“Is he still in Ravensdale?”
“No.”
“Then where is he?” Sauer stressed his voice. He had to drag everything out of her.
“He is dead.”
“How did he die?”
“He died of acquired immune deficiency syndrome while he was in jail.”
“What was he in jail for?”
Heidi looked down. Sauer sat up in his chair and leaned his upper body towards her.
“I asked what he was in jail for.”
“Rape.”
So it runs in the family. The fucker gets fucked. Poetic justice.
“Who did he rape?”
Silence.
“I said, who did he rape!” Sauer screamed.
Heidi shook with fright. She looked at Sauer and said, “He raped a small boy.”
Sauer let out a slow breath. He sat back into his chair.
“Where is Henry’s mom?”
“Still on the small holding.”
Sauer looked at Heidi a while. It never ceases to amaze him the amount of emotional baggage people cart around with them. Yet, to the world they show angelic faces and pretend that all is well.
“You’re a nurse, aren’t you,” he asked her.
“Yes.”
“Where do you nurse?”
“At the Soweto Psychiatric Institution.”
“So you are a psychiatric nurse?”
“In training.”
That would help.
“What shifts do you work?”
“Night shifts.”
“Always?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“It gives me more time to study.”
Silence. Sauer looked at her. She became shy and dropped her head.
“So you live her with Henry.”
“Yes.”
“As husband and wife?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know that he makes pornographic movies in his spare time?”
“Yes.” Her head was still down.
“Did he ever feature you in one of his movies?” Sauer asked as he sat up again.
Heidi fumbled with her dressing gown again. “Yes” she whispered.
“Did he make you do it? Or did you do it voluntarily?”
“He asked me to do it. It was the first few he made.”
The things we do for the people we love.
“And then after that? What happened then?”
“He had enough money to pay people.”
“Does he make a lot of these movies?”
“Yes.”
“How many movies has he made?”
“He makes about two a month,” Heidi said, finally looking up.
“So he makes a lot of money.”
“Yes.”
“He told us that he is a student. He said he is studying for one of the commerce degrees.”
“He is.”
“So when does he makes these movies?”
“At night.”
“So when does he sleep?”
“He doesn’t sleep a lot.”
“Why not?”
“He never has.”
“So where is he now? At class?”
Heidi looked at the wall next to her and then down at her fumbling hands on her lap.
Silence.
“So where is he?” Sauer asked sternly, not wanting to frighten her again.
Silence.
“Shall we take you to the police station and ask you these questions there?”
“Perhaps we should,” said Hobbs. He walked into the tiny living room. He had a brown envelope in his right hand. He walked over to where Heidi sat. Her eyes went dead, and then she glared at Hobbs. Slowly, he lowered himself next to her. He tapped the A4 envelope on the coffee table between them and Sauer. All the while he looked at Heidi. Hobbs stretched his hand across the table and handed the envelope to Sauer.
Sauer shoved his massive hand in the envelope, tearing the paper. He took out several folded sheets of paper. He unfolded them and slowly paged through them. He let out a long, slow whistle.
“Talk to me,” Sauer said.
Heidi’s cross face glared at him. “You cannot come into my house, ask to piss and then go scratching through my things!” she shouted at Hobbs.
Sauer looked at Hobbs. “Captain, shall we call the flying squad—and the press and make a very public arrest.”
Hobbs nodded his head.
Sauer shifted his weight to his right side. He fumbled in his pocket for his mobile phone. He dialed a number then put the phone to his ear.
“Wait,” said Heidi. “What is it that you want to know?”
Sauer almost laughed out loud at the absurdity. “We want to know what the hell you are doing with Henry James Harper’s forensic report. The report that ties his genetics to Jimmy Love and Charmaine Zeller.”
“I…um…”
“Um what?” Sauer spat at her.
“He asked me to get it for him.”
“Why did he ask you to do that?”
