THE WITNESSES

(PART TWO) CHAPTER FOUR

Becky lay on Ali’s chest as he stroked her hair softly, they were under the covers lying on the bed and inside his bedroom. He remained calm despite the fact that he knew the gravity of what he had done. He had never cheated on Ann, he couldn’t explain how it happened, it had happened so fast, he tilted his head a little to observe Becky’s face but her eyes were shut as she breathed heavily, he assumed she was asleep. If he could read her mind, he would have known that she was simply waiting for the perfect moment to strike him.

His mind drifted back to the reality of the situation he found himself, detective Usuman had gone missing, his girlfriend had been taken by the rat, he had failed the last test, he couldn’t save the late sleepers and that was very bad for Ann. It was worse now as he hadn’t received any call from the rat over the last hours. He contemplated talking to Becky about it, he had bonded with her sexually, he could as well confide in her, maybe she could help him, he was about to tap her and get her to open her eyes when she stood up on her own accord, smiled at him and excused herself.

He watched her sway her hips as she walked away from him and out of the room, he assumed she probably wanted to get a drink from the fridge or something, she had only her lingerie on, though he felt guilty for what had happened between them yet he found himself desiring her. Becky had such an overpowering effect on him.

He was busy contemplating whether to confide in Becky or not when she re appeared, she stood at the door, she had her right hand behind her, she had a smile on her face, Ali returned the smile but his smile quickly disappeared when her right hand appeared from behind her and right in it was a pistol. Ali could have assumed it was a joke, but he saw her eyes, he knew the eyes of murder, in that split second, he knew Becky was going to kill him.

The surprise on his face was unmistakable, he couldn’t understand why Becky wanted to kill him, He opened his mouth to speak but she interrupted him

‘Shut up, you don’t even have to say anything, allow me do the talking’ she smiled as she observed Ali was willing to obey her, indeed everyone respected the gun.

She was still in her lingerie, she could imagine how beautiful and deadly she appeared at the same time, she loved the feeling, all the times she had thought about killing Ali, she had actually pictured it happening this way in her head. The only beautiful twist to it now was that she was going to kill Ali in his own house, she had never dreamt about it in that way before, she loved the thought of it, and she even loved the way the story would go. She knew the detectives would eventually discover the body of the bar attendant, she knew they would also discover the pistol that had released the bullets that killed the late sleepers in Ali’s house as well as the evidence she had planted in Ali’s bedroom pinning the murder of the bar attendant to him.

She already imagined how the society would tag Ali’s murder as good riddance to bad rubbish, they would simply conclude that God had decided to punish the murderous journalist. She felt so much joy deep within, she had been disappointed when Ali had escaped the last time but now she understood that it was a blessing in disguise, indeed she couldn’t have wished for better, she was ecstatic about the way it was all going to end.

‘Ali, let’s just call this day, judgement day, let’s just say he who fights and run, lives to fight another day’

Ali continued to stare at her, he was as confused as he was scared, he was quite sure he had never had an encounter with Becky so he really couldn’t understand what she meant by fighting and running away.

She was about to speak when they heard the knock on the door, She paused for a while as if she considered pulling the trigger on Ali and pulling the trigger on the intruder afterwards.

That one second pause was all Ali needed, in Becky’s moment of playing around with the gun and having so much fun she had moved too close to Ali. She had even relaxed her finger on the trigger, Ali had been watching her closely. She should have known better than to take her eyes off her target for even a second at such close range. She was a professional, she should have known the dangers of letting down her guards. Ali seized the moment, a swift kick had the gun flying out of her hands but not before it released a bullet. The sound was deafening, the bullet had narrowly missed Ali’s head but it grazed his shoulder all the same. Ali dived at her but she was his match, she side stepped and caught his head under her arms as she tried to strangle him, Ali hit her thrice with his elbow on her ribs before she loosened the grip and they both fell on the floor.

Ali heard the loud bang, he knew whoever was at the door had broken into the sitting room, obviously, whoever it was had heard the sound of the gun shot.

Ali tried to pick himself up but a fast round house kick from Becky sent him down again, she was bouncing on her toes like a professional kick boxer and for a split moment Ali felt she looked sexy as she took a fighting stance. Becky had also heard the sound of the door, as Ali went down, she dived for the pistol, and she was ready when the first person burst into the room, it was detective Umar, he didn’t see it coming, and two bullets from Becky’s pistol sent him sprawling on the floor.

Detective Hafiz entered the room rolling over, Becky didn’t anticipate that, before she positioned herself to shoot, he was already at a vantage position, they both released their shots at the same time. Detective Hafiz was rather lucky, he caught the bullet in his stomach but the same couldn’t be said about Becky, Ali could see the bright red spot as it formed on her chest, there was shock on her face, she probably hadn’t predicted this kind of ending to her story, Ali continued to stare at her as she sunk to the floor and fell face downwards. Ali was sure she had fallen never to rise again.

