The Open Road

Chapter 27

Bob

No

No

No



Had it really been a gunshot sound? Could I have imagined it? Surely Jack was not dead. It was Jack…the strong, calculating man with an easy smirk. An image of Jack’s body lying lifeless on the ground formed in my head. I could vividly see a pool of blood around him. I could see the assaulter’s shadow cast on his still body, daunting him, mocking him. Suddenly aggravated by how first my mind had declared Jack dead, I attempted to lift my body off the ground.

“What the hell-"

I cut my captor’s sentence off by ramming the back of my head into his face.

“Oomph!”

I was about to successfully stand up when I felt something press on my back. Sighing, I lifted my hands and slowly dropped to my knees.

“Oh tsk tsk tsk…I did not realize that you two were that close…I would have called off my man or at least told him to bring the guy back alive…”

I shifted my neck towards Marie. Her head was lowered, her shoulders slumped. My eyes moved to her trembling hands. I saw drops of tears silently land on the ground, making holes that vanished as quickly as they formed.

“It’s going to be okay Marie…I may not know how exactly we are going to get out of this but we will…”

Slowly, Marie lifted her head and turned to face me. I felt a shiver gnaw at my spine when I looked into her glassy eyes. Each time I had encountered this woman, she had always had a flicker of something in her eyes. At times it was anger, sometimes mischief. Her features might have been impassive, but her eyes, her eyes carried her drive. Patrick had snuffed that light from her eyes in a matter of minutes.

What did this man do to her?

“As much as this has been a delight…we have to move.”

As I was roughly being lifted from the ground by Patrick’s two goons, I thought about Jack and whether there was a slim chance that he had survived. Ever since we met in Naivasha, he had been nothing but loyal. He had aided me in doing the unthinkable, and now he had paid the price. If only I had laid low, heeded his warning about going to the hospital. Had I just led a man to his death? I might as well be the one who had pulled the trigger. I felt my stomach churn as I watched Patrick gingerly lift Marie off the ground. At first, Marie had refused to place her hand in his, but then Patrick had whispered something in her ear. After this, Marie had mechanically accepted Patrick’s open hand and had proceeded to follow him towards the car. The two goons and I stood there for a while before they aggressively shoved me towards the direction of the car. Later it would occur to me that they had been waiting for their friend.  

                   *                                                 *                                               *

“What is she like? Our daughter? Is she as feisty as her mother?”

Marie, Patrick, and I were seated in the backseat of the vehicle. One goon drove while the other pointed his g*n steadily at me. Where exactly was I going to go? They had tied my hands the moment I had entered the car anyway. Even if I was to jump out of a moving vehicle like some lead character in an action film, how was I going to unlock the car door?

“I wonder if she has my intelligence or my thirst for power…she must, don’t you think? I mean, she is my blood…”

Marie had not uttered a single word after Patrick’s grand reveal regarding Kim’s true lineage. I recalled the time when I had distinctively told Marie that she would never be able to raise children. The words had rolled easily and quickly off my tongue. I had not regretted saying them considering the light-hearted conversation we had been having. Sue had Marie had been teasing me about being a parent. Both of them thought I could never discipline a child, and as a retort, I had told Marie that she did not possess a single maternal bone in her body. I tried to recall Marie’s expression. Had she been saddened by the accusation, or had she taken the comment lightly?

When I first heard Patrick’s words, I had felt a sense of relief. The thought of Sue having a child with Darren or birthing our child without me was gut-wrenching. After the rush of relief, however, I had gone into a state of shock and, well, confusion. Why Darren? Sue had money. While my accounts had been frozen, hers hadn’t been touched. Surely she could have raised the child by herself. If Marie wanted to hide her daughter away from this psychotic imbecile, why not get out of the country with Sue? Darren was rich and resourceful, but could he really win a war against Patrick? Patrick had goons, and these goons had guns. What had Darren gotten himself into while I was in prison?

“You said enemy…are you also in the automobile industry?”

Silence draped the car, and for a while, I thought my question would go unanswered. A peal of laughter filled the vehicle. Even the goons were chuckling.

“I was wrong about you, Robert. You and I could never go into business together.”

I averted my attention to Marie, hoping to see an explanation etched on her face, but her gaze was trained on the passing figures outside the car. I was about to press for an answer when Patrick suddenly raised his voice.

“Tune that up…”

The goon who was driving swiftly did as instructed. Once again, the car was filled with pin-drop silence safe from the voice that was emanating from the radio.

"The country is still in shock following Inspector General Stephen Malaki's murder. This took place forty-five minutes ago outside the Serenga police station in Nairobi. The decorated officer lost his life while searching for the dangerous escaped convict, Robert Obare. It is believed that one of Robert’s men was sent to kill the inspector in order to impair the convict’s manhunt. This is Joseph Ng'ang'a, X FM."