They never intended to murder their own father. He was only supposed to be kept quiet. The business operation was exposed and he was caught in the cross-fire. Julius and Jacob, his twin sons, were running an illegal drug operation. They did this at home, inside their father’s house.

It was Mr Mkhize’s off day from work when he discovered kilograms of drug merchandise under his own roof. The boys were at school that day. He began to panic a bit. He didn’t know what to do or what to think. He thought about calling the police when he heard a ring in a box near the drug merchandise. There was a cellphone inside. He picked it up and answered, “Hello.”

The caller remained silent. He was expecting a different voice from what he was hearing. The voice of the people who were responsible for the drug merchandise. Those people were his two twin sons and they were not around.

The caller switched off his phone. Mr Mkhize searched through the messages in the phone trying to find answers to questions in his mind. He discovered that his twin boys were drug dealers. He quickly dropped the phone on the floor. It was like electricity was flowing through his veins. He was shocked. How could his two nineteen-year-old sons be involved in a drug operation? This wasn’t making any sense to him. He thought of waiting for the boys to come back from school and explain themselves, but he decided against that. He went to work early instead, taking the kilos of drug merchandise with him to the city zoo where he worked as a zoology scientist.

“Jacob where the hell is my product?” asked one of many drug lords involved in a string of drug operations with the twins.

Jacob hesitated in surprise before answering. “What do you mean? Our operation begins after school you know that,” said Jacob.

The drug lord began to lose his patience with him. “Your father found the merchandise in your house this morning,” said the drug lord.

Jacob’s heart started pumping quicker than usual. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “What, you said my father did what?” he asked.

The drug lord went silent for a while and told one of his man in the background to find Jacob’s father immediately. Jacob heard everything. “You lied to me and now I’m going to kill your father,” the drug lord told Jacob. He then switched off his phone.

Six men went to the city zoo where Jacob’s father worked as a scientist. They were all armed with guns. Jacob quickly went to look for his twin brother Julius. It was school time so all the learners were still in class, this made it easy for him to find Julius.

“Hey man, I think Papa is in danger,” Jacob told Julius, who immediately pulled Jacob towards him.

“Lower your voice. What do you mean when you say our father is in danger?” he asked.

Jacob explained everything to him. The two boys skipped their next class and went to the city zoo to find their father.

“Feed him to the lion,” one of the gunmen working for the drug lord said.

Mr Mkhize knew too much and he had to disappear. The drug lords got rid of him. He was gunned down in his office. The city zoo was closed so there were just a few employees working around that time. The gunmen managed to sneak into the zoo by disguising themselves as maintenance workers. There were a lot of wild animals at the city zoo, it was easy to get rid of his dead body. They fed him to the lion.

Jacob and Julius were stopped by the police on their way to the city zoo. Mr Mkhize called the police after the school principal called him and told him that the boys had skipped class again. He told the police everything he knew about the drug operation.

***

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