The Real

by Masha du Toit

  “I got one of her shirts.” Ndlela handed Elke a yellow T-shirt. “She was wearing this yesterday. Is this okay?”

  “That’s great.” Elke took the shirt. “Could you see if she took anything with her? Like food, or clothing?”

  “She did!” Ndlela nodded eagerly. “She’s got this little backpack she uses when we do beach combing. That’s gone. I don’t know if she took food but she always takes a water bottle. As far as I can tell, all her other stuff is still there. All her books are there, even the one she’s reading at the moment, so that must mean she didn’t mean to be gone for long.”

  “Good,” said Elke. “That helps.”

  She held the shirt out to Meisje who sniffed it thoroughly. “That enough scent for you, girl? Can you find her?”

  Meisje sniffed at the shirt again as if to fix the scent in her memory and then she was off, nose lowered, trotting down the steps.

  “How fresh, girl? This morning?”

  Meisje flicked her ear. Yes.

  “Early morning? And not since then?”

  Yes.

  “She’s speaking to you?” Ndlela seemed fascinated. “With her ears? You can tell what she’s saying?”

  “Yes. Let’s see where she leads us.”

  Meisje cast around, nose down, tail up. She moved quickly along the barrier wall between the hotel and the river. Elke didn’t try to keep up with her. Instead she looked around. Some distance ahead, right at the edge of the sea, a building stood on an outcrop of rock. To the left beyond the river was the line of the new dike and a group of people working there. Those must be the “Dutchies” Ndlela had referred to.

  Her gaze came back to Meisje, who was sniffing near the river, at the stepping stones. When they reached her, she was tracing larger and larger circles, moving slowly over the damp sand.

  “The tide’s been up to here since this morning,” said Ndlela, watching her. “That would wash away the scent, right?”

  “Yup.” Elke badly wanted to mind-link with Meisje but it didn’t seem like a good idea to do that in front of these strangers. They didn’t know the dog was a gardag, and the less interest she attracted from these strangers, the better. “If the tide’s been up since your sister left, her scent would pretty much be gone. Even on those stepping stones. They get covered?”

  “They do.” Ndlela’s shoulders slumped in disappointment.

  “What are those buildings over there?” Elke pointed down towards the sea. “If she continued in this direction, that’s where she’d end up. Have you looked there?”

  Elke noticed Ndlela and Crosshatch exchange a glance.

  “No,” said Ndlela. “We’ve not been there.” He turned to look at the buildings again. “Some people moved in there recently,” he said at last. “I know Isabeau was scared of them. She wouldn’t go there.” But his tone sounded less certain than his words.

  Some people moved in there recently. Elke looked at him consideringly. “Tell me,” she said at last, “Is that the place they call the circus?”

  “That’s right,” said Ndlela.

  “What do you know about that?” Crosshatch’s tone was far from friendly.

  Elke cursed herself silently. It had been a mistake to ask so openly about the circus, but she couldn’t think of a graceful way of not answering the old man’s question.

  “It’s why I’m here,” she said. “I got a message from a— Um, a friend of mine that I was to meet her here in a place called the circus. Only I didn’t know where that was.”

  “A friend?” Crosshatch looked at her intently. “Do you know those people?”

  Meisje, who had circled back to where they were standing, moved protectively in front of Elke, who dropped a hand to rub the dog’s head.

  “So, look,” Elke said evenly. “I get it. I’m a stranger. You don’t trust me.”

  Ndlela dropped his gaze, but Crosshatch continued staring at her.

  “Okay. Right. Can I make a suggestion?” Elke looked from Ndlela, who was digging patterns in the sand with his toe, to Crosshatch, who had not moved. “I’ll tell you a little bit about myself. Then you can tell me why you think that—Isabeau, is it—would have come to me this morning.”

  Ndlela studiously avoided her gaze.

  “I told you already that I’m a cop. Well, that’s true. I’m a cop in the Babylon Eye.”

  That got a reaction. Ndlela’s head came up abruptly and even Crosshatch blinked.

  “A few days ago I got a message from a woman I used to know. She asked me to meet her here at the Muara, at the circus. She said she was going to be alone. So if there are several people down there, no, I don’t know about them. Just her.”

