THE MURDER WEAPON

THE MURDER WEAPON EPISODE FIVE

The officers stopped the search and came to the door where I was and showed me a phone, it was Duke's phone and I was glad it wasn't a gun

Officer: I knew there was something you were hiding.

I wasn't given time to explain myself so they took me with them and I went without a fight. Them getting Dukes phone in my house didn't prove anything yet so I kept making up lies in my mind hoping one of them would get me out of the situation given that I had no buddy left to call.

The drive to the police station wasn't long and in a few minutes we were there. By then it was around 9pm so I was taken into some room and the interrogation began.

I wasn't sure of what the police knew or how they knew I had Duke's phone and my guess was that they had been told or they had just been the police and tracked it down as part of the investigation. If they had been told some other stuff like me killing Duke by Faruk that would mean I would have to start thinking of a good lawyer but until then, I had to play safe by sticking to the phone issue and nothing more.

Officer: state your name for the record

Me: Rahim Johnson's

Officer: when did you last speak to a guy named Dukes. He was your friend right?

Me: yes he was my friend and we spoke on the 17th both on phone and physically.

Officer: do you Know what happened to him?

Me: yes, he got shot in the chest.

Officer: were you at the scene when it happened?

Me: no. I was not at the scene when it happened.

I had to lie about me not being on the scene because if i admitted that I was, I would have alot of explaining to do.

Officer: how did you get this phone and why didn't you turn it to the police?

Me: Dukes gave me a call asking to see me so I told him to come home and he did. We talked for like and hour then he left in a hurry claiming he was going to meet someone whose name he didn't mention. I saw him off but didn't get far with him. I got back to the house prepared dinner and while at it, a phone rang but the ringtone wasn't mine. I checked where the sound was coming from and realized Dukes had forgotten his phone where he was seated.

Officer: did he come back for it?

Me: no he did not. I thought he would come for it the following day only to wake up to a call from his mother that he had died.

I told a lie but the truth is I wasn't even sorry about it. Behind bars there was no justice, I have never seen a criminal who confesses the truth and has been left to walk free without being frustrated. I didn't kill Dukes but saying I was at the scene would open up a possibility for murder being imposed on me so I let them believe I knew nothing about the happenings of that day.

My story seemed to have made alot of sense so having believed it, they let me go but said they were retaining the phone. I was also asked not to leave the country or travel to anywhere for they would still need me to show up at the station should need be.

That went well so I got a cab and went back to my place. It was now close to 11pm and when I got up the stairs the first thing I did was checked if Myra was there but her lights were off. I didn't knock to confirm if she was in but hoped to see her the following morning. If Myra called the police on me then it meant she had just signed her death certificate and it was only going to be a matter of time before I got rid of her.

I slept that night but my rest wasn't easy at all. I kept thinking of how Faruk threatened to push through with finding the guys even if I didn't give him the list of the dealers. I didn't care how Faruk would go about it and I wasn't even worried because the guys in question were big cartels who had their images well protected and would simply gun him down if he approached them without a proper explanation of how he knew about them. I on the other hand needed to find the murder weapon before I got turned in because Faruk had the murder weapon and everything it took to end me. I needed a strategy but working with him was out of the question or maybe not but I had to figure it out real quick.

I tossed and turned but eventually the morning came. I got up, went for a jog as usual and when I got back I prepared myself for some meeting with my employees who had been complaining about alot of stuff and as their boss I had to be there and solve their problems before I attended to anything else that day.

As I was heading out, I checked Myra's house but there was nothing indicating that she was around. I got down the steps called a cab and off I was to see my guys.

While in the cab I got a call from duke's mum giving me a list of the requirements for Duke's burial and the budget was coming to around 250, 000. Faruk was an i***t. He pulled that card on me knowing so well he was not going to cost share the budget he had imposed on me.

Duke's was my home boy and he deserved a decent send off. He had my back more that any relative could and to him I owed my life when one time he took a bullet for me on the back when the heat turned on me and I had no back up. If the bullet didn't hit him, I would be a past tense by now and I was glad that he got to live after that.

