Tears of a Dead Man by Mide Benedict|Episode 5

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'...I continued to re-echo the same words as I sat on the ground, crying and tearing myself apart. Barr Pete held me very tightly that I couldn’t move my hands; I was about to shout when he blocked my mouth with his hands. I continued wrestling with his hands, but he wouldn’t let me go....'

'Here you go again, the same story over and over again. And you are aware of the fact that your finger prints were found hugging everything in that house. It was found in the kitchen, in the rooms, on one of the knife found wondering in the bedroom where his body was found, and now to even consider the worst, it was found on his chest and on face his face… so….’

‘But I didn’t kill him.’ He interrupted

‘If you didn’t, then who did?’

‘I don’t know, I only went there to have a chat with Simon to convince him so he could tell me the person who sent him to kill me.’

‘And that’s why you went in to kill him instead?’

‘Look here, you are my lawyer and I’m telling you all I know and the truth. You are responsible for me, that’s all I can tell you.’ I said to him, looking at Barr. Pete, a profound lawyer. I had insisted on getting him to handle the case after I heard he won a serious case against the government, and that was no joke, especially with the fact that winning a case against the government without becoming a SAN was at first courageous, and on the other hand, brave. I knew he was the best man for the job, and I hired him. But after some few minutes of chitchat. I began to doubt his competence as much as I trusted him. He was so mouth-killing and wouldn’t believe each word that crawls innocently from the windows of my speechdom.  

‘Mr….’

‘John, John Johnson’ I butted in with a fallen face.

‘My name is John Johnson, a married man, married to former Miss Catherine Spenser, a former colleague back of mine in school, who I had plucked my eyes of admiration, though so many had cast an eye on her too but I came out the victor when she finally said I do to me after I had asked her if she would marry me. I finished my Master’s degree programme in management science in the University of Leeds and when I came back home after my study, I was employed by the Mainland Construction Company. I was also a regular church goer, a faithful Christian who attended St. James’ cathedral, the same church I was about to attend when the whole story began.’

‘Mr Johnson, it’s not that I don’t trust you but as a lawyer of my own mind and stands, I believe in standing for the truth and that is the reason I keep asking, as you have noticed for more reasons to believe you. I mean all the details.’

‘Okay, if that’s what you want, I will do that.’

I narrated the whole story to him, from the beginning to the…. And after feeding him the juice and vinegar of my story, I gave a cut to it and said

‘And that’s now why am sitting in here with you.’

He smiled after hearing the whole thing. I had expected him to squeeze his face and tucked his smile into the skin of his face and give a confusing look, but rather he just kept on smiling and smiling and smiling.

‘That’s the first kind of story I’ve ever heard. And thank God I heard it from the mouth of the man who was raised back to life.’ He said and laughed this time.

I got provoked, though I didn’t show it, but I felt the heat inside of me.

‘At least, if you can’t get me out of here, you can at least call my friend in here to find a way of getting me out.’

‘Who’s your friend?’

‘Tony, he’s the officer-in-charge of this department’.

‘That means he must have been the one who helped you get the information?’

‘No, he wasn’t, he just helped me with the computer.’

‘That’s exactly what I meant.’

‘Okay!’

‘Okay.’

He placed a hand on his chin, muffled some words which I didn’t hear and when I asked him to repeat himself, he refused, that was when I began to suspect he was one of them; one of those who had wanted me dead: as Tony had said, ‘You never know who has the third eye.’ Probably, he was right. I didn’t have much to hold him for, but there’s something secretive about his smile, his attitude and the way he…, I just had a deep feeling that he was working for them but….

‘That means he was the only one who knew you were going to Simon’s place.’ He said

‘No, no one knew I was the only one who learnt about the house and details that day.’

‘But you accessed the office’s network using Tony’s self-network?’

‘Yes.’

‘Interesting!’ He exclaimed.

‘What is interesting?’

‘The whole thing is.’ He said as he stood up to leave.

‘Are you leaving now?’

‘Yes of course.’

‘Leaving me here, hello….’

‘Don’t worry Mr Johnson you will do well in here.’

‘What!’

‘Trust me, here is the best, ’

‘You are kidding me. I haven’t gone to my wife for a day now; I haven’t even seen her, because she had been denied of any visit to me by some officers.

‘What did your friend do about it? He should have at least let her in.’

‘He must have been busy, so didn’t know when she was here. Just get me out of here, please.’

‘Has your friend visited you since?’

‘No.’ I answered, he had a strange….

‘I can’t.’ he said.

As soon as he said this, my suspension about him hit the jackpot. I began to fear again, that I was in deep trouble. That the master-minder had got me everywhere I could run to, my lawyer too had been used…. Instantly, I began to regret my action. I had turned deaf ear to what the voice had told me; I went seeking for the identity of the person who had wanted me off the earth crust, in disobedience to the warnings of the voice. I knew I was been punished for that act. I knew I was….

