THE WITNESSES

CHAPTER TWO

Meanwhile on the other end was the caller, as he attempted to redial the journalist's number he saw a young boy and his father walk down the road, they walked past his car and he could see just how small the little boy was.

The little boy reminded him of just how he was when he was a boy, his mind drifted back to one of the most memorable events in his life, the day that he could as well say he had discovered himself.

He could still vividly remember that hot sunny afternoon, it was November 3rd, and he was in primary school. Primary five to be precise, he was around ten or eleven years old at the time.

His mind drifted further down memory lane to his early childhood.

He didn’t grow up with his dad, his dad had passed on when he was yet a baby although his mum had remarried so he had for a step father a drunk and woman beater of a man. His step father always came home drunk at nights and would always end up beating both mother and son with belts for no reasons. He suffered a lot of domestic violence in the hands of his stepfather and maybe that was why he began to find solace in pornography and horror movies at a very tender age. He also read deep spiritual books and as early as ten years, he already had some secret evil fetishes and desires.

He attended Ariya Montessori, one of the good private schools in Jos and he was also one of the most intelligent pupils in his class. He was class prefect and this always got him into trouble with many classmates especially the bullies among them.

He had a small body frame and was sure the target of many bullies, the chief bully was Tom, He and Tom lived close and most times they used same route on their way home though he always tried as much as he could to leave school immediately after the sound of the closing bells but Tom always had a way of finding him as he had to be Tom's bag carrier.

Tom was a rather tall and fat boy, who derived pleasure in bullying others. Tom had bullied him right from when he could remember but November 3rd was not every other day. On that day that he became what he was.

It was close of school as usual and he had walked rather fast so Tom wouldn’t catch up with him but somehow Tom had hastened and again met him on the way. Obviously Tom loved the bullying, in fact, he lived for it.

'Hey, stupid, why didn’t you wait up for me, who are you expecting to carry my bag for me?

Even before he turned around, he knew the owner of the voice, as he turned around, the slap hit him across the face, not too hard though but it hurt all the same

'Common, carry this bag stupid' and with that Tom dumped his bag on him, he received the bag and slung it over his shoulder alongside his own bag as he walked ahead of Tom, Tom kept on teasing him as he walked behind him and smacked him on the head at various intervals.

There was a flood earlier in the year and it had left behind a very deep gully that was now filled with muddy waters, the local government had constructed a wooden bridge over it, but the wooden bridge had begun to fail and for safety reasons the road had been shut off to pedestrians and motorists.

The wooden bridge route was a short cut though, the other route was rather very long but most people would rather take the long route than take the risk of going over the bridge as the bridge was really in a bad state.

Tom knew this but he instructed the young boy to go by the unsafe short cut route, the young boy obliged, after all, Tom would hit him again if he refused, the young boy crossed over the bridge but he observed that the bridge had become much worse as it creaked loudly and shook much, Tom also made his way over it but just before he got to the end of it, the bridge gave way and he would have fallen straight down to his death had he not quickly grabbed a portion of the wooden construction that managed to hang on to the other side of the road as the bridge broke, just below him was the rather deep and muddy swamp, he began to dangle helplessly as he looked up to the young boy to help pull him up.

The young boy turned backwards with intent to pull him up but just then he stopped in his tracks.

Tom had so much fear in his eyes. Now he was holding onto the support with his two hands, as his legs dangled helplessly, even the piece of wood that he held onto was threatening to give way, 'pull me up stupid, what are you waiting for'

As Tom's voice rang out both in pain and fright, the young boy stood there looking at him, it seemed he was trying to make up his mind if it was safe to take another step towards Tom.

Tom continued to curse but the boy stood there completely emotionless, he was enjoying the view, he didn’t move.

The young boy looked around briefly and when he was sure no one else was coming that way, he moved forward to where Tom's hands held on strongly to the wood piece and stepped on Tom’s hands very hard. Tom let go immediately, it was more of a reflex action but that reflex action cost him his life. He fell into the deep muddy waters and the young boy watched him as he gasped for breath and drowned slowly and painfully in the muddy waters.

The young boy stood there watching until Tom's body vanished completely inside the swamp. He threw Tom's bag also into the swamp. He didn’t feel remorse even for a second, he felt a certain joy. The sounds that the dying Tom made as he drowned excited him in a weird way, somehow he knew he loved it and somehow he knew he would love to watch someone die again.

Tom's body was found the next day, no one had a clue. It was general belief that he had tried to use the bridge and it had given way and he had met his death. No one suspected the young boy with the small stature.

