Magic Under Arrest.

CASE REPORT

Detective John Lakor

March 7^th

Kibuye Police Post

The Commanding Officer,

Additional requests; Change in Partner

                                     Psychiatric leave

In addition to the case report of the robbery at Kizungu, Kabali-Kaggwa Street, House No.789 on March 1^st at 0400hrs, I write this report to request a change in partner and a psychiatric leave of two weeks. This report may not be the usual brevity required for a case report but I seek to extinguish any doubt as concerns my additional requests and will go into full detail of what has been happening.

8 months ago, Detective Dennis (The Menace) Okot, and I do not write ‘The Menace’ out of spite but it is his alias on the streets, was transferred to our police post. He was subsequently assigned to be my partner. The reasoning behind this is that Okot and I have great track records in solving cases. Ours is not the legendary bromance of McGarrett and Danno in Hawaii Five-0 nor that of Caffrey and Peter in White Collar but I was pleased to have him as a partner; he is easy-going, talkative and a wicked chef. In fact sir, if you are ever to hold a party, I suggest you get Okot to do your catering. These facts have made it easy for me to overlook his negative traits; he is lazy, impolite and seems to dabble in witchcraft. And no, sir, I am not making up the last bit.

Certain circumstances started happening at the post coinciding with his arrival. For example, I would bring my cup of tea to my desk and look away for just a minute and in that little time it would have moved two desks away. Or I would bring my case files to the desk and have them fly over the place. Okot also has a way of knowing what I’m thinking before I air it out loud. I wouldn’t dare to suggest that he is reading minds for the absurdity of it, though he could. When I asked him about always knowing my thoughts, he said as a people-person he had developed the art of reading people properly. It could be true, or there is something more here.

It has also happened that, time to time, when I am done with my tea and getting up for a refill, I find the cup full and a donut on my plate that I didn’t pick out. I was hesitant to report these incidents because I seemed to be the only one on the receiving end and no one can take you seriously when you complain of always having a cup filled with tea.

There have always been strange occurrences when we go to apprehend our suspects too. For the car theft of January 20^th, we gave chase to the suspect and then he was brought down by a rush of water. Nothing explains where that water came from. It was a bright and sunny day and we were running on a pavement. For the jewellery theft of February 5^th, we cornered the suspect who decided to jump out of the window four stories high. I rushed to the window only to find the suspect suspended in air just outside the window. I don’t think gravity allows that, sir, respectfully. You may read this and think I am losing my mind and pinning false accusations on an innocent man but I am not.

I think he is singling me out. I have seen him transfigure the objects on his desk. Once, he had a full re-enactment of the case we were handling with pens and pencils and clippers and papers. They were transformed into little men and everything went about re-enacting scenes without him moving a finger. I saw it and tapped one of my colleagues to ascertain what I was seeing but he said all he could see was Okot scribbling furiously on paper. Either the entire office is in on this joke or Okot is messing with me and I don’t kindly to that.

Unsure of my own mind, I have been to the psychiatrist three times so far and the verdict is always the same, I am a sane man encountering something unknown. Please look into these claims, sir, before you dismiss them. You know me, sir, you know the diligence I put into my work and my sharp mind. I wouldn’t make up something like this which is why it has taken me all these months to write this.

For the case in question, the robbery case at Kabali-Kaggwa Street, House No.789, the events unfolded as recorded below.

At 0433hrs on March 1^st, a call was made by one of the residents of the aforementioned address requesting for police assistance in fighting off a robber. The details of the first policemen on the scene are included in their own reports.

I was in the station by 0640hrs that same morning and found that my partner, the infallible Detective Okot, had already taken on the case on our behalf. This is because he claimed to know to the area fairly well and this is another reason as to why I don’t wish to continue working closely with him. He always ignores my input.

We were at the victim’s residence at 0900hrs, there weren’t many tell-tale marks that could give clues to the perpetrator. We interviewed the victim, Missy Mukasa, and though much was taken, the victim was most interested in her art pieces that she was planning on selling in an exhibit. The victim was shaken up and didn’t have much information to give. I suggested that we talk to the neighbours and Detective Okot disregarded me.

