Few moments later, Minteh arrived at the Lamech's. Ginn was pacing in the compound, doing the motherly part in the rituals of burial in their culture. When she saw Minteh's peugeot arriving at a high speed, she stopped in her tracks. Frozen, she looked intently at the approaching car. The car came to a sudden stop capturing the attention of the mourners.
"Little sister," said Minteh causally. "How are you doing today?," he added, but he got no reply. Then he noticed that she was looking at his neck. A trickle of blood was running down his collar.
"Minteh!," a cold voice called out.
"Dad!," Minteh replied softly yet in marvel. "Hopefully you have not got yourself into big trouble this time! I was worried about you! How could I bury two of mine in a day?," Lamech lamented.
"Dad! It was a small matter! And besides, it's sorted now," Minteh assured him. "I wish it was," Lamech said worriedly.
"Dad, what do you mean?!," Minteh asked, amazed by the old man's saying and demeanor. "What I mean is, let's first bury your niece, and see what comes next!," Lamech said, moving back to the house. "And don't forget to clean that blood on your neck! You look terrifying!," he added.
"Aye sir!," Minteh replied.
"Minteh, you know according to our culture, the uncle has to take part in the rituals. Dress up and we start!," a slightly old woman called out to him. "Ah mom! Why don't we skip that part and just take the body to the grave? It's really hectic!," Minteh resisted.
"No, son! We have to respect the traditions," Minteh's mom responded with a serious look on her face. " Alright, show me the way," he replied reluctantly.
In the sitting room of the house lay a lifeless body of a beautiful young lady. Though she was dead, she looked so beautiful that some mourners thought she was asleep. But on her face was a thin but visible scratch possibly of a human fingernail. Also around her neck, were finger marks of possible strangling. There could have been a fight in the process of her death.
"Gone too soon my love!," Ginn spoke out, wiping a tear. Minteh touched the body gently, lost of words. But as he moved his hand, something caught his attention which made him freeze for a moment; her fingers were folded into a fist.
"What is this, my niece?!," Minteh questionably exclaimed loud enough for almost every one in the building to hear, attracting the attention to himself.
Ginn came closer, inquiring him what he meant by the question. But Minteh didn't respond as he was busy trying to workout what was in the deceased's hand. When he unfolded the fist, he was taken back but what he saw. A piece of a torn cloth had remained in the body's hand and no one seemed to notice. Examining it more clearly, his shock went a whole new level as he realized, he knew who the owner of the cloth might be.
"Impossible! It can't be! Can't be you! You're are dead if you were part of it!," Minteh breathed out warnings and threats, and in reaction, he knocked the concrete pole in the middle of the sitting room with a punch, causing room to shake.
"What's going on?," Lamech asked as he heard the blow and the vibrations it sent. "Minteh, is that you?," he asked.
"Keep whatever you have found to yourself, and let the people mourn peacefully, my boy!," his mom said, softly touching and rubbing his back.
Minteh turned to his mom and hugged her tightly, trying to cool for a moment. He released her at once and said, "if I happen to find out that he was involved, I am gonna slice him in pieces!," with a serious and terrifying look on his face.
"Of course you will my darling," his mom replied, touching his cheek to wipe the tears watering down.
"But Minteh, who is...," Ginn tried to asked something but was stopped by the sound of the speakers, "alright, let's start the ceremony to send off our sister as our custom is," the voice said.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming to this grievous day! It's a day for mourning, weeping and lamenting. Our dear sister and daughter has left us, but as our tradition is, and as our ancestors taught us, this is just a beginning of a new life! We mourn, but our sister will resurface yet in another form. Let the gods receive her spirit and return her in power!," the voice said;
"Let now the uncles carry the deceased out for us to perform the last rituals!"
"Minteh, together with his cousin brothers that had come for the burial, carried the casket outside the house and with weeping, and others with songs of mourning, the rest of the people, followed the body out.
A pot of incense was put on the casket, as chants were being done, an old man in traditional clothing from back cloth went round the casket five times, sprinkling a white odourless liquid.
After that, he chanted in a foreign dialect, and moved around the casket two times, then body was removed from the casket and pure white bedsheet was wrapped around her.
She was then raised to an altar surrounded by dry firewood. A song was played as a tattooed man moved around the altar, jumping and chanting. He moved around it twice and then a wooden torch was handed to him. He put some of the ordourless liquid that was sprinkled earlier on, in his mouth and he spued it with force all over the body at the altar. He then threw the wooden torch on the firewood and the altar blazed gradually. They all moved around the altar, jumping and chanting, until the fire went out.
By this time, it was already getting to dusk. An old man collected some ash from the altar and put it in a white painted clay-vessel. He then led the group to a cliff by the house, and said, "Sonia we bury you today, but let the gods receive you and reincarnate you in something beautiful as you were!"
He then overturned the vessel and the ash therein was blown away by the wind at the cliff.
All the people clasped their hands together and touched their heads, as a sign of mourning.
After a short while, the mourners returned from the cliff and said their goodbyes, remaining only the family members of the Lamech's.
"Now, tell me!," Ginn confronted Minteh in front of everyone, "what did you find out? Who is responsible?"
Minteh didn't first know how to react as he was caught off guard. Then, he collected himself and said, "that cloth resembles so much the deputy sheriff's!," careful not to speak carelessly.
"How sure are you?," Lamech interjected solemnly.
"Very sure!," he responded with an affirmative head gesture.
"But I heard he is a sodomite," Minteh's cousin, Reyes said.
"That makes it more clear then!," Ginn said, her knees threatening to give up.
All eyes in the room turned to her, which she understood was a sign to explain further.