THE WITNESSES

CHAPTER THREE

Naturally she wouldn't have opened maybe the voice was just too enticing, she wanted to see the owner of such a rich and lovely voice, her instinct told her not to open but she ignored her instinct, if she had known she would have heeded her instinct, because opening that door was the last thing she was ever going to do in her life.

When she opened the door, she didn’t see the metal, neither did she hear the gunshot. It was only one shot. Straight to the forehead, she fell down to the floor. The killer turned back and walked slowly into the darkness, he didn’t even care to check on his victim, he was a professional, and he knew she was dead even before she hit the ground

As he walked away, he sang softly to himself

'Mary had a little lamb and it was red as blood'

He knew the journalist would fail, he got out his phone and dialed the journalist's number, the journalist was beginning to bore him, and maybe he wasn't so smart after all.

Meanwhile it was 8.05pm at Balm of Gilead hospital, the last ten minutes had been spent talking with Sister Mary, it was already a well thought out process, Alhaji Hassan and Ali had both agreed that they weren't going to get sister Mary alarmed in any way, they had sold her a story of mistaken identity claiming they had mistook her for a certain Mary that was from a certain royal family. They had spent the extra minutes sharing regular gist with the excuse that they needed to rest a while before returning to their homes, Sister Mary certainly needed the company as she continued to laugh at the funny jokes that Alhaji Hassan kept throwing.

Ali's phone rang, he had been expecting the call, he looked at Alhaji Hassan, they both knew who it was, they excused themselves and left the room to the passageway, Ali got the phone out of his pocket, indeed, it was the private number, and he wore a broad smile on his face when he answered the call.

‘Hello, so now that I won, will you end the games now?’

The caller responded with a soft laugh before he responded 'I would give you a bonus riddle, what do you call a man who spends all day in the river and returns home to bath with mud water?

Ali couldn't find a response to the question, Alhaji Hassan continued starring at Ali, he sure knew something had gone wrong. The caller continued speaking 'you sure aren’t so wordy anymore, right?’

‘Okay, I would help you out, the answer to that riddle is Ali'

Ali continued to stare in confusion as the caller's voice continued on the other end of the line.

'Mary had a little lamb but it was red as blood, the keywords were blood and Mary, her name was bloody Mary, now you have two dead people in your hands, the students of St Mary's high school will never forgive you' and with that he ended the call.

Ali continued to stare in shock, Alhaji Hassan had to shake him violently before he regained consciousness of the environment. It didn’t take long for Alhaji Hassan to also begin to feel that way after Ali told him the details of the conversation.

The morning papers carried the news the next day, the students of St Mary's high school couldn't be comforted, Bloody Mary was like a mother to most of them, no one knew why she was murdered, no one had a clue, no one except Ali and Alhaji Hassan, Ali had once again suggested going to the police but Alhaji Hassan was still skeptical, he didn’t want to be a victim of the police, it had happened before when he was younger, he had reported a case and had been arrested, it was by a slim chance that he got off that one, he wasn't going to allow that happen again, he had strongly insisted that they would only go to the police when they had something concrete to report. And that was why the first plan was to record the caller's call the next time he called.

He sat down on the balcony, the music played softly from inside his room, it was Asa's Jailer, and he was singing along. He smiled as he listened to himself sing, he really had a lovely voice, he was gifted in so many ways, he was that frightened skinny boy that had fast grown into a handsome, intelligent and confident man, he lived in a duplex, he looked over his fence into the other compound, some kids were running around, a man came out of the house and scolded them, he watched them as they moved into the house in fear, trying hard to suppress their tears.

He shook his head, he was once like that, defenseless and quick to tears, but that day on the lonely abandoned bridge with that bully Tom, had changed his whole life.

His mind drifted back to the event, he never had any intention to allow Tom die, he had turned back with intent to pull him up but those words ignited something in him, the bully's voice rang in his ears

'Pull me up stupid'

It was like a flash, he saw two visions at that moment, in the first one, he pulled Tom up but in the second, he stepped on his hands and down he went crashing, he chose the second vision and acted accordingly and he couldn't stop himself, he enjoyed watching Tom die, it was pleasurable and that was when for the first time, he knew there was something abnormal about himself, he didn’t even flinch or blink an eyelid, the final vision of the dying Tom would have been a picture of the small skinny boy smiling.

