Wife of the Gods (35 page)

A woman was walking along the footpath with yams on her head,
and she looked at Dawson as if he was insane. After she had passed
him, he heard her laughing convulsively.
Just jealous
, he
thought.

He stepped into the bush, took the skirt and blouse off, and put
it back in the bag. He trotted back to Chikata.

“You saw me clearly?”

“Twenty-twenty.”

“Describe the dress fully.”

“White, and some blue splashes all over.”

“And what else?”

“There’s something else?”

“I’m asking you. Think hard.”

Chikata shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking
about.”

“This is your last chance. Think carefully what else there was
besides blue and white.”

“
Nothing
. How many times do you want me to tell you?”

Dawson took the dress out of its bag.

“Oh,” Chikata said, surprised. “Adinkra symbols. I couldn’t see
them from this dis – ” He stopped as the light dawned. “Aah,
this time you hit it right. Your auntie could not have seen it
either. But why did she tell you that? Why would she lie?”

When Chikata said that, Dawson felt tears pricking. His stomach
had knotted up. The pieces were falling together one terrible step
at a time.

“For the same reason anyone lies,” Dawson said softly. “To hide
what they really are.”

♦

“What is this place?” Chikata asked, looking about the forest
clearing that Efia had introduced Dawson to.

“It’s where Auntie Osewa comes for love and attention,” Dawson
said.

Chikata shook his head. “Sometimes I don’t understand you at
all.”

“We need to build a fire,” Dawson said.

“How are we going to do that?” Chikata demanded. “Everything is
wet from last night’s rain.”

“We’ll get it done,” Dawson replied, undeterred.

But it did indeed prove difficult to engineer a pile of firewood
dry enough to be set alight.

“Blow on it,” Chikata suggested.

“What do you know about lighting a fire?”

“About as much as you. Nothing.”

“Then shut up, D.S. Chikata.”

A few minutes later a decent flame began.

Chikata collected more dry wood, and Dawson added it slowly to
avoid killing the fire. Soon it was blazing and popping.

“Good,” he said, pleased. “Now get me a lot of plants and
branches with green leaves.”

♦

As Dawson put those on top, the flame dropped and white smoke
appeared. He unfolded the raffia mat and covered the fire for a few
seconds, smoke escaping laterally from underneath the mat.

“One puff.” He covered for a few seconds and released again.
“Now two…two again…”

“Smoke signals?” Chikata asked in disbelief. “Ah, but Dawson,
who makes smoke signals anymore?”

“Nobody,” Dawson said. “That’s why it hasn’t been noticed.”

Dawson repeated the cycle several times. One puff, two puffs,
two puffs, one. After a while, the fire burned itself out.

“Now what?” Chikata asked.

“We wait.”

And wait they did. The more time passed, the worse Dawson felt.
Even in the heat of the forest, he began to shiver.

I could leave now
, he thought. Just go back to Accra,
call it a day.

But he thought of Gladys and he thought of Samuel, and he knew
he couldn’t leave.

A light breeze whispered through the trees. Dawson caught the
smell of the moist earth and the lingering odor of the smoke from
the fire. He looked up as he heard the soft crunch of feet upon
moist leaves. Judging by the interval between footsteps, it was a
man approaching. A final rustle past an obstructing bush and Isaac
Kutu broke into the clearing. He recoiled when he saw Dawson and
Chikata.

“What are you doing here?” he said in surprise.

“Waiting for you and Auntie Osewa,” Dawson said.

Isaac suddenly seemed to shrink. “Why?”

“Is this where you always meet, or do you choose a different
place each time?”

Isaac’s shoulders slumped, and he passed his hand over his face
like a cloth across a windowpane. “How did you know?”

“Just when you think no one is watching, someone sees.”

“You did?”

“Not me.”

A soft footfall, lighter and quicker than Isaac’s, came from
beyond the clearing, and seconds later Auntie Osewa appeared. She
went rigid and looked quizzically from Dawson and Chikata to
Isaac.

“What’s happening?”

“I saw the signal and I thought it was you,” Isaac said.

“And I thought it was
you
.” Osewa turned to Dawson,
mystified. “Darko?”

“Isaac loves you, Auntie, and you love him. When you signal for
him to come to you, he comes. Not so?”

