Chapter 4
They had paired themselves in twos, Osi went with Ovie leaving Gregory and Bukky as a team.
The deacon was a lone ranger he said he'd rather be alone but Osi affirmed-rather firmly that he would be joined by pastor Bartholomew later in the day.
Evangelism wasn't show business.
The day was bright, the sun was on full blast and Osi took a deep breath as he bounced on his heels on the porch. He felt refreshed...recharged....energized..
"So we'll cover the market square..while you and Bukky would take the other direction, towards the stream" Ovie said to Gregory as Bukky handed them bunch of fliers and tracks to be shared to the villagers.
"I'd be going towards the market square too" the deacon announced.
Osi jumped in "That's a good idea, I think today should be the market day, there'd be more crowd"
He paused, a thoughtful look on his face.
"You know what...I'd rather Ovie and I took the other path and the three of you go straight to the market square, we would double back and join you there"
"That sounds fine with me" Gregory agreed
The deacon shrugged. For the first time he seemed to agree with Osi.
"....I accept you this day, amen"
"I accept you this day, Amen"
Osi opened his eyes and smiled at the young boy he had just prayed with.
"Congratulations friend, you're a new person!"
The young boy who was about 14 shook his hand excitedly and skipped off.
Osi watched him for some seconds then went in search of Ovie.
He saw him ahead talking to an elderly woman. He was speaking to her and she had an intense look on her face. He hoped it was a look of concentration not confusion because he knew Ovie's Igbo was not very good.
He couldn't see any other person to preach to at the moment and decided to find a shaded spot to relieve himself.
Suddenly all the cups of tea he had drank during breakfast didn't seem like such a good idea. He had been urinating like a pregnant lady!
He sighed as he went deeper into the woods, which was strange as the path was deserted and there was no one to shield from.
He closed his eyes as he struggled with his zipper, humming the tune of a hymn.
The zipper must have gotten hooked on the material because it wasn't moving freely.
He opened his eyes and looked down.
His eyes darted to the right, he saw something peculiar and focused back on his zipper but his eyes swung back again as the image registered in his mind.
He saw a hand, just a hand protruding from inside the bush.
He almost screamed like a girl, he actually jerked like a girl and would have screamed too but his voice was much too deep to pull of the kind of scream his shock warranted.
He turned away, hurrying out of the woods but then he stopped.
He was a pastor, he owed it to whoever lay dead in the bush to offer at least a prayer.
He had never seen a dead body before and even as he thought about the cause of death, he knew what had happened, she had been raped...raped and beaten to death.
'This is a crime scene....I have to be careful' He didn't know where the thought had come from but he studied the surroundings for the first time.
He thought the ground looked rough, he bent down and noticed some broken twigs and concluded a struggle and the deadly act had occurred here.
Slowly, keeping a lot of space between him and the body, he turned a semi circle till he could get a good view of the body.
He moved closer.
He was not prepared for what he saw....
He was horrified!
Her face..was no longer a face, it had been brutalised and pounded shapeless. He forced himself to study the face, wondering how he was able to stomach such a sight. He was seeing signs of blunt force trauma, some kind of object had to have been used, it couldn't be a fist...if not it would have to be a very large and strong...no, there waw no way a fist was responsible for this ungodly sight.
She was Unclad and he observed what he figured to he bite marks on her neck, breasts and...good Lord!
This was a crime of passion, a terrible crime of passion...an impossible crime. Whoever did this couldn't be human..
The killer had really lost himself this time.
Osi shivered as goosebumps spread all over his body.
He had seen enough!
He knew he would never forget this sight..
It would hunt his dreams.
He tuned away but looked back almost immediately, something had caught his eye
yet again.
He squatted down and picked up the material.
It was a piece of clothe, pink material. The colour looked faded and the material looked washed like it had seen better days.
It was obviously a second hand material.
He wondered if it was connected to the body or if it was there by coincidence but....it had been too close to the body.
Plus it looked like it had been torn off some kind of clothe roughly..
He shut his eyes and prayed for the deceased, prayed she would find peace and her family be comforted.
Closing his eyes was one of the most difficult things he had ever done. The sight had shaken him badly and he felt like he could open his eyes and the body won't be there or worse..the body would be standing looking at him.
He rounded up the prayer and opened his eyes slowly, the body remained behind the bush...it wasn't a dream.
He would have closed the eyes if he could find them. What kind of rage could cause this?
"Pastor Osi...Pastor...pastor where are you?"
He heard Ovie's voice and hurried out of the woods.
"Amara I don't have time...you buy the ingredients lemme just run to Mouka's shop so that she would finish my hair" Joy snapped rather rudely at her sister.
Amara nodded absentmindedly and her younger sister took off to get her cornrows braided.
Amara stood in front of a shop about to select a bowl of fresh pepper, she didnt notice the pepper was not fresh but was getting soft.
But she noticed a lot of other things..
She noticed Okudili from his spot under the tree as usual looking at her with a satisfied look on his face and this time the pig had his hand in his trouser.
She noticed the lady pastor and her colleague as they moved together opening bibles, sharing fliers and mixing with people.
She noticed pastor Osi was no where to be found...
And she noticed something that confused her and made her frown in thought:
Yesterday, at night Paul had asked Chinaza 'how is your father'
She had replied he was fine..
The question was how did Paul know about her father's ailment? His strange sickness had only started about 6 weeks ago and Paul had been away for almost 3 years...?
She shrugged, Oluchi must have told him about everyone in the village....
Suddenly she noticed some kind of commotion as De John emerged from the other end, he walked briskly with a pale look on his face.
The tall pastor followed behind, walking slowly with his fat friend.
They both looked like they had seen a ghost.
To be continued........
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