A Bullet For God

by Eben Le Roux

  Chapter 13

  Kim was just about to get into her car when she heard someone calling her.

  ‘Mrs Johnson . . . Mrs Johnson.’

  She looked around and saw a person coming from the east parking lot. For a moment, her body froze, as she never expected Lesley Cohen. He was not a person who came to see his staff: they were always summoned to his office.

  ‘Lesley, what a surprise, but what brings you here? Are you alone?’

  ‘Yes, but I see I must be interrupting some plans. Were you going somewhere?’

  ‘No, not really, I was going to have lunch at Tony’s, but I can always cancel, seeing that you are here . . .’

  ‘No, don’t do that. I can do with a good steak, and I hear the meat at Tony’s is the best in town. Mind if I join you?’

  ‘No, not at all, in fact, it would be my pleasure. Should we put the briefcase in the boot?’

  Just as she unlocked the boot, her phone rang. She quickly passed an apology to Lesley as she reached for the phone. Sliding it open, she noticed that it was a call from Robert. There was a bit of alarm going through her that Robert should be calling while Lesley Cohen came in to pay her a visit. She stepped away from the car to hide her face from Lesley.

  Before she could greet Robert, he was already talking to her. ‘Listen, Kim, do not mention my name if Lesley is already with you. Just say yes or no.’

  ‘Yes.’ She tried to look very comfortable, but her heartbeat was two times faster than it should be.

  ‘Listen. Things are a little tougher than I thought. We have three managers that objected to your appointment as national assistant manager. Do not worry too much. Lesley has great trust in my decisions and me. He is there to evaluate you. Just remember that you never got this job as a favour. I truly believe in your commitment to this company. I want you to impress him as if you have never impressed anyone before. Remember, he likes beautiful woman.’ The call was dropped before she could even get her breath back. When she turned towards Lesley, there was a smile on her face, so good you could not even see it was faked. She walked over to him on the passenger side and planted a kiss on his cheek.

  ‘What the hell was that for?’ His surprise was so vast that it could have scared her. Still smiling, however, she got behind the wheel, started the engine, and drove off.

  ‘I’m waiting,’ Lesley said, looking at her inquiringly.

  ‘That was my mother on the phone.’

  ‘You kiss people whenever you have spoken to your mother?’

  ‘No, she is sixty-eight years old, and today, for the first time in her life, she won something in a competition. She made me promise her that I would hug or kiss the first person that comes next to me, and you know what, you just saved me from kissing a complete stranger.’ She knew she had just made a huge impression on him.

  ‘Still hungry, sir?’

  ‘What? Yes, of course.’

  ‘Well, time to go eat.’

  Lesley Cohen’s smile grew bigger as he openly stared at the legs of the woman next to him.

  This woman is remarkably different from what some of my management would make me believe, he thought.

  Kim knew too much about men being attracted to her, and she sometimes enjoyed playing along until a certain point. There were times when her flirting had given men the wrong impression and, at one stage, she had to fight a man off her. It was the first time that she would be spending time alone with Lesley Cohen, and she was going to make the most of it.

  They picked a table for two, and, almost immediately, a waiter joined them. As soon as she left with their orders, Lesley turned his attention to Kim.

  ‘So how do you find the staff in your new department?’ he asked her casually. She knew she had to be careful with all her answers, for this could be part of his evaluation of her.

  ‘Honestly, I think I will get along very well with them. I notice so many good things about them that it would be scary to make any changes around them. They have brilliant customer skills, and that is most important to me.’

  Lesley smiled very impressed, and he quickly went to his next question. ‘I know you have only been there for a short while, but did you notice any possible areas for improvement?’

  The waiter arrived before Kim could answer. While the table was being laid, she let her eyes explore the people inside the eating area. The family right next to them caught her attention quite considerably. The two children were doing something that brought out a smile on Kim’s lips.

