Chapter 10

Jason sat in front of Hunter as he read over the cases,

“The murder of that male pharmacist is still going on?” Hunter asked

“Yeah the FBI searched the place but they said they didn’t find anything so they’re going to do an autopsy to find out what killed him” he replied

“Are you thinking maybe he overdosed on a drug or something?” asked Hunter

“As ironic and humorous that would be it’s not possible, the room was neatly arranged but it was obvious there was a struggle”

“He was found on the floor lifeless wasn’t he? No blood was found”

“He could have been poisoned” he stated obviously before continuing “sure there were no form of injury on him and no strangle marks on his neck but the form that he was found on the floor wasn’t natural, he was placed like that, that much is noticeable” Hunter nodded his head

“We’ll have to visit the crime scene tomorrow, you’re right, some things don’t make sense”

“Of course” he replied and dropped the file down, he seemed to struggle about saying something and this was not unnoticed by Hunter as he raised a brow

“What is it Jason?”

“The mafia queen’s case, anything about it?” Hunter raised a brow before taking a sip of the coffee that was placed on his table

“Can I ask you something Jason?” Jason began to feel uneasy before he replied

“Sure, what is it?”

“Let’s see, I have about 15 police officers under me, an investigator and a chief of police, and among all of them, you’re the only one obsessed with this particular case, can you tell me why?” Jason began to sweat on his seat, he couldn’t let Hunter know the real reason that would put him of the case for sure so he had no other choice than to lie

“I just hate the fact that even after four years, she hasn’t been brought to justice, she should pay for her crimes like every damned criminal in prison not laughing at our faces” he praised himself for the long untruthful sentence now he hoped Hunter would believe him, after a few seconds of silence Hunter sighed

“You’re right, I hate it too but don’t worry, one day she’ll pay for all her crimes and if you want to know, I believe one of her men was caught here in town with a known drug dealer. He’s in the interrogation room now, I’m going to need you and Sarah to interrogate him, find out what he knows” worry blossomed in Jason’s mind but he couldn’t let Hunter know. He nodded, stood up and walked towards the door “oh…and Jason…” Hunter said as he touched the door handle before turning to face him

“Yeah?” he answered

“I’m going to need you to travel to South Africa this weekend”

“Why?”

“Their local gangs has been getting out of control, last week they killed 15 people in a gun fight” he frowned

“Shouldn’t the South African police handle that, it’s not meant to be our problem”

“It isn’t meant to be but part of the people killed were three Americans, two men and a woman, so obviously people aren’t happy about it and so the American police has to be involved” he nodded in understanding

“Of course, when do I leave?”

“There’s a connecting flight to South Africa the following day on Thursday, so you have to go then”

“Okay, that’s good enough for me” he replied and walked out.

He walked through the hallway, greeting his colleagues. He walked towards his office where he met Sarah going through the files

“We’ve got a man to interrogate, he’s suspected to be part of the mafia queen’s crew” she turned to him and smiled

“Finally, I hope we’ll be able to get something out of him”

“Me too, come on, let’s go” he told as he allowed her to walk out of the door first before following her out and closing the door behind him. They walked towards the interrogation room where they met Richard Stone, he had blonde hair with caramel coloured eyes, and he wore a blue shirt over a pair of dark wash jeans.

“Jason, Sarah, finally you’re here. This man has been giving me the creeps, I really dislike Africans and I’m very sure there’s not a single hot woman among them, right Jason?” he asked with humour laced in his voice, Jason didn’t reply, anger boiled in his veins, how dare he, Rose was the most beautiful woman he had ever met and the insult to Africans was also a pain to him. He refrained the urge to grab the racist idiot by the collar and force him to take back his words and instead picked up an earpiece that was placed on a tray

“You do know some Americans are ugly too right?” Sarah asked as she picked up an earpiece for herself, Richard rolled his eyes

“Yeah, but the number is few” Sarah frowned

“And in your case Richard, I believe, you’re among the few” she said as she entered the room behind Jason not seeing the speechless look on Richard’s face.

