WAR

The next morning, I called Dr. Agaba.

"Can we meet at the hospital?" I asked.

"Sure." he said, and I could hear the sleep still in is voice. "What time?"

"Would ten o'clock be convenient for you?"

"Yeah, ten is okay," he said. 

"Okay," I said and rang off.

Mom and Jasper came to see me in the morning. Mom brought a bowl of soup and packs of noodles. 

"At least this would hold your stomach," she said. "I know you have not been eating."

"Thank you," I said, keeping the packs in the store. "Jasper, help me keep the soup in the refrigerator. I am going out."

"Where are you going to?" Mom asked. "Are you going to the office? Did they ask you to come?"

"No, mom," I said. "I just want to find out if there are other things we need to handle. Then for us to make preparations with her brother."

"Alright," mom said, but her eyes were still looking worried. "Do you want us to follow you to the hospital?"

"No," I said. "I will be with Steve. Everything would be alright. You can go home whenever you are done."

"I will call you later," mom said and walked into the kitchen.

Jasper was staring at me. "Are you okay?" he asked.

I nodded. "I am coping."

"So sorry, men. This was horrible. I don't even know what to think or say…"

I nodded again. "I know. I will go now and see how things are in the hospital."

"Okay," I said, and I walked out of the door. 

I got to the hospital and Jasper called me that the people in the office had come to see me in the house. I called the school principal and apologies for not being at home.

I walked to the hospital reception and asked to see the person in charge of the corpse in the hospital. A tall, thin man by the name Amos appeared before me.

"You are related to late Miss Sarah?" he asked. He had a pen and a folder in his hand poise to take my information. 

"Yes," I said. "I was her fiancé."

"Oh, I am sorry. But what do you want us to do with the body? Are you burying her here or taking her back to her country?"

"I am not sure yet," I said.

"Okay; would you want her to be embalmed?"

"That also I am not sure...let me find out first and then I would get back to you."

"That's okay," he said. "But make sure you get back to me as soon as possible. We need to know what to do."

I nodded and thanked him.

I picked my phone and called Dr. Agaba again. 

"I am also in the hospital," he said.

"Okay. Just wait for me at the parking space."

"I will do that," he said.

I walked toward the car park, with my heart beating fast. I saw the gleaming bonnet of the Mercedes Benz and automatically knew he was the one.

I walked to the side of his door and stood there. He saw me and wound down the glass.

"Good morning," he said, and came out of the car. "I am so sorry about yesterday. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. It wasn't intentional."

I looked at him, hating him. I felt an inner hotness, and it took all the willpower I have to stop my jumping forward and grabbing his long, thin neck and snapping it into two.

"I want to find out something from you," I said.

He shrugged. "Anything. What do you want to know?"

"Were you drunk yesterday?"

His eyes grew wider, and I know the question took him by surprise. He looked at me and then at his fingers. When he raised his face again, he could not look me in the eyes. 

"Were you drunk?" I asked again.

"No," he said, and I saw that his eyes were hardened. It was the eyes a criminal caught with his guard down. 

"Are you saying you weren't drunk when you hit Sarah?"

"I wasn't drunk. I was sober; the police checked me. I wasn't drunk."

"Then why did you have to give them money?" I asked. "You gave them dollars, didn't you?"

The surprise came back to his eyes. 

"I didn't give them money," he said, his voice alarmed. "They checked me and certified that I was sober. I was not drunk."

I stared at him, and he stared back at me with unflinching eyes. I knew that I was not going to get a confession out of him, no matter what I tell him. 

"You are a doctor," I said. "You are supposed to be saving lives, not taking them away. You killed Sarah because you were drunk and now you are denying it. Don't you have any dignity?"

His eyes looked harder now, the eyes a fox caught in a trap. "I wasn't drunk when my car hit her. And tell the person who said I gave them dollars to falsify the results that it's not true. I was sober."

I looked at him. All his body language showed that he was lying. 

He said, "Do you have any proof that I was drunk? And do you have any proof that I gave money to anyone?" He smiled. "These are all baseless allegations. You don't have any proof."

I nodded. "You are marrying Talatu, aren't you?"

If I had slapped him on the face he wouldn't have been as surprised as he looked. He eyes ran over my face several times, trying in vain to find the many questions that must have filled his mind.

"How did you know her name?" he asked in the voice that wasn't so confident anymore. "Do you know her?"

I sighed. "You took Talatu from me and now you have taken Sarah away from me."

This time he looked like a man who had gone into a trance. He stared at me for a long time before he found his voice.

"You are Talatu's former boyfriend?" he asked. 

"Yes, I was."

"Wow!" he said and held his mouth. "I can't believe it; what a small world." He looked at me. "Was that the reason you are trying to pin the drinking thing on me? Is that why you are trying to frame me because I took your girlfriend from you?"

"I am not trying to do anything. I just want to know the truth—"

"That's the truth. I wasn't drunk when I drove yesterday. Your girlfriend came out of nowhere and hit my car. Unfortunately, I was just starting to accelerate, and the car knocked her to the side of the road. I tried my best to help her, but it was to no avail."

"So, you weren't drunk?"

He looked me in the eyes. "I wasn't drunk; I was as sober as a president giving a speech."

"Okay," I said. "But if I discover the truth, you would not be alive to enjoy your coming marriage. That is a promise I am making to you."

"Are you threatening me?"

"Yes, I am…if you lying to me. But if what you said it's the truth…if you did not drive under the influence of alcohol, then you have no fear whatsoever."

He smiled. "I don't care what you would do to me. You are a loser all your life and you would continue to be a loser. There is nothing you can do to me. I am above you and would always be above you."

I felt a hot, pressing pressure rising in my chest. 

"And as soon as I marry Talatu, you will never see me again. I would be in the UK, a place you would never go to."

He began to walk back to his car. He stopped and turned. "And you are not invited to our wedding. If I see you there or if you go near to Talatu's house, I will make sure the police arrest you." 

He turned and went back to the car. Then he drove out of the hospital. I stood looking at the car until it disappeared. 

It was time to fight back, I thought. He has drawn the line.

There is no going back now.