Dial episode 7

DIAL
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Sequence 7
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So I decided to play possum.
The death of Akos had left a sour taste in my mouth.
That was an unexpected and extreme twist. I was used to girls on my DIAL List feeling used and dumped, calling me incessantly, cursing me, reporting me, threatening me and sometimes even going to the extreme of trying to hurt me, physically.
It was all part of the game, part of the thrill and part of the hidden pleasures I took from my dedication to the DL.
What I hadn’t envisaged, ever, was one of them taking the extreme route of death. I wanted to believe, sincerely wanted to believe, that Akos’ death had been an accident, just a freak twist of coincidence, but I knew deep within me that it wasn’t the case.
It was beginning to dawn on me that the DL Project had another facet I hadn’t taken into consideration. Akos had been fragile; she had had an inner vulnerability, an almost childlike-trust of people, especially me.
My attentions had blown her mind and opened up her heart, and I had cruelly played her. She hadn’t known how to respond and cope. To her, life might have been literally coming to an end. Living in morbid fear of her father, and finding out she was pregnant with a man who, to all purposes and intents, had just used and dumped her, might have been too much for her to bear.
In the end, death might have seemed a most favourable way out of her predicament.
And I had been the catalyst.
I mourned Akos of Wowo.
I felt really bad as the days passed, and guilt weighed more and more on my conscience.
At the end of the week, however, I had two visitors.
I was having discussion with two Saudi Arabian partners when my secretary buzzed me.
“Yes, Steve, what is it?” I asked irritably. “I told you to hold everything until I’m done here.”
“Sorry, sir,” Steve said, and his voice sounded funny. “A Chief Inspector Danso Cuger is here to see you, sir, and he won’t wait. Says it’ll take just a minute.”
My heart gave a sudden lurch.
I had been expecting it, but as the days passed and I had not heard anything further, I had begun to relax.
And now this.
I took a deep breath and kneaded my brow in an agitated way.
“Sir?” Steve enquired, and he sounded worried.
“Alright, Steve, show him to the Lounge,” I finally managed to say. “I’ll be with him in a minute.”
I sat for a while and absent-mindedly drummed my fingertips on my desk.
One of my Saudi partners leaned forward, worried.
“Yew heev gat di trable, Meester Biiko?” he asked.
I looked at him, irritated, and almost punched his face in.
I forced a smile and got to my feet.
“No, nothing to be worried about,” I said. “Excuse me for a moment, gentlemen. Will be with you soon.”
I left my office through a side door, walked down two short corridors, and then I paused at the backdoor of The Lounge.
I took deep breaths, and then I opened the door and entered the luxurious Lounge.
It had three beautiful sitting areas, and I noticed that Steve had shown them to the Dark Sofa area.
I had expected to see only one man, the police chief, but there were two of them.
One was in a brown suit and white shirt, and I assumed he was the policeman.
The other man was in black trousers and a mufti smock, and his back was turned to me as he stood near the aquarium enjoying the sight of the swimming fishes.
“Gentlemen, welcome,” I said with forced gaiety as I approached.
Chief Inspector Danso got to his feet and took my extended hand.
“Hello, Mr. Biko,” he said in a tired voice. “Sorry to disturb you, but it was necessary. Won’t take up too much of your time.”
“Oh, that’s okay,” I said as I ushered him to his seat, glancing nervously at the man standing beside the aquarium. “Please take a seat. Can I offer you something? Water, tea, a drink? We have iced cocoa and scones too, quite delicious.”
The policeman smiled and shook his head.
“That will be okay, Mr. Biko,” he said as he sat down again.
I lowered myself down in the seat beside him, and that was when the man in the smock turned round.
My breath stopped for a moment as I stared at him.
He was slender and fair, with heavy curling hair that fell down his face in whiskers and a thick mustache.
His thick hair was sprinkled with a generous amount of grey.
What shocked me was his incredible facial resemblance to Akos, even with all that facial hair of his. I had imagined that a girl as beautiful as she had taken her looks from her mother, but I was wrong. This man looked very handsome, and it was evident that his facial good looks had been passed on to his daughter.
“This is Nana Bosomba,” the policeman said in a hurry. “He wanted to see you, Mr. Biko. We’ve rounded up the bureaucratic tape concerning the death, you see, and we’ve released the body of the deceased to him. He wanted to see you before leaving, and there were a couple of questions I also wanted to ask.”
Akos’ father walked forward slowly, and then he smiled sadly and held out his hand.
“Mr. Biko, glad to meet you,” he said, and his voice was cultured and gentle.
I got to my feet in a daze and shook his hand.
I had expected an ogre, a giant of a man with a mean face, dressed in scary priestly clothes with painted body parts.
This soft-spoken, gentle and slightly-built man was far from the image I had perceived of him. Surely, this couldn’t be the same person Akos had been so terrified of.
“Glad to meet you too, Nana,” I said in a humbled voice. “I’m extremely sorry about Akos, sir. I sincerely am.”
He nodded and sat down across from me, and I noticed that his eyes were fixed on my face, and he never looked away again.
