Another Last Chance

by Tristan Walker

  “So what you want to do with him?” one of the policemen said. He didn’t hear what the other man replied. Kevin slowly placed his hands behind his head and interlocked his fingers. The pain was the only thing that eased.

  They were both behind him now and he heard a firearm cock. A line of tears rolled down his cheeks.

  “Please, officer,” he sobbed. “Please. My girl pregnant…” Neither one of them answered him.

  “Hmm, boy. I really dunno,” one of the policemen said. “He don’t know anything and he done get a beating already. Killing him wouldn’t make much sense…”

  “Well, you have ah point there,” said the second police officer. “And we go have to bury the body.”

  “Well, burying him is not the hard part. I just find it wouldn’t make sense taking the trouble to kill this ass. He look like he could do anything?”

  “Heh. When we expecting them, though?”

  “Monday.”

  “So two days.”

  “Yeah, only two fucking days.”

  “And what about Samantha?”

  “She somewhere inside.”

  “Well, it look like she have a patient to take care of.”

  “You sure you want to give she that stress?”

  “Not really, but I killing too much people on this duty, I really didn’t come here for that. I could let this one slide. He wouldn’t open he mouth about anything, anyway.”

  “Okay, fair is fair. Is your choice, so if you sure that is what you want to do, I don’t have no problem with that.” A few seconds passed and then Kevin heard the gun uncock and they were walking back to him. The second policeman came back to stand in front of him. Kevin had already made up his mind not to look them in their faces until they said he could go. The other officer stopped as though he was still thinking about what to do.

  “Okay, get up.” Kevin was shocked. He looked at them before attempting to stand up. His knees didn’t work like they usually would.

  “Listen, we was going to kill you, but I decide to let you live to see another day. Count yuh blessings,” he said and looked at the other officer who was laughing.

  “What you laughing about?” They were both smiling now.

  “Let we cut it out now before the young man get a heart attack,” he replied.

  “Hmm…” He shook his head. “And I was now getting warmed up.”

  “Yeah, ah know. But, protect and serve with pride, right!”

  “Yeah.” He sucked his teeth and took a deep breath. “Unfortunately…”

  “Let we go inside.”

  They walked at Kevin’s pace and explained that things could get boring and they were only having fun. They apologized a couple times before explaining what they were doing.

  The second officer, who was shorter and light-skinned, did most of the talking. He explained that they were part of the Narcotics unit and was monitoring the forested areas with the help of military personnel.

  Afterwards, they helped him inside and led him pass the metal tables and went upstairs and told him to sit on the couch.

  They went into another room and closed the door. Kevin looked around.

  Straight ahead there was a large television and a dinner table with four straight-backed chairs. The flooring upstairs was wood and there was a rug on the ground and two more sofas. That was all the furniture in the room.

  There were two open windows on the wall behind him and he could see the trees and the blue cloudless sky. The cool breeze came in momentarily. It felt very relaxing.

  There were three closed doors on the eastern side of the room. The door where they’d entered at the top of the stairs remained open and that would be the fourth door upstairs.

  Kevin rested his head and feet on the armrests and stared up to the galvanized roof while he waited for them to come out of the room. Once again his ability to focus felt restricted due to his aches and pains but somehow he managed to drift away.

  “Marvin? Marvin, wake up!”

  Kevin opened his eyes and lifted his head and saw both officers standing there in the company of a female officer. She was a round-faced woman, about forty years old, somewhat overweight but with strong-looking arms. She was shorter than both of them and was wearing a navy blue police T-shirt and a black track pants. She began to visually examine him.

  “Marvin, my name is Samantha. How you feeling?” His name took a while to register. He tried to sit up but she signaled him to stay put. She took a moment to observe his cuts and bruises, and then sat next to him.

  “How you feeling?” she asked again

  “N-not too bad,” he said.

  “Okay, good. I going to clean you up ah little, right?”

  He nodded.

  She physically examined him as gently as possible.

  There was a silver basin filled with water on a coffee table next to them. A table that wasn’t there when he had fallen asleep.

  Both officers had vanished when she started to squeeze the cloth and brought it to his face. He flinched at first, but the pain quickly became numb to her gentle touch.

  While cleaning him up Samantha asked Kevin some questions about how he had come there. It was easy to speak to her, so he found it natural to stick to his story of a camping trip gone sour.

  At one point she had gotten emotional and stopped what she was doing to express her empathy. She then offered advice on how he should go about dealing with the situation. Kevin played along by asking several questions based on her advice.

  When she was finished, she remained sitting there for a while longer. She told him that the dark-skinned officer was PC Puntin, and the light-skinned one was Corporal Richards. He told her of their approach and she said she was disappointed by their actions, though she promised to keep whatever he’d mentioned to her between them.

  Samantha described their assignments, which were the same as mentioned by both Corporal Richards and Puntin. Kevin hesitated before asking about the metal tables, and she said they used them to take photos of the drugs before destroying them.