Detective Hafiz held his stomach as he groaned in pain, he was fast losing blood. Ali was at a loss as to what to do, he couldn’t believe his eyes as he stared at Becky’s body, she laid still and he concluded she was dead. He couldn’t believe Becky had tried to kill him and he was more confused now as Becky was dead and still he didn’t have a clue of who she was and why she wanted to kill him.

Ali turned to Detective Hafiz, He was sitting up now, he held his stomach with his left hand and pointed his pistol at Ali with his right hand, he was waving the pistol at Ali, he was very unstable and his hands shook as he spoke.

‘Don’t even think about moving’

Ali remained rooted to the spot, as Detective Hafiz struggled to a standing position, he managed to get his phone from his pocket and called for backup as he motioned for Ali to sit on the bed while he still had the pistol pointed at him.

Ali sat on the bed, Detective Hafiz was sitting on a chair opposite him, and he still had his pistol on Ali. He was fast losing blood. Ali could observe him struggling to stay awake, it was only a matter of minutes before his eyes closed and he fell off the chair, Ali knew he had passed out, as he moved quickly to probably try to help him, his phone rang, one quick look and it was private number,

The Rat was calling

Ali grabbed the phone, his hands shook as he brought it quickly to his right ear

‘Hello’

There was silence from the other end, Ali spoke again

‘Hello’

Ali was about to continue speaking, when the familiar voice of the rat responded

‘Congratulations Ali, you have just passed your first test’

Ali couldn’t understand but the rat continued speaking

‘The break of dawn heralds an uncertain mission, but late sleepers might catch the moon setting, if it ever sets”

Ali remained silent, he was about to say something when the rat interrupted

‘Let’s just say you were the moon meant to set alongside the late sleepers but you were clever enough to rise as at when you did and that singular action might have just saved a life. So congratulations Ali, you passed the first test, you have just bought Ann’s life but I wonder for how much longer you are willing to keep her alive’

Ali remained silent, he didn’t know how to respond, and he couldn’t believe that the test was simply about his ability to escape a frame up. It was strange that the late sleepers had to die simply because the rat wanted to test his ability to escape, he was still battling with his thoughts when the rat dropped the next riddle

‘The African never needs the assistance of the Flying Dutchman but the contents of the scroll is all that matters. The scroll only guides her faithful disciples’

The rat paused for a moment before it continued

‘In 24 hours you would have to make a choice, solve the riddle and you might have saved a life’ and with that the line went dead.

Ali still had the phone in his hands when he heard the sirens outside his house, he knew the police had come, he didn’t even make any attempt to move, he was still sitting on the bed, holding the phone when the policemen burst into his room, they were battle ready, He didn’t even try to resist arrest when they came for him, he knew there was nothing he could say at the moment, he knew he couldn’t even help himself, too many thoughts weighed him down, Ann, Becky, the rat, the riddle, he had lost all the fight he had left in him.

He obeyed meekly as they led him into their car, he was under arrest, and he didn’t need them to make him understand that. He knew he needed more than a miracle to get out of this one. As he was led to the police van, he saw some paramedics running into the room with a stretcher, apparently, detective Hafiz still had chances at survival. As a policeman forced Ali into the car, he turned his head to have a last look at the crime scene and for a split second he couldn’t believe his eyes, he saw Detective Usuman alight from one of the police cars, he suddenly had an inner peace, he watched detective Usuman walk towards him slowly, he wore a smile as detective Usuman came closer to him, detective Usuman didn’t return the smile, rather he looked away and walked past him like he didn’t recognize him as he walked into Ali’s house, to the scene of the crime.

Ali continued to stare at detective Usuman as two policemen got into the backseat with him and the police car drove away.

Ali’s ride to the police station was long and silent, he could tell they were moving him to the area command as they had to go through the highway. He couldn’t put his thoughts together, his mind was almost a blur as different thoughts flew in and out. Nothing seemed to make any sense, and he couldn’t get the riddle off his head

‘The African never needs the assistance of the Flying Dutchman but the contents of the scroll is all that matters. The scroll only guides her faithful disciples’

He thought about it over and over again but he couldn’t understand the riddle. He still couldn’t get thoughts of detective Usuman off his head. He needed answers, where he had been all the while and why he acted that way towards him. A part of him felt relieved that detective Usuman was back yet a part of him felt uneasy. The detective Usuman he had seen some minutes ago looked so different from the detective Usuman he had always known.