“This is none of your concern, Darko.”

“I’m sorry, Auntie. This isn’t easy for me either, because I’ve
loved you from the first day I met you. The way you treated Mama
and Cairo and me, your cooking, how you’ve cared for us…I want to
thank you. I’ll never forget it.”

She softened. “It’s my duty as an aunt. I love you and Cairo, so
I treat you with love.”

“Did you love my mother too?”

“Of course
, Darko. Why do you ask such a thing?
Of
course
I loved her.”

“But jealousy defeats love every time, doesn’t it? They’re
opposite sides of the same coin, but jealousy always comes out
heads.”

“My dear Darko, what you are talking about?”

“Jealousy,” Darko said softly, almost musing to himself. “And
its twin, possessiveness.”

“I don’t understand.”

“How did it feel the day Isaac came to the house with Gladys?
Did it seem to you like they were close, Auntie? Like there was
romance between the two of them?”

“They were working together on the medicines, that’s all,” she
said. “I don’t know why you or I should think anything else.”

“I don’t either, but that’s our heads talking. What our hearts
say is different. The heart makes an impression on the head, but
it’s never the reverse, and it’s the heart that drives our passions
and motives.”

“All you’re saying may be true, Darko, my love, but – ”

“It was very threatening, Auntie. I know that, and I understand
it. Gladys was so lovely, and although she was no lovelier than
you, she was young, she was educated, and she was going to be a
doctor. To see her with your Isaac, the Isaac who has done so much
for you and whom you love more than any other man in the world –
maybe the
only
one you love.” Dawson shook his head. “Too
frightening for Gladys to get so close. Who knows what they were
doing together in Isaac’s compound? Hours spent side by side. I
would have gone mad myself thinking about it.”

Osewa looked away.

“And that evening you were collecting firewood and you saw Isaac
and Gladys standing together talking,” Dawson continued, “they
stood closer together than was comfortable for you. You couldn’t
bear it. Too much pain, too much.”

The other two men were watching, transfixed.

“Once Isaac had left,” Dawson continued, “you caught up with
Gladys on her way back to Ketanu and lured her to the plantain
grove in the forest.”

“Darko,” Osewa said softly “You are wrong. I already told you. I
last saw Gladys with Samuel. She went into the forest with
him
, not me.”

“You saw them from the firewood spot, not so?”

“Yes, that’s what I said. I don’t know what’s going on, Darko.
Is something the matter?”

“Auntie, what I’m getting at is how you knew Gladys’s skirt and
blouse had Adinkra symbols on it?”

Osewa shrugged. “Because I
saw
it. What do you mean, How
did I know?”

“You could see the pattern on her outfit from where you were at
the firewood spot. That’s what you’re saying?”

“Yes
.” But he could see she was suddenly wary.

“Auntie, it’s not possible. From that distance, you couldn’t see
the Adinkra symbols.”

A wave of puzzlement and uncertainty passed across her face like
a shadow. “What do you mean?”

“The symbols are too small to be seen from where you were. We’ve
tried it ourselves, Chikata and I.”

“What?
” she said.

“It’s true,” Chikata said quietly. “It’s impossible even for me,
and my vision is better than normal.”

“Then how did I know Gladys’s dress had Adinkra on it?” Osewa
challenged.

“You saw it only after you got close enough to see the pattern,
but your mind played a trick on you and made you think you had also
seen it from far off. You wanted to be sure we believed your story,
so you gave us that detail and it was one too many.”

Osewa swallowed. She stared at Dawson without blinking, and he
stared back. “And you led Gladys to the plantain grove. Maybe you
told her you had some special herbs to show her. How long did you
wait before you killed her, Auntie?”

Osewa recoiled.

“She didn’t do it,” Isaac said suddenly.

Dawson’s head turned. “What did you say?”

“Osewa didn’t kill Gladys,” he said. “I did.”

“Isaac Kutu, are you confessing to the murder of Gladys
Mensah?”

“You’re right that Osewa lied about Samuel and Gladys going into
the forest, but it wasn’t herself she was trying to protect, it was
me.”

“How did she know you were the murderer?”