  Crosshatch looked unimpressed, but Ndlela was clearly excited by Elke’s words. “So you do have something to do with those circus people!” he blurted. “So Isabeau was right!” He took a step toward Elke. “See, that’s why I thought she was coming to you this morning. She wanted to warn you.”

  Elke’s eyebrows went up. “Warn me?”

  A sharp crack sounded from beyond the river, and then another, distant, but distinct.

  “What was—” said Ndlela but Elke was already moving as a third shot sounded.

  “You stay here!” she called over her shoulder. “Those were gunshots. Rifle shots.”

  To her annoyance Ndlela didn’t pay any attention to her command. He overtook before she even reached the stepping stones. “Come!” he said before she could protest. “I’ll show you the quickest way.”

  It took only a few minutes for Elke to admit that Ndlela was right. He led them rapidly across the river mouth and along a series of hidden paths among the rubble and undergrowth close to the half-completed dike. Meisje stayed just ahead and Crosshatch, who to Elke’s surprise had no difficulty in keeping up, brought up the rear.

  Ndlela drew to a halt at some sandbags that were piled up on the inner face of the dike. When they reached him, they all understood why he’d stopped. There were voices, close by, on the far side of the dike. At a nod from Crosshatch, the four of them climbed the inner side of the dike and paused at the top.

  Some people stood near a half-constructed wind pump, too caught up in their argument to notice the arrival of Elke and her companions.

  Elke took careful note of each of them. She thought she could guess which were the dike workers— four men and one woman, all dressed in no-nonsense work clothes in muted colours. One of them, a plump young man with dark, curly hair, was arguing with three people who were clearly not part of their group.

  The first of these was a tall man with ink-black skin and a shiny, shaven head. His eyes were hidden behind a pair of enormous dark glasses and he wore a jacket that looked like snake-skin. He had a rifle slung casually over one shoulder and seemed amused at the argument.

  Just behind him stood another man, every visible inch of his sunburned skin covered in intricate tattoos. Dreadlocks the colour of dried grass cascaded over his shoulders and he was dressed in a dirty white T-shirt and canvas trousers.

  The third member of their party was a woman with faded, grey-blond hair and the reddened skin of someone who had spent most of her life outside. She looked over at Elke’s approach. The woman’s eyes widened and her face tightened with emotion. Then her face went blank again.

  Do I know her? Elke stopped where she was as the rest of the group broke off their conversation and turned to meet the newcomers.

  “Hey!” said one of the Dutch men. “Ndlela. Have you found your sister yet? Has she come home to you?” He looked curiously at Elke and nodded a greeting.

  “No,” said Ndlela. “Who’s been shooting?”

  “We were just asking those same questions,” said the man. “Hallo. I’m Wim.”

  “Hi,” Elke shook his hand. “I’m Elke.” The grey-haired woman seemed to tense at the sound of Elke’s name.

  “You seen this little girl at all?” Elke asked Wim. “Isabeau?”

  “Sadly, not yet,” said Wim. “We’ve been
keeping a lookout for her.” He glanced at his curly haired companion. “Leendert, what say you? Search parties, before it gets any darker?”

  Leendert seemed reluctant to turn away from his confrontation with the snake-skin man. “I still want to know what these people are doing shooting up the place. And who they are. You can explain that to us?” Leendert jutted his chin out as he spoke.

  “Sure, dude,” said the man. “My name ain’t no secret. I’m Mamba.” He touched his jacket lightly with a thumb. “And we weren’t shooting no little girl. We haven’t seen any little girls. We were shooting at that fucking dog, man.”

  “At a dog?” Ndlela stepped forward, outraged. “You shot at Robby?”

  Mamba looked down at Ndlela as if noticing him for the first time. “Who Robby?”

  “Our dog!” Ndlela had his fists clenched.

  Crosshatch put a restraining hand on his shoulder.

  “Your Robby dog a big, black fucker like a fucking wolf, about as big as a fucking cart horse?” said Mamba.

  “Oh.” Ndlela relaxed. “No. That’s not Robby.”