His mind drifted back to the present as he dialed the journalist's number the second time.

The journalist voice came on the line 'please what do you want from me?'

He ignored the question and spoke into the receiver, the towel was over the mouthpiece of the phone to mask his voice as usual

'Congratulations, I believed you just watched the news, you lost but I won't count that as a win yet, I would just say it was meant to get your full attention, now that I have got it, I would start all over, I want to play a game''

He paused for effect before he continued

'Mary had a little lamb but it was red as blood and everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go'

If you find it, you keep it, you have 24 hours, finders keepers'

The journalist tried to say something but he ended the call.

He smiled to himself, he was beginning to enjoy the game, he was back and better, he just loved Jos, this was his home, he regretted leaving in the first place, he turned on the ignition and drove slowly down the road, he wished the journalist luck as he slowly muttered to himself

'Let the games begin'

Ali couldn't help it, his hands shook as he held on to the phone, and he still found it hard to believe that there was a relationship between the first riddle and the murder.

Now there was a second riddle and he certainly couldn't tag this as a prank anymore, he tried hard to concentrate but he was sure losing it, his mind was a complete blur, he didn’t even know where to start from, the riddle continued to play in his head.

'Mary had a little lamb but it was red as blood and everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go'

None of it made any sense to him, this was only a nursery rhyme and that was all he could understand from it.

He stood up despite his shaky legs and helped himself to a bottle of beer from the fridge, he needed something to calm his nerves.

One bottle didn’t seem enough, he had two more before he began to feel himself, he had been thinking hard for over an hour but nothing still made any sense to him, it was a few minutes past 9pm before he eventually decided to put a call across to Alhaji Hassan, that was the best solution he could come up with.

'Ali, my man' he smiled despite himself as he heard Alhaji Hassan's voice on the other end of the line, Alhaji Hassan could immediately detect something was wrong from the way his voice sounded.

'Ali, are you okay? You don't sound quite alright'

Ali didn’t spend time on courtesy greetings, he went straight to the point and related all the events of the evening to Alhaji Hassan'

There was a short silence on the other end of the line when Ali finished talking, Alhaji Hassan knew this wasn't kids play anymore.

'How many hours did he give you this time?'

'Twenty four hours' Ali responded

'Okay let's meet at the office tomorrow by 7am, as it is we would still have some time to try and solve this puzzle together'

After he ended the call, Ali felt a little relieved but he still had to take two more bottles of beer before he could get some sleep.

The sound of his alarm woke him up the next morning, it was already 6am, he jumped off his bed and hastily prepared for work and he was already at his office before the agreed 7am.

Alhaji Hassan came in a few minutes later and in another five minutes both men were seating together trying to solve the second riddle.

'Ali, please remind me again, in the exact words of the caller, what was the first riddle?

Ali responded quickly

'Black is blacker at the mall, all colors are colorful but black is beautiful'

Alhaji Hassan seemed to be in deep thoughts, he felt the first riddle was a rather easy one and they had only lost on that one because they hadn't taken the caller seriously. The Beautiful Mall was one of the very popular malls in Jos and if they had only visited the place, it wouldn't have taken them any extra effort to discover that a man called Blackie actually sold only black shoes there and maybe just maybe they would have been able to save his life. Alhaji Hassan felt very bad that he had taken the caller lightly before and he had also caused Ali to act the same way.

Now he was ready to take on the challenge, he loved challenges, Ali was a very smart person too, he was quite sure that both of them could handle the caller on this second riddle.

'Okay could you repeat the caller's exact words regarding the second riddle?

Ali responded quickly again

'Mary had a little lamb but it was red as blood and everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go'

And then it hit them, as both of them simultaneously recited the third verse of the poem

'It followed her to school one day, which was against the rules'

Their eyes brightened as they exclaimed at the same time

School!!

It was clear, the next victim was definitely related to a school.

Alhaji Hassan looked up at Ali, 'go on and get your system in here, our search begins at school'

Ali dashed into his office and returned with his laptop, Alhaji Hassan was already on his own keyboard when Ali returned to his office.

Ali sat opposite him as he opened his laptop and connected his modem.

'I think the keyword here should be red as blood'

Alhaji Hassan looked at Ali and responded, why would you think so?

