Facets of Death

by Michael Stanley

  “If it’s one of my people, you have to tell me, Deputy Commissioner. I have a right to know!”

  The deputy commissioner moved the phone away from his ear.

  “Calm down, Major. You’ll find out soon enough. I have to go now. Don’t forget your promise. You can’t tell anyone.” He put down the phone.

  If he’s involved, he thought, he’s not going to spend the night twiddling his thumbs.

  Then he phoned the head of administration at the mine, Elijah Goodman.

  “Good afternoon, Rra Goodman. I’m phoning to give you some information about the robbery.”

  “Have you caught who did it?”

  “No, but we’ll be making an arrest in Jwaneng tomorrow morning.”

  “Can you tell me who it is?”

  “Unfortunately not,” the deputy commissioner replied. “And I have to ask you to keep this information to yourself for the time being.”

  “Of course, and I look forward to tomorrow. Thank you.”

  After he hung up, the deputy commissioner sat thinking for a few minutes. He decided that he’d be surprised if Goodman was involved in the robbery.

  Finally, he called Eddie Tau, the head of security, and told him about the arrest he was going to make the next day.

  “Who is it? I need to know.”

  “I can’t tell you at the moment, and you have to promise not to say a word about this call to anyone. Not Major Chamberlain. Not Goodman. Nor anyone else.”

  “Deputy Commissioner, you know you can trust me. As head of security, I really do have to know now. People may be at risk, or maybe even another robbery.”

  “Rra Tau, you’ll know in the morning. Thank you.”

  The deputy commissioner hung up for the last time and leant back, wondering what each would do if connected to the robbery. He thought there were three possibilities: one, they’d say nothing; two, they’d talk to any others involved to come up with a plan; and, three, they’d offer to collaborate with the police in return for a reduced sentence.

  He knew what he would do—never get involved in the first place.

  He stood up and started thinking about excuses for leaving the evening’s dinner early. He really hated all the bullshit that bubbled up at such meetings.

  He locked the door to his office and walked down the passage. Then he stopped. He knew what his excuse would be—he was going to arrest a suspect in the diamond heist case.

  I wish, he thought.

  Chapter 71

  The major’s daughter was visiting from Johannesburg, and as he was very fond of her, his wife expected he’d be in a good mood. However, that evening he seemed distracted and hardly contributed to the conversation over drinks.

  “Something worrying you, David?” she asked.

  “It’s just the mine. It’s been really tough since the robbery. Let’s talk about something else.”

  They lapsed into silence but were saved by the phone ringing.

  “I’ll get it.” The major climbed to his feet and walked to the study to take the call.

  “Yes, hello, Major Chamberlain speaking.”

  “Major, it’s Eddie. I need to speak to you right away.”

  “Eddie? Well, you are speaking to me.”

  “Not over the phone. And I need to speak to you alone.”

  “We’re about to have our dinner.”

  “It won’t take long. It’s really important and really urgent. It’s about the robbery.”

  “Can’t it wait a couple of hours?”

  “That may be too late.”

  The major hesitated. He decided that if Tau had something to say about the robbery, he’d better listen. “I’ll meet you at the office. Give me fifteen minutes.”

  “Not at the office. Please come round to my house. My wife’s at her mother’s, so we’ll be alone.”

  “This better be worth it, Eddie. All right. Ten minutes.”

  * * *

  Tau let the major in and led him to the lounge. There was a bottle of whisky on the coffee table, with a glass already poured.

  “Take a seat. You want a drink?”

  The major shook his head as he sat down. “What is it, Eddie? What’s so urgent it couldn’t wait till after dinner?”

  Tau took a sip of his drink. “It was me, Major. I leaked the backup plan. But—”

  “You what?” the major roared.

  “I had no idea how it would all turn out! Those men killed and the woman. You have to believe me…”

  “What did you think would happen? That they’d calmly hand over the box of diamonds and shake hands like gentlemen?” He glared at Tau. “Why did you do it? Don’t I pay you enough?”

  Tau took his time before he replied. “You won’t believe this, but it was a witch doctor. He told me he’d had a vision, and he’d sought me out to tell me. He didn’t ask me for a thebe. I know you’ll say it’s all nonsense, but he already knew all sorts of things no one outside the mine could know. In fact, he already knew about the backup plan, but not the details. He told me all sorts of things…” He shook his head. “He said the ancestors had told it all to him in the vision and promised me great wealth. I believed him, God help me.”

  “How could you be so stupid?” The major paused. “I’d better have that drink.”

  Eddie poured him a double.

  “But that wasn’t all you did, was it? You did something that let them know which box had the diamonds, didn’t you? Don’t lie to me, Eddie.”

  Tau said nothing. Then he shook his head again.

  The major let the silence drag for a few seconds. “Listen, Eddie. Once you admit the contact with the witch doctor to the police, it’s all over. That Mabaku is a nasty piece of work. He’ll get the whole story out of you one way or another. If I see through you, he will too. Now tell me the truth. All of it. Afterwards you must go to the police. I’ll try to do my best for you, but I have to know everything.”

