THE WITNESSES

(PART TWO) CHAPTER FIVE

Meanwhile as the masked man left the room, Ann quickly returned to untying the bonds that bound her legs to the chair, she knew she had to hurry, she didn’t know what it was but she certainly knew Ali was being threatened to do something to save her life.

She didn’t know what it was but even the thought of it scared her, she knew nothing good could come out of her abductor. Her resolve to survive was even higher now, she certainly knew her abductor wasn’t ever going to let her go, somehow she knew this movie that played before her eyes had no happy ending either for her or Ali, so she was willing to take her chances.

Her face burst into a joyful smile despite the situation she found herself as she successfully broke the bonds that held her feet, now she was free, she stood up quickly and made for the door but it was locked from outside, she tried to force it open but it was really secured. Now she was at a loss as to what to do, she continued to heave at the door knob and just then she heard approaching footsteps. Obviously, the noise had attracted the masked man, she should have known he wouldn’t be afar off, which was her mistake.

Now she was confused, she knew he knew she was free and she knew he was going to come into the room prepared for her, so returning back to the chair and acting like she was still in bonds was out of the question.

Her options were limited but she took the most daring of them all.

The mask man walked slowly towards the door, he heard the noise as he sat in the passage way waiting for the right time to call Ali again and possibly give him the answer to the riddle if he still hadn’t cracked it. There was little time left now, everything had to be perfect. Once Ali did what was expected of him, all he had to do was pull the trigger on Ann. A single shot to the head would be enough. So far the plans seemed to be going well but he certainly didn’t expect this unexpected development. He saw the door knob move from where he sat, he could hear the sounds that were produced from behind the door, he didn’t need a confirmation. He knew Ann was free.

He approached the door slowly, He knew Ann on a personal level, He knew the kind of fighter that she was, He wasn’t willing to take any chances, he didn’t mind pulling the trigger on Ann at that moment, he would rather do that than allow her jeopardize the plans. He drew out his pistol, He got to the door and produced the keys.

He paused for a few seconds, He knew Ann was behind the door and waiting to jump on him, He didn’t want to take any chances, he pointed the pistol at the door and fired two shots. He heard the scream and heard the sound as her body hit the floor on the other side of the door. Somehow he felt sorry, he didn’t plan to kill Ann at least not at that time but she had complicated things for herself.

He opened the door slowly and just like he anticipated, her body was lying on the floor, He edged into the room slowly, her eyes were closed, the room was poorly lit so he couldn’t really tell where the bullet had hit her, he bent down slowly to feel her pulse, he replaced the pistol in its holster, as he bent down and put two fingers beside her neck, he suddenly watched her eyes open, the action was rather too fast for him, he didn’t see it coming, Ann’s mouth went straight for his ears as she sunk her teeth deep into it, he screamed in terror and rose quickly as he made for his pistol. Ann was faster, she was up before him, her knee found his balls and he crumbled in pain as he grabbed his balls with both hands. Ann had no time to waste, she ran out of the room with speed as he tried to rise, she was almost out of the passage way when she heard the shot, it whizzed past her left ear, she rounded the passage, there was an open door, she ran out and found herself in an unfenced compound surrounded by bushes, she continued to run without looking back, she heard him from behind her though she was sure he was quite far away from her, He cursed in pain, ordering her to stop and firing blindly at intervals.

Ann continued to run in a zigzag manner, she belonged to the school of thought that believed that one couldn’t make a perfect shot at you especially with a pistol when you ran in a zigzag manner. As she ran she couldn’t take her mind off the last few minutes, she couldn’t believe her luck, she would have been dead if she hadn’t made that last minute decision.

When she heard the footsteps approaching the door, she had braced herself for a direct attack, she had stood directly in front of the door with an aim to attack the masked man immediately the door opened, it was only when she heard the keys turning on the lock that she had thought about standing at a vantage position behind the door so she could at least use the door as a weapon by pushing hard at the intruder, she had barely sidestepped from her position when the bullets came through the door, she had screamed and fallen on the floor more out of fear than anything, it was only when she hit the ground and he opened the door that she saw her opportunity and pretended she was hit.

