Kwei Quartey - Wife of the Gods

“I need to talk to you.”

“About what?”

“I’m not here to do anything bad to you, but Togbe Adzima, your life may be in danger.”

“What are you talking about?”

“One of your trokosi died.”

“Who told you that?”

“Mr. Kutu.”

“All right. And so what?”

“Have you had that blood test Gladys Mensah was giving?”

“I don’t need any kind of blood test.”

“Was the trokosi a virgin when she came to you?”

“Of course,” Adzima said contemptuously.

“Okay, listen to me. I have come to ask you to use condoms, especially with your new wife. I can get you some.”

Adzima threw his head back and roared with laugher. “For what? Mr. Detective Man, I’m not going to use any condom.”

“I’m begging you.”

“You are begging me ?” Adzima spat. “You came here and did all kinds of bad things, and now you say you’re begging me. You are too funny, Mr. Inspector.”

After several more futile attempts to talk sense into Adzima, Dawson left abruptly, annoyed and despairing. Even if he did find a way to put the priest behind bars today and get him away from Efia and his other wives, it might already be too late. He may already have transmitted HIV to some or all of them.

Dawson walked quickly back toward Ketanu. He passed a mango tree laden with ripe, rosy fruit and badly wanted to climb up and pick a few. He used to love doing that as a boy. The only problem was that fire ants, just as fond of mango trees, made ingenious nests out of clusters of leaves. If they were disturbed, these vicious little creatures the color of fire launched an attack with bites that felt like a thousand red-hot needles.

As he passed by, Dawson heard a hiss from somewhere behind the mango tree. He stopped and turned.

“Mr. Dawson!” A loud whisper.

He moved back toward the tree. “Who’s there?”

“Can you come, please?”

He circled around to see who it was.

“Nunana? What are you doing?”

She was crouched behind the tree trunk.

“So sorry to disturb you, please, sir,” she said, still speaking in a whisper. “I saw you coming from Bedome. I have to tell you something, but I don’t want anyone to see me talking to you.”

He knelt down beside her and dropped his voice in the same way. “What is it you have to tell me?”

“You are looking for a silver bracelet belonging to Gladys Mensah.”

“Yes, I am! You know something about it?”

“Please, I have seen one, sir.”

“Where?”

“In Togbe Adzima’s room, sir. In a tin he keeps with his drink.” She swallowed hard and looked around nervously, as if convinced they were being watched. “I was cleaning his house, and I saw it.”

“When was that?”

“On Tuesday.”

Dawson’s heart surged. That was the day before he and Fiti had searched Adzima’s room . This could be the lead he had been praying for.

“Inspector Fiti and I didn’t find the bracelet,” he said. “Do you think he’s hidden it somewhere?”

Nunana shook her head. “I don’t think he has it anymore, sir. I think he has sold it.”

“To whom?”

“I don’t know, sir.”

“How do you think he got Gladys’s bracelet?”

“I don’t know, but when Efia came to tell us Gladys was dead, Togbe went to see where the body was, and he went alone.” Nunana dropped her voice even further. “Maybe he stole it at that time.”

“Do you remember what the bracelet looked like?”

“Yes, sir.”

Dawson took his notebook and pen from his top pocket. “I want you to draw it, if you can. Just do your best.”

“All right, let me try.”

She rested the notebook on her knee, and with her tongue sticking out with the effort, she painstakingly drew the bracelet, laughing with both embarrassment and pride as she finished her rendition. It was rudimentary, but it showed clearly enough that the bracelet was a double strand of loops.

“Beautiful,” Dawson said.

She laughed again, pleased.

“Now, Nunana, tell me the truth,” Dawson said. “Think about this carefully and tell me the truth. That evening before Efia discovered Gladys’s body, did Togbe go anywhere? Did he disappear somewhere?”

She looked away for a second. “I… I don’t know. I’m not sure.”

Her voice was stretched tight like a rubber band at its limit. Lying . She knew, or had seen, something.

“You’re afraid,” Dawson said. “Afraid of Togbe, not so?”

Her eyes swung back and forth like a pendulum.

“If you’re so afraid,” Dawson pressed gently, “why come and tell me anything at all? Because, Nunana, you have honor. You can’t just let it be that a man takes a bracelet from the wrist of a dead woman. Is that right?”

Nunana nodded. Dawson waited as she gathered courage.

“After Togbe quarreled with Gladys that evening and she had left Bedome, he was angry and he started to hit all of us. Then one of his friends from Ketanu came and he went with him to have beer.”

“Do you know that friend?”

“No, I don’t know him.”

“Can you describe him?”

Her description was not the best in the world, but Nunana was certain that Togbe’s friend was fat, short, and had speckled, graying hair.

“Do you have anything else?” he asked Nunana.

“No, sir. Please, I beg you, don’t tell him-”

“That you told me about the bracelet? I won’t.”

She was shaking. He touched her shoulder. “Don’t be afraid.”

Dawson went looking for Constable Gyamfi while praying he would not bump into Inspector Fiti. He sidled up to the front entrance of the station and briefly put his head around the door to see who was inside. Bubo was leaning against the counter picking his nails, but Gyamfi wasn’t there. Dawson circled around the side and ducked down below Fiti’s office window. He peeped in from one corner. Gyamfi was standing up talking to the inspector, who was seated with his back toward the window.

Gyamfi spotted him, and Dawson quickly pressed an index finger to his lips. The constable acknowledged him without giving him away, and Dawson went to the rear of the building.

Gyamfi joined him about five minutes later.

“Dawson, how are you?” he said. “What’s happening?”

“I need your help. Here is the situation. I’ve just found out it may have been Togbe Adzima who stole Gladys’s bracelet.”

Gyamfi raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Is that so?”

“After Gladys’s death, someone in Bedome found it in Adzima’s room. What we don’t know is whether he killed Gladys and then took it off her wrist or whether he just took the bracelet after she had been killed by someone else.”

“Yes, I understand. What do you want me to do?”

“I can’t interrogate Togbe anymore. We hate each other so much now, and he’s afraid of me. You’re more charming than I, so I want you to work on him. There are two things: how he got the bracelet, and where he went on the evening before Gladys’s body was found. I have a witness who says he went to Ketanu with a friend, but we need to find out if that’s accurate-who is the friend, was he with the friend all the time, could he have doubled back and accosted Gladys, and so on. You get what I mean?”

“Of course, Dawson. I’m on it.”

“Thank you. One other thing-the bracelet looks something like this.” He showed Nunana’s drawing to the constable. “It’s silver.”

Gyamfi studied it a moment. “All right. I have a half day off, and I can go and see Togbe after I leave here in the afternoon.”

He and Dawson slapped hands. As they parted, Dawson briefly watched Gyamfi walking away with a long, rolling lope. He liked Gyamfi. He was the kind of partner Dawson would like alongside himself at CID.