Day 40

Teresa and I wrote statements with the Kenyan police for hours on end explaining everything we knew in great detail.

At the end of it all I was totally drained and exhausted. Exhausted but happy. I was happy because at long last the whole mystery was solved and virtually everything could be explained. Teresa’s statement filled in the pieces of the remaining jigsaw puzzle of my strange adventure in Africa.

Teresa who had been picked up by the police after they had initially briefly questioned me, was reluctant at first to divulge any information. However the Kenyan authorities made it clear that this was a very serious matter and there was a high possibility that we would face charges for murder and attempted murder with Kevin, if everything was not explained clearly.

That got Teresa talking and later she put everything down in her statement.

There was so much. Basically so many surprises and some stuff that hurt me deeply. Maybe I should start at the beginning.

That night in LA Teresa had told me a lie.

She had convinced me that she was dying from some disease that had no cure. Some cancer or tumor in the brain. She said she needed somebody to accompany her to Africa where she planned to die after having the last holiday of her life. This somebody would marry her for the last few months of her life but stood to inherit nothing and would have to sign a detailed contract to that effect. She was going to pay for it of course and I would receive a small initial payment on signing the contract.

I had believed everything that she had told me and I had even felt great pity for her, knowing that she was dying.

In our “marriage contract” there was to be no sex for the duration of the contract. There were many reasons for this including the fact that she wanted a companion and not a real husband for her last trip to Africa. But she had another health reason, or so she lied. She talked about her brain condition not allowing her to have sex. She would go through some epileptic fits every time she tried to have sex.

She had me there. I probably believed it and swallowed it hook line and sinker because I felt it was too strange to be a lie. But a lie it was.

The reason she lied, was to please Kevin, her lover. Kevin did not want to risk having his mistress and partner in crime making love to somebody else and had insisted on the clause in the contract.

What he did not know was that the no-sex-clause was the most dangerous part of the whole contract as far as he was concerned because it allowed my relationship with Teresa to blossom. How strange this life.

Teresa admitted to the Kenyan police that her real motive was to inherit cash from her late husband’s estate and she told them about the strange will her husband had left.

It hurt me deeply that what she could not bring herself to tell me, she ended up pouring out to the police. She explained how Kevin had threatened her and forced her not to tell me the whole truth.

Teresa was really horrified and I think also struck with guilt when Kevin, also brought in for questioning revealed that there had been no intention to pay me the balance of the cash, I was to be murdered immediately after collecting the first installment. Some local thugs had been hired for the purpose.

Although Kevin had committed various crimes in Africa, he was to be repatriated back to the States to face various charges, including fraud, based on Teresa’s statement.

We were not really sure whether Teresa would be charged as well and we all flew back to the States on the same flight accompanied by some federal agents.

In a way I was glad that it was all over. I loved Teresa but I did not know if I had it in me to ever forgive her.