Divided they fall, p.12
Divided They Fall, page 12
part #2 of David Nbeke Series
“No problem, Agent May, but I trust you won’t be offended when I say that I hope I never meet either of you again.”
“Why’s that Doc?”
“Because, Agent May,” he opened the door, “I spend most of my existence trying to patch together the mess that people like you leave behind.”
The police sergeant watching the room moved out of his way and the surgeon walked off down the corridor.
Clarissa looked at David, “I’m starving, is there somewhere around here where we can grab some lunch?”
David nodded reluctantly, “There might be.”
The only place worth eating at for miles around was somewhere he had vowed never to go to again.
As Clarissa walked through the door a red-faced Mrs Drotenkov made a beeline for her.
“Fucking pigs,” she screamed. “How dare you come here? Haven’t you done enough to my poor Misha already?”
Clarissa stepped to one side to avoid the punch thrown at her and grabbed hold of the Ukrainian woman’s arm. She used her hip and the attacker’s momentum to flip Mrs Drotenkov onto her back.
“Now calm down, Mrs Drotenkov,” Clarissa held her arm in a wristlock, “I can assure you that I had nothing to do with your husband’s injuries. I’m very sorry for what you must be going through, but if you attack me again, or any of the other officers, we’ll have to press charges. Ok?”
The startled woman managed a single nod of the head.
“Good.” Clarissa looked at David, who didn’t try to hide the grin, “Don’t just stand there, come and help Mrs Drotenkov up.”
*****
When they were outside in the hospital parking lot Clarissa punched David’s arm, “Thanks for your help back there.”
He rubbed his shoulder dramatically, “You didn’t look like you needed any help. Do you still want to eat before we go to the morgue? There are better places in town.”
Clarissa shrugged, “I’m hungry, let’s go now.”
“It’s your call.” David unlocked her side of the car before going around to his, “Just don’t say that I didn’t warn you.”
“I have been to a mortuary before and the food where your taking me isn’t that bad is it?”
“Believe me, it’s not the food you need to worry about.”
The journey to the restaurant on Kindaruma Road only took a few minutes. David had to admit that the Hankook Gardens still looked good, even if for him it would never be the same.
The entrance and terraces were draped in snow-white linen that flapped gently in the breeze. There were no external walls, bamboo pillars supported the roof and the glass bi-fold doors between them were opened invitingly. The building, and the tropical plants that filled the garden surrounding it, gave the impression you were on a desert island.
David led them to one of the cooking stations and signalled the waiter, “What are you drinking?”
“I’ll have a beer please.”
David ordered two Tuskers. As Clarissa studied the menu he began to wonder if they should have eaten somewhere else. The memory of Caitlyn was still raw, and this was the last place they had been together.
“Are you ok?”
David nodded, “Sorry, I must have zoned out.”
The waiter returned with their beers, David took a welcome sip.
“When exactly did you phone the hospital?”
“Yesterday.” David frowned, “Why?"
Clarissa smiled, “Do you have a life outside of work?”
“Not really to be honest,” David replied. “What little time I do have I try to spend with my family.
“Oh,” Clarissa’s smile vanished. “I didn’t realise you had kids.”
David laughed, “Not that kind of family, my mother and sister.”
“A mummy’s boy then?”
“Not really.”
“What about your father?”
David shrugged, “He died when I was thirteen, it’s been just us since then.”
“Sorry,” Clarissa put her hand on his, “I shouldn’t have probed.”
David moved his hand away, “Nothing for you to be sorry about, it was a long time ago. What about you? I bet you’ve got a husband and an army of kids waiting for you at home.”
They were interrupted by the chef with steaming plates of food. He wished them a nice meal and gave Clarissa a curt bow before returning to the BBQ.
“I was asking about your family,” David reminded her.
She swallowed the first mouthful of noodles, “Oh yeah, No the service doesn’t...hold on a minute,” she held up a finger as she took a slurp of beer. She took a few more sips before speaking, “They’re definitely spicy all right.” Clarissa managed a smile but her eyes watered, “What was I saying?”
David smiled, “You were going to tell me about your family.”
“That’s right,” Clarissa wiped her face on a napkin. “The service doesn’t really encourage or give you time for relationships. There’s just my folks. They’re in Atlanta, and I’m in Washington working most of the time. We rarely get to see each other these days.”
They ate in silence for a while, as usual the beef was incredibly tasty, then he remembered that it had been Caitlyn’s favourite. David suddenly didn’t feel hungry, he pushed the food to the edge of the plate and put down his fork.
David’s thoughts returned to the investigation, “So who do you think cleared out Kalpar’s safe?”
“I don’t know,” Clarissa replied, “but the manager sure does. Whoever it is they must have some serious pull. Did you see how scared Omondi looked after the phone call?”
David nodded, “Do you want to pay him another visit and find out who he called?”
“Not yet, I want to check Kalpar’s body and see the CCTV footage from the bank first,” she swigged the last bit of her beer, “might turn up something. Are you finished?”
David patted his stomach, “Yeah, I’m stuffed, let’s get out of here.”
