Born Bad…
AARON ANSAH-AGYEMAN
BORN BAD
A ChrisEffe Thriller
CHAPTER 6
There is one police Nissan Double-cabin pick-up truck in front of the Bullion Van.
There are three policemen in the pick-up.
They are three sergeants. One is driving, one is in the passenger seat and the third is sleeping in the back cabin.
In the huge bullion van behind the police pick-up are a driver and one bored bank official.
They are in a reverse curve, and the cars have taken the first curve and are turning into the sharper second curve when they came across a huge fallen tree lying across the road.
The pick-up driver has no time to react whatsoever.
The car smashes into the tree with a nasty tearing sound.
The policeman in the passenger seat is thrown forward hard, just like the driver.
The driver, who is not wearing his seat-belt, crashes into the steering wheel.
The one in the passenger seat is hurled through the windscreen, and he lies in blood across the hot bonnet of the car.
As he moans, he is aware of a figure wearing a long white gown emerging from the bushes and crashing a gun’s butt on his head.
Another figure in white gown and the mask of a goat on his head emerges, opens the driver’s door and hits the driver on the jaw with a rifle butt, rendering him unconscious.
A third masked figure opens the back door and puts a handcuff on the dazed police man.
They take the police rifles from the Nissan.
It is all executed in a matter of seconds.
The bullion van tries to stop, but it is too late.
It crashes into the back of the Nissan.
The driver and the bank official are screaming, but before they can react two more masked men in white gowns emerge from the trees, opens their doors and drag them out.
Rifle butts are crashed against their skulls, and they go limp.
Three more masked men also go to the back of the bullion van and slams timed explosives on the door.
They all retreat a little distance, and in two minutes the bombs explode, taking out the doors of the bullion van.
Quickly four masked men jump into the bullion van and throw out black sacks containing money.
The other men take the sacks and run into the bushes, dumping them in the boot of a parked Hummer.
And that is when another car appears.
It is a white Lexus, and its occupants are Jonathan Afful and Effe Kedem!
Afful sizes up the situation immediately and slams his foot down on the brake pedal.
“Jesus! It is a robbery!” he cries with terror.
He tries to reverse, but one of the masked men wearing a horse mask points his gun at the car and opens fire.
It is Steve Hollison!
Afful, scared, stops immediately and raises his hands.
Effe is scared. She trembles in the seat with fear as the masked man who has fired runs to the car and throws open the door.
The man hits Jonathan on the jaw, and he drops in a faint across the steering-wheel.
Effe’s fear is forgotten.
She looks at Jon’s inert form and screams at the armed robber.
“You thief! Was that necessary?”
Another man in a lion mask has moved forward swiftly.
The man who has hit Afful reaches into the car and swiftly frisks Jonathan. He takes Afful’s phone and wallet, which is stuffed with money. He also takes Afful’s Rolex wrist-watch.
He goes round the car and stares at Effe.
“Take off your earrings, necklace and your wrist-watch. What have you got in the back of the car?”
Effe has tears in her eyes as she sees that blood is running down Afful’s nose.
“You damn thief!”
The man raised his hand to smash her face, but his hand is caught from behind by the thief wearing the lion mask, who pushed the man aside.
Steve turns round angrily on Chris Bawa.
“What the fuck is the matter with you?” he asks furiously.
“What the fuck do you think we’re doing? You’re putting us in danger with every wasted minute. Let’s get the fuck out of here!” Chris growls.
Steve reaches out and snatches the beautiful diamond-studded necklace from around Effe’s neck.
Effe screams with anguish and holds out her hand.
“No, no, no! That belonged to my grandmother! Please take my watch and the earrings and my phone and everything but please don’t take that, please!”
Steve looks at her viciously and raises his gun.
“Fuck you, bitch!”
Chris shoves Steve against the car.
“Give it back to her!”
“What?” Steve asks dangerously.
“Give the damn necklace back to her!” Chris says menacingly.
“Fuck you, man! You don’t order me around!”
Chris sinks a fist into Steve’s gut.
Steve grunts and his knees give way.
Chris snatches the necklace from Steve’s hand, turns and extends it to Effe.
Effe looks at the lion mask, and she looks into the eyes of the man wearing it.
She sees the clear beautiful eyes now filled with something like shame.
They stare at each other for a moment, but to Effe it seems like a lifetime.
She is arrested by those eyes, those mysterious eyes.
When she takes the necklace from him their hands touch, but he is wearing white gloves, and she wonders why she suddenly feels as if an electric circuit just run through her.
“You filthy damn thief!”
The man looks away from her immediately.
Steve gets to his feet, furious, but the man in the lion mask points his gun at him.
“You fucking idiot! You’re finished, do you hear me? Finished!”
“We get out of here, or Lord help me I’m gonna fill your body with bullets!”
Effe watches as they quickly move away, and enter the forest.
She hears an engine starting in the forest.
Jonathan is moaning now, and she gets down to attend to him.
Later, as Jonathan Afful uses her phone to call the police, Effe Kedem wonders why, even in her wrath against the armed robbers and her fierce hatred of them, she is still seeing those clear, calm eyes of that damn thief in her mind’s eye.