She really couldn’t believe her luck, it was certain that she wasn’t meant to die that day. She would have run for over ten minutes when she suddenly hit a high way, she practically ran into the road and was almost hit by a salon car. The side of the car hit her as she fell on the side of the road, the driver parked his car and moved quickly towards her, he helped her to a sitting position she couldn’t say much, she was still trying to catch her breath, but the man could understand that someone was chasing her, he looked towards the direction that she pointed at, he suspected it was a case of ritual kidnap, he carried her quickly into his car, he started his car, just then he observed he had dropped his wallet, probably it had dropped when he was trying to pick her up, he got out of the car, the engine was still running, he saw the wallet laying on the floor at the same spot where he had picked her up and he went back for it.

Ann continued to look at him from the rear view mirror, He stooped to pick up the wallet, she wished he could move faster and just then she heard the shot, it was a head shot, delivered perfectly, she watched the man fall in slow motion. She didn’t need a sorcerer to tell her, she knew he was dead even before he hit the floor. Just then the masked man appeared from the bush, he still had the pistol in his hands, and he was running towards Ann.

Ann knew her life was in her hands now, She moved quickly and sat on the driver’s seat of the car, the engine was still running, she locked the driver’s side door as two bullets hit the wind shield breaking it, she didn’t bother to look back, she stepped on the clutch and put the gear lever on reverse, she hit the accelerator and moved with speed.

The masked man didn’t anticipate the sudden move, he wasn’t so fast but he moved all the same, the car hit him and threw him off the road, he staggered and tried to stand up. He was hit but not very severely. Ann wasn’t willing to take chances. Now the masked man was in front of her, he tried to stagger to a standing position, he still had the pistol in his hands, as he raised it, Ann pushed the gear lever forward and stepped even harder on the accelerator, she didn’t care about anything anymore. As he fired a shot, the car hit him, the speed was crushing. His body flew into midair and hit the ground with a mighty thud.

Ann could tell he was dead, she ran out of the car and ran to his body, he was still breathing but she knew he was only a few seconds away from death, there was blood all over his shirt, she ripped off the mask and couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw the face behind the mask.

She whispered his name in shock

He was dying now, he muttered in pain ‘I am sorry Ann. She was going to kill my only son. I did what I had to do’

He coughed painfully and those were his last words

Ann couldn’t make any sense out of it, who was ‘she’ that he mentioned? What was he even talking about? She laid there holding him as the tears dropped from her eyes, she couldn’t believe it, and she didn’t even know what to think. She had just killed Detective Usuman.

Ali understood what he had to do, the message was clear, the rat wanted him to give himself up to the police without a fight and be executed for what he didn’t do. Somehow the rat wanted him to play Jesus.

In the bible verse he had read, The Ethiopian eunuch had explained how Jesus had given up himself willingly to be crucified for a sin he didn’t commit with the hope of saving mankind. Now the rat wanted him to give himself up for the murder of the early risers with the hope of saving Ann’s life.

It was late already, his phone battery had died too, he had no way of getting to the rat now, he knew he had to turn himself in first thing the next morning, he knew the rat would be waiting for him and he knew the consequences if he didn’t. He couldn’t sleep that night, he practically paced all through the night. If only he still had his phone on, he would have called detective Usuman, he still couldn’t understand why detective Usuman had acted that way when he saw him, he was quite sure detective Usuman had plans for him. He changed his mind, he wasn’t going straight to the police the next day, he was going to go to detective Usuman and hopefully they would work something out before he turned himself in.

It was 7am at Keidi Hospital, the hospital wasn’t so busy that morning, there were a few people moving around, mostly cleaners and matrons though. This was the same hospital that Detective Hafiz and Becky had been brought to the previous day. Becky was responding rather quickly to treatment, while Detective Hafiz remained in a state of unconsciousness. They were kept in different private wards and were under surveillance by a team of policemen as Becky’s character was still undetermined at that point and there had to be a sort of protection for her and the detective pending when Ali was recaptured by the police. Those were the orders from the area command. There were two policemen assigned to each ward.