Ali knew how this was going to end, he knew the policemen would find the murder weapon in his apartment, he also knew what the policemen could do to him and more importantly he knew that once he was in police net, he would lose contact with the rat, and he couldn’t afford to allow that happen, as Ann’s life now depended on his ability to crack the next riddle and possibly solve it before it was too late. He wasn’t handcuffed, that was an advantage for him. Obviously these policemen were trying to play cool with him considering the fact that he was a journalist or so he thought. There were two policemen at the front seat, one was a driver, and the other was observing him at intervals from the rear view mirror. Ali knew what he wanted to do was risky, but he also remembered one of his father’s favorite quotes, ‘no risk, no reward’ he waited until they got to a rather secluded part of the road,, he knew what he had to do, he sized the policemen that sat beside him, they were quite bigger than him in size, They paid little attention to him, just then he began to laugh loudly, they all turned to look at him including the driver and that was his chance, they didn’t see his next move coming, he moved quickly and turned the steering wheel hard to the right, the car veered off the high way and skidded unto the bush part, it ran into a tree and crashed into the tree with a very loud bang.

Meanwhile back at Ali’s house, the policemen had ransacked the house and found evidences linking him to the death of the late sleepers as well as an unidentified person. They had found in his bedroom drawer the pistol that had released the bullets that sent the late sleepers to permanent sleep, and behind the mirror in his bathroom they had found a knife, it was wrapped in a red cloth, and it was still covered in blood, though the blood appeared dry.

Detective Hafiz and Detective Umar had returned to Ali’s house with a search warrant as they couldn’t find Angela the bartender and they were quite sure the lady that was with Ali as at the time of their first visit was definitely lying. They had returned with intent to arrest Ali even if they couldn’t find an evidence against him but they never anticipated what lay in wait for them.

Detective Hafiz was still unconscious and to the surprise of the paramedics, Becky despite the severe hit was still breathing, she wasn’t dead as Ali had thought but detective Umar was stone cold, he was dead. No one knew what had happened there, but it was safe to assume that Becky was a victim, probably Ali had kidnapped her with intent to murder her and detective Umar and detective Hafiz had showed up at the right time, to save the day.

Detective Hafiz and Becky were moved quickly to the hospital as the other policemen continued to dust the house for more evidences.

Detective Usuman observed the scene of the crime, he took some notes, he had ensured he took a shot of Becky too before she was carried away, he couldn’t place her character, he knew nothing about her and he wondered why she had to be at the scene of the crime. He got out his phone and took some more photo shots and as he was about to leave the scene, he received the message, Ali had just escaped, it was a distress call from one of the policemen, his voice was hazy but detective Usuman could guess what had happened. The other policemen got the alert and most of them were moving hurriedly to get their cars but detective Usuman left the scene quietly, he was deep in thoughts and his thoughts were really troubling thoughts, he didn’t anticipate this twist, he knew what he had to do, he had played his role perfectly until now, he couldn’t allow Ali spoil it now, he knew where he had to be.

Detective Usuman exited the compound and got into a red salon car, he drove slowly away from the scene of the crime, no one knew where he was headed, he alone knew where he was headed, Ali had created a twist he never anticipated and he was going to put the situation back under control, which was his job. He frowned as he drove quickly to the hide out.

Ali had managed to escape the scene of the accident with little physical injury, he anticipated the crash so he was ready for it when it happened, he prepared himself for it and suffered least from it, he was already out of the car and running down the road when he heard one of the policemen raising the alarm and calling for back up. Ali ran with all his might, he had the advantage of surprise and before the other two policemen that weren’t badly hurt could begin the chase after him, he had given them considerable gap.

He knew the route quite well, he had gone hunting with his uncle frequently as a kid and he knew just where he planned to stake his hide out, in a few minutes, he couldn’t find the policemen that were on his trail anymore, he was quite sure they had lost their way, he hid for a couple of minutes and when he was quite sure the coast was clear, he headed slowly to the hide out, he knew no one was there, he needed an alone time to crack the riddle and save the love of his life. He had so many questions in his head that needed answers, he found the hideout, it appeared rather dusty, no one had been there in years, he searched for the key and found it, He knew he would be safe there at least till he was ready to face the police again.

Ann heaved a sigh of relief, she had been able to break the bonds that held her hands, she had struggled with it for hours and miraculously it had come off, maybe her will to survive was far greater than the will to give up, now all she had to do was untie the bonds that bound her feet to the chair, it was certainly going to be easier now that her hands were free, she got down to work, she was making headway but just as she was about to free her legs completely, she heard the sound outside the door, she knew he had come, she quickly sat up and assumed her original position like she was still tied down so he wouldn’t suspect she had meddled with the bonds.