***
It has indeed been a very horrible day.
Effe feels so tired and so scared.
She had attended to the wounded and shocked men in the police car and the bullion van. She had attended to a disoriented Jonathan Afful.
The police in Bomofo had dispatched a team which had taken over an hour to arrive.
Meanwhile cars had arrived from each side of the road and come to a stop because of the huge tree blocking the road, causing the traffic to pile up.
It had taken hours, literally, for the police to restore some semblance of order, and to clear the road so that traffic could flow again.
They had taken Effe’s and Afful’s statements, and had made them fill a report on their stolen items, and then finally Afful had driven them to Densua.
They are now in the Eden Hospital Staff Quarters, which is a sprawling, gated community-type area.
It has lights and well-demarcated streets and structured buildings.
Effe has fallen in love with it the moment they went through the gates.
As a doctor she has her own bungalow, but she is still jittery, and for a moment she feels reluctant to be there alone.
“You’re safe here, my dove. The walls go all around the quarters, and there are armed security men all around. However, if you want, we can spend the night at my place,” he says tenderly.
Effe smiles with real warmth for the first time since the incident.
“Petrol and fire have never been known to stay together, Mr. Cassanova!” she replies mischievously.
The bungalow is not that big.
It is a two-bedroom enclosure with dining and living-room areas, but it is quite comfortably furnished, and she loves it instantly.
She prepares sandwiches and tea, and they sit together on the terrace and eat.
Afterwards, she accompanies him to his car.
“Tomorrow I’ll introduce you to the rest of the staff. The telephone has an extension list under it, for security and any other persons you may need to reach in an emergency.”
Effe smiles and puts a hand on his shoulder.
“I’m sure I’ll be fine, my love. You take care for me, okay?”
“Yes, sweetheart. Tomorrow an official car will be allocated to you. Remind me to inform the transport manager. Will see you in the morning, okay?”
They hug briefly.
He kisses her lightly on the lips and then he gets into his car.
Effe watches him drive away, and then she turns and goes back inside.
She locks the doors and then takes a long shower.
She reads her Bible a bit, and then before she sleeps, she seems to see a pair of clear, beautiful eyes of a thief staring at her from the mask of a lion!
Jonathan Afful’s bungalow is not very far from the one they have given Effe.
He drives slowly, rubbing his forehead occasionally, barely listening to the mellow cool music emanating from the car’s speakers.
It is evident that he is getting stressed up.
He sighs audibly.
When he turns through the entrance of his bungalow, he sees that there are lights inside the rooms, and he sighs audibly again.
He parks his car, and just as he gets down the front door flies open, and she comes tearing out.
She is thirty years. She is a tall girl but she has incredible curves. She is dark, and rather attractive in a solid kind of way.
But, of course, she will never be as lovely and as exquisite as Effe.
She is wearing only her chemise, and it stops just short of her ample buttocks, leaving her thighs bare.
She is Baaba Brooks, a nurse at the hospital.
On any other occasion, her sexy outfit would have turned him on immediately, but this night he feels only tired and apprehensive and a wee bit exasperated.
She comes down the stairs towards him as he closes the car door and locks it with the remote.
He can see from the look on her face that she is in a rage, and he holds up his hands in a placating gesture, his expression tired.
“Don’t you dare patronize me with that gesture, Doctor! Don’t you dare! You have refused to answer my calls since yesterday! What the fuck is going on, Jonathan?” Baaba asks with an angry snarl.
“Listen, Babs, I’m not in the mood for a fight, okay? For your information, I was attacked –” he begins wearily.
Baaba cuts in furiously, her eyes flashing with the depths of her fury.
“Spare me the drivel, would you? Yes, I heard about the armed robbery case, and I heard you were also attacked! But I know you were not alone! You were with that little slut, weren’t you?”
That one gets to Afful.
His eyes flash suddenly with anger.
“Come off it, Baaba! I told you from the onset that I had a fiancée!” he says in a fierce, tight voice.
She plants herself squarely in front of him and puts her hands on her hips. She is trembling so violently with rage that he is appalled.
He knows she has a fierce temper, but he has never seen her quite like this. She is suddenly so unpredictable and absolutely prone to a lethal explosion in her current turmoil.
“You have a fiancée? And that gives you the right to fuck me for two years? I left my boyfriend for you because you were so fucking jealous I was still seeing him! I messed up my life for you, and now you stand right there and tell me you have a damn fiancée? After wasting my life for two years? It seems to me you don’t know who I am, Doctor!”
Afful takes a deep breath and tries to control his own wrath. He doesn’t want the situation to escalate into an all-out fight, because he has two neighbours and he doesn’t want them to hear.
He puts his hands on her shoulders and looks intently at her, his eyes pleading.
“Look, darling, don’t let us fight over this, okay?” he says remorsefully. “Effe and I have known each other all our lives! You know all about that! I never lied to you about it! I told you she’ll be coming to EDEN HOSPITAL for her Housemanship. You knew about that! So, what’s all this anger you’re keeping down in you?”