The receptionist at the front desk of Keidi Hospital smiled broadly as the lady standing in front of her introduced herself as Amber Rose. Amber Rose was a very popular journalist and free-lance writer for many major magazines and Newspaper Company in Jos and though a large number of people knew her name, only a few really knew what she looked like. The receptionist was rather overjoyed to meet with Amber Rose face to face. She happened to be one of those that didn’t know what Amber Rose looked like physically, so she certainly couldn’t tell that the person that stood before her having Amber Rose’s Id card was certainly not Amber Rose, if she had known that, then she would have certainly taken a better look at the Id card and maybe would have been able to tell that the picture on the ID looked slightly different from the person that was standing in front of her. And maybe she would have raised an alarm and just maybe they would have discovered that the real Amber Rose was lying in the boot of her own car, mouth gagged and hands tied behind her back seeking for help that wasn’t forthcoming.

Amber Rose needed to speak with the resident doctor of the hospital, one quick call and she was on the way up to Doctor Jude’s office. Doctor Jude was another man who didn’t know what Amber Rose looked like, He welcomed her into his office and despite the fact that it was against company’s procedure he agreed to allow her have a three minutes quick session with one of the policemen guarding Becky’s ward. One wouldn’t blame the doctor though, Amber Rose’s charm was quite irresistible and he had probably thought to himself that no one had to know, she only sought some internal information so she would have a lead story before other journalists came up to speed on the murderous Journalist saga.

The ward where Becky was kept was classified and only Doctor Jude, aside some members of the police force had clearance to access the ward. Doctor Jude led her down the hall way, to the secured room. Amber Rose was quick to observe the door at the end of the hall way, she knew it led outside the hospital, which was going to be her get away route. Doctor Jude stopped at a door and knocked. A cop opened the door and that was the last thing he did in his life, a bright red hole appeared on his forehead as he dropped to the ground, the gun made no sound, it was silenced, the doctor turned quickly, but a noiseless bullet to the stomach at very close range brought him down. There was another cop in the room, he knew the sound of a gun even though it was silenced, he moved quickly but Amber Rose was faster. She was a trained assassin, the bullet caught him before he even raised his gun and he went down too.

Amber Rose had no time to waste, she pulled the body of the doctor and the policeman into the room, and she went straight for Becky. Becky’s eyes were opened already. She smiled when she saw her rescuer, she mouthed the words softy ‘I knew you would come for me’

In a few minutes, Amber Rose had removed all the medical equipment that held Becky to the bed, she helped Becky to a standing position, Becky could walk and she supported Becky as they made their way out of the hospital. They were going to take the back route, they were almost at the door when she heard the voice behind her

‘Hey Hold it right there’

She turned swiftly and saw another cop, he was probably one of the cops guarding Detective Hafiz’s ward, He immediately guessed there was trouble as he saw Becky, he raised his pistol but Amber Rose was faster, he went down fast but not before releasing a shot. The shot was loud and deafening. Amber Rose knew she had to leave at that moment, she wasn’t ready to contend with a team of policemen, she turned and as they made to cross the door way, she heard the gun shots from behind her, She turned quickly and two bullets got the shooter down, It was another cop, he was down but he had already done an irreversible damage.

Becky was hit in two places and she was dead, Amber Rose starred at Becky’s lifeless body in shock, she couldn’t believe her eyes, she felt the tears coming, she couldn’t bear to leave Becky’s lifeless body behind and just then she heard the alarm, she knew if she wanted to get out safely, she had to go at that moment and she certainly couldn’t escape carrying Becky’s corpse. She ran out through the back door, she knew her way. By the time the police backup got to the hospital, she was long gone.

Ali was back in the lively part of the city, he got into a shopping mall to get a charger for his phone, he needed to call Detective Usuman at that moment, time was fast running out, he was trying to have a conversation with the young lady at the desk when he heard a voice from behind him ‘put your hands where I can see them and turn around slowly’

He turned around slowly and saw a cop pointing a gun at him, ‘Put your hands up’ the cop barked even louder. He looked up at the cop, the cop was visibly shaking, and obviously he had received reports that Ali was a vicious murderer. Ali was in no mood to resist arrest and at the same time, he didn’t want to be murdered by a scared cop in the name of accidental discharge. He ignored every instinct to play superman at that point. After all that was what the rat wanted, he raised his hands above his head as The policeman instructed, two other cops rushed into the mall, they had their pistols drawn too, they rushed him and forced him on the ground as they forced his hands behind his back and handcuffed him.

In a few minutes, they were driving down the road, this was the second time in the space of two days that he was being arrested.