  A little girl of about four years of age and her brother, who could be the same age as Jason, were busy painting each other’s faces with ice cream. The laughter that was coming from the two quickly drew the attention of most of the patrons. Suddenly the little girl’s ice cream fell from her hands onto the floor. Just as she reached down to pick it up, her brother stopped her while shaking his head, indicating it was wrong. Seeing the sadness on his sister’s face, the boy then devotedly handed his ice cream to her. Joy came back on the girl’s face almost instantly, and she started cleaning her brother’s face with a table napkin. She then handed the napkin to him to wipe hers amidst laughter from both of them. Kim was so bemused by the affection the two had for each other that she did not hear Lesley calling her twice. The truth hit her like a ten-pound hammer. She never thought how lonely Jason must have been. Ray was right. They needed another child who could grow up with him. All these years, she hated her husband for insisting on another child, and here were his reasons, right in front of her.

  ‘I should have given you that child, my darling . . .’ She was speaking her mind without realising it.

  ‘What is that?’ she heard Lesley asking, confused.

  ‘Oh! Lesley, I am so sorry . . . I did not . . .’ Lesley could see her awkwardness and knew he had to save the situation.

  ‘No. No, do not be sorry, Kim. I think I know.’ He looked at her very sincerely for a brief moment. ‘You want to talk about it?’

  She looked at her boss as if she was staring at him. ‘Will you listen . . . ?’ she asked with some reservation

  ‘Try me,’ he said with so much honesty that she was sure he meant it.

  As Sean reached the bottom of the embankment, he was extremely tired. Breathing heavily, he stood bent over with his hand on his knees.

  ‘Ten more metres, and you would be lying on your back,’ Peter joked.

  Sean was not saying anything; he was too tired for that. He stumbled forward to rest his body against the car. He looked at Peter, and seeing the expression on his face, he forced himself to ask, ‘What?’

  ‘The way you look, we can thank our stars this man is not a criminal. He would have taken both of us out in seconds.’

  Peter pressed the remote and unlocked the car. In a quick movement, he opened the door. Carefully, he reached for the cabby and took out the gun. Noticing the gun in Peter’s hand, fear got hold of Andrew. He dashed back a couple of metres whilst lifting his hands above his shoulders. His eyes suddenly filled with panic and went on his knees with a sudden movement, hands in the air.

  ‘Please, sir, you promised to help me. I don’t want to die any more, please . . .’

  Sean, upon hearing the man’s words, looked at Peter and got the shock of his life.

  ‘Mr Johnson, what in heaven’s name is wrong with you? Put down that gun!’

  Peter looked confusedly at the gun in his hand, realising what his action had caused, and apologised quickly to both of them. ‘I am sorry. It is not what you think.’ Then he looked at Andrew and said, ‘I saw you hide the gun in there when I was approaching you. I am just making sure you do not have another chance trying to kill yourself.’ With a bit of embarrassment, he turned to Sean, ‘Do you know how to disarm a gun?’

  Sean was so scared that he only stared at him.

  ‘Sean!’ Peter shouted so loud it made Sean’s body jerked.

  ‘Yes.’ His voice was that of a frightened child.

  ‘I said, “Do you know how to disarm
a gun?”’

  He nodded with a soft ‘yes’.

  ‘Then make sure there is not a single bullet left in it,’ he said as he handed him the gun. The words brought indispensable comfort to Andrew as he slowly lowered his arms. Peter immediately started to address him.

  ‘You better have a good explanation for all of this. If not, we are taking you to the police station from here.’

  ‘Please! You don’t have to do that . . . Please!’ Andrew pleaded with him.

  ‘I have to do it. What about those people you said hate you, what if they get hold of you? What if they decide to kill you?’

  ‘No, you don’t understand. It is not like that . . . The people I am talking about were my colleagues.’

  Sean became excited to hear Peter talking about the police. He just wanted this matter to end and go home, as he had never been in a situation where a gun was involved.