He longed to feel that way again, he longed to watch someone die, but it took another two years before his dreams came true, though he wanted to watch someone die, he probably hadn't gathered enough courage to make it happen, killing his step father never crossed his mind, he could as well say his step father had it coming.

It was a cold windy night in Jos, the boy was thirteen years old then, it was his early transitional stage into teenage hood, he had discovered that his anger level had started rising even to points he couldn't control. His stepfather still bullied him but he never tried to fight back, he took the whips, punches and slaps as a man and he always wore the hard expressionless face whenever his step father chose to attack him, but that night, there was something in the air he couldn't understand, maybe the wind was calling for blood.

He first heard the noise at about 11pm, apparently his mum and step dad were having an argument as they always had, the shouts became louder and it was followed by the familiar sounds of belt lashes and soft sobs. He buried his head under the pillow but the noise kept on coming, the man kept shouting and landing his lashes.

He stood up from his bed and went to his mother's room, his step dad was standing over his mum, she was lying on the ground, he was shouting and flogging her with the belt repeatedly, the young boy turned back and went into the kitchen, he knew he felt possessed that night, he grabbed a knife from the kitchen and went back into the room, this time he entered the room and stood by the door.

'Leave her alone'

His step father stopped suddenly and turned around, what he could see was a small boy holding a knife with no single emotion on his face, his step father walked towards him as he held on to the belt.

'You better get out of here now before I kill you alongside your useless mother' the words hit a strong chord in the boy's heart, he held on strongly to the knife, his step father came closer, he didn’t ever think the young boy would strike, his hands were still in midair as he attempted landing the stroke on the boy's head when the boy sidestepped and with a single thrust he sunk the knife into his step father’s stomach. His mum shouted in horror, his step father shouted in pain but the young boy wasn't done, he stabbed his stepfather three more times in the space of a few seconds and watched the man die right there in his mother's room. His mum's shouts of 'no!' continued loudly as he stood there staring into the lifeless eyes of his step father. He had just committed his second murder but to his mum that was a first.

The sound of his phone ringing brought him back to the present, he answered the call, there were a few dialogues and he said some words of prayers over the phone too, the caller's final words were

'Thank you very much pastor' and he replied

'God bless you my dear friend'

He smiled to himself, he knew it was practically impossible for anyone to suspect him.

Ali decided to take the day off work, it was a Friday, the last he heard from the strange caller was the night before when he and Alhaji Hassan had being in the ward with Sister Mary with high hopes of saving the victim only to discover they had lost again.

The words of the caller kept hitting hard at his head

'Now you have two dead people in your hands'

The caller was making him feel responsible for the murders, he couldn't stop blaming himself, he knew that if he had been smarter with the riddles, he would have been able to save the victims, he wasn't willing to take any chances again, he was going to the police, he didn't care what Alhaji Hassan thought about it anymore, if they had gone to the police earlier, maybe they would have been able to save the last victim.

He got his car keys and got out of the house, he was going to the police and he wasn't going to inform Alhaji Hassan, this was his own case after all, the caller didn’t involve Alhaji Hassan.

He drove out of his compound and hit the road, he was driving straight to Area command, and he needed detectives on this case, not just regular policemen.

It took him about twenty five minutes to drive to Area command, one of the policemen at the gate knew him, after all he was a popular journalist, he drove into the compound and parked his car but as he made to open the door and come out of the car, his phone rang, a quick look at the phone screen and it was 'private number'

He knew just what he had to do, he tapped the record icon and answered the call, the familiar voice of the strange caller came up on the other end of the line'

'Ali, I want to teach you a concept'

Ali didn’t anticipate this new dimension, the caller always had strange phrases every time he called, now what was this one again about a concept?

The caller continued 'This concept is called Actions and Consequences, I would enlighten you with examples'

'You are about to take an action right now and that action has also got a consequence'

Ali's heart began to beat very fast, he immediately understood that the caller knew his plans, the caller continued

'Let me make this much more explanatory, let's just say, if Ali decides to take the action of going into that place that he is about to enter, then there might be a consequence of Ann not reaching her destination later today'

At the mention of his girlfriend’s name, Ali's voice shot up, 'listen to me, if you so much as touch a hair on her....'

