Kwei Quartey - Murder at Cape Three Points

“That’s the Minister of Energy, Terence Amihere,” Dawson said, pointing to a man in the photograph holding a cocktail glass as he conversed with a white woman in an off-the-shoulder black dress.

“You know him?” Chikata asked.

“I’ve met him once. We’ll talk some more about him in a minute.”

Chikata shot him a quick, puzzled look, but said nothing.

In the next image, Amihere was in conversation with Charles.

“Who’s this guy?” Chikata asked, pointing to someone in the right background, and then referring to the caption. “Oh, it’s Lawrence Tetteh, the Goilco CEO. More evidence that he and Charles knew each other.”

Dawson peered at the image, first close up and then from a distance. “Tetteh seems to be looking directly at Amihere. How would you describe the look on his face? Questioning?”

“Maybe something like that,” Chikata said speculatively, “But to me it looks more on the side of contempt, or disgust.”

“That would fit.”

“Are you going to tell me what happened today, or just keep me wondering?”

Dawson related his confrontation with Hammond and then the revelation the superintendent had made. As he described the superintendent’s description of the MP corruption scandal, Chikata’s face reflected the seriousness of the implications.

“What do you plan on doing?” he asked Dawson.

“Well, in the first place, we need to be careful. If we are going to be dealing with thugs who assassinate their enemies and chop people’s heads off, then we need to ask ourselves if we want to get in the middle of this. What I fear the most are threats against my family.”

Chikata swore under his breath. “Oh, no. Not that. Dawson, I think we have to go straight to Uncle Theo. I’m positive he knows nothing about this.”

“We have to go to him, yes, but we need more information in order to make a strong and clear case to him.”

“All right, but how?”

“That’s the question.”

“Do you have the answer?”

Dawson delivered a brisk slap to the side of Chikata’s head and the sergeant fell over with laughter.

“Insubordination, Sergeant,” Dawson muttered, a smile playing at his lips. He grew serious again. “There’s something that connects the Tetteh and the Smith-Aidoo murders. We just haven’t found it. I was hoping this pen drive would shed some light, but it hasn’t added much.”

The two men sat back pondering for a while. Finally, Dawson sighed and shook his head. “I’m not sure about the next step,” he said. “Anyway, leaving that aside for a moment, in the time being, I haven’t told you about my expedition to the rig.”

“Oh, yes!” Chikata said, smiling. “I want to hear about it. Were you scared when you were in the helicopter?”

“At first I was very nervous,” Dawson admitted, “but then I quickly got used to it.”

He gave the fascinated sergeant a detailed account of the journey to the rig and the time he spent on it, as well as his conversations with Mr. Glagah and Clifford. “What that trip impressed on me, Chikata,” Dawson said, getting to his feet and leaning against the desk, “is how impossible it would have been to carry out this murder without involving someone who knows the Atlantic backward and forward. So even though we’ve been going after possible suspects like Jason Sarbah and Reggie Cardiman who might have had a grudge against Charles-and we should -we have to start giving more attention to the strong possibility that there was also a fisherman who might have had something against them.”

“Do you mean I should keep searching for connections in Axim?”

“I’d like you to go to Cape Three Points village tomorrow and ask around. You might come up with a possible lead-maybe someone who had a confrontation with Charles. You’ll probably have to visit the chief to introduce yourself, just like we did at Akwidaa.”

Chikata nodded. “I’ll do that.” He made a face. “I’ll have to buy some gin.”

Dawson smiled. “Yes, you will.” He returned to his seat and shifted the laptop over. “Let me check if Dr. Taryque has emailed me the postmortem pics.”

Chikata reached over to the refrigerator while Dawson logged on and went to his web mail. “Do you want a Malta?”

“Yes, thank you. You sure your uncle is paying for all this?”

Chikata snorted. “He’d better be, because I certainly am not.”

“Ah, the doc has sent me a message.”

Dawson turned the laptop slightly so Chikata could see better.

Dear Inspector Dawson ,

Here are the images you requested. As you will observe, powder burns are present around the head wound of the male but not the female.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Best ,

WT

Dawson opened the file and went through the fifteen slides-seven for Charles and eight for Fiona. Each of them had descriptive captions. Two slides each pictured their full-length bodies lying on the autopsy table. In Charles’s case, one was the headless version and the other was with his head placed contiguous with his neck.

“Oh, dear Jesus,” Chikata said, shaking his head and clicking his tongue. “Terrible.”

Another image was a close-up of the ragged decapitation site. Dawson shuddered. On the close-up of Charles’s right side head wound, the ring of soot was visible even against his dark skin.

Even in death, Fiona’s body was curvaceous with large, firm thighs. Besides the bullet wound to her head and the ligature lines at her wrists, she was unmarked. Most importantly, in contrast to Charles, no soot appeared around the entry wound at her left temple. She was lighter in color than her husband, so there was no question about it.

“The way I see it,” Dawson said, “two men took part in the murder. They ambush Charles’s vehicle on his way back from Ezile with his wife. They kidnap them that afternoon and transport them to a spot near a secluded beach somewhere. Night comes, they take Charles and Fiona down to the beach and order them to kneel or lie on the ground.” Dawson formed the shape of a pistol with thumb and index and aimed downward. “The gunman stands at Charles’s side, presses the nozzle to his temple, and shoots him, but with Fiona, he stands where he is and shoots her from a distance of two or three meters. Then one of them decapitates Charles. It takes a strong stomach and a cold heart to do that. It’s not easy, and it’s a bloody mess.”

“If only we knew what beach the kidnappers took them to,” Chikata said, perching on the arm of the sofa.

“Why?” Dawson asked, studying him.

“Then maybe we could locate the place where they held the Smith-Aidoos throughout the afternoon and evening. It might be close to the beach, and it might have been some kind of house or shack or enclosed structure where they could keep them concealed.”

“Go on,” Dawson encouraged him.

“I asked people in Axim if they knew of any beach that was exclusive-just one or two houses, for example. No one gave me any useful answers.”

Dawson snapped his fingers and sat bolt upright. “I’m such a fool.”

“What, what?”

“I’ve been thinking the kidnappers took the Smith-Aidoos to some faraway place like Axim in order to make it harder to track them down, but no. What do you meet on the road just before you get to Axim?”

Chikata thought about it for barely a second. “Oh! I went there twice and didn’t think of it. I’m the fool, rather. There’s a customs checkpoint. Not even an idiot would take the risk of trying to get through that with two kidnapped people in the boot of the car.”

“Exactly,” Dawson said, nodding. “In fact, Chikata, it’s the opposite. The kidnappers would want a spot as close to the ambush point as possible.”