INTRODUCTION

The human mind is as complicated as it is convoluted. There is no way of fully understanding, unraveling, deciphering or even predicting its capabilities or what it is going to come out with next. Though one could imagine and agree with the saying that to the mind, the sky is the limit when it comes to its capabilities, but that is even an understatement. Space cannot even be its limit not to talk of the sky, for it is simply put — limitless. For any simple thought, the probabilities of its coming out with any one particular decision will surely tend towards infinity.

It is the mind that hatches out our thoughts and eventually our actions, and so when one thinks of what actions he or she is likely to take in any given situation, the possible options are as good as limitless. The particular situation at any given moment will determine from what group of actions it is likely to choose its line of action from, but even then one can never tell! The environment, the types of people around, friends, peer pressure, health condition, previous experiences, weather and so on can each contribute, and that is not just individually but collectively as well.

It was for this very reason that a simple looking murder case that was being investigated by the law suddenly turned into a mind bugling web of intrigue. A compound team of seasoned crime investigators was assembled from the Police crime investigating unit, the military intelligence unit as well as the countries external criminal-investigating agency. This compound ensemble simply got immersed in a maze or web of intrigue that was full of possibilities, as well as possible probabilities. It was not just like that maze where the Minotaur dwelt, but it was also like a compound web spun principally by the deadly Black Widow spider that got intertwined with the Tarantula spider's web. It was a very compound web that was as complicated as it was convoluted. The more they delved into it, the more bizarre the situation became. It involved the death of Doctor Calisto.

No one knows or can figure out how this maze of intrigues came to be hatched out, not even myself who is telling the story can begin to decipher it. To figure it out might be an exercise in futility, except to just agree that the human mind has remained largely unfathomable.

To unravel the mind is as good as impossible. Just when one feels that he has got or is beginning to get a grip on it, everything instantly goes haywire. It is like attempting to solve a magical puzzle. As soon as one holds onto a piece that he sees where it perfectly fits, and he tries to drop it in there, everything immediately become faint and start dancing around in dizzying confusion, and it simply turns into a puzzling puzzle.

As for the women involved in this escapade, their actions are often inexplicable except that once the heart of a lady is negatively tampered with, when it comes to relationships, no matter how loose, one unleashes a raging lioness that is prepared to attack anything in sight.

The only other factor, which happens to be very important worth mentioning, was money. We live in a very evil age where whenever the mind hatches out any of those its plots, money takes over to help determine the outcome. Money of course is claimed to be the root of all evils, and that's exactly what it is. It predominates in each and every endeavor and it speaks louder than any other orator and that's how it manages to determine the outcome of most events. It is for this very reason that men can go to any extent to lay hands on it, and that is how it has come to become the catalyst in all our problems too.

The incident had to do with the death or possible murder of the richest and most popular as well as flamboyant politician in the country.

Once upon a time, would have been very appropriate to use in starting this story, but once upon a man will be more appropriate since he was unique and alone in his own class. This was Doctor Calisto. Politics was in his blood right from childhood. At the age of four when he witnessed his father and mother quarrelling at home he settled the case, as any seasoned politician will do. He took his mother, the weaker sex, aside and demanded an extra lump of meat in his soup that evening so that he could settle the case in her favor. His mother was alarmed and looked at him without belief, but she had no other choice than to succumb to the bribery. As soon as he got back, he quickly informed them that he knew what was at stake. His mother earned three times as much money as his father, but she was busy demanding money for rent as well as for the market. He quickly asked them to vote. Of course he joined in the voting and his father lost by two votes to one.

In the elementary or grade school, he was the class monitor all through, while in secondary or high school, he was the social prefect for a few years before becoming the school captain. Of course, in the university, he quickly knocked out his opponents and became students' union leader for three years. He was good and liked by the undergraduates mainly because he was straightforward and always fought for their rights. After school, he went straight into politics and within a year he had become the governor of his state. He was the youngest state governor in his country. He was also a taciturn and unrelenting disciplinarian and so dogged that he never gave up on any issue. He ruled his state for the allowable two consecutive terms, and his people made necessary moves to get him in for a third term, but he had his eyes on more juicy apples. His ambition was to rule the entire country.

He tried many times to run for office as the president of the country, but he always lost. He kept trying because to him, failure was just like a stepping-stone to possible success. Try, try, try again was his mantra as he often equated failure with what could happen in a boxing ring. During a match, it was not how many times one was knocked down that usually counted; it was how often he managed to get up on time. He might get up one of those times and luck would help him connect an unrelenting uppercut that could send his opponent to sleep. That way he could actually become the winner.

He believed that people often failed simply because they have only failed to connect the beginning with the end. They were probably simply put, not able to link up where they started with their aims. It was for this reason that he eventually came to agree that it was indeed the end that justified the means since it was the end that mattered and not where one started or how he came to it. That he had once failed was immaterial to him for that had happened and one cannot simply dwell on the past. One should therefore never let the past take from him what the future had in stock for him. The future could mean being able to ride the winds and one should never loose sight of that possibility.

As a state governor, most of his success was based on the fact that he had swept through the state just a dry whirlwind would aid the fire to claim any dry object on its path. Only charred remains and ash will be left behind, if they are not blown away. He had, like a doctor, diagnosed the problems of his state and that was...