The policemen that sat in the car with him appeared rather overjoyed, they felt satisfied, they had arrested a menace to society, it was as they drove away that he understood that the cop that had arrested him had tailed him for over thirty minutes, he had first stumbled on the cop earlier that morning and somehow the cop had acted like he didn’t recognize him, he never knew the cop had tailed him from that point and subsequently requested back up.

He didn’t care though, the rat wanted him to give his life for Ann, and he had to play by the rules until he saw a light. He was very hopeful that detective Usuman would show up, that was the only hope he had now.

The policemen drove him straight to the area command and right there another drama was unfolding. The area command was teaming with cops, Ali knew something had definitely gone wrong, the cops that brought him in, handed him to another cop who transferred him directly to an empty room and locked him in. it was more like they weren’t sure what to with him.

Ali would have been in the room for over three hours before he heard the door open from outside and a plain clothes detective entered the room and behind him was the last person Ali expected to see.

Ali didn’t know when he shouted more out of joy than of surprise

‘Ann’

Ann rushed towards him and hugged him as she began to sob softly

He held on to her very strongly like his whole life depended on the hug at that moment.

‘Okay, Mr. Ali I could say you are in luck today as your girlfriend here just provided some rather shocking evidences that are pointing to the fact that you might not be responsible for the murders after all and detective Hafiz after regaining consciousness back at the hospital has also provided some rather strange testimonies too’

It was the detective that spoke, Ali couldn’t understand, he turned towards the detective and responded

‘But how do you mean?’

The detective regarded him for a moment and responded

‘I guess you both should come to my office, we do have a lot to catch up on and you Ali you have a lot to tell us also’

After about an hour in the detective’s office, after Ali, Ann and The detective himself had shared their own parts of the puzzle, everything began to add up, the story began to make more sense.

The rat was actually the initiator of the whole scheme, somehow it seemed she needed someone to be her executioner, she certainly didn’t like to be on the field, so she enlisted detective Usuman by kidnapping him and threatening to murder his son, if he didn’t follow through with her plans. Investigations and theories further revealed that detective Usuman was the one that actually carried out Ann’s kidnap and the murders that followed. Becky on the other hand was a strange character that they still couldn’t place in the scheme but it was quite obvious that she was important to the rat because the rat had tried to save her and consequently lost her in the process leaving in her trail two dead policemen and three others including the doctor seriously injured. The motive was still unclear but from Ali’s narration it was obvious that the rat and Becky had a personal vendetta against Ali and somehow Ali felt strongly that it had something to do with Jason.

The unanswered question that continued to play in Ali’s head was why she didn’t just go ahead to kill him because she certainly would have succeeded if she wanted to, why did she have to go through all the stress of setting him up?

Ann had an answer to that, she was certain, the rat wanted to use Ali as an example and probably destroy all the reputation he had built. It would of course have been an irony if the glorified journalist and savior of Jos had suddenly become the murderous journalist sentenced to death by the same people that he had once saved.

Ali had a weird thought, the whole experience kept bringing the man Jesus to his head, what was the rat trying to do, was she actually trying to create her own version of the story of Jesus?

The detective permitted Ali to leave but insisted Ali remained within reach as he hadn’t been entirely cleared since investigations were still going on, he also didn’t fail to mention that they still had reasons to be concerned for their safety and as such, they were going to lodge them in an undisclosed hotel for the night and then would deploy some security guards to their house the next day for security reasons pending when the rat was apprehended.

It was a few minutes past 10pm when Ali and Ann rode on a private car and stopped in front of Peak hotels. They got out of the cab and entered the hotel as they entered the hotel, Jacqueline for that was the name of the rat got out of the red salon car, it was the same car that she had made detective Usuman use for all the operations he undertook for her. She cursed softly under her breath, she wasn’t interested in creating a story anymore, she was going to murder the couple and she was going to make a lesson out of them. She had to make them feel the hurt that she felt when Becky was taken from her. Becky was her prodigy, her very own disciple. She had trained Becky personally at the institute. Jason was her mentor, she always looked up to him, Jason’s death came as a shock but it was more of an insult to her that a mere journalist murdered her mentor. She had taken it personally, she had sworn to make another bible story out of Ali.

