CHAPTER TEN: THE TENTH HOUR

The next day, I decided to conduct a meeting to discuss our next plan of action in taking down Bakari. The first case was to solve the Frank case. So, I decided to call all the team members to the secret safe house that Joe had so that they could continue to tackle different elements of the case. So, I pulled out the board and divided the pending cases. Another case.

The team consisted of me, the primary detective, Layla, the IT specialist who can track the activities of the unknowns online, Jack, the muscle and retrieval specialist who can find anything, Joe, the resourceful one who can find the things required to solve cases, and of course Ken, the guy who can get information from different places within the most forgotten places of Biranoi.

Once the people were all gathered, that's when I introduced everyone to Miss Lisa to the rest of the team.

"Before we start guys, I would like to introduce you to our new team member," I stated enthusiastically.

Lisa then came to the wide sitting room where everyone was, Layla was at the corner of the room on a computer, Jack was at the front of the large screen with a file in hand, and Joe was sitting on the sofa facing the screen just a few feet. They all stood up as Lisa walked forth.

"Hello I'm Lisa Wakabi and I will help with the legal troubles," she declared

"Yeah, we know who you are princess," Layla said snakishly.

"Hey Layla behave, she is our esteemed guest," Joe stated

"Okay, why don't you sit while introduce you to everyone," I said warmly.

She sat down and then I gave her some documents for the case that showed my progress on Frank and how it was going so far.

"Well, then I will start with the lady with mad computer skills," I stated eagerly, her name is Layla Masika, and she's a tech whiz and also one of the best hackers in Biranoi. She will help in encrypting the unknowns' secret files."

"Hello Miss Layla hope we can work together well," Lisa said confidently.

"Right next we have Jack," I stated confidently, the muscle of the group and also an expert and specialist in finding and retrieving stolen items,"

"What's up lawyer woman, if you ever need anything that was stolen or lost, you just say the word," Jack stated vehemently.

"It's Mrs Wakabi and thank you, I will make sure to call you if I need anything," Lisa replied uncomfortably.

"Anyway, next we have Joseph Kasim, I continued hastily, but everyone calls him Joe or Big Joe. He is our support and handler in this operation. But I'm sure you are well acquainted,"

"Yes, hello again Mr Kasim, it has been a long time since we met. How long has it been?" She replied eagerly.

"Since the Big Bakari drug case? It has been a couple of years. Also just call me Joe. Anyway, anything to drink, tea?" Joe asked enthusiastically

"Yes Joe, tea is fine," Lisa replied.

"Okay then I think that's everyone," I replied jokingly.

"Ahem, what the hell Boss dude," Ken replied.

"Oh, right I forgot, Ken is here as well, say hi to Mrs Wakabi,"

"Come on dude, how come I don't get a cool intro, so not fair men."

"It's nice to see you again Mr Omari and your deductive sleuthing is very much appreciated," Lisa said smiling warmingly.

"Yeah, you got that right. The best in the business," Ken stated boastfully.

"Okay, now that we're done with introductions can we get back to work?

We then started to review the case files. From what we have so far, Frank Jata Wakabi was working on an architectural project under a company called the Lycan company. He was designing a commercial building and that the building would be a new frontier for connecting the country to outside investors. He was about to finish the project when suddenly decided to drop out of the project. Turns out the building was to be used for shady illegal businesses that involved drugs, selling of illicit brews and also involvement in human trafficking.

It was then that he decided to stop the project from continuing, but Lisa speculated that he wanted to go to the police and report, but was stopped and killed. But Bakari and the unknowns decided to fake it and make it look like he committed suicide. But before he died, he left evidence that only Lisa could access. And when wanted to use the evidence in court. The evidence was scrabbed by Lisa's associate, Daudi Chacha. So, to turn this cold case less cold, we have to find out how Frank got killed. We then started to find the poison that was used to take Frank out.

The other issue was the bugs in the office. We had to make it look like we were not aware of their spying. We then continued as business as usual. The first thing was to pretend that I lost the Frank case and that Lisa fired me. Kevin of course when he heard this went and reported it to the unknowns. And that's what we wanted as Jack followed Kevin and found out their area of operations. He then informed Jack, who contacted the Dalia Bureau of Investigations (DBI). Alice Hodari came down on them and arrested Kevin and the rest of the people we expected to be the unknowns.

They were also caught red-handed as they were part of the facilitators in selling drugs in the architectural building that Frank was designing but was passed on by another firm. DBI and Alice were looking into the case and they finally got a big break in stopping some of the culprits that were selling drugs that were connected to the drug case that Joe was following with the help of Alice.

We then moved back to my office where we did a bug sweep together with Layla and Jack as our security. We then moved the work to my office as we were trying to solve the Alphonse case, which we speculated was also connected to Bakari. At this point, the cases are being solved but in a much quicker time. Bakari's associates are getting weeded out, one by one and it felt like I'm getting closer to taking down Bakari. But there was a nagging mystery that plagued me, and it needed to be solved otherwise Wakabi sisters would both die, Layla's sister would not be found and the identity of Bakari, which we still haven't gotten from the unknowns that were arrested.

First, I needed to protect the sisters and solve the Alphonse case which was connected to Clarise and Layla's sisters' disappearance. We decided to call Mr Alphonse and have him explain in detail what happened to his daughter. Ruth Alphonse was your average girl from a middle-class family who rose to prominence of being One of Biranoi's popular socialites. She used to go to party after party, drinking and always causing trouble in nightclubs. She started her clothing brand and also makeup brand, which grew tremendously especially considering her popular social media influence. She was then exposed to gossip magazines after an explicit video was released online. Ruth then started to self-medicate on a drug that was passed as illegal and couldn't be used on patients at the hospital.

After that, she left social media for about a month and came back again, and she decided to change her life by stating she wanted to recover and start life fresh. At this point in her life, she had already climbed the social ladder and she already had a stable income. She then decided to do charity work and other altruistic endeavours. Then after three months she went missing and was last seen at the Slums. So, we had to go to the slums. I asked Jack and me to go find out about Ruth's whereabouts. Ken wanted to go but I had to stop him because I was afraid, he might die. So, I gave a different job together with Layla as she searched for any clues on her computer.

We went to ask questions and gather evidence. We were shut down in all instances and we couldn't get far. We then found a famous info broker who knew the ins and outs of the slums his name was Akili, and he didn't like the police. He knew how to communicate and relay his message without being discovered and this made it difficult for other people to know his true identity or his info broker group that sold information. We went to him but he refused to give us or sell any information linked to Bakari. We had to go back empty-handed together with Jack. While Jack went back to the office, I get a call from Clarise and she decides to give me some damning information that might help her and her husband.