  “Well.” Mamba adjusted his jacket. “That’s what we were shooting at. And that fucker was not alone. There’s more of those big dogs. Saw them last night.” He wrinkled his nose in a sniff. “Well. Nice talking to you guys. Good luck finding the little girl.” He patted his rifle. “I’m going to be hunting me some of those dogs.” He turned to go, but somehow Crosshatch was in his way.

  “You going to do something about your effluent runoff?” said the old man.

  Mamba’s eyebrows appeared above the glossy lenses of his shades. “Excuse me, what?”

  “Your sewage.” Crosshatch’s voice was cold with displeasure. “Your toilet is emptying directly into the sea. There’s a waste tank in the yard that you should be using. Also, when you drive your bikes all over the beach like you’ve been doing, you’re disturbing some vulnerable bird-nesting sites.”

  Mamba gave a snort of laughter then simply pushed past Crosshatch and walked away down the outer slope of the dike, following the woman, who’d gone on ahead of him.

  “Lovely people,” said Wim, watching them go. “I wonder what they’re up to.”

  Leendert came over to Crosshatch. “Listen,” he said. “We got to get moving with some search parties for Isabeau. You people know this place much better than we do. Where do you suggest we start?”

  ¤¤¤

  After some discussion it was decided that there would be two search parties. The dike workers would start at the river and work their way eastwards, first along the coastline and then further inland. Ndlela, Elke, Crosshatch and Meisje would search westwards up the coast. Ndlela was anxious to get back to the hotel to meet up with Noor, who would be back from her work by now.

  “She doesn’t even know Isabeau is missing yet,” he said as they walked rapidly along the top of the dike. “And she’ll be wondering where everyone is. Or maybe Isabeau is back there already and waiting for us.”

  “Good point,” said Elke. “I’m going to send Meisje out to scout from where she lost the scent. She can work much faster by herself, and she can—” She was going to say that Meisje had enhanced vision, but was not sure if she wanted to reveal Meisje’s true gardag nature quite yet. “She can work even in the dark,” she ended lamely.

  Crosshatch strode on ahead. He was going to his home in case Isabeau had ended up there. “I’ll meet you back at the hotel,” he said over his shoulder.

  ¤¤¤

  The sun was already low on the horizon when Elke and Ndlela reached the hotel.

  “Noor’s not home yet.” Ndlela frowned up at the building. “No lights and the blinds aren’t closed or anything.”

  “Hey!”

  Elke and Ndlela swung around. Somebody was stomping up towards them.

  “Oh!” Ndlela waved. “That’s her. That’s Noor.”

  “Hey.” Noor climbed up to where they were waiting. “Ndlela. Who’s this?” She eyed Elke curiously.

  “This is Elke. She’s—” Ndlela turned to Elke, clearly at a loss for words.

  “Hi there. Nice to meet you, Noor.”

  Noor nodded but didn’t smile in response. Her dark eyes scanned Elke, and Elke was uncomfortably aware of how she must look with her baggy shirt crumpled from being slept in, her untidy hair that didn’t conceal her horns, and the old Rent tattoo on her cheek.

  Noor turned to Ndlela. “Where’s Isabeau? I’ve been visiting your friends at the Circus.” She pushed past them and started climbing the steps.

  “Uh, What?” Ndlela followed his sister up the steps with Elke close behind. “Listen— Noor—”

  “Just as I thought.” Noor tested the front door. “Didn’t I ask you guys to keep this locked?” She pushed the door open without waiting for an answer then stopped just inside, taking in the dark interior. “Ndlela, where’s Isabeau?”

  “She’s gone,” said Ndlela. “I was trying to tell you—”

  Noor stared at him.

  “She’s been gone all day.” Ndlela looked anxiously at his sister. “Me and Crosshatch have been looking for her since this morning.”

  “She’s been gone all day?” Noor stared at Ndlela. Then her gaze went to Elke, who was waiting outside. “What the hell is going on here? Who the hell are you? Where’s Isabeau?” Noor took hold of Ndlela’s arm and advanced on Elke, her eyes snapping with suspicious anger.