He opened the door and entered the room, she looked up at him, he still had the mask on, he walked slowly towards her, and he had a phone in his hands. He spoke softly as he walked towards her

‘Now the time has come for your dearest Ali to make a choice, I hope and pray for your sake that he chooses you’

Ali had settled in the wood house, it was essentially a one room wooden house, his uncle, a civil engineer had made the house in the woods years ago, and he had built in basic amenities like electricity and a well that supplied water into the house through a complex network of pipes. Ali and his uncle had visited the place very often while he was younger and his uncle had told him that he could visit the place anytime he wanted

Ali remembered how he had laughed then as he never thought he would have to visit that place again in his life time but there he was.

There was a wooden bed with a foam, the wood house was basically built to probably help one through the night in case one got stuck but somehow Ali envisaged he was going to spend a long time in the wood house. He knew the police were on the lookout for him for murder, if only he had access to the media, he would have known it was double murders as the police had found the body of Angela the bar tender inside an empty well close to his house, her throat had been slit and the knife that was found in Ali’s apartment was the same knife as forensic experts revealed that the blood on the knife was Angela’s blood.

Ali was still trying to replay the riddle in his head when his phone rang, he was lucky he didn’t lose it in the crash, he saw the screen, it was private number, he knew it was the rat.

As he raised the phone to his ears, he heard the familiar voice of the rat

‘Hello, Ali. Congratulations, you are famous’

Ali couldn’t hold it any longer

‘Can I speak to Ann?’

‘Oops, someone is in love’ the rat responded mockingly and continued

‘Listen to me Ali, how much do you love Ann?’

Ali responded immediately

‘I will do anything for her, please don’t hurt her’

Ali could hear an applause over the phone, he could tell that the rat was having fun, then his heart skipped as he began to hear the voice of Ann screaming on the background, his heart began to beat heavily, he began to scream into the mouth piece of the phone

‘Please don’t hurt her, please don’t hurt her’ just then he was interrupted when the voice of the rat came up again

‘Now listen to me Ali, the clue to your riddle is a dimension of man, unravel your riddle in an hour and you might just save a life’ with that the phone went dead

Ali continued to scream ‘please don’t hurt her before he realized that the caller had ended the call’

Ali began to pace, the rat’s word kept recurring in his head

‘The clue to your riddle is a dimension of man’

That was quite easy, he knew some dimensions of man to be the physical, the emotional, the spiritual, just then, it hit him, it had to be the spiritual, it was obvious the riddle had a connection with the spiritual and again it was obvious the rat wanted him to unravel the riddle rather quickly, if not why would he decide to help him out with a clue. The rat had never done that before.

Now he knew it had to be something about the spiritual, he played the original riddle again in his head

‘The African never needs the assistance of the Flying Dutchman but the contents of the scroll is all that matters. The scroll only guides her faithful disciples’

He continued to repeat the last few lines of the riddle to himself

‘The scroll only guides her faithful disciples’

He would have repeated it over ten times before he got it. The rat was pointing him to the bible, if it was spiritual and there was a mention of the scroll guiding her faithful disciples, it had to be a religious book and the only thing that could come to his head at that moment was the Bible, he didn’t for a second imagine it could be the Quran even though he was originally a Muslim by birth.

The riddle was beginning to make some sense. He repeated the first few lines of the riddle to himself, the African never needs the assistance of the Flying Dutchman. He wasn’t a good Christian either but his days in children bible class wasn’t in vain, He knew the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. The Ethiopian eunuch was certainly the African in this riddle and Philip had to be the Flying Dutchman because he recalled his Sunday school teacher telling him about Philip being taken away by a wind or something of that sort after he had ministered to the Ethiopian Eunuch.

Ali smiled despite himself, he felt good that he was unravelling the riddle, he definitely had got his ‘A’ game back on, and only one part of the riddle was left unraveled now.

‘The contents of the scroll is all that matters’

He knew what he had to do, he got out his phone and searched for the story of the Ethiopian eunuch, He was thankful to google at that moment as he stared at the chapter and verse of the Bible that he had to study. Acts 8 vs 26.

Ali opened his bible app and hurriedly studied that part of the scripture, he was down to verse 32 when it struck him. He read verse 32 over and over again, it suddenly became clear what the rat wanted from him, now he understood why the rat had Ann. He knew what he had to do, it was a difficult decision but it was obvious the rat had planned it from the very start. He loved Ann too much, he was willing to lay down his life for her. He certainly had no choice in this one anymore, the rat had taken away his power of choice by kidnapping Ann. He thought about his decision over and over again, He knew he had to do it, one of them had to go for the other to stay, and he was willing to pay the price for Ann.