Ali was cut short by the caller's soft voice 'ssshhhh, stop raising your voice, we are gentlemen here'

Ali had to keep quiet despite himself, he was fuming with anger, now he was really scared for Ann, the caller continued

' I now declare you God, declare the verdict on Ann, live or die, the choice is yours and again Ali just for next time sake, whenever you want to record a call do get rid of that beeping tone, it sells you out so easily' and the line went dead.

Ali felt a strange cold break all over his body, he was shivering, the caller knew he was recording the call, he knew his every move, but how could that even be possible?

Ali knew what he had to do, he turned on the ignition and drove out of the police station, the policemen at the gate that had seen him come in looked at him strangely but what was it to them? They simply watched him drive away, most journalists were mad, maybe this one had gone mad also.

Ali was back at his house, the drive home was faster than the drive to the police station. His head was clouded with so many thoughts, the caller knew about his girlfriend, the caller knew his office and most probably knew his house too, he could also bet that the caller had tailed him to the police station too, could that also mean the caller was probably watching him at that moment?

He parked his car in the compound and looked around, there was no one in sight, he entered into his house and locked the doors, and he grabbed his phone and called his girlfriend.

Ann picked at first ring, she sounded very okay, she reminded him that she was coming over to spend the weekend later in the day, he was about to discourage her from coming but he held his peace, he didn’t want to create any kind of fear in her heart, when he ended the call, he felt better at least he knew Ann was safe.

He began to play back the recorded voice of the caller, the voice was certainly masked, it was quite obvious, and he could guess that the caller had placed something over the mouth piece of the phone, the caller was certainly covering his tracks.

So far, the caller had given two riddles and the two people involved had died. One question kept plaguing him, why had the caller chosen him? There were thousands of journalists in Jos, why did it have to be Ali?

Suddenly, something flashed in his head, there was a line that sounded familiar when he played back the audio recording, he got out the phone again and played back the recording for the fifth time and when he got to the particular line, he paused it and began to play it over and over again. 'Live or die, the choice is yours'

Ali kept on racking his brain, he had heard the line before, he began to repeat it to himself 'live or die, live or die' then it hit him. Of course it was from the horror movie 'SAW'

That was the favorite line of the killer in the jig saw puzzles, Ali also remembered the very first time the caller had called him, his words were 'I want to play a game' that was also another line from the horror movie SAW.

Ali began to connect the dots, in the jigsaw puzzle, the killer always gave his victims a chance to life, their chances to life was usually tied around a dangerous and risky task they had to perform and if they were successful, they would have earned their life. Ali couldn't help thinking, did this caller see himself as the Jos version of the killer in the Jig Saw puzzles? Was that why he chose to use riddles and puzzles? But his own approach was different, in his own game, the lives of the victims weren't in their own hands to save, he was putting their lives in someone else's hand and that was the part that Ali couldn't just bear, he was already tired of the games as it were.

He laid on the sofa as his thoughts formed circles inside his head, he should have slept off because it was the sound of his phone ringing that woke him up.

He looked at the time, it was 2.00pm, and of course the caller Id was private number.

'Hello, I want to play a game?'

Ali decided to talk 'hmm, sorry to interrupt you but why do you call with private number, if you are as confident as your voice sounds why don't you call without hiding your id?

The caller laughed softly and replied 'Ali my friend, give me a few minutes, and the line went dead'

Ali couldn't understand, he sat on the sofa waiting for the call, he didn’t know what to do any more. Twenty minutes later, the phone rang, it was a regular phone number with 11 digits, Ali answered the call and it was the same voice of the caller.

'Now listen to me, this phone number belongs to a young teenage boy, I got the phone off his dead body a few minutes ago just to prove to you that I can call you with whatsoever number I chose to call you with, but just so you know, his death is also on your head now.

I have passed your stupid test, can you pass mine?

Ali lost his voice, he couldn't bring himself to believe that the caller had actually murdered someone just to prove a silly point, the caller continued speaking

'I want to play a game,

Eat and Live, Drink and Die. The blaring flickers of the sun rise in the East.

You have 48 hours to decode that, call it a weekend bonus, you find it, you keep it, 'finders keepers'

And the line went dead.