‘You might get yourself in trouble, if I get you out.’ He continued

‘I can take care of myself.’ I felt that confidence in me. I knew even though I had disobeyed his voice, I knew He never failed with His words, that I wouldn’t be harmed any longer, though I knew this framing was because of my disobedience, but His words never….

‘No one will harm me.’ I said.

‘Who said someone would harm you?’

‘I mean….’

‘Wait a minute, Mr Johnson, you know who wanted to silence you and you went ahead to kill Simon?’

‘I don’t know what you are talking about.’

With his two hands on the table, ‘You don’t know?’

‘Yes! What’s the meaning of all these?’ I asked with my face all turning red.

 ‘Your hands are not clean. I will speak to your friend and will get you out of here in no time.’ He banged his hands on the table and left the questioning room.

With all these talk with the lawyer, I started to feel I was going to be put in jail for this murder offence, because the only one who could argue this well had turned against me. I began to pray for God’s intervention in the case. If frustration had another name, maybe I would have described my condition better. I was really….

‘Let me take you home, Mr Johnson.’ He said after coming back into the questioning room. ‘Have sorted things out with your friend,’ he added.

I was really pissed off with his attitude, though I thanked him for talking to my friend. We went outside together, and he opened the door for me to get into his white BMW. He started his engine and we left the station. If I could still remember, we haven’t moved up to five minutes, when I suddenly felt woozy, my hand was hurting and my eyes was… I instantly concluded that I had been….

I didn’t first recognize where I was when I woke up. I took a good look at myself and when I now fully recognized where I was, I couldn’t do any other thing but to scream,

‘God, so it was a dream all this while!’

I was in my bed, and in my blanket.

‘It was all a dream’ I crooned.

My wife ran in immediately, with her long hair, all flinging as she approached and hugged me. I felt her skin, and that love which I had missed, since I had been dreaming rekindle.

‘You are awake, my love’.

‘How many days have I been sleeping?’ I asked.

‘How many days?’

‘Yes or have I been sleeping like since a century, because the dream I have been having was a long one, it must have been three days, I guess?’ I uncovered myself and sat upright on the bed.

‘What dream, you have only slept for ten hours since you…?’

‘Ten what?!’

‘Ten hours, since the lawyer brought you home in his car, saying you were exhausted. I would have picked you up myself, if he had called me, but all the same, am happy that you are home now. So tell me dear, why didn’t you tell me you were working personally on the case?’

 I wasn’t even focused on what she was saying. My mind had gone far with the thought of thinking everything was a dream. I was so deceived by my weakness; that must have led to the deep sleep and the dizziness I experienced last before I found myself in here.

‘You are not saying anything?’ she added with curiosity all over her face.

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t want to involve you.’

‘But now, am I not involved?’

‘I’m so sorry about that.’

‘It’s okay.’ I will just get your food, it is 5pm already, and I’m sure you are hungry’.

I nodded my head as if there was no longer any strength left in me. As she left my room and shut the door, a call came in my mobile phone, I checked the caller’s details but it was a private number. I resisted taking the call, because I thought the caller just wanted to threaten me, but when my phone began to ring unremittingly, I gave in and I answered it; it was Barr Pete. I wanted to hang up on him but something prompted me to listen to what he wanted to say. He didn’t say much, he just said I should meet him discreetly around seven o’clock and I mustn’t tell anyone. I didn’t believe him. I had reasoned that he wanted to kill me, so I determined if I really wanted to go, I had to have a backup plan, at least this time. I decided I would record all what he would say and then try to escape if he plans to do anything evil; however, I didn’t tell my wife.

My wife came back and served the food, she even fed me that evening. She also said she would be going out later that day to Ellen’s house, a friend of hers to pick up some goods she had bought for her from the US. I said okay. She gave me a kiss and went to get dressed. As soon as she left with her car, I took mine and went my own way; to Barr Pete’s meeting place. But before I left, I discovered a better means of ensuring my recordings get into safer hands; my wife’s and perhaps, she would come across the recordings in case I never return alive, so I placed a phone on the dining table and set it to an automatic answer and recording mode; whenever I got to the place, I would dial the number and the work would begin.

I got to this location which he had described to me around 8pm. I couldn’t fully realise where I was because it had become so dark and there was no power supply which could have distributed electricity to the streetlights that were erected along the roadside, moreover the location he gave to me was so confusing that I had to ask people for description, but when I got there, the place was a familiar one: as I drove by, I saw more things that got my attention, some of the houses that were there were very much familiar, but where, and how I got to know those things was what I couldn’t remember. I also saw a car that looked absolutely familiar; it was my lawyer’s car.