  Tau looked at him with surprise. He’d expected the major’s anger, but not any suggestion of support. He took a deep breath.

  “Last week the witch doctor came to see me again. He said some people needed my help—just a very small thing—and they’d pay me very well. Just as he’d foreseen.”

  “And you believed him?”

  Tau shook his head. “I was suspicious and asked what he wanted me to do. He said he’d had another vision. Something was burning and the backup plan would be implemented. He wanted me to put something in the box with the diamonds when I fetched them. Something very small that no one would ever find.”

  The major started to say something, but Tau hadn’t finished. “I told him no way. I wasn’t doing anything like that. I told him I didn’t believe in his visions, and I wouldn’t be seeing him again. I got up to leave. Then he said, ‘Half a million pula.’ My God. Half a million pula!”

  “You fell for it?”

  “I said I’d think about it. He said I had to decide right away. And if I didn’t agree, he’d make sure you found out everything that had passed between us—particularly about the backup plan.”

  “So, you did it.”

  “I had to! You would’ve fired me!”

  “You got that right!” The major took a sip of his drink. “Eddie, can you identify this witch doctor? Can you help the police to trace him? If so, we can negotiate with them. Work out a plea bargain. I can vouch for you. But they have to catch him.” He held out his glass for refill. After Tau had obliged, he continued. “Now tell me everything you did or discovered, step by step from the beginning. All the details. Don’t leave anything out.”

  Tau poured himself another whisky. “Okay, I’d better start with the first meeting with the witch doctor.”

  * * *

  When he’d finished and answered the major’s questions, Tau said, “I’ll go to the
police in the morning.”

  The major shook his head. “We go right now.”

  Tau poured himself another whisky. “Please, Major. I need a little time to think it through… A few hours… please. And I need to try to explain all this to my wife.”

  “So, what made you tell me now?”

  “I had a call from the deputy commissioner this evening. They’re planning to make an arrest tomorrow. One of us. Obviously, it must be me.”

  “He called you too? That’s interesting…” The major paused. “You have to preempt the arrest and turn yourself in right now.”

  “I can’t go now. I’ve had too many of these.” He held up his glass. “I’ll go first thing in the morning and make a full confession. I promise.”

  The major emptied his glass. “Very well. But if you don’t, I’ll call the deputy commissioner and repeat everything you’ve told me. That’s a promise.”

  He glanced around the room. “Do you have a phone? I need to let my wife know I’m on my way home for supper.”

  “It’s in the study.”

  After a few minutes the major returned.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll see myself out. Just remember, I’ll be in contact with the police first thing in the morning.”

  Tau let him go. He poured himself another shot and downed it.

  SATURDAY

  Chapter 72

  The deputy commissioner was ruing that he hadn’t done what he’d planned at the dinner the previous evening. It wasn’t the conversation that had kept him from going home early but rather the fine wines, generously provided by the French Embassy, not to mention the cognac that was offered after the meal. He’d have to remember to be a little more abstemious at the next meeting.

  He reluctantly opened a folder. Budgeting was one of his least enjoyable responsibilities. Certainly, much of it was pro forma, but grappling with the unknown was what caused his headaches. How was the police service going to cope with the rapidly growing incidence of domestic violence? How many protests were there going to be, requiring huge numbers of overtime hours? How many visiting heads of state, with their sometimes ridiculous security requirements? He remembered with dismay what the Americans had demanded when President Clinton visited earlier in the year.

  He took a deep breath and started jotting down notes.

  Then his phone rang.

  “Major Chamberlain on the phone, sir,” his PA said. “He doesn’t sound happy.”

  “Please put him through.”

  There were a few clicks, and then he was connected.

  “Major Chamber—” he started to say.

  “It’s Tau! He’s dead!”

  “Calm down, Major. You say Tau’s dead?”

  “Yes. He committed suicide last night. It was him!”

  “What do you mean it was him? Don’t you know it’s him?”

  “No. I mean it was Tau who took the diamonds.”

  “Major, please slow down. I’m not following you.”

  “Dammit, listen to what I’m saying. Last night before dinner, Tau phoned me at home and asked to see me urgently. In private. We arranged to meet at his house. He confessed his involvement in the robbery. Your phone call must have made him realise he’d been found out. He wanted to know what he should do. I told him to go to the police immediately. He said he wanted to tell his wife first, then he’d turn himself in.”

  “What exactly did he say?”

  “He said he’d been contacted some time ago by a witch doctor who persuaded him to talk about the backup plan. Later, the man told him that the plan would soon be put into use and asked him to put a small device in the diamond box.”

  “Why would he agree to that?”

  “He said the man offered him a lot of money—half a million pula. For one minute’s work. He couldn’t resist. After your call, he thought if he confessed before being arrested, he’d get a lighter sentence.”

  “And what did you do?”

