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- Herausgeber: Allison & Busby
- Kategorie: Krimi
- Serie: Ghana Mysteries
- Sprache: Englisch
When Gordon Tilson falls victim to an online scam, he finds himself alone in the whirlwind city of Accra. But his decision to confront those responsible leads him into unimaginable danger. Now his son Derek has lost all contact with him and has no choice but to travel into the heart of Ghana to begin a near impossible search for his father. Frustrated by the inadequate local police, Derek turns to Emma Djan, a young private detective desperate to prove her worth. In a heart-stopping race against time, they must expose those at the very centre of Accra's power who are willing to kill to protect their secrets, if they are to find the missing American...
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Seitenzahl: 545
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020
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THE MISSING AMERICAN
KWEI QUARTEY
To Ahmed Hussein-Suale, a Ghanaian journalist martyred on Wednesday 16th January, 2019
CONTENTS
PART ONE
CHAPTER ONE
4th January, Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana
Lying flat with the stock of the long-range rifle pressed firmly against his shoulder, the assassin positioned himself on the gable roof of the UT Bank building off Shippers Council Road. His legs were stretched straight out in a V on either side of the roof’s ridge. He would have preferred a flat surface, but the advantages of this location easily outweighed any drawbacks. From this angle, he had an unobstructed view of the road through the Zeiss scope.
He waited. When the moment arrived, he would place the pad of his right index finger on the trigger rather than the crease between the first and second joints. That could result in a sideways torque on squeezing the trigger. So too could wrapping the thumb around the buttstock. Leave the thumb on the stock pointing forward towards the end of the barrel – that was what he had learnt in his first days as an officer in the Ghana Police Service’s SWAT Panther Unit. Now, two years later, he was one of the best marksmen among his peers. Unfortunately, GPS talk was cheap, and they never put their money where their mouth was. Only the sniper’s freelance work, like this assignment, bought him the good life – a nice car, good clothes, new furniture. And women, of course.
Political rallies in Ghana are a serious business. There’s blaring music, dancing troupes, and handkerchief-waving groups of women in matching outfits. Gangs of ferocious biker youths careen erratically through the streets, sometimes colliding with cars and each other, but these excitable young men, their bodies soused with adrenaline, leap right back up and keep riding.
So it was for Bernard Evans-Aidoo campaigning in the city of Sekondi-Takoradi against incumbent President Bannerman. Big, charismatic, and dressed flamboyantly in his signature red, black, white, and green – the colours of the National Democratic Congress party, the NDC. Evans-Aidoo stood out of the sunroof of his black Benz and waved to the thrilled crowds lining Shippers Council Road. A full brass band, rocking and high-stepping in rhythmic unison, preceded the slow-moving vehicle, and behind the car was a bunch of random kids and teenagers whirling and jumping up and down with unspecified exuberance. Every so often, the Benz paused and Evans-Aidoo got out with surprising agility to press palms with his fans. He saw the worshipping, idolising expression in their eyes as they stretched out their hands to be blessed by his touch.
It was the candidate’s third stop for the day: Axim, Tarkwa, and now Sekondi-Takoradi. There had been the inevitable delays at the two prior rallies and Evans-Aidoo and the entourage were late. Even though they had started the parade before dusk, darkness had descended quickly around 6 p.m., as it always does at the equator. But that was no impediment. The campaign had a vehicle with a generator and bright lights that travelled at the head of the procession, sharply spotlighting the popular man who had set the youth on fire with his promises. He had pledged first, to sack every single corrupt official in the Bannerman government; second, to shunt away some of Ghana’s petroleum and natural gas revenue into programmes that would benefit ordinary men and women, particularly the largely unemployed youth. It was a classic taking from the rich to give to the poor. These young people, so hungry for a livelihood, truly loved Evans-Aidoo, and they had waited for him for hours in the ferocious sun. Now he was here, and he didn’t disappoint as he put on this dazzling show. He was larger than life, physically and symbolically.
The cacophony from the cheering crowds, the band, and the noisy mobile generator prevented anyone from hearing a distinct gunshot. Evans-Aidoo’s body dropped so suddenly from view that few people grasped that anything was wrong.
But inside the Benz, terror unfolded. Evans-Aidoo had collapsed like a sack of yams into the lap of his campaign manager, who let out a high-pitched scream as the minister’s blood sprayed her and the tan leather seats. The bodyguard in the front scrambled into the back seat to shield his boss. The chauffeur craned to look behind. ‘What happened? What happened?’
‘Drive forward!’ the bodyguard shouted. ‘Drive!’
The Benz shot forward and crossed the street’s centre line. Tyres squealing, it skirted the generator vehicle and kept going. People at the roadside were screaming, but it was not jubilation any more. It was panic. Something bad had happened, but no one knew exactly what.
The manager in the Benz was shrieking, her head turned away from the sight of Evans-Aidoo limp and half wedged behind the passenger seat. The bodyguard tried to lift his boss’s head, but it was slick with blood and brain matter and it slipped from his hands.
Hyperventilating and gripping the steering wheel like death itself, the chauffeur said, ‘Where? Where?’
‘Takoradi Hospital,’ the bodyguard stammered. He was close to weeping. ‘Hurry!’
ONE DAY EARLIER
CHAPTER TWO
3rd January, Accra, Ghana
With darkened windows, sirens going, and small flags of Ghana flapping on their hoods, three shiny black SUVs raced along Independence Avenue. Ordinary mortals on the street knew the drill and pulled their vehicles to the side to give the VIP free passage.
In this case, the dignitary taking precedence over the plebes of Accra was the Inspector General of Police, James Akrofi, who was in the back seat of the middle vehicle. He didn’t look up from his work as he made last-minute changes to the draft of his Ghana Police Service Report to the Blue-Ribbon Commission on the Eradication of Corruption in Ghana. It was a mouthful, but before President J. K. Bannerman had been elected to power almost four years ago by an overwhelming majority of Ghanaian voters, he had campaigned consistently on that one bedevilling issue: corruption. Tapping into a lurking sense among Ghana’s citizens that the nation was slipping backward like a truck mired in muck, Bannerman had persuaded Ghanaians that corruption was standing in the way of every individual’s development and prosperity. ‘Ghana fails when corruption prevails’, his albeit clumsy slogan, had caught on. Bannerman had promised the nation a new era of The Clean and Enlightened Society. The people reached out to him with the fervour of a parched man in the Sahara yearning for an oasis.