Baaba knocks his hands off her shoulders, and looks at him with smouldering eyes.
“I knew about that, but she was far away, and I was hoping that by now, after two years, you would realize that what is between us is far more important than sex, Jonathan! I’ve lived with you, and done everything a wife is supposed to do! Worse, I’ve fallen in love with you. Unless you lied to me, I know you haven’t slept with Effe yet!”
“That is true. I haven’t made love to her. She’s a staunch Christian. She has always wished to go to her matrimonial bed a virgin!”
“I don’t give a fuck if she’s the Virgin Mary herself, Jonathan!” she says angrily. “If you haven’t deflowered her yet, then she has nothing to lose. I kicked my boyfriend out for you, and remember that boy took care of me through Nursing School. You can also kick Effe out. After all, you haven’t committed yourselves intimately. She can still find herself another man. I’m not going to allow you to treat me like a whore, Jonathan! Never!”
Afful stares at her with absolute shock!
This is something that is so new to him. This is a side of her that he has never known existed.
She has never been fussy, or jealous, or possessive! She has been fun, ever since he made a line at her two years ago and succeeded in taking her to bed.
He has always been fair to her, making her aware that he and Effe are destined to be together.
He has given her money and taken care of her very well so that when the eventual happened, as it is happening now, she would understand and pave the way for him.
But it seems that he has been absolutely wrong about that!
The wolf he had known has now turned into a ravenous lioness!
“Now come on, Babs! What are you talking about? Our families have expected this our whole lives! Effe has been faithful to me, has never looked at another man! You can’t do this, Babs!”
“Oh, yes, I can, Jonathan! I can do this and more! And I’m going to do more. You’re not going to throw me away like some disposable pad, doctor. Hell no!”
Afful throws up his hands in acute stress.
“Jesus, Babs! Please don’t do this to me! Don’t complicate my life like this, please! I love Effe! I can’t hurt her! I love her very much!”
She grits her teeth, and her eyes blaze at him with unrestrained fury.
“Oh, no, loverboy! You don’t love her, no way! If you did, you wouldn’t have been fucking me constantly, cheating on her every night, for the last two bloody fucking years! She goes, sugar! I stay!”
She turns round and marches into the bungalow in a huff.
Afful feels as if a bucket of iced water has been upended over him.
He feels so cold all of a sudden.
His heart is beating as he collapses limply against the side of his car.
This is so bad!
He hasn’t expected this from Baaba! She is being so unfair because he has been very fair to her.
He has always told her the truth where Effe is concerned.
He has done that to avoid exactly what is happening right now.
Baaba is a great girl.
Sexually she is active and has done things to him in bed which no girl has ever done before. He indeed needs her, physically. There is even a strong certainty that if he marries Effe he will still retain Baaba.
Effe is a Christian, and a virgin, and a good girl. She is clean, innocent and chaste. She is like a blooming flower, exceedingly beautiful, a woman that not always draws the second look but the third, the fourth and the infinity, from men and women alike.
He cannot imagine his life without her.
Maybe she is more of a trophy wife than anything else, but if ever Jonathan Afful has ever loved a girl, it is Effe he loves.
Effe knows that he has not been an angel, but ever since she agreed to marry him, firmly giving him her love, she has asked him to remain faithful to her.
That had been just over a couple of years ago, and shortly afterwards Baaba had been employed at EDEN HOSPITAL and posted to his department and shift, and within a month they were lovers.
It is true that she has left her boyfriend for him, and he appreciates that gesture, and has decided to support her if she wants to marry after he marries Effe.
But it has never been his intention to cut ties with her completely. She is one hell of a dynamite in bed, and he wants that excitement for a long time to come.
He sighs miserably again and mounts the stairs, opens the living-room door, and enters the room.
Outside, on the dark porch of the opposite bungalow, Doctor Aku Norvisi is sipping tea from an enamel cup.
She has witnessed that little drama between the two lovebirds.
Although she hasn’t heard everything, especially from Jonathan because his voice had been controlled, she has heard enough from Baaba’s raised voice.
She shakes her head sadly and resumes sipping, enjoying the serene night.
When Jonathan enters, he sees Baaba lying on the three-seat sofa.
She has shirked her chemise, and she is now wearing a lacy pair of brassieres that has slits in their cups, exposing her large roseate nipples.
Her right leg is raised towards him, and her legs are parted, revealing the sheer pair of white crotchless panties she is wearing.
The light illuminates her shaved pudenda.
She is not looking at him as she turns slightly, showing him her firm, big rounded derriere inside those sheer lacy panties.
The hunger is savage and unbridled in Jonathan.
He begins to shirk his clothes as she raises her hips and slides the panties down her long, glorious legs.
Jonathan falls on her in the sofa, and she opens her thighs to accept him, her lips opening to allow his probing tongue…
It is the following day.
Afful picks up Effe and sends her to the hospital.
First, he takes her to meet the Director, Mrs. Louisa Bondzie.
Afterwards there is a short meeting where she meets other doctors and nurses.
