The Dawuni Files - A White Shadow

Chapter Two

Dawuni sat at the back of the chaffeur driven V-8 feeling very confused. This morning, he had been called into the office of the DCOP. After telling him that someone of great importance needed his help on a matter of urgency , he was whisked into the car and driven off.

They were now moving on the Accra-Nsawam road, heading out of town.

"Where are we going?" Dawuni asked the driver for the umpteenth time but a grunt was his only reply.

Dawuni settled back into his seat and looked out of the window thoughtfully. Who would require his help to the extent that the DCOP had to call him? Maybe, it was one of the ministers or the MPs. But then again, they had the entire police force at thier disposal. The fact that he was the only one, seemed to suggest that whoever it was, wanted his or her problem to be secret.

The squel of tires on tarmac brought him out of his reverie. They had stopped at a roadside restaurant.

"We'll take a break here", the driver said as he stepped out of the car. Dawuni followed him and they entered the restaurant.

It wasn't really crowded, just a family of five with a crying baby, a couple and a few other people. After getting a table, the waitress, a beautiful young woman who appeared to be in her mid-twenties approached them with a smile to take thier orders.

"Good afternoon, sirs, what would you like?" She asked, her pen already poised on the notepad.

"What do you have?" The driver asked as his eyes roamed up and down the woman's body.

"We have fufu and light soup, jollof rice, plain rice and stew, banku, fried plaintain, kenkey and tou zaafi".

"I'll have the jollof rice", the driver said and turned to Dawuni. "What about you?"

"I'll just have pinneapple juice and a meat pie", Dawuni replied, feeling too annoyed to eat anything heavy.

"Are you sure?" The driver's brow crinkled." We still have some time before we get to where we're going".

"I'm sure", Dawuni stated, even more annoyed by his show of concern. The waitress left to get thier orders.

"You shouldn't be doing that", Dawuni told the driver.

"Doing what?" He asked , eyebrows raised.

"Checking out girls when you are married".

"And who told you that I'm married?"

"The ring mark on your left ring finger, the tattoo on your neck which says Mike & Stacy foverer and the photograph of a woman and a child in your wallet. I glimpsed it when you opened your wallet to pay for our orders".

The driver merely shrugged and turned his attention to his phone. A few minutes later, thier food was brought. After they had eaten - well after the driver had eaten, because Dawuni just took a few bites out of his pie and gulped his juice. The driver's reaction to his admonition had just served to make him more annoyed - they continued thier trip.

An hour later, they arrived at thier destination. It was an impressive walled mansion. The walls were painted white and gold. Green grass carpeted every available space around the building with different flowers filling the flower beds. Dawuni spotted security cameras and a dozen guards scattered across the front yard of the building.

The driver answered a few questions and presented his security pass. They were searched and Dawuni escorted by two of the guards into the building. They went up two flights of stairs, turned down two hallways and stopped in front of a door.

He was searched again and ushered into what appeared to be an office. He was told to sit down and wait. Dawuni surveyed the room and marveled at how it was designed. The office had a large mahogany desk and ornately carved bookshelves with large volumes of books lined the walls. The floor was covered with imported tiles from China. A guard stood at door and looked at him through narrowed eyes.

Three couches stood at the right side of the room with a glass table in thier middle. Paintings hung on the walls depicting Ghanaian culture but it was one of them that caught Dawuni's attention. It was a large painting about 36 inches by 52 inches and it showed a chief replesdent in a smock sitting together with his council and subjects.

Dawuni immediately recognized the style of Attia Nabia, a renowed Ghanaian artist. The painting was among some his works which had been exhibited and auctioned during the Pan African Art Festival (PAAF) week at the Blay Muesum for Culture and Art, in Accra. A lot of dignitaries were  present at the high class function which was strictly by invitation. Luckily, one of Dawuni's many friends who was the organizer of the event had given him an invitation.

With shock, Dawuni remembered that  it was the president who had bought the painting at a jaw dropping amount of half a million cedis. At that moment the door opened and Dawuni turned to find himself face to face with President Alfred Nii McCarthy.