Beautiful Alice Disappears

11 Jul Beautiful Alice Disappears

CHAPTER TWELVE

When Abel woke up two hours later, he tried to get out of bed. He had work to do. The attack meant he was getting close to something and that Alice might be in jeopardy.

But just as his left foot hit the floor, Dr. Atim entered and ordered him back to bed. One of the conditions the physician had imposed in exchange for working on demand at the private clinic was that his medical decisions would take precedence over newsroom deadlines. Abel obeyed and collapsed back into bed.

***********************

The next morning, Fakorede arrived to take a statement. He gently chided Abel for running from the scene of the shoot-out. Abel explained what happened, but Fakorede noted his revolver wasn’t registered. However, because of Chief Benson’s intervention, they were not going to press charges.

Abel nearly exploded. “Press charges! The bastards tried to kill me!”

Fakorede laughed and slapped the table, amused at Abel’s outrage. He told Abel to calm down, that witness statements corroborated his story.

Annoyed, Abel asked about his attackers. Fakorede said they had tracked down one SUV from a witness description and partial license plate. They had two of Abel’s victims, both suffering multiple gunshot wounds and broken limbs, under police guard at the Ikeja General Hospital. But they were refusing to cooperate or name any accomplices. But there was another suspect.

When Abel asked who this suspect was, Fakorede said the man’s name was Sanko. Abel immediately recognised him as the man from whom he had rescued Alice. The policeman saw from Abel’s expression that the name meant something to him. Abel explained how he had saved Alice and what she had told him about Sanko.

As they talked, a stream of questions flooded Abel’s mind: What did Sanko have to do with Winston? Did he trail him to Inila? Did Inila call Winston? And what did all this have to do with Alice?

He needed to speak with the girl immediately, so he answered the rest of Fakorede’s questions as succinctly as he could and saw the policeman off. Then he summoned Dr. Atim and informed him he’d been held captive long enough. The doctor, seeing there was no convincing Abel otherwise, prescribed some antibiotics and gave him permission to leave.

*******************

Once home, Abel retreated to his study to review recent wire service stories. As he sat down and began to read, a very agitated Ikomma rushed in.

“Oga, Alice’s mother is here to see you.”

Abel immediately got to his feet. “Bring her in.”

But before Ikomma made it to the door, Mary burst in, breathless, tears streaming down her face.

“Alice is gone! Alice is gone!” She screamed and slumped on the rug, pulling at her hair.

Abel moved quickly to her side. “Please calm down”, he said. He pulled her up onto the nearest settee. As he watched her, Abel was wracked with guilt, immediately fearing his investigation had somehow triggered this turn of events. He asked Mary to tell him what she knew, but hard as he tried, he couldn’t get a coherent word out of the distraught woman. Finally, in an attempt to shock Mary out of her hysteria, he pointed to his bandaged ear.

“Madam, please look at my ear”, he said and bent down to get the ear closer to her. Mary immediately stopped crying and looked up at him, catching her breath for the first time.

“Oh, Lord, what happened to you?”

“Gun shot. Some people tried to kill me when I was looking into why Alice changed from a sweet girl to one who relished street life.” He sat down opposite her.

“Please tell me, when did this happen?” she said.

“Yesterday.”

“I am very sorry for you, Mr. Abel. But please promise me this will not stop you from looking for her.” She sobbed again. Abel figured each of them was playing a role to manipulate the other. But he had to admit, her pain trumped his.

“She is my only daughter”, the woman continued. “I love her, and she liked you, always talking about you as the only man who understood her.” She wiped tears with the back of her trembling hand.

Abel couldn’t help but be touched, and he felt tears welling in his own eyes.

“Have no fear, Madam. I am going to help you.” He was gratified to see her calm down. “Kindly tell me what happened, everything you can remember. Leave nothing out.”

Before beginning, she wiped her face with the palm of her hand.