They welcome her with smiles and good wishes.
The resident Paediatrician turns out to be a cheerful South African called Rupert Henderson.
He is in his late forties, has a shock of thick black hair and has a good smile.
Effe warms to him immediately.
He takes over and takes Effe to the PAEDIATRICS SECTION, which is quite near the SURGEONS HUB.
Effe is shown her consulting office, which is next to Rupert’s. It turns out to be huge, neat, and finely-fitted.
It has an amazing view of the garden beyond, and she falls in love with it immediately.
Soon she is immersed in work as she assists Rupert to examine an unending batch of children with various ailments.
She really loves children, and so she is not the least tired as she works with confidence and joy.
It takes her till about three in the afternoon when she begins to feel hunger pangs and cramps in her arms and waist.
Rupert smiles tiredly at her when the last parent leaves with her baby.
He removes his disposable gloves and swivels his head to get the stress out of his neck.
He smiles at Effe and nods with satisfaction.
“Finally, an assistant after my own heart. You’re good, Effe, dear. Really good. That is an incredible first day performance,” Rupert says with a smile.
Effe smiles, and it lights up her lovely face.
“Thanks, Rupert. I totally enjoyed that.”
Rupert unbuttons his overcoat, takes it off, and hands it to a nurse, and then he smiles at her again.
“You must be famished, dear.”
“I can eat an elephant,” Effe replies with a giggle.
“Good! There is a staff cafeteria. Let me show you where it is. The food is good.”
“Give me just a few minutes to freshen up, Doctor Henderson.”
“My friends call me Rupert. My very good friends call me Rupe,” he says with a laugh. “You can choose a category, Effe.”
She laughs with real mirth and looks at him gently.
“I’ve heard you, Rupert.”
A few minutes later she enters the cafeteria with Rupert.
There are other nurses and doctors in the Cafeteria.
Effe notices that the area is demarcated into two, one-part for junior staff, and the other half, which has more privacy, for the senior staff.
As she and Rupert enter the senior staff section of the cafeteria she sees Afful at a table in a far corner, and he is sitting with a beautiful dark woman in a nurse’s outfit.
She is well-built, and she seems to be engaged in some sort of heated argument with Jonathan.
Effe smiles and points out Afful to Rupert.
“Oh, that’s your fiancé. Go ahead, dear, I’ll give you some privacy!” he says.
Effe smiling, shakes her head.
“No, Rupert! You brought me here. I’ll share a table with you, or we can join Jonathan.”
Rupert smiles and shrugs.
Afful has not seen Effe approaching, but the nurse with him has.
She stands up abruptly and turns to leave the table.
Afful tries to hold her hand, but she snatches her hand away angrily and pushes past him.
Afful turns, calling her name, and then he sees Effe approaching, and he goes limp and smiles tightly.
The nurse has now reached Effe and Rupert.
“Hello, Babs, how’re you doing?” Rupert says with a smile.
The dark woman just smiles a bit at Rupert and nods, but she doesn’t look at Effe as she walks past, her face tight with suppressed anger.
Effe raises her eyebrows and a tiny smile stretches her lips.
When they reach Afful’s table he stands up, takes her in his arms, and kisses her cheek.
Effe sees that the dark-complexioned nurse has stopped at the entrance, and she is looking at her and Afful.
On her face is a fierce look filled with such blatant hatred that Effe gasps.
A moment later the nurse turns and leaves the room.
Effe is disturbed as she sits down.
“Hello, darling. Missed you. Seems you have been very busy today,” Afful says.
Effe smiles at him and sits down.
“Tough, but I enjoyed every bit of it! I’m really famished though.”
“I know you would be! Try the gari and beans with fried plantain. I know you love red-red!”
Effe laughs and makes a mock applause signal with her hands.
“Oh, yes, bring it on!”
Afful beckons to one of the kitchen staff.
The lady approaches, and he makes the order for Effe.
“And you, Rupe? What’ll it be?”
“My favourite, yam and palava sauce! Yummiest combination in the world!”
They all laugh, and the waitress goes away.
“I’ll love to wait, darling, but I have an urgent meeting with the Director, so I have to run. I spoke to the Transport Manager. Your car will be available tomorrow morning. The meeting will take a while and I might not be able to drop you off at the quarters.”
Doctor Norvisi, who has been sitting at the next table, smiles and speaks.
“Oh, I’ll be happy to drop Effe. After all, her bungalow is just on my way.”
Effe smiles at the pretty woman and wonders whose idea it was to crowd the place with so many beautiful women.
“Thank you. I appreciate that.”
Afful says his goodbyes, kisses Effe once more on the cheek, and walks off.
Effe stares after him with eyes a little bit troubled.
She just can’t get that little scene with the dark nurse out of her mind. She trusts Afful, and has never had any opportunity to doubt him, but suddenly it seems as if he has just made an excuse to leave the cafeteria so that he can see that nurse…
What is her name again?
Rupert has referred to her as Babs.
Well, maybe it is nothing.
Her food is brought, and she says a quick prayer and begins to eat, forgetting all about that mean-eyed Babs.
