Dusk

by Miller, Maureen A.

  Heart thumping, she moved as directed, surprised to find several people seated at the tables on such a cold day. She took a seat near the entrance, close to the pedestrian traffic. He sat down across from her, folding his arms over his green military jacket.

  Dark brown hair looked black in the fine mist, while green eyes gleaned despite the cloud cover. A coat of graying whiskers framed the thin face.

  “If anyone comes forward right now you’ll never see your cousin again,” he announced with a congenial smile.

  To the public it might look like two friends meeting for a quick pint, with the exception of her strained expression.

  “Smile, Amanda. Don’t do anything stupid like draw attention with your sour face.”

  “I have absolutely nothing to smile about,” she seethed.

  “Oh, come now. Don’t be so negative.” He stretched his body back in the chair, the move revealing the bulge of a gun in his jacket pocket. “We’re sitting at a riverside pub in London. It’s a tad chilly for my tastes, but the city is beautiful. I’m about to receive the stones I’ve agonized over for two decades. There is plenty to smile about.”

  “Don’t look so smug. I want answers, and I want you to take me to Sam. I’ll only hand the diamonds over when I have him safely with me.”

  Willem waved over a waiter.

  “A Guinness please.”

  After the waiter passed by, Willem stared at Amanda levelly. “You’re buying, right?”

  “It isn’t wise to conduct business over alcohol,” she berated. “Now back to Sam.”

  “Yes, whatever. Sam is sitting semi-comfortably in a van only a few blocks from here.”

  “Says the man ordering a Guinness at 10:00am.”

  The complacent expression wavered. He leaned forward and sneered. “I have had a hard life thanks to your parents. There have been many beers to help get me through that. Don’t mislead yourself into thinking that my reactions will be tainted. In fact,” he grabbed the pint with a nod, “this will sharpen my reflexes.”

  “Sam,” she insisted, remaining stoic.

  “Fine.” He reached into a jacket pocket and extracted a cheap cell phone. In a moment he spoke into it. “Tell her that you are comfortably waiting for her to conduct the transaction. And remind her that if she doesn’t do it quickly−”

  Willem’s dark eyebrows descended as he was cut off by the voice on the other end. Amanda felt flush at the sound of Sam going off on the guy.

  Willem turned the phone towards her. “As you can see, he is healthy.”

  “Sam!” she called.

  “Dammit, keep it down,” Willem hissed, casting sideward glances at the nearby tables. He sat back, and dropped the cell phone into his pocket. The Cheshire Cat grin returned.

  “Alright, enough. Let me see them.”

  “I told you that I wanted answers.”

  “You’re in no position to make demands.”

  The business woman slipped into her skin. “Oh, yes I am. Look at you. You can barely contain yourself. The lust is written all over your face. That will make you sloppy.” She had learned that anger was the way to prod this man. It was a dangerous tool to use. It could backfire. But it was all she had.

  “Sloppy?” he spat. “I have played you the entire time. I have toyed with you. Once I learned that you survived your parents, and that you undoubtedly had the diamonds due to your aunt and uncle being able to afford your education when they had led an extremely modest life prior to that−” he took a slow sip of beer, crafty green eyes watching her over the rim of the glass, “−I studied. I planned. I learned everything I could about computers−about hacking and phishing. Every cent I made in odd jobs went towards educating myself−all in preparation for the day I would meet you.”

  Willem smiled congenially at a couple seated two tables away. Shrewdly, he scanned all the tables and the sidewalk traffic.

  “I had done my research. I knew that with your power and influence I had to be particularly shrewd when I demanded the diamonds. I had to be in control of the situation. I infiltrated your email with the tricks and tools I acquired. I researched the architectural drawings of your apartment building, which were accessible online because it is a historic property. Slowly I developed my plan to break you.”

  Breathe.

  “You haven’t broken me,” she declared in a voice low enough that he had to lean in again. “You have, of course, caught my attention. Tell me how the diamonds originally came into your possession.”