  She got up and went into one of the rooms and returned with a change of clothes. Throughout their entire conversation he had been feeling dirty and ashamed of his appearance, so he was glad for the chance to freshen up. He went to sleep and, when he awoke, it was dark and frogs were singing their high chorus outside.

  The night was long and cold. Kevin ate with Samantha and the other two officers at the table in silence and was then led back into the room where he had gotten dressed. There was an air bed on the floor and a makeshift rack on one of the walls with a few hangers. The only window within the room was difficult to close, so the temperature took some time to get used to.

  Being in a strange environment made it difficult for him to fall asleep, while mosquitoes buzzed around the room and the night animals of the forest could be heard more loudly than he, an urban boy, had expected.

  The morning came suddenly and, when he went out, he found that his three guardians—or jailers—seemed tense, hardly talking at all, even among themselves. Kevin was allowed to eat on the couch this time.

  Samantha came after breakfast and informed him that he would be getting a ride to the village during the early part of the afternoon.

  He asked for a phone to call his family to tell them, that he was okay; she hesitated, then took out her mobile phone. But the call kept dropping.

  “Reception not too good here. You will need to walk around till you get a signal,” Samantha said. “You could try by them trees over there.” She pointed. “That is where I does normally go.”

  Kevin nodded and went outside. That was the first time he had left the building since they had caught him.

  He walked to the trees where she’d indicated the reception would be at its strongest. He dialed Shantel’s number.

  “Hello?” her voice sounded worried. He didn’t answer at once as he noticed Corporal Richards was at the window upstairs, looking down at him. Kevin turned his back to him.


  “Hello?” she said again, it was clear that she was already in her panic mode.

  “Shantel?”

  He heard a breath of relief coming from her end.

  “Kevin… Babe, you alright?”

  “Yeah, yeah babe, I okay.”

  She blew out a few short breaths as she started crying on the phone.

  “Babe?”

  She didn’t answer.

  “Baby?” he said again.

  “Ye-ah…”

  “What happen?”

  “What you mean what happen? Why you don’t like to listen to me? I did tell you to stay home, now look what happen.”

  Kevin was confused. What had she heard?

  “What! What you talking about?”

  “What you mean? I talking about the shooting, Kevin. Marcus dead and all of ah sudden you gone missing.”

  Kevin’s heart was racing and he was forced to take some deep breaths. He wasn’t sure if he’d heard right.

  “What yuh mean, Marcus dead?”

  “Kevin, is either you still not listening to me, or you playing. Now is not the time for that.”

  He was still in shock.

  “Kevin… Kevin you there?”

  “Yeah Shantel, I right here.”

  “What, you didn’t know?”

  “No…”

  “Yeah, but it all over the news. Where you is now?”

  He turned around. The corporal was gone. He couldn’t see him anywhere. Kevin kept his eyes to the house just in case any of them decided to come out to get him.

  “I don’t know,” he said.

  “What, what you mean you don’t know?”

  “Is a long story.” He shook his head. “I will explain everything when I see you.”

  “Okay…” Her voice was calm but the pain was still there. “When you coming home?”

  “Tonight,” he said, without being certain that it would be so. But he wanted to ease her mind. “Babe?”

  “Yeah,” she answered.

  “What they say on the news?”

  “What? Concerning last night?”

  “Yeah, I wasn’t close to a tv or radio.”

  “Well, the last thing I hear was, two people dead. Marcus, and some other person by the name of Timothy, I can’t remember his last name, is either Jones or James or something like that. And Steve and another person in hospital, in critical condition.”

  Kevin took another deep breath. He remembered Biggs mentioning the names John and tall man, maybe John was the name Shantel couldn’t remember. Putting four of them aside, it meant that there was a possibility that Sean and Wendell hadn’t been harmed.

  At that moment he noticed both Samantha and Puntin as they walked pass one on the windows upstairs, heading in the direction of the bedrooms.

  “How you feeling?”

  “Well,” She breathed into the phone. “You had me worried, but I feeling better now.”

  “Okay, good to know that. And how we baby doing?” He kept his eyes on the window but they hadn’t come out yet.

  “She good, she kicking plenty. I feel she missing she daddy.”

  He smiled. “Okay, don’t worry. I will see both of you soon.”

  “Yeah, next three months you mean,” she laughed. She was speaking about the baby. He smiled. He was glad that her mood had changed for the better.

  “Yeah,” he said in a soft voice. Last night replayed in his mind again. He remembered Shantel pleading with him to stay home and keep them company. He regretted that he hadn’t listened.

  “Well, babe, I will see you tonight, okay.”

  “Hmm, you gone already?”

  “Yeah, I have to go. Is somebody phone I using.”

  “Okay, tonight then.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Love you, so much.”

  “I love you too, babe.” He hung up and, immediately, cleared her number from the phone.

  CHAPTER THREE

  When Kevin went back into the building, he made sure to look around carefully.

  There were cameras in every corner of the first room, and the adjoining room. His mood changed. He quietly walked up the wooden stairs.