Doctor Aku Norvisi takes a drink and gets to her feet as her phone rings.
“Effe, I’ll wait for you at the SURGEON’S HUB, okay? The son of one of my patients just called me. He has a lot of money to pay and it seems to me he just came and made a deposit. Have to run.”
“Sure, Aku. I’ll come around after I conquer this majestic food!”
Rupert laughs.
“That’s my kind of girl! I’m going to enjoy having you around, Effe!
Later, after closing, Effe walks through the squeaky-clean halls of the SURGEONS HUB.
She speaks to the receptionist and is directed to Doctor Norvisi’s consulting room.
She knocks on the door, and it is opened by a nurse who informs her that Doctor Norvisi is waiting for her inside
FEMALE WARD 5.
Effe is directed to the ward.
It is a small ward with two beds.
One of the beds, near the entrance, is empty, but on the other bed is an elderly woman who appears to be sleeping.
Her face is beautiful, but she looks weak.
Doctor Norvisi is writing on a clipper as a nurse waits by her side patiently.
Effe notices that a tall man is standing by the window gazing out. She can see dreadlocks on his head. He is wearing blue jeans, white sneakers and a sky-blue shirt.
Another man is standing beside him, facing Effe, younger and leaner and dressed in black slacks and a well-worn multi-coloured smock.
Aku Norvisi sees Effe and looks up with a smile on her face.
“Oh, Effe, do come in. I’ll be done in a minute. This sweet lady needs a heart by-pass surgery, and her children came to make the deposit.”
The tall man turns from the window now slowly, and he looks at Effe.
Effe stares at him with mounting horror!
It is not because he is so indescribably handsome and masculine.
It is not because his eyes are penetrating her, as if undressing her!
She suddenly feels weak and her legs buckle and she feels the blood draining from her face.
Those eyes!
Dear sweet Jesus!
Those beautiful penetrating eyes!
This man is one of the armed-robbers, the one who had attacked his colleague and given her back the necklace.
She is aware of Aku coming towards her with concern on her face, and Effe suddenly turns and flees from the ward.
She fumbles her phone out of her bag and as she runs, she blindly picks Afful’s number and dials.
“Effe, Effe! What’s it? Please stop! Please wait! EFFE WAIT!” Aku Norvisi shouts.
Effe stops at the reception and looks around desperately, her eyes haunted, her breathing laboured.
The mechanical voice tells her that Jon’s phone is either switched off or out of coverage area.
Desperately she flips through her phone and locates the telephone number of Chief Inspector Danso Cuger, the policeman who had taken her statement.
He picks up on the first ring.
By this time Aku has reached her side and speaking anxiously.
Effe motions Aku to bear with her, and then she speaks.
“Hello, Madam. Wasn’t expecting to hear from you so soon. Have you remembered some other details?” the policeman asks.
“I’ve seen one of them, please!” Effe says desperately.
“One of the armed robbers?”
“Yes, yes! The tall one who gave me back the necklace! He’s right here in the hospital!”
“Eden Hospital?”
“Yes, yes! The SURGEONS HUB section!”
“Please don’t let him know you’ve recognized him! I’m right here at the Densua Police Station. I’m coming in with a team right now!” the policeman says, his voice worried. “The station is within the compound of the hospital so we’ll be there in just a couple of minutes, madam!”
Effe cuts the call.
She is still trembling.
“What was that all about, Effe?” Norvisi asks in a worried voice.
Effe puts trembling fingers to her lips.
“That man in there…the one in the ward, the tall one…”
“Who? Chris? His name is Chris Bawa. His mother is the patient.”
“He’s the thief, Aku! He’s an armed robber! He’s part of the robbers that robbed the bullion van and attacked us!”
Aku Norvisi is so shocked that her eyes open wide, and her mouth gapes open.
She tries to speak, but for a moment nothing comes out.
Finally, she sinks slowly into one of the chairs.
“Oh, Effe! Are you sure? But you said they were wearing gowns, and masks! How can you be sure it is him?” Norvisi asks hoarsely.
Effe puts a trembling hand on Aku’s arm.
“His eyes, Aku! He looked at me hard and long, and I’ll never forget his eyes!”
Aku Norvisi shakes her head, and her face is imploring.
“Oh, but surely that cannot be enough basis for you to draw conclusions! His eyes? Goodness me! We’re black people! We have the same eyes, Effe! That boy has been breaking his back to get money to…”
Aku’s voice trails off as she stares at Effe with horror.
Effe nods sadly.
“To pay for his mother’s surgery, right? That was what you were going to say, wasn’t it? A heart by-pass is expensive, isn’t it? You told me he just came and made a huge deposit! Where did he get the money, huh?”
The two women look at each other dazedly.
A few minutes later they hear a lot of voices, and the doors of the reception open, and six burly policemen with drawn guns enter the reception.
Chief Inspector Cuger is leading them.
At the same moment the swing doors that lead to the Wards from the reception swing open, and the two men Effe had seen in the female ward come in.
