Hammond shook his head. “Seidu was supposed to be there, but they gave him the wrong time and performed the autopsy in his absence. I was quite annoyed.”
“Do you have any contact number for Dr. Cudjoe?” Dawson asked.
“Yes. I’ll text it to you.”
“Thank you very much, sir.”
***
OUTSIDE, AS SOON as they were out of earshot, Chikata looked at Dawson in astonishment. “What is the man’s problem?”
Dawson shrugged. “Insecurity? I don’t know, but if he’s more concerned about hurting people’s feelings than he is about finding out who killed the Smith-Aidoos, there’s nothing I can do about that. Honestly, I don’t care anymore. I didn’t come here to make nice.”
“Do you want me to call my uncle about him?” Chikata asked, as they got back into Baah’s taxi.
Dawson shook his head. “No, it’s not worth it.” It was a consideration, but he didn’t want Chikata to put himself in an awkward position between Hammond and Lartey. “In any case, he might just call your uncle anyway, to complain about me.”
“Massa,” Chikata said, laughing, “I thought Superintendent Hammond was about to have a stroke when you pulled DeSouza down from his pedestal.”
“What I said was true,” Dawson asserted. “DeSouza had no reason to react so negatively to me-unless he’s the murderer, of course. In that case he has good reason.”
That remark set off another round of laughter for Chikata, with which Dawson eventually joined. Meanwhile, he saw he had just received Hammond’s text with Dr. Cudjoe’s number. He tried the number twice without success.
“Where now, sir?” Baah asked.
“Let’s go to the Effia-Nkwanta Hospital Mortuary to look for Dr. Cudjoe.” He turned in his seat to address Chikata. “Hammond wasn’t telling the truth about Smith-Aidoo’s phone. Either he didn’t take it to Vodafone at all, or the Lawrence Tetteh in the address book is really the Goilco CEO.”
“How do you know?” Chikata challenged. “Is it your juju hand again?”
He was one of the few who knew about Dawson’s synesthesia and had always referred to it as his “juju hand,” half seriously and half in jest.
“That’s right,” Dawson said.
“It’s as though the superintendent doesn’t want us to succeed,” Chikata said. “Why is he trying to hinder us, or is he protecting someone?”
“It could be both.”
***
TWENTY MINUTES LATER, they pulled into the uphill driveway of the hospital, and Baah parked to the side. Dawson and Chikata went into the waiting area where patients were sitting or lining up at the information booth. A sign pointed to the HIV Voluntary Testing Clinic, but there was no signage for the mortuary. After asking two people in succession, they were directed up a long flight of steps and across the road. The mortuary was in a dismal grey building with odd, inverted U-structures on its roof.
