Murder at Cape Three Points by Kwei Quartey Page B

responsible—that he had embezzled a few thousand from the STMA trust fund to build a new house on Beach Road, one of the posh areas in Takoradi. De Souza and Fiona had a strong rivalry.”
    “Do you think DeSouza could have killed her?”
    Abraham grunted. “I’ve never been inside the man’s mind, so I can’t say. He went on Skyy FM, one of our local stations, to deny the embezzlement allegations and blast Fiona and others for trying to destroy his reputation. He was obviously furious, but enough to kill? I don’t know.”
    They finished the meal and Dawson thanked Akosua for thewonderful cooking. She cleaned up in the kitchen before rejoining the men in the sitting room.
    “Akosua has her theory about what happened, and I have mine,” Abraham said.
    “Okay, Akosua,” Dawson said. “Let’s hear yours first.”
    “At the outset, only Charles was the target,” she said. “The killer knew Charles was going to be down at Cape Three Points that day, but he didn’t realize that Fiona was going to be with her husband. When this killer ambushed the vehicle, it took him by surprise that Fiona was there, and he had to kill both of them.”
    “You think one man handled two people and ultimately two dead bodies?” Dawson said. “He’d have had to get them into his vehicle, transport them, get them into the canoe, take them out to sea, and so on. That’s a lot, even for a strong man.”
    “Good point,” Akosua conceded. “Maybe two killers, then.”
    “I think they did know that both Charles and Fiona would be in the vehicle,” Abraham said. “Someone had a contract out on both of them.”
    “A professional job,” Dawson said.
    “Yes.”
    “Why both of them?”
    “Maybe a family rivalry.”
    “Interesting you say that,” Dawson said. “Are you aware there was a vendetta?”
    “I’ve heard that a generations-long enmity has existed between members of the Smith-Aidoo and Sarbah families.”
    Dawson was intrigued—Sapphire Smith-Aidoo had not mentioned that when she had been giving him her family history. “Where did you hear that?”
    “I don’t exactly recall,” Abraham replied, “but back in the 1950s, the Smith-Aidoos and Sarbahs were competing in the timber industry. Maybe there’s been bad blood to the present day.”
    “In other words,” Dawson said, a smile playing at his lips, “Jason Sarbah kills Charles and Fiona in a modern version of the generations-long feud between the two families? And then on top of that, Jason gets to replace Charles at Malgam? It seems too convenient. You’ve been watching too many movies.”
    They all laughed.
    “I’ve been wondering about how the murderer could get two bodies out to the deep sea,” Dawson said. “Do you know anything about fishing canoes, Abe?”
    “A little. I own a canoe myself.”
    “Oh,” Dawson said, surprised. “What do you use it for?”
    “About a year ago I began renting it out to fishermen who can’t buy their own canoes. They’re expensive, now that the price of wood keeps going up. I thought renting the canoe would bring in extra income, but it has been disappointing.”
    “In that case,” Dawson said, “let me ask you something—maybe you know the answer. The Malgam oil rig is about seventy kilometers offshore, right?”
    “Closer to sixty.”
    “Okay. Let’s leave aside where exactly the Smith-Aidoos were shot. How would this canoe with the dead bodies get out that far? Can a fishing canoe go out sixty kilometers?”
    “Oh, yes, easily.”
    “With an outboard motor, then? You couldn’t possibly row that far.”
    Abraham was amused. “City boy, you don’t row a canoe, you paddle it.”
    “Sorry. Paddle, then.”
    “Fishermen paddle out there all the time, Darko. Have you seen how strong these guys are? You are partly right, though, because in practice many fishermen split up the journey between paddle and outboard motor. Another alternative is use a sail.”
    “If someone wanted to steer the canoe to