The small room was painted grey with a mirror like glass on the rear wall, a metal table was set in the middle of the room with three metal chairs. An African man sat on a chair on the side of the room, his face calm and showing no worry at all, he had dark skin with chocolate coloured lips with full hair, his clothes were well kept and clean, all in all this man did not look like a drug dealer was Jason’s thought as he sat down on one of the chairs on the opposite side of the man, a chair was drawn back and Sarah sat beside him. Jason opened his file and read it quickly, his name was Mohammed Salim, he was 27 years of age, he was from Nigeria, a Muslim, he had come to the country as a tourist and his crime was that he was suspected to having a drug deal with Victor Shane, a local drug dealer in the area who had been in and out of prison a few times. Jason stared at the last line and widened his eyes in shock, no drugs were found on him, how on hell was he meant to interrogate a man on drug dealing if no bloody drug was found on him? He sighed and dropped the file on the table

“You were on Maple Street at 9:57pm yesterday, weren’t you?”

“Yes, I was” the man replied calmly in a light Hausa accent

“What were you doing there?”

“I am new to this country and area and so needed directions in getting to a hotel that I had booked online” Sarah raised a brow at the man’s quick and sharp answers before asking

“Is that why you were with Victor in a secluded area on that street?”

“Like I said, this is my first time here so I don’t know your local criminals, all I saw was a friendly man who I could ask for directions” a friendly person? Jason thought

“Victor is a well-muscled man with tattoos and piercings all over his body and you say he looked ‘friendly’?” he said with a raised brow, the man shrugged

“I’m not a judger of persons” Jason had to hand it to him, he was good

“You said you were only just asking for directions” he continued

“Yes”

“Then why did you run?”

“Pardon?”

“It’s recorded here that when the police came and tried to find out what you were doing, you both ran away. Why did you run away?” the man kept silent with a raised brow before rolling his eyes in annoyance

“when the police came, they weren’t wearing uniforms, they only wore black clothes and the in country I’m from, if anyone approaches you wearing black, the person is out to rob you or kill you so it was a natural instinct for me to run away but imagine my surprise when a man caught up with me and shouted ‘you’re under arrest’”

“He’s good, I can’t detect any tone of a lie in his voice” Richard said through the earphones

“Ask him for the hotel he booked in” Hunter said, he had come to watch the interrogation, Jason crossed his arms

“Which hotel did you book in?”

“Forester Hotel” the man replied, a long silence ensued before Richard’s voice was heard from the headphones

“I just checked the hotel’s booking list” they waited in apprehension for a response, Richard sighed “he’s not lying, his name is on the list”. Jason stood up abruptly and walked out of the door with Sarah at his heels, Hunter stood at the other side as Jason and Sarah walked into the room, closing the door behind them

“What do you think?” he asked Hunter

“As much as I hate to say it, he’s innocent, Victor confirmed his story” Sarah groaned in frustration

“So that leads us back to square one?”

“I guess so” Hunter replied. Jason looked at both of them before walking out the door not sparing a glance back, he walked towards his office, opened the door and almost fell in surprise

“Hello cousin” the man that sat on his chair greeted with an arrogant smirk on his face, Jason walked inside, locking the door,

“what the hell do you want?” he seethed angrily, he hadn’t seen his cousin in years ever since his mom’s family had gotten angry at her marriage to an American man, disgracing the family name so they had practically disowned her

“Is a man not allowed to visit his own cousin again?” he asked in a thick Italian accent, his voice mixed with mock humour

“Not when the bloody man abandoned his family”, the man tightened his fists in anger

“I never abandoned my family, it was your mother that decided to abandon her family by marrying a disgraceful ‘American’ man” Jason walked over to him in anger and grabbed the collar of his expensive Armani suit

“One more fucking word about my father and I’ll throw your bloody face out of my office” the man raised up his hands in defence

“Relax cousin, I meant no harm, please forgive me” Jason released his collar and tried to control his anger. The man sat back on his chair and picked up a file on his table, scanning through it, the Queen of Africa’s file “interesting woman you’ve got here and from her pictures, I can tell she’s very beautiful” he looked up at him “don’t you think so cousin?” Jason didn’t like this at all, the man pushed on his buttons and he acted like he knew something, he shrugged his shoulders

“That’s none of my concern, my job is to catch and arrest her not admire her” a beautiful lie, he had admired her pictures more times than he had actually thought of arresting her

“I guess so” the man replied before dropping the file and standing up, wiping away his black hair from his eyes, eyes black and soulless

“I have to go now, I only dropped by for a friendly chat with my dear cousin” he walked to front of him with a mischievous smile on his face as he stretched out his hand for a handshake

“Goodbye Jason” Jason lifted his hand and placed it on his with a tight grip “goodbye Miguél”.