  This upstairs room had two cameras, facing the bedrooms. He sat down on the couch, thinking.

  Kevin knew that since there were cameras it meant that there should be a screen where they could be monitored. He looked at the large television but there wasn’t any device around it. But, why would they even need cameras to monitor what goes on in the storage room and especially upstairs where they are staying? The door opened and he turned and saw them coming out of the other room. He tried his best to remain calm.

  Samantha said, “Marvin…? You okay? I didn’t hear when you come back inside.”

  “Yeah, I now come up.” The guys were watching him curiously, but they didn’t say anything. “You got through with the call?”

  “Oh, yeah, thanks.” He handed the phone back to her.

  “No problem,” she said and started walking away and then stopped a few feet from where she was and turned back to him.

  “Oh, I almost forget.” Kevin lifted his head, giving her his attention again. “Corporal Richards will take you back to the village in a short while, okay?”

  “Yeah, no problem.” He tried to act as if it was really no problem. But because of the way they had acted when they had found him in the truck, he felt uncomfortable. If it was up to him, he’d rather volunteer to take himself, even if it meant walking through the forest.

  They left to go downstairs to attend to the vehicles. After a few moments, Kevin got up and peered cautiously through the window. All three of them were outside. Quickly, he went into the other rooms—he wanted to find the monitor where the surveillance footage could be viewed.

  After sneaking into the two other rooms and becoming satisfied that there wasn’t any form of surveillance equipment there, he came back to the television in the main room to do a physical check.

  It was just as he’d suspected. There was a processor unit, bolted onto the wall, hidden nicely behind the tv.

  He went to the window and looked out again, making sure they were all out there before switching on the tv and the processor.

  Twelve blocks of camera screens came up. He could see the iron tables of both rooms from four different angles, two cameras showed the bedroom doors and two focused on the outside of the building. On one of those cameras he could see Samantha and Puntin standing next to one of the police vehicles while the corporal searched through the trunk.

  Kevin observed all the buttons and then pressed the playback button. He pushed the button a couple times to rewind the footage at its fastest speed, hoping that some activities would come up soon.

  Finally, he began to see police officers and persons in casual wear. He slowed it down and, when he was satisfied that something was taking place, he sped it up again.

  There were garbage bags and money and officers in khaki suits, leaving and entering on several occasions. Kevin didn’t stop there. There were packages on the iron tables that were wrapped in plastic and the further he had gone back he saw both the men and women stripped naked. They were all wearing dust masks and were being guarded by officers in uniform with big guns.

  Kevin jumped when he saw one of the naked men get shot once in the head and fall to the ground in front of everyone. Shockingly, they all continued working as if nothing had happened.

  Kevin stopped and made checks outside the window again. The three of them were still there. The bonnet of the police vehicle was open and they were all standing around it. He examined the device and then pushed a button that ejected the memory card.

  Getting it out was easier than he thought. He switched off the equipment and went back to the couch. At that moment his hands were beginning to sweat and couldn’t stop shaking. He stuck the memory card in his pants pocket and lay down, hoping that he would stay awake.

  His eyes opened when he heard footsteps coming up the stairs. He had almost fall
en asleep, but he was thankful that he didn’t allow himself to.

  “You ready?” the corporal said, after realizing that he was awake. Kevin sat up and pretended to be stretching like the way he would after a relaxing nap.

  “Yeah,” he answered.

  Puntin and Samantha were both standing behind the corporal looking on.

  “Organize yuh clothes,” the corporal said. “It wouldn’t make any sense leaving them here.” His eyes went to the time on his watch.

  “Is four twenty-five. We leaving in the next half-an-hour.”

  Kevin went into the room where he’d slept and retrieved his clothes that was already bagged. When he returned everyone was downstairs again. He relaxed for an extra fifteen minutes before he started to make his way down the stairs.

  “So that is what he tell you to do?” Kevin heard Samantha ask the corporal. He stopped where he was and began to listen.

  “Yeah,” the corporal answered.

  “Hmm, well, better you than me,” Puntin said.

  “Yeah, but you tell him the fella don’t know anything?”

  “Yeah, but he say we can’t be too sure and we can’t afford to take that kind of risk.”

  “So, what you going to do?” she continued.

  He laughed as if he was annoyed by her question.

  “What the fuck you think ah going to do? Is either him or me. I don’t know about him but I have a family to go home to.”

  “Well, I find he was kind of cool,” she said, “but if that is what you have to do, don’t waste the gas.”

  “Yeah, leave it there,” Puntin said. “I’ll organize and full the two vehicles sometime later.”

  Kevin felt as if he could faint. He could almost hear his heart pounding against his chest and he felt as if his body was becoming numb. He covered his mouth and slowed his breathing while trying not to panic. He looked up to the door and realized that he was already more than half way down the stairs. He had no idea whether he should run back up, or run pass them and through the door. Either way, he needed to get to the vehicle outside.

  “Well, do yuh thing boss,” he heard Puntin say. “Here, you could use my gun.”