DEADLY BREAKUP
Andre’ Mwansa 2017
Zax Phiri had a shack on the west side of his father’s gone to seed ranch, and that was where he was when Sheriff Kelvin and half a dozen deputized townsmen found him, sitting in the one chair by the cold stove, wearing a dirty barn coat and reading an old issue of the Post newspaper. Looking at it, anyway.
Sheriff Kelvin stood in the doorway, almost filling it up. He was holding his own lantern. ‘’Come out of there, Zax, and do it with your hands up. I ain’t drawn my pistol and don’t want to’’
Zax came out. He still had the newspaper in one of his raised hands. He stood there looking at the sheriff with his flat brown eyes. The sheriff looked back. So did the others.
‘’I notice you didn’t ask why we’re here’’ Sheriff Kelvin said.
‘’Why are you here, sheriff?’’
‘’Where is your other shoe, Zax?’’
Zax looked down at his feet, to find himself with only one shoe on.
‘’In your place is it?’’ Sheriff Kelvin asked.
‘’No,’’ Zax said ‘’I don’t believe it is’’
‘’Then where?”
‘’I might have lost it’’
Sheriff Kelvin sighed. ‘’All right, let’s go to the station’’
‘’Why?’’
‘’Because you’re arrested’’
They went to the station. It was only a couple of minutes, without turning around, the man that was driving said. ‘’Did you rape her as well as steal her diamond ring, you hound?’’
‘’ I don’t know what you’re talking about’’ Zax said.
The rest of the trip was silent.
At the station, Sheriff Kelvin helped Zax out of the vehicle.
‘’Hang that girlfriend killer!’’ a man shouted, and someone threw a rock. It flew past Zax’s head and clattered on the board sidewalk.
Sheriff Kelvin turned and held up his lantern and surveyed the crowd that had gathered in front of the stations entrance. ‘’Don’t do that,’’ he said ‘’don’t act foolish. This is in hand’’
The sheriff took Zax through his office, holding him by his upper arm, and into the jail. There were five cells. Kelvin led Zax into one. There was a bunk and a stool and a toilet. Zax made to sit down on the stool when Kelvin said. ‘’No, Just stand there’’
The sherriff looked around and saw the posse men crowding into the doorway. ‘’You all get out of here,’’ he said.
‘’Sir,’’ the one named Dave said ‘’what if he attacks you?’’
‘’Then I will subdue him. I thank you for doing your duty, but now you need to scat’’
When they were gone, Kelvin said. ‘’Take off that coat and give it to me’’
Zax took off his farm coat and began shivering, beneath he was wearing nothing but a boxer short.
‘’Take off your one shoe’’
Zax took it off.
‘’Now your stockings’’
Zax turned them inside out and tossed them aside.
‘’Drop your pants’’
‘’I don’t want to’’
‘’No more than I want to see what’s in there, but drop it anyway’’
Zax dropped his boxer short.
‘’Turn around and spread your cheeks’’
Zax turned, grabbed his buttocks and pulled them apart. Sheriff Kelvin winced, sighed and poked a finger into Zax anus. Zax groaned. Kelvin removed his finger, wincing again at the soft pop, and wiped his fingers on Zax Coat.
‘’Where is it, Zax?’’
‘’My other shoe?’’
‘’You think I went up your ass looking for your shoe? Are you trying to play smart?’’
Zax pulled up his boxer shorts.
‘’I’ve got your shoe in my office’’
‘’Then why did you ask me about it?’’
‘’To see what you’d say. That shoe is settled. What I really want to know is where you put your ex-girlfriend diamond ring’’
‘’I gave that diamond ring to her, why would I want it back’’
‘’She’s your ex’’
‘’I don’t fuck with her anymore’’
‘’That’s not what I mean here Zax, she’s dead and all evidence at the scene points out to you’’
‘’What evidence?’’
‘’The shoe? How did it end up there?’’
Zax looked at the sheriff stunned, wondering how his shoe might have gotten there, when…’’Now I remember, I had a call, she called me saying she needed my help, I’d asked her what about? But she said she couldn’t say it on the phone, so I drove up to her place’’
‘’And?’’
‘’And,’’ he bowed his head ‘’I found her dead in a pool of blood, in the kitchen’’
‘’Why didn’t you call the police or something?’’
‘’I was in a daze, I…I didn’t know what to do, so I ran to the bar without thinking, maybe to just wash out what I saw with the booze’’
‘’And your shoe?’’
‘’I don’t know, it might have slipped out or something’’
‘’And you expect me to believe that?’’
‘’It’s the truth, I mean why would I want to kill her?’’
‘’Obsession?’’
‘’We did have a happy relationship, even though it ended in heart breaks and tears. Every time she wore sober I could put on her bra and…. ’’
‘’What was the whole reason of you leaving her?’’
‘’I didn’t leave her,’’ Zax said ‘’she left me for some rich guy’’
‘’And when you saw that you couldn’t stand losing her, you drove to her place and killed her’’
‘’I told you, she called asking for my help, I drove up to her house and found her dead’’
‘’That’s right,’’ the sheriff said ‘’get yourself a lawyer.’’