  This time Willem took a deep swallow from his pint. His head twitched and he kept his focus on the river.

  “My origins are very different than yours. My mother died when I was four. My father worked the local diamond mine to pay off her outstanding medical bills. He put me to work at seven. He said if I wanted to eat I had to find a way to buy food. I learned to hang out behind the restaurants and sift through the garbage. By the time I was eight, some of the restaurants began leaving me clean bags of leftovers.”

  “My father took to drinking,” he explained. “That’s when it started getting bad. He was consumed with plots to steal diamonds from his mine. He would tell me of coworkers who had discovered such extraordinary stones, but he had yet to find one on his shift. The guards were everywhere. Many workers were caught at the gates at night trying to remove the smallest of fragments. The police took them away.”

  Willem paused for another sip, all pretenses of a congenial conversation now gone. “By this time my father had sunk into such a depression he barely made it into work. I managed to get to school most of the time, but I had to leave early to work in the restaurants in return for the food they gave me. I would bring the leftovers home, proud that I was feeding us, but my father would just be disgusted. He wanted alcohol, not food. He wanted diamonds, not a son.”

  Scraping the graying bristle, he continued. “So I knew what I had to do. I had to find him a diamond. A big one. By now I was a teenager. I listened as I worked. I heard the tales−the rumors−big diamonds−colored diamonds had been found along Orange River. Every day after school−after the restaurant−I hitched rides−I walked−I found ways to get to that river, and I would dig. Ach−every day I dug. I moved locations once I felt a spot was useless.”

  Now he turned to look at her. The past was visible in his eyes. They were no longer a banal green. They truly bore the color of envy. An envy that had evolved into a sickness. Yes, she felt sorrow for the child he once was. But it took a man to take a person’s life. To take her parents lives.

  “One day, I settled in an abandoned camping ground along the river. At least I thought it was abandoned. To my surprise, there was a couple who had set up a tent there. I really didn’t give them much attention, until I noticed them digging along the shore. It pissed me off. Yeah, there was the occasional tourist, or enthusiast that had read about diamond discoveries along the river−”

  “Like you?” she goaded.

  Jade eyes narrowed, but he continued. “They were looking for an adventure. I was searching for a means to save my life.”

  Amanda wouldn’t let it go. “That’s a tad dramatic.”

  Angered by the interruption, he hefted the beer to his mouth. “Perhaps, but at the time that was how it felt. Finding a diamond was my only way out. I had little education. No money. I would never be able to leave my father, and I would never be able to please him.” He glanced away. “Anyway, I kept my eyes on that couple. They were laughing—throwing dirt at each other. They clearly didn’t take what they were doing seriously, so I went back about my business. I had been digging in that area for nearly a week now. I was about to move on when I heard the woman scream.”

  The voices from the adjacent tables—the blare of a car horn—the steady rumble of traffic across the bridge—a jet in the distance—all these sounds syphoned into a tunnel so that she could hone in on this man’s words.

  “I thought she had been bit by a snake or something, which would have been a good thing. It wo
uld have gotten them out of the way. But no−then the husband starts making these sounds−like he’s cheering, or celebrating. I picked up my screen box and moved closer. The woman screamed again−even louder.” He shook his head. “I thought she was crazy. I thought they were both crazy. Hell, tourists didn’t belong digging along that remote stretch of the river.”

  Amanda’s fingers curled around the arms of the outdoor chair. Blood pulsed heavily inside her ears.

  Willem settled his elbows on the table and leaned towards her. She found herself leaning in as well.

  “That damn couple found two diamonds. For as long as I had been trying, at least I acknowledged that it was a pipe dream. I don’t even think an amateur had dug anything up in decades. And yet, here were these two doos, holding up a couple of rough stones in the air, allowing the light to filter through the facets that identified them as diamonds. It wasn’t until I heard the husband drop the word blue repeatedly that I realized the rarity of these finds. Two of them!” he marveled. “Were the Gods so cruel as to not even let me discover just one of those two stones?