“She didn’t know it for sure. She suspected it because she knew
I was angry with Gladys for trying to steal from me, and then she
got worried when she learned how you were after my skin. And as for
the Adinkra symbols, that was easy. She simply asked me what Gladys
had been wearing.”

Osewa put her face in her hands and shook her head in
disbelief.

Chikata stepped forward, cuffs in hand. “Isaac Kutu,” he said,
“I am Detective Sergeant Chikata. I am arresting you for the murder
of Gladys Mensah. Please turn around and put your hands behind your
back.”

Osewa stood dumbfounded as the handcuffs clicked shut with
staccato precision. Isaac bowed his head.

“Auntie Osewa,” Dawson said, “are you really going to let Isaac
be taken away to prison like that? Do you really love him if you
can stand there and do nothing? After all he’s done for you? Alifoe
is your son with Isaac.
He’s the father of your child
.
You’re going to let him go like this?”

Osewa’s eyes had gone wide. “Who told you Isaac is Alifoe’s
father?”

“No one. Come on now. Kweku the father of a boy as beautiful as
Alifoe? I don’t think so. Kweku is, and always has been, as
infertile as the Sahara desert. You know that, and so do I.”

Osewa was looking from Isaac to Dawson and back again. She was
torn.

“He loves you, Auntie,” Dawson pressed. “But do you really love
him if you can let him take the blame for what you did?”

“Don’t judge me,” she said coldly. “You have no right to judge
me.”

Dawson said nothing and waited. Chikata turned Isaac to face
Osewa, and their eyes locked.

“Let him go,” she said resolutely. For the first time, she shed
tears. “He didn’t kill Gladys. I did.”

Chikata, confused, looked to Dawson for guidance. Dawson nodded
his permission to unlock the cuffs.

“You’ve done the right thing, Auntie,” he said. “Now tell me
everything. I’m ready to listen to you.”

Osewa turned to one side, arms folded across her chest. Dawson
watched her in profile as she stared at an unidentified point
somewhere in the distance. She was silent for a long time, and the
calls of forest birds filled the void until she began to speak.

“I was collecting firewood when I saw Gladys and Samuel talking
to each other at the edge of the forest,” she began. “Then I heard
Isaac calling out and saw him walk up to them and begin to argue
with Samuel. I heard their voices, but from where I was standing, I
couldn’t hear much of what they were saying. Still, I guessed he
was telling Samuel to go away and leave Gladys alone.”

Osewa turned back to face Isaac, and now she addressed him
directly.

“I didn’t know why you told Samuel to go away, Isaac. Maybe you
thought he was dangerous or troubling Gladys. But I was worried,
because Samuel was not really a bad person, and so I was thinking
to myself, Why has Isaac told the boy to go away? Is it because he
likes Gladys and doesn’t want another man near her?

“So I just watched you and Gladys talking and talking, and I was
wondering what you could be conversing about for so long. And
sometimes you were smiling, Isaac, as though you were enjoying her
company so very much. I saw how close to you she was standing. One
time she touched your arm, and another time I saw her laugh and I
knew it was a laugh of desire for you, because I too am a
woman.

“Then you left her and went back to your compound, and she went
on her way back toward Ketanu and I was still wondering, wondering,
because you always told me you were only working with Gladys on
your medicines, so why did it seem that the two of you were so
attracted to each other? When you had returned to your compound, I
went after Gladys. I had to run because by now she was far ahead on
the footpath to Ketanu.

“When I caught up with her, I greeted her and she was nice to
me. And while we were talking, I kept thinking how beautiful she
was. And I asked her how everything was going in her study of
natural medicines. She told me everything was fine. And then she
told me something I didn’t like at all. She said she was trying to
convince you, Isaac, to go to Accra with her to work with those
doctors there. But really, I knew what she was trying to do. She
was trying to take you away for herself and keep you in Accra.”

“Osewa, no,” Isaac said sadly. “She wasn’t trying to do
that.”

“Maybe you didn’t know that, my love. But that was what she was
trying to do and I had to stop her. While I was talking with her, I
was thinking to poison her. Maybe just to make her sick enough to
want to leave Ketanu and never come back. I told her I could show
her a place in the forest with some medicinal herbs, and I’m sorry,
Isaac, I lied and said I knew which one you used to cure the AIDS.
She was very eager to see it, and I took her to the plantain
grove.