The traffic was at its peak in the day. It was a common joke among the city dwellers that the traffic had the tendency to create the impression in one’s mind that they had been hard at work all day since they got home very tired, when in fact, the source of tiredness was from the stress and frustration of sitting through a very standstill traffic.
Akorfa was in this traffic but not alone in the car. Her sister-in-law had offered to drive her home since it was the police that had brought her to the hospital earlier in the day. With the radio being off, you would think the cabin would be quiet, but no! The blaring of horns from push-over drivers and the buzzling sounds of the city night life produced a loud enough noise to scare away any quietness. Nevertheless, Akorfa looked very much like one whose mind was far away in thoughts …
In Akorfa’s mind, the past 24 hours had been very dramatic. Was it really all her fault? Well, Chris seemed to place the blame at her feet. After all, it was her decision to not give in to his demands for sex. No, it wasn’t her fault that of all the reactions Chris could have had, he chose to drive out in late in the night to the bar. How can she blame herself for her husband’s decision to drive when he was intoxicated. Was he really sure he had a green light and the bicycle rider came out of nowhere? And if that was the case, why not call emergency services? Why place the dead victim and the bike in your car? That was one incriminating move since anyone who heard that bit of the story saw you no longer as victim but a suspect.
Well, Chris had himself to blame for the death of the biker identified as Roselyn Kudjoe. How about his own death? In her mind, Akorfa wondered if that was her fault? What would anyone do if one’s spouse ever came with a dead body in the car’s trunk along with a story that said spouse was in fact innocent? If you believed him, shouldn’t you let justice prevail and prove his innocence all the while standing firmly in support of him? Would you rather risk getting caught breaking the law when you try to help him cover up his innocent crime? And even if there is never ‘a caught’, would your conscience allow you to live as if that moment never happened?
Akorfa believed she made the right call in wanting to drive to the police and was convinced that if she had to relive that moment again, her choice won’t change. Was Chris not to blame for events leading right up to that point? Was he wise to stand in the way of a vehicle moving in reverse? Was it her fault that she felt no impact whatsoever going through the gateway and so assumed that Chris had moved out of the way? And if he indeed had the time to lie flat, as she suspects he did, why risk it? Why not get out of the way? It did not make sense. Unless of course, Chris was still intoxicated, and that was clouding his decision taking that night. Again, Chris had himself to blame for his own death.
The one death Akorfa blamed herself for was Felix’s. After all, she was the one who did reach out to him. That said though, Akorfa was genuinely surprised when it was mentioned that three bodies were discovered at the accident scene. Something must have gone wrong and she had no idea. The last time she saw Felix was when he drove out of the house in Chris’ SUV. So what at all happened between then and the discovery of the ‘accident scene’, Akorfa wondered.
Well, when Felix turned up at the Lamptey residence, he didn’t come alone. Together with a guy he introduced simply as Ken, he walked into the porch as the rain kept pouring. Akorfa told them everything as you and I know, after which Felix assured her not to worry.
“Felix, understand that I am very worried. I’m sorry for dragging you into this, but what are we going to do now? What is the plan?”
“Sweet, don’t worry. Ken and I will take it from here. This is not too much handle for us. Just relax, keep calm, allow us to get this sorted, and I’ll get back to you another time. Where is the car key?”
“Are you sure you two can do this on your own? I’m not fine being left out”, Akorfa said, as she handed over the key fob.
“Look, accessing everything, it’s best you stay at home. With this kind of situation, it’s best if you know as little of it as possible.”
Akorfa was not so assured by Felix’s words, but what could she do, really? And so she looked on as Felix and Ken moved the bodies to the trunk of the Chris’ SUV, and then pile some random stuff from the car they had arrived in on top of it all. With one last wink at Akorfa, who stood in the shelter of the porch away from the unrelenting rain, Felix drove the Lamptey’s SUV following Ken who drove the other car. That was the last time Akorfa saw any of them.
Like you and I, Akorfa wondered what really went down once Ken and Felix left her home. Since Felix’s body was found on the scene, but not Ken’s, he was possibly the only person who could tell what really happened that night in the middle of the heavy downpour on the tricky mountain road. Was that everything going as planned or did something go terribly wrong? She didn’t know Ken, and so the chances of knowing all that happened were close to nothing. And sadly, if Akorfa knows nothing, then how else we can readers satisfy our curiosity?