That was her style, she grew up as a witness of Jehovah as a kid, which was when she developed interests in bible stories. The institute had found her and trained her when her parents were murdered by a rival institute. She had since avenged her parents, she smiled when she remembered the bible story she had reenacted then, she had done with them Sodom and Gomorrah. After then she had killed many others but never without a good bible story to follow. She had planned the same with Ali, she was even going to honor him with the story of the Man Jesus and yet he had been so foolish and his foolishness had caused her to lose her beloved Becky.

Becky was thoroughly addicted to Jason, she practically worshipped him like a God, She had asked Becky to allow her take care of Ali, but Becky was stubborn and hot headed, She had allowed Becky to have her way after all, Becky had even made her a bet that she would get to Ali before her, It hurt her so much that Becky was gone.

Jacqueline got into the hotel and watched the couple climb up the stairs, she went to the receptionist, she asked for a room and as she gave her fake details to the receptionist, she spied the hotel register and noted the room that Ali and Ann had taken.

She paid for her room and walked up the stairs, they were on the same floor, and she opened the door to her room and settled in. She was going to strike at midnight, she smiled when she remembered the part of the bible that mentioned something about the man Jesus coming like a thief in the night, somehow she just couldn’t get biblical stuff off her head. She was a witness to the core as a kid, she still believed she was a witness, after all she recreated bible stories in her own special way

She laid down as she reveled in her plans for that night. She was going to send a message and this one was going to be very loud.

‘Ali, I think there is someone in this room’

Ali woke up as Ann tapped him softly, the room was dark, Ann whispered softly to him again

‘I think there is someone in this room with us’

Ali found that impossible to believe, he reached quickly for the light switch that was close to the bed post and switched it on, the room became bright and as they adjusted their eyes to the intensity of the light, their eyes could also pick up the image of a beautiful lady sitting on the table just beside the bed where they lay.

Ann’s first reaction was to shout but she caught herself midway when the lady held her left index finger to her lips and her right hand produced a pistol.

Ali was quick to note that the pistol didn’t have a silencer on, somehow he knew this wasn’t meant to be a quiet murder, it seemed the stranger wanted to pass a message to everyone in the hotel that night.

In the few minutes of silence, he mentally took down details. She had on a black jeans, a black t shirt and a pair of black sneakers, she had a hood over her head. She was dark in complexion and beautiful, she wasn’t so young though but she was very beautiful. She could pass for a model and somehow she reminded Ali of Becky.

Ali was still trying to process the image he saw when she interrupted his thoughts

‘Two little black birds hugging on the sheets, along came another and turned the sheets red with their blood’

She rose from the table and moved a little closer to the couple

‘Call me Jacqueline, Let’s just say ‘I am the judgement of God upon you’ she turned to Ali ‘you are quite familiar with that part of the bible that says something about the wicked never going unpunished right?’

Ali ignored her, he was deep in thoughts, and he knew the end had come for him but he didn’t want to go down like a handicap, he wasn’t going to allow this Jacqueline or whatever she called herself take him out without a fight.

Jacqueline turned towards Ann

‘Hi sweetheart, I am sorry to have got you involved in all these in the first place, it was meant to be a super story, come on, the savior of the city becomes the terror of the city, the headlines would have been really catchy, and more importantly for me it would have been a truly wonderful replication of the story of the man Jesus who died to save others for the people he loved. All your man needed to do was die for you for a sin he never committed and we would have all lived happily ever after, although I am not quite sure if you would have lived though’

She laughed softly and continued ‘allow me introduce myself some more, my name is Jacqueline and I am a friend of Jason, Jason sends his greetings, anyway you would be meeting him soon’ she suddenly tweaked her voice and spoke

'I heard you are very smart, let us play a game of cat and mouse, you be the cat, I will be the mouse, if you find me you win, if you don't, let's just say the cost would be in lives'

Ali and Ann stared at her as her voice quickly changed from the feminine voice to a deep masculine voice, the same voice Ali had become used to over the phone. She smiled as she watched the expression on their faces, she was certainly having fun.

