Bob Marley.  She saw them enter and pulled him to partner her in dancing.

Rose laughed so hard as she watched Yoofi trying to copy the dancing steps of the legendary Bob Marley.  It was so hilarious that she was in danger of hurting her ribs. He left not long after to allow them to have their privacy and to deal with their change of fortunes and environment.

SOME DAYS LATER

Yoofi was getting impatient.  There was a package he was expecting to be brought to him by a Shipping Agent he normally used for goods clearing.  He had fulfilled all the payment obligations as he had a very strong aversion to payments of penalties.

So a package he had already budgeted and paid for had not yet arrived at his doorstep as expected even though the agent had called to inform him that he had the package and was bringing it within an hour. His coming was even the main reason he asked him to buy a pack of assorted fried rice as he was too tired to cook.

Two hours later the agent hadn’t arrived and all his phone call had remained unanswered.

The package contained android phones,  wrist watches and laptops he was sending to organizers of a science competition as part of the prizes.

An SMS message pinged.

‘I told you l was going to make you pay for my plans to burn you alive. Thanks for the package and the food. I really was hungry,’ it read.

 Yoofi smiled acidly.  He had underestimated his invisible adversary.  The shipping agent arrived finally,  looking roughed up and panting,  almost in tears and explained to him about someone following him and robbing at gunpoint.  He listened patiently to the man as his mind traversed on how he was going to unmask the crook.

‘Ding dong’ a message popped up from the newly created WhatsApp group dramatically named The Three Musketeers.

”Jackie Chan good morning,” posted by Pam.

”Good morning Pam dear” he responded with a smiling emoji

”How are you? We invite you to breakfast.”

”I’m fine. How’s Rose ‘the unsmiling’?”

”Unsmiling kɛ. More like sour face,” Pam typed with laughing emojis.”

Yoofi responded with smiling stickers.

”What about the breakfast?” Rose typed.

”Just say you miss him and he’ll be here. Don’t pretend you haven’t been using his photo as your screen saver,” Pam chipped in with a rolling eyes sticker.

”Really. Hahaha,” Yoofi posted his deep regrets for his inability to make it to breakfast but promised to make it up to them later.

He saw then that the agent was still with him waiting for his response and sent him away after assuring him that he understood that it wasn’t his fault in any way.

He then pulled his laptop towards him and began reading the latest episode of Rose’s article which had just been published in a weekly newspaper.

It was about football and the transfer of football players to the European football market.  While it was still in the introductory stages, it was understandable how someone might be having trepidations as the transfer market was fraught with shady deals and wheeling and dealing. 

She hadn’t targeted any particular club, player or individual.

He did his own research,  going through reports of player transfer scandals of yesteryears and understood why someone could be apprehensive of such an article being run in the newspapers.

He took a bottle of water from the fridge,  took a deep pull and placed a phone call to a well-known sports personality who he knew was honest and principled. They were good friends and were members of the same Club House.

”Hey, Carl. Can I borrow your brains on something? ” he asked without preamble.

”OK.  Shoot!” Carl Yeboah responded in the knowledge that Yoofi never dilly-dallied.

”What would make a football executive kill to keep it out of the press,” he asked slowly.

”Oh Jees,” Carl exclaimed.

”In order words, what’s so dangerous about football that could make a man want to kill to keep it under the carpet,” he persisted.

”Can we meet?” Carl said, unwilling to talk about it on phone. ”I can assure you that a lot of things go on which could make people kill to keep them hidden. Ever heard of the Football Mafia?”

”Never heard of it.”

”I am on my way to cover a programme and would send you a time and place we can meet to talk, okay?” Carl said and hung up.

”Ok.”

He sat, digesting what Carl had said.

”Oh Lord, what the hell has Rose written herself into?” he said to himself in deep thought with his fingers absentmindedly stroking the day-old hair on his chin.

He sighed heavily and smiled.  He was happy that she was using his photo as her screen saver.

He continued to smile at the thought of her and decided to pay her a surprise visit.