  ‘I think that is the wisest thought so far. Let’s just call the police and end this right now,’ he said with so much authority that it sounded like a command.

  ‘Sean, I think we should give him a chance to explain. If he does not make sense, we call the police . . . and you, Andrew, what is this about your colleagues who want to kill you? I am giving you one last chance to tell the truth. If you don’t, I am not going to waste a whole day on you.’

  ‘If I tell you the whole story, do you promise to let me go . . . please?’

  Peter looked at him like a concerned father. ‘No promises just yet. First, you tell us, and then we decide. At least you know you are not with people who are here to harm you. The only thing we have done so far has been to save your life. If we need to save you from yourself a while longer, then we are going to be doing just that. So are you telling or not?’

  He looked at them with tired eyes, he felt his legs becoming weak, and he had an earnest need to sit. ‘Can I sit, please?’ He pointed to a rock halfway into the bushes in front of the car. Without waiting for an answer, he dropped himself onto the rock. Keeping his eyes downcast towards his feet, he took a deep breath and blew hard through his mouth.

  ‘There is a small town called Bolton . . .’ he started. ‘The people started a business together. Everything went wrong, and now they are blaming me.’

  Sean’s patients had run out for the situation he was in. Without any sympathy, he scolded at Andrew, ‘Did you steal the people’s money, and now that they are after you, you want to kill yourself?’

  ‘Sean! Give this man a chance, and don’t interrupt him again.’

  It came as a very stern warning from Peter but Andrew had taken Sean’s words very seriously. The gloom in his eyes was evidence of that.

  ‘That is the problem I have. Everybody thinks I am the guilty one . . . but let me rather start at the beginning.’

  Peter agreed with him by nodding his head.

  ‘I retired there about eight years ago. Bolton has a very small population and is a very quiet and peaceful town. Everybody and everything in that town relied on farming for survival. Unfortunately, for the last four years, there has been hardly any rain, and most of the farmers started to leave. The situation became so bad that many of the farms were not even sold, just left behind, as no one in the world was interested in buying property in Bolton. It was then that I knew something needed to be done to stop us from losing everything. I could not take seeing the town going down at that speed, so I called a meeting with the whole town.’ He paused for a while to wipe sweat from his face. ‘In that meeting, I convinced them to bring whatever money they had to start a small business. It was going to be a business that could feed the people of Bolton while still making a profit. It was hard, but I convinced them so that, within three weeks, I had over a dozen people putting enough money together. We decided to open a bed sheet and curtain factory. One of the farmers offered us his two storerooms from where to start and three of us went into the cities to get orders. Not many people would have believed in the success we had in getting orders. Last week, we had two and a half thousand units ready for dispatch. It really was going to be a big payday for Bolton, and everybody was getting ready to celebrate, but that was where our luck ran out.’ There was silence, and this time, he wiped tears from his face. ‘I’m sorry, gentlemen, but I am not worried about myself here. I am crying for those people who have lost everything all over again.’

  ‘If you still have the goods, why don’t you deliver?’ Sean said, confused at what he heard.

  ‘No, we don’t have the goods any more. The truck was hijacked. They found it empty four days ago. Our clients demanded their deposits back, and I knew it was all over. Some of the people are already spreading stories . . . stories that I was involved with the hijacking . . . Can’t you people see that life is over for me? I don’t want to even go back and face them, not even willing to wait for the truth to come out.’

  He was no longer sitting down. He was hopelessly walking up and down in the small open space between the bushes. ‘Why can’t you just let me die... please let me die?’ he begged while crying openly.

  As a schoolteacher, Peter had build up an instinct, one that could make him easily distinct between lie and truth. He had no doubt that this man was telling the truth. A frown had form on his face as he was already trying to look into a way of helping him. Nothing else bothered now, this man cannot be left alone again.

  ‘Andrew.’ There was no reaction from Peter’s call. ‘Andrew! Listen to me!’ This time, Peter was yelling at him.