I parked my car a stone’s throw from his, got down and walked towards his car. As I approached the vehicle, I dipped my right hand in my pocket and brought out my phone then I dialled the cell which I had left at home as my backup. I slowed my movement down a bit to be sure the plan was perfectly working and when I was sure it was, I moved closer to his car and knocked his window to draw his attention, but he was not in the car; suddenly fear gripped me, even though I had a backup plan, but that backup didn’t include my life, it only included recording our conversation. I was scared of death, though I had died once, but I didn’t want to die the second time, because if I did, the new chant that would reign in town would be, ‘man rises from the dead to die months after.’ my wife wouldn’t be able to bear the pain of losing me again; no she wouldn’t, losing the one she truly and only loved in one year would be….

‘Hello Johnson.’ A voice said from the dark, I was shocked and scared. I knew it could have been my lawyer, or some assassin again, but fear had already eaten up the little liver that clanged to my heart, I couldn’t figure out what was in the dusk, until I….

‘Who is there?’ I asked, now gaining a stronger confidence after remembering what the voice had told me; that I wouldn’t be harmed.

‘Come out!’ I shouted again.

‘I’m out already, have you forgotten that the shadow doesn’t exist until it foretastes portions of light.’ The voice said as it moved closer to where I was standing.

‘It seems even the dead are afraid of death’ he added, with a big chortle on his face; it was as I suspected. The figure of Barr Pete was revealed.

‘Let’s get over there, he said; pointing at a parked vehicle. He took the lead and I followed behind. As soon as we were a stone’s throw away from the vehicle, I heard a sound in my pocket, I brought out my phone and saw a message that ran CALL ENDED: I was very disturbed by this because my backup was off the task.

‘Someone must have ended that call, I thought.

‘It must have been my wife.’

I checked my dialed numbers and I dialed it back, but the operator disclosed to me that my airtime had been exhausted. I checked my balance, but it wasn’t out of airtime. The network issue had come again and this time, to ruin my plan.

‘Don’t try calling your wife’ he said, filching the phone from my hand.

‘What did you do that for?’ I queried in annoyance.

‘You might want to lower your voice, don’t destroy my plan.’

‘What plan, you want to kill me, please do it right now; finish what you have started. But at least let me speak to my wife, she must be damn worried at home for not seeing me, and she doesn’t even know where I am right now.’

 ‘What have I started?’ he asked.

‘Look here, you think I don’t know, all what those threats at the station meant?’

He smiles a little bit with his left chick, but the smile waned as soon as he did.

‘Oh that… don’t worry about that, all would be clear to you very soon.’

‘No, I don’t want it to be very soon; I want to hear it now.’

He looks away as if not minding what I was saying. This really distraught me that I had to slap his chest with my left hand, but he didn’t mind me, he still kept on looking away. As I raised my hand again at him, he held it and told me to….

‘Look over there.’

‘Let go of my hand.’

‘Could you just listen to me for once and look over there.’

I aversely looked at where he was pointing to and….

‘What’s so important about… What…!’

I exclaimed as I laid eyes on what he was trying to show me, I couldn’t believe my eyes,

‘So you mean…ah… what is all this…, it cannot…. This must be another dream, please wake me up. It’s definitely another dream?’ I faced Barr Pete with a face that had started to witness pain and with a heart that had been drenched with disbelief. Tears rolled down my eyes to my chin and I began to cry; that was when I came to the conclusion that, ‘tears has no respect for age; whether the black or the grey, whether the dead or the alive.’

It even attacks the….

‘Tell me the truth, this is a dream, Barr, tell me this is a dream. That’s my…. Ah…and my….’

I continued to re-echo the same words as I sat on the ground, crying and tearing myself apart. Barr Pete held me very tightly that I couldn’t move my hands; I was about to shout when he blocked my mouth with his hands. I continued wrestling with his hands, but he wouldn’t let me go.

‘I know this is painful, but you just have to be strong okay.’

‘But why didn’t you tell me you invited me to see this, I wouldn’t have come, I wouldn’t have.’

‘That’s the main reason why I didn’t tell you about the plan in the first place, because I knew you wouldn’t believe.’

‘What death is worse than this; seeing your loved ones throw dagger at you right before your eyes, just tell me, what death is?’

He raised me up, took me into my car and then locked me inside. He went back to the scene and took some snap shot and….

‘That’s why I behaved as I did at the station, because I knew someone could be listening to our conversation’. He said as he drove me home in my own car, leaving his car at the scene.

‘How did you discover this? I asked, turning my head to face his with an utterly red watery eye all begging the mercy of a handkerchief’

‘The moment you told me your story, how you were assassinated, how you came back to life, what prompted your personal investigation and how you were arrested, I immediately figured out possible things that went wrong. But I needed to confirm, so I carried out my own investigations and that was when I….

‘Tell me no more; please, just get me home. I already have a lot of tears to shed.’

        

         To be continued

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