(Continued from A Woman Scorned II)
The four rapists drive away towards Mombasa Road, leaving Stella for the dead. Their instructions were to kill her then drive to Karen where the doctor is getting ready to move. The Bishop knows that the heat that Stella’s expose has generated will not go away soon, so he is taking precautions. He is moving Catherine and the doctor to a remote location under the cover of darkness. The Bishop has enough hideouts in remote places where he has previously enjoyed rendezvous with his girlfriends under the pretext of going to prayer centers to seek the Lord in quietness. He owns these prayer centers, and they are not open to the public. On average, the Bishop goes to consult the Lord twice a week.
He has decided to hide Catherine at the prayer center near Namanga because it is the newest and hardest to detect. Besides, the Nairobi-Namanga road hardly has cops so the transfer of the woman should be smooth.
The four young men argue about whether they should stop at a bar for a quick drink before driving to Karen. Two are for the idea but the other two are skeptical: the Bishop has stressed the urgency of the operation.
In the end, they agree to buy alcohol in Lang’ata and drink it on the road. From Karen they will drive to Ngong, then Kiserian and on towards Namanga via Kajiado. They do not expect to find policemen on that road but if they do, the Bishop has given them enough money to bribe an entire Police Division.
They are already drunk as they enter the lonely compound in Karen. The doctor has packed his belongings and tied up Catherine. They gag her and force her onto the back seat of the Toyota Noah. One of the young men takes the wheel with the doctor as the co-driver while the other three take the middle row of seats.
Trouble finds them just past Karen shopping center on their way to Ngong. Just past the first valley, there is a roadblock. The driver curses under his breath.
He slows down and an elderly policeman comes to his side of the window.
“Kijana unaendesha gari kama umelewa?” the cop asks, after smelling the alcohol.
“Sijalewa afande, nimeonja tu kiasi,”
“Shuka upulize hii kitu,”
“Cheki brathe. Si nikujenge kakitu ukanyangie hii story?”
“Shuka kijana!”
The driver reluctantly steps down from the vehicle. He takes the alcohol test and fails. The policeman asks him if he is related to his co-driver, and the young man says he is his brother. The cop, on a whim, administers the alcohol test on the doctor, and the doctor passes.
“Wewe hujalewa. Mbona si wewe unaendesha hii gari? Uko na license upeleke hii gari nyumbani? Hii ndugu yako italala police station leo,” the cop asks the doctor.
The doctor does not have a driving license. Apparently, he does not even know how to drive.
“Niko na license,” one of the young men at the back drunkenly says.
“Msaheme afande. Tutakujenga,” another says.
The policeman opens the side door and points his flashlight inside. He shines the light on the three young men then at the rear seat.
“Huyo ni nani ako huko nyuma?” he asks.
“Ni dada yetu. Amelewa kama hawa wengine,” the doctor says quickly. The policeman is about to refocus his light on the young men when Catherine starts thrashing her body about. The cop notices that she is tied up.
“Mbona mmefunga yeye kama ni dada yenu? Hebu fungua yeye,”
Suddenly, the driver punches the cop in the head. With the cop dazed, he and the doctor hop into the car. The driver engages gears, thrusting the vehicle forward in one sudden burst. The doctor fires at the other cops to stall them as the Noah gathers speed.
*
John, one of Stella’s neighbours, notices that her door is open when he arrives home that evening. They have forged a friendship since he moved into the neighbourhood three months ago so he decides to pass by and say hello. He knocks once and lets himself in. That is how close he thinks they are. But the scene on her sitting room sends his mind reeling.
There she is, lying on the floor under a pool of blood, naked.
He rushes towards her and touches her wrist. She has a weak pulse. He calls the police and asks for an ambulance. A police patrol car and a Mater Hospital ambulance arrive within minutes of each other. The medics rush Stella to the hospital while the police question John, the neighbour.
The doctors at Mater wrestle with Stella’s fading life for what seems like an eternity. After an hour of struggling to stabilize her, the doctors take her to the ICU.
“I think she will live. She’s lucky to have been brought when she was brought” one of the doctors tells John and the cops, who have just arrived.
Relief is written on John’s face. It was becoming obvious that he was being treated as a suspect.
***
The police get their act together quickly and give a chase, with sirens blaring on the otherwise quiet Ngong Road. They call Ngong Police Station and ask for reinforcement. The Noah arrives in Ngong town at high speed and turns towards Kiserian. It passes a police van from the police station that is meant to intercept it, and the cops are forced to make a hasty U-turn to give a chase. Their colleagues are still some distance behind.
The Kiserian road is in a bad state of repair and gives both drivers a hard time navigating at high speed. The doctor fires at the police van sporadically to keep the cops at bay. The young men have already called the Bishop to alert him that things have not gone according to plan.
Suddenly a motorcycle appears from around the corner. The Noah driver veers to avoid hitting it but loses control and the Noah rolls several times and lands on a ditch. The motorcyclist panics and flies off the road as well. The police jeep stops.
***
(Following morning)
Newspaper headlines are screaming. Television stations have been running breaking news since last night. The four young men, who are identified as the Bishop’s aides, are all dead. The driver died on the spot. The other three young men died as they were being rushed to the hospital. The doctor, who turns out to be a quack, is in hospital under police custody. He is reported to be in a stable condition. Catherine, miraculously, survived with only minor bruises.
The Bishop is on the run.
He is hiding at his childhood friend’s farm in a remote part of Meru County, having driven throughout the night. He called his friend last night in a panic when he learned that the police were on the tail of his boys. He does not expect the police to find him there and intends to leave this farm only when his aides successfully bribe the right people, or when his lawyers get court orders stopping his prosecution.
He is therefore surprised when a police van pulls up at the farmhouse shortly after he and his friend have taken breakfast. Unknown to him, his friend’s farm assistant, Tito, called the police under the instruction of his boss, the Bishop’s friend. The Bishop panics, exits the farmhouse via the back door, dashes to the farm and jumps into the cowshed. In a potato farm, the cowshed is the only place he can hide.
The persistent snorting of a bull leads the cops to the shed. They enter the shed and find the Bishop lying in a pool of blood, next to the snorting bull. Several cows are watching. The bull has gored and trampled on him. Tito and his employer lead the bull to another stall, enabling the police officers to reach out to the Bishop.
“Seems like bulls do not like hypocrites,” one of the police officers jokes.
“Let me call an ambulance,” another says.
“No need. Seems like he is already taking plea at the High Court sitting in Heaven,”
“Are there lawyers to get him bail in heaven?” the third asks and they all chuckle as they load the body into the police van.
(To be continued tomorrow)
Image source: https://pixabay.com/en/portrait-woman-glamour-make-up-856125/
*
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