Chief Inspector Danso Cuger approaches Effe.
“Hello, ma’am! Is he still here?” he asks fiercely.
Effe lifts a badly trembling hand and points at Chris Bawa.
The policemen point their guns at the young man.
Chris is now staring at Effe, stunned.
Beside him Crankson is suddenly trembling with fear.
“What’s going on, Chrissy? Why is that woman doing this?”
“A spurned woman is an angry woman, Mikey!” Chris said lazily.
The policemen order Chris to turn round and put his hands behind him.
They handcuff him, and they also handcuff Crankson.
As he is being taken away Chris turns his head slowly, and fixes Effe with the most vicious and furious eyes she has ever seen.
Effe drops her eyes quickly.
Once they had gone out the door Chief Inspector Cuger speaks gently to Effe.
“Sorry, ma’am, but you have to come with us to the station to give your statement and help us write a charge sheet. Really sorry for bothering you.”
Effe nods numbly and stands up.
As she rides with the policeman, she wonders why she has such a sour taste in her mouth!
She can still see the face of the thief as he looked at her inside the hospital.
They had been completely vicious!
She wonders why she feels so unnerved!
***
The police station turns out to be a constricted and hot place.
When Effe arrives with Chief Inspector Danso Cuger and Aku Norvisi, who had insisted on going with them, she sees the other policemen dragging out the man she now knows as Chris Bawa from the back of the police van, still handcuffed.
Effe sees that his face is almost expressionless, but his eyes are filled with dislike as he looks at her.
They take him inside, and a moment later as she is going inside with the policeman, she sees that a taxi has pulled up, and the man who had been with Chris at the hospital now gets out, followed by a beautiful dark lady wearing jeans and a yellow blouse.
Effe is shown into a room where there is a rusty file cabinet, a huge desk and three chairs.
There is a ceiling fan, and it is making a lot of rackety noise as it spins, and when Effe sits down she barely feels the air.
The heat is stifling, and soon she finds sweat on her face and arms.
Chief Inspector Cuger, large and muscular, smiles at her from a face that is almost mean-looking.
He goes behind the desk and sits down.
He smiles at her again as he leans forward and steeples his fingers together with his elbows on the desk.
“A constable will come and take your written report soon, ma’am. But first, can I ask a few questions?”
Effe nods tremulously as she stares at her phone.
She is calling Jonathan again, and his phone is still switched off.
“Of course, you can, Inspector.”
“Good. Now, I took your statements yesterday. In it you stated quite categorically that all the eight men you saw were in huge white gowns and gloves. Furthermore, they were wearing masks of various animals. Am I correct so far?”
“Yes, that’s about it, you’re right!”
The policeman scowls slightly.
“According to you, they never even once took off the masks. So how could you identify that young man so positively?”
Effe is almost exasperated.
Somehow, she is suddenly finding her wrath against that thief and his cohorts dissipating, and she strives to hold on to it.
“I was quite close to him, sir. He was the one who stopped his colleague thief from taking my necklace. I saw his eyes, sir. I do have an eye for detail. The eyeholes of the lion mask he was wearing were quite big, and I saw his eyes and eyebrows!”
The Chief Inspector’s face shows his surprise and sudden unease. He shakes his head numbly, looking perplexed.
“Is that all? Just his eyes and eyebrows?” he asks anxiously. “Are you making your identification based on just his eyes and eyebrows?”
Effe’s head comes up, and her eyes flash her sudden anger.
She hates it when people try to make her feel stupid, and that is exactly what the policeman is doing!
She can hear and feel it in his voice!
“That is all I need, sir! I hate lies, and I’m telling you that man is the thief who robbed that van!” she cries, and she sounds upset.
Cuger holds up his hands placatingly.
“What I’m trying to say is that no judge will convict him based on the fact that you can only identify him by his eyes. I’m sorry, but that is just not acceptable!”
“But I’m telling you that he’s one of them!” she says desperately. “I’m positive about that, and I will testify in court if I have to! You have to accept it! It is him! Are you trying to tell me that he will walk free?”
?”Yes, that’s what I’m saying. I can manage to hold him for about couple of days based on the fact that he’s a suspect in a high-profile case, but holding him that long is illegal. However, based on what you’re telling me, we can’t get a court conviction.”
“Oh, no!” she says, deflated.
Her shoulders sag, and she looks absolutely shattered.
The policeman leans forward conspiratorially.
“But listen, madam, I do believe you! That guy is a shady bastard, and I know he’s been leading a criminal’s life for a long time. He works for a wicked gangster known only as the Big Boss. No one knows the real identity of The Big Boss, whose morbid operations include child pornography, child prostitution, drugs, and a string of other nefarious activities! We know Chris is close to the Big Boss. If we can manage to hold him, there’ll be a disturbance in their criminal network, and maybe we’ll be able to catch that evil Big Boss. Only you can help us now, madam.”
Effe looks at him, aghast.
“Me? I’ve done what I need to do! I’ve identified Chris Bawa for you!”