“He said that you two are crooked police and that you planted evidence to make him look guilty.”
“Did he say why we would do a thing like that?”
“He said that you wanted a kick-back from his movies and when he refused, you threatened to expose him as the Face Lifter.”
“And you believe that?”
“He would never lie to me.”
Yea right.
“So, how did you get hold of the report? For as far as I know, these reports are locked in a safe in the Forensic building.
Heidi fumbled with her dressing gown again.
“You better answer sweetie. My patience is running out.”
“He said I was to go to the building and meet with a policeman there.”
“When was that?”
“A few weeks ago. I can remember. It was late on Friday afternoon.”
“So, what happened?”
“I went there and the policeman gave me that envelope.”
“Just like that?”
Heidi did not answer.
“I said, just like that?” Sauer screamed.
She did not flinch. So she is playing us. She looks like an angel, but our sweet little Heidi is as hard as nails. Had to be, considering where she comes from.
“Yes,” she eventually answered.
“So, who was the policeman?” Sauer asked.
“I don’t know.”
“What does he look like?”
“Black…dressed in a blue uniform.”
“Oh, gee,” Sauer said to Hobbs, “that narrows the suspect in the South African Police Force down to about…let’s see, fifty thousand!”
Sauer sat on the edge of his chair. “You better start talking”
“Or what?” Heidi asked all cocky.
“Or I will take you to the bush and beat the truth out of you,” Sauer said.
“That is what you guys do…”
“Yes that is what we guys do. This is Africa, the continent of corruption and bribery. This is not the U S of A, or a television series. We do not deal with people who steal compact discs. We deal with cold-blooded bastards who enjoy killing. So yes, we beat the truth out of our customers—because our human right constitution means nothing. In this country, criminals have more rights than their victims.” Sauer took a deep breath. “Don’t think for a moment that we do not hit women. We do—as hard as we hit the men.”
“So, what else do you want to know?” Heidi asked sweetly.
“You better tell us everything.”
“Everything happened as I told you,” she said. Sauer lifted himself out of his chair and slapped her across the face. The slap threw her body off balance and she landed next to the chair on the floor. Sauer sat down again, his glare never leaving her.
“You were warned,” he said. “Now talk.”
Her face was red where he slapped her. Heidi took a deep breath and tears streamed down her face. She placed her l
eft hand on the red spot. “Henry phoned me just after you arrested him. He said that I had to come and see him. He said that you had taken genetic samples from him. He said that I was to make contact with an Inspector Julius Hlongwane. Henry also said that I was to take money from the safe and buy the forensic report once it arrived back at the lab.”
“So where does Inspector Hlongwane work?
“At court, he is an orderly.”
One of them bright policemen that carry the case files to and from the court, the prosecutors and the forensic lab.
“How much did you pay him?”
“Five thousand rand.”
“Is that all? I don’t believe you. We know for a fact that the price of case files starts from minimum ten thousand rand. Don’t talk bullshit.”
“I am not. Henry said only to get the forensic report and all the back-ups.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Heidi dropped her face and Hobbs stroked her hair. Let’s play good cop, bad cop. He spoke softly to her, “We are just trying to help you. If you tell us the truth, we will forget about it all. You will carry on with your life and we will never bother you again. We won’t lay charges against you…nothing. We just need to know everything.”
Heidi’s wiped her face with her hands. She spoke softly: “I had to go and ask for Hlongwane at court. He appeared once in one of Henry’s movies and he was keen to do it again. Henry said that I must give him the money and tell him to come to the set that evening. I was to meet him there.”
“Don’t you work night shifts?”
“Yes, but we work one week on and then we get one week off.”
“So you are off every second week.”
“Yes.”
“So you carried on with Henry’s movie making business while he was in jail?”
“Yes,” she said. “It pays for our expenses.”
“So what happened next?”
“Hlongwane came to the set and we did a movie.”
“What do you mean we?”
