Eight

Episode 8

The police station is hot and humid, even that early in the morning.

There are a lot of people milling around, and the noise levels are in decibel regions higher than Effe is used to hearing. Thankfully, Mr. Darkwa takes her from the bustle and hustle of the main office and directs her to an office marked DISTRICT COMMANDER which is two floors up.

The man inside the office is a uniformed police captain. He is huge and has a really big head. He has a florid face and full lips. He gets up and extends his hand with a smile. His massive gut pushes out the uniform, forming little arcs of stretched material around the buttons that looked as if they might pop out pretty soon in their tortured task of holding the uniform buttoned up.

"Joshua Darkwa! You bad old man! It's been a while!" the Captain says loudly.

Joshua laughs and shakes the hand of the policeman.

"Commander! Been a while, yes. Up and downs taking over our social lives, right? This is my daughter, Effe Kedem. Effe, this is the best police commander in the whole of Ghana. He's Allan Davidson, my childhood buddy."

The policeman shakes Effe's hand as his beady eyes run over her with frank admiration.

"Of course, of course, I recognize her. The lovely Effe Kedem, one of Ghana's top corporate lawyers, so good that even the Attorney-General hires her often to handle cases. I hear you've never lost a case yet, right? Welcome, madam! Your photos in magazines don't do you justice at all. You're more beautiful face to face!"

Effe laughs shyly, and sits on the chair the policeman indicates. He offers them drinks, but they politely refuse. Joshua then goes straight to the point.

"It's about the little business we discussed on phone this morning, Allan. Chris Bawa was arrested yesterday at Effe's house. You promised to look into it when you get to the office."

"Yes, yes. I did check on it. Apparently, they claimed they could not find the cell key. It was quite unfortunate, you see. I ordered them to break in the cell immediately, but then one of the officers showed up eventually, and he claimed the key fell in a crag in the floor or something, and they just managed to bring it out." The Commander pops a gum into his mouth and explains.

"So, Chris spent the night in a cell?" Effe asks softly.

The policeman looks apologetically at her, and it is apparent that he is under a lot of discomfort. He leaned forward earnestly.

"That is the case, madam, unfortunately. I must apologize because the boy is straight out of prison, and he claims he wasn't even served with the restraining order. He knew nothing about it. It's quite unfortunate, but sometimes these sad things occur."

Effe's lips tremble. She does not understand why she is so upset. She is not happy that Chris has spent his first free night locked up again in a cell due to the fact that she had taken a restraining order against him and forgotten all about it.

"So where's he now, Allan? You let him leave?" Joshua asks carefully.

"Oh, no. You told me you wanted him to do something for you first, so I asked them to keep him. I'll let them bring him in now," the cop replies.

He lifts a receiver from a red phone on his desk and dials. He listens for a while and then commands that Mr. Bawa be brought in. Effe looks at Uncle Joshua questioningly, but he is chatting happily with the Commander and so she just waits impatiently.

The door opens after a while and Chris enters. He is wearing the same clothes he had been wearing the previous day, and he looks dirty. There is an unsavory odor around him too. However, looking at him, Effe is once again quite shaken by the sight of him. He has gone to prison five years ago as a fat man. Not obese, but fat. Chris has always been extremely handsome, but five years of prison life has changed him so completely.

The fat is gone, leaving him with a hard muscled frame that has turned him from a fat handsome man into an incredibly-toned handsome and sexy man. Effe's heart simply bleeds at the kind of hard labor he has been forced to go through to change his physique so much.

In her anger and bitterness, in her wrathful fury, she had refused to visit him in prison after her first few tries, and she realizes – quite suddenly – that she feels absolute regret for that act now.

She has only been interested in killing him from her life, and the life of her son, and focused solely on getting her career back on course, and reshaping the life that his dastardly acts had torn to shreds.

His eyes are cold as he looks at her, and she can feel his fury sizzling in the air. They all stare at him. His hard eyes settle on the Commander.

"Can I go now?" he asks softly.

Effe gets up and approaches him. Her eyes look haunted.

"You're free to go, Mr. Bawa. The lawyer here, however, has something for you, and after that you're at liberty to go anywhere you wish," the policeman says.

"I'm sorry, Chris," Effe says softly. "I didn't know they were going to keep you here overnight."

His hard eyes slam into her, and she is surprised to see they hold as much fury, almost hatred, like she had felt for him the other day.

"Don't pretend with me, Effe!" he grates out coldly, and his tone both shocks and hurts her, to her surprise.

"What are you insinuating, Chris?" she asks, dazed. "You're not by any chance trying to say I knew something about this whole thing, are you?"

Chris stares at her, his jaws working angrily.

"So, what are you doing here if it's not to see to it that I don't go anywhere after my release without signing it?"

Effe gasps, stumped by his bristling anger.

"Sign what, Chris? I decided to come here to see to it that you're set free! I promised your son!"

Chris shakes his head and walks past her, and she knows he does not believe her.

She turns dazedly, and that is when she sees for the first time that Uncle Joshua is holding a shiny folder, and she realizes that it contained her divorce documents.

She sighs with abject frustration. She did not know her lawyer is bringing them!

So that is it!

Chris thinks she has made the police detain him overnight to force him to sign the divorce papers. Joshua Darkwa spoke briskly.

"Listen, Chris, you've given me a hell of a time over these papers. For five years I've been trying to get you to sign them, and you were downright rude in your refusal. Listen, I've run out of patience with you. If you force my hand, I'll set the full rigors of the law against you, I will –"

Chris' bitter and angry voice interrupts him sharply.

"Cut the drivel, Lawyer! Just show me where to sign."

Joshua stares open-mouthed at Chris. It is evident he has not been expecting that. Quickly he pulls the sheets out of the folder and opens to a page. Effe's signature is on that page, together with the signature of a witness. In line with her signature is the dotted unsigned portion with Chris' name below. Joshua hands Chris a pen, and then Effe moves suddenly and puts a hand on Chris' hand.

Her hand trembles a bit, and there is a strange expression on her face.

"Chris, this is not why I came here. You must believe me. Much as I want you to sign them, I came here because Junior wanted me to. I didn't ask them to detain you because of this."

He looks at her, and she notices that his eyes no longer hold anger, only a great sadness. His eyes mirror his horror, his sudden acceptance of the fact that his wife is gone, and that his life as he knows it, is gone. His eyes reflect the grim realization that indeed, his happy life with Effe, and his son, is gone forever. When he finally speaks, his voice is filled with sad resignation.

"Quit the hypocrisy, Effe. It doesn't suit you."

He disengages his hand from hers and poises the pen over the document.

"I don't want you to sign them here, Chris," Effe insists, her voice almost a painful moan. "Take the document home, read it, and sign. I want you to believe that's not the reason I came here this morning."

When he looks at her, she sees the face of the young reckless boy she had fallen so helplessly in love with. It is the face of the boy who used to stare at her with unbelievable love and adoration. It is the face of the boy who had walked her home on many occasions, adoring and stripping her with those beautiful eyes.

"Take the document home?" he asks quietly. "What home, Effe?"

That brings tears to her eyes immediately. She knows that indeed he has no home. To him, home is Effe. His words hurt her, and drive a sudden painful lump into her throat. Her defenses spring up, and she speaks without thinking.

"Don't ask me, Chris! You decided to rape my best friend because evidently I wasn't enough for you! You made yourself homeless, so please stop putting the blame on me!"

He looks down immediately, but not before she sees the abject pain and misery in his eyes, and she knows she has hurt him badly. She reaches out instinctively to touch him, but then she hesitates and draws her hand back again.