  “I went home, told my wife, and tried to phone your office. No one answered. That’s why I’m calling you now.”

  It took another five minutes for the deputy commissioner to extract the rest of the story. The major had received a panicked phone call from Tau’s wife around eight that morning. Apparently, after she’d returned home quite late the previous evening, he’d received a call and told her he needed to go out for a quick meeting. She waited a while for him to return, and when he didn’t, she’d gone to bed. When she woke up, she saw he’d never come to bed and wasn’t elsewhere in the house. She’d run outside to see if his car was there. It wasn’t. She was worried he may have had an accident and called the police. Apparently, it took them a while to find the car. He was in it. He’d killed himself. That’s when she’d called the major.

  “Major, what time was that?”

  “Just before eight. I was about to go to work. I drove to where Tau’s car was. The police asked me if I could identify the body, and I told them it was Tau. Good thing I’ve seen bodies before. Then I went right over to her house to comfort her.”

  “And why do you think it was a suicide?”

  “The police told me they’d found a gun on the floor. If he’d been murdered, the murderer would have taken it with him.”

  “That’s probably right. And where are you right now?”

  “In my office.”

  “And where is she?”

  “In the mine’s infirmary, seeing one of our doctors.”

  “All right, this is what you must do. You must stay at the mine until the police tell you that you can leave. And Mma Tau must stay in the infirmary until the police tell her that she can leave. Understood?”

  There was silence on the line.

  “Major, I asked you if you understood my instructions.”

  Another silence, then, “Okay, but I warn you, I’m going to have all your heads for this. You know I have connections to the chairman. All of you are totally incompetent.”

  The deputy commissioner put down the phone, used his Rolodex to find two numbers, and then picked it up again. The first call was to the station commander at the Jwaneng police station. “I’ve just received a phone call from Major Chamberlain at the mine. He says his security man, Tau, committed suicide last night. What can you tell me about that?”

  The station commander confirmed that Tau’s wife had phoned the station at 7:03 a.m. to report her husband missing.

  “What did you do?”

  “There was only the receptionist at the station. A cow had wandered onto the A2, and a car swerved to avoid it. Right into an oncoming lorry. We think there are three people dead. All available personnel were trying to sort that out. It took us a while to pull some back into town to look for the car.”

  “How long did it take you to find it?

  “Not long. It was in the Pick n Pay parking area just off Teemane Avenue.

  “And what did you find?”

  “Tau was in the car, shot in the head. Blood all over the place. He was dead.”

  “Do you think he was murdered?”

  “No. It was suicide. Definitely. We found a revolver on the floor. Only one round fired.”

  The deputy commissioner thought he was probably right but wondered if they’d done the follow-up. “Forensics can try to match the bullet with the gun. And I assume you’re having the gun and the car fingerprinted?”

  There was a pause. “I’ll get that done right away.”

  The deputy commissioner rolled his eyes. Maybe the major was right about the police incompetence. “Thank you, Station Commander. I’ll coordinate with Director Gobey to send one of the detectives from headquarters to support yours. Probably Assistant Superintendent Mabaku.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  The deputy commissioner then phoned Gobey to apprise him of the situation and to suggest that Mabak
u be sent to Jwaneng as soon as possible.

  “I’ll take care of that, Deputy Commissioner,” Gobey said. “I’m meeting with him in a few minutes. I don’t see any problems.”

  “Have him call me before he leaves. I’ll tell him what I know.”

  Finally, the deputy commissioner walked down the passage and filled in the commissioner with the latest information from Jwaneng mine.

  The world’s going mad, he thought as he sat down at his desk again. He shuffled through the papers in front of him, found the one he wanted, and scribbled a note on it.

  Money for four more detectives for the CID?

  Chapter 73

  A few minutes after the director had spoken to the deputy commissioner, Mabaku arrived at the director’s office. He’d survived his encounter with the deputy commissioner the day before, but this was his first opportunity to see the director since then. He prayed that Gobey had no inkling of his visit to the deputy commissioner.

  Miriam checked with the director and then waved him in. Gobey glanced up from his paperwork and indicated the seat in front of his desk.

  “I was just about to send for you, Mabaku. What do you want?” It wasn’t a promising start.

  “Sir, Colonel Venter discovered what happened at Motswedi, but now we must consider the possibility that the South African police either took the diamonds or know more about the robbery than they’ve told us. I’d like your permission to travel to South Africa to look into it.”

  Gobey nodded. “Normally, I’d say go ahead, but something else has come up that I need you to attend to.”

  Mabaku frowned but said nothing.

  Gobey then told him about Tau’s apparent suicide. “Get the details from the deputy commissioner. Then I want you to go to Jwaneng immediately. I’ve cleared the way for your involvement with the police there, but I have a feeling they won’t be happy. They don’t like us interfering.”

  “Of course, Director. I think this may be our first big break in the case.”

  “I hope so.” Gobey paused. “That’s all.”

  “Yes, sir.” Mabaku breathed a sigh of relief as he left the office.