'In the first riddle, Black was the subject, and it happened to be our man, now Mary is the subject, so it means we should be looking out for a lady that probably bears the name Mary, again in the first riddle, beautiful was the emphasized adjective, and it turned out to be our location, in this case, color red is being emphasized, so I can bet, we should be looking for a school that probably has a red color'

Ali suddenly paused, as the reality of the situation suddenly dawned on him, of course most schools in Jos were painted red, and that would certainly be like seeking for a needle in a hay stack.

But all the same, they decided to try, they were journalists and they had the necessary data base to search from and the necessary contacts to use too.

After about one hour they had come up with over a thousand schools in Jos that could also have thousands of Mary (s), obviously they needed to narrow down the search a whole lot more.

Ali continued to repeat the riddle to himself

'Mary had a little lamb but it was red as blood and anywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go'

He would have repeated it over five times before it struck him again.

'Orthodox schools, why don't we check on Orthodox schools?

Alhaji Hassan looked at him with questioning eyes, then it hit him too, of course it had to be an orthodox school, Mary was the keyword, and that could also be understood as Sister Mary, which of course had an orthodox origin, yes, Ali was right.

That narrowed down their search to orthodox schools that had red colors, this was quite helpful as they had to make some calls, send some mails and wait for replies, and in another hour they had come up with less than a hundred schools.

This was definitely better, all they now had to do was scroll through each name and do a series of eliminations.

Only three schools remained after the eliminations, and they remained because they seemed to have a connection with the riddle.

There was 'Lamb of God Dedication College' there was 'St Mary's high school' and there was 'Sacred Lamb high school'

All the other schools didn’t quite have a close relationship with the riddle, the three chosen schools were very far apart, it would take hours to move from one to the other.

There was no time to lose, it was already past 10am, they had less than ten hours remaining to find it and keep it in the words of the caller.

Ali grabbed his car keys, as they were about to leave the office, he asked Alhaji Hassan, don't you think we should involve the police? Alhaji Hassan shook his head, 'certainly not now, moreover they might just arrest us as well, I would suggest we find out more and get something more concrete before we go to the police'

In another five minutes, they were in Ali's car, Ali turned on the ignition and drove off, as he drove off, another car ignition sounded behind them, just a few meters away, the driver of the car smiled broadly, he knew they would crack the location but the real test would be finding the victim,, he would be really impressed if they could find the victim before the time elapsed

He smiled again, he almost laughed when he watched Ali and the Alhaji run out of the office and into the car, he was really enjoying this, he muttered softly under his breath 'There is fire on the mountain, Run! Run! Run!'

St Mary's High school was their first point of call, it took them about forty five minutes to arrive there. There was traffic congestion coupled with the bad roads.

St Mary's high school was a boarding school and was a single s*x school as well for females only.

Ali was stopped in front of the gigantic school gate by two security men, they wanted to know who the two men were as they had never seen their faces in the school before. It took a lot of explanations and persuasion both from Ali and Alhaji Hassan before one of the security guards even agreed to call the school principal on phone.

It took them another twenty minutes at the gate before the gate was eventually opened and they were allowed into the school compound. A staff of the school met them and showed them the way to the principal's office.

They waited at the reception for over ten minutes before the principal showed up, she was a reverend sister and she was quite old too.

Prior to their arrival at the school, Alhaji Hassan and Ali had already cooked up a story that would sell because they couldn't just bust into the school and begin to ask for a particular person with the truth, they didn’t want to raise any unnecessary fears and they also wanted everything to be contained as much as possible.

When Sister Margaret introduced herself as the principal and also got to know they were journalists and they were working on a story of a famous family and they wanted to see if they could contact a far relation of the family that might be in her school, she was more than willing to help.

Meanwhile, on their way to the school, both men had being able to decode that the victim had to be a teacher in the school, the fifth verse of the nursery rhyme mentioned a teacher, and after much deliberations they had come to a conclusion that it had to be a teacher.

Convincing Sister Margaret to produce a register of all her staff wasn't a difficult task, she was willing to help the journalists in their story, and she was a lover of history.

Both men studied the register with in depth attention but nothing seemed to strike them, there wasn't even a single Mary among the staff list, neither was there any other staff name that bore a resemblance to any other detail in the riddle.

When the two men were leaving St Mary's High school, the disappointment on their faces was obvious, they had actually placed their best bet on the school, now they had spent over three hours chasing shadows, their next best bet was Sacred Lamb High School, it sounded closer to the riddle than Lamb of God dedication college, the ride to Sacred Lamb High School took them over an hour as it was far from St Mary's.