  He looked up but could not face him eye-to-eye, too embarrassed by the tears in his eyes.

  ‘Okay, Andrew, you tell me that killing yourself will be your way out, but what about them?’

  Peter pointed to the car while he spoke. ‘Tell me what you have written on that note inside that car. You persuaded those people to start this business. Is it that you are now persuading them to also kill themselves? Are you now trying to have them follow you one last time?’

  ‘Listen, mister...,’ Andrew then started to talk with some sort of detention. ‘...let me tell you something about myself. I was in business for twenty-five years. I made good money. I was never financially desperate until I lost almost everything in an investment. I went bankrupt ten years later. After that, my wife deserted me, and I do not even know where my children are. I went to this town with enough money to see me through the remaining days of my life. I even bought two more houses that I rented out for additional income. All of a sudden, this town started dying around me. All my properties now have no value whatsoever. The town’s business . . . it was my call, my idea. Where is all this now? Where am I now? Where are those people’s futures now? Please, if you know so much, just give me one good reason why I should stay alive. This man standing in front of you is perhaps the world’s biggest loser. Just get into your car up there and drive away from me. There is nobody in this world that would miss me.’

  Peter turn to look at Sean, and he could see that he also believed this man’s story. His heart was embracing the man. He turned to Andrew and said, ‘Andrew, I am not going to leave you here to continue something that will forever raid my conscience. You cannot declare something as done by dying. So why not finish what you have started and die successfully or, at least, die trying.’

  Andrew became frustrated with Peter, and he was showing it. As he was talking to him, he was lifting and dropping his arms repeatedly.

  ‘So what is there for me to die trying . . . ?’

  The sadness in Peter’s eyes was noticeable. It was not just for this man in front of him; he had lost good friends out on the streets who thought they had reach the end of their capabilities. Hobos who decided to kill themselves because they believed they had reached the end of their usefulness for society.

  Driven by the emotions of his lost friends, he spoke almost in anger. ‘Andrew, you promised a whole town a future. You say it nearly worked out. So what would you say if I said let us go back there and finish what you have started.’

  Andrew
nearly fainted upon hearing this. ‘Over my dead body, I will not go back there. Those people think I am a cheat, a thief, a . . .’

  ‘Twenty minutes ago, you would have died a cheat, a thief and, on top of it, a coward. Here you are still standing, alive, and talking to us. Search yourself, Andrew. Search your deep inner self and find that reason why you are still alive. We are taking you back to Bolton,’ Peter added boldly.

  In reaction to what Peter had said, Sean rapidly jumped up from where he was sitting. ‘Mr Johnson, wait. We cannot go there. We have people waiting for us in town, and there is your appointment with Mr Mathews and Mr Ashton.’

  Peter had no sympathy with his other appointments. ‘I think we should attend to this man’s problems first, Sean. Everything else can wait.’

  ‘Mr Johnson, according to the distance, it is about one and a half hours’ drive there, which means we will arrive there just before sunset. What time do you think we could possibly be back if you still have to consult with those people?’

  The panic was evident in Sean’s voice. This made Peter realise he was speaking the truth and that they would really be back late tonight.

  He then turned his attention back to Andrew. ‘Is there someone we can phone to say we are coming . . . and I mean a very reasonable person?’

  Sean and Andrew looked at one another and then at Peter in total confusion.

  ‘Is there such a person, Andrew?’ Peter was switching his eyes between the two of them as they both stood with wide eyes, looking like two dummies.

  ‘I don’t . . . I don’t . . . Josh Clayton. Yes, I think Josh is . . . Hey . . .’ He suddenly stopped. ‘I am not going back there . . . You don’t know what you are doing.’

  ‘Give me the number. You heard what Sean said. It is a long drive, so let us not waste any more time.’

  ‘It’s on the phone . . . inside the car.’ Andrew said very reluctantly.

  ‘Where in the car?’ Peter asked as he opened the door with the remote.