… … …
During the one week gathering for Chris Lamptey at what was his residence, the widow he left behind fainted and was rushed to the hospital. It was there she learned that she was 10 weeks pregnant. At first, she wasn’t sure if this was good news or bad news, and did actually contemplate an abortion rather than raise a child on her own. In her mind then, it was a decision for the greater good. But after learning that she was expecting a girl, she was reminded of a light-hearted conversation on baby names she once held with Chris.
Chris had teased her then that if they had a baby girl, she would name her after the woman of his life. She asked if that meant his mother or herself, pretending to be jealous. He continued to tease her saying that but for the fact that one of his nieces had already adopted his mum’s name, she, Akorfa, won’t be in the running at all. The memory put a smile on her face and brought some conviction within her to keep the child, to keep Chris’ baby girl and name her as he had teased, that her memory of him shall linger more.
… … …
During the one year anniversary of Chris’ passing, Akorfa visited the spot where his remains were buried alone. There, she spotted a familiar face – Ken. Akorfa wasn’t sure what he had come around for, after all this time, but concluded it was necessary she met with him all the same. She did have questions only he could answer.
Ken explained that Felix had given him a message to deliver to her but to only do so when the police had concluded their investigations. With Chris’ one year anniversary approaching, the police had been urged to conclude the investigations as nothing more than an accident so the family could move on despite a number of things not adding up at the scene of the accident along with the individual victims involved.
Felix’s message? “What do you want to know?”
“That’s all?”
“Yeah. He specifically said that’s all I am allowed to say”, Ken said in response.
While Akorfa absorbed the message, Ken stood still and stayed quiet.
“Well then, what really happened that night? Tell me truth”, Akorfa whispered, looking around to be sure they were alone.
“First, we contemplated damping the bodies in two separate locations within the city but without knowing the identity of the lady involved, we were not sure what the implications so burying them underground was the next line of action. Of course, we couldn’t do that in the city so we decided to head out into the mountains to a remote location in the forest. Digging won’t be hard thanks to the downpour, and the chances that someone was going to stumble on the scene would be very low.”
“Unfortunately, while we were driving up the mountain road, Felix appeared to lose control of the vehicle, hit the guardrails, broke through, and drove off the cliff. I was ahead of him, so this is really the view from my mirrors. I had to make a U-turn to return to the scene. It was still dark, and the rain was pouring. The guard rails had slowed down the car just enough that when it went over the cliff and hit a large rock on the slope below, the car was not smashed into bits.”
Ken was not sparing any details, and Akorfa did not want to interrupt the flow.
“It was evident that Felix had barely survived the crash. He couldn’t move much, and that meant we had to improvise there and then. I was able to descend the cliff which was not so high above the downward sloping land below it. I dragged Felix out of the car; he was badly hurt. Felix knew there was little chance that he would make it out of there alive, plus his blood was already all over the scene. He made the difficult decision that it was his end.”
Under Felix’s instruction, Ken strategically placed the other bodies around the accident scene albeit with much difficulty in the rain. Time was running out, dawn was in the offing, and the rain was reducing in intensity, seemingly. Ken tried to climb up with Felix but it just wasn’t working out. It was then Felix gave his final instructions to Ken. The boss had spoken.
“And so I backed up the other car, and prepared to drive it off the cliff as well, but without me in it, of course. Off it went the same cliff, smashing Chris’ already damaged SUV in the back. I moved Felix into the driving seat of what was his own car, and buckled him up, just as he was when I found him in SUV. I stayed with him till he breathed his last and then I left the scene. That was it. That’s what happened that night. Whatever happened next was all over the news.”
Indeed, you should recall the news from that day, when in the studios of an FM station in the capital, a broadcaster did unmute her microphone and say:
“Welcome back! You are still listening to the midday news on Crisp FM. In other news, police are still investigating the accident that led to the death of three individuals on the Beach Mountain drive earlier today during the rainstorm. The victims, Roselyn Kudjoe, Chris Lamptey, and Felix Oteng, are said to have died on the spot after going off the cliff in two separate vehicles which were found at the break of dawn this morning. We have an eye witness account from the man who was first at the scene of the accident …”
Then, there were three!!!
And then, as you now know, there were four!!!
THE END
K K K 's 