They had less resistance at the gate, it was a mixed school, and it was originally an orthodox school but was later handed over to the government who in turn handed it over to private individuals. Hence it was now a private school but it still maintained most of its already existing orthodox standards. It was a day and boarding school.

Mr. Peter was the administrator of the school, he welcomed the journalists and also seemed very interested in their quest, and he was also willing to help.

A careful analysis of all the names on the register of staff wasn't productive as well for the journalists, there was not a single Mary among the members of staff neither was there any name that seemed to bear any relationship with the details of the riddle.

By the time they got to Lamb of God Dedication College, it was already past 5pm, they had less than three hours before the dead line. Lamb of God Dedication College was an only female school too, Father Francis was the administrator here, it was a boarding school as well, and he received the journalists well and as usual after they sold their story to him, he was willing to help. One look at the register and their eyes brightened, there were three staff members that went by the name Mary. There was the French teacher, Mr. John Mary, there was the chemistry teacher, Aunty Mary Ann and there was the disciplinary mistress Sister Mary, she was a reverend sister.

Ali stared hard at the name Sister Mary, as another verse from the poem came into his head,

'And so the teacher sent it out'

Sending out was a connotation for discipline, he was quite sure he had found the victim, as he was about to speak, Alhaji Hassan asked the administrator, please can we speak with Sister Mary?

There was a look on the administrator's face that made Ali and Alhaji Hassan lose heart,

'Sister Mary left the school premise a few hours ago, she received a call from Balm of Gilead hospital that a relation of hers was involved in a motor accident'

As the administrator was still speaking the bells were ringing in Ali's head, he already knew it, it was about to happen, he looked at his wristwatch, it was already 6pm, they had less than two hours left, he practically ran out of the administrators office, Alhaji Hassan understood the essence of time too, he ran along after Ali, the administrator stared on in surprise as they ran off to their car, and zoomed off, Balm of Gilead hospital was about one hour away, if they moved quickly, they could still save Sister Mary.

There was heavy traffic on the road, and rain suddenly began to fall heavily too, Ali continued to honk loudly and curse at other drivers but that didn’t make them move any faster. Now he wished they hadn't left in such a haste, he would have at least got the teacher's phone number from the school admin, at least he would have been able to warn her.

They finally arrived at Balm of Gilead hospital at 7.45pm, Ali had barely even parked the car properly when Alhaji Hassan jumped out of the car and ran into the reception hall, when Ali finally parked and entered into the reception hall, he saw Alhaji Hassan taking with one of the nurses, she led them upstairs. As they climbed the stairs, Ali's heart continued to beat faster, he was really scared for sister Mary, they finally got to room 201, and as they opened the room, there was a woman sitting on a chair beside another woman lying on the hospital bed, Ali didn’t even waste a second,

'Please are you Sister Mary, of Lamb Of God dedication school?'

She regarded Ali for a few seconds and after she had probably ascertained that he was quite harmless, she nodded positively.

Ali heaved a sigh of relief, Alhaji Hassan did too, Ali looked at his wristwatch, and it was 7.55pm, it was only five minutes left.

He smiled, he had beat the caller this time, he had found this one and of course he was going to keep this one from dying.

Meanwhile at about the same time, the recreation and creative arts instructor at St Mary's high school was busy arranging her room, she was silently replaying the events of the day in her head, she had being on duty, attending to the J.s.s.2 students when two strange men had come into the school earlier in the day, she had watched how they had argued for a long time with the security men before he had finally allowed them in, anyway what was her own? she was a part time staff her only job was to take the students of the junior classes through creative activities, her name was Aunty Grace but the students had long substituted her name for another, she laughed when she remembered what the students liked to call her, she also remembered she had earned the name when she had told them the fictitious story of 'bloody Mary' she had told it with so much passion and seriousness that the students had become so scared that when she eventually told them it was fiction they decided to pay her back by naming her 'bloody Mary' she laughed silently as she remembered the name, she really loved the children especially the ones in J.s.s 3, she had been with them for three years and watched most of them grow into teenage hood. She was the definition of a teacher who made the children laugh and play. She was a par time staff so even though it was a boarding school, she lived in her own apartment.

She was trying to fix the bed spread when she heard a knock on her door. She looked up at the wall clock, it was 8.00pm exactly, and she wondered who was at the door. No one ever came visiting her talk more of at a time like this, she walked towards the door, hesitated for a moment, then she asked 'who is at the door'

She heard a very lovely male voice

'Please open up, I need a favor'