Lady B was surprised to see Toke return that soon.

Lady B: “why did you come back this soon? I thought you were going to spend the night there. How much did the woman give you? I hope you satisfied her well by doing all that she asked you to do?” she asked in one breadth.

Toke was speechless, head bowed low with wobbling shoulders.

Lady B: “can’t you talk? I said how did everything go and why are you back this early?”

Toke: “I am sorry, ma”

Lady B: “sorry for what? What are you talking about? Did they snatch the money she paid you from your hands?” oh, don’t worry, I didn’t tell you that we have so many petty thieves in Abuja now. Don’t worry about the money that was stolen, you will make so much more okay?”

Toke: “my money was not stolen”

“So where is the money or are you hiding it in your bra? I know that you do not have an account number so that woman has to pay you cash” she said, touching her bra and peeping to see if the money was hidden there.

Toke: “the woman didn’t give me any money”

Lady B: “What! How can she do such a wicked thing? She sent you away after using you? No, that will not be possible. I am calling her right away” she said and turned around to pick her phone.

Toke: “she did not use me” she said afraid of Lady B’s reaction when she told her the details of the outing.

Lady B: “what do you mean by she didn’t touch you? This girl, you will not confuse me. Why didn’t she touch you? Is it that she doesn’t like you or what? But she was impressed when I took you to her now” she said.

Toke: “she didn’t touch me because I didn’t allow her. I couldn’t stand the disgusting things she said she wanted me to do and so I ran away. I trekked all the way from the hotel to this place” she finally said.

“Today, you will trek back from this place to your village since I can see that you are an ungrateful child. How can you do this to me after you had promised to do whatever she asked you to do? Do you know that the woman in question is the wife of a top politician and that she has paid my commission for giving you to her? Do you know how much you have lost tonight? That woman would have given you nothing less than two hundred thousand naira and that would have been more than enough to take care of your school registration” she flared up.

Toke: “I am sorry, I just couldn’t do it…”

Lady B: “shut up your filthy mouth there before I help you shut it up. Oh my goodness, this girl will spoil my business for me. How did I even get myself entangled with you?” she was saying when her phone rang.

Lady B: “it is the woman calling, there is fire on the mountain” she said and Toke’s heart skipped a beat.

Lady B: “hello, ma. I am very sorry for the way my girl treated you, I promise to make it up to you…”

Woman: “just shut up, I didn’t call you for you to apologize. I asked you to get me an innocent girl that will do my biddings and all you could do was give me a dummy who could not even stand my nakedness. That silly girl left me high and dry and yet I paid you handsomely for a job I thought you had done well. Anyway, return my money back this minute or I will have you and her arrested and frame you up for stealing from me. I am sending my account number right away for you to make a transfer like I did to you. If I don’t receive an alert in the next five minutes, you and the girl will be in grave danger. I don’t ever want to see you close to me or any of my friends again. Nonsense!” she barked and ended the call.

Lady B: “I am very sorry ma, I can explain to you. In fact, I will make it up to you myself, I am coming to your hotel to give you the pleasure of your life right away” she said and removed the phone from her ears when she noticed that the call had gone off.

Lady B: “did you see what you have caused me? This woman and her clique of friends are my highest paying clients and now you want to severe the relationship I have with them. I don’t blame you, I blame myself for taking you in. I am going to the hotel to do to her what you couldn’t do, that is the only way I can appease her but before then, leave my house” she ordered.

Toke: “ma? She said going down on her knees unconsciously.

Lady B: “I said get out of my house, which one is ma? Useless, silly and stupid girl, if I see you anywhere close to my flat, I will personally kill you myself, nonsense!” she said and pushed Toke out.

Again, Toke was back on the street, homeless and lonely on another cold harmattan night.
====
Lady B was driving back home when she saw people gathered in circle at a corner along the road, some were talking in low tunes and others starred at the body on the floor with tears in their eyes. Out of curiosity, she pulled over and got down from her car. She walked close to the crowd and was surprised to see them making way for her. She peeped at the corpse and saw to her horror that it was Toke lying dead with her two eyes plucked out. She gave a loud scream and woke up with a fright frightening the woman who was lying beside her on the bed.

Lady B: “It was only a dream, thanks goodness. Gosh, it felt so real. Toke, no, please don’t die in that manner” she said aloud.

Woman: “are you okay? Why did you scream like that?” the naked woman that was to have Toke asked.

Lady B: “I dreamt that the girl I sent to you last night was murdered by ritualists”

Woman: “so what if she was murdered? What use does she have on earth? Come back to bed and let us continue from where we stopped last night” she said extending her hands towards Lady B.

Lady B: “I have to go and look for her. I actually sent her out of my house yesterday night and I will not forgive myself if anything happens to her. I guess the dream was a warning, that girl was like a younger sister to me, I saw genuine love for me in her eyes even though we are worlds apart” she said, hurriedly got dressed and zoomed off in her car.
====
After several hours of driving around the estate and asking if anyone had seen any sign of Toke, Lady B became exhausted and decided to stop over at a shop to get soft drinks to calm her wrecking nerves.

After the drink, she felt a lot better and was about stepping into her car to drive back home when her phone rang.

The caller was a friend who was into similar business with her and she was inviting her to Port Harcourt where some rich foreign women were willing to pay handsomely for her services.

Lady B knew that she had made more than enough money and properties from the business but the enticement of what the Port Harcourt women were willing to offer was too big for her to resist and so she agreed to travel.

“I will go home, get my things and take the next available flight to Port” she said to her friend and ended the call. The call had been able to make her forget Toke, whom she had spent hours looking for.
====
Baba Gift: “yes, I want you to strike her dead wherever she is. That girl stabbed me and almost killed me, she doesn’t deserve to live” he said to the herbalist he had visited in the next village.

Herbalist: “if that is what you want, it is very easy. I will summon her spirit here and with this knife” he said handing him a knife. “you will stab her in the stomach but that will be in seven days time because I have to perform some rituals before I summon her spirit here”

Baba Gift nodded in agreement.

“What did you say is her name again?” the herbalist asked.

Baba Gift: “her name is Toke” he said and dropped some naira notes in the calabash where Toke’s passport that she had taken when she was preparing for her Junior WAEC was immersed in water.

To be continued.