I assured Duke's mum that I would get a few friends and raise the money in the next couple of days so that we could have him buried the approaching weekend. I didn't have any friends so that was obviously a lie but I couldn't have her questioning where a young guy like I got such huge amount of money for she knew I was only a swim coach.

I got to the spar and met nick for a debrief before meeting the rest of the employees. Nick was the buddy I had put in charge and I trusted him because we go way back in the days when hustle after completing school was real. We hawked eggs and anything "hawkable". We sold ladies clothes in the streets with him being the one shouting the price to attract the customer as I held all the money and gave change. While at his shouting his eyes and ears were alert just in case the city council showed up and gave us a chase down the streets. That was a rough life but when I joined thug life. We parted ways for a few years and met up when I was doing quite well. He had gotten a job as a personal driver to some guy but things didn't quite work out for him. He told me he was banging his employers wife and when he found out, he got him fired and he was back on the streets so I took him in and let him manage my business while I was still "thugging".

Nick and I talked for close to an hour telling me how business had dropped and how the employees were complaining about the salary raise when there was not much money coming in. I was shocked that the monthly income had reduced from 50k to around 26 that was almost half the expected amount.

In a span of three months, four employees had resigned and I knew nothing about it till now. This was crazy, it cane to my attention that I was so ignorant or I was being played all along. I provided everything that was needed for the spar and barber shop, there was a cup of coffee or glass of juice for every customer that showed up. People flocked in because most of my employees were female and they knew how to handle male clients as you know men love some sort of attention.

I had a meeting with the employees minus Nick and the things I was told left me in shock. The four ladies who left did because Nick demanded for s*x from them in order to raise their salary while the rest complained that they had not been paid for two months.

I trusted Nick but I knew for sure that all these allegations we're not just made up. There was something that wasn't right. After the talk with them I promised to pay them and have the place closed down for a week for a strategy on how to get the place back on its feet again. I promised them that after the one week things would change and everything was going to run smooth just like it was before.

I had a brief talk with Nick, I didn't tell him my plans lest he did something that would leave the business paralyzed for good so I told him we would have another meeting on Friday that week to see the way forward.

I got in the cab 30 minutes later and headed to the hotel. I had thought of working that month then sending in my resignation letter because the few thousands of shillings I was getting there wasn't worth loosing a business for. I had made up my mind to manage my own business for I couldn't trust Nick anymore. I was going to fire him too and take over.

During the swim lessons I raised up my head from the water and I saw Waridi approaching in her bikini. The sight of her made me feel butterflies in my stomach and I couldn't really hide the fact that I was excited to see her. She got in the water but didn't look at me or even aknowledge that I was there so having been wrong in the way I handled her last time, I swam to where she was to clear off the air and the awkwardness that had grown between us was real.

Me: hey

Waridi: hey.

Me: how are you doing?

Waridi: am okay.

Me: it's been a while since you showed up here, is everything really okay?

Waridi: yeah.

I knew she was lying. The look on her face said contrary to what she was letting me believe and my guess was that she was still pissed off at me for what transpired the last time we were together.

Me: waridi am sorry about what I said last time. It was so insensitive of me to act the way I did.

Waridi: am over it. I need sometime alone if you don't mind.

I didn't understand the reason for her coldness towards me but I think I was trying way too hard so I decided to leave her alone just like she had requested. I got back to giving the lessons as I kept a close watch on her while she swam. That was actually the first time I saw her swim and she was actually good at it.

A few more guys got in the pool as I had to maintain the coaching on the shallow end as the pros did their thing on the other end. When I was certain that my student had learned a few things, I got out of the water and let her practice the stuff I had shown her.

I stood out of the water checking out everyone in the pool and I noticed waridi wasn't there. I walked along the pool hurriedly and noticed that someone had sank deep into the water and my guess is that it was waridi. I jumped in the deep end and sank down getting a hold of her and pulling her up. She was a bit heavy so my guess is that she had drunk alot of water so I had two guys get out of the water and help me get her out.

"Is she dead?" One of the guys asked as we lay her on the pavement besides the pool.

"I don't know" I responded not sure how long she had been down there. "Damn you waridi, you can't do this to me!"...