Two Hangmen, One Scaffold Book II: In The Hangman�s Shadow

Chapter 23

223 C Chapter 23 emegio’s body lay unclaimed in a mortuary. In the compound twelve people including an entire family of the Tembos, except for one escapee, were dead. Gogo Belemina and Madzibaba Tinashe were dead. Bomani Kumanda kidnapped Peza, all because of him. Binga Jochoma couldn’t comprehend it as he sat on the edge of the bed, the dismissal letter in his hand. How had he wronged the gods and the spirits to invite a disaster like Bomani Kumanda into his life? On 31 December, when an alleged prophecy was given that a demon would come looking for him, it never occurred to him the prophet meant Bomani. Binga tried hard to find an amicable solution besides fleeing the mine with his wife. None came to his mind. Confronting Bomani was suicidal. The man had sent many people to premature graves. Binga wasn’t foolish enough to walk into the open jaws of a proven monster. For the umpteenth time, he read the first line of the dismissal letter: This letter serves to inform you that the management has dismissed you with immediate effect from the employ of Sakis Mine... Just then he heard approaching footsteps and stopped reading. He suspected the advent of one of two people, a leading member of the paramilitary police or Bomani. The army details could’ve been observing the compound from vintage points around the mine. Binga had taken precaution by remaining indoors and never venturing out. When the need arose, he endured the indecency of relieving himself in a bucket, which his grumbling wife took to a communal toilet and emptied. Perhaps the soldiers had figured from the bucket Matipa carried to the toilet that he was home. If it wasn’t a soldier then it had R 224 to be Bomani. The brute had said he would return. The mean killer was a man who kept his word. Binga dashed into the lounge-cum-kitchen and peered outside through cracks in the door in time to see Matipa stepping onto the threshold. She was coming from the offices where she had gone to call her brother. He thought she would take long at the offices. Binga had failed to find enough words to stress it to Matipa her brother’s intervention would be unintentionally sacrificial. He couldn’t envisage how a crocodile catcher and killer could overpower a mystic man of juju. If ever Jasper came and he happened to confront the killer, Bomani would kill his brother-in-law, no doubt. He unlatched the door as she turned its handle. She entered and stared at him. “You’re scared stiff,” she said scornfully. “We must leave this place while we still can.” “I told you I won’t leave without my son. If you now think he’s dead, let’s perform a symbolic burial. I can’t bear perpetual mourning.” “A symbolic grave won’t bring him back to life if he’s dead.” “Are you now of the opinion that Bomani killed him?” “No, Matipa. I’m saying we must run.” “Then run. What’s stopping you?” “I can’t leave you behind. I’m trying to avoid a double tragedy.” He fished a wad of money in fifty-dollar banknotes from his pocket. “That’s four hundred and fifty dollars. This money can put distance between our enemy and us. It can put a roof over our heads for two or three months in any high-density area.” She dipped a hand into the cup of her brassiere and drew a hundred dollar banknote and three twenty-dollar bills, which she held in his face. “I still have some of the money you gave Ivy to pass on to me. If I wanted to run, I could’ve done so on my own. If I must run, I’ll run in my own direction because I don’t know you. You’ve hidden many things from me. I’ve suffered for your sake.” 225 “In the right season you shall know the truth, Matipa.” “Who’re you? Tell me about Nomathemba and your daughters. Tell me about Gillian.” “That’s not pertinent. We must run.” She looked at the money in his hand. “How do you make your money, if I may ask?” He shook his head. “Tell me. At least it gives us a starting point.” He couldn’t tell her about...