To be honest, like the engine of an antique car, the anti-corruption machine had been slow to start. Now, as Bannerman’s first term was ending and the political parties were revving up for the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections at the end of the year, the president’s track record had been spotty – some even said too little, too late. There was some truth to the characterisation that implementation was not Bannerman’s strong suit and that he was more of an idealist than a pragmatist. Privately, Akrofi thought the truth was somewhere in the middle. The bottom line was that Bannerman was now vulnerable to one man: Bernard Evans-Aidoo.
The SUV convoy swept through the gates of Jubilee House and sped across the vast square towards the presidential palace, which was built in the shape of the golden stool of the Asantehene. The Office of the President was expecting Akrofi, so from the palace entrance to the final security door of President Bannerman’s inner sanctum, passage was quick and all the checkpoints along the way essentially a formality. Everyone knew who the Inspector General of Police was: one of Bannerman’s closest friends and advisors.
Mr President, sixty-three, had a stern but avuncular demeanour, his charcoal-ash hair suggesting wisdom. He strode forward, hand outstretched. ‘James! Ete sen?’
‘Nyame adom, J. K.,’ Akrofi said, grasping the hand with a firm, enthusiastic grip. Their eyes met and held, a testament to the strong bond between them.
‘Good to see you, good to see you,’ Bannerman said. ‘Come, let’s sit down.’
Akrofi followed the president several metres across the crimson carpet with Ghana’s coat of arms in the centre. They had a 360-degree view of Accra through the tinted, floor-to-ceiling bulletproof glass, the cost of which had no doubt contributed to the bloated $50 million cost of the palace. But Akrofi didn’t find that necessarily bad. In what country was it not fashionable to complain about the extravagant residences of the ruling class?
Out of respect, Akrofi waited for the leader of the nation to sit down before he did. ‘How are dear Josephine and the children?’ Bannerman asked, turning his body halfway towards his friend.
‘Everybody is doing well, by His Grace, thank you,’ Akrofi said. ‘Josephine is in DC at the moment winning friends and influencing people, so to speak, and then she will be in England to see Kwame.’
Bannerman’s expression softened. ‘How is he doing these days?’
Akrofi lowered his gaze with a touch of sadness. ‘You know. He has his good and bad days.’
‘Yes, of course. I have faith that one day he will be well by God’s grace.’
‘Thank you, J. K. I appreciate your good wishes.’
‘You are always welcome,’ Bannerman said. ‘So, let’s see what you have for me.’ Akrofi handed him the folder with the report and the president read it through once.
‘Outstanding,’ he said at length. ‘This is simply first class and I like your four-part plan to eliminate corruption at the top. I think you’ve done a lot to change the culture of middle management and the junior officers, but now it’s time to target the upper echelons.’
‘You have my sincere word I will endeavour to do so,’ Akrofi said. ‘I admire what you are trying to do for the country.’
He and Bannerman had been in law school together, and high school and college before that. Akrofi had heavily supported his friend’s presidential campaign and Bannerman had promised him the IGP post in return. One didn’t rise to that position. It was a civilian appointment made entirely at the president’s wishes.
Bannerman rose to place the documents on his rosewood desk imported from Italy, and then turned to the view from the south-west window. Accra’s afternoon traffic was as clogged as bad plumbing. From here, one could just see the roof of the Ghana Police Service headquarters. On the other side of the double-lane Ring Road East, several embassies nestled among the trees.
Akrofi came to stand beside the president.
‘You and I are cut from the same cloth,’ Bannerman said quietly. ‘So, you understand how much I want this. Obviously, I can’t abolish corruption completely, but I want Ghanaians to come to regard it in a different way – as a kind of cancer that has metastasised to all parts of society. Now it must be surgically removed everywhere it is found. Then things will begin to change.’
Akrofi nodded. ‘I do understand.’
‘We will drum anti-corruption into the Ghanaian psyche,’ Bannerman said. ‘Billboards, radio, TV, social media. I’ll have rappers and football players endorse the plan. With their help, I’ll create a new consciousness.’ He looked at Akrofi. ‘We are warriors against a worthy foe, but together, we can vanquish.’
‘By “worthy foe” you mean corruption? Or Evans-Aidoo?’
‘Corruption. Evans-Aidoo can’t sustain his position in the polls. This business about him redistributing oil wealth to the citizens is nonsense. We are not Norway.’
‘No country is – except Norway,’ Akrofi said with a wry smile. ‘I’m a little concerned about him though, because his followers believe him and there are more and more of them every day. It’s all false hope, for sure, but the nature of people is that they cling to that.’
Akrofi waited for his friend to respond. Instead, Bannerman turned away with his head down and hands thrust deeply in his pockets. Akrofi had an awful foreboding that if Bernard Evans-Aidoo wasn’t stopped, Bannerman’s presidency would be over.
CHAPTER THREE
Nii Kwei was a ‘sakawa boy’, meaning he made his money through Internet swindles. ‘Saka’ was the Hausa word for ‘to put in’, referring to adding items to the virtual shopping cart. Nii was well-educated, having completed his BA in political science at the University of Ghana, but that field didn’t exactly invite a tsunami of job offers. Nii Kwei’s options were limited to being either unemployed or underemployed, and he alternated between those two glum circumstances for about a year after graduation.
Whenever Nii looked back on his past, he remembered clear as crystal the day his fortunes changed. Coming out of a Max Mart, he bumped into an old secondary schoolmate called Isaac and was stunned to see that Isaac owned a late model Lexus SUV – a bright red one at that. Isaac had been a loser jock prankster at school with no academic prospects. In fact, he barely scraped through senior high with grades that would never have got him into college or a trade school. How in the world was he driving his own Lexus? Nii Kwei drove an old, dent-rich Toyota Corolla – when his brother could lend it to him, that is.
‘So where do you work now?’ Nii Kwei asked Isaac, his conversational tone belying his curiosity.
‘Internet stuff, you know,’ Isaac said.
‘No, I don’t know. What kind of Internet stuff?’
‘Like overseas business.’
