“I’m fine, my dear,” Nii said, and with the tiniest delay, the lady on the laptop uttered the same words. Bruno jumped away; his jaw dropped. “Ei! Is it juju?”

“Don’t be afraid, my darling,” the woman said, parroting Nii.

For a moment, the boys stared at this piece of wizardry in stunned silence and then pandemonium erupted. They screamed and jumped around as if Ghana had just won the World Cup.

“Wait, wait!” Bruno said to Nii in wild excitement. “Let me try, can I try?”

Nii let him, and then each of the boys after him. Each time, the woman on the laptop responded. It was truly magical.

Later, Bruno accompanied Nii in his Range Rover to the spacious home he shared with two other sakawa boys and they ate kenkey and fish with shito.

“Chaley, Face2Face will change everything,” Bruno said. “Money will flow.”

Nii nodded, eating with relish. “It will be good, paa.”

“How did you find out about that Face2Face?”

“My friend in the States told me about it.”

“Ah, okay.”

They ate quietly for a moment, savoring the excellent quality of the kenkey.

“So, what about the American guy, Mr. Gordon?” Bruno said. “Tell me about that.”

“I made plenty money from him,” Nii said. “He seems to be a very nice man. In fact, I even started to like him.”

“Is that so? But still you were taking his money.”

Nii shrugged. “That’s how it is. A nice mugu is the best mugu.”

“It’s true,” Bruno agreed.

“Do you know he came to Ghana?” Nii said.

“Who? Gordon?”

“Yes. To look for the woman.” Nii found that funny and giggled. The first day he arrived in Ghana, he tried to call me and so I blocked him and changed my SIM card.”

“You should have answered the call and told him you were the lady’s brother and that he should meet you at some place,” Bruno said. “Then, from there, you rob him all his money and cell phone and everything.”

Nii frowned. “No, because you never know he might bring police with him to trap you. Somebody you are dealing with online you should never meet in person, you get me. It’s too dangerous.”

“Okay.” Bruno broke off a chunk of kenkey with his fingers and scooped up a healthy amount of shito. “So, this Mr. Gordon, did he return to States?”

Nii shook his head. “I heard he has gone missing and his son has come to town from aburokyire to look for him.”

“Really,” Bruno said. “What has happened to the man?”

“I don’t know, my brodda.”

“Maybe someone has butchered him with cutlass and buried him,” Bruno suggested.

“Maybe,” Nii said.

“Could you do that to someone?”

Nii looked up from the dish. “Do what?”

“Kill someone,” Bruno said.

Nii frowned. “It depends on the situation. What about you?”