The plot to kill Commissioner Camp’s Wife, Theodora

The plot to kill Commissioner Camp’s Wife, Theodora

Whenever he saw himself in his dressing mirror, Camp was always thankful to God for allowing him to reach his diminutive height of five feet. Fat and chubby-faced, he was convinced he would have looked much more like a pig than a human being had been any shorter. Nevertheless, he had charm and considerable brainpower. He wore his maturity in his heavy beard and the bushy eyebrows that could not to conceal his piercing eyes. He stared people directly in the eye, often scaring them at a first encounter.

Standing in front of the dressing mirror this morning, he again expressed that gratitude. He examined his bulging biceps and jumped up and down as if to test whether his legs could still carry his bulk.  He had awakened earlier than usual, thinking about the speech he’d given the day before, feeling the weight of that act. He had tossed and turned all night. He tried to shake this dark mood by jumping up and down and boxing the mirror. That was exactly what he was doing when Theodora entered.

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He smiled shyly when she caught him mid-punch. She laughed sweetly at his boyish nature and tossed a pillow at his head, which he ducked with ease. They laughed and fell onto the bed side by side. She kissed his cheek tenderly.

Because of their ability to engage in childish games like this, Camp had never once doubted that their marriage had remained warm every day of the twenty years they had been together.  Theodora had begun the practice and he never stopped praising her for it.

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Three days after their memorable wedding, Theodora, alarmed by the high incidence of collapsed marriages, had discussed her husband’s personality traits and his curriculum vitae with a marriage counsellor. All she learned was that her stubborn husband was a genius and an introvert who often relaxed by revisiting about his childhood.

Theodora, with a B.A. in economics, thought revisiting childhood was a weird idea, but she changed her mind when she first tried playing childish games with him. One morning, she awakened early and woke her husband up by hitting him over the head with a pillow. He had retaliated and it became a tradition. Theodora even had a seamstress create a sign out of stitching, which hung over their dresser. It said, “A good pillow fight is healthy for a marriage.”

Since that first time, they had been able to play like children, outside public notice and the eyes of their own children, and not even Camp’s appointment as the state’s Commissioner of Agriculture could prevent them from relieving their cares with outbursts of juvenile fun.

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But today, Camp showed little interest in games. When Theodora tried to draw him into a contest, he shrugged it off.

“What’s troubling you, Idi?” Theodora knew her husband very well and she knew when he was upset.  He’d clearly been unhappy the night before when he came home.

“I’ve allowed myself to be used. Or you think I have.”

“I told you I understood, and I do. You have to go along so you can try to help from the inside. And you’re protecting your family.”

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“I’m not going along. I wasn’t going to tell you, but I can’t stand the feeling that you’re disappointed in me. You are, aren’t you? Please, you can tell me.”
Theodora looked off, trying not to make this any harder on him than it already was. She put a hand on his arm.

“I don’t like seeing you made a fool of, Idi. I don’t know what I’d do if it were me. Would I love you to have stood up and told the truth to the world yesterday? I can’t lie. Yes, I would have. But it might have destroyed us, Idi. And is it worth that? Well, no, not to me. I want to live. I want our children to be safe and happy.”

“So, yes, you were disappointed.”

“Alright, if you insist … Yes.”

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“I need to tell you something. Nobody else knows. And nobody can know. I have been feeding information to the publisher of The Zodiac. I’ve been meeting secretly with his top reporter, Mr. Peter Abel.”

Theodora looked at him with wide and loving eyes. “And what have you told them?”

“Enough to get them started, but not enough so the leaks will lead back to me. Still, I feel I’m suspected. Huud asking me to speak yesterday wasn’t just for political gain. It was to test my loyalty. Or at least my willingness to play along.”

Theodora smiled at him broadly. “I do love you, Idi. I knew you were too smart for them. Let the press bring the lot down.”

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Camp hugged his wife and a feeling swelled through him of total and complete love. He thanked God he had met this woman, then suddenly felt afraid.

“I want you to take the children and go to New York. Stay with the Chandlers.” The Chandlers had been family friends for years. “They will be happy to have you.”

Theodora drew away from her husband and looked at him, surprised “What? Why?”

“Listen to me. I can’t be sure that they don’t know what I’m doing. If they find out, you could all be in danger. Remember the telephone message? It was a warning. I want you to be safe.”

“But the message was thoroughly investigated,” Theodora said. “The police said there was nothing to be concerned about. It was a hoax.”

“Still, it came just as I started talking to The Zodiac. That is too much coincidence.”

“The threat was to you, Idi, not to me. If there is danger, it is to you.”

“We can’t be certain of that. You and the children could easily get caught up in it.”

“I won’t leave you, Idi. It’s out of the question.”

“I insist.”

“It won’t be safe for you if we leave.” Camp looked at her, not understanding. “Don’t you see? When Huud learns you’ve sent us to New York, he will wonder why. He will intuit that you are up to something and have sent us out of harm’s way. The only way to keep you safe is for all of us to act as if nothing out of the ordinary is going on.”

Camp knew his wife was right. But it frightened him nonetheless.

 

á   á   á   á   á

 

On the other side of Bammakk City, Tiko met with men who did “work” for the party. They were thugs, killers, sadists and perverts who would do anything to anyone for the right price. Tiko was convinced Camp was going to be trouble, and he was preparing to put a stop to him. Maybe not today or even tomorrow. But at some point soon, Tiko was sure it would be necessary to act.

These men would do his bidding. And now that he’d totally marginalized Huud, he could do what he wanted, without worrying about political niceties. Besides, he had a spy in Huud’s headquarters now in the person of Rika. She would be aware of anything Huud was up to. Tiko knew that as deeply as Huud had been implicated in other crimes, he wouldn’t stand for murder. Tiko had no patience with such misplaced morality. And so Huud would know nothing.

The men were battle-scarred and tough. One was missing an eye, the other part of a foot. Among them they had fought in ten wars and killed, not murdered, dozens of people; so many they couldn’t recall the names of any of their victims. Not that they cared.

Just the way Tiko liked it. And of course, once they had done their work, Tiko would see they disappeared as well. Murdering government officials was dicey even in Nigeria. Other politicians tended to notice. There was also the international community to fend off.

But Tiko wasn’t worried. Murder was just a tool. Like any other. One merely had to be ruthless about it. And the most ruthless man in the room full of ruthless men was most assuredly Tiko himself.

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