The glint of the giant gold chain on Isaac’s wrist caught Nii Kwei’s eye and held it for a moment. ‘Come on, Isaac,’ he said in Ga. Switching to the vernacular always helped. ‘We were mates, so be straight with me. What are you doing?’
Isaac glanced around as if someone might be watching them, or maybe it was just a dramatic flourish. ‘OK, let’s sit inside my car and talk.’
My God, Nii thought as he got in. He ran his fingers over the precisely stitched tan leather seats and stared at the Lexus’s high-tech dashboard, which looked like an airplane cockpit and came with a navigation system. Why can’t I have this luxury too?
In the bliss of the Lexus’s air conditioning, Isaac told Nii about the world of sakawa – Internet fraud with the backing of magical powers that could make you enormously successful at making money through several scams. You accessed magical powers through an intermediary like a traditional priest, aka fetish priest. It used to be people went to a man of God – either a Christian pastor or a mallam – to request those powers, but either the MOG or God Himself was slow because the magic took too long to materialise. Fetish priests were fast. They jumped on the project immediately, and before you knew it, the sakawa boy was up and away like a racehorse.
But the price the fetish exacted from his supplicant was high. Sacrificing a couple of chickens to the gods was standard, but that was the easy part. The difficulty came with the more exotic rituals the fetish might demand of the sakawa boy. Certain items were highly treasured by the gods, and if a sakawa boy truly desired any modicum of success, he needed to bring those to the priest. The most prized offerings included the hair of either an oburoni or an albino, the thighbone of a child, a person’s lips, and male or female genitalia. The best way to procure these body parts was to have an arrangement with someone at the mortuary in a large hospital.
Isaac detailed how one of his fetish priests asked him to have sex with three different women every day for a week and provide video evidence. Failure to obey the fetish could result in an instant loss of income, sickness, death, or all the above.
‘But how do you actually make money?’ Nii asked Isaac. ‘Is it like the 419?’
In the infamous ‘419’ scams, a made-up Nigerian oil tycoon emails you and promises you a percentage of millions of dollars if you send him a mere $5,000.
‘That’s the one everyone knows,’ Isaac said with a smile. ‘Nigerians invented it and it still works, but Ghanaians have taken it to a new, higher level and we’re now better at it than they are. We have several techniques now.’
Isaac told Nii Kwei about the Iraq war vet scam: an American marine is stranded in Turkey/Jordan/Qatar en route back home to the US from his rotation. The authorities have seized the vet’s passport and the only way he can get out is to pay $3,000, but he has no way of getting his hands on that kind of money. Can you, the recipient of this desperate email, help? His life could be in danger if he doesn’t pay up within the next seventy-two hours. He will reimburse you as soon as he returns stateside.
There were others: romance cons, lottery scams, identity theft, credit card fraud, inheritance scams, business venture scams, Yahoo and Facebook scams – take your pick. The only thing more amazing than the amount of money one could rake in through these illegal channels was just how gullible these white people could be – especially Americans. Some of them had read and knew about these Internet cons, and yet still they allowed themselves to be duped. Amazing.
But the gold scam was the king. This brought in thousands and thousands of dollars. Arab people fall for this one a lot because they love gold. The Chinese? Forget it. They’re so good, they can scam the scammers.
The gold scam begins with the search for a suitable overseas scam target, known as the mugu, which literally means ‘fool’. Let’s call him ‘Joe’. Perhaps Joe is a gold investor or otherwise interested in gold. It’s a good idea to give Joe’s name and his picture to a fetish priest to check (by spiritual means) if Joe is a good target. The sakawa boy entices Joe to Ghana with the promise of a sale of twenty-four carat gold from the country’s rich reserves of the magical, glittering metal. The goal is to get Joe to Ghana to make a purchase of twenty to forty kilos of gold ore. Joe’s independent testing shows the ore contains gold, but somewhere in the process, a member of the ‘scam team’ switches the container, and what Joe pays for is, in fact, dirt with copper shavings that give the ‘ore’ a sufficiently golden appearance. When he returns to the States, he finds he has paid upwards of $200,000 for worthless material.
Isaac had participated in more than one gold scam. In fact, in one of them, it was his job to make the notorious ‘switch’ at a moment the mugu was distracted by someone else in the room.
‘You don’t feel bad about taking people’s money like that?’ Nii Kwei asked.
Isaac looked at him with a mixture of charity and pity. ‘You studied political science at the university, right?’
‘Yes.’
‘Didn’t they teach you about the exploitation of Ghana and Africa by white people?’
‘Of course,’ Nii Kwei said. ‘Everyone knows about that, but most of these people you take money from didn’t directly exploit us—’
‘What?’ Isaac interrupted. ‘But they are the direct beneficiaries of exploitation through the ages, so they are just as guilty. They owe us the money, all those white people. They have stolen our gold, diamonds, timber, oil – and of course, our people. They took us away as slaves, and do you know they are still taking our nurses and doctors—’
‘Nurses and doctors run away from Ghana of their own free will,’ Nii pointed out. ‘They want a better life, so why not? Me too, if I can go to aburokyire, I’ll go. And so will you!’
Isaac sucked on his teeth and shook his head. ‘So, they can use me like a slave? I don’t think so.’
‘But there are good people there too,’ Nii Kwei argued. ‘Who knows, maybe you are robbing some poor old white lady who contributes to aid organisations working in Africa.’
‘You say what? Poor old white lady.’ Isaac doubled over with mirth. ‘You’re funny, Nii. An American poor person is rich compared to us. It doesn’t cost them anything. They don’t even feel it.’
Nii Kwei suspired and looked out his window for a moment. This wasn’t an argument he could win, and besides, Isaac was not wildly off the mark regarding foreign exploitation. Still, for Nii, the leap to duping individuals of their money was a problem. And yet, despite Nii’s reservations, he felt himself being sucked in. Just look at this Lexus, he kept thinking. My God.
‘Do you think I can do it?’ he asked Isaac. ‘The sakawa, I mean. I’m not saying I want to – just wondering.’
‘But of course!’ Isaac exclaimed. ‘Nii, you are smart. You’re wasting your life right now. Look, just try it for some few months and then you can decide whether you want to continue or not.’