  Amanda tuned out for a moment. All she focused on was the clear indication that her parents were not thieves. They had not stolen the blue diamonds that eventually came into her possession. They were simply two enthusiasts taking a camping trip lark. What a tale it would be to share back home in their shop. The jewelery store owners who sifted for diamonds on the Orange River. They must have never expected to find anything, let alone two extremely rare blue diamonds. Chances were they were once the same rock, located so closely together, and divided by time.

  “I got to tell you,” Willem broke into her thoughts. “I went a little crazy. Those were my diamonds. I was out there every day. I would start way before dawn, and then stop for work at the restaurant, and then come right back out to continue until I could see no more. Every day.” He pounded the table for emphasis.

  For the most part Amanda had considered this man remarkably composed, and at times had issues associating him with a cold-blooded killer. At this moment, catching the glimpse of pure ire and hatred in his eyes, she realized the demons that pushed him in his youth had never abated. Anxious, she prayed that Ray was nearby.

  “I retrieved my pickaxe. I stalked over to them and demanded the diamonds. At first I tried to be reasonable and explained that this my tract of land that I had been digging on for the past several weeks.” Swollen knuckles combed through his hair in violent sweeps. “But the man attempted to reason with me. Big mistake. He should have just understood that those diamonds belonged to me.”

  “But they didn’t. It is unfortunate, but someone else discovered them. Many people have suffered the same disappointment,” Amanda tried to reason. “They didn’t kill over it.”

  Lizard eyes. They shifted, glaring at her from the side. “They didn’t have to go home to my father at night.” He tossed down the ring of froth at the bottom of his mug. “They didn’t have to go home empty-handed.”

  “But, we weren’t by the river when my parents−” She choked on the words. Her eyes sliced towards the tables around them. Didn’t these people hear the discussion of murder? Could they not tell that she was sitting with a psychopath?

  “We were on a road,” she continued in a whisper. Visions besieged her of a long, shadowed road cutting into the purple sky. Around her, Rhodes grass murmured a tale as it rippled in the wind.

  But it wasn’t bush grass that she heard. It was the continuous beat of tires rumbling over Tower Bridge.

  ‘Yes,” his bitter voice resumed. “As I said, the man tried to reason with me. I was young. Stupid. He was biding time−distracting me as the wife slipped away, apparently taking her child−you−from the tent.” Cupping his forehead in both hands, Willem’s words were slightly muffled. “Then there was this surreal moment−a moment that plays over again and again in my mind until I think I’ll go mad. In the man’s hand are still the two rough stones. One was huge, the other was enough to leave my father rich and famous for life. For that one surreal moment we both stared down at his stretched out hand. Then in a snatch he clasped his fingers around them and it was a foot race back to his rental car.”

  Why couldn’t she remember more? She remembered the tent. She didn’t remember leaving so hastily. How scared her parents must have been!

  “He made it first, and all I could do was slam on his car door as he pulled out of the campground.”

  Boom.

  A loud clap. A hand on a window.

  She remembered that.

  “I couldn’t chase after him. I had no car. I trekked to that location every day on foot. Sometimes a local would give me a ride, but most people paid me no mind.”

  His sigh was deceiving. There was anger brewing under the surface. Even now she noticed the blood climbing to his cheeks.

  “I started to chase them. I didn’t stop running—all that was left of them was a swirl of dust in the air, but I still kept running. I knew there was a ranch a couple kilometers away. An old tea farmer came out to greet me. By then I was so mad I couldn’t control myself. I had to lash out. I had to punch the guy. When he went down I punched him again−and again−and again. Each hit brought back a sense of control. I left the farmer and searched his barn, coming away with two valuable items. A gun, and an old VW Eurovan.”

  The glint in his eye chilled Amanda.

  “And just like that, I was back on the chase,” he explained with a hint of a grin. His knee bobbed like a jackhammer as if he was still in pursuit.

