“Oh, very fine, madam,” Zacharia said, looking at Emma. “You are welcome.”

“We need help finding someone,” Labram said.

“What is it about?” Zacharia asked with interest.

“At the end of March this year,” Emma began, “one gentleman from America came to stay at the Riverview Inn.”

“Ah, okay,” Zacharia said.

“He was supposed to leave on the third of April, but when his driver came to pick him up and take him back to Accra, he had disappeared.”

Zacharia frowned. “And up till now he is still missing?”

“Yes,” Emma said. “Now, around two in the morning of that day, third of April, one woman in Atimpoku saw an SUV on the Adome Bridge and two guys removing something from the back of the vehicle that looked like a sack with a human body inside. They took it and threw it over the side of the bridge into the river.”

“Oh!” Zacharia exclaimed, pulling back his head as if someone had jabbed him in the eyes with a garden fork. “Ah! These people, eh? How can they do this? Is it the American man they threw in the river?”

“We don’t know for sure,” Emma said, “but we need to find out, and if he’s been thrown in the river, we must find his body. His son has come all the way from the States to look for his father, and we are trying to help him.”

“God bless you, madam,” Zacharia said. “If the American was thrown into the river, then by all means the body will come to float on top of the water.”

“Even if they put rocks in the sack?” Emma asked.

“Yes,” Zacharia said with certainty. “It will float. Madam, you know one thing is that now the water is not as deep as in the old days, because of less rain every year. So, by all means, if the body is in the river, I think it will come to rest at a shallow area. But it can also get stuck on the riverbed or in some weeds, so that also might delay it small.”

“Okay,” Emma said. “Please, how long have you been a fisherman?”

Zacharia laughed. “Since I could walk. My father was a fisherman, and his father too.”

“Oh, nice,” Emma said.

“But the fishing life is not so good anymore, oo,” he said, turning regretful. “The river doesn’t flow as fast as before, so weeds get a chance to grow.” He pointed far out. “You can see where bush is growing in the middle of the river. Those are all weeds, and the fish hide inside the weeds. So, we can’t get them the way we used to.”

“I’m sorry,” Emma said. “It makes life hard for you.”

Zacharia was grim. “Even, my wife says we should go to live in Accra.”

Emma tilted her head side to side. “Well, Accra too . . . that’s another problem place altogether.”