“My daughter called me about a month before her death,” he said gently, and again he smiled sadly. “She told me she was in love with you, and that you were going to marry her.”
I laughed nervously, and I wasn’t sure for a moment how to play it, and I gently rubbed my forehead.
“Look, Akos was involved in an accident that could have been fatal,” I began and smiled at them. “She was nearly knocked down by a car. I sent her to the hospital, and later we became friends. Yes, I did like her a lot, yes, but she told me she was in a relationship, and so I didn’t press it.”
“I’m confused here, Mr. Biko,” Nana Bosomba said. “I know her relationship with that other boy was over a long time ago. Are you saying you’re not the one she was referring to, the man who gave her the ring?”
I smiled, and I was sure it looked fake and forced, but then I had decided to play the part, and so I stuck to it.
“Oh, I did give her the ring, yes,” I said in a rush. “I was getting her a present, a chain actually, and she saw the ring and said she loved it, and so I bought it for her too.”
The man nodded, but I noticed that his eyes had suddenly gone cold.
“She had saved your number as ‘Husbie’ on her phone, Mr. Biko,” Chief Inspector Danso said, sounding confused. “And she was pregnant too, judging from the test kits in her bag. Her friends at the hospital spoke about you, that you were going out, and confirmed you gave her the ring, promising to marry her. Are you denying all that?”
They were pushing me into a corner, and I detested it.
I knew they had nothing on me, and knew I had to stick to my story. The whole issue was messy, a real big mess, and I admitted that I had really forced the girl to go to the extreme, but there was nothing I could do about it.
I was filled with remorse, yes, and wished things had ended differently, but it hadn’t. As sorry as I was for Akos’ death, I wasn’t about to be weighed down with some responsibility I was not ready for, and so I changed tack and took on a more brutish approach.
“I don’t know what you’re driving here, sir,” I said, summoning the coldest voice I was capable of. “Look, maybe I did lead Akos on. Let’s be honest here, she was an incredibly beautiful woman, and yes, I did tell her I would have wanted to marry her. But she had a boyfriend, and that was as far as we went. I don’t know why she saved my name as Husbie, and I don’t know who got her pregnant. Believe me, there was nothing but friendship between us.”
The policeman looked at the fetish priest, but the priest only regarded me with very calm eyes, and then he stood up slowly. He looked at the policeman.
“I think we’re done here,” he said calmly. “Have you given him the letter?”
Chief Inspector Danso Cuger stood up too.
“Oh, I forgot,” he said.
He reached into his pocket and brought out a crumbled envelope. I remembered, quite too late, that he had informed me at an earlier date, a week earlier actually, that Akos had left a letter for me.
I took it from him, and my hand shook a little, as much as I tried to stop it.
They stood looking at me, but I made no attempt to open it.
“We had to open it, you know,” the policeman said. “We had to determine whether she fell by accident or there was more to it. It contains a short note and the ring you gave her. We have now concluded that she might have committed suicide since she wrote to you and her father.”
I could not speak, and so I nodded, and at that moment I felt a lump in my throat. It was a rush of sadness that took me by surprise. The fact that I had betrayed Akos, right here in front of her father, really filled me with uncharacteristic remorse.
“We’ll leave now, Mr. Biko,” the policeman said and smiled. “Thank you for your time.”
He shook my hand, and then I extended my hand to Nana Bosomba. With a sad smile he took my hand and nodded once.
“Hm, I don’t think we are done yet, Mr. Biko,” Nana Bosomba said. “I’ll see you tonight, and we’ll conclude our talk.”
I looked at him with both apprehension and surprise.
“Tonight?” I asked and shook my head. “Oh, no. I won’t be available tonight, sir. I have other things planned. We can talk now, if you want, about everything.”
He smiled again and turned toward the door, following the policeman.
The cop went out, but Akos’ father stopped and turned to look at me.
“Tell me, Mr. Biko, if my daughter was just a friend, why is he on your list?” he asked.
This time I gasped loudly with shock, and it was as if the air was sucked right out of me as I took a step back.
“What?” I asked hoarsely, sweat forming on my face. “What are you talking about? What list?”
He smiled again.
“Like I said, Mr. Biko, we’ll talk tonight.”
He turned to leave, and I tried to speak but my voice was gone as desperation raced through me.
The list?
What did he mean?
No one knew about the Dial List. It was my personal secret! Had he been referring to another list, maybe? Something that Akos had told him about? The man had no means to know about my most well-kept secret.
My throat was very dry as I sat down and tore open the envelope.
The ring I had given her tumbled out, and I sat down looking at it for a long time, and then I extracted Akos’ letter.
Hello, Yao.
If you’re reading this, then it means I didn’t make it.
I loved you with my soul, to the very ends of my heart.
Goodbye, and know that I loved you till my final breath.
PS:
I’ve asked my father, as a last wish, not to harm you in any way.
Please, make sure you do everything that he asks, I beg of you.
I sat for a long time, and then I began to weep silently for Akos of Wowo.
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To be continued..