“All right, then,” Dawson said, “let’s go to the Timber Market to look for this Flash guy,” Dawson said.
Wednesday morning traffic was predictably heavy along High Street. Dawson sat in front next to Sergeant Baidoo. Chikata was in the backseat.
“Wow,” he muttered, swiveling around to look at a pretty woman walking by.
“Chikata, when are you going to settle down and get married?” Dawson asked.
He laughed. “I don’t know. Soon.”
“Are you dating anyone?”
“There are two women I like,” Chikata said. “I can’t decide between the two of them.”
“Maybe it’s neither, then. One of them should stand out.”
“Maybe so.” Chikata smiled. “Ei, Dawson! You surprised me. You never asked me anything like that before.”
“Just interested in your well-being.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Chikata staring at him.
“What, you think I have no heart or something?” Dawson said.
“Oh, no, Dawson, I would never think such a thing.”
“Omale,” Dawson retorted, Ga for “you’re lying.”
They burst out laughing in unison.
At the Timber Market, they went past buyers and sellers haggling over rows of stacked planks and logs. Wood wasn’t all there was. There was a fetish stall with herbs, animal skins, and scary looking skulls. Kayaye walked by with skyscraper head loads, and a young man with a lightweight mike and speaker system slung over his shoulder was going through the market broadcasting a get-tested-for-HIV campaign.
Dawson and Chikata split up but kept within visual distance of each other. If one of them ran into Tedamm, the other should be close by to help.
Dawson caught up with a kayayo and walked alongside her. She was much shorter than he, but the sacks of flour on her head towered over him.
“How are you?” he asked her.
“Fine.” She moved her eyes, not her head, to look at him.
“I’m Darko. What’s your name?”
“Amariya.”
“Beautiful name. From where?”
“Northern Region. Walewale.”
“You like Accra?”
“Life is too hard.” Amariya went one way to avoid an oncoming cart. Dawson went the other. They reunited on the other side. “But in Walewale I can’t make money to support my children, so I have to stay here.”
“I’m looking for someone.”
“Who?”
“His name is Tedamm.”
“Hmm. That man.” She wrinkled her nose.
“Have you seen him?”
“I saw him last week.”
“What about a man called Flash?”
“Him, I know where he is.” She pointed ahead and to the right. “Turn there, walk all the way to the end where there’s no more traders, and you’ll find him. Don’t tell him I showed you the way.”
“I won’t.” Dawson tucked a cedi bill in the fold of the cloth around her waist. “Take care of your children.”
She smiled. “Thank you.”
“Not at all. Be careful.”
Dawson joined Chikata again. “Let’s go and get Flash.”
29
They followed the kayayo’s directions, walking until the heavily commercial section of the market fell behind them. They saw a few girls loitering. Dawson picked one out and beckoned to her. She was about sixteen, as bony and hungry as a stray cat. She approached them a little warily. Maybe she had caught a whiff of policeman.
In Twi, Dawson asked her how much. “Sεn?”
She wasn’t sure if he meant both him and Chikata. “Mmienu?”
“Only me, not him.”
“Four cedis.”
“What’s your name?”
“Thelma.”
“Is Flash there?”
“Yes, please.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
“Follow us,” Dawson said to Chikata, “but stay out of sight.”
They rounded a corner. There, standing in front of a makeshift tent in a cul-de-sac, was Flash in a crimson shirt and bright green-striped pants. He gave Dawson the up-and-down.
“Who are you?” Flash said, his voice like a frog’s croak.
“What do you care who I am? I just want to have sex with this girl and go.”
Flash grunted, his eyes darting past Dawson’s shoulder to check that there was no one else. Like a policeman, for instance. He held out his hand to Thelma, who was about to give him the fee when Dawson stopped her. He took out his badge, showing it to Flash. “Police. You’re under-”
Flash made a run for it, but he didn’t get far. Chikata appeared seemingly out of nowhere, grabbed him, and swept his feet from under him. Flash went down in a cloud of dust. He coughed and spluttered as Chikata cuffed him.
Dawson turned to Thelma, who was trembling in fear of arrest.
“Listen to me,” Dawson said. “Life as an ashawo is dangerous. These men have diseases that can kill you. Be a porter, or a sweeper, or sell on the street, but not this.”
“Please, I do all those things already,” Thelma said sadly. “Not enough pay.”
“Do you have children?”
“No, please.”
“But you want some, not so?”
“Yes, please.”
“Then don’t do this. If you die, how will you have children? Do you understand?”
“Yes, please.”
Dawson took one of Genevieve’s cards from his wallet. “Go to this place. They can help you. And I don’t want to see you here anymore. Hear?”
She walked away quickly, giving Chikata and Flash a wide berth. Dawson watched her leave and suddenly felt hopeless. Such a hero, aren’t you. As if he was making the slightest difference to what this girl would do with her life. In a week, she’d be back.
He grabbed a plastic chair that had been perched to one side of the tent. He plunked it down next to Flash, who was still on the ground with Chikata standing over him.
“Mr. Flash, I’m Detective Inspector Dawson. Please get up and have a seat.”
Chikata helped him up into the chair.
“We have a few questions for you,” Dawson said.
“I haven’t done anything,” Flash said wildly, his eyes bobbing and jerking.
“Then what were you doing last night at the railway station where Comfort Mahama was killed?”
“I wasn’t at any railway station and I don’t know any Comfort.”
“People saw you there, my friend, so don’t lie to me,” Dawson snapped. “Let me tell you something, Mr. Flash. For every lie you tell, I’ll give you five years in jail. You’ve just told me two lies, so you already have ten years. Next lie, fifteen.”
“You can’t do that,” Flash challenged nervously.
“Oh, yes, he can,” Chikata said without missing a beat.
“You want to spend ten years in jail or not?” Dawson said.
Flash swallowed. “No.”
“Then tell us the truth,” Dawson said, noticing a small crowd of spectators beginning to collect. “If you tell the truth, I’ll let you go. Agreed?”
Flash nodded resentfully.
“Good,” Dawson said. “So, asking the question again, what were you doing last night at the railway?”
“I live around CMB. I was walking home with my friends when I heard that woman scream. When I went there, one man was shining his light on her and I saw it was Comfort.”
“How did you know Comfort?”
“Ashawo.”
“She used your tent?”
“Yes.”
“Did she ever cheat you or try to cheat you out of money?”
“No. These girls can’t cheat me. I’m too smart for them.”
“Where were you between seven and ten o’clock last night?”
“Heh?”
“Between seven and ten o’clock last night, where were you?”
“With my friends. We went to a chop bar in Ussher Town.”
“What’s the name of the chop bar?”