“But your eye-witness account is so porous, so useless that a judge will throw it out of court without a second glance. Now, just a minor detail can set it all right and build an airtight case against Chris that can lead to several arrests! For example, if Chris had taken off his mask during the attack, that would make your testimony acceptable in court, and we can nail that bastard and his cohorts for good!”
Effe stares at the policeman with incomprehension written all over her beautiful face.
“Yes, that would’ve been so good, wouldn’t it? But unfortunately, he didn’t take off his mask!”
Cuger leans forward and speaks very softly to Effe, his face desperate.
“Listen, ma’am. After the attack, there was a short span of time when everybody was disoriented except you, Chris and that other robber who tried to take your necklace. Now, suppose you state in your written report that you struggled with Chris and his mask came off and that is when you saw his face, and he fled into the trees? I will get your first statement and destroy it, and you can give us a new statement just putting that incident in there that his mask came off. That will be a positive identification and no judge will throw that out!”
Effe stares at the policeman with great shock written all over her face.
“Are you asking me to lie?” she asks indignantly. “Are you really asking me to lie about that man and what really happened that day?”
Cuger takes Effe’s hands in his, his expression earnest.
“Yes, if you want to put it that way! But it will be for a good reason, ma’am! Those thieves are terrorizing the whole country, breaking the law with impunity! Please, you and I know Chris is the robber you saw, but you can’t say you identified him by his eyes and eyebrows. So, you put a little twist in your statement, enough to make us nail him, and you would’ve saved the next victim of these robbers.”
Effe drags her hands from the policeman’s grip.
She shakes her head, greatly agitated, her face filled with horror.
“No, no, no! I can’t do that. That will be bearing false witness against my fellow man, and that is a sin. Please, no, I simply can’t do that!”
Chief Inspector Cuger throws up his hands in frustration.
He stands up and leans over the desk, his knuckles pressing on top of it, and there is deep and sudden anger in his eyes.
“Don’t you dare go religious on me, ma’am! Bearing false witness? Tell me, what will your God like more if you tell that lie, and it leads to Chris and his rogue friends being arrested, or you keep quiet and keep your damn principles and a week from now you hear that the robbers have struck again and killed a family in the process? Will that sad occurrence please you … and your God?”
Effe, quite shaken, looks up with dread at the angry policeman.
“You can take me to see a Judge, anybody, and I’ll prove to him that indeed I recognized Chris Bawa, and that he is indeed a thief! I’ll even testify against him in court if need be, but please I’m not going to tell a lie, never, please!”
Cuger bangs his right fist on the desk hard enough to make him groan with pain and turn away sharply to the window.
He walks to the window and stand gazing out, apparently to regain his composure.
Just then there is a gentle knock, and a huge policeman with a fat round face and jiggling jowls walks in.
He is chewing a red apple, and as he walks towards Cuger he looks at Effe and gives her an odd look.
He is holding a sheet of paper.
Cuger turns to face him.
“What is it, Sergeant McBaiden?” he asks harshly.
McBaiden gives the paper to Cuger.
Effe notices that it is the kind of paper the police give to people to write statements on.
“The suspect’s report, sir.”
“So short?” Cuger asks with a scowl.
He takes the single sheet and his narrowed eyes scan it.
Sergeant McBaiden bites into his apple, and then he looks over Cuger’s shoulder and points something out on the paper to Cuger.
McBaiden whispers something, and then he glances at Effe and giggles.
Effe frowns slightly. She has decided that she doesn’t like McBaiden one bit, and she wonders what is giving that maddening policeman so much pleasure.
Whatever it is seems to deflate Cuger too, because he sinks slowly into his chair and continues to read silently.
He lowers the sheet slowly and looks at Effe with sudden dulled eyes.
“What next, Chief?”
“Wait for me outside, Ato. Will be with you in a sec.”
“Yes, Chief.”
He pushes the last bit of apple into his mouth, gives Effe a rather dirty look, shakes his head, and sneers.
Effe turns and looks after him with shock until he goes out and closes the door, and then she turns towards Cuger.
“And what was that all about?” Effe asks coldly.
Cuger glances at the sheet still lying in front of him.
The noisy ceiling fan is trying to blow the paper off the desk, and so he lifts a stapler and places it on the sheet.
“This is Chris Bawa’s statement. He denies being the man on the crime scene. Instead, he says you’re a prostitute.”
Effe gasps, and her eyes open so wide that for a moment she feels her eyes are going to pop out of her head.
She feels the fire burning in her chest as sudden fury grips her body.
For a moment she sees only in flashes of whites as her shock, fury and pain threatens to tear her heart apart.
“What? What did you say?” she asks in a fierce, horrified whisper.
Cuger sighs and leans back.
“Chris Bawa says he met you about two years ago in a brothel, in a town called Cherensua. According to him you were a prostitute, and he spent some nights making love to you. You wanted him to take you with him to Densua, but he told you he had a girlfriend called Elaine, so he would find a good place for you in another village and come for you in a month’s time. According to him, he rented a place in the next village, Bomofo, and came back to Cherensua. He spent a whole week there, but could not find you again until today. He says he saw you in the hospital and you accused him falsely of being the robber you saw. Evidently, you hate him for not taking you out of the brothel in Cherensua, and thus accused him of being a robber to get your revenge!”