Heidi did not answer. The expression on her face had hardened again. “We as in me, the cameraman, the girls…the policeman.”
“Did you have to fuck him to get the forensic report?”
Heidi did not answer. “Where is that movie?’ Sauer asked. Hobbs got up and walked down the hall again.
“You said you would do nothing,” she shouted after Hobbs. She jumped up and started running after Hobbs down the hallway.
Hobbs turned and waited for her. “Just give it to us. It is not you we are after.”
Heidi started sobbing again. She walked into the bedroom. Surprisingly, it was very feminine and dainty. Heidi walked towards the white built-in closet and opened the door. She shoved the clothes on the rail to one side, exposing a safe. She punched in a few numbers and the safe door jumped open. Hobbs could see several compact discs and a pile of money in the safe. Heidi looked through the discs and took one out. She placed the rest back in the safe and closed it. She moved the clothes in front of the safe again and closed the closet door.
“Here, it is the only copy. Henry said that we should keep it safe just in case.”
In case the person you bribed wanted more.
Hobbs walked back to the living room. Heidi followed him.
“You must go now,” she said. “I am working tonight.”
“At the hospital or at making movies?” Sauer asked.
Heidi did not answer.
“You still have not told us where he is,” Sauer said.
Heidi’s face fell. She looked old and tired now.
“Tell us and we will be out of your hair. If you lie to us, we will be back with a vengeance.”
“I think he is with his mom. I am not sure. I have not heard from him. I last saw him the afternoon after the case was provisionally withdrawn. Advocate O’Conner said that he should lie low for a while.”
The sneaky bastard, some people will do anything to get their clients off.
Sauer got up and walked out the door. Hobbs followed. Neither bothered to close the door behind them. Their shoes made squeaky noises on the floor as they walked. They could hear Heidi sobbing.
Chapter Forty-Nine
The sun was already high in the sky when Hobbs found Sauer sitting and drinking a beer at home.
“Did you not have enough last night?”
“There are things in life that man can never get enough of.”
Sauer passed the beer to Hobbs, who downed his in one go. Sauer got up and fetched the rest of the six-pack. They sat drinking and staring at the garden surrounding Sauer’s home.
“Only one thing remains,” says Sauer.
“Yes.” Hobbs looked at his partner. “Let’s do it.”
* * * *
Two months later.
The night was bitterly cool. Hobbs and Sauer parked the Turtle in the bush, a few miles from the homestead. It was better to approach in silence. Each carried a shotgun. Each had a determined face.
They did not walk quietly, but rather, deliberately. Sauer got used to Hobbs’s silence. The man had barely spoken for two months, but Sauer knew that Hobbs visited Jeanine every day. Even when her wounds healed and she was allowed to go home, Hobbs visited Jeanine daily. He knew this because Doctor Mayer told him so. Sauer got tired of spending time in the pub alone, so he made a point of visiting Amy more often.
Doctor Mayer told him that Jeanine would at times cry hysterically and that Hobbs would just quietly hold her. Doctor Mayer would cry when she told him this. She felt responsible for what happened to Jeanine. “Why did I not wake up? Why did I not switch on the alarm? Why, why, why…” She would burst into tears every time she spoke of what happened.
Sauer listened in silence. He felt lonely at times. He would be the only one speaking. Hobbs would not even acknowledge his corny jokes.
At least Amy listened to him. She would hold him on the few occasions when he chose to be silent. Yet, he never spoke about his work to her. He did not want to pollute her with his world. He loved her as she was, beautiful, caring and soft. He dealt with enough hard-ass women in his daily life.
A dog barked and sniffed them. The two detectives froze. They looked at each other, wondering how to solve the barking dog.
“Well, it is one of those things,” Sauer eventually said. “The damn dog will just be another stat in this end.”
They walked more determined, but quietly now. A second dog joined the first one’s bark. Sauer walked through the gate first.
