Delayed Diagnosis {Book 1 of the Rex Obasi Trilogy}

Chapter 18

I heard the knock two minutes after 11.

After locking up Jumbo and Mathias who were both unconscious, I pocketed the key and had been pacing outside nervously.
The Chief was inside but I didn't see any other light come on in the house. The man obviously preferred the dark.

When I heard the knock, I hurried to the gate praying it was Fome on the other side of the gate.

"Who is there?"

"Who are you expecting? Mathias, open this door joor"
It was Fome's voice.

I swung the gate open happily and saw the all too familiar nuzzle of a gun aimed at me.

"Fome wait a-"

For a minute I thought I was dead. I was horizontal, my body was stiff and my brain seemed to black out. The shock was too painful to contemplate and I could only taste copper on my tongue.

For a brief second I thought she had shot me but then she bent to retrieve the two wire points she had shot into my chest.

A stun gun! It had to be. I tried calling her name but my lips wouldn't open.

"Who else is here?” She asked roughly gripping me by the collar.
She was unrecognizable. Her eyes had a killer glint in them and her voice was cold and harsh and she brought the stun gun frighteningly close to my eyes.
This person was supposed to be my wife!

My brain was getting unscrambled but I still couldn't catch my voice.

She dragged me up by my collar and I feared she planned to smash my head to the floor.
Karma had probably caught up with me for Jumbo's sake.

The thought was enough to get my joints moving.
I lifted my hands which were numb and my voice found itself although it sounded more like a frogs croak. "Itsme....itsme..."

"Rex!" Her voice dripped disbelief and shock.

She helped me to a sitting position so she could lock the gate.

"My God, what are you doing here? This is too dangerous..you don't understand."

That got me angry but I could only try to regain my voice fully. "Someone is coming……to kill you...any moment from now…"

The chief stepped out from the compound "what is going on there. Mathias!" He hurried down the steps.

Fome helped me and I got groggily to my feet.

"Who was knocking, Fofo is that you?"

For a second I thought she was going to use the stun gun on Chief. I was fully behind her although I had become weary of her. My heart still hadn't settled from the jolting of electricity.

However she smiled “Big Chief, it is I o"

They then exchanged words in an urhobo dialect and the chief gestured to the house.

As she went with him he turned to me "what are you looking at?"

"Sorry sah"
I retreated to the gate house thinking l had to do something now. I had to get the gun.

The chief had held Fome's hand and they stood talking.

Something wasn't right. The Chief had looked at me strangely just now or was it my imagination? Electrical currents were still swimming round my brain and making me imagine things. Even my hands were shaking as I fumbled with the key.

Then I heard the knock again.

I looked back and both the chief and Fome had stopped talking.
"Mathias, open the gate" the Chief instructed.