Notwithstanding guidance from Isaac, those first few months of becoming a sakawa boy were not easy for Nii Kwei. Isaac showed Nii Kwei the ropes and introduced him to someone called Kweku Ponsu. He was the traditional priest who was to become Nii Kwei’s default spiritualist. Ponsu put Nii Kwei through initiation rites that were a trial by fire. More than once, Nii was on the verge of quitting, but he endured.
Now, three years on, Isaac (ironically) had found his way to Germany and Nii had his own shiny black Range Rover and was training his own mentee, Bruno. He was rough and unpolished, like a piece of wood gouged off a baobab tree. Nii had to get Bruno to understand the mentality of white people. Nii had learnt all about that at the University of Ghana, where he had hung out with a fair number of white students and had had an affair with an American professor, Susan Hadley. At the time, Hadley was visiting on a guest professorship from Boston. Nii Kwei often went to see her at her campus bungalow several times a week to fuck until they both collapsed. Now that Susan had returned to the States, Nii often missed her.
CHAPTER FOUR
4th January, Atimpoku, Ghana
Bobbing his head to the rhythm of hiplife blasting from the Rover’s eight-speaker music system, Nii drove north to Atimpoku. He arrived at the frenetic tro-tro junction just past two in the afternoon and stopped to buy abolo, crisp one-man-thousand, and fiery shito. While he ate, he watched the noisy chaos – travellers coming and going, tro-tros pulling out in a cloud of dust and smoke, and traders swarming the incoming ones in the hope of selling something. The irony was they were all selling the same items.
Chasing his meal with Alvaro pineapple soda, Nii came away from the junction and drove farther on to find a parking space next to the Adome Hotel. After alighting, he followed the would-be pavement bordering the southward road for about four hundred metres, then turned right up a steep hill through a space between two houses. Most of the flatlands east of the road near the Volta Lake were already built up, so everyone was constructing on the hill now. People at the top had the most money, of course, including Kweku Ponsu. Three separate, low-slung buildings with long verandas, one of them still in construction, comprised the sprawling property. Parked in front were six of Ponsu’s vehicles, a mix of SUVs and sedans. In addition to this Atimpoku location, Ponsu had a practice in Accra. Unlike the frenetic Atimpoku junction, it was quiet here with the only sounds being those of goats and sheep bleating, chickens clucking, and kids playing.
Two women were doing laundry on the veranda of the centre building, one bucket for the wash, one for the rinse. They looked up as Nii appeared.
‘Good afternoon,’ he said in bad Twi. As a Ga, he spoke Twi with an awful accent. ‘Nii Kwei,’ said the older one with a smile, ‘how are you?’
‘I’m fine, and you? Please, is Mr Ponsu in?’
She got up, wiping her hands in the fold of the cloth around her waist. ‘I’m coming, eh?’ She went briefly inside the house, re-emerging to beckon to Nii. ‘Mr Ponsu says you can come.’ It took Nii’s eyes a few seconds to adjust to the room’s dimness. Ponsu, swaddled in yards of resplendent kente cloth, sat in the corner on a traditional wooden stool as he texted on his smartphone. A violent gas lamp explosion when he was a child had scarred his face and chest for life, but he had undergone restorative plastic surgery in the United States recently, and his blotchy, tight skin had improved considerably.
Ponsu eschewed the term, ‘fetish priest’. It was the white man’s language and had always had a derogatory connotation. He preferred ‘traditional priest’, a fitting name considering Ponsu repeatedly rattled Ghana’s conservative clergy and the Pentecostal ministers by accusing them of fraud and false prophecy. People either hated Ponsu’s guts or believed in him with all their heart. To Nii Kwei, Ponsu was like a father who commanded fear, respect, and sometimes even love.
‘Good afternoon, Papa boss,’ Nii said, touching his forehead in salute.
‘How are you?’ Ponsu’s tone was nasal, as though his vocal cords were placed in the back of his nose.
‘I’m good, please.’
‘Sit,’ Ponsu said, indicating a stool opposite him. ‘How are you faring?’
Nii cleared his throat. ‘Not so bad.’
‘What have you brought me?’
Nii took out a bulging, folded envelope from his pocket, stood up, and gave it to Ponsu, who took out the cedi bills and counted them. He looked up for an explanation. ‘This is all?’ he asked, his tenor flat and disapproving.
Nii was squirming inside. ‘Papa, I will get more. The money hasn’t been coming as fast as I want. I don’t know what’s wrong.’
‘You are having difficulties because the gods are not so pleased with you,’ Ponsu declared.
That pronouncement engendered dread in Nii. He flicked his tongue across his lips. ‘Yes please, Papa.’
‘In next two weeks, bring two chickens as an offering.’
Nii nodded.
‘And,’ Ponsu continued, ‘hair from a white woman.’
Nii started. ‘Please, Papa – you say?’
‘Hair from a white woman.’
‘What about albino?’ Nii suggested. He could buy that in town. It was expensive but available.
‘No!’ Ponsu shook his head. ‘Are you deaf? I say a white woman and you are trying to tell me “albino”. Foolish. You will sleep with a white woman and get the hair. And her underwear too with her fluids. Then the gods will know you are serious. If you don’t bring it, you know what can happen.’
Yes, Nii was aware. Loss of livelihood, riches, prestige – and, sometimes, of life. ‘I will bring it, Papa.’
‘And your boy, is he learning?’ Ponsu asked.
‘Please, you mean Bruno? He is learning fast.’
‘If he is ready, then you bring him to me next time. He should bring two chickens for the sacrifice.’
‘Yes please.’
‘You can go now.’
Nii left, shaken. He needed to ask God – the head of all gods – for help. He had to find a white woman.
CHAPTER FIVE
5th January, Accra, Ghana
That night, Nii went to The Republic off Oxford Street. It was a loud bar and club with a DJ who spun hiplife and hip hop. When the place was packed, which was always, patrons spilt out onto the street. The waiters sped about between tables serving up mixed drinks and yam fries. The crowd was a mix of Ghanaians and people from all over the world. White American girls loved coming here to get some black-man penis. The Americans always acted all cool but if you watched them carefully you could see their eyes eating up tall, young Ghanaian guys like vultures devouring carrion.