I went ahead to question the neighbours and found that they had all been victims to robbery but didn’t want to report because the Ugandan police is not known for doing its job. Though there had been so many cases, no one had seen something out of the ordinary. Instead, as a community, they had tried to beef up their security; guard dogs, askaris, street lights, alarm systems and all they could think of.

I met with Detective Okot once I was done to share my findings. Before I could start, Detective Okot shared his findings. He said this was an inside job, done by a string of Askaris who always gave in their master’s houses and he knew exactly what the perp looked like; about 6feet in height, a nimble frame that enabled him to scale the walls easily, wore canvas shoes for this crime, has a scar across the left side of his face, talks with a lisp, smokes cigarettes and will most likely be smelling like smoked tobacco. Our suspect worked as storekeeper during the day and was known to hang out at a particular empty warehouse in Industrial Area.

I asked where he got this information from and he just smiled at me. He had followed up his information and found that this group of thieves would meet at their den by the end of the week. All we had to do was wait for Friday and apprehend the entire group when they met.

Following my partner’s information, we decided to have a stake-out on 6^th March at Industrial Area, Sixth Street where we believed the gang of thieves would be meeting and that’s when things started to get further out of hand. Because of my suspicions against my partner I didn’t engage him in any conversation, instead we listened to the radio and he hummed along. However, whenever he hummed, our boxes of food would levitate. The first time it happened I thought I was hallucinating but it kept on. I glanced at him thinking he would give me an explanation, but he just went ahead to grab his chips mid-air and eat them. Just as I was about to demand an explanation, he exclaimed that he had seen our perp run into the warehouse. This was about 2320hrs.

I ran to the warehouse he pointed out and I tried the door only to find it locked. I tried it twice to be certain before I relayed my findings to my partner. I suggested we find another way which would not give away our advantage of surprise. As always he ignored me and walked to the door, he held it for a while and then pushed it open. I am more than convinced that the door wasn’t open when I had tried it. He must have used his voodoo to have it open. But in the heat of the chase I didn’t have time to confront him about it.

I followed him into the very dark warehouse and heard him snap his fingers. A flame of light appeared on top of his snap and became brighter the further he pulled his fingers from each other. The warehouse was filled with opened boxes and we looked into them. The contents of the boxes varied from vases and chinaware to TV sets and microwaves, the same things the residents along the Kabali-Kaggwa Street had complained of losing. The contents were not wrapped as is common for new items which led us to believe that they were the stolen items.

While we were still searching, my partner tapped me and said he could hear an argument break out. I didn’t hear a single thing but he touched my ear and then every word said came out as clear as day, almost as though I was in the same room with the thieves. From the voices I could tell they were about four of them. I heard them lay out their plan for the new neighbourhood they were going to hit the next week and how to handle the goods they had managed to steal so far. One of them said he wanted out and that’s when we heard the gunshots. We took that as our invitation to engage.

I followed Detective Okot to the basement of the warehouse and straight to the room at the end. He ran as though he knew exactly where they were and indeed we found them in that room. One of them, now identified as Mzee Musa, was on the ground clutching his bleeding leg. Once we entered the room, the rest of them fled through the back door. We gave chase but not for long. One of them, Rich Boy (yes sir, that’s his name) ran backwards straight into Detective Okot’s handcuffs. The other two fell into a ditch that hadn’t been there before. I know this because I saw the land give way to create a ditch. That is how we were able to put a stop to this petty gang.

Aside from stopping crime and I am very glad for this, sir, I ask you to look into how Detective Okot goes about his job. Yes, he solves every case he gets but he has help from the other side, whatever the other side is.

Once we had all the boys in handcuffs, I asked Okot about his use of magic and he explained it to me. I have included the recorder on which he confessed in the envelope. I checked to make sure the audio still runs smoothly and it does. It has also been an annoyance to get evidence against Okot in form of photographs on my phone, as they only disappear before I can turn them in. In the recording, Okot confides that he is indeed a wizard, had his education at the prestigious Hogwarts, and was in Ravenclaw. I doubt most of what he said because he has a way with words and can make interesting stories but some of the information fills in the blanks I have had. Please keep an open mind as you read and listen. I will be taking a psychiatric leave for two weeks. I need it for my sanity. When I return I hope to have this matter solved and a new partner.