Steemit Engagement Challenge (week 2): Create your original story | by @jehoshua-shey

THE NINTH WITNESS

---

_src

---

Detective Jake had his sleep cut short unusually very late in the night. He had barely been in bed for about 15 mins when his phone rang. The noise from his ringtone made him angry he had set it so loud.

"Down to the Jetty now" the caller ordered.

It was his boss, Captain Femi. Jake knew there must have been a serious case that night. He quickly jumped out of bed, grabbed his holster, tucked his gun in and dashed out of the house.

Jake raced to the spot his boss had fixed the emergency meeting, the shore of a vast body of water that seemed more than a river. This water channel led to the high sea making its shores a viable spot for Oil and Gas as well as marine companies who needed to be as close as possible to the water.

It was popularly called G&A after the name of the biggest company in the area. G&A was not an Oil and Gas firm, its major business was fishing but it controlled the most influence in the area thanks to a common goal. They fought for the preservation of the waters endearing them to the community and the region as a whole.

The Oil and Gas companies in the area seemed to be cowed as they had almost every of their activities carried out on the water under the surveillance of G&A. G&A employed local fishermen to do the monitoring and always followed through on any report of spillage or any pollution in the water that made the vast water channel a very tight rope for the oil companies operating in the area.

One such company - Mid-Delta Nigeria Ltd., became restless with this. They became fed up with the figures they needed to commit to some 'unnecessary' maintenance. Every barge or boat capable of spillage or pollution, passing the water must be in top form and must pass a fitness test to be approved water-worthy. This test involved changing some parts of the barges or boats too often.

When Aliyu took over from his father, he was bent on cutting costs and even dreamed of ruling the waves. An ex-convict, Aliyu only became the CEO because his father had declined opportunities to take his company public. Mid-Delta Nigeria Ltd. was as a result a fully private company and had a lot of assets to keep their bank accounts growing.

They had just gotten approval for a modular refinery to be sited at G&A and Aliyu knew his payback time will be far ahead if he was to keep with all the best practices enforced on the waters. Waste treatment was going to form a significant part of their budget and for what? He thought.

Aliyu was a smuggler and unlike his father bothered little about details. He was able to get deals across the line though, thanks to his reckless methods that was most often bang on the money to leave a lot of mess.

This night was one of those times. Mid-Delta had to complete a contract to supply kerosene to MultiShore who had their oil tanker at the high sea. Aliyu had presented his company as a refinery even though the modular project was not yet completed and that earned him a supply contract for 170,000 litres of kerosene. The fine for delay was the cost of running a deepsea oil tanker for a day or forfeiting the contract.

Mid-Delta had been busy round the clock sourcing for the kerosene and that meant less time for maintenance. Barges sped up and down the channel like there was fire 🔥 raging somewhere. Day and night, Aliyu marshalled his charges tirelessly to meet up with the deadline.

One of his barges due to poor maintenance had a defect at the rear. This barge however was the only one available at one point when the deadline was so close that Aliyu ordered it out. It was 10:00pm and dark too. A tiny spill would be hardly noticeable.

Along G&A, spillage cases were so contested if there was no evidence of the particular company who did it. One particular company - BedRock ltd. was very notorious for denying spillages that G&A had to improvise. They placed a prize on evidence and even subsidized purchases of recording equipments to fishermen who wanted to sleuth for them.

Aliyu's thought this night was to use this faulty barge to send out kerosene and from there take it out of the area for sometime. This barge was popular among fishermen in the area because it had a popular name printed in its side - Chromos. For weeks no body had seen Chromos on the water and some felt it must have had a hitch. Word even went around in this regard because it was quite big.

To disguise it, Aliyu quickly ordered that the name be covered with a violet cloth matching the color of the barge.

All went according to plan for this delivery, only that Chromos passed by one fisherman's canoe and the men in it noticed that it was badly damaged at the rear. The cargo on it was not evenly rested and while making a turn, there was a slip and about seven large poorly covered drums fell into the water.

There were nine men in total in the canoe and while they were all gazing at the accident, they all tumbled into the water.

Aliyu had a patrol boat follow Chromos at a distance to cover up any news. The last thing he wanted was a halt in his operations. This patrol boat had intentionally crashed into the canoe after they saw that the fishermen had witnessed the accident.

"Well, there was an accident but it involved some fishermen and a patrol boat." Captain Femi explained.

"There was minimal damage to the patrol boat but we lost the fishermen." Captain Femi continued.

As Jake looked at the men, he took note of their number and proceed to investigate the patrol boat.

"You think anything fishy?" Jake asked his boss.

"Not really", Captain Femi replied. "Just that... you know G&A, they'll want to read so much meaning into it, so I don't want to take chances."

Jake knew about the supply contract, he heard it from a friend at BedRock, and he knew about Chromos, almost everyone did. What he didn't know was how many of Mr. Magnus sons were with him in the canoe because only seven were recovered.

The patrol boat crew were all insisting that there was poor visuals that night and they didn't see the canoe on time. They later switched concerns to the need for repairs they didn't budget for.

Jake left them and returned to his boss.

"Patrol's whining" Jake reported. "Complaining of repairs and damages."

"They had their lights on when they arrived shore with the bodies and the canoe, one would wonder while the fisher men didn't notice them" Captain Femi remarked.

"Patrol said poor visuals" Jake responded. "I wonder what else I'm still out here for then."

"Really?" Captain retorted. "Patrol boat were not fishing, what where they doing out here?"

"Patrolling, I guess. Okay, they might have been following a cargo, you think?" Jake asked.

"Coast guard said there where shipments this night and the water has been busy lately. " Captain Femi replied.

"Maybe we should go somewhere else to solve this. Let's ask a few questions." Jake suggested.

They drove to the station in Captain Femi's SUV. At the station, Jake, now fully awake began to put things together in his head.

"Patrol, Shipment, Fishermen, accident, supply," Jake muttered.

"What's that?" Captain Femi asked.

"I need to confirm something here." Jake responded. "Water's been busy, there's been shipments, Mid-Delta is delivering a supply contract, when is the deadline?" Jake asked.

"By 3:00am today" Rita responded walking into the office. "Mid-Delta had a contract to supply kerosene to MultiShore and their vessel has clearance to leave as soon as 3:00am by the port authorities."

"Eight bodies were recovered from the crash, I identified the oldest amongst them as one Mr. Magnus. He prefers his fishing late in the night. However, he has eight sons and I only saw seven. The one missing is also the most proficient fisherman in the family." Jake reported.

"So what are you thinking?" Captain Femi asked.

"If it wasn't an accident, then it was an attempt to silence witnesses. However only eight members of a nine-man family were confirmed dead." Jake continued

"A ninth witness?" Captain Femi asked

"Possibly." Jake replied.

"Only that we may not find him this night." Jake added.

"So you think we have a lead?" Rita asked

"He's also the ninth witness." Jake responded. "I'm beginning to be certain something must have happened that night."

Captain Femi seemed relieved. The case was probably not going to be a mystery for too long. "It's alright. Report back immediately you find something." He concluded.

"Noted sir, will do." Jake responded before leaving the office and began walking home.

• To be continued

---

I would like to invite @jollybake @okorisamuel @chiwill @armstrongdiho @handel69 @bennethade @adorable-diala to take part in this contest.

---