Things We Do For Love - Two

This post is continued from part one here.

When I and Feyi first started to see each other regularly, she made it a point to peruse my text messages and Blackberry chats. She was quite open about her reasons. Her previous boyfriend had cheated on her with another girl for a year under her nose, and she was not ready to let that happen again. She trusted me, she said; but she had trusted him too, and see how he repaid her trust.

I was really convinced about our relationship, so I decided to humor her. After all, it was a good way to prove I planned to ‘stay’. I removed the password lock on my phone and let her have full access. Because she had no ulterior motives for ransacking my phone, she unlocked hers likewise – and expected me to review her communications similarly. When I explained that I had no reasons to, she insisted – insinuating that I was not interested in the little details of her life.

Therefore, I immediately sensed something was wrong when she started to hide her phone. She would still check mine when she visited, but she started to leave hers in her handbag. When I asked for it, she would fiddle with it for a while before passing it over – and when I got it, I would find that her conversations had been cleared. Apart from that, there were increased visits to a certain ‘Uncle’ who lived on the island, and she would become defensive when I asked about recent changes to her daily schedule.

Recent events only confirmed my suspicions.

I was awakened about five in the morning today by a call from Feyi’s number. I answered quite groggily, but the sleep cleared when I heard the gruff voice of a Hausa man who introduced himself as Alhaji. I was immediately afraid. Had Feyi misplaced her phone, or had it been stolen? Worse still, had she been kidnapped?

No, it was none of that, said the Alhaji. She had been hit by a vehicle while running from two men yesterday, and its occupants had driven off with her before he could accost them. She had dropped her phone a few moments before the vehicle hit her, so he retrieved it and found someone to fix the water-damage so he could check through her call records and contact someone. He was calling me because he found she had tried to reach me only a few minutes before losing the phone.

No, he did not get the plate number of the vehicle. No, its occupants were not connected to her original pursuers in any way that was obvious to him. Yes, I should come over to his stall so we could report to the Police. Yes, he was willing to write a statement detailing all he saw at a Police Station. No, this chase did not happen on the island – it happened in Surulere!

Surulere!!!

I was shocked! Feyi, who usually spent her Friday evenings with me, had called earlier in the day to say she would not be coming as she was visiting her ‘Uncle’ on the island. She laughed when I said I wanted to go with her so I could meet this ‘Uncle’, and said she would introduce me when the time was right. Now, she was being reported as last seen in Surulere!!!

I got out of bed and straight into my clothes. No time to bathe or brush my teeth. My girlfriend was missing!