“I’ll get the cheque.” Clarissa reached into her bag, “It’s on the company.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Ngong Road, Nairobi
August 3rd, 1998
A group of about a dozen protestors blocked the entrance to the morgue, all of them wearing white facemasks that covered their noses and mouths. Bold lettering at the top of the green and yellow gates read ‘NAIROBI CITY COUNCIL’, below it in smaller letters ‘City Mortuary’.
David gave a long blast on the horn and kept moving forward slowly, reluctantly the crowd parted to let them pass. One of the placards they carried said ‘STOP THE STENCH’.
“Should I be worried?” said Clarissa.
“Probably,” David nodded, “it looks like the generator’s packed in again.”
“What?”
“The electric’s always cutting out in Nairobi, so most places have back-up generators, problem is this one hasn’t worked properly for a few years.”
David let out a couple of short blasts to get the security guard’s attention, eventually he sauntered out of the guardhouse. The guard looked half asleep, but he recognised David. He tucked his shirt in and then opened the gate. A short dirt drive ended at a crumbling single-storey building.
“No way!” Clarissa covered her nose.
David had to admit that the putrid odour of decomposing bodies was overpowering.
A converted navy-blue LandRover was being swilled out by a man in a lab coat and wellington boots splattered with blood. He threw a bucket of clean water into the back of the vehicle and then stepped back to let the rusty-red slosh flow out.
Under a tree to the right six naked bodies were laid out on a concrete slab, they were bloated and distorted, flies crawled in and out of their nostrils and mouths.
Clarissa opened the door and vomited, she heaved until there was nothing left to come out.
“Here take this,” David handed her a tissue from a pack in the glove box.
She wiped her mouth and chin clean, “Give me another one.” She used it to cover face, “Let’s get this over with.”
David put his hand on her shoulder, “You sure about this? I can go in on my own.”
Clarissa didn’t answer, she stepped over the puddle of sick and walked quickly to the entrance. David tried to breath in through his mouth and out through his nose but inside the smell was worse, more concentrated. Clarissa retched again but this time nothing came out.
David put his hand on her back, “We don’t have to do this you know, we can wait for the autopsy report.”
Clarissa shook her head.
“Here put these on,” an orderly handed them a couple of cheap dust-masks.
“Thanks,” Clarissa put the mask on and gave David the thumbs up.
David shrugged, “Follow me.”
They walked into a long narrow room, the floor and walls made of concrete, a few asbestos-looking panels missing from the suspended ceiling. The odd window let light in from the side facing the street. A line of cell-like doors, thin sheets of steel riveted to their fronts, occupied the other.
In the middle of the room was a row of eight operating slabs, six of them lay empty, bloodstains covered the mottled surfaces. A closed mahogany casket with brass handles sat on one of the remaining slabs. The body of a middle-aged black woman was being examined on the other.
David called out when they were a few slabs away from the figure hunched over the body, “Hello, Doctor Kimani.”
His lab coat flared as Kimani swirled to face them. He peered at them and adjusted his spectacles, which left a thick red smear on his cheek.
The medical examiner smiled, “Hello, David, it’s been a while.” He jabbed the hand holding the woman’s liver in Clarissa’s direction, “Who’s this?”.
“This is Agent May of the CIA, she’s leading the investigation into Kalpar’s death.”
The examiner held his arms out to his sides, blood dripped from the organ down his sleeve, “I’m sure you’ll excuse me if I don’t shake hands.
“That’s quite alright, Doctor.” Clarissa pointed at the lump of meat, “What you got there, anything interesting?”
He turned back to the cadaver and placed the liver into a metal pan on a trolley. Next to the pan were what looked like tools of medieval torture, all neatly lined up ready for use. They probably once were thought David. A bone-saw, lead weighted hammer, and skull chisel were amongst the implements on display. David also recognised a pair of rib-cutters.
“Actually, yes, the police suspect this poor woman died from arsenic poisoning. She showed all of the symptoms, nausea, vomiting, severe abdominal pain, followed by diarrhoea and death.” The doctor’s eyes lit up as he continued, “I’m checking for hardening of the liver, basically it packs in trying to rid the body of the toxin. The tissue will then be sent to the lab for analysis, along with hair and bone samples.”
“For the Marsh test?” said Clarissa.
“That’s right,” the examiner raised an eyebrow. “But I’m babbling on again. I suppose you want to take a look at Mr Kalpar. I’m afraid I haven’t had time yet with everything going on around here, it’s absolute chaos.”
He wiped his hands on the front of his coat and wandered off down the line of freezers and opened one, “No, not that one.”
David caught a brief glimpse of another swollen body, this time a small boy, before the coroner shut the door and moved on.
“Ah, here we go,” he pulled the gurney out and wheeled it into the space between two empty slabs. He pulled back the blood-soaked sheet that covered Kalpar, “What is it you want to know?”
There were numerous bullet holes to his chest and Kalpar’s mouth was set in a permanent sneer.
“I’d like to check if there are any rear entry points,” said Clarissa, who seemed to have forgotten her earlier nausea.
“Certainly.” The doctor looked at David, “Go around to the other side and help me roll him over. Be careful though, we don’t want him falling apart.”
