The house wasn’t as luxurious and modern as Poem’s place in Accra, but it was comfortably furnished, and the air conditioner was running. The kitchen and dining area merged into the sitting room. Two bedrooms and a bath were beyond that off a short hallway.

The trio crossed to the other side of the room where the patio afforded a view of the Volta River from a different, better angle. The calm, grayish-blue expanse of water looked powerful and deep, its ripples reflecting the sun in miniature explosions of light. Tranquility belying strength was a quality Emma admired. A few fishing canoes, paddled by men solo or in pairs, bobbed up and down on the river’s surface. Emma had a flash of childhood nostalgia. Her father often took her out in a canoe on Lake Bosomtwe in the Ashanti Region to teach her to swim and dive, not a skill the average Ghanaian father imparted to his daughter. But Daddy had never had a son, and Emma was tomboyish enough as a reasonable substitute. She certainly had not been a girly girl. Up till the present day, men especially were surprised to discover she was a powerful swimmer.

Looking southward, they could see the graceful arch of the Adome Bridge spanning the breadth of the river. Emma thought she could sit there for hours contemplating the view. But she snatched herself back to reality.

“Mr. Labram,” Sowah said, “could you recount for us what happened the day Mr. Tilson disappeared and anything significant leading up to that day?”

“I will be happy to do so,” Labram said, shifting his weight and attempting to get comfortable in a chair that was on the skimpy side for his bulk. “Mr. Tilson planned to return to Accra on Tuesday, third April. He called me on Sunday—April Fool’s Day—to let me know he would like to settle the bill on Monday, the eve of his departure. So, I came down around five on Monday afternoon and he paid the bill in full. We chatted for a little bit, and he told me he would leave around seven in the morning.”

Sowah looked at Emma, cueing her to ask a question.

Thank goodness she had one ready. “Please, did Mr. Tilson tell you anything about the problems he was facing—the reason he came to Ghana?”

Labram hesitated. “He did. After he had been here a couple of days, he said he had come to Ghana looking for a woman he had fallen in love with online in America. When he arrived here, he found it was all a trick. He had given away thousands of dollars to a bunch of fraudsters.” Labram shook his head in disgust. “These people are spoiling our country.”

Emma sensed his profound regret.