Kwei Quartey - Murder at Cape Three Points

He kissed Hosiah and pulled Sly closer for a somewhat quicker embrace. The older boy was less inclined to demonstrations of affection, and Dawson respected that.

“Take care of your little brother, okay?”

Sly nodded and smiled.

“While you’re on the way, Mama will give you her phone to call me and let me know everything is all right.”

Sly liked taking on responsibility and being in control. “All right, Daddy.”

Dawson watched as they pulled away in the car, the kids waving at him for as long as he was within sight. He went back inside thinking what a nice time this weekend with the family had been.

HE JOINED CHIKATA and Abraham to watch a televised soccer match between British teams Manchester United and Arsenal. To Dawson’s chagrin, Man U massacred his team Arsenal 3-0, and he had to submit to the taunts.

“Next time,” Dawson said, waving the teasing away, “no mercy.”

His phone rang. It was Sly calling on Christine’s phone. “Daddy, we’re passing Saltpond now.”

“That’s good. Everything okay?”

“Yes, Daddy, everything is fine. We’ll get home soon.”

“Cool, thank you for calling. Let me talk to Mama.”

He exchanged a few quick words with Christine before ending the call. “Cousin Abe, Chikata and I should get back now, so we can prepare for tomorrow.”

“Okay, no problem.”

With Chikata watching, Dawson sat at the small table in the lodge sitting room with a pencil, eraser, and a large paper pad. He wanted to work out what they had so far on the case, what was missing, and what still needed to be done. Sometimes it helped to do that in diagrammatic form.

THE SMITH-AIDOO MURDER

Dawson had drawn a dashed lined between Peter Duodo and Reggie Cardiman because a direct connection between the two wasn’t yet established.

“What do you want to do about Duodo?” Chikata asked.

“Talk to him on the phone tomorrow,” Dawson instructed him. “Find out what kind of business arrangement he had with Charles, if any. Were they on good terms, did they have any disagreements, you know, that kind of thing. In other words, could Duodo be a suspect? Get a feeling for if he’s hiding something. If so, we might have to interview him in person. Also, check if Duodo ever heard of any threats made to Charles or Fiona.”

“No problem. Is that it for today?” Chikata said.

“Why?” Dawson asked knowingly. “Where are you going tonight?”

“There’s a private party tonight at the Champs Bar at Stellar. Do you want to come?”

“No, thank you.”

“Come on,” Chikata said, laughing as he went to the door. “Your wife isn’t here.”

“I prefer to stay out of trouble.” A thought occurred to Dawson. “What kind of party is this?”

“I don’t really know. The manager of Champs invited me.”

That was typical for Chikata. People invited him to everything.

“While you’re there,” Dawson said thoughtfully, “keep your ears open for anything interesting. For example, I understand there was a rumor that Fiona Smith-Aidoo was having an affair. See if you dig up anything like that.”

“Okay, boss, I will.”

“And don’t get drunk,” Dawson called out. “I need you fresh for tomorrow.”

IN THE MORNING, DAWSON was just out of the shower when Chief Superintendent Lartey called to ask how the case was progressing. Dawson gave him a quick summary of events so far.

“Move it along,” Lartey said crisply. “I need you and Philip back as quickly as possible. Cases are coming in all the time, and I want both of you to attend a new forensics course in two weeks.”

First he rushes me here to Takoradi. Now he’s trying to rush me back to Accra.

“How is Philip doing?” Lartey asked.

“Fine, sir. Very comfortable at the hotel.”

If the chief super detected the jab, he didn’t let on. “I want you to give him more free rein. Let him take the lead as much as possible. I’d like him to move up to inspector when you get to chief inspector. That is, if you do. How you perform on this case might determine that.”

Not that you’re trying to pressure me , Dawson thought. “Yes, of course, sir.”

He was glad to get off the phone with his boss as he answered a knock on the door. It was Chikata.

“How was the party?” Dawson asked as he invited him in.

“I’ve seen better,” Chikata said.

“Did you hear anything useful?”

Chikata dropped into the sitting room chair. “I was talking to a woman who used to work in Smith-Aidoo’s corporate affairs department. She says she resigned, but I got the feeling she might have been sacked. Anyway, she was boasting that Takoradi has a much lower crime rate compared to Accra, and I said, wasn’t Charles Smith-Aidoo brutally murdered some months ago? I didn’t tell her what I do, by the way. She was drinking and her tongue was loose, so I got her to say more. She told me she had heard that Fiona was having an affair with some businessman in town, and maybe it was the businessman that killed her and Charles.”

“Oh, really?” Dawson said with interest. “That’s the second time I’ve heard reference to her possible involvement with a businessman. Did she give a name?”

“No. She said she had heard it was a banker, then she changed it to an oilman, then a bookstore owner, and all this time she was leaning on me and giggling and breathing her alcohol fumes on me. I couldn’t keep her on the subject. She kept asking me if we could go upstairs to my room.”

Chikata pulled a face, indicating just what he thought of that idea.

“Come on, let’s go.” Dawson said as he heard the sound of Baah’s taxi pulling up. “I’m going to introduce you to Superintendent Hammond.”

“Ah, right. Is he going to be glad to see me?”

“I doubt that very much.”

BAAH PULLED up in front of the police headquarters, and Dawson and Chikata alighted. They went inside where Dawson knocked on Hammond’s door, opened it, and put his head in.

“Good morning, sir.”

“Morning. Come in.”

Dawson introduced Hammond to Chikata, who received only a curt nod from the superintendent.

“Kwesi DeSouza called me this morning to lodge a complaint against you,” Hammond said to Dawson.

“A complaint? Regarding what?”

“You made sarcastic and discourteous comments to him, you insisted on repeating questions that we have already dealt with, and after you saw him in his offices at STMA, you hounded him at TTI while he was supervising exams.”

“Questioning possible suspects is harassment? In that case, we might as well do nothing, sir.”

“There you are,” Hammond said, flipping his palm up demonstratively. “Did you hear what you just said and how you said it? Exactly the sarcasm Mr. DeSouza is talking about. Coming from CID Headquarters doesn’t give you any right to insult people. We are a closely knit community here, and we behave differently than people do in Accra. You have to respect that.”

“I was in no way discourteous to the man,” Dawson said coolly. “He felt insulted because he has an overinflated opinion of himself and thinks that as the chief executive of the STMA, he’s somehow above being questioned. He could be the president of Ghana, for all I care. If there’s a need to interrogate him fifty times, I will go back and do so fifty times.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Dawson saw Chikata freeze and hold his breath. For several moments, Hammond stared at Dawson in consternation. “What about you, Inspector Dawson?” he said finally. “Do you not have an inflated opinion yourself?”