The Hunt For A Ghost.

I stalked the bartender at Ralphs for two weeks, learning his routines. The man was named Taiye Mark. He left his home in Kings Avenue by seven, took his kids, a boy and a girl to school on Oosha street. He sometimes checked up on his girlfriend on Westview street, he stayed there for at least an hour and then by ten in the morning he would have been at the bar opening up. People in the city starts to drink as early as possible which is understandable. When you have a city filled with hopeless poor people who work their asses off and get nothing for it, the result is that you have a lot of irresponsible drunks around. People started coming to the bar immediately Mark opened its doors, so I wouldn't have had much time to interrogate him in the bar before we would have been interrupted. I decided to wait for him after closing hours around twelve a.m. in the morning. The parking lot was the best place to have a conversation with him, once he got into his car. Mark was a runner, and I wanted to avoid chasing the man around the block, it would be unnecessarily stressful, and I was not yet fully recovered. 

I found his car in the parking lot, that part was easy. I had watched him drive the Toyota Corolla around for two weeks. I hid beside the vehicle and waited for him to show up. As usual he was a bit drunk, and had to fiddle with the car door for a while before getting it opened. I emerged from my hiding place immediately he got the doors opened, he turned back, saw me, and instantly pulled a pistol from behind his jean trousers. I rushed at him, grabbing the weapon from him and hit the base across his face. He fell to the ground, holding his nose, which was broken and streaming blood. I grabbed him by his jacket, threw him into the car and entered into the driver's side.

"Never drive while you're drunk, Mark. Why can't you listen to simple instructions," I said to him as I removed the hood of my sweater that was covering my entire face. He must have thought I was a mugger at first, he looked confused, but when he saw my face, the expression on his face was pure terror.

"I take it you still remember me then." I whispered to him as I ignited the car and started to drive. 

I could see the terror on his face as he trembled throughout the drive back to Kings Avenue. I stopped the vehicle right in front of his house and he suddenly made an effort to scream. I grabbed him by the neck and smashed his head against the dashboard, he let out a cry and then I quickly gagged him with a rag I had earlier intended for the purpose. 

"I talk, and you listen very carefully," I began to talk. "I know how you must feel right now, Taiye. Your whole world seems to be exploding right now. Your wife Mary, your son Emmanuel and your little girl Marianne is in danger. And you are right because, if you don't tell me the things I need to know, I will take you into that house, kill them all while you watch and there isn't a thing you're gonna be able to do about it."

He cried like a little kid, tears streaming from his eyes, and the sound of his muffled voice almost made me stop... Almost. He had the expression of a defeated man on his face, he knew he was helpless and that he was at my mercy, just like I wanted him to feel.

"You can stop this right now. All you have to do is tell me where I can find the man named James Nwosu, and I will walk away, leaving you and your family alone. I know he works for N.O.V.A. but, how he was connected with your boss is what I don't know," I said.

Torture, you see isn't really about inflicting physical pain, or even psychological anguish. It is mostly about instilling the fear of pain in a person, the fear of what would happen if they choose not to cooperate. Although Taiye was already terrified of other people, and what they would do to him if he talked to me, just like his boss. He probably was even scared of them than he was of me, but I assured him of what I was willing to do to get answers right at that moment.

I slowly removed the gag from his mouth and the first thing he whispered was, " they will kill me and my family if I tell you anything."

"What do you think I am going to do right now, hun?" I replied.

He thought for a moment, crying as tears poured from his eyes and snort from his nose. Then he started to talk.

"The man you're looking for is known as the ghost. You don't find him, he finds you. Even N.O.V.A. can't really tell where he is most of the time. My boss was just the middle man, he supplied the man with location, vehicle and weapons and got paid shitload of money for it.

I warned him, my boss. I told him the money was too much for the job but the greedy bastard wouldn't listen."

"N.O.V.A. approached your boss directly?" I asked.

"Yes, twice. They were desperate. I heard whispers that they wanted a very important and wealthy fellow in the city gone, so I wasn't surprised when your old man ended up dead. The second time, it was when your daddy's funeral got shot up."

"Okay, Taiye, you're doing great. I'm gonna need you to tell me the person that contacted your boss from N.O.V.A. though."

"Come on, man! You said you only wanted Nwosu. Those N.O.V.A. guys are pure evil men. They'll find me, man. They'll find me," he protested.

"I guess there are consequences for our actions after all. You're doing great Taiye."

"Okay... My boss was approached by this skinny, bald guy in suit. I might have heard him call him Mr. Fox," he shrugged.

"Now where can I find Nwosu," I asked.

"I already told you, I don't know, man. Seriously, I really don't know."

"Okay, Taiye." You can go now, I whispered to him.

"You're being serious?"he asked asked as he immediately opened the door and started running into the house.

I drove the car away from the house and continued driving for a while. After putting some distance between me and the house, I circled back just at the edge of the street, and made a reentry from the other side. I heard two gunshots as I was parking the car in front of the house and immediately rushed into the building. Taiye laid in a pool of his own blood with two bullet holes in the head and John Nwosu standing on top of him. The kids and his wife were tied up in a corner of the room.

Nwosu pointed his suppressed Berretta M9A3 at me and I quickly jumped back the door. He ran out the back entrance of the building, trying to escape the scene. When I rushed back into the room, I quickly checked Taiye's wife and kids before I chased after Nwosu. As I chased him through the street, the guilt of Taiye's death weighed on me. I had just caused a man's death. His wife widowed, and his children orphaned and scarred for life for having to see their father murdered right in front of them.