Dawson spotted a box full of small animal skulls that made his skin crawl.

“Would you empty that, please?” he asked.

Isaac turned the box over, and the skulls rattled out. They smelled ghastly.

“What are those for?”

“Snake skulls,” Isaac said. “You crush them into a powder and use it to cure snakebites.”

Dawson peered into the box. There was no silver bracelet.

They moved to the second room, and Dawson poked around where he could. He was becoming ill from the odors, and he realized that, if Isaac had Gladys’s bracelet, there was an infinite number of places he could have hidden it.

“What are all those things on the wall?” he asked Isaac in a third room.

“Different things for different sicknesses. I can’t tell you all of them.”

“Give me one or two examples.”

“There is a root called asreetsopoku-that one over there. We use it to cure hernia. You cut it and wash it and drink it with gin. We have another one there, nereyu, that we use for heart trouble.”

“Are any of these the ones Gladys was interested in?”

“She was interested in all of them.”

“Did you try to hide anything from her?”

“I didn’t tell her everything.”

“Were you working on something secret she wanted to know about?”

“Secret, like what?”

“I don’t know. I’m asking you.”

“Yes, I was.”

“Can you tell me?”

“Then it won’t be a secret anymore.”

“I can’t steal it from you, so what do you care? A certain disease?”

“Of course.”

“One that has no cure.”

“Yes.”

“You’ve discovered something for AIDS?”

“I can tell you a little about it, but I need something in return.”

“I don’t pay people for information.”

“Not money, Darko. Just a promise that you won’t go and tell someone in Accra who will come to try to steal from me.”

“You have my word.”

“First, Gladys told me one of Togbe Adzima’s trokosi was suffering from AIDS.”

Dawson’s stomach plunged. That almost certainly meant Adzima had HIV. He thought of Efia and the other four wives. The new wife.

“Gladys wanted her to take a government-supplied medicine,” Isaac went on, “but the trokosi refused and Nunana brought her to me instead. I gave her some traditional medicines, and she got well for some time, but she died later.”

“What did Gladys do then?”

“First, she went to the wives to ask them to take a test for AIDS. Second, she asked me if I could go back to Accra with her to meet some scientists at her school about my medicine-maybe it could be made to work better.”

“What did you say to that?”

“I told her I would think about it. I wasn’t ready to give her an answer.”

“Did she try to get Togbe Adzima tested for AIDS too?”

“Why should she?”

Dawson frowned. “The trokosi come to him as virgins.”

“And so?”

“And so if one of them got AIDS, she can only have got it from Adzima.”

“No, AIDS can come from a curse, or witchcraft.”

Dawson shook his head. “You should stop believing that.”

He turned to leave, and Isaac was surprised. “Where are you going?”

“To see Togbe Adzima.”

BEFORE CONTINUING ON TO Bedome, Dawson took a slight diversion to talk to the handful of farmers toiling on their plots at the side of the forest.

He called out, “Good morning. Ayekoo!”

They responded appreciatively, and Dawson introduced himself and asked if any of them had witnessed the argument between Isaac and Samuel. Two of them said yes.

“Where were they when you saw them?” Dawson asked.

The farmers pointed, and as he turned to look, Dawson realized something that he hadn’t before. Although Isaac and Samuel would have been within view from this spot, the Bedome-Ketanu footpath was obscured by a clump of bushes. It meant that the farmers would not have been able to see whoever accosted Gladys on her way home.

“Did Samuel come back this way?” Dawson asked.

The older of the two farmers nodded. “He came and helped us for a little while.”

“Did he leave you before it got dark?”

The farmer shook his head. “No, sir.”

“Did he seem angry after the quarrel?”

“He was annoyed, yes, but I told him not to let it trouble him, and I think he was all right after that.”

Dawson thanked the two witnesses, and took down their names in case he needed to get back in touch with them.

As he walked on to Bedome, Dawson wondered, How could Samuel have been in two places at one time-working on the farm and talking to Gladys on the path? It wasn’t physically possible.

Togbe Adzima was sitting outside bouncing one of his children on his knee, but as soon as he saw Dawson approaching, he got up and retreated into his house.

“Don’t come in here,” he shouted from inside. “Get away from me!”

But there was no door to stop Dawson from entering.

“What do you want from me?” Adzima snapped.

“I need to talk to you.”

“About what?”

“I’m not here to do anything bad to you, but Togbe Adzima, your life may be in danger.”

“What are you talking about?”

“One of your trokosi died.”

“Who told you that?”

“Mr. Kutu.”

“All right. And so what?”

“Have you had that blood test Gladys Mensah was giving?”

“I don’t need any kind of blood test.”

“Was the trokosi a virgin when she came to you?”

“Of course,” Adzima said contemptuously.

“Okay, listen to me. I have come to ask you to use condoms, especially with your new wife. I can get you some.”

Adzima threw his head back and roared with laugher. “For what? Mr. Detective Man, I’m not going to use any condom.”

“I’m begging you.”

“You are begging me?” Adzima spat. “You came here and did all kinds of bad things, and now you say you’re begging me. You are too funny, Mr. Inspector.”

After several more futile attempts to talk sense into Adzima, Dawson left abruptly, annoyed and despairing. Even if he did find a way to put the priest behind bars today and get him away from Efia and his other wives, it might already be too late. He may already have transmitted HIV to some or all of them.

Dawson walked quickly back toward Ketanu. He passed a mango tree laden with ripe, rosy fruit and badly wanted to climb up and pick a few. He used to love doing that as a boy. The only problem was that fire ants, just as fond of mango trees, made ingenious nests out of clusters of leaves. If they were disturbed, these vicious little creatures the color of fire launched an attack with bites that felt like a thousand red-hot needles.

As he passed by, Dawson heard a hiss from somewhere behind the mango tree. He stopped and turned.

“Mr. Dawson!” A loud whisper.

He moved back toward the tree. “Who’s there?”

“Can you come, please?”

He circled around to see who it was.

“Nunana? What are you doing?”

She was crouched behind the tree trunk.

“So sorry to disturb you, please, sir,” she said, still speaking in a whisper. “I saw you coming from Bedome. I have to tell you something, but I don’t want anyone to see me talking to you.”

He knelt down beside her and dropped his voice in the same way. “What is it you have to tell me?”

“You are looking for a silver bracelet belonging to Gladys Mensah.”

“Yes, I am! You know something about it?”

“Please, I have seen one, sir.”

“Where?”

“In Togbe Adzima’s room, sir. In a tin he keeps with his drink.” She swallowed hard and looked around nervously, as if convinced they were being watched. “I was cleaning his house, and I saw it.”

“When was that?”

“On Tuesday.”

Dawson’s heart surged. That was the day before he and Fiti had searched Adzima’s room. This could be the lead he had been praying for.