  “She’s helping us!” yelped Ndlela. He twisted out of his sister’s grasp. “Stoppit, you’re hurting me! Just listen, okay? I’ve been trying to tell you—”

  Noor looked Elke up and down, then turned to Ndlela. “Speak. Slowly. From the beginning.”

  “Okay.” Ndlela rubbed his arm where his sister had grabbed him. “Last night, Isabeau— You remember we saw somebody outside? Well it turns out this was her. Elke. And— You asked me to talk so just shut up for a minute and listen, okay?”

  Noor, who’d been about to interrupt, held up her hands and nodded.

  “Remember what Issy told you?” said Ndlela. “About those people wanting to shoot somebody?” Ndlela turned to Elke. “That’s why I thought she’d gone to you. Isabeau said—”

  “Ndlela!” Noor frowned at him. “Start from the beginning.”

  “Right. Okay.” Ndlela swallowed. “When we were hiding under the circus buildings the other night we heard them talking. Those people down there. About shooting somebody. Thing is, after we saw you last night, Elke, Isabeau got it into her head that it was you they meant to shoot. She wanted to warn you.”

  “And you didn’t try to stop her?” said Noor.

  “Of course I stopped her,” said Ndlela. “I told her to stay out of it.” He glanced at Elke. “Sorry, but it just seemed a crazy thing to do. We didn’t know who you were, and—”

  “We still don’t know who she is,” corrected Noor. “Go on.”

  “I thought I’d convinced her not to go, but this morning I overslept and by the time I noticed she was gone, well, she was gone. And Robby too.”

  “Robby’s your dog?” said Elke.

  “Yes.”

  “Maybe I should give Meisje a sniff of his scent too,” said Elke. “He’s likely to stick close to her, isn’t he?”

  Noor was clearly impatient with this interruption. “And then you went to Crosshatch to help track her.”

  “That’s right,” said Ndlela. “But the only traces he could find was of Elke and her dog.” He turned to Elke. “Crosshatch is a really sharp tracker. That’s how we found your campsite and all your stuff.”

  “So Isabeau is still out there now?” said Noor.

  “We got the dike team to make a search party,” said Ndlela. “They’re searching from the river mouth towards Kaapstadt. We’re going to search in the other direction. With Crosshatch.”

  “Well what are we waiting for?” Noor headed for the door.

  “Uh. Hold on just a second,” said Elke, stepping to bar her way.

  Noor’s eyebrows sn
apped together and she glared at Elke.

  “There’s just a couple of things we need to make sure of before we all just go rushing out there,” said Elke levelly. “For example have you got any first-aid stuff to take with?”

  Noor blinked and her stance became a little less aggressive.

  “And unless somebody’s staying here,” Elke continued, “waiting to see if she shows up, it would be a good idea to leave a light on, and maybe a note in case she turns up here while we’re gone. And we need to plan how we are going to search. People go rushing off into the dark by themselves and the next thing we’ve got another missing person to deal with.”

  “You ready to go?” It was Crosshatch. He had a battered-looking torch in one hand, and a bag slung over his shoulder.

  “Wait,” said Ndlela. “You said you went down to the circus, Noor. What did you go there for?”

  “Since you guys were bothering those people the other night I just thought I’d go check it out.” said Noor, pulling open a cupboard. “Do you know where the first aid bag is, Ndlela?”

  “You’ll need bandages,” Elke told her. “One of those anaesthetic jabs, if you have it. Painkiller. Clean water. Disinfectant.”

  “But did you speak to them?” said Ndlela. “Those people?”

  “Sure I did.” Noor was down on her knees, rummaging in a cupboard. “They seemed okay. Just regular people.” She pulled out a faded white bag and handed it to Ndlela. “That’s all the first aid stuff we’ve got.”

  “Excellent,” said Elke. “Why don’t you keep it. We’ll make two teams. You stick with Crosshatch. I’ll go with Ndlela. Have you got a whistle? Or can either of you whistle loudly?”

  “I can whistle,” said Noor. Her tone was still unfriendly. “Why?”

  “If you find your sister you whistle and we’ll come and find you,” explained Elke. “Same for us. You hear us whistle, come to us if you can. If you are not sure where we are, come back here. Okay?”