The Big Killing Read Free Page B

hand on one of his pappy breasts.
    He was dressed in the usual five square metres of face-slapping material. The blue and the white parakeets was off today. It was the red with green monkeys for Sunday. He snarled at Kwabena for a cigarette and took a handkerchief out and polished his face with it.
    We were sitting at a table in my corner of the bar, which had annoyed Fat Paul because he had his back to the door and I had an angled view out of it down the beach to the sea. It was just coming up to one o'clock but Fat Paul had lost his appetite, maybe because it was hotter than yesterday with no rainfall for the last couple of days, or maybe he didn't like his back unprotected. He only ordered four pineapple fritters.
    'It's not what you'd call a regular piece of business,' I said.
    'How so?'
    'One, the money. Two, the location for what you call "the drop". Three, the contents of the envelope. Four, the characters involved.'
    'Characters?' he asked.
    'Fat Paul, Silent George, Colossal Kwabena.'
    'Colossal?'
    'Very big.'
    'Is good word. I like it. Colossal,' he said, trying it out for size. Then he changed, getting aggressive. 'Whass wrong these people?'
    'What do George and Kwabena do?'
    'They my bodyguards.'
    'That's my point,' I said. 'Why do you need your body guarded?'
    'I'm not so quick on my feet.'
    'Why do you need to be quick?'
    'I make money.'
    'Doing what?'
    'Videos.'
    'You got an office?'
    He handed me a card which gave the company name as Abracadabra Video, Adabraka and an address on Kojo Thompson Road in Accra, Ghana. The company ran video cinemas. They specialized in showing action movies, mainly kickboxer, to local neighbourhoods. It was a lucrative business, there was a high cash turnover and hardly any overheads. A lot of people were interested in taking over the business but not paying for it. Kwabena provided the muscle to persuade them otherwise and if he couldn't cope George leaned in with the old metal dog leg and people quietened down, talked sensible, played cards and drank beer as if nothing had been further from their mind.
    'You look like shit,' said Fat Paul, irritated now and trying another strategy. Trying to get tough with a line I hadn't heard before.
    'My mother loves me,' I said without looking up. 'You got no money,' he said. 'No money to chop.'
    'How do you know, Fat Paul?'
    'You let me buy you chop.'
    'You have to pay for what you want. Lunch lets you sit at the same table.'
    'You not workin' for you'self.'
    'How do you know that too, Fat Paul?'
    'No self-respect,' he said.
    'I suppose you think you know me pretty well?'
    'I know shit when I see it.'
    'I've got a good eye for it myself,' I said, looking at his brow which was swollen as if recently punched. Beneath it his eye sockets had no contour and his piggy peepers looked black and aware. Sweat ran down his cheeks as if he was crying. He didn't look as if anything could hurt him unless you tried to take away his plate.
    'You just give the man the package...' intoned Fat Paul. I held up my hand.
    'Thanks, I've got it. Listen...'
    'No, no,' he said. 'You listen. First I show you where you mek the drop, out Abidjan west side, down by the lagoon Ebrié in pineapple plantation. You go there in the afternoon. The man he comin' from the north, he comin' late, he only get there after dark. You check the place, mekkin' sure you comfortable. Then go down Tiegba side fifteen-minute drive, nice bar, you waitin' there, the other man come. Relax some, drink beer, look at the lagoon. They's a village there on legs, ver' nice, the tourists like't ver' much. Then the time come. You ver' smooth now widde beer and the pretty place an' you gettin' in you car an mek the drop. 'S very easy thing, you know.' He sat back and put a hand up to his face and dipped the little finger in the corner of his mouth.
    'Most nights,' I said, 'my motor reflexes put on a good show. I wake up in the mornings alive even if I don't feel it. Then, if I haven't been kissing the