“The filthy, dirty bastard! He dared spew that rubbish about me? Is he crazy? Don’t tell me you believe a stupid, senseless story like that!” she almost screams with disgust.
“It all depends, ma’am. If his statement is true, then we don’t have a case, not even if you lie that he took off the mask,” he says miserably.
Effe leans towards him, her hands balled tightly into angry fists, her eyes flashing.
“Depends on what? Don’t make me angry! He’s so despicable! That is absolute rubbish! I don’t know him from Adam! I’ve never set eyes on him, the bastard! I don’t know any Cherensua, and I only saw Bomofo on our way here yesterday!”
Cuger holds up his hands placatingly, and then he picks up a green pen and underlines some sentences on the statement.
“Don’t get all heated up, ma’am. Like I said, whether we believe his statement or not depends!”
“Stop that this instant! Depends on what?”
Without a word Cuger picks up Chris Bawa’s statement and hands it to Effe.
“Look at the sentences I’ve underlined. According to him, when he made love to you, he saw two distinct features on your body. On your right buttock is a small birthmark shaped like a swan, and on the inner side of your right thigh, near … excuse my language, ma’am, but near your womanhood, is another birthmark shaped like a heart. So, if you don’t have those two distinct marks on your body, then of course his story is bullshit. But if you do have them, then I’m afraid we have to let him go because his statement proves that you two have had intimate relations before, and that it went sour, and you’re now vindictively trying to put him behind bars!”
Effe barely hears him.
She can’t even speak for a moment. She is trembling with a mixture of sudden fear and apprehension.
She is trembling badly, and the paper falls from her nerveless hands.
She stares at the policeman with great horror on her face.
She is torn to her very core!
The policeman stares at her, and shock is now registering on his own face.
“Good gracious! Is it true? Do you have those birthmarks?” he asks, stunned.
Effe cannot speak!
Her mind goes back, to the time when she had been but a toddler, prancing around the bath naked, her dear mother pointing out her birth marks, singing it in a sweet song:
Birthmarks are great,
Birthmarks are beautiful!
Effe, pretty Effe,
Has the most beautiful birthmarks of all!
Beautiful Swan behind because she is a beautiful princess!
Golden heart in front because she has a heart of gold!
That had been her special song!
From a dear mother!
How had he known? Oh dear, sweet Lord, how had that bastard known about these birthmarks which only three people know about…herself, her mother and her father!
Without a word Effe gets up and rushes out of the office.
She hears Cuger calling her name but she is too agitated to pay heed to him.
She comes to the front desk where Chris Bawa’s friends are waiting, and where Chris himself is sitting behind the counter, handcuffed!
Effe rushes at Chris, who is sitting quietly, looking at her with expressionless eyes.
For the very first time in her life Effe gets violent with another human being.
Before she can stop herself, her right hand flies out, and she slaps him quite hard on his right cheek, causing his head to rock backward!
“You bastard! You crazy bastard! How did you know about the marks? How the hell did you know? WHO TOLD YOU? WHO’RE YOU? WHO ARE YOU, CHRIS BAWA?” she screams.
Effe is aware of shouts around her, but she is too incensed with fury to care. She slaps Chris over and again, unable to stop herself from hitting him.
The beautiful dark girl she has seen with Chris’ friend is trying to come round the counter and attack Effe, but two policemen are holding her back.
Aku Norvisi is also trying to come near Effe, but she is also being held back.
Effe, almost weeping, looks steadily into Chris’ sad eyes, and she grabs the front of his shirt and shakes him with all her strength.
“How dare you! How dare you, whoever you are? Why are you doing this to me?”
Chief Inspector Cuger has come out.
He catches hold of Effe and draws her back.
Effe struggles fiercely, but the man is very strong, and he forcibly drags Effe through a side door.
He pokes out his head and speaks.
“Ato, release the suspect!”
And then Cuger closes the door.
Effe collapses into a plastic chair, covers her face with her hands, and then her body shakes quite hard as emotions set in, and she fights back her tears.
She feels so exposed, so naked, so abused!
How can a total stranger know such intimate details about her body?
Who is Chris Bawa?
How had he known about those marks?
Oh, Lord!
“I’m sorry, ma’am. I can see you’re very distraught, and I’m not surprised. That Bawa boy is indeed a very bad apple. You know, my pastor tells me that no one is born a bad person. We’re all born as clean children of God, without blemish, he says, but it is the society that corrupts some people and make them bad. Do you know what I think? I don’t think that rule applies to Chris Bawa, no way. That boy brought his own evil badness from the womb. Chris Bawa was born bad, straight out of his mother’s womb! Yes, Chris Bawa, …born bad!”
Effe knows it is not over!
She will definitely see Chris Bawa again, and he is going to tell her where he came by that information, even if she has to scratch it out of his eyes to get him to tell her the truth!
A Father" />
A Mother" />
Zac 29-Episode 1" />
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