Nii spotted three white women sharing space with a few other people at a table next to the small dance area. One woman was on the chunky side, and the second was thin with almost no breasts. But it was the third woman who held Nii’s attention. She was pretty, on the dark side of blonde with hair cascading to her shoulders. A lot of hair.
Nii approached them, switching on his charm and Americanising his accent and pronunciation. Reese was the pretty one, and Nii concentrated his attention on her. He used some of the American expressions and idioms he’d learnt from Susan Hadley.
Reese seemed to be responding to his flirtations, but after a while, Nii noticed the other two were being obstructive, especially the chunky one, Sheila, who kept sending him disparaging looks. She seemed to be trying to ‘protect’ Reese, or else she was just plain jealous. He couldn’t even get Reese’s number because of that fucking Sheila. All the same, he did give Reese the number to his two mobiles.
Abruptly, Sheila signalled to the others it was time to go, and Nii had a bad feeling she wanted to get the other two away from him. Why? He put it down to prejudice. When they left him with an empty ‘Nice meeting you’, he felt rejected and then angry. Reese gave him a glance back as they left, and he prayed she would text him when she had a moment alone.
He got home relatively early – just after midnight – and went to bed feeling annoyed and anxious. What was the next step to getting to sleep with a white girl and getting a snippet of her hair? To no avail, he checked his phone again for a text from Reese.
He slept until past ten in the morning, waking up to a phone alert. His heart leapt at the thought it might be Reese, but it wasn’t. Even better, it was Susan Hadley who was in town at the Golden Tulip Hotel and wanted to see him.
CHAPTER SIX
When Susan Hadley, PhD, had first visited Ghana, she had been a tenured physicist at Boston University. At the time, she was fifty-two, recently divorced, and disillusioned. The divorce had been brutal.
Susan needed a change of pace and environment – a radical one. So, she signed up for a two-year visiting professorship at the University of Ghana. She’d never stepped foot on the continent of Africa, so it was a culture shock – the kind of jolt she needed. Something as dissimilar to Boston as possible. She wanted to do a ‘mind cleanse’, the mental equivalent of juicing.
Among the things she learnt to get used to in Ghana was being called ‘Mama’ – even in public – by young Ghanaians she didn’t even know. It wasn’t an insult. It was a term of deference and often affection. True, it reminded her she wasn’t a spring chicken any more, but she learnt to roll with it. For one thing, her age commanded a lot more respect than it ever had at home, where ‘Ma’am’ was sometimes used as a slight.
Susan was ready and willing for new experiences. The heat and humidity and all that black skin around her woke up something inside and the number of men she slept with surprised even her. But Nii Kwei was her prince. They met at one of those staff-student mixes. He was in his last year of political science and he was bright, eloquent, and funny. Sarcasm is not used as much in Ghanaian humour as it is in American, but Nii Kwei knew how to do it.
Susan was decades past romantic cat-and-mouse games and playing hard to get. The very night of the mixer, she cut to the chase and invited Nii Kwei to her on-campus bungalow where they had sex half the night. My God, he was good. Her multiple climaxes with him left her as limp as a dishrag. Her lectures the following day were a little uneven, but someone commented on how well she looked.
At first, she wasn’t wildly excited about Nii calling her ‘Mummy’. She felt weird about it and rolled her eyes. But for all his quirks, Nii was loyal and affectionate. He didn’t have much money, but he always brought her little gifts from the market or the mall. It was his smell that got her – earthy, yet fresh and essential.
When her two years were up, Nii was morose about losing Susan. She was more sanguine, however, and promised to come back to Ghana as soon as she could.
‘Promise and swear to call me when you return,’ Nii demanded.
‘I promise and swear,’ she said.
And now, she was back – older and not in quite the same frame of mind as before. Nii would be around twenty-six now, and when Susan opened her hotel room door to him, she saw that some of his boyishness had gone. He had a neatly trimmed beard now, and his body seemed more solid – more like a man’s than a boy’s. They embraced each other for a while.
‘I’ve missed you so much,’ he told her. ‘Come, let’s talk.’
They sat together on the sofa. Nii explained that he hadn’t done anything with his BA in political science. In fact, it had been worthless to him, and he had been through a rough patch of unemployment before getting into ‘information technology’, as he put it.
‘Oh, that’s great!’ she exclaimed. ‘And you look like you’re doing very well. Those clothes you’re wearing are an upgrade! Oh, my God, you’re even handsomer than before.’
He laughed. ‘Thanks, my love. And what about you? How is work?’
Susan was still teaching at BU. Her oldest daughter had had a baby.
‘You look so good,’ he said softly. ‘Can I kiss you?’
They kissed for a long time, and then Nii told Susan to hang on tight while he lifted her and carried her to the bed.
Nii Kwei seemed to Susan to have more finesse than she remembered – at least at the start. But after several minutes, some of the old roughness returned with something new besides. He talked dirty, which she had never heard from him before, and he mixed English with Ga, producing a steamy, heady mix of brutally erotic language. She was transported to an intense high, only hazily aware that she was shrieking and crying and begging him to do it harder and faster, which he did until they had migrated across the bed to the edge of the other side. He pulled them both back from the brink before they fell off.
When both were spent, Nii went to sleep for a while. She watched him and relished the glossy blackness of his skin, which both absorbed and reflected light. He stirred and pulled her close, so he was behind her and she fitted into the concavity of his body.
‘Your hair is lighter these days,’ he said.
She chuckled. ‘You mean greyer?’
‘No, I didn’t mean that.’ He kissed her. ‘I like it. Can I have some?’
She lifted her head to look at him. ‘Really?’
‘Yes, yes. That’s what I want. I know someone who can make a bracelet from it. I will wear it and you’ll be with me all the time.’
‘How weird and sweet,’ she said. ‘OK, but just a little bit. I’m not exactly blessed with flowing tresses.’
She got up and dug around in her things, finding a small pair of scissors in her first aid kit.
He snipped a little from the back, where the hair was longer. ‘Thank you, my love.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
6th January, Accra, Ghana
Emma Djan was no good at sleeping. She lifted her head in the darkness and looked at her phone: 2.54 a.m., the worst possible time to be awake. She made the best of it, rising to make some milky tea with a chunk of sweet bread to go with it.
