It was the fifth day of the week and Richard hadn't come back home yet. Even though I was still angry with him, I wasn't ready to loose him just yet. I couldn't help the uneasiness I kept on feeling that something was wrong. After our fall out on Monday, where he stomped off angrily in the middle of the night, I hadn't heard or seen him ever since.
Richard wasn't like this. He could be many things but not this. Something was definitely wrong. The nagging feeling kept on growing by each passing day. The text I read on his phone before our fall out did nothing to quell my unease.
I picked up my phone,deciding to call his best friend Andrew.
“Hello" he answered on the third ring.
“Good evening dear. I was wondering if you knew about my husband’s whereabouts? ” I asked,going straight to the point.
“No, not at all, the last I’d seen him was on Monday where he showed up at work and we went home together after work.” He said.
" Yes, we had a little bit of an argument and since then I haven't laid my eyes on my husband” I told him, expressing my distress.
" Oh! But Richard is not one to just disappear after an argument, have you called his family members? He asked with concern.
“Yes, but none of them claim to know where he is. It's been four days now, I think I’m going to head to the police about this" I said anxiously.
“That's a good idea, but I think you should wait a day longer, since you two had an argument, he might still be angry with you and that's why he hasn't shown up yet.”
" Alright then” I said as I hung off.
However, after waiting in the living room for one hour, the uneasiness increasing with each passing second. I couldn't help it anymore. I grabbed my car keys, quickly locked the door and went straight to the police station to make a report.
“Is this the man your looking for?” The officer asked, shoving one of the prisoners to the side for me to see.
I gasped, shocked, the content in my hands spewing to the ground as I stared at my husband dressed in the prisoners uniform looking so haggard. His eyes were hollow and suken, he looked dirty and had a lot of bruises on his face. He had lost some weight. A hand cuff was placed around his hands. Confusion flooded me all at once. Why was my husband in here in hand-cuffs? What had they done to him? Why did he had bruises all over him, looking like a criminal? Questions upon questions kept on running through my head as I stood there in shock, trying to make sense of it all. When I finally met his eyes, I almost broke into tears. My heart ached for him. I could tell he had gone through a lot here. What exactly had they done to him! I wondered.
“Ma’am is he the one?" the officer asked again, bringing me out of my shock.
“Yes, he’s the one" I said a bit to quickly
“Why does he has handcuffs on him? What did you people do to him?” I asked so many questions all at once.
“Madam, he is a criminal” the officer said casually as he dragged him back into the cell.
" Officer, I’m sure this must be a misunderstanding, my husband is not a criminal” I said turning to face the other policemen.
" Madam, there is no mistake here. He is part of a crime syndicate who deals with drugs, you can go and ask him but visiting time is over, come back tomorrow” they officers said as they closed up the station for the day.
As I got home that night, I wasted no time, I began calling whoever I knew that could help me. The next morning came by, far too quickly, thankfully. I headed straight to the police station, cancelling all my plans for the day. Right now, my husband was my top priority.
In no time, I was seated in the visiting area, talking with my husband.
“I brought you food" I started off, handing it to him.
He smiled a weak smile, taking it from me and began eating. I watched as he ate so quickly, like a starved man. Indeed he was. My heart broke at the sight of him. Right there I decided I was going to do whatever I needed to do to get him out of jail. He didn't deserve this. So after eating, we discussed for a while, untill the visiting time was over
Apparently, someone had set him up at work in the transport agency where he worked. The night we had an argument, he received a call from the agency to do an urgent delivery of some goods to a certain location. However as he got to the location, it was a dark lonely alley, where he met two rough men who kept on asking him for the drugs. He was confused and tried explaining to them that he had no drugs with him, when suddenly the police came in on them, searched his dispatch rider truck and found loads of drugs underneath the goods in the box he came to deliver and was arrested.
What we needed now was evidence to prove that it was a set up. As a private investigator, I began my investigation. I looked through the files of each and every one of the workers for the transport agency. But I couldn't find anything suspicious. Until one fateful day. I decided to pay a visit to Andrew at his house, to think of our next step of action to take. When I overheard him making a call to someone.
“ The fool fell right into the trap " I heard him say
“No one would even suspect it was me, I have the wife wrapped around my little finger." He continued speaking over the phone.
“Richard was too nosy for his own good, now look where it landed him, in the prison" he said again laughing over the line.
“Oh yes! I could tell he was suspecting me, so I just had to put the poor man to jail to get him off my back"
Having heard enough, I quietly left his house, with my phone in hand, after recording the entire conversation. And went straight to my lawyer and together we went to the police. In no time, Richard was released, and the police went ahead to arrest Andrew and his gangs.
With my hands in my husband’s, Richard and I walked out of the prison together, a free man, never daring to look back. Andrew sprang a nasty surprise on us all. One we learnt the hard way, never to trust so blindly again.
