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Chapter 9
- LANGAA RPCIG
- Chapter
- Additional Information
95 C Chapter 9 or about half an hour after Evans Emedhi ran out of a neighbour’s hut brandishing the axe, bloodshed and mayhem reigned in the mine compound. Danger lurked, in the air and physically, trapping Ivy in the Mujas’ house. After the commotion, Madzibaba Tinashe and Gogo Belemina lay dead in the open, their bodies bloody and uncovered, so did many people in the relic-littered compound. The senile, peaceful woman was popular with the compound’s children, including Peza. The scene was a grisly culmination, almost surreal. Matipa found it difficult to accept Gogo Belemina and Madzibaba Tinashe were dead. The woman lived for five years at the mine courtesy of Mr Artaxerxes Korykos whom she had served as a house cleaner in Harare for three decades. On retirement, which was two years prior to Matipa’s coming to the mine, the Greek discovered she had neither traceable siblings nor children of her own, though she claimed to have a dozen children in Gaborone and Francistown, all in management positions. The proprietor decided to accommodate her in the compound as a goodwill gesture. Every month she received money and groceries from the Greek. Lately she was telling those who cared to listen that her children lived in cities she couldn’t recall in Canada, Brazil and Moscow, arguing the latter was a country. The events of the last hour were staggeringly traumatic. Everything had happened within a short space of time. With Bomani Kumanda’s presence perceivable, the atmosphere obtaining was apprehensive. Across the stretch between the houses, Matipa peered at the office orderly. Emedhi was stork-still, his head and upper body draped in a decorated red mediumistic cloth. The axe, a bloodied weapon from his neighbour’s hut, lay on the ground near him. Kneeling among the dead, blindfolded, there was mystique about him F 96 and the scene. Stembile chanted Zulu mantras as she paced in front of him, casting some substance on him from a beaded gourd. In black cloths, she looked like a daylight-defying apparition. Her actions and the cloth on Emedhi compounded the mystic air. Peering out through the crack in the door, Matipa knew that as long as the killer remained in the compound, animated or rock-still, she and the compound dwellers remained beleaguered. The events and distress calls of the past hour still vivid in her mind, she found it preposterous to believe Ivy and she had just witnessed heinous murders. The events rewound in her head, beginning with the nocturnal voices. For the past hour, Emedhi had remained covered and in the kneeling posture amid five forlorn corpses. Time seemed frozen. No one ventured outside. Stembile continued to chant in Zulu, casting whatever was in the gourd on her husband. Matipa’s thoughts were tempestuous. Akar’s whereabouts were unknown to her. She didn’t know when he would return if ever he would. As his wife, she was his representative and naturally the focal point of the murderous commotion. How long would she play an outsider biding for time to flee Sakis Mine forever? If she emerged from her house, chances were she would rouse the demon. Unlike some people still cowering in their huts, she couldn’t afford to adopt a wait-and-see attitude. “I’ve a feeling he’ll rise and come for me,” she said to Ivy. “My husband caused all this.” “This is no time for retrospection. You must run.” “I can’t outrun a spirit. He’ll overtake me before I reach the edge of the compound. You must help me.” She crossed to the double sofa and began dragging it to the door. Ivy and she piled furniture against the door. As they worked, they regularly climbed on top of the furniture to peer out at Emedhi. The scene outside remained unchanged. Matipa had a gut feeling they were in the eye of a cyclone; the second onslaught was yet to come. [34.201.122.150] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 18:21 GMT) 97 For about two hours, they endured in horrified bewilderment the grisly sight of axed bodies. She heard the growing wail of an ambulance siren. Then Mr Keneas appeared in his jeep, leading two marked police vans loaded with armed police officers in riot gear complete with shields, a wailing ambulance bringing the rear. The scene was reminiscent of an action movie. The vehicles pulled to a halt in the compound clearing, the...