A light went on and both policemen froze. They stood on the outskirts of the garden, just in the shadows. “It is motion detection light,” Sauer mouthed at Hobbs. The two detectives went down on their haunches and waited. The light automatically went out after a few minutes. The dogs went still.
“I think they are tied up at the back of the house,’ Sauer whispered. Hobbs nodded. Sauer picked up a stone and threw it at the dark corner of the house. They could hear it flop to the ground. No light went on and both dogs barked again. Sauer ripped a branch from the tree behind him and threw it at the dark corner. No light went on. Ah good, we will approach the house from that side.
Without a word, Hobbs got up and started walking towards the dark side of the house. They moved quietly. Rather than bark, the dogs moaned at the noises of the night. There was no motion detection light on the far corner of the house. They were now a few meters from the house. Sauer was slightly ahead of Hobbs, treading carefully and cleaning leaves and noisy twigs from his path with the barrel of the shotgun.
After every careful step, Sauer would wait for Hobbs to follow him. Sauer gave another step and waited for Hobbs to catch up. He felt Hobbs’s tap on his shoulder and took one more step. A bright light laminated them only a meter away from the house.
“I have been watching you!” shrilled a voice from the house as a gun blast floored them both. The bullet must have missed them by inches. The detectives could smell the gun powder. They leopard crawled to the veranda of the ho
use. No use in running away now. They had come this far.
Sauer now steamrollered the front door. He knocked using the back of the shotgun. The detectives heard mutterings.
“Open this fucking door before we break it down,” Sauer screamed.
“Go away. I will call the police,” a tired voice shrieked.
“We are the fucking police! Open this door now!” The dogs barked ferociously. Sauer lifted his gun and pulled the trigger sending the bullet into the night and the dogs scampering for safety.
Silence, then mutterings from inside the house.
“Open this door. We want to speak to Henry James Harper!”
“He is not here,” the same voice shrieked from the inside.
Using an old tackling trick from his rugby days, Sauer threw his massive shoulder into the door. It creaked as he bounced off it.
“Fucking thing is made from solid wood,” he said to Hobbs.
He slammed into the door again. The cracking got louder. Hobbs gave the door a powerful kick, and more cracking.
With the third shouldering, the door finally sprang out of its hinges.
Both detectives held their guns aimed into the doorway. They knew that the lights outside were to their disadvantage. The house was pitch-black inside. Hobbs took his flashlight from his back pocket and strapped it onto his shoulder. They could see into a small living room.
The room was filthy. The stench hung thick. The room had not been cleaned or aired for a very long time. The two slowly walked into the room. “Madam,” Sauer said, “I am Inspector Sauer and this is my partner Captain Hobbs. We would like to speak to you about your son Henry Harper.”
They were met by silence. They moved through the living room to a door leading to a hallway. Their shotguns ready, their fingers were on the triggers. Sauer rounded the corner into the hall first. Hobbs was inches behind him. Hobbs’s flashlight caught a glimpse of a mutilated face eyeing them over the barrel of an ancient shotgun. Her left eye was gone. Her mouth hung open and drool ran freely from it. Her matted hair stood wild. She was dressed in layers of old clothes. Instantaneously, both detectives ducked as a bullet slammed into the wall behind them. Sauer and Hobbs could feel pieces of cement and debris falling on them. She had shot into the roof. Hobbs jumped up first. In the light, in between the dust, he saw her struggling to reload.
Hobbs jumped at her and grabbed the barrel of the gun. She held onto it. So, with a powerful jerk, he ripped it from her hands. Hobbs looked at the woman as she started a low howl. The volume increased to a growl. Hobbs looked at her, stunned by her behavior, when she lunged herself at him. She scratched and hit at him, her arms flinging wildly and looking for a place to make contact. All the while, she screaming and cursed like a wild kitten fighting for its life. With a powerful shove, he sent her flying down the hall. She flopped down on the floor a few meters away.
Cannibal Man Page 23