  Resisting the rupture of pain in her chest, she managed a tangled whimper. “So you pulled them over, and you just shot them?”

  Those sharp eyes shifted at the hint of weakness. His lips curled into a smile.

  “Of course. How else was I going to search the car without being harassed by them?”

  Amanda’s back slammed against the chair as if she had been propelled there. The shock faded quickly. She knew what had happened on that road, but for a moment, hearing it uttered so callously staggered her. Yet, on closer inspection, this man wasn’t as cool about it as he portrayed. His fingers were tapping atop his bobbing knee. His right eyelid throbbed.

  “But you didn’t find anything in the car?” she goaded softly.

  A waiter dared to stop at their table at that moment. The lad caught Willem’s deadly look and pivoted away.

  “No,” Willem hissed. “I didn’t find anything. That makes you one lucky lady. For awhile−” he added. “Now give me the diamonds.”

  A chill stole over her body, but this was not the frigid sting of fear. The Ice Queen had returned. Her chin inched up and her shoulders pinned back.

  “They don’t belong to you,” she stated calmly.

  The knee stopped.

  “Oh, but they do,” he countered. “By all rights they should have been mine.”

  “Should have been is a far cry from ownership.”

  The tapping fingers curled into a fist. A pale lip pulled back into a sneer.

  “Keep the diamonds−lose a cousin.” He shrugged. “It’s your call.”

  Amanda watched his eyes widen in surprise as she rose from the table, extracting a twenty pound note and leaving it for the beer.

  “Where are you going?” he demanded.

  She slipped her purse under her arm and stared down at her parents’ murderer with a contempt that was impossible to harness.

  “To get my cousin,” she proclaimed. “And when I do I will hand over my diamonds to you if he is safe.”

  For a moment they faced off, silent amidst the din of traffic and passersby. She searched his face, looking for a sign of the hungry boy. This man wore those two decades like a coat of arms. The lust for something he had never possessed snatched his weight, making him wiry. The years of anger pinched his eyes, his lips. And the mania that stole the black luster of his hair and turned it into smoke.

  The wrought iron chair scraped against the sidewalk as he stood. He was only an inch or two taller th
an her, but she tried her best to look down at him. She would not surrender any sign of weakness.

  He grabbed her elbow and turned her about, marching her down the sidewalk.

  “If we’re being followed,” he warned. “If your boyfriend shows up−if any police show up−”

  “They won’t,” she assured, her voice shaking from being jostled off a curb.

  Instead of chancing the exposure in the wide open park, Willem angled her towards the crowded streets. The manacle on her arm was relentless, but so far he had not placed his hand to the small of her back. She prayed that the jostling hadn’t shaken loose the GPS tracker.

  Willem kept glancing over his shoulder and she wondered if Ray was back there. Did Willem see him? Did he sense he was being followed?

  Amanda kept purposefully in stride with him, knowing that each step was taking her closer to Sam. They passed by small hotels and even smaller pubs, until Willem abruptly halted, chaotic eyes flashing silver under the cloudy skies. He scanned the road, his head swiveling back and forth like a metronome.

  “Give me the diamonds,” he demanded with his palm out.

  “No.”

  The palm snapped into a fist. He raised it, but she didn’t flinch.

  “Your cousin is in a blue van in the parking lot across the street.”

  Amanda’s eyes flicked in that direction. She saw a blue van, but she could not see if anyone was in it.

  “When I see him with my own eyes, you’ll get the diamonds.”

  The metronome kicked in again until finally his thin grasp on restraint faltered. In a bearish move, he lunged for her purse, yanking it off her shoulder and nearly dislocating the joint. He cast a feral glimpse in each direction, and satisfied that they were alone, dumped the contents onto a bench, growling out his aggravation when he couldn’t find the diamonds.

  “Where are they,” he yelled, his eyes scaling her body for potential hiding places. That roving gaze immediately settled on the fisted hand inside her raincoat pocket.

  He stalked towards her, and this time she retreated a step.