“Alice went out Saturday night but did not return home. It’s happened before, but she always returned the following day, saying she was with friends. This morning, when she was still missing, I raised an alarm with her father. He said he heard she had travelled.”

“Travelled?” Abel felt something in the pit of his stomach. Oh, God, he thought. No.

“Did you ask him what he meant?”

“Yes, for once, I was not afraid of his abuse. I demanded he tell me where she was. He knew the answer. I could tell. For a long time he did not say anything. Then he said, ‘Don’t you want your daughter to make money like other girls who are acquiring property all over the place?’ He would tell me no more. I broke down at that point, Mr. Abel. I have not stopped crying since.”

“How does your husband know she travelled?”

“He would not tell me. He terrorises us so it is difficult to press him too hard without setting the house ablaze.”

Abel nodded for the beauty of that expression and not the fact, which he knew so well already.

“I asked him one more time before I came here. He said, ‘You are crying now, but just wait until your daughter begins to send us money’. He is such a fool. If men had wombs to carry their child for nine months they would understand what our children mean to us. Alice is my only daughter.” She began to weep again.

“So he gave you no hint where Alice might be?” He cut in to redirect the emotional outpouring.

“No. He only said Alice will continue her education and get a good job.”

“But Madam, Alice was never happy in your home because of her father. Do you think perhaps she was so unhappy that she left on her own?”

“Why do you say that?” she asked and straightened up.

“It is obvious that Alice has been abused by your husband for years. If he abuses one, he probably abuses the other. Has he beaten you, Madam? Forced himself on you sexually. Marital rape is possible.” He paused for her reaction. She looked down and, ashamed, nodded.

“He began raping Alice when she was eleven, didn’t he?” Abel decided to press her.

She took in a deep breath, her eyes rolling back as if she was going to faint and let out a loud cry. “I suspected it. Oh, Lord, I suspected it, but she would not tell me. Maybe he frightened her with some superstition, or she thought if I challenged him he would beat me up.” She stopped and swallowed. Abel reached across and laid his hand gently on hers.

“I am sorry, Madam, but we cannot rewrite all that.”

She looked at him, suddenly angry.

“Perhaps it is time to act.”

“No, don’t confront him with this. If I am reading the situation correctly, your life could be in danger. And Alice will want her mother there when she returns.”

Mary managed a weak smile at the thought.

“You are correct”, her voice firmed up. “Alice asked me not long ago why I had not married a man like you. I am old and unattractive now, but how I wished Alice had the opportunity to be your wife …”

Abel thought again of his young sister who had died so many years before. She would have been like Alice as a teenager. Beautiful, bright, full of life and energy.

Alice was attractive, but he was middle-aged. What on earth could he offer a girl so young? He was a father figure, not a husband. But in her anxiety and grief, Alice’s mother had confused the two. She wanted a man in her daughter’s life who would be kind. He was prepared to be that man. But not as Alice’s husband. The minute they had sex, Abel would go from being her saviour to being her master.

“Alice still has the opportunity to have a good life and find someone who will treat her well”, he said, hoping to diffuse the woman’s sudden burst of passion. Abel wanted to get the discussion back on a useful track.

“Could Alice have moved in with one of the men who has been coming to see your husband lately?”

She shook her head. “My husband would have told me if that were the case. And he would be waving around a great fistful of money.” She smiled ruefully at Abel. “Winston would never give Alice up without demanding a large payment. And my husband’s ego would force him to show off his sudden good fortune.”

“Could she have travelled with any of her female friends?”

“I asked them, of course, but they claim to know nothing. And they cared not a whit when they saw my tears. These girls know I disapprove of them and they hate me. If my poor girl was dead, they would not tell me!”

The hysteria which she had controlled suddenly overcame her again and she collapsed into a heap at his feet.

Moved, Abel pulled her up.

“I will hunt for her as if she were my own child”, he promised. And in his heart he swore that he would never give up until Alice was safely back and the people responsible for her disappearance either dead or in jail.