  ‘Driver’s door pocket . . . It’s in there.’ Peter kept his eye on him as he opened the door, took out the phone, and immediately locked the door behind him.

  ‘This Josh person, who is he and what was his role in the . . . what would we call it . . . factory?’ he asked Andrew as he handed Sean the phone.

  ‘He is the man who offered his storerooms, and he was playing the role of production manager.’

  ‘All right I will be talking to him now. Listen carefully to what I am going to say as it might calm you down a bit.’

  From the expression on Sean’s face, Peter could see he was not happy with his plans. He could see that he was just an ordinary person. He felt sorry that he had to endure most of the incidents he was involved with so far.

  The phone rang, and then he heard a voice say, ‘Hello.’ No name was mentioned.

  ‘Hi, good afternoon am I speaking to Josh Clayton?’

  ‘Yes. Who am I speaking to?’ The voice was deep yet very clear.

  ‘Mr Clayton, you are speaking to Peter Johnson. Do you have a minute for me, please?’ There was silence from the other side. ‘Mr Clayton, are you there?’

  ‘Oh yes . . . I . . . I am just trying to place your name. It sounds so familiar, but yet . . . oh yes, you are the hobo, the . . . speaker. Of course, sir, what can I do for you?’ Josh sounded excited to speak to the man whose speeches he had followed on television.

  Peter ignored this description of him as he took note of the respect with which the person was speaking. ‘Mr Clayton, I have with me a Mr Andrew Cohen. Do you know him?’

  Suddenly the respect was gone. ‘That little rat, is he with you? So he ran to you for protection. If he thinks you are going to save him from . . .’

  ‘Mr Clayton, I want to disagree with you on that. If you can allow me to come with him to Bolton right after this call, I will do so. Problem is this man is very scared of you and the people down there.’

  Josh Clayton was not happy with what he was hearing. ‘Are you sure that you are capable of protecting him from the people of this town, sir?’ Josh asked, sounding a bit sceptical.

  ‘Not without your help, sir.’

  Josh was silent for a while. How could he reject a man of Peter’s nature? He had been astounded both times by this man’s wisdom on television. For him, it would be an honour to meet him.

  ‘I can only try my best, but we have to be careful. Right now, that man is not the best loved person in this town.’

  ‘I understand. I want you to see if you can get those people together by five tonight. We need to address this issue very urgently, only with persons involved in this matter. If the whole town is there, I need you to guarantee that whomever I bring with me will not be harmed. See whatever protection you can come up with. Do I have your word for that, Mr Clayton?’

  There was not even an interval before Josh Clayton spoke again. ‘Mr Johnson just by me spreading the word that you are coming to town, will already guarantee the safety of anyone coming with you. It is already a pleasure talking to you, and it sure will be our honour to be in your company. Yes, sir, you have my word on everything that you have asked for. See you later, sir. Goodbye.’

  ‘Goodbye, Mr Clayton, and thank you very much.’ Peter switched the phone off and turned to the others.

  ‘It has all been arranged, gentlemen. We are going to Bolton . . . and, Andrew, no need to worry. Everything will work out fine. You might live to be a hundred years old.’

  Sean was too not anxious to go on this trip. He had to get Peter to change his mind and was sure that calling the police was a much better idea.

  ‘Mr Johnson, but . . . but why are you doing this?’

  Peter turned around, stood still, and with a sincere look said to him, ‘Sean, when I had some unfinished business, you told me about 2 Corinthians 8 Verses 10–11. You know what you did to me . . . I think you should tell it to this man as well.’

  All Sean could do was stare at him. Peter did not take the trouble to wait for an answer. He knew that he had just defeated him in this argument.

  ‘Don’t just stand there. Let us get this car up on the road. Andrew, we will have to leave your car at the petrol station up the road. When matters are sorted out in your town, you will have to find a way to collect it. If there is anything you think you will need, you better get it now.’

  They all got into the car with Sean behind the wheel.