Together they shifted Kalpar’s corpse so that it was lying face down, some of the bullets had torn huge chunks out of his back as they exited.
Clarissa and David watched as Kimani ran his fingers over Kalpar, first his back and then his head. He stopped somewhere near the top of Kalpar’s skull.
“Just one,” he declared, “right here.” He pushed the tip of his finger into the small hole to demonstrate. He removed his digit and used both hands to lift Kalpar’s head up and look underneath, “The bullet is still in there by the looks of it.”
“We’re going to need that slug,” said Clarissa.
“That will take a bit of time,” the coroner rubbed his chin with the back of his hand. He walked over to the trolley and picked up the hammer and chisel, “You might want to wait outside.”
Clarissa didn’t seem to need a second invitation and headed for the door, David wasn’t far behind her. They walked against the breeze to the furthest end of the compound and Clarissa sat in the dirt. She rested her back against the perimeter wall, removed the mask and took in some deep breaths.
David stood in front of her, “So, somebody shot Kalpar to keep him quiet?”
Clarissa shielded her eyes and tilted her head, “It kind-of looks that way doesn’t it? The same person, or persons, that emptied his safe.”
“We can’t know that for sure.”
“No,” she said, “I suppose one of his buyers could have heard about his death and decided to get rid of any evidence linking him to them, but it’s highly unlikely. My gut tells me we’re dealing with one seriously well-connected bad guy here.”
David nodded, “I’d have to agree. What next?”
“Get back to HQ and see if that surveillance tape has turned up, hopefully it will reveal our killer. If not, then we’ll have to bring the bank manager in for questioning. Although I get the feeling that he won’t be too co-operative. Also, I want to check with Miller and see if Odeh has resurfaced.”
David sat down next to her, “I’ll try and get hold of the bank’s phone records.”
Clarissa desperately wanted to tell him, but she didn’t know who else in the GSU would find out if she did. The small black diary Clarissa had found when she searched Kalpar’s bedroom felt like a lead weight pressed against her chest.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
GSU Headquarters, Nairobi
August 3rd, 1998
Clarissa requested that they meet in Tanui’s office, away from any prying eyes and ears.
“This arrived for you,” said Tanui. He picked a thick manila envelope from the top of one of the stacks of paperwork littering his desk and threw it into David’s lap. “What is it?”
David gave Tanui a quick summary of the trip to Kalpar’s and the bank. He also told him about the visit to the hospital and what they had discovered at the morgue that afternoon.
“Somebody assassinated Kalpar?”
“It looks that way, we’re hoping that the footage from the bank will shed some light on who,” said Clarissa.
Tanui looked at her, “You think the same person who killed Kalpar cleared out his safe?”
“Either that or the bank manager had somebody do it whilst he kept us upstairs,” said Clarissa, “Omondi could have even ordered it done when the usher came down to get us, would have made sense for him to do it then, knowing we were there to investigate Kalpar.”
Tanui was distracted by a car that cruised past his window up the access road, “If the only camera is in the lobby then it won’t prove anything, we can only hope that we can identify a potential suspect or suspects. Then, if the bank manager co-operates, we could possibly use it as evidence, if it’s not considered circumstantial.”
“That’s one of the reasons I wanted to see the tape first, we’ll be in a better bargaining position if we know who our mystery man is before we question Omondi,” said Clarissa.
“There’s also a good possibility that the bank manager acted on his own, or on the behalf of a third party, before you even arrived at the bank,” said Tanui.
“I don’t think so,” replied Clarissa. “The way he behaved and the fact he made the phone call say otherwise.
Tanui rubbed the peppered stubble on his chin, “If what you are saying is true then I think we’d better keep this between the three of us. At least until we find out who has been leaking the information.” He looked at David, “Is that clear, nobody outside this room.”
David nodded, “We’ll get over to one of the briefing rooms and check this out,” he held up the package. “I’ll let you know if we find anything on it.”
“Could you get this analysed please,” Clarissa took the zip-lock bag from her pocket and handed it to Tanui. “It’s the slug from Kalpar’s head.”
Tanui raised an eyebrow and held it up to the light, “I’ll get it sent over to the lab right away. I’ll also get in touch with Telkom and get the phone records.”
Tanui stood up. Even though he was approaching fifty, Tanui obviously kept himself in shape.
His biceps flexed as he leant forward, knuckles on the desk, “Whilst I’m at it I might as well see if I can find out which mobile phone company Omondi uses.”
“Has there been any news on Odeh?” Clarissa asked as they got up to leave.
“Not yet, Agent May, and the odds of finding him when we don’t know where he started from, or where he is going to, are fairly slim. It’s a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack.”
“I can appreciate that, Commander, if our team in Dar-es-Salaam makes contact they’ll let me know immediately and we can call off the search, but until then please keep trying.”
“We are,” replied Tanui. “We’ve wired the most recent photograph of him to all the border posts and police stations between here and Tanzania. We’ve also got local police looking for him in Nairobi. They’ve even doubled their presence at the bus depots and train stations in case he tries to use public transport.”
Clarissa nodded, “Thanks, Commander, it sounds like you’ve got all the bases covered, let’s just hope he turns up soon.”
*****
