Finding Vera was equal to solving a Shylock Holmes type mystery. I would like to say that I picked up Lagos and shook it until she fell out but I would be exaggerating because meeting her again was by sheer happenstance. It is the reason I strongly believe that Vera and I were meant to be from before time itself.
I told you that only one strip club owner granted an interview after the celebrated incidence of arrest of strippers and the banning of strip clubs. I toyed with the idea of going to speak with him but quickly jettisoned that since she was arrested far from his strip club. You must have already guessed how frustrating it would have been to go searching for someone that came across as if she had not been arrested in the first place in the police records. So, apart from returning to the Opebi strip club, which stayed under lock for the better part of one month while the mess of the arrest was sorted behind the scenes, I started visiting the higher institutions in Lagos State any chance I got. But it was tantamount to looking for a pin in a haystack considering that I still had a hectic job to function at. The stress was bound to show barely a few months into my search for Vera.
“Are you all right, forgive my saying this but you seem to be a very different person from the Moses I met over a year ago and the change happened recently. I would have said this earlier but you tend to be impatient with people asking about your personal life lately, but as a friend, I must ask you. Are you all right?” It was Princess my colleague being a friend in spite of the fact that I had made it impossible for anyone to come any closer.
“I am all right,” I lied. “There is nothing to it. I just have so much going for me at the moment”.
“All right then, if you say so. I hope you know you can lean on me any time you want,” she said.
“I do,” I said.
I could tell that Princess meant every word she said but I could not bring myself to trust anyone when it came to Vera. In fact, I preferred to keep the matter far from the prying eyes of the office. Princess may have been friendly, but there was no telling who she could get into conversation with in the office. I didn’t want anyone spilling the beans of my business whether deliberate or not.
Princess let me be for a while after that and I made my moves devoid of any suspicion but every attempt to find Vera led to a dead end. It was as if she had vanished into thin air, disappeared from the very face of the earth. What with the fact that her case was very peculiar. Whereas the faces of some of the girls appeared in the pictures captured by the photojournalists who accompanied us to the raid, Vera’s was nowhere to be seen.
It was so frustrating that not once, not twice I had to suddenly bring my car to an abrupt stop by the road side or stop short at a shopping mall or public place thinking I had spotted Vera only for it to turn out to be someone else. It was not a great time in my life and was nothing compared to the bliss I am now enjoying.
“What are you doing this weekend?” It was Princess.
“Not much, why do you ask?” I told her.
“I was wondering if you’d like to accompany me to my sister’s birthday party. Oh, please, say yes,” she looked like a desperate girlfriend proposing to her boyfriend who had taken too long to do just that. I had no choice than to say yes.
If Princess came from such a wealthy Lagos family as I was to find out at the party she never gave anyone a clue. She didn’t even own a car when her father was one of the earliest landlords in Lagos who made real wealth from the real estate business. She didn’t need to be a policewoman since her father could have set her off big time.
“Please don’t tell anyone at the office. I consider you to be a friend that is why I invited you, besides, I felt that you needed the distraction, you have been too tense lately,” she begged me.
“My lips are sealed and even the worst kind of torture will not make me talk,” I promised. She made me promise as soon as I parked the car in the spacious parking lot in the expansive house in Ikoyi. I had gone to pick her up in the block of flats she occupied in Ikeja for the Saturday trip to the place. Little did I know then that my search for Vera was winding down.
I got introduced to Princess’ huge extended family of aunts, uncles, cousins and finally met her dad of whom she was particularly fund off. I could see why the instant we were introduced. A jovial man who asked his daughter if she had finally brought home her man to introduce him to the family. He was referring to me. And I think disappointment flashed on his face for a brief moment when she told him that was not the case emphasising that I was just a colleague. We went on to talk about everything under the sun until he was called to take care of a pressing matter. For some reason I liked the man but I don’t think I pictured myself as his son-in-law to be or his daughter’s boyfriend. Princess had slowly become a friend but I just could never picture her as the person I wanted to spend my life with. Besides, there was still the mystery of Vera that I was dying to solve.
It was a great Lagos party if ever there was one and it provided me with the opportunity to unwind. I didn’t realise that was what I needed until I felt completely relaxed after spending just one hour there. My plan was actually to find and excuse to leave after 30 minutes but it just kept on getting interesting. There were a lot of games to play, we danced and got a chance to say hello to everyone one at the event. If I had left when I had planned, I would not have seen someone that led me to Vera.
Wunmi approached me at the party.
“I know you,” she said and I couldn’t for the life of me recall ever having seeing her let alone made her acquaintance. An awkward moment passed when I tried to figure out if I had ever seen her. What is more, she couldn’t recall where we had met as well. She was at the party because some of the food came from the catering company she was working at.
“Do you take part in cooking any of it?” I asked her for want of something to say.
“No,” was the simple reply that came from her. We carried on, she with making sure the guests were fed and I back to having fun but I just couldn’t get her out of my mind. I was on the verge of leaving the place about five hours after I got there when it suddenly hit me. I had seen her during one of my visits to the shuttered strip club, which had since opened but no one either knew where Vera was or cared to let me know. She had a face you could never forget, almost square. She had been driving then and because cars were double parked on the street, only one car could go at a time, I recall then that she waited for me to go first unlike many a Lagos driver. Plus, she was driving a bright red Nissan Micra. I have always loved that car.
For some reason, I changed my mind about leaving the party and went looking for her. It became a search within a search as no one could point me in her direction and 30 minutes later I found to my amazement that she had since left the party venue. But I was able to reach her and the long and short of the story is that she knew exactly who I was talking about when I described Vera and it was her who told me her name. And the rest, as they say, is history. A history filled with bliss, I should add. Should I tell you about the wedding? Perhaps you want to hear about our lovemaking, the fact that I have since left the force or all the high points of our life together so far? Maybe you just want to know about our second meeting and all the work I did to finally get her hand in marriage? I guess you have to wait and see if we will eventually write the book. Until them, here is wishing you a life of bliss.