At five, she took a shower to refresh herself and reverse the oppressing warmth of the night. The rainy season, which brought cooler weather, would not be for several months. Until then, Emma would need these bracing morning showers, pathetic as they were because of insufficient water pressure. The Ghana Water Company gave preference to the foreign embassies, upscale hotels, and posh areas of the city like Airport Residential and Trasacco Valley. Emma’s part of town, Madina, didn’t make the list.
Apart from the slow-running water, the bathroom was adequate at best but frequently less than. Overall, her lodgings were scanty, with the kitchen and sitting room practically one space and the bedroom not much more than a cubbyhole. And yet the rent took easily three-quarters of Emma’s salary, first because housing in Accra, Ghana’s capital, was exorbitant at any level, rich or poor, and second because as a constable in the Ghana Police Service, or GPS, Emma didn’t earn much.
The measly compensation from the GPS would always be the way it was. You had to accept it and live. That Ghanaian police officers were constantly looking for a handout from the citizenry wasn’t even a secret any more. Cops’ paltry salary was both a reason and excuse for greed, need, and corruption. Everyone, from the lowly constable to the exalted police commissioner, was guilty, and they knew the public knew.
Emma checked her reflection in the mirror, making sure her conservative grey skirt and cream blouse were spotless and impeccably pressed. She felt she was too skinny. Her problem, as friends and family pointed out without relent, was that she ‘never ate anything’. Not quite true, but she did often skip meals without noticing.
She left the house, walking quickly along the unpaved and uneven pavement. This time of the morning, already warm and humid, the streets were full of children in their uniforms hurrying to school and workers rushing to get to work on time. Accra’s traffic could foil them yet.
At the Kaneshie lorry park, tro-tro drivers and their assistants, called ‘mates’, competed ferociously for passengers. Hustling potential riders, they yelled out their final destinations in an iconic singsong voice. Emma found her tro-tro and squeezed past other passengers to a tattered seat with ratty foam and exposed springs. When the mate had packed the vehicle as full as physically possible, he signalled the driver with a bang on the roof and the journey started. The minivan, like almost all other tro-tros, was in an advanced state of disrepair – no maintenance whatsoever, Emma imagined. Essentially, she and the eighteen-or-so other riders had just agreed to a high risk of death or mutilation going from point A to B.
The Criminal Investigation Department, CID, building had a new coat of sun-yellow paint, but it could not conceal its age. Seven stories high, it had monotonous rows of old style, dusty louvre windows with occasional modernised plate glass sliders.
A sentry box and armed guard stood to the left of the front security gate and everyone including senior officers underwent an immediate pat down on entry to the premises. From there, it was on to the lobby of the building accommodating an assortment of people on all kinds of business.
Headed to the second floor, Emma went up the steps, which were so worn they slanted downward. Emma was a true novice with the Ghana Police Service in general and the CID in particular. Twenty-six, she had graduated from the police academy only four months before. She had always dreamt of being a homicide detective. That was what her late father had been. The atmosphere in Daddy’s office milling with detectives, the stacks of folders piled high on desks, the capture of suspects and the questioning of witnesses, a glimpse into this case or that – as a girl, Emma had taken it all in by some unconscious process of osmosis infused with fascination.
‘Daddy, how did you catch the bad man?’ she would ask him, sitting on his knee.
He had never waved her away with that well-known adult dismissiveness towards a child: ‘You wouldn’t understand. I’ll tell you when you grow up.’ He would explain it all to her in a way that made sense. And when she nodded with understanding and satisfaction, he smiled and gave her a kiss on her forehead. She would laugh and run off to play.
Daddy had been her hero – he still was. His sudden death at the age of only fifty-five had left the two women in his life – Emma and her mother – bereft. He had never taken his hypertension seriously enough. One morning at work, he collapsed – dead almost instantly from an engulfing haemorrhage of the brain.
On graduation, Constable Emma Djan quickly discovered she would be assigned a department at the discretion of the GPS alone. New recruits didn’t get to indicate their preferences, if they had any. Emma’s fervent hope she would join Homicide didn’t materialise: her station was to be the Commercial Crimes Unit (CCU). She and fourteen other officers investigated the acquisition of land or homes through fraudulent transactions, trespass, document forgery, and so on. Land grabs and property theft were rampant in Ghana. Getting to the bottom of it was tedious, mind-numbing work. Most of the cases remained open for months to years.
Emma’s heart was not in it. She wasn’t under any illusion that murder investigations didn’t involve monotonous paperwork, but the motives behind commercial crimes didn’t grab her the way murder did.
She pushed the CCU door open and went in with a flat, unenthusiastic feeling that meant she would rather be somewhere else. She was more than on time. Only two other workers were already there. The rest would straggle in over the next hour or two. Stolen property wasn’t going anywhere. There was no pressure to get to a crime scene before evidence was destroyed.
‘Morning, morning,’ Emma said brightly to her co-workers. She tried to put the best face on it.
They replied without much enthusiasm as Emma took a seat at the table she shared with several colleagues. The whole unit was depressed and depressing. She tackled the folder at the top of her file – dreary records about this complainant and that defendant. She wished she was Homicide Detective Constable Djan. ‘DC Djan’ had a nice ring.
When she had first joined CID as a recruit in the CCU, she had begun working with her officemates with reasonable keenness. They showed her the ropes, but with scant hand-holding. ‘This is like this, and that is like that; now get to work.’ In only her third week in the unit, it hit Emma right between the eyes that she couldn’t possibly continue this. She was dying a slow death in boredom purgatory. Several days followed during which she drummed up the courage to approach her superior officer, Inspector Kuma, in his office, which wasn’t much more than a small space in the corner of the unit.
‘Yes?’ he had asked irritably as she knocked on his open door. He was youthful in the face and rotund in the body. Too much banku.
Emma came forward to a respectable distance from Kuma’s desk, deferentially keeping her hands behind her back. ‘Please, sir,’ she whispered, ‘I want to know if I can also train in the Homicide Division.’ She didn’t dare say ‘transfer to Homicide’, because it would sound like she didn’t like Inspector Kuma or his department – which was true but not a good thought to express out loud.
‘What?’ he snapped. ‘Train in Homicide? What is wrong with you? You think you can just go wherever you like? Why do you want to do that?’
‘Please, I like it,’ Emma said.
‘How do you know? Have you been a homicide detective before?’
‘No please, but my father was one.’
‘So, because he was in Homicide, you think you know you will like it?’ Kuma laughed. ‘It’s in the blood, is that what you are trying to say?’
‘Yes please.’
‘Who is your father?’
‘Chief Superintendent Emmanuel Djan. He passed away six years ago.’
‘Oh, sorry,’ Kuma said, with a surprising amount of sympathy in his tone. ‘Where was he stationed?’
‘At Kumasi – Manhyia District Headquarters.’
‘Did he know our director?’
By that, Kuma meant Commissioner Alex Andoh, the director-general of CID. Next to the inspector general of police, he was one of the most powerful and influential men in the police hierarchy. ‘Director-General’ was his position, while ‘Commissioner’ was his police rank and the titles were used interchangeably.
‘Please, I’m not sure,’ Emma said, her fingers twisting around each other behind her. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘Look, Constable Djan,’ Kuma said, ‘you can’t just change your department like that, eh? Maybe one of your father’s associates can talk to DCOP Laryea in charge of recruit assignments, but as for me, I can’t help you. Sorry.’
‘OK, sir. Thank you, sir.’
Kuma dismissed Emma and she went away surprisingly uplifted because there might have been something to Kuma’s idea. She was lost in thought as she sat down, her work temporarily forgotten. Commander Seidu, the head of the Kumasi Regional Headquarters, had always liked and respected Daddy and had been deeply affected by his death. Emma made the decision to call Seidu.
But in the months that followed, nothing seemed to result from contacting Commander Seidu. He had said he would see what he could do for her and Emma knew him well enough to know he had meant it, but in retrospect she realised she had set her hopes too high. Slowly, she was becoming accustomed to the grind and tedium of the CCU, and her desire to become a detective constable in Homicide, albeit still there, began to wane. The reality that it wasn’t going to happen sank in. The question she had begun to pose to herself now was whether she wanted to remain with the Ghana Police Service at all.
Near closing time, Kuma called Emma to his office. ‘Report to DCOP Laryea’s office,’ he said curtly.
‘Please, now?’
‘No, next week. Of course now!’ he thundered. ‘What’s wrong with you?’
‘Yes please. Sorry, sir.’
Emma nearly tripped over her own feet as she made haste out of the unit.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) is among the top ranks in the GPS, and so for Emma it was nerve-wracking to face Cleophus Laryea in his expansive, fifth-floor office, chilled by an efficient air conditioner high up on the wall. Receding, patchy hair and a face lined with creases confirmed his seniority. A pair of spectacles perched halfway down his broad nose, and when he looked up over them, his eyes were intense and piercing.
‘Be seated, Constable Djan,’ he said quietly, pointing at one of a pair of chairs in front of his desk. She sat down without a word and waited, her heart in her stomach. She suspected this was about her request to move to Homicide, but was it going to be good news or bad?
‘I have heard from Commander Seidu in Kumasi on two occasions now,’ Laryea began, his voice as deep as a village borehole. ‘He informed me of your interest in working in the Homicide Division.’ He looked over his spectacles. ‘Is that still the case?’
‘Yes please, sir,’ Emma said.
‘He spoke very highly of your father.’
‘Thank you, sir.’
‘Why do you want to work in Homicide?’
‘Please, as I followed my father’s work until the day he died, I came to learn the ways of working as a detective, and I liked it very much. I have wanted to do it for a long time. I feel the connection with people is stronger and more important than …’
Laryea removed his glasses. ‘Than what?’
Emma squirmed. ‘Than what I’m doing now,’ she said in barely a whisper.
His eyes sliced through her. ‘Are you having any kind of conflicts or difficulties in the CCU you wish to tell me about?’
‘No please,’ Emma said hurriedly. ‘Everything is fine.’
Laryea nodded. ‘I asked Inspector Kuma about you and he said you are a diligent worker.’
Emma’s heart fluttered. Maybe Kuma wasn’t so bad after all. ‘Thank you, sir.’
‘I will approve your transfer to Homicide,’ Laryea said. ‘As a matter of fact, they do need some female presence, and so that will be good.’
‘Thank you, sir,’ Emma said, hardly able to believe what she was hearing. Was there a but coming?
‘But,’ Laryea said, ‘the final decision lies with Commissioner Andoh.’
‘Yes please,’ Emma said, her elation beginning to dissipate.
‘I’ve discussed it with him already.’ Laryea looked at his watch. ‘It may be too late, but let me see if he’s in the office and if he can see you now.’
Emma’s disquiet spiralled into outright terror. She was to meet Commissioner Andoh in person? For a junior officer like her, the director-general was God himself.
Laryea got on his mobile and after a few seconds said, ‘Yes, sir. I have interviewed her. Yes, I believe she is, but of course, it is ultimately your decision. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.’ He put away his phone and looked back at Emma. ‘He says you can go up now.’ Laryea must have detected her anxiety. ‘Don’t be fearful, Djan. The director would never summon you if he wasn’t open to your request. You should understand that.’
‘Yes please,’ she said, slightly reassured but no less nervous.
‘Just be yourself, as you have been with me and you’ll be OK.’
‘Yes please. Thank you very much, sir.’
Like an anxious mountain climber, Emma went up two flights to the seventh floor, the summit of the CID building. Sergeant Thelma Bright, Commissioner Andoh’s decades-long assistant, showed Emma into the room. It was, as she had expected, larger than any other she had seen at CID. The carpet was plush. Pictures of the commissioner – one a full portrait by himself, the others with various luminaries including Ghana’s president – adorned the walls.
Andoh’s desk was dark, polished, and massive. Half a dozen chairs were arranged in a line about three metres away from it. Part of the director-general’s role was to give audience to select members of the public who had a particularly serious matter or grievance to bring to his attention.
In size, the commissioner matched his desk and the large leather executive chair that supported his heft. Resplendent in a dark-blue uniform with impressive insignia on his chest and epaulettes, he was writing something, and he didn’t look up.
‘Sit down there, please,’ Bright said to Emma, indicating one of the chairs.
Emma didn’t make a sound as she took a seat. She realised she was holding her breath. Bright remained standing with her hands respectfully behind her back.
After a short while, the commissioner glanced up at her, but not at Emma. ‘You may go, Thelma. Thank you. Goodnight.’
‘Goodnight, sir.’
Thelma left, closing the door quietly behind her. Andoh continued to write as if Emma were not there. Then he capped his pen, leant back, and looked her over. Like Laryea, he was greying, but his face was much pudgier, with heavy jowls. ‘Yes, Constable Djan. How can I help you?’
Emma didn’t know how to begin.
Andoh saved her the trouble. ‘DCOP Laryea tells me you want to transfer to the Homicide Division. Do you know you can’t do whatever you want here at CID?’
‘Yes please,’ she whispered.
‘You think you’re special just because your father was a homicide detective?’ He sounded contemptuous, which made Emma want to shrink.
‘No please.’
‘Eh? Speak up.’
‘No, sir.’
‘How do you think you will personally benefit the Homicide Division?’
Emma was undecided on how to answer. Should she continue to cower or speak her mind? ‘Please, I understand there aren’t many women in that unit.’
He pressed his lips together. ‘That’s your reason?’
‘Please, I believe it’s my destiny.’
Andoh looked incredulous for a moment and then began to laugh. ‘You are funny,’ he said. ‘Funny and naive. But one thing is that you are motivated, and that is good.’
Emma felt a small wave of relief.
‘If you are to get this position,’ Andoh said, ‘then you must perform well and to my satisfaction. Do you understand?’
‘Yes please. I will.’
He inclined his head. ‘Are you sure you can look at dead bodies? You look too soft.’
‘No please,’ Emma said with a tinge of indignation. ‘I’m not soft.’
‘Come here and let me show you some photographs of murder crime scenes and we will see how you react,’ the commissioner said. ‘Bring the chair over with you.’
‘Yes, sir.’
Emma sat to his left and he brought a laptop in front of them from the right side of the desk. After some clicks, he brought up several gruesome photographs – people butchered to death by blunt force or deep machete wounds; a woman with her throat cut almost clean through; a man hanging from a tree branch.
‘These are all real cases the Homicide Division has seen,’ Andoh said, looking at her. ‘How do you find them?’
Emma was leaning forward with fascination. ‘This one has a very personal signature,’ she murmured, pointing at the woman with the severed neck. ‘Maybe her husband or boyfriend, or a family member.’
‘You know about signature,’ Andoh said, clearly surprised. He nodded. ‘Anyway, you are correct. In fact, it was the husband who murdered her. He thought she was committing adultery with the neighbour. Good job.’
‘Thank you, sir,’ Emma said. Her heart was racing with excitement. He seemed impressed. This was working out beyond her dreams.
‘What about this one?’ he asked, clicking to another image and at the same time resting his large hand on Emma’s right thigh. She flinched, startled. The commissioner’s attitude towards her had transformed. Now he was friendly, even intimate. Perhaps he was just being kind, but she felt uncomfortable.
‘Constable Djan?’ he pressed, and his hand shifted a little higher on her thigh. ‘What do you think?’
‘Well,’ she said, flustered and distracted, ‘from his injuries, it seems he was dragged to the location where he was found.’
Andoh was watching her closely. ‘Something like that.’ He stood up, towering over her. She found him intimidating. ‘Come with me,’ he said.
Uncertain, she rose to follow him to a door in the back of the room that she had not noticed till now. He unlocked it, opened it, and stepped inside. ‘Come,’ he said, as he saw her hesitation.
Emma went in cautiously and saw it was a small bathroom and changing area in the middle of which was a chair with a cushioned seat and cane back.
‘This is my private chamber,’ Andoh said. ‘Sometimes I need to change into ceremonial clothes for visiting dignitaries.’
‘Yes please,’ Emma said. ‘It’s nice.’
‘Please sit over there.’ He pointed to the chair.
‘Sir?’
‘Sit down on the chair.’
Emma did so uneasily, not clear what was going on. Andoh approached her.
‘You remember how I said you must perform well to my satisfaction?’ he said, caressing her face.
Oh God, she thought. Please, not this.
He circled around to the back of the chair. ‘Well, now is the time.’
She went rigid as his heavy hand slipped into her blouse, fondling one breast, and then the other. His finger wormed into her bra to stroke her nipple back and forth like a windshield wiper.
‘Your skin is so soft and beautiful,’ he said, breathing heavily. ‘If all goes well, you can start in the Homicide Division tomorrow, OK? I’m sure you will work out there very well.’
Emma let out a whimper. ‘Please sir.’
‘What is it?’
‘I beg you, sir.’
He chortled. ‘Beg me for what? To make love to you?’
She began to cry.
‘Why are you crying?’ he demanded. ‘What are the tears for? Are you a small girl?’ He sounded annoyed. ‘Stand up. Come on, stand up.’
Emma covered her face in shame, hyperventilating as Andoh unbuttoned her blouse. His jowls were in her face. He tried to kiss her, but she pulled her head back. He tugged his pants and shorts down to his thighs. She caught a glimpse of his erect penis and turned her head away quickly, utterly mortified and repulsed.
‘Take off your dress,’ he ordered.
She shook her head, pleading with him. ‘No please. I beg you, sir.’
‘Stop this,’ he said, his tone becoming harsh. ‘Do what I say.’
He pulled her forcefully to the ground with one hand and began working her dress up with the other. Emma resisted. He leant on her, his big body suppressing her struggles.
What was happening? Why was this happening? Her panic rose to a crescendo and she screamed.
‘No one can hear you,’ Andoh muttered. ‘If you try to tell anyone about this, they won’t believe you and you will be disgraced.’
He was trying to tug her underwear down, but that didn’t work, so he tore it instead. Emma looked away, weeping as he grunted and huffed, moving his big body into position. She remembered what Daddy had said. Go for his eyes, his balls.
‘Let me take off my dress properly for you,’ she said, her voice shaking. ‘I can do it for you, sir.’
Andoh pulled back, appearing surprised at her apparent new willingness. He lifted his weight off her, freeing up her hands. Like a striking cobra, she jabbed her right index finger into his left eye socket hard and quick. He recoiled with a gasp of pain and fell back, his hand pressed over the left side of his face. Emma jumped up, nearly falling as she bolted for the door. The commissioner lay on the floor bellowing like a wounded cow. Run, she told herself. Run.