‘Let’s just say Jason was my mentor and in the academy if your mentor suddenly drops dead, you are duty bound to avenge your mentor, so I could say Jason was nothing personal, I was only upholding the creed but you made it personal when Kimani turned up dead’

Ali spoke softly, ‘you mean Becky’

Jacqueline nodded softly, ‘yea, I guess she was Becky to you’

Ali continued ‘but Becky wasn’t my fault’

Jacqueline smiled, ‘indeed, let me tell you about Kimani, Kimani was Jason’s girl, she wanted you as badly as I did, she couldn’t wait for my movie to play out, she was always hot headed, I let her have her way, I didn’t care who got to you first, all that mattered was for you to turn up dead. You refused to turn up dead, your stubbornness cost me Kimani and I guess now you understand why you do not deserve to be a part of this world. She pointed the trigger at Ann, maybe I should take her away from you just the way you took Kimani away from me, she smiled and caressed the trigger softly, she was still enjoying her show when Ali dived for the switch and turned it off.

Jacqueline pressed the trigger, Ali was hit but the room went dark, the sound of the pistol was very loud, Jacqueline knew she had limited time before the police showed up.

Jacqueline moved quickly but Ann moved quickly too. As Jacqueline hit the light switch again, the room was lit, but Ann had vanished. Ali was groaning in pain, the bullet had caught him on his right arm, he was fast losing blood, Jacqueline smiled, and she raised the pistol to his head. She wasn’t taking any chances, just before she pressed the trigger, she observed Ali smiling, and she paused for a while as she wondered what was amusing

‘You think death is funny right?’

Ali smiled and spoke painfully ‘No, I just observed that just like Jason, you lose again’

she suddenly heard the footstep from behind her, she turned just in time to see Ann running towards her from the bathroom but that was also a distraction, in that split moment of distraction, she didn’t see when the cop rolled out from under the bed with his pistol facing her, as she attempted to pull the trigger on Ann, she caught sight of the cop but it was too late, she didn’t hear the sound of the gun, it was a head shot, the surprise was glued to her face as she sunk down to the ground, kneel first before her body crumbled alongside. She was dead before she hit the ground.

Ann rushed towards Ali as the cop made calls for back up and emergency rescue team. Ali was fast losing blood, he had been severely hit, and Ann was all over him. She didn’t have tears in her eyes. She was strong like that. She kept repeating in his ears, don’t you dare leave me, don’t you dare leave me.

As Ann hugged Ali closely all he could think about was the last few minutes at the police area command when Ann had convinced him into allowing the police force sneak an agent into their hotel room, he had stood against it under the strong assumption that the rat wouldn’t be so careless to stage another attack that same day but Ann had stubbornly prevailed and that stubbornness had saved their lives. He stared into her eyes as she continued to whisper words he couldn’t decipher, His shoulder and right arm hurt badly, he was losing blood quickly, he felt the life slowly draining out of him as he closed his eyes.

It was a few minutes later, when other members of the special anti-crime unit showed up alongside the medical team. Ali was quickly rushed into the ambulance, Ann stubbornly refused to let him be, she got into the ambulance with him and sat beside him all through the ride to the hospital. She continued repeating the same words ‘don’t you dare leave me, don’t you dare leave me’

It was three months after the whole Jaqueline and Becky episode, Ali was back to work. But this time, he knew better than to publish the story, Jacqueline had taught him a bitter lesson, It took over two months for him to heal completely, his right arm still ached a little but he was back to work.

Jacqueline’s story didn’t receive as much publicity as Jason’s story, even the police knew better than to publicize this one, they understood that not all news deserved publicity especially for Ali’s sake.

Ali was working late at the office that night, when his phone rang, he looked at the screen and discovered that the caller ID was private.

Sudden fear gripped him, his mind immediately went back to Jason and Jacqueline, he wasn’t ready to go through that saga again, and his hand was trembling when he answered the call

‘Hello, Ali, I want to play a game’

Ali smiled when he heard the voice, though it sounded masculine, he knew who it was, he responded

‘Hello, Ann, You be the rat and let me be the cat’

Ann laughed over the phone

‘I thought to scare you a little, just thought to check on you’

The conversation continued for a little while and when Ali ended the call, the smile on his face lingered for a few seconds, he opened one of the drawers in the filing cabinet and got out the little golden rectangular case, he opened the case, and the gold ring was lying there. He smiled and closed the case again.

He was going to propose to Ann that night.