The Accountant –
EPISODE 11
‘What happened with the four hundred and five thousand naira that was wrongly posted into your account?” She said hesitantly, looking up to study how he reacts.
This was the last topic Peter had expected her to bring up. He took a fleeting glance away from her, then back to her. Nike could hear him sigh before he finally spoke,
“I was expecting a payment from one of our customers that very day. i guess i got it mixed up.”
He instantly knew his excuse didn’t sound convincing. He then believed he was starting to lose touch on how to answer unexpected questions. He was used to out of the blue questions, and he always find a perfect answer for each of them. Perhaps because his emotions was always absent when he was still very active in his former job.
The thought of Hargreaves McBride came to his mind. The McBrides were Americans and lived in the Empire State. Hargreaves was the eldest in the family of four; father and his two younger ones. He and his younger ones inherited a fair amount of money from their late Father. Hargreaves was in control of the fund, using it to carter for himself and his siblings.
Hargreaves had met Peter Brian online when he was about to sell some home appliances he wasn’t using
anymore on Craiglist. They got talking and after a while Peter got to know how much he was worth.
Peter cajoled him into investing in a non-existing oil business which would fetch Hargreaves 5 times his
investment in just 3 months. Hargreaves was aware Nigeria was an oil producing state. He agreed to it.
Peter had provided him with some documents he had fraudulently obtained to make Hargreaves more
committed to the cause. It worked. Hargreaves put some money together, he sold the inherited house
and even sold his car in order to invest in Peter’s oil business. The more the investment the more the
earnings, he thought.
Hargreaves warned Peter he was going to commit suicide the next day he discovered Peter was a fraud.
Peter didn’t care, he had received the cash through Western Union a week before.
He took Peter by surprise after he got to know few days later that Hargreaves had actually hung himself. The news made it to CNN after the New York Police Department found a note Hargreaves had written,
stating the reason why he took the fan-rope decision.
The CNN news did nothing to stop Peter from heading to Bahia in Brazil to experience the exotic beach and of course, the ladies.
Although the Hargreaves’ suicide news was doleful, but Peter believed he had the ability to switch off his
humanity which in turn places his emotional mode on hold.
Right here, right now, he was sitting opposite Nike, which winning her heart was the major reason he quit his former job. He guessed the pace she was winning his heart was way faster than how he intended
to win hers.
He thought her next response would determine a lot. Unluckily for wale’s best friend, Royal Bank put a lot into training its new employee. Situations like this was one of the training topics at the training school Nike had attended.
On no account should a customer’s cash deposit be credited into a wrong account number. When this
situation arises, the staff involved has only one option; this is to inform the customer which was wrongly
credited, plead with him/her to authorize the staff to debit his/her account with that same amount. Where the customer refuses, the staff is expected to repay the customer of the original deposit and leave the customer which was wrongly credited alone.
Royal Bank believed that was the price the staff will have to pay for negligence.
Only few customers will authorize the bank staff to debit their accounts on these occasions. Most of them will come up with the excuse that they were expecting that same amount from someone somewhere. The same line Peter had just used for Nike.
Integrity was a real deal to Nike. If peter could not be honest with a money that was wrongly credited to his account, he could not be honest with her. She thought.
Peter would have been a perfect tool for her to forget about Deji. She really did need Peter, but now with
this integrity issue, she was confused.
“Are you not going say something” Peter said calmly as his visitor haven’t spoken since his last comment. Her face was downcast.
Shortly, Peter’s phone ringtone “Hotline Bling” came alive. He glanced at the screen that display ‘Walexy”.
“Please excuse me. i need to take this,” he said to Nike.
He walked towards his room and shut the door behind him.
Wale couldn’t have called at a better time. He thought.
“Padi, how far?” he said.
“i dey, where are you?” Wale asked at the other end.
‘’Home.’’
‘’Have you seen the news?’’
‘’News? No. The TV has been on MTV Base since Nike arrived. What’s happening with the news?”
Wale went on to inform him about the breaking news. It happened the news of the Ife Chiefs being on their way to meet a certain young lady was no longer limited to those that were present when ifarotimi made the announcement.
A TV station had reported that the Ife High Chiefs were heading to Lagos to meet a lady, whom if married, her husband was going to be the next Ooni of Ife. But if she was single, would need to get married as quick as possible as the Ooni’s seat couldn’t be left vacant for a longer time.
The report had hit Wale as he instantly recalled his best friend’s story was similar to the breaking news.
“Where is Nike from?” Wale asked his friend who was shocked by the latest news.
“I’m not sure about her state of origin, but i know she grew up in ife”.
“Are you pondering what I’m pondering?”
“Of course bro. Baba was right. You know what? Let me call you back. She’s still here right now.” Peter said and ended the conversation before Wale could say anything else.
He took a deep breath as a thought came to him and he headed to the dining table where he left his guest.
He noticed she was avoiding eye contact with him.
Obviously she wasn’t cool with his earlier excuse, he
thought he had to worry about that later.
“Can i use your phone? i can’t find my other phone and am out of credit on this one?”
She picked up the phone to hand it over to him, but a call came in. The screen showed “Sweet Aunt’’ a moniker she saved her aunt Mrs. Williams’ number with.
“Can i just dial my other number and you can call this person later?” Peter said with a tone of urgency.
He stretched his hand to grab the phone. He had a feeling whatever the ‘sweet aunt’ was calling for that
moment might not be good.
‘’It’s my aunt. Please hold on” she said courteously, giving him a quick glance before tapping the green
button on the phone.
Peter stepped few feet backwards. He thought dragging the phone would make no sense. He didn’t move too
far, he wanted to eavesdrop.
Nike had been told she needed to get home right away and how important it was.
Peter heard her part of the conversation, so he wasn’t surprised when his guest told him she needed to leave right away.
“Okay can i use your phone now?” he said as calmly as he could.
Handing over the phone to him, she caught the obvious bulge of a phone in his pocket.
Deji had called Mrs Williams immediately he got to Lagos. She had told him she was in Abuja and will inform him when she arrives. He didn’t want to talk to Nike on his own, he thought it was wiser to allow
Kola’s mother do the talking after he must have filled Mrs Williams the details.
He had took the responsibility to bring Nike to Ife, by convincing the High Chiefs not to worry about the
road trip to the Centre of Excellence.
What would Nike do when she finds out about the title? She was from one of Ruling Houses and she never knew about it. Deji was shocked when Ifarotimi did a further consultation and broke the news to the assembly.
He was in his living room lost in thought, but was brought back to reality by his valet’s voice. ‘’I need to
talk to you about something important.’’
Not looking up at this valet, he said ‘’not now, Aremu. I have a lot on my mind right now.’’
‘’You really need to hear this now before it’s too late.’’ Aremu added.
‘’No. Not now’’
‘’it’s about Nike.’’
Deji looked Aremu directly in the eyes and demanded, ‘’what about her?’’
Aremu hesitated, looking worried.
‘’Speak up, Aremu. What is it?’’
Aremu went on to tell him about the whole setup. How he was threatened by the then Queen to be sent
away from the palace if he hadn’t carried out the plan. How he had told Nike that Deji wanted to meet her at an uncompleted building beside Lagere market and how he had arranged for Adigun